WooCommerce AI Integration

WooCommerce is the world's most widely deployed e-commerce platform, running on WordPress. It exposes a full REST API (v3) for programmatic access to the entire store — products, orders, customers, inventory, coupons, and reports.

Docs: https://woocommerce.github.io/woocommerce-rest-api-docs/

The 2nth Model: One Person + One AI

Role	The Human Decides	The AI Enables
Store Owner	Strategy, margins, supplier relationships	Revenue dashboards, profitability by category, reorder alerts
Merchandiser	Range planning, pricing, promotions	Bulk product updates, auto-tagging, SEO title/description generation
Content Creator	Brand voice, creative direction	Product descriptions, meta tags, alt text, blog content
Customer Service	Escalations, refunds, relationship calls	Order lookup, draft responses, return eligibility checks
Operations	Exception handling, carrier selection	Stock alerts, fulfilment routing, fraud flag review
Marketing Manager	Campaign strategy, budget	Coupon performance, customer segmentation, repeat purchase analysis

Authentication

WooCommerce REST API uses Basic Auth over HTTPS with Consumer Key + Consumer Secret.

Generate keys: WooCommerce → Settings → Advanced → REST API → Add key

# Environment variables
WC_URL="https://yourstore.com"
WC_KEY="ck_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
WC_SECRET="cs_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

# Basic Auth header
Authorization: Basic base64(WC_KEY:WC_SECRET)

Or pass as query params (less secure — avoid in production):

?consumer_key=ck_xxx&consumer_secret=cs_xxx

Base URL:

https://{store}/wp-json/wc/v3/{resource}

Core Resources

Products

# List active products
GET /wp-json/wc/v3/products?status=publish&per_page=100

# Get single product
GET /wp-json/wc/v3/products/{id}

# Create product
POST /wp-json/wc/v3/products
{
  "name": "Product Name",
  "type": "simple",           # simple | variable | grouped | external
  "regular_price": "299.00",
  "description": "...",
  "short_description": "...",
  "categories": [{"id": 12}],
  "images": [{"src": "https://..."}],
  "manage_stock": true,
  "stock_quantity": 50
}

# Update product
PUT /wp-json/wc/v3/products/{id}

# Batch update (up to 100)
POST /wp-json/wc/v3/products/batch
{
  "update": [{"id": 123, "regular_price": "199.00"}],
  "delete": [456]
}

Product Variations

# List variations for a variable product
GET /wp-json/wc/v3/products/{product_id}/variations

# Update variation stock
PUT /wp-json/wc/v3/products/{product_id}/variations/{variation_id}
{ "stock_quantity": 25 }

Orders

# List open orders
GET /wp-json/wc/v3/orders?status=processing&per_page=50

# Statuses: pending | processing | on-hold | completed | cancelled | refunded | failed | trash

# Get single order
GET /wp-json/wc/v3/orders/{id}

# Update order status
PUT /wp-json/wc/v3/orders/{id}
{ "status": "completed" }

# Add order note
POST /wp-json/wc/v3/orders/{id}/notes
{ "note": "Dispatched via FastShip, tracking: FS123456", "customer_note": true }

# Create refund
POST /wp-json/wc/v3/orders/{id}/refunds
{
  "amount": "50.00",
  "reason": "Damaged in transit",
  "line_items": [{"id": 1, "refund_total": 50.00}]
}

Customers

# List customers
GET /wp-json/wc/v3/customers?per_page=100&orderby=registered_date&order=desc

# Search by email
GET /wp-json/wc/v3/customers?email=user@example.com

# Customer object key fields:
{
  "id": 42,
  "email": "user@example.com",
  "first_name": "...",
  "last_name": "...",
  "orders_count": 7,
  "total_spent": "3450.00",
  "date_created": "...",
  "billing": { "address_1": "...", "city": "...", "country": "ZA" }
}

Inventory & Stock

# Low stock report
GET /wp-json/wc/v3/reports/stock?type=lowstock

# Out of stock
GET /wp-json/wc/v3/reports/stock?type=outofstock

# Bulk stock update pattern (batch endpoint)
POST /wp-json/wc/v3/products/batch
{
  "update": [
    {"id": 101, "stock_quantity": 0, "stock_status": "outofstock"},
    {"id": 102, "stock_quantity": 15}
  ]
}

