How to Manage Customer Orders with SureCart

E-commerce businesses can significantly benefit from an intuitive and efficient system to manage customer orders.

SureCart is a robust WordPress plugin designed to help manage and track orders seamlessly. Here’s a step-by-step guide on effectively managing customer orders using SureCart.

How to Find Your Orders

You can find the list of all the orders that have ever been placed in this section by navigating to your WordPress website and selecting SureCart > Orders.

This list displays all the orders that you’ve ever received at your SureCart store.

How to Sort & Look for Orders Based on Status

If you want to see only the list of orders with a specific status like Processing, Completed, Cancelled, or Failed, you can use the filters located above.

There’s a filter at the top left corner under the Orders section. It lets you sort the list based on different statuses: All, Paid, Processing, Failed, and Canceled.

You can also find more filters for Fulfillment status and Shipment Status below these options. These filters help you easily find the information you need and manage your orders better..

How to Search for a Specific Order

You can also search for any specific order in your store by searching with the order ID.

How to See All Details of a Single Order

By clicking on any order, you can access detailed options and information for that particular order including:

Fulfillment Status, Order Status, & Order Receipts/Invoice

In this part, you can see the order number, when it was created, and whether it has been paid for and fulfilled. If it’s a digital product that gets automatically delivered, it will say “Fulfilled.”

After that, you’ll see the “Paid” section, which shows how much money the user paid for their purchase. You can also download the receipt or invoice from here.

Customer Details, Shipping & Tax information, & Purchases

On the right, you’ll see more info such as the Customer’s name who placed the order, Shipping & Tax Address, and the products that were purchased in this order.

Orders Under Processing

If you made an order manually and it’s not paid yet, you’ll see a section called Processing. This indicates that your order is in processing state, once you mark it as paid, the processing status will change to paid.

Subscription Details

If the customer bought a subscription product, you’ll see a Subscription section.

This shows the status (Active, Canceled, Paused), product name, when it renews, when it was made, and an option to view the subscription.

How to Cancel an Order

If you want to cancel an order, click on the Actions button on the top right corner, then choose ‘Cancel Order’.

If you cancel an order, the customer won’t be able to get the product, download any files attached to it, or continue with any subscription linked to it.

How to Refund an Order

The Charge section shows how much the customer paid, when they paid, how they paid, and if the payment was successful.

You can refund the customer by clicking on the refund button.

How to Revoke an Order

When you go to the “Purchases” section, you’ll find the item the customer bought.

Now, if you want to cancel the purchase and any related subscriptions, just click on the “Revoke” button.

It’s important to know that if the product is linked to an LMS (Learning Management System) course, your access to that course will also be taken away.

Oh, and if the product includes a download file, that will be revoked as well. So, just keep that in mind before revoking an order.

That’s almost everything that you need to know in order to manage orders in SureCart. But if you still have any questions do not hesitate to contact us!

How to Add or Update Additional Order Data

SureCart allows editing order metadata directly from the Edit Order page using a JSON editor. This is useful when you need to add or update custom data that is not collected during checkout.

Common use cases include:

• Syncing reference numbers between external systems
• Storing internal identifiers
• Adding custom operational data for order tracking

Step-by-step: Adding or Updating Metadata

• Go to WordPress Dashboard → SureCart → Orders.
• Click the order you want to update.

• Scroll down to the Additional Order Data section.
• Click Add Custom Data.

Example:

{
"reference_number": "ABC-123"
}

• Click Save

After saving, the metadata will be displayed in the Additional Order Data panel for that order.

Accepted Metadata Format

Metadata must be provided in valid JSON format.

Example:

{
"reference_number": "ABC-123"
}

Each key represents a metadata field, and each value represents the data stored for that field.

Limitations When Editing Metadata

There are important limitations to be aware of:

• Existing metadata cannot be removed
• Metadata values can only be updated or cleared
• The platform merges new metadata with existing data

Because of this behavior, removing a metadata key entirely is not supported.

Recommended Workarounds

If you need to clear a metadata value, use one of the following approaches:

Empty Array

{
  "roles": []
}

Boolean False

{
  "roles": false
}

Empty String

{
  "roles": ""
}

These approaches keep the key but neutralize its value, which aligns with current platform behavior.

Expected Outcome

After following this guide, you should be able to:

• Locate, search, and filter orders efficiently
• Understand and interpret different order statuses
• View complete order details, including customer, payment, and purchase information
• Manage orders throughout their lifecycle, including processing, fulfillment, refunds, and cancellations
• Revoke purchases and associated access when needed
• View and manage subscription-related orders
• Add or update additional order metadata for operational or reconciliation purposes
• Safely manage orders while respecting platform behavior and limitations

Notes and Limitations

• Order status, fulfillment status, and payment status are managed independently and may not always change simultaneously
• Canceling or revoking an order may affect customer access to digital products, downloads, subscriptions, or connected LMS content
• Additional Order Data is merged with existing metadata and cannot be fully removed once saved
• Metadata values can be updated or cleared, but metadata keys cannot be deleted
• Some actions, such as refunds or cancellations, may depend on the connected payment processor’s capabilities
• This guide focuses on operational order management and does not cover custom automation or advanced API-based integrations

FAQ