WordPress Dashboard Archives - Business Bloomer

Are We Losing WooCommerce Merchants Because of WP Admin?

If you ask a WooCommerce merchant about the WordPress admin today, you’ll likely get a frustrated reply.

The WP backend has been around forever, and WooCommerce relies on it for everything: orders, products, payments, settings, taxonomies, reports. Once you add the various plugins and themes most stores require, that dashboard quickly becomes a messy screen. Hard to navigate, and hard to focus on what really matters: running the business.

Meanwhile, competitors are moving fast. Their dashboards are clean, intuitive, and actually enjoyable to use. Everything is logical, everything is quick.

And us? We still need to deal with bloated sidebars, random widgets (I usually hide them all to keep my wp-admin clean), and notifications that feel more like spam than helpful insights.

Does this admin fatigue drive store owners away? Well, that’s the big question.

But before we look for an answer, we have to admit we haven’t done enough to modernize the experience. If we don’t fix the backend soon, it’ll be a dealbreaker.

WooCommerce Admin Order Creation Has Tax Pitfalls

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In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, a member shared their frustrations with manually creating orders in WooCommerce from the backend — and the surprisingly different behavior compared to placing orders through the frontend checkout.

When an administrator creates an order, the tax calculations behave differently. Specifically, the tax is calculated based on the admin’s country (as defined in their profile or the backend session), rather than the buyer’s billing or shipping address.

In one case, this caused incorrect taxes to be applied and required a workaround to ensure buyer-specific rates were calculated properly.

Simplifying WooCommerce UX With a Custom Admin UI

In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread we commented a discussion on X about simplifying the WooCommerce admin — especially for clients and merchants who find the default interface overwhelming.

The conversation started with SimplyWoo, a new plugin by Tia Wood, which strips WooCommerce down to its essentials via a custom admin menu and UI. Rather than overriding WooCommerce, it adds a parallel admin experience that focuses on clarity and ease of use.

Club members drew comparisons to StoreUI, an earlier attempt at rethinking the merchant interface. While both projects follow different architectural approaches, the goal is shared: make WooCommerce more accessible for users who don’t need its full complexity.

WooCommerce: Move “Orders” to Top-Level Menu @ WP Admin

By default, WooCommerce keeps the “Orders” screen buried under its own top-level “WooCommerce” main menu item, alongside settings and other options. While this makes sense for a tidy admin sidebar, many store managers live inside the Orders page and would benefit from quicker access. Clicking twice every single time you want to check orders can become a small but constant annoyance.

What if “Orders” had its own dedicated spot in the WordPress admin menu? That way, you’d have the most important screen only one click away, and in a much more prominent place.

The good news is you don’t need heavy customization. With a few lines of PHP you can move the Orders link out of the WooCommerce submenu and place it where it belongs — directly below WooCommerce, after Products, and before Payments, Analytics and Marketing.

Also, you can check the free plugin below, where you can set the position dynamically, based on your preferences. But for now, here’s the snippet you can copy into your site.

WooCommerce: Distraction-Free WP Admin for Store Management

In a recent Twitter conversation, I reflected on one of the biggest challenges with WooCommerce — the cluttered WordPress admin sidebar.

With dozens of plugins installed, the admin menu quickly fills up with unrelated items, and WooCommerce’s own orders, payments, products, and settings are scattered across different areas. This fragmentation makes store management harder than it should be.

Inspired by this discussion, I decided to create a simple way to “take over” the admin area for WooCommerce store managers — a cleaner, streamlined admin view focusing solely on WooCommerce essentials like orders, products, and customers.

Here’s a code snippet that adds a toggle button in the admin bar, letting you switch to a WooCommerce-only admin menu and back. It also ensures the toggle stays active as you navigate, keeping your workflow smooth and intuitive.

WooCommerce: Complete Button @ Order Admin

When managing WooCommerce orders manually, efficiency is everything—especially if you’re dealing with high volumes or handling custom fulfillment workflows.

Typically, to mark an order as “Completed,” you’d have to open the order, change the status from the dropdown, and then click “Update”. That’s an extra step that can feel repetitive if you’re doing it often.

In this quick developer tutorial, I’ll show you how to add a “Complete Order” button directly to the single order edit page in the WooCommerce admin. This button appears alongside the existing “Update” action and lets you instantly complete the order with one click—no need to manually change the status first.

It’s a small UI enhancement, but one that can save time and reduce friction in your daily order management tasks. Best of all, the solution only requires a lightweight PHP snippet you can add to your theme or custom plugin. Enjoy!

Should There Be a “Classic WooCommerce” Plugin?

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In a recent Twitter thread, I asked why no one had yet built a “Classic WooCommerce” plugin — something akin to Classic Editor and Classic Widgets.

After all, those two plugins have over 12 million active installs combined, proving there’s a strong demand for keeping things… well, classic.

The tweet triggered a few replies, so I thought I’d expand on the idea here. What would such a plugin actually do, and more importantly, would it be useful?

Let’s dive into this “just curiosity” thought experiment and explore potential use cases, roadblocks, and community sentiment.

WooCommerce: Search Orders By 2-Letter Country Code [HPOS]

WooCommerce’s order search function is essential for store admins, but with the introduction of High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS), searching by billing or shipping country code may no longer work as expected.

