A Field Guide
Field Guide for WooCommerce
The complete operational playbook that should ship with WooCommerce but doesn't exist. Every product type, every tax scenario, every shipping configuration, every edge case — how things actually work, and what to do when they don't.
Written for merchants, agencies, and developers. Take what you need — it's all yours under a Creative Commons license.
Contents
Five parts, 53 sections
- I What you can sell Every product type in WooCommerce, how they actually work, and what surprises you.
- II Running your store Payments, shipping, tax, emails — the operational layer beneath the storefront.
- III When things go wrong Diagnostic protocols for the failures you will encounter — sooner or later.
- IV For agencies & builders Pre-launch, staging, client handoff, and evaluating extensions before you commit.
- V Extending with code Custom plugins, hooks, and working with AI tools — for when you outgrow extensions.
Start here
One way in
The first section of each part — a good starting point. Everything stands alone, so jump wherever you need.
- What you can sell Simple Products One thing, one price, one SKU. The foundation everything else builds on.
- Running your store Payments & Gateways How money moves from customer to you. What a gateway does, how to evaluate your options, and the operational realities nobody talks about.
- When things go wrong The Conflict Testing Method The foundational diagnostic technique. Before anything else — before forum posts, before support tickets — do this.
- For agencies & builders Pre-Launch Checklist Everything to verify before a store goes live. Missing one of these means lost sales, lost data, or a lost client.
- Extending with code Why Build Your Own Plugin When a custom plugin is better than hunting for an extension that half-fits your needs.