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WooCommerce: Integration & Best Practices

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Integration Overview

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Hive's integration with WooCommerce is native, offering real-time updates via webhooks. Any update in your shop will be reflected in the Hive App within a few seconds.

How to integrate WooCommerce into Hive

To connect your WooCommerce shop to the Hive App, you will need to create a new “REST API” key in your WooCommerce Shop and share the “URL,” “Customer Key,” and “Customer Secret " with Hive by creating a ticket on the Hive App in your “support” page.

To generate a “REST API” key in your WooCommerce Control Panel, please follow the steps below:

  1. Navigate to the WooCommerce tab, look for the “Woo” icon, and select “Settings”

  2. Navigate and click on the “Advanced” tab

  3. Under the "Setup" page, head to the the “REST API” tab

  4. Click on “Add key”

  5. Add “Hive Technologies” as a key description, and give “Read/Write” permissions
  6. Click on “Generate API key”

  7. Copy and send the following details to Hive, through a customer support ticket.
    1. URL
    2. Consumer key
    3. Consumer secret
  8. Alongside your API credentials, inform Hive about the following questions:
    1. Do you intend to use this shop exclusively for B2B orders?

    2. Would you like to exclude certain countries from fulfillment?

    3. When should Hive to start synchronizing your orders (date, in the past or future)?

    4. When should Hive start fulfilling your new WooCommerce orders?

 

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⚠️ If you’re integrating another WooCommerce shop after we started fulfilling your orders, please inform Hive via Customer Support to align on when order fulfillment should be started for this additional shop.

 

How to import your catalog into Hive

For Hive to know what SKUs to fulfill from a shop, mapping them to Hive SKUs is required.

Note: we only import simple, variable, subscription products - and we ignore bundle and composite products

After integrating your WooCommerce, your products will be imported via webhooks a few seconds later in the Hive app. Please start mapping your products in the Hive app as soon as your shop products have been imported so Hive knows what physical products to ship from orders syncing from this new shop.

For more information about how to map shop products to Hive SKUs, please click here.

How to set up Inventory sync

Hive can sync inventory quantities back to WooCommerce. This ensures you always have an accurate overview of your stock in WooCommerce and helps prevent overselling.

  • Inventory numbers are synced hourly.

  • Inventory sync will only be enabled once Hive has started fulfilling your orders.

  • If you prefer not to use this feature, please contact Customer Support.

Note: Inventory sync and order sync are separate. Even without inventory sync, your orders will still flow into Hive. Inventory sync only updates stock levels in WooCommerce.

 

How does tracking information get transmitted to WooCommerce?

Tracking information is sent to WooCommerce as soon as the order is marked “shipped” in Hive.

When Hive fulfills an order in the fulfillment center, we:

  1. Mark the order as “completed”.

  2. Send the carrier name, tracking URL, and tracking number to WooCommerce.

⚠️ By default, Hive provides the tracking information to WooCommerce via order notes. If you wish to use the Shipment Tracking plugin by WooCommerce, please contact Customer Support.

 

More about the Shipment Tracking plugin here.

 

Integration Details

Required product information

The following WooCommerce product/variant fields are imported into Hive:

  • Name
  • SKU
  • Barcode (EAN/GTIN/UPC)
  • Weight (Kg)
  • Cost (EUR)
  • Status

⚠️ These fields are critical for fulfillment and customs. Missing data may block shipments.

Please note: “Country of origin” and “HS Code” are not yet imported from WooCommerce. If you plan to ship outside the EU, make sure to enter these fields directly in the Hive App.

 

Synchronization endpoints employed by Hive

Orders and product updates with the WooCommerce integration are processed in real time through a webhook connection.

These are the API Endpoints that we rely on for WooCommerce synchronization:

  • Importing product settings: GET /wp-json/wc/v3/settings/products/<id>
  • Testing URL and API credentials: GET /wp-json/wc/v3
  • Importing products: GET /wp-json/wc/v3/products
  • Importing product variants: GET /wp-json/wc/v3/products/<product_id>/variations
  • Update the inventory count: POST /wp-json/wc/v3/products/<product_id>/variations/batch
  • Importing orders: GET /wp-json/wc/v3/orders
  • Importing a specific order: GET /wp-json/wc/v3/orders/<id>
  • Updating the order status: PUT /wp-json/wc/v3/orders/<id>
  • Retrieving order notes: GET /wp-json/wc/v3/orders/<id>/notes
  • Add tracking references to an existing order note: POST /wp-json/wc/v3/orders/<id>/notes
  • Identify presence of WooCommerce Shipment Tracking Plugin: GET /wp-json/wc-shipment-tracking/v3
  • Importing all shipments: GET /wp-json/wc-shipment-tracking/v3/orders/<order_id>/shipment-trackings/
  • Creating a new shipment: POST /wp-json/wc-shipment-tracking/v3/orders/<order_id>/shipment-trackings/
  • Testing webhook functionalities: GET /wp-json/wc/v3/webhooks
  • Register missing webhooks: POST /wp-json/wc/v3/webhooks/batch

 

Find out more information about the WooCommerce API here.

 

FIFO logic

Hive processes orders in First-In-First-Out (FIFO) order, based on WooCommerce timestamps.

 

Unsupported features

The integration currently does not support the following features:

  • Bundle and Composite WooCommerce products

  • Batch tracking information transfer from Hive to WooCommerce

  • Serial number tracking information transfer from Hive to WooCommerce

  • Document uploading from WooCommerce to Hive for B2B orders.
    • Add documents manually in the Hive App. Find out how here.
  • Announcing Restocking Shipments

  • Marking items and fulfillment “On hold” in WooCommerce
    • You can alternatively use the “Order actions” menu in the Hive App's order page to mark orders “On hold”.

New WooCommerce Store and Hive Communication

As you connect a new WooCommerce Store to the Hive App, it's essential to check your Communication settings to guarantee that Hive emails regarding order and shipment statuses reach your Customers effectively.

  • Home → Communication → Select your WooCommerce Sales Channel from the dropdown menu.

  • Enable email for the order and shipment events you prefer.

Find out more about Hive Communication here.

Conflicts Between WooCommerce Plugins and the Hive App

Some third-party fulfillment plugins are designed to manage order routing, shipping, or stock levels in WooCommerce. Since the Hive App integration for WooCommerce also manages fulfillment data, both may try to update or override the same order fields.

  • Conflicts may lead to incorrect stock levels being displayed, causing overselling or underselling.

  • If two apps attempt to mark an item as fulfilled, this can lead to a fulfillment hold.

If you rely on multiple operations partners and their WooCommerce integrations or plugins, ensure they don’t overlap with fulfillment at Hive. Place a few test orders after installing a new app that handles fulfillment, inventory, and delivery settings in WooCommerce.

If allowed, disable or uninstall other fulfillment apps that try to handle order routing, stock updates, or automatic fulfillment.

 

Uninstallation Guide

You can revoke our API key from your WooCommerce to terminate product and order synchronization.

To do so, follow the following steps:

  1. In WooCommerce, navigate to the WooCommerce tab, look for the Woo icon, and select “Settings”

  2. Navigate and click on the “Advanced” tab

  3. Under page set up, find the “REST API” tab

  4. Find the “Hive Technologies” key

  5. Click on “Revoke”

⚠️ This action revokes Hive App access for all users immediately. Only proceed if you are certain about interrupting your collaboration with Hive.

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