WooCommerce 9.8: Pre-release updates Release Posts

WooCommerce 9.8 is coming soon…

The post will track the work we do as we prepare to release 9.8 as well as provide a preview of what’s to come in this new version.

Release Schedule:

🧪 WooCommerce 9.8 Beta is available for testing

Final Release — March 31, 2025
See updates

Hey folks, on Monday, March 3rd, 2025, we kicked-off our Code Freeze and published the Beta ahead of the release of WooCommerce 9.8. As we begin the testing phase, we wanted to share some spoilers and document any updates to the expected release timeline.

Check back here for more updates ahead of the WooCommerce 9.8 release, scheduled for March 31, 2025.

What’s coming in 9.8

📈 Core analytics filters added for richer reporting: Filters allow developers to integrate custom report types and modify report data sources without modifications to the Core. The newly added woocommerce_export_report_controller_map filter registers custom report controllers and woocommerce_export_report_data_endpoint filter can add/overwrite report data endpoints. This allows for diverse analytics options and richer reporting capabilities for store owners.

⚡ Enjoy a faster WooCommerce admin: We’ve significantly improved WooCommerce admin performance by optimizing how JavaScript loads throughout the WC Admin. Instead of loading one large script bundled on every page, we now load only what’s needed for each page type. The pages themselves are faster, interface clicks and interactions are smoother, and load times have been reduced across multiple platforms and devices.

🧢 Display a Brand in the Single Product template: When using a Full Site Editing compatible theme, product brands will now appear in the product meta section without requiring any additional setup or template modifications.

🆕 Launch Your Store adds new Coming Soon templates: We are thrilled to introduce three new “Coming Soon” templates for the Launch Your Store (LYS) feature. Previously, the coming soon template required extensive customization, but now merchants can choose from five beautiful designs for a professional first impression.

✉️ Email improvements have landed: Email previews were behind a feature flag since WooCommerce 9.6. The feature flag has been removed, and it’s now enabled for everyone. Modernized email templates have been behind a feature flag since WooCommerce 9.7. They are now enabled for new installations by default. Existing merchants can enable them in WooCommerce > Settings > Advanced > Features > Email improvements.

Experimental Features

🧪 Product Gallery Block Improvements: We have improved four features in the Product Gallery Block that is currently in Beta. Mobile gestures allow for better navigation, and swiping through product images on mobile now feels more intuitive. We’ve simplified how the pager (thumbnail navigation) works, ensuring better visibility and usability. You will now see a Revamped Full-Page Gallery View and Cleaner Inspector Controls for improved block configuration.

Developer Advisories

`send_order_details` API endpoint update:

In 9.5, we introduced the wc/v3/orders/<id>/actions/send_order_details REST API endpoint to trigger an order details email, with an optional email parameter to set the billing email in the same request. In 9.8, we’re updating this so that if the email parameter is used with an existing billing email that differs, an error will be returned unless the new force_email_update parameter is set to true. This change aligns the send_order_details endpoint with the new wc/v3/orders/<id>/actions/send_email endpoint introduced in 9.8, with more details available in our REST API docs.

Related PR: #54597

React 18.3 dependency update:

We’re excited to announce that WooCommerce is upgrading all Monorepo React 17.0.2 dependencies to React 18.3.x! 🎉

This update brings WooCommerce in line with WordPress, enhances compatibility with upcoming React 19 improvements, and ensures our platform remains maintainable and future-ready.

For developers preparing for this update as well, be sure to check out Upgrading to React 18 and common pitfalls of concurrent mode and How to Upgrade to React 18.

API Changes

REST API

Update Truncate commands for delete_taxes to Delete commands (#55499)
Fixing shipping endpoint response (#55110)
Install woocommerce-analytics plugin within the promotion banner (#55715)
[Settings] Add Legacy save API (#55467)
Allow multisite admin to see payment suggestions (#55734)
Expose cart-token to CORS requests (#55307)
Remove euCountries and local_Info from wcSettings.admin.onboarding (#55463)
Persist additional fields, order notes and payment method on checkout (#53553)
Remove shipping if there is no address, always allow hide shipping costs option(#53466)
Enhancement/ Added a filter to override IP/UserID in grouping rate limited requests (#55209)

Store API

Update Store API cart/add-item attribute slug support (#55317)
Enable Batch for all Store API endpoints and add support for GET batch requests in Store API (#55306)
Add brands support to Store API (#55305)
[Experimental] Hidden visibility parsing for Store API and additional fields (#55570)
[Experimental] Add additional field validation rule parsing in Store API and frontend forms (#55047)

Database Updates

Removes woocommerce_order_attribution_install_banner_dismissed option (#55852)

Changelog

View the full changelog.

Update timeline

✅ Code Freeze and WooCommerce 9.8 Beta

Added: March 03, 2025

On March 3rd, we implemented the Code Freeze and released the Beta. Stay tuned for the upcoming version in the WooCommerce Beta Tester plugin.

⏳ WooCommerce 9.8 RC

Scheduled: March 17, 2025

⏳ WooCommerce Release 9.8

Scheduled: March 31, 2025

15 responses to “WooCommerce 9.8: Pre-release updates”

Marc

March 4, 2025

great.
I guess you’ll provide performance figures for the admin’s side optimizations.
The email composer is nice also.
About the product gallery, hope you’ll add soon the aspect ratio, and video within product images gallery
would be great also to write down a post about the “Blockification / FSE” efforts : many parts are being worked on corrently (new add to cart block, product details block, etc.), but the timeframe is not clear (per product type).
keep it up anyway !

Reply
1. Brent MacKinnon
  
  March 4, 2025
  
  Hey Marc! Thanks for the message
  
  About the product gallery, hope you’ll add soon the aspect ratio, and video within product images gallery
  
  This is great feedback and we’ll make sure the teams working on this part of the product see it.
  
  would be great also to write down a post about the “Blockification / FSE” efforts : many parts are being worked on corrently (new add to cart block, product details block, etc.), but the timeframe is not clear (per product type).
  keep it up anyway !
  
  We’d love to talk more about what we’re working on in this area, and we’ll make sure we do so.
  
  Reply
Abe Pattee

March 4, 2025

I see the cost field is now accessible. It would be great if there was a Cost box in the Overview area of Analytics. At the moment, that field (unless I’m missing something) doesn’t add any benefit. Thank you!

Reply
1. Shani Banerjee
  
  March 5, 2025
  
  Hey Abe – I’ll dig a little bit deeper for the current utilities of cost data. Are you suggesting just displaying costs in analytics?
  
  Reply
  1. Abe
    
    March 5, 2025
    
    That is correct.
    
    As it stands, there’s no real benefit of adding the cost to the product information. But it would be really helpful if you could see the total cost of products sold for the day, week, year, etc.
    
    And there’s no reason to stop there – you could then provide margin percentage, profit, etc.
    
    Thank you!
    
    Reply
    1. Shani Banerjee
      
      March 5, 2025
      
      Thanks Abe, that is great feedback, I’ll make sure to pass that to the PMs.
      
      Reply
nam

March 5, 2025

why upgrade to react 18.3 and not react 18.3.1? is 18.3.1 still better?

Reply
1. Shani Banerjee
  
  March 5, 2025
  
  Hi Nam, we mean 18.3.x versioning, I’ll update the post.
  
  Reply
nam

March 5, 2025

I recommend you to update all blocks to the latest version in woocommerce plugin. Even if you install the latest woocommerce plugin, the short description block on the product page is always the old version, unless you go to the edit page and click on the short description block, it will show a message asking to update the block, otherwise the short description will be very ugly. So this is a hidden update that not many people can access. Again, I recommend you to check and update all blocks in woocommerce before packing into the final version.

Reply
1. Shani Banerjee
  
  March 5, 2025
  
  Thanks for this Nam, I’ll check in with the blocks team and ask them if it’s strictly 18.3 and the short description block.
  
  Reply
2. karolmanijak
  
  March 6, 2025
  
  Hi Nam! Thank you for pointing this out! The enhanced Product Summary block was released in WooCommerce 9.6 (https://developer.woocommerce.com/2025/01/20/woocommerce-9-6-fresh-new-tools-and-modernizing-classics/#h-product-summary-block-enhanced) which proves your point that the feature went unnoticed for 2 versions.
  
  It’s true that we didn’t set this block as the default in the Single Product template, as it could affect existing stores. While we believe it’s an improvement over the previous block, it also introduces a significant visual change, so we avoided rolling it out without users being aware of it. On the other hand, I understand your point—as a user, you wouldn’t know about this update until you focus on a block and notice the announcement.
  
  Do you think it would be alright if we promote such upgrades and features more proactively? For example with some popup or snack notifications? I’d love to hear your thoughts on how we could strike the right balance between informing users and avoiding unexpected changes.
  
  Reply
  1. nam
    
    March 6, 2025
    
    Most users are too lazy to dig deep unless it’s really a big problem for them. I accidentally found the “update” of the short description block, I’m lazy myself, I didn’t intend to edit it, but surprisingly, I accidentally clicked on it and found that it had an “update” notification, after updating that block, the short description is actually in the right form, not as messy as before. It’s a valuable update. In my opinion, you guys should deploy this update directly, if there are any incompatible themes, they will have to follow you and users will put pressure on the theme developer to change. As for those stubborn themes that refuse to change, users will abandon them and switch to other themes, that’s the price to pay for this stubbornness. In my opinion, you guys should directly solve the problem instead of beating around the bush to save time for users and developers.
    
    Reply
    1. Mounir
      
      March 7, 2025
      
      I disagree with this. Breaking things and creating unnecessary problems for users would erode their trust in future updates.
      It’s better to let users know about updates and new features and give them the ability to choose for themselves when they are ready for it. Nobody likes unnecessary issues, especially when they don’t have time to deal with them. Let them choose their timing.
      
      Reply
      1. nam
        
        March 7, 2025
        
        anyway the short description block when left as default is the unupdated version looks like a bug
Peter

March 6, 2025

This is GREAT NEWS. The admin side really needs optimizing for faster performance and was never a need to load a bunch of code on every single page click. Looking forward to these optimizations!

Reply