Module 2 · 2.3

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General settings, accounts and privacy

Module 2: Installing and setting up · Reading time: 10 minutes

Learning objective: After this lesson you can deliberately set the shop address, the countries, the currency, the customer accounts and the retention periods for personal data, and you know what each choice leads to.

Key concepts: shop address, selling locations, shipping locations, default customer location, geolocation, currency and format, guest checkout, account creation during checkout, password setup link, request to erase personal data, retention periods, privacy text at registration and checkout

The general settings: the foundation under everything

Under WooCommerce > Settings > General you will find settings that you set correctly once and then rarely touch. That is exactly why things often go wrong here: a wrong choice in week one only shows up months later, for example when the VAT on your invoices is incorrect.

The shop address. The address where your business is based. WooCommerce uses it as the basis for calculating VAT (lesson 4.1) and for some shipping integrations. You already chose the country in the setup wizard (lesson 2.1); here you fill in the full address. This address does not automatically appear on your website: the information a visitor must be able to find is something you arrange separately (lesson 5.1).

Selling to and shipping to. You set which countries you sell to (all countries, all countries except a few, or a list) and, separately, which countries you ship to. Those are two different questions. Theehuis Example sells its digital recipe book to everyone in the EU, but only ships teapots to the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. So for selling it chooses "specific countries: all EU countries" and for shipping "Netherlands, Belgium, Germany". A customer from Austria can then buy the recipe book, but sees no shipping option for a teapot.

Why not simply "all countries"? Because every country you sell to has consequences: VAT (lesson 4.2), shipping costs (lesson 4.3), the language of your terms and that country's rules (module 5). Only sell where your plan (lesson 1.3) is ready for it. You also have to make clear at the start of the ordering process whether there are any delivery restrictions (lesson 5.1).

Default customer location. Before a visitor fills in their address, WooCommerce does not know where they live. You choose what the shop assumes in the meantime:

No location by default: prices and shipping are only calculated once the customer fills in an address.
Shop country/region: WooCommerce assumes the visitor lives in your country.
Geolocate: WooCommerce guesses the country from the IP address. To do so it uses a database from an external service, for which you need to request and enter a (free) key.
Geolocate (with page caching support): the same guess, but through an extra request from the browser, so that a page cache does not show the same country to everyone.

Plain geolocation and a page cache do not go well together. The cache stores the page as the first visitor saw it, with the prices and notices for that visitor's country, and serves it to everyone. If you use a page cache (lesson 6.4) and want geolocation, choose the variant with page caching support. For most Dutch, Belgian and German shops, "shop country/region" is simple and good enough.

Currency and format. Currency, position of the currency symbol, thousand and decimal separators, number of decimals. The usual settings for the Netherlands and Germany are: euro, symbol on the left (Netherlands) or on the right (Germany), a point for thousands, a comma for decimals, two decimals. Never set the number of decimals to 0 "because you only charge whole euros": the VAT calculation needs the cents.

Customer accounts: guest or account?

Under WooCommerce > Settings > Accounts & Privacy you choose how customers place orders.

Guest checkout. The customer fills in their details and orders, without an account. That is the fastest option for the customer and produces the least personal data that you have to protect. A mandatory account is one of the best-known reasons why people abandon an order.

Account creation during checkout or on My account. Useful for regular customers: viewing past orders, saving addresses, downloading files again (lesson 3.3). But every account is a login that can be misused, and a collection of personal data that you keep for as long as the account exists.

For Theehuis Example the choice is: guest checkout is allowed, and creating an account during checkout is optional for the customer. For a shop with subscriptions or downloads that customers want to fetch again later, an account makes more sense.

Passwords. Have WooCommerce send a link for a new account, so the customer chooses their own password, instead of a generated password in the email. A password in an email stays in a mailbox for years.

Note the connection with the withdrawal button from lesson 5.3: a customer must not be required to have an account in order to withdraw from a purchase. If guests can order, guests must also be able to withdraw.

Privacy: what WooCommerce can do for you

WooCommerce processes personal data: names, addresses, phone numbers, orders. The general rules of the GDPR, such as a privacy statement and a record of processing activities, are covered in the WordPress course, lesson 9.3. This lesson is about the settings WooCommerce itself offers.

