[WooCommerce] 4. Enabling Products for Autoship

Note: until you have activated your Online Merchant Account, no recurring Autoship Scheduled Orders will be created. However, you can still test the functionality of Enabling Products for Autoship.

There are 3 steps to enabling products for Autoship Cloud: 

  1. Activate Product Sync: This first step is required to enable a WooCommerce Product to synchronize with Autoship Cloud's hosted service. Once a WooCommerce Product is enabled to sync, it can be included in Autoship Scheduled Orders.

    In order to offer Autoship options so that your customers can view and select them, you will need to continue to steps 2 and 3 (below). 

  2. Enable Schedule Options: Once you have activated a WooCommerce Product to synchronize with Autoship Cloud's hosted service, you can then choose to display Autoship Options to your customers on the product page view.

  3. Autoship Scheduled Order Settings: Autoship product availability options are automatically enabled in WP-Admin > Autoship Cloud > Products and control two settings: Add to Scheduled Order and Process Scheduled Order.  Availability settings can be overridden in WP-Admin > Autoship Cloud > Products.  

    a) Add to Scheduled Order: if enabled (checked), the customer can add the Product to existing (future) Scheduled Orders (for example, by visiting My Account > Scheduled Orders and then adding the product to an upcoming Scheduled Order).

    b) Process Scheduled Order: if enabled (checked), the Product is included when a Scheduled Orders.  If disabled (unchecked), the Product is not included when Scheduled Orders process and is treated as if it is out of stock.

    Important! in most cases, you will want to enable both settings so that customers can add the product to existing (future) Scheduled Orders and so that the product is included when Scheduled Orders process.

    By synchronizing your products with QPilot these settings are both enabled automatically, so that customers can add the product to existing (future) Scheduled Orders and so that the product is included when Scheduled Orders 

Step 1: Enabling WooCommerce Products to Synchronize with QPilot 

Autoship Cloud's hosted service, QPilot, continuously synchronizes product data with your WooCommerce store to ensure that the products you've enabled for Autoship are able to be scheduled and purchased accurately.

  1. As the WordPress Admin, visit the WooCommerce Products screen (WP-Admin > Products) and edit the WooCommerce Product that you want to enable for Autoship.  
  2. In the Product Data section, locate the "Autoship" tab and enable the option to "Activate Product Sync" by selecting the checkbox.
  3. When ready, confirm your change by selecting "Update".

Variable Products: All Variations will display Autoship Schedule Options when "Enable Schedule Options" is enabled for a Variable Product.  Any Variation can be disabled by expanding the Variation's Product Data and selecting the option to "Disable Autoship Options for this variation".

Can I activate products for Autoship in bulk?

Yes you can! See the two options outlined below. 

  1. Select specific products from the WooCommerce Products View: 
    1. Visit WP-Admin > Products
    2. Select the Simple and Variable Products you want to enable
    3. Select from the "Bulk Actions" (dropdown) > Activate Autoship Sync and then select "Apply"
  2. Activate all products for Autoship in your site:
    1. Visit WP-Admin > Autoship Cloud >> Utilities and use the action to Update Product Synchronization

Step 2: Enabling Autoship Options on WooCommerce Products Pages

  1. As the WordPress Admin, edit the WooCommerce Product that you want to enable for Autoship.
  2. In the Product Data section, locate the "Autoship" tab.
  3. Ensure that "Activate Product Sync" is enabled and then select the option to "Enable Schedule Options".
    1. This will add scheduling options to the product page which enables your customers to select Autoship options when shopping. 
  4. When ready, confirm your change by selecting "Update".

Variable Products: All Variations will display Autoship Schedule Options when "Enable Schedule Options" is enabled for a Variable Product.  Any Variation can be disabled by expanding the Variation's Product Data and selecting the option to "Disable Autoship Options for this variation".

Variable Products: all Variations will display Autoship Schedule Options when "Enable Schedule Options" is enabled for a Variable Product.  Any Variation can be disabled by expanding the Variation's Product Data and selecting the option to "Disable Autoship Options for this variation".

Bulk Update: to Enable Schedule Options in bulk, visit WP-Admin > Autoship Cloud > Utilities and use the action to Bulk Enable WooCommerce Products to Display Autoship Options.

Step 3: Enabling Autoship Cloud Products for Scheduled Orders

With Autoship Cloud, you have full control over which products your customers can add to Scheduled Orders and process with Scheduled Orders. Note: This is separate from enabling the options to display on the WooCommerce Product page and is used to control the availability of products within Scheduled Orders.

With Autoship Cloud, you have full control over which products your customers can add to Scheduled Orders and process with Scheduled Orders. Though these 
availability options are automatically enabled when a product is enabled for Autoship Sync, merchants can override the availability of individual products customers can add to Scheduled Orders if needed.

  1. As the WordPress Admin, navigate to Autoship Cloud > Products.
  2. Under the "Availability" column, use the checkbox to toggle the product(s) you want customers to be able to add to Scheduled Orders is enabled (checked) for "Add to Scheduled Order".
    1. Note: A merchant can always add/remove products to Scheduled Orders even if this option is unchecked. By default, enabling an Autoship Cloud Product for "Add to Scheduled Order" will also enable the setting for "Process Scheduled Order".
    1. Note: Unchecking this option ("Process Scheduled Order") will disable the product for automatic processing. If this option is unselected, you will see it disabled when editing Scheduled Orders and may get the error "No Items To Ship (1001)" if no other items are available to process on the Scheduled Order.
  3. Learn more about Product Availability settings here.

Variable Products: Only the "Variation" product type should be enabled for Availability. The "Variable" product type represents a parent product that is not actually a purchasable product.  For example, a "Variation" has a price and stock status but a "Variable" does not and is only used to group the variations.

Bulk Update: To update product availability in bulk, visit WP-Admin > Autoship Cloud > Utilities and use the action to Bulk Enable Product Availability.

Continue to Step 5: Testing Shipping Rates