If you’re used to quickly filtering orders by country, this limitation can be frustrating. Fortunately, there’s a simple way to bring back this functionality using a custom code snippet.

In this post, we’ll walk through how to modify the WooCommerce order search to support two-letter country codes, making it easier to find the orders you need. Let’s dive into the solution!

WooCommerce: Sticky Product “Update” Button @ WP Admin

In the WooCommerce product edit / add new product screen, the “Publish” / “Update” button is crucial for saving changes.

However, when editing long product descriptions, adding images, or configuring variations, the button can disappear as you scroll down. This forces users to scroll back up every time they need to save, which can be frustrating and time-consuming.

A simple solution is to make the button sticky, ensuring it remains visible no matter how far you scroll. With a small CSS snippet, you can fix the button’s position in the middle of the screen, improving workflow efficiency and reducing unnecessary clicks.

In this post, I’ll share a quick code snippet that achieves this with minimal effort. Whether you’re managing a large WooCommerce store or simply looking for a more convenient editing experience, this tweak can make a big difference. Let’s dive into the code and make your “Publish” / “Update” button always accessible!

WooCommerce: Filter Products By Sale Status @ WP Dashboard

Managing a WooCommerce store means keeping a close eye on your product pricing, especially when running promotions or sales. However, sorting through hundreds or even thousands of products to find those with active sale prices can be a tedious task using the default WordPress admin interface.

Imagine being able to quickly filter your product list to display only items that are currently on sale, allowing you to streamline your updates and promotional strategies…

In this post, I’ll show you how to enhance your WooCommerce admin panel with a simple PHP snippet that adds a custom filter for sale status.

This solution not only saves you time but also simplifies inventory management, making it easier to plan marketing campaigns and update product details efficiently. Let’s dive into the code and get started!

WooCommerce: Allow Only Simple Products

WooCommerce stores that exclusively sell simple products can benefit from a cleaner backend by removing unused product types like variable, grouped, and external products. Simplifying the product editor and backend product listings not only declutters the interface but also reduces the chances of store managers making mistakes when adding or managing products.

With fewer options to navigate, the product management workflow becomes more efficient and user-friendly. Store managers can focus solely on the essentials, without being distracted by unnecessary settings or product types that aren’t relevant to the store. This is especially useful for teams managing a high volume of products or multiple users accessing the store backend.

By restricting WooCommerce to simple products only, you can create a focused environment that improves accuracy and reduces confusion. Below, we’ll share useful snippets to help you remove unnecessary options and tailor WooCommerce to simple products exclusively.

WooCommerce: Duplicate Order @ WordPress Dashboard

In WooCommerce, the ability to quickly duplicate orders can save time when managing repeat purchases or creating similar orders. However, this feature isn’t available by default. While plugins exist to add it, they can be complex or overengineered for simple use cases.

This custom PHP snippet adds a “Duplicate” button to the order actions in the WordPress dashboard. It duplicates the order directly in the database wherever possible, offering a lightweight solution without unnecessary overhead.

If you need a practical and efficient way to duplicate WooCommerce orders directly from the “Orders” admin page, this approach offers a tailored solution that integrates seamlessly with your existing workflow.

WooCommerce: Remove “Payments” From WordPress Sidebar Admin Menu

The “Payments” tab in the WordPress admin sidebar menu, introduced in newer versions of WooCommerce, is designed to provide a centralized and streamlined management interface for handling payment-related settings and configurations.

Another significant reason for this tab is to promote WooPayments, the platform’s native payment solution. This service integrates tightly with WooCommerce and offers seamless checkout experiences, built-in subscriptions, and real-time payment tracking.

So, if you’ve always wanted to get rid of it, here’s a quick snippet that will do the trick! Don’t worry — it’s simple, efficient, and won’t require you to install any extra plugins. Let’s dive into the code and clean up the admin sidebar in just a few minutes!

WooCommerce: Simplify Your Store Management with the Hippoo App

Running an online store can feel overwhelming, but Hippoo! makes it simple. This powerful mobile app for Android and iOS is tailored to help you manage your WooCommerce orders, products, and inventory with ease.

With a user-friendly interface and robust features, Hippoo! simplifies operations, keeps you organized, and helps your business thrive.

With the Hippoo WooCommerce app you can effortlessly monitor your stock levels and receive alerts when items are running low. This ensures that you never run out of popular products and can restock in time to meet customer demand.

Additionally, Hippoo! allows you to create and manage coupons to boost your sales and attract new customers. You can also track and manage customer reviews, which helps improve your store’s reputation.

WooCommerce: View Customer Order History on Single Order Admin Page

Viewing the WooCommerce customer’s order history directly on the single order admin page can be incredibly useful when you need quick access to a customer’s past purchases without navigating away from the current order screen.

With a simple PHP snippet, you can add this functionality, enabling you to view previous orders and better understand customer behavior in real time.

This customization not only enhances your workflow but also improves customer service, allowing you to address inquiries more efficiently.

Below, I’ll walk through the steps needed to implement this feature, providing you with the PHP code necessary to display order history details on the order admin page itself.

As always, remember to test customizations in a staging environment to ensure compatibility with your setup!

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