Coupons

# List coupons
GET /wp-json/wc/v3/coupons

# Create coupon
POST /wp-json/wc/v3/coupons
{
  "code": "SAVE20",
  "discount_type": "percent",    # percent | fixed_cart | fixed_product
  "amount": "20",
  "usage_limit": 100,
  "expiry_date": "2026-12-31",
  "minimum_amount": "500.00"
}

Reports

# Sales summary (date range)
GET /wp-json/wc/v3/reports/sales?date_min=2026-01-01&date_max=2026-03-31

# Top sellers
GET /wp-json/wc/v3/reports/top_sellers?period=month

# Orders totals
GET /wp-json/wc/v3/reports/orders/totals

# Revenue by category — requires custom query or plugin; use orders endpoint + line_items

Key MCP Tools

Tool	Description
wc_list_products	List products with filters (status, category, stock)
wc_get_product	Full product detail including variations
wc_update_product	Update price, stock, description, status
wc_batch_update_products	Bulk price/stock changes (up to 100)
wc_list_orders	List orders by status, date, customer
wc_get_order	Full order detail with line items, shipping, notes
wc_update_order_status	Move order through status lifecycle
wc_add_order_note	Add internal or customer-visible note
wc_list_customers	Customer list with spend and order count
wc_get_customer_orders	All orders for a specific customer
wc_sales_report	Revenue, orders, items for a date range
wc_low_stock_report	Products below stock threshold
wc_create_coupon	Generate promotional codes

AI Workflow Patterns

Daily Operations Brief

1. wc_list_orders(status=processing) → pending fulfilment count
2. wc_low_stock_report() → items needing reorder
3. wc_sales_report(period=yesterday) → revenue vs target
→ Draft morning summary for store owner

Product Description Generation

1. wc_get_product(id) → fetch existing product data
2. AI generates SEO-optimised description using name, category, attributes
3. wc_update_product(id, description, short_description, meta_data[seo])

Customer Win-Back

1. wc_list_customers(last_active_before=90_days_ago)
2. Filter: orders_count >= 2, total_spent >= threshold
3. AI generates personalised re-engagement email per customer
4. wc_create_coupon(code=unique_per_customer) → attach to email

Abandoned Cart Recovery (requires plugin or webhook)

WooCommerce → WooCommerce Abandoned Cart Lite (or Metorik)
Webhook fires → AI drafts recovery email → send via Resend/Mailchimp

Webhooks

WooCommerce fires webhooks on key events. Configure at: WooCommerce → Settings → Advanced → Webhooks

Topic	Trigger
order.created	New order placed
order.updated	Status change, note added
order.deleted	Order trashed
product.updated	Stock change, price update
customer.created	New account registered

Webhook payload is signed with X-WC-Webhook-Signature (HMAC-SHA256 of the body, keyed with the secret).

// Verify webhook in Cloudflare Worker
const sig = request.headers.get('X-WC-Webhook-Signature');
const body = await request.text();
const expected = btoa(
  String.fromCharCode(...new Uint8Array(
    await crypto.subtle.sign('HMAC', key, new TextEncoder().encode(body))
  ))
);
if (sig !== expected) return new Response('Unauthorized', { status: 401 });

Common Gotchas

• HTTPS required — the REST API rejects all requests over plain HTTP. Local dev needs SSL (use ngrok or Local by Flywheel).
• Per-page max is 100 — paginate with ?page=2&per_page=100. The X-WP-TotalPages response header tells you how many pages exist.
• Variable products need separate variation calls — a variable product's stock lives on its variations, not the parent. Don't update stock on the parent.
• Batch endpoint caps at 100 operations — split large bulk updates into chunks.
• Order status is a string, not an enum — plugins can add custom statuses (e.g. wc-awaiting-payment). Always check what statuses the store actually uses.
• Consumer keys are scoped — create Read-only keys for reporting agents; Read/Write keys for fulfilment agents. Never give an agent a key with more permissions than it needs.
• wp-json path can be customised — some WordPress installs change the REST prefix. Check https://store.com/wp-json/ to confirm the discovery endpoint resolves.
• WooCommerce version matters — v3 API requires WooCommerce ≥ 3.5. Check GET /wp-json/wc/v3 returns 200 before assuming all endpoints exist.

See Also

• WooCommerce REST API Docs
• WooCommerce Webhooks
• Shopify skill — for Shopify-specific patterns
• Xero skill — for accounting integration