Get users by most recent order made in Woocommerce
In the world of ecommerce, understanding your customer base is crucial for driving growth and optimizing your sales strategies. One key aspect of this is the ability to identify your most recent customers – those who have placed orders most recently. This information can provide valuable insights into customer behavior, help you target your marketing efforts more effectively, and ultimately, boost your conversion rates.
Fortunately, if you're running a Woocommerce-powered online store, there's a simple way to retrieve a list of your customers sorted by the date of their most recent order. This can be achieved through a custom SQL query embedded in a function, which we'll explore in detail in this article.
Retrieving Users by Most Recent Order Date
Here's the function that you can use to get an array of user IDs sorted by the date of their most recent order:
function get_users_by_orders_date(){
global $wpdb;
// Getting all User IDs by more recent orders
return $wpdb->get_col( "
SELECT DISTINCT pm.meta_value
FROM {$wpdb->prefix}postmeta AS pm
JOIN {$wpdb->prefix}posts AS p ON pm.post_id = p.ID
WHERE pm.meta_key LIKE '_customer_user'
AND p.post_type = 'shop_order'
AND p.post_status IN ('wc-completed','wc-processing')
ORDER BY p.post_date
" );
}
This function performs the following steps:
- It connects to the WordPress database using the
$wpdb
global object.
- It selects the
DISTINCT
values of the meta_value
column from the postmeta
table, where the meta_key
is _customer_user
. This column contains the user IDs associated with each order.
- It joins the
postmeta
table with the posts
table, where the post_type
is shop_order
and the post_status
is either wc-completed
or wc-processing
.
- It orders the results by the
post_date
column, which represents the date of each order.
- Finally, it returns the resulting array of user IDs, sorted by the most recent order date.
To use this function in your code, simply call it and store the resulting array of user IDs:
$user_ids = get_users_by_orders_date(); // Array of user IDs
Now that you have the user IDs sorted by their most recent order date, you can use this information to implement various features and strategies in your Woocommerce store.
Use Cases for Most Recent Customers
1. Targeted Marketing and Promotions
One of the most obvious use cases for this information is targeted marketing and promotional campaigns. By focusing your efforts on your most recent customers, you can increase the likelihood of repeat business and encourage further engagement with your brand.
For example, you could send personalized email campaigns or offer exclusive discounts to your most recent customers, encouraging them to make additional purchases or explore new products. This can be especially effective for cross-selling or upselling strategies.
2. Customer Segmentation and Analytics
Analyzing the behavior of your most recent customers can also provide valuable insights into your overall customer base. By examining factors such as purchase frequency, average order value, and product preferences, you can identify key segments within your customer population and tailor your marketing and product strategies accordingly.
This information can be particularly useful for developing customer personas, optimizing your website's user experience, and making data-driven decisions about new product offerings or feature enhancements.
3. Churn Reduction and Retention Strategies
Identifying your most recent customers can also help you address the issue of customer churn. By closely monitoring the activity of your most recent customers, you can quickly identify those who may be at risk of becoming inactive or unengaged, and take proactive measures to retain them.
This could involve reaching out with personalized offers, addressing any pain points or issues they may be experiencing, or simply reinforcing the value of your products and services. By focusing on retention, you can ultimately improve your overall customer lifetime value and drive long-term growth.
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4. Loyalty and Referral Programs
The ability to identify your most recent customers can also be leveraged to create or optimize your loyalty and referral programs. By targeting your most engaged and loyal customers, you can incentivize them to make additional purchases, refer their friends and family, and become brand advocates.
For example, you could offer exclusive rewards, VIP status, or referral bonuses to your most recent customers, encouraging them to continue their relationship with your brand and help you acquire new customers through word-of-mouth marketing.
Implementing the Solution in Woocommerce
To implement the get_users_by_orders_date()
function in your Woocommerce-powered store, you can follow these steps:
- Create a new file (e.g.,
custom-functions.php
) in your active child theme's directory (or your active theme's directory if you don't have a child theme).
- Add the
get_users_by_orders_date()
function to this file:
function get_users_by_orders_date(){
global $wpdb;
// Getting all User IDs by more recent orders
return $wpdb->get_col( "
SELECT DISTINCT pm.meta_value
FROM {$wpdb->prefix}postmeta AS pm
JOIN {$wpdb->prefix}posts AS p ON pm.post_id = p.ID
WHERE pm.meta_key LIKE '_customer_user'
AND p.post_type = 'shop_order'
AND p.post_status IN ('wc-completed','wc-processing')
ORDER BY p.post_date
" );
}
- In your theme's
functions.php
file, add the following line to include the custom-functions.php
file:
include_once get_stylesheet_directory() . '/custom-functions.php';
Now, you can use the get_users_by_orders_date()
function throughout your theme or plugin code to retrieve the list of users sorted by their most recent order date.
Remember, this solution is specifically designed for Woocommerce-powered stores, as it relies on the Woocommerce data structure and order statuses. If you're using a different ecommerce platform, you may need to modify the SQL query accordingly.
By leveraging this simple yet powerful function, you can gain valuable insights into your customer base, improve your marketing strategies, and ultimately drive more sales and revenue for your Woocommerce store. Flowpoint.ai can help you identify all the technical errors that are impacting conversion rates on your website and directly generate recommendations to fix them