Omnisend for WooCommerce (WordPress)

Learn how to connect and integrate your WooCommerce store to Omnisend

Ira avatar
Written by Ira
Updated over a week ago

Omnisend for WooCommerce is an integration that allows you to link your Omnisend account to your WooCommerce store.

It lets you use your store's data to segment your customers better, automate marketing, recover abandoned carts, and automate the upsell process, among other available features.

If you want to use Omnisend for WordPress without WooCommerce, jump to this article for more detailed instructions.

Didn’t find what you were looking for? Post a thread on the WordPress forum and support the community by getting the answers you need.

Integrating Omnisend with WooCommerce

Before you start

If you have been using Omnisend and already have an account with another store connected, you'll need to create a new empty store first, then proceed with the steps described below.

To register a new store under an existing account, check this step-by-step guide. Once a new store is registered, proceed with the steps below.

If you haven't been using Omnisend before connecting to the WooCommerce store, you're connecting now; proceed with the steps below.

Also, WordPress has two app versions. Both are compatible with Omnisend but have slightly different designs. So, for your convenience, we'll show the whole process for both app versions: wordpress.org and wordpress.com.

Installation process for wordpress.org

Step 1. Navigate to your WordPress Admin Dashboard, go to the Plugins page → Add New→ search for Omnisend for WooCommerce plugin click Install Now.

If you are only starting to work in WooCommerce, we suggest reading more about WooCommerce plugins here.

Step 3. The plugin will be installed in a few seconds, and the 'Activate' button will appear. Click it to activate Omnisend for the WooCommerce plugin.

Step 4. The plugin will be activated, and you'll be redirected to the 'Installed plugins' page. On the top of this page, you'll see a bar allowing you to connect your Omnisend account to WooCommerce. Click the 'Get Started' link as shown in the screenshot below:

Step 5. You'll land on the page shown below. If you have an Omnisend account, you should already have an empty store created there, as explained here. If so, click the 'Connect your account' button. If you're starting to use Omnisend and that's the first store you're connecting to Omnisend, click the 'Create new account' button:

Step 6. If you've selected the 'Connect your account' option and you have an empty store to connect the store to, you'll see the popup shown in the screenshot below. If you've selected the 'Create new account' option, you'll need to go through the Account Registration process first; then, you'll see the same popup. Click the 'Approve' button. If you don't land on this page and an error is shown instead, go to our Troubleshooting section.

Step 7. That's it! The plugin will send a Verification request to Omnisend, and the store will be connected. You'll land on the Brand Assets page:

Installation process for wordpress.com

Step 1. Navigate to your WordPress Admin Dashboard, go to the Plugins page → Add New→ search for Omnisend for WooCommerce plugin and select it.

Step 2. You'll be redirected to Omnisend plugin page in the Plugin Marketplace. Click the 'Install and activate' button:

Step 3. It'll take a few seconds to install and activate the plugin. Once it's done, you'll land on this page. Click the 'Manage plugin' button:

Step 4. You'll land on the page shown below. If you have an Omnisend account, you should already have an empty store created there, as explained here. If so, click the 'Connect your account' button. If you're starting to use Omnisend and that's the first store you're connecting to Omnisend, click the 'Create new account' button:

Step 5. If you've selected the 'Connect your account' option and have an empty store to connect the store to, you'll see the popup shown in the screenshot below. If you've selected the 'Create new account' option, you'll need to go through the Account Registration process first; then you'll see the same popup. Click the 'Approve' button. If you don't land on this page and an error is shown instead, go to our Troubleshooting section.

Step 6. That's it! The plugin will send a Verification request to Omnisend, and the store will be connected. You'll land on the Brand Assets page:

⚠️ If you face any problems with your store connection, jump to the troubleshooting section.

WooCommerce plugin benefits

Once you connect your WooCommerce to your Omnisend account via the plugin, you will get access to the complete package of Standard and Pro plans features, including:

  • Channels: Email, SMS, Facebook Custom Audience, and Google Customer Match;

  • All Signup forms: Wheel of Fortune, Popup, Signup Box, and Landing Page;

  • All Automations: Welcome emails, Abandoned Cart, Order Confirmation, etc.;

  • Expanded subscriber list segmentation with enriched data;

  • Complete reports of campaigns, signup forms, and automations and deliverability results;

💡 Omnisend WooCommerce plugin includes all Omnisend standard features. You might want to pass additional information to your Omnisend account for custom automation workflows. To do that, you can use our open API. To learn more about backend possibilities, please visit our API documentation.

