WooCommerce 8.3 was released last week, on November 16, 2023. The development and thus the release of 8.3 was delayed a bit, so that the developers could ensure compatibility with the recent WordPress 6.4 major release. Also the release date coincided with the release of PHP 8.3 in November, so that with a little bit of delay the developers could tackle some compatibility issues.
New Features in WooCommerce 8.3
With 8.3, WooCommerce blocks update to version 11.4.9. A new WooCommerce version always includes fixes to known bugs and improves performance, but 8.3 does have some major changes, too – especially how the checkout and cart pages are handled.
Cart and Checkout, Blockified
Starting from version 8.3, WooCommerce will use new checkout and cart blocks by default, as long as the site is using a block theme. Existing stores won’t be affected by this of course, but the blockified experience will be the default in all new WooCommerce installations.
If your WooCommerce site has an active plugin that’s not compatible with the new blocks, don’t worry – WooCommerce will let you know in the editor sidebar. These plugins won’t be compatible until new updates are released to them by their developers, so it’s best to turn to the plugin’s support if you wish to upgrade to the new blocks, but are missing a crucial plugin.
After upgrading to WooCommerce 8.3, existing store owners will be able to try out the new blocks with the aid of a separate tool (in admin view, WooCommerce > Status > Tools > Create Pages), which will migrate existing cart and checkouts into the new block-based flow.
New and Improved WooCommerce Marketplace
WooCommerce 8.2 introduced a new marketplace for WooCommerce extensions, which makes browsing and finding new WooCommerce extensions a breeze. Themes weren’t a part of the launch in 8.2, but now in 8.3 they are included in the marketplace as well. The 8.3 update also includes usability and performance improvements to how the marketplace content is presented to users.
All New Features and Fixes in WooCommerce 8.3
For a comprehensive list of all changes, bug fixes and performance tweaks introduced in WooCommerce version 8.3 can be found on WooCommerce’s GitHub page.