Requests to erase personal data. WordPress has a tool to erase someone's personal data (Tools > Erase Personal Data). Under Accounts & Privacy you choose whether data from orders is also removed and whether access to downloads is revoked. Think before you switch this on: data you are required to keep for the tax authority (invoices, lesson 5.6) may not simply be erased, not even on request. Erasing in WooCommerce anonymises the order; make sure the data you have to keep is in your accounts by then.

Privacy texts. You can set a short text that appears at registration and at checkout, with a link to your privacy statement (lesson 5.5). Put one or two sentences there, not a whole statement.

Retention periods. This is the part that is skipped most often. WooCommerce can automatically clean up personal data after a period you choose, per type:

Type	What happens after the period	Consideration
Inactive accounts	Accounts without orders or logins are deleted	An account that has not been used for years no longer serves a purpose
Pending orders	Moved to the bin	An unpaid order that is months old is worthless
Failed orders	Moved to the bin	Same as above
Cancelled orders	Moved to the bin	Same as above; take care if an invoice was already issued
Completed orders	Anonymised	Careful: this is where your retention obligation lies

The GDPR says you must not keep data longer than necessary. Tax rules say you must keep your records for a number of years: 7 years in the Netherlands, 10 years for VAT in Belgium, 8 years for invoices in Germany (lesson 5.6). Those two rules do not clash, as long as you know where you keep what. Theehuis Example has WooCommerce anonymise completed orders after a few years, because the invoices are in its accounting software and stay there for 7 years. If you keep your records only in WooCommerce, do not choose a period shorter than your retention obligation; for your own shop in the Netherlands that is the 7 years required by the Belastingdienst (Dutch Tax Administration).

By default all periods are empty: WooCommerce then keeps everything forever. That is the easiest and the worst choice.

In practice: this is what it looks like in WooCommerce

It works the same with other themes and hosting providers; these are settings of WooCommerce itself.

WooCommerce > Settings > General: fill in the shop address. For selling and shipping, choose only the countries from your plan. Choose a default customer location; if you use a page cache, do not choose plain Geolocate.
Check the currency and format at the bottom.
Accounts & Privacy: switch guest checkout on or off; account creation during checkout; choose to send a password setup link.
For erasing personal data, choose whether orders and downloads are included, and write down where you keep the data you are required to keep for tax purposes.
Fill in the privacy texts with a link to your privacy statement.
Fill in the retention periods, with a reason for each period.

Summary

The shop address is the basis for VAT; selling to and shipping to are two separate choices. Only choose countries you are ready for.
Plain geolocation and a page cache clash; in that case choose the variant with page caching support or the shop country.
Guest checkout is fast and produces less data; an account is useful for regular customers. Let customers choose their own password through a link.
Fill in the retention periods: by default WooCommerce keeps everything forever.
Erasing on request and anonymising must not break your tax retention obligation (in the Netherlands 7 years): know where you keep what.

Quiz

Exercise

Exercise D2.3: Accounts and retention periods. Apply the settings from this lesson in your (test) shop. This is a do-it-yourself exercise: you tick off the items yourself and answer the question.

Tick off:

shop address and countries (selling and shipping) set;
currency and format checked;
guest checkout deliberately switched on or off;
account creation during checkout deliberately chosen;
password setup via a link enabled;
retention periods filled in under Accounts & Privacy.

Answer: which retention periods did you choose for inactive accounts, failed, cancelled and completed orders, and why? Keep in mind the retention obligation from lesson 5.6.

After "done" you will see the model answer: do not keep completed orders for a shorter period than the tax retention obligation, unless that data is kept elsewhere (for example in your accounts); do clean up inactive accounts; give a reason for each choice.

Exercise D2.3: Accounts and retention periods

You do this exercise yourself; no one checks it. Tick off what you've done and mark the exercise as done.

Store address and countries set
Currency and number format checked
Guest checkout deliberately on or off
Account creation during checkout deliberately chosen
Password via a link instead of a generated password in the email
Retention periods filled in under Accounts & Privacy

Which retention periods did you choose for inactive accounts and for failed, cancelled and completed orders, and why?

Your ticks and notes only stay in this browser; we don't send them anywhere. If you're signed in, we only save in My courses that you've done the exercise.

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