How to setup WooCommerce User Roles

WordPress defines user roles as the overall scope of user capabilities. In comparison, user permissions define the individual capabilities attributable to each role. WordPress uses the concept of roles to allow the site owner to control what its users can and cannot do on the site. 

Roles in WooCommerce are intended to control what your store admins and shoppers can access on your WordPress site. You can classify your customers using user roles in more advanced ways. It even allows certain users to view or buy specific products or offer special deals.

WordPress User Roles – What Are They?

Roles are groups of capabilities assigned to users. Users can be assigned roles in WordPress according to what jobs they need to perform, either site-related or administrative tasks.

In WordPress, you may want to define users differently depending on the level of access they should have. For example, users can create and manage profiles on your site and read your pages and posts.

Several user roles in WordPress help you manage access to your site by different users. WordPress, by default, offers the following functions:

1. Super Administrator: A role capable of handling a WordPress user’s responsibilities, including network administrative features.
2. Administrator: This user role grants the user full administration capabilities, administrative privilege
3. Contributor: A role able to add content to a post but will not be allowed to publish it.
4. Subscriber: This role can only access the site’s front end and manage their profiles.
5. Editor: All content on your site can be published/edited by this role, even by other users
6. Author: A role able to manage their posts and publish them.

WooCommerce User Roles

WooCommerce automatically adds two additional roles when it’s installed on your WordPress site – Shop Manager and Customer. It also gives the WordPress Administrators role other capabilities to manage WooCommerce settings and view WooCommerce reports.

What are the capabilities of WordPress and WooCommerce user roles?

User roles are assigned to certain WordPress users and consist of allowable actions. Capability is the ability of a user to perform one particular activity. The following is a quick overview of the capabilities of user roles on WordPress and WooCommerce.

Super Admin Role

There is only one super admin role in WordPress multi-site networks that oversee all sites within a network. He has all the capabilities for managing a multi-site WordPress network.

Administrator Role

The administrator controls the WordPress site. He/she controls the site’s content, theme, plugins, updates, and backend code. Admin is also allowed to modify the details of other users, including passwords. By default, WordPress assigns the administrator role to the user who creates the website. An Administrator is usually assigned to each website, perhaps more in larger businesses.

Contributor Role

A contributor is a user who can post and edit the content on your website. Contributors cannot publish posts; an administrator or editor can publish their content for them. Furthermore, they cannot upload images or other files to their pieces or change any site settings. Contributors are best for content creators who need more advanced monitoring than authors. However, users with Contributor roles can’t upload files.

Subscriber Role

Subscribers are the least powerful of the default roles. This role has only read access to your site. They can create and edit their password-protected accounts but can’t create posts or edit existing content.

Editor Role

Those with the Editor role on your site can edit or delete any posts submitted by other site users. Editors can also manage comment sections, tags, and categories. However, editors are only responsible for your site’s content; they cannot make any changes to your site beyond that.

Author Role

It is entirely up to Authors to control their content, including the ability to create, publish, edit, and delete their posts. This role will not have access to other people’s posts. Aside from adding files to their content, authors can also edit comments left on their posts. 

Customer Role

Users who register using the checkout or sign-up options on your site are defined as customers. Essentially, this role is equivalent to Subscriber, but it lets shoppers view past/current orders.

Shop Manager Role

Users can use this role to access important backend WooCommerce processes without being full Administrators. However, they will not be able to install or manage plugins or access other essential Administrator functions.

How to Assign and Change User Role

Maybe you are wondering how you can assign a role to a user. Administrators are the ones who can change user roles. A new WordPress site is automatically assigned this responsibility. It is up to him to decide on the role to assign to new users.

All registered users on your site are assigned the Subscriber role or the Customer role by default. On the other hand, you may need to give them additional permissions if you register store administrators or content creators on your site.

To enable the customization of user roles, there are several plugins on WordPress and WooCommerce that will customize. For example, use the WooCommerce user roles plugin to enhance user role management.

Start by installing and activating the WooCommerce user roles plugin from WordPress.org. Now, here’s an overview of how it works.

Create Rules based on the conditions

With this plugin, you can automatically assign the user roles to new users and switch roles of existing users based on the conditions; when an individual purchases a specific product or orders a particular amount of products, they receive a role. This simplifies store administration.

You can create rules by simply Entering a new rule name and clicking on the Add New Rule button within Rules Settings.

Assign Roles to New Users

You can easily assign roles to the new users with product and cart-related conditions. For example, you can classify them among customers, contributors, or a relevant user group. This will encourage new users to stay connected to the store. You can select the option of Gain the Role and then choose the role the user is gaining.

Automatically switch Roles to existing users.

The plugin allows you to automate the task of switching users’ roles to reduce admin work. Based on the criteria, you can define the roles to change. For example, you can simply select the option of Switch the Role. Then From this Role field, set the role user is switching from and To this Role field, put the role user is switching.

Set criteria for assigning and switching roles

You need to set criteria for automating user role switching and gaining. Typically, roles are assigned based on four conditions: the type of product, the category, the order amount, or the total amount spent.

Set Duration for Rules and Roles

 Assign user roles or switch them by entering a starting and ending date to schedule rule implementations. After a specified number of days, role will also be reverted back once the set time expires.

Exclude user roles from rules

Roles can be assigned to or switched between specific users. Selected roles will be exempt from the rules.

User role-switch history

Users and admins can view role changes anytime with the WooCommerce role’s permission.

Email Alerts:

A notification email is sent to both the user and the admin whenever a user role changes.

Author Bio

Maryam Hayat is a professional digital marketer who is currently working for FMEAddons. Her passion is to help others use WordPress and WooCommerce in innovative ways. In addition, she likes to research and write about social media platforms, search engine optimization, and digital marketing trends.