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Nerve Centre KPIs · Audit Profile · Sentiment Settings WooCommerce is the WordPress commerce plugin powering roughly 40% of all ecommerce websites, run by SMB and mid-market merchants on self-hosted or managed WP hosting (WPEngine, Kinsta). Its defining operational reality is plugin density: every store runs 15-40 plugins whose updates can break checkout silently, and the built-in coupon system stacks discounts in margin-eroding ways. This audit answers six questions: (1) is the REST API consumer key alive with read grants on the resources the cards need; (2) is the catalogue complete and inventory honest (OOS-but-visible, missing image/SKU, low-stock bestsellers); (3) are orders and fulfilment healthy through the status pipeline (failed/pending spikes, slow processing, cancellation drift); (4) is customer retention holding (repeat rate, churn, high-value lapse); (5) are payments and refunds bounded (refund-rate spikes, coupon-stacking abuse, discount share of revenue); and (6) what leaks across channels when ad / marketplace / email / website-performance siblings are connected. WooCommerce stays system of record; Vortex IQ is the pulse layer.

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What this audit checks

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Authentication & access

  • REST API reachable over HTTPS at /wp-json/wc/v3 (200 on a cheap /system_status or /products?per_page=1 probe)
  • Consumer key authenticates as HTTP Basic username with consumer secret as password (ck_ / cs_ pair valid, not revoked)
  • Key has Read scope on every resource a card needs: orders, products, customers, coupons, products/reviews, reports/sales
  • Missing-grant detection: a 401/403 on any resource flags the specific permission gap rather than failing the whole sync
  • WP core + WooCommerce plugin versions detected so resource-shape differences and security-patch skew are handled
  • OAuth 1