Adding Plugin Permissions

Make sure to allow WooCommerce plugin permissions for the integration to run smoothly. To do that, go to the WordPress admin panel and press the "add permissions" button.

Step 1. Go to your WordPress admin panel and open the Omnisend plugin page

Step 2. Update the Omnisend plugin to the latest version if needed

Step 3. Click the “Add permissions” button

Step 4. Click “Approve” in the WooCommerce consent window.

If you don't see the button to add permissions, go to WooCommerce settings → Advanced → REST API → select Omnisend key → Revoke. Then follow the steps described in the video; you should see the button now.

Data synchronization

After completing the WooCommerce integration, Omnisend starts syncing all historical data from your store.

The information passed to Omnisend includes your contacts, products, and orders. The initial synchronization may take up to a few hours but not more than 24 hours. 

Later on, all of your assets will be populated to Omnisend instantly.

Please note that we sync email addresses provided on the checkout with non-subscribed status to Omnisend by default.

Our plugin allows you to add an email opt-in checkbox at checkout. So, to gather email subscribers at checkout, go to the Omnisend Plugin and check the box "Add an opt-in checkbox to the checkout page." You can also change the opt-in checkbox consent text. Optionally, you can make an opt-in consent checkbox preselect by checking the "Preselect opt-in checkbox in the checkout page" box.

Once this is done, the consent box will be added to your store's checkout page. During the checkout process, everyone who checks this box will be synced to Omnisend as an email subscriber.

Note! The checkout opt-in works for the email channel only; phone numbers will be synced with non-subscribed status.

On your plugin page, you will see a store data sync status table that will show the corresponding status of syncing: Success, Error, Pending, Skipped with two self-service actions:

  • Option to resync data, which failed to sync. For this, click the "Resync" button.

  • Option to resync all store data. We advise using the "Resync all contacts" button when you make heavy changes in your account, like permanently deleting contacts.

Tip! 👍 Make sure you enable at least a few forms provided by Omnisend and integrate the ones you already have in your store.

We also recommend considering alternative ways for the opt-in collection for the customers to trigger your Automation workflows.

Note that when syncing contact information, our system follows a priority-based approach for mapping first_name and last_name properties:

Priority 1: We first check the WordPress User first_name field.

Priority 2: If first_name is missing, we consider shipping_first_name.

Priority 3: If still unavailable, we look at billing_first_name for first_name.

Property

Priority 1

Priority 2

Priority 3

first_name

WordPress User first_name

WordPress User shipping_first_name

WordPress User billing_first_name

last_name

WordPress User last_name

WordPress User shipping_last_name

WordPress User billing_last_name

Order status mapping for Automation Workflows

Omnisend doesn't replace any of the automatic responses you have in your WooCommerce store.

If you wish to replace them, you need to disable automations sent by WooCommerce and enable corresponding automations in Omnisend.

As the two platforms have different logic behind them, to work with order-based automations, it is crucial to understand how the order statuses on WooCommerce are mapped to the ones on Omnisend. The table below will help you to understand the statuses of different payment methods in WooCommerce.

Troubleshooting store connection

Error: This Omnisend store is already connected. Select another store from your account and try again.

If you get this error, you already have another WooCommerce store connected to your Omnisend account. To fix this, you'll need to log into your Omnisend account in a separate tab and open the empty store where you want your WooCommerce store to be connected (it should be created by now, but if you haven't done it yet, do it as explained here). Then, return to your WordPress admin account and click the 'Connect your account' button again. You'll land on this page, where you'll need to Approve the connection, and that's it.

Error: an error occurred in the request, and at the time, we were unable to send the consumer data.

This is a common error in WooCommerce. There are a few possible causes to this issue:

  • The most common cause of this problem is that your store uses WooCommerce version 3.5 or earlier. Make sure you upgrade to the latest WooCommerce version before installing our plugin.

