Woo released WooCommerce 8.3, featuring Cart, Checkout, and Order Confirmation blocks as the default checkout flow for new installations.
This is a significant milestone in moving WooCommerce towards a block-first checkout experience, and it underlines WooCommerce’s commitment to delivering a fast and performant checkout experience.
Version 8.3 was slightly delayed as core developers worked to ensure it would be compatible with the latest changes in WordPress 6.4, as well as the upcoming PHP 8.3 release scheduled for November 23, 2023.
The Transition from Beta to Default
For the past few months, Cart and Checkout blocks have been optional features in WooCommerce Core.
But the time has come to transition these blocks out of the Beta phase and make them the default experience for all new users with the upcoming November release of WooCommerce Core.
Existing users, don’t fret! The shortcode will remain available and easy to switch to. WooCommerce is also collaborating with partners to increase plugin support and address any issues and opportunities for customization.
Although existing stores are not impacted by cart and checkout blocks becoming the default, merchants can easily opt into the experience using WooCommerce’s migration tool located at WooCommerce > Status > Tools > Create Pages.
What’s New With WooCommerce 8.3?
WooCommerce is harnessing the power of Blocks to provide a seamless, conversion-optimized checkout flow.
We mentioned in our previous post on How to Optimize Your WooCommerce Checkout Page to Drive More Sales that in the high-stakes world of eCommerce, a smooth checkout is crucial.
The Cart and Checkout blocks have been tested, tweaked, and perfected, and they’re now ready to revolutionize the WooCommerce experience.
These blocks aim to make the shopping experience more intuitive and optimized, especially on mobile devices.
Customization
What’s more, you can now customize your cart and checkout experience without any coding!
With easy customization options, you can maintain your brand identity while providing a visually appealing and consistent checkout journey for your customers.
Extra Goodies
Other WooCommerce 8.3 changes:
- Themes added to the revamped WooCommerce > Extensions marketplace.
- Marketplace search improved.
- Mobile app onboarding improved, no longer requiring Jetpack.
- Images optimized to reduce the WooCommerce package size.
WooCommerce 8.3 includes 682 commits to the core plugin, along with 231 commits rolled in from WooCommerce blocks, thanks to the efforts of 96 contributors.
Helpful Articles and Developer Resources
All the documentation you need:
- For integration work: the WooCommerce Blocks Handbook offers comprehensive Developer Resources and a section dedicated explicitly to third-party developers.
- Frequently Asked Questions: an FAQ document outlines the steps for developers who still need to make their extensions compatible.
- Updates: the changelog gives a detailed look at the many fixes, tweaks, and enhancements included in the release.
- Articles: these will guide third-party developers through the available extensibility interfaces to extend the Cart and Checkout blocks functionality for integrating their products.
Developers with extensions that don’t work with the new default blockified checkout are encouraged to declare their plugins incompatible so that WooCommerce can display a message to users in the settings sidebar.
We’re Here for You
Our WooCommerce development team is always ready to help. Change is the only constant, and this change is aimed at elevating the shopping experience to new heights.
The Cart and Checkout blocks promise a fast, performant, and shopper-friendly checkout flow. Reach out to CoSpark, your innovative development company, to start boosting conversions!
