You can set up your Chit Chats account to import your orders from WooCommerce in just 6 easy steps saving you time and effort when creating your shipments. Our WooCommerce integration supports connecting multiple WooCommerce stores. Find all of our store integration options here.
To add a WooCommerce store, log into your Chit Chats account and navigate to your Settings (bottom left). Click on Sales Channels > Connect WooCommerce Store. Or click on Import (top left) > Connect a Store > Connect WooCommerce Store.
Instructions will pop up to help guide you through the process.
1. Begin by logging into your WooCommerce account to start the integration. Go to the admin page of your WooCommerce site in the left menu.
2. Navigate to “Settings” at the bottom of the left menu > “Permalinks” and enable them if they are disabled.
3. Select “WooCommerce” located on the left menu > “Settings” and click on the “Advanced” tab and then “Rest API”
4. Select "Add Key". Fill in the “Description” box and select “Read/Write” from the “Permissions” drop down. Click "Generate API Key".
5. Copy the "Consumer Key" and "Customer Secret" and insert into the lines provided in your Chit Chats account. Entering in the correct customer key and customer secret will be important for the integration. Be sure to copy these correctly.
6. Enter the store URL and click “Save”.
*To prevent a 404 error, be sure to input your admin store URL, omitting the Wordpress path. (e.g. https://wootest.chitchats.com/ not https://wootest.chitchats.com/wp-admin/index.php)
Congratulations! You have just integrated your WooCommerce store with Chit Chats. You’re now ready to import orders from your store with the click of a button. Or repeat these steps to connect another WooCommerce store. Simply input the unique store URL during the integration process .
Integrating your store will not display live Chit Chats shipping rates to your customers but many Chit Chats clients find it helpful to create standard shipping rates for their items based on our pricing. If you experience difficulty with connecting your account, please contact us with your client ID.
Importing orders
WooCommerce clients should take advantage of either the bulk editor tool or shipping presets feature to update their shipment information as the size and weights of shipments will not be imported. This is the same for IOSS or other custom tax reference numbers. Reference this support article for the correct formatting of IOSS or VAT custom numbers. Importing orders uses the order item's selling price as the customs amount. If you choose to provide the recipient phone numbers, they will be automatically imported.
Importing HS codes & Country of Origin
WooCommerce doesn't have a default field to enter HS codes and country of origin but you can use custom attributes to easily add this information. Follow the steps below to create and apply these attributes to your products in WooCommerce.
1. Create HS and country of origin attributes
- In WooCommerce, go to Products/Attributes.
- Type in hs_code for both the Name and Slug fields.
- Then click Add attribute. You will see hs_code attribute added to the list on the right.
- To add the country of origin, enter country_of_origin for both the Name and Slug fields.
- Click Add attribute. The country_of_origin attribute will now be displayed on the list to the right.
Important: Verify that the attributes are entered exactly as hs_code or country_of_origin so they will be captured correctly when importing into Chit Chats.
2. Assign the HS and country of origin attributes to your products.
- Select a product from your inventory and open the editor
- Navigate to the Product data section and click on the Attributes tab.
- Select the Custom product attribute menu and look for the attribute you added in step 1 (i.e. hs_code).
- Note: This menu may also be shown as 'Add existing'
- Select the attribute (hs_code or country_of_origin) and click Add.
- Under the Values field click Add new
- A pop-up window will appear, asking you enter a name for the attribute item
- For hs_code, enter the HS code for your product
- HS codes must be 6, 8, 10 or 12 digits without spaces or periods. Learn more about HS code formats on our blog.
- For country_of_origin, enter the country code (this will be 2 alpha characters, for example : Canada = CA)
- For hs_code, enter the HS code for your product
- Click OK this will store the values entered
- Then click Save attributes
Import orders older than 3 months
If your business makes use of pre-sales or sells items in advance, there might be instances where you need to import orders older than 30 days old. You have the flexibility to import orders beyond this timeframe and even choose the specific date from which to import orders. This feature facilitates smoother pre-sales management. To utilize this functionality, follow these steps:
- Navigate to Settings > Sales Channels > WooCommerce Store
- Click Edit
- Enter the date that you would like to import from. (Leaving the field blank will only import orders from the last 30 days)
- Click Update
- Orders from the chosen ‘import from’ date will be imported accordingly.
Fulfilling WooCommerce Orders with Chit Chats
Once you have paid for postage, you will be provided with the partner carrier’s tracking number. However, you can choose when to fulfill your WooCommerce orders and mark them as shipped by sending carrier tracking to your store. Learn more on how to change your store fulfillment settings.
Certain store integrations (e.g. Shopify, eBay) provide automatic email notifications to recipients (your clients) containing the package's tracking number once the package has been fulfilled. If you wish to enable this feature with WooCommerce, you'll need to download an add-on for WooCommerce. For further details, please reach out to WooCommerce support. Once you have enabled the feature, the recipient will receive an email notification automatically once the order has been fulfilled by Chit Chats.