How to process & fulfill an order
A step-by-step guide to reviewing, fulfilling, and completing customer orders in WooCommerce.
- Time
- 5–10 minutes per order
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- You’ll need
- WordPress admin access · The products ready to pack or fulfill
When a customer places an order, it lands in your WooCommerce dashboard waiting for action. This guide walks you through what to do with a new order — from reviewing it to marking it complete.
Quick summary
A paid order arrives with a "Processing" status. Your job is to review the order, pack and ship the goods (or fulfill them digitally), add a tracking number if you have one, and then mark the order "Completed." WooCommerce emails the customer when the order is paid and again when you mark it complete.
Offline payment methods behave differently. Direct bank transfer and check payments arrive On hold and sit there until you confirm the money has arrived and move them on yourself. Cash on delivery usually arrives as Processing, because you collect the money when you deliver.
What you'll need
- WordPress admin access
- The products ready to pack or fulfill
Step 1 — Review the new order
Go to WooCommerce → Orders. Log in to WordPress, then navigate to WooCommerce → Orders in the left-hand menu.
Find orders with "Processing" status. These are paid orders that need action. Click the Processing status link above the orders table to show only those. (The Filter button next to it narrows the list by month or customer instead.)
Click the order number to open the full details.
Review the items and shipping address. Make sure the order makes sense. Check the items, quantities, and the address before you pack anything.
Step 2 — Fulfill the order
Pack the items and ship them using your preferred carrier (USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc.). Once shipped, come back to the order in WooCommerce to record the details.
Step 3 — Add a tracking number (optional but recommended)
If you have a shipping tracking number, add it to the order so the customer can follow their package.
Open the order. Go to WooCommerce → Orders and click the order.
Find the "Order notes" box on the right side of the screen.
Type a note with the tracking number and carrier name. For example: "Your order shipped via USPS. Tracking: 9400111899223942801234."
Choose "Public note to customer" under Visibility. The other option, Private note, is for your own team and the customer never sees it.
Click "Send note to customer →". The note is saved and WooCommerce emails it to the customer straight away. Deleting the note afterwards does not recall the email, so read it back before you send.
Other ways to record tracking
WooCommerce now has a built-in Fulfillments system that records tracking numbers and shipping providers, and lets you ship part of an order at a time. It has been rolling out as a beta feature, so it may not be switched on for your store — ask us if you can't find it.
If you ship frequently, an extension such as Shipment Tracking for WooCommerce or ShipStation for WooCommerce can also handle this and show tracking on the customer's order page.
Step 4 — Mark the order as Completed
Once the order is shipped or fulfilled, update the status to let the customer know.
Open the order page.
Find the Status dropdown. It is in the main order panel at the top of the screen — the one holding the order date, the customer, and the billing and shipping addresses.
Select "Completed" from the dropdown.
Click Update in the Order actions panel to save the order. WooCommerce then sends the customer the Completed order email automatically.
A quicker way for simple orders
Turn on the Actions column from Screen Options on the Orders list and you get shortcut buttons that mark an order Processing or Completed without opening it.
Done
The order is now marked Completed. The customer has been notified, and the order will move out of your active queue.
Common questions
What if I can't fulfill part of an order?
WooCommerce's Fulfillments system is designed for exactly this: it tracks which items on an order have shipped, so you can send part of an order now and the rest later. It has been rolling out as a beta feature, so it may not be available on your store yet.
Either way, tell the customer. Use a public note on the order or email them, agree what to do, and refund the item you can't ship. See the guide on refunding an order for how to do that.
Do I have to manually mark every order complete?
Usually, yes. WooCommerce does not move an order from Processing to Completed on its own — that is your signal that the goods have gone out.
The one exception is an order where every item is ticked as both Virtual and Downloadable. Those skip Processing and go straight to Completed. An item that is downloadable but not virtual does not, so you still have to complete that order by hand.
Can I bulk-complete multiple orders at once?
Yes. On the Orders list screen, tick the checkboxes next to the orders you want to update, then choose Change status to Completed from the Bulk actions dropdown at the top and click Apply.
What email does the customer receive when I mark an order complete?
They receive the Completed order email, which WooCommerce describes as the one that tells customers their order has shipped. The default subject line is "Your order from [your store] is on its way!" if your store uses the newer email settings, or "Your [your store] order is now complete" if it doesn't. You can change the wording either way — see the guide on customizing store emails.
Related guides
- Understanding orders
- Order statuses explained
- How to refund an order
- Store emails to customers explained
- Customizing your store emails
- Troubleshooting order problems
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