How To Disable Market Place Suggestions in WooCommerce & Allow usage of WooCommerce to be tracked

Before we get into the “reasons” and the “why” later in this article, first we are quickly going to go through the steps need to turn OFF the WooCommerce Market place suggestions

Remove “Get More Options” for
Marketplace Suggestions in WooCommerce and & “Allow usage of WooCommerce to be tracked”

🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️
Why would you want to remove the
WooCommerce Marketplace Suggestions❓

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Annoying:

Some people feel that they are simply annoying. And that is indeed a valid point. You, the WooCommerce Store owner are entering a product into your store. So as you’re entering the details about your awesome product, why would you need to be distracted or sent pondering about a new extension from WooCommerce.com while entering product details into your store?

It’s fine to advertise and desire more awareness about New Extensions to grow your WooCommerce store. But remember, you’re probably getting emails about WooCommerce, you’ve got admin prompts, and you’re probably in one or more Facebook Groups about WooCommerce.

Inside the metabox as you are entering your product details, seeing an additional tab labelled “Get More Options”, can indeed be taken as quite annoying.

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Space:

Many argued that the metabox on the product entry page for WooCommerce should be reserved for ….well… entering product details! 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♀️

And, because of the need to keep that product details area focused on the WooCommerce Store Owner themselves and their own products, creating an additional tab for an Ad from WooCommerce.com simply takes up unneeded space.

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Wrong place for ads:

As mentioned before, it’s simply the wrong place to put an Advertisement for more extensions from WooCommerce.com.

Look, we’re all running a business here as well, right? Since you’re running WooCommerce, we all know we need to grow our revenue. However…..

Have you ever opened the INSIDE of your can of soup and seen an advertisement INSIDE the can? Even opened the INSIDE of your car to change a fuse and seen an advertisement INSIDE the fuse box? When have you (correctly) assembled a new princess castle on Christmas Eve only to find an advertisement INSIDE the magic winding staircase?

See the point? Once you’re already neck deep in WooCommerce & configuring your product details into the metabox, that’s when you should be focused on getting YOUR details EXACTLY RIGHT (not receiving an advertisement)

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PRIVACY! INTEGRITY! TRUST!

When this started, there were several write ups and discussions in our WooHelp Facebook Group, WPTavern, & in Github as well.

And this spans more than just the “Marketplace Suggestions” option as well.

Here’s the bottom line: First it says it does NOT send data, but then it does, but it doesn’t, but only when the T.O.S. change. #HeadSpinning

“…please note that no data is transmitted in this request about the site….”
“….That data is then used….”

Timmy Crawford https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce/issues/23198#issuecomment-479561992

And of course, in the same thread, Timmy does mention that an email was sent out notifying all users of this feature as well.

📢Let’s Clarify!

At any point in time, does WooCommerce have the right to modify, update, and/or change it’s Terms of Service? YES! ABSOLUTELY! WITHOUT A DOUBT! That is fully within their right & let’s not debate that point, but simply UNDERSTAND it and ACCEPT that reality.

It IS HOWEVER up to me and you as store owners to make sure we understand that reality and take appropriate actions.

😞At any point, do I know what the laws are in any of the 4 zillion countries around the globe? NOPE. (do you?)
😟 As a store owner, am I keeping up with all the political drama that unfolds every moment? NO. (can you keep up with the politics?)
😤 Do we really have a clue how, when, or what “terms of service” are about to change for WooCommerce or Automattic at any given time? MAYBE. (but probably not)

NO.

To play it safe, to keep our liability at a minimum, to keep annoyances out of the product metabox, and to make sure we don’t ever get close to any ‘gray area’, it’s best to keep the Market place Suggestions turned OFF – ALWAYS 👍

So to reiterate this again, you as a store owner have some solid reasons to disable WooCommerce’s Marketplace Suggestions & Allow usage of WooCommerce to be tracked.

Just so we make sure to help everyone out, let’s do picture by picture images & step by step instructions to remove the WooCommerce Marketplace Suggestions & Allow usage of WooCommerce to be tracked . Ready?

Step 1: Log in to your site to the wp-admin area

Step 2: Navigate to the WooCommerce Menu

Step 3: Click on Settings under the WooCommerce Menu

Step 4: Head over to the Advanced Tab

Step 5: Click on the blue text labelled “WooCommerce.com”

Step 6: Remove the Check next to box labelled “Display suggestions….” & “Allow usage of WooCommerce to be tracked”

Step 7: Click ‘Save changes’

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Do I love WooCommerce, the folks behind it, and the companies that have bought it?

Absolutely!

However, for the last 10+ years, my heart has never been ass deep in code nor have I ever stuck my head so far in the clouds to go-along-to-get-along.

My mind and my soul is always focused on the WooCommerce Store Owner!

I would NOT take my kid out to the edge of a cliff like this and I hope you would not either.

This is how you need to treat YOUR
WooCommerce store as well 👍

Frankly, none of us WooCommerce Store Owners should care about what WooCommerce.com is tracking. But that’s on a personal level.

I could care less if WooCommerce.com knows my DNA, how I’m using their extensions, or even if WooCommerce knows that I snuck off to Taco Bell instead of drinking my health shake thing this morning.

Personally, I really mind or care one bit.

But we’re not running personal sites are we? We’re running Business Sites! Most of us are receiving page views from around the whole globe!

While most/some WooCommerce Stores might not selling on a global level, there is still a huge liability that we ourselves bear once we leave that checkbox ticked allowing things like “Usage Tracking” and “Marketplace Suggestions”.

🛑If you are making sites for someone else and if you yourself have a WooCommerce powered site, then you owe it to yourself, your customers, and your own liability to simply go ahead and turn off the Marketplace Suggestions and the Allow Usage of WooCommerce to be tracked options.

It’s not about WooCommerce. It’s about reducing the liability for you, me, and the millions of other Store Owners.

After, you turn these two options off inside your own stores, please share this with those you care about and love & anyone whom you know that runs a WooCommerce site as well.