WooCommerce glossary
What is an order status in WooCommerce?
An order status is the label that says where a WooCommerce order is in its life, from waiting for payment to fulfilled, cancelled or refunded.
How WooCommerce uses it
You'll see the status on the Orders list and can change it on the order edit screen. The default statuses are:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pending payment | Submitted, waiting for the customer to pay |
| Processing | Paid and stock reduced, ready to fulfill |
| On hold | Waiting for payment confirmation, often for offline payments |
| Completed | Fulfilled, nothing left to do |
| Cancelled | Cancelled by an admin or the customer |
| Refunded | Fully refunded |
| Failed | Payment was declined or didn't go through |
| Draft | A temporary record from the block-based checkout before the order is submitted |
Plugins can add their own statuses. WooCommerce Analytics decides which statuses count through Analytics › Settings › Excluded statuses, so the status of an order affects whether it appears in your reports. See excluded statuses.
A worked example
Say a customer pays by bank transfer. The order sits On hold until the money arrives, moves to Processing when you confirm it, and to Completed when you ship. If your Date type in Analytics settings is "date completed", that order shows up in reports on the day you ship, not the day it was placed.
Why it matters
Statuses are how you run fulfillment, and they also decide what your reports count. A pile of old Pending or On hold orders can hide lost sales, and a custom status that Analytics excludes can make revenue look short. The guide on why Analytics numbers don't match your orders covers status mismatches, and WooCommerce sales reports shows what each report includes.