  • Your store doesn’t have a valid HTTPS/SSL certificate. Make sure you install and activate one so our app can communicate with the WooCommerce API.

  • For the plugin to work, WordPress must be installed at the domain or subdomain level, not the page level. For example, say you’re developing a store for a client, and you’re creating a mockup on www.example.com/devstore/. Our server will try to connect to the WooCommerce API at the subdomain level, www.example.com but the store is on www.example.com/devstore/. Alternatively, you can install the development store on the devstore.example.com subdomain; that will work.

  • Your store is password protected, or you’re using a “coming soon” or “site under construction” plugin disabling public access to your store. This also restricts API access, and our app needs it to work.

  • Your store has a caching plugin that strips the “Authorization” header. Try turning off your plugins one by one to find the one causing the issue.

  • You have a store plugin blocking access to WordPress or WooCommerce REST API (e.g., Perfmatters plugin). Try turning off such plugins one by one to find the one causing the issue.

If you’ve tried all the above, your server is stripping the “Authorization” header.

Authorization – step 1

Authorization – step 2 – error

Important: As this pertains to the configuration of your web server and/or other WordPress plugins, Omnisend cannot provide support in these cases. You can try the suggestions below at your own risk. Please always consult with a web developer when making configuration changes.

In some cases, doing the following might help (some may not apply to you):

  • Review the configuration of your caching plugin and look for settings that pertain to caching or not caching headers

  • Generate a new, valid LetsEncrypt certificate for your subdomain on the server level

  • Remove the Cloudflare CDN Proxy from the Subdomain (i.e., having it point directly to the IP)

  • Switch the WooCommerce Theme to “Storefront” just for the connection

  • Adding the following to your .htaccess file:

SetEnvIf Authorization "(.*)" HTTP_AUTHORIZATION=$1

If that does not work, contact your hosting provider.

Order Confirmation emails were not sent after I imported my orders to WooCommerce

Automations will not be triggered for order events that have exceeded a 3-hour delay. For instance, in the case of an Order Confirmation, if you receive/add an event for an order placed more than a day ago, the Order Confirmation will not be sent. The same logic applies if your store is connected via API.

Cloning Your Store

When you clone your main WooCommerce store to create a test environment or similar use cases, it can lead to complications with our plugin. This arises from the ambiguity regarding which store is the main one, causing various issues to emerge.

It affects the following features:

  • Store URL changes to the cloned website's URL if the Omnisend plugin is active.

  • New product updates result in changes to product URLs to the cloned website URL.

  • Discount codes are generated on the cloned website instead of the main store.

To avoid these issues, make sure to follow these steps:

Step 1. Performed in your main store

  1. Disable Omnisend Plugin. Before cloning the store, ensure that the Omnisend plugin is disabled in the main store. You must do it before making a clone.

  2. Clone Store. Proceed with cloning the store to create the desired environment for testing or other purposes.

  3. Enable Plugin in Main Store Only. After cloning, enable the Omnisend plugin only in the main store to clarify which store is the primary one.

After following these steps, you will have a functional main store, as well as a clone of it with the Omnisend plugin disabled.

Step 2. Performed in your clone store

  1. Uninstall Omnisend Plugin. In your cloned store, uninstall the Omnisend plugin entirely.

  2. Create a New Brand. Login to your Omnisend account and create a new brand. Learn how to do it here.

  3. Install Omnisend Plugin. After creating a new brand for your cloned store, install the Omnisend plugin to the cloned store and connect it to a new brand as you would typically do.

Your cloned store is now connected to a brand different from your main store.


⚠️ If you clone your main store multiple times when you use it as a staging environment for new changes - you only need to create a new brand the first time you make a clone. Afterward, reinstall the Omnisend plugin for the cloned store and connect it to your store for staging.

To avoid encountering these issues in the future, adhere to the following preventive measures - disable Omnisend plugin during cloning.

Before initiating the cloning process, always disable the Omnisend plugin to prevent complications arising from store duplication.


Follow these guides for WooCommerce and WordPress to learn how to do store cloning and create a testing or staging environment. This is what you should do with Omnisend plugin.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact our support team at [email protected].

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