WooCommerce 2.4 has been released, and its signature user-facing feature is a new onboarding wizard that makes new store creation a smoother, more intuitive process. The wizard makes common settings easier to configure, enables simpler Paypal setup, and uses geolocation to automatically detect currency preference.
The release also includes other features like a new variations screen and plenty of developer features you’d expect in a major WooCommerce release. Sell With WP has a nice write-up of it all.
WooCommerce 2.4 also marks the first release under the umbrella of Automattic, and from what I’ve heard, a few Automatticians’s are rolling into the WooCommerce team for stints of development, code review, and especially support. During the acquisition talks, support hires at WooThemes were on hold, so it appears they are ramping up again, and nothing brings a support burden like a major release.
I also understand that Automattic and team Woo are also reviewing WooCommerce third party extension developers to determine who will remain in an active partnership or not; and it seems there’s slim to no chance for new third party development partners to step in.
I haven’t seen any major drama from WooCommerce 2.4 — which is great, as some previous major releases have caused headaches for upgrading — but the release is already up to 2.4.2, which I’d say is expected on a plugin of this scale and complexity.
