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Using WooCommerce

WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce Wordpress plugin. We use it on our own site and have implemented it in many of our projects. Here are a few articles and how-tos that might make implementing your site easier.

Import Products Hosted on 1ShoppingCart Into WooCommerce WordPress

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Many people use the popular 1ShoppingCart eCommerce and marketing software to sell digital products and/or physical products but adding those products into your WordPress website can be very tedious and error-prone.

Great News! You can now easily import your *simple* products hosted on 1ShoppingCart into WordPress. This method is free and does not require a developer.

A new built-in CSV importer was included in WooCommerce as of version 3.1.0 that was released on 2017-06-28. This is terrific news because you no longer need to purchase and install a premium Importer plugin to display your *simple* products in your WordPress site.

If your products are complex, with many product options, this method will NOT work for you because the built-in importer does not allow you to import all the product options that you are able to configure using 1ShoppingCart.com.

The WooCommerce’s built-in importer can be used to create all your products. Then you can use the importer again, at a later date, to update your products to reflect price and/or description changes. BUT, in order to update your products in WooCommerce, you need a way to uniquely identify the product. You can do this with a unique product name or SKU.

10 Steps to copy your 1ShoppingCart catalog to WooCommerce

Follow these simple steps to export your products from 1ShoppingCart, prepare the exported file for WooCommerce import and then import the file into WooCommerce.

  1. Install and configure WooCommerce.
    If you need help installing and configuring WooCommerce on your WordPress site, you can follow the instructions published by WooCommerce at https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/installing-uninstalling-woocommerce/.
  2. Export your products from 1ShoppingCart.
    1. 1ShoppingCart product export menu item Navigate to the Products menu item, select Import/Export and then select Export Products.
    2. 1ShoppingCart product export details Select Product Details from the dropdown list box and click/tap the Export button. An export file will be created and downloaded to your computer in CSV format.
  3. Prepare your CSV file to import into WooCommerce.
    The export created by 1ShoppingCart.com is not completely ready for import into WooCommerce. A few columns need to be added to the original CSV to ensure its easy import into WooCommerce. I used Google Sheets to manipulate the file. The formulas you find below are Google Sheets formulas but will also work with Excel. CAUTION: WooCommerce requires a UTF-8 formatted file. Excel for Mac will not produce a valid UTF-8 file and your import will fail. Please use Google Sheets instead.

    Your export from 1ShoppingCart.com contains 34 columns. You will be adding 5 more columns to the file.

    Download sample CSV file with added columns here

    1. 1ShoppingCart find merchant idImages: Take a look at your export. Notice that the 26th column contains the name of the product image but not the full path to the image file. You will need the full image path to import the file correctly into WooCommerce. The full path of the image includes your 1ShoppingCart.com Merchant Id. If you do not know your 1ShoppingCart.com Merchant Id, the image to the left shows you where to find it in your Admin panel.
       
      Add a new column and label it Images. Insert this formula to the newly created column. The formula will preface the filename found in column Z with the “https://www.mcssl.com/content/” + your Merchant Id + “/”. Which will produce https://www.mcssl.com/content/000000000/my_image_file.jpg.

      =if(Z2="","","https://www.mcssl.com/content/MerchantID/"&Z2)

      Please be sure to replace the text MerchantID with your own Merchant ID. For example, if your Merchant ID is 789665, you would enter the formula as –

      =if(Z2="","","https://www.mcssl.com/content/789665/"&Z2)

      Copy the formula down the column for each product row in the spreadsheet.

    2. Button Text: Add a new column and label it Button Text. You will fill this column with the words or phrase that you want to see on your WooCommerce buttons. This can be “Add to Cart,” “Buy Now,” etc.
       
      Copy the formula down the column for each product row in the spreadsheet.
    3. Type: Add a new column and label it Type. You will enter the word “external” into this column for each of the products that you are importing. Because you will be selling your products via 1ShoppingCart, you will need to let WooCommerce know that WooCommerce is only listing and describing the product, and the item will be sold elsewhere. Marking the product external ensures that the customer is taken to 1ShoppingCart.com to complete the transaction.
       
      Copy the formula down the column for each product you want to import.
    4. Published: The next column to add is Published. In the 25th column, you will see a field called Active. The column has the values TRUE/FALSE to denote that the product is an active product or not. WooCommerce does not have an Active field but it does have a Published field. The Published field requires a 1 to Publish or a 0 for Draft. Therefore, this next formula will convert the TRUE or FALSE in column 25 to a 1 or 0. Enter the following formula –
      =if(Y2,1,0)

      Copy the formula down the column for each product row in the spreadsheet.

    5. Categories: If you look at the 27th column of your spreadsheet, you will see the field called “path.” This field contains the product category(ies). If the product falls into multiple categories, you will see that the data in this column appears in this format – [Grocery,Beverage]. Notice that the multiple categories are surrounded by square brackets ( [ ] ). If you were to import this column as is into WooCommerce, it would create category names with those square brackets in them. The formula in this new column will remove those square brackets if they are present in the data. Enter the following formula in the new column.
      =if(AA2="","",SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(AA2,"[",""),"]",""))

      Copy the formula down the column for each product row in the spreadsheet.

  4. Download the Google Sheets file to your device as a CSV file.
    This is important. You must download the Google Sheets file in CSV format.
  5. Open WooCommerce in WordPress
    1. Navigate to Products | All Products in your WordPress Admin panel.
    2. woocommerce import from csvIf there are no products in WooCommerce, you will see two buttons at the bottom of the page. Click/Tap on the “Import products from a CSV file” button.
    3. woocommerce addnew import buttonsIf you already have a product in WooCommerce, look at the top of the page and click/tap the “Import” button.
  6. Select the file to import into WooCommerce
    woocommerce choose csv
  7. Map CSV fields to products
    Here you will map the fields in your 1ShoppingCart.com export to WooCommerce fields. I have listed the column mapping below but if you would like to see the page as rendered in WooCommerce, click/tap here.

    1ShoppingCart FieldsWooCommerce Fields
    idimport as meta
    skuSKU
    productName
    priceRegular price
    shippingDo not import
    weightWeight (lbs)
    product lengthLength (in)
    product widthWidth (in)
    product heightHeight (in)
    current inventoryStock
    recurring cycleDo not import
    recurring start durationDo not import
    recurring priceDo not import
    destination urlDo not import
    thank you urlDo not import
    clear cart urlDo not import
    autorespondersDo not import
    shipping calculationDo not import
    state taxDo not import
    country taxDo not import
    short descriptionShort description
    long descriptionDescription
    sale priceSale price
    on saleDo not import
    activeDo not import
    imageDo not import
    pathDo not import
    price typeDo not import
    amount labelDo not import
    default priceDo not import
    minimum amountDo not import
    maximum amountDo not import
    eu vatDo not import
    add to cart urlExternal URL
    ImagesImages
    Button TextButton text
    TypeType
    PublishedPublished
    CategoriesCategories
  8. Click/Tap the “Run the importer” button
  9. View results
    woocommerce import successIf the importer finds problems with the file, you will see a link on the results page to the log file that will detail the issues with the file. Correct those errors and re-import the file.
  10. Review your products for completeness

Abandoned Cart Reminder With WooCommerce and ActiveCampaign

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In this article I will discuss how you can create an Abandoned Cart Reminder process for your WordPress site using WooCommerce and ActiveCampaign to boost sales and encourage customer engagement.

Amazon uses this process all the time. Perhaps you have received one of those Amazon reminder emails saying you’ve added items to your cart and here’s the link to complete your purchase. They look something like this –

Customer Name,
Thank you for visiting Amazon.com. You recently added items to your Shopping Cart. If you haven’t already purchased or removed them, simply visit your Shopping Cart to complete your order.

What you need to create an Abandoned Cart Reminder process with WooCommerce

1. First and foremost, this process requires ActiveCampaign. If you are not using ActiveCampaign, you can click on this link to learn more about this email marketing and automation tool.

2. This process requires that the ActiveCampaign site tracking script be running on your website. The easiest way to add the tracking script to your website is to download and install the ActiveCampaign WordPress plugin from the WordPress repository.

Explanation of the Abandoned Cart Reminder Process

The process steps

The steps of an Abandoned Cart Reminder process are simple and straight forward:

1. Send an email to contacts with link to site, product or shop.
This step is important. When the ActiveCampaign WordPress plugin is installed and activated on your site, you can track a contact’s travels around your site. When you send an email to a contact that contains a link to your site, that link is coded with the contact’s information so that the contact’s activity on your site can be properly tracked. All your contact’s page visits are then recorded in ActiveCampaign. Please note: Activity can only be tracked of known contacts.
2. Contact adds a product to the shopping cart and visits the WooCommerce Cart page (/cart/); contact tagged with [cart created].
The tracking script detects that the contact has visited /cart/ which will trigger an automation that tags the contact with the tag [cart created].
3a. Contact proceeds to the checkout page (/checkout/order-received/*) and completes the product purchase; remove [cart created] tag.
If the contact makes a purchase, we can remove the [cart created] tag. Since the contact made a purchase, we don’t want to send them a reminder to check their cart.
3b. Contact leaves site – abandons the product in the cart.
The contact gets distracted and leaves your site without making a purchase, the contact remains tagged with [cart created].
4. Wait specified amount of time; if contact still has tag [cart created], send the email reminder.
Setting the wait time interval is up to you. The time period can be as short as an hour or as long as 24 hours. It is entirely up to you. Once the time has elapsed, the automation will send a reminder email to the contact.

The ActiveCampaign Automations

Using ActiveCampaign, the process requires two automations. Each automation begins when a contact visits a page on your site.

The first automation, Part 1, is needed to identify the contacts that add a product to their shopping cart. Any contact that adds a product to their shopping cart and visits [YourWebsite]/cart/ gets tagged with [cart created].

The second automation, Part 2, removes the tag [cart created] if a purchase is made when the contact visits [YourWebsite]/checkout/order-received/*. Notice the asterisk in the URL. This is important. When a purchase is made in WooCommerce the contact or customer is redirected to a page with an address like [YourWebsite]/checkout/order-received/[Order Number]/?key=wc_order_9999aa99a9999. For our purposes, we don’t need to know what comes after/order-received/. So, we use a wildcard (*) to accept anything.

What the Abandoned Cart Reminder Process Looks Like

The first diagram on the left below illustrates the process flow, including the campaign that triggers the initial email addressed to your contact, the interactions your contact has with your website and the logic of the two necessary automations. It may seem complicated but once you understand the steps it is quite simple. Click on the image to see the full size image.

The second and third diagrams are screenshots of the ActiveCampaign automations. These will serve as guides for you while creating your automation within your account.

ActiveCampaign Abandoned Cart Reminder Process Flow
ActiveCampaign Abandoned Cart Reminder Process Flow
abandoned cart reminder automation part 1
ActiveCampaign – Abandoned Cart Reminder Automation Part 1
abandoned cart reminder automation part 2
ActiveCampaign – Abandoned Cart Reminder Automation Part 2

Let’s Create the Abandoned Cart Reminder Process

Step 1: Open ActiveCampaign and create a new Automation.
Step 2: Select Start From Scratch automation and name it Part 1 – Abandoned Cart Reminder.
Step 3: Add New Start of Web Page is Visited
Abandoned Cart Reminder - Add New Start of Web Page is Visited - WooCommerce Cart
In the Action Options section, enter the website domain and the path to your WooCommerce cart usually /cart/.
Check the Segment the contacts entering this automation. Select Not currently in automation and select this automation that you are working on Part 1 – Abandoned Cart Reminder. Use the screenshot as a guide.
Step 4: Add a Tag
Abandoned Cart Reminder - ActiveCampaign add a tag
Click the plus sign to add a new action. Click on Contacts in the left column and then click on Add tag. On the next popup, Enter a tag to add, enter [cart created] without the brackets. Use the screenshot as a guide.
Step 5: Wait a Period of Time
 
Click the plus sign to add a new action. Select Conditions and Workflow from the left column and choose Wait. Select For a specified period of time and then enter the time period you want to wait. Tip: While testing, you might want to use just a few minutes (10 or 15 minutes).
Step 6: Send email
Abandoned Cart Reminder - ActiveCampaign Add Action Email
Click the plus sign to add a new action. Select Sending Options from the left column and choose Send email. If you already have the email created, select it from the list. Otherwise, you may see a popup that states –
Send email
You don’t have any emails to send. You can create an email to get started.
Click on the “create an email” to create the email that you would like to send to your returning customer. Use the screenshot as a guide.
Step 7: End this automation
 
Click the plus sign to add a new action. Select Conditions and Workflow from the left column and choose End this automation.
Step 8: Create a new Automation.
Step 9: Select Start From Scratch automation and name it Part 2 – Abandoned Cart Reminder.
Step 10: Add New Start of Web Page is Visited
Abandoned Cart Reminder - Add New Start of Web Page is Visited - WooCommerce Checkout
In the Action Options section, enter the website domain and the path to your WooCommerce cart usually “/checkout/order-received/*” Please ensure that you enter the asterisk in the URL as shown here.
Use the screenshot as a guide.
Step 11: Remove a Tag
Abandoned Cart Reminder - Remove tag cart created
Click the plus sign to add a new action. Click on Contacts in the left column and then click on Remove tag. On the next popup, Enter a tag to remove, enter [cart created] without the brackets. Use the screenshot as a guide.
Step 12: End other automation
 
Click the plus sign to add a new action. Select Conditions and Workflow from the left column and choose End other automation and select “Part 1 – Abandoned Cart Reminder” to remove the contact from Part 1. This step is necessary since the contact made a purchase there is no need to keep them queued in the automation to send the reminder email. Tip: While testing, you might want to use just a few minutes (10 or 15 minutes).
Step 13: End this automation
 
Click the plus sign to add a new action. Select Conditions and Workflow from the left column and choose End this automation.
Step 14: Create an eMail Campaign With A Link to Your Shop
 
Create an email campaign that includes a link to your new product or service or just a link to your site.

I hope this article helped explain how you can add an Abandoned Cart Reminder to your business process using ActiveCampaign and WooCommerce.

WooCommerce – State Drop Down White Font on White Background

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I spent way too much time this morning trying to figure out which piece of CSS was causing the moused-over element in the Country and State drop downs on my checkout page to disappear. By default, the font color for the moused-over elements is white (#ffffff). When rendered on a white background, the moused-over (or highlighted) element disappears.

WooCommerce uses the Chosen jQuery plugin for both of these drop downs. I am also using the Genesis framework and found to correct the problem I had to add the following to my theme’s style sheet.

#content ul.chzn-results li.highlighted {
    color: #E8192E;
}

I hope this helps someone else in the future.