Introduction

Congratulations on installing Customer History for WooCommerce! This guide will walk you through the essential first-time setup steps to ensure the plugin is configured optimally for your store.

The entire setup process takes less than 10 minutes, and you can always come back to adjust settings later as your needs evolve.

Step 1: Access the Plugin Dashboard

After activating the plugin, you’ll find a new menu item in your WordPress admin.

  1. Log in to your WordPress admin panel
  2. Look for Customer History in the left sidebar menu
  3. Click on Customer History → Dashboard

The dashboard provides an overview of your customer data. Initially, it will be empty because no data has been collected yet.

Data Collection Starts Immediately

The plugin begins tracking customer activity as soon as it’s activated. Allow a few hours or days for meaningful data to accumulate before analyzing reports.

Step 2: Configure General Settings

Navigate to Customer History → Settings to access the configuration panel.

Results Per Page

Set how many customer records display per page:

  • Recommended: 15-25 for most stores
  • Small stores: 10-15 (faster loading)
  • Large stores with powerful hosting: 25-50

Default: 15

Show BOT Sessions

Control whether automated bot traffic is included in your analytics:

  • Recommended: No (filters out bot traffic for cleaner data)
  • Set to Yes only if: You need to monitor search engine crawlers

Default: No

Save “admin” Sessions

Decide if your own browsing sessions are tracked:

  • During setup: Yes (to test tracking functionality)
  • After verification: No (to avoid skewing analytics)

Recommended: Set to “Yes” for now, change to “No” after testing

Hide Users with No Orders

Choose whether to display visitors who haven’t made purchases:

  • Focus on customers: Yes
  • Analyze all visitors: No

Recommended: No initially (to see all visitor data)

Save Your Settings

After configuring these options, click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page.

Step 3: Test Customer Tracking

Verify that the plugin is tracking customer activity correctly:

Testing Procedure

  1. Open your store in an incognito/private browser window
  2. Browse several product pages
  3. Use the search feature to search for products
  4. Add items to your cart
  5. Proceed to checkout (no need to complete the order)
  6. Close the incognito window

Verify Tracking

  1. Return to WordPress admin
  2. Go to Customer History → Sessions
  3. Click on Live Sessions or All Sessions
  4. You should see your test session listed with the pages you visited

Check Search Tracking

  1. Navigate to Customer History → Statistics
  2. Click the Keywords or Top Search tab
  3. Verify your test search queries appear in the list
Session Not Appearing?

If your test session doesn’t appear, check that “Save admin sessions” is set to “Yes” in settings. If you’re logged in as admin, you need this enabled to see your own sessions. For troubleshooting, see Tracking Not Working.

Step 4: Familiarize Yourself with the Interface

Take a tour of the main plugin sections:

Dashboard

Customer History → Dashboard

  • Overview of key metrics
  • Top customers by revenue
  • Recent activity summary
  • Quick access to important features

Customers & Users

Customer History → Customers & Users

  • Complete list of all tracked customers
  • Search and filter customers
  • View individual customer details
  • Access customer order history

Order History

Customer History → Order History

  • All orders with customer context
  • Filter by order status
  • Search orders by customer or product
  • Quick order details view

Sessions

Customer History → Sessions

  • Live sessions (real-time visitors)
  • Historical session data
  • Browsing patterns analysis
  • Session details with page history

Statistics

Customer History → Statistics

  • Multiple analytics tabs
  • Search keywords tracking
  • Most viewed products/categories/brands
  • Top-selling products by month
  • Conversion funnel (Premium)
Pro Tip

Spend 10-15 minutes clicking through each section to understand where different types of data are displayed. This will help you find information quickly when you need it later.

Step 5: Configure Optional Features (Optional)

These features can be configured now or later based on your needs:

Customer Categories (Point-Based Tiers)

The plugin automatically categorizes customers based on purchase value:

  • Bronze: Entry-level customers
  • Silver: Regular customers
  • Gold: High-value customers
  • Platinum: VIP customers

To configure point thresholds and create category-specific coupons, see the Customer Categories guide.

Email Communication System

Send personalized emails directly to customers from the admin panel. This feature is ready to use without additional setup, but you may want to:

  • Prepare email templates for common scenarios
  • Create a communication strategy
  • Set up automated email campaigns

Learn more in the Email Communication guide.

Weekly Automated Reports

Receive weekly summary emails with key metrics:

  1. Navigate to reporting settings
  2. Enable weekly reports
  3. Enter recipient email address(es)
  4. Choose report day and time
  5. Save settings

Details in the Weekly Reports guide.

Referral System

Enable customer referrals with unique tracking codes:

  • Generates unique referral codes for each customer
  • Tracks referrals with 30-day cookie attribution
  • Rewards customers for successful referrals

Configuration details in the Referral System guide.

Step 6: Review Data Privacy Settings

Customer History for WooCommerce is designed to be GDPR compliant, but you should review privacy considerations:

What Data Is Stored

  • Customer names and email addresses
  • IP addresses (for security and geolocation)
  • Browsing history and session data
  • Search queries and product views
  • Order history and purchase data

GDPR Compliance Checklist

  • Update your Privacy Policy to mention customer tracking
  • Ensure customers can request data deletion
  • Use data only for legitimate business purposes
  • Implement data retention policies
  • Provide clear opt-out mechanisms if required in your jurisdiction

Read our complete GDPR Compliance Guide for detailed information.

Data Security

All customer data is stored securely in your WordPress database and is never shared with third parties. Only WordPress administrators can access this data.

Next Steps

Now that setup is complete, here’s what to do next:

This Week

  1. Let the plugin collect data for 3-7 days
  2. Review the Customer Tracking guide
  3. Explore the Analytics Dashboard
  4. Check Search Analytics for customer insights

After One Week

  1. Analyze your first week of data
  2. Identify top customers
  3. Review most-searched terms
  4. Check conversion funnel (if Premium)
  5. Send your first customer email using the email system

Ongoing

  • Check weekly reports every Monday
  • Engage with VIP customers monthly
  • Use data to inform marketing decisions
  • Monitor abandoned cart patterns
  • Optimize product pages based on view-to-purchase ratios
Learn More

Return to the Documentation Hub to explore all available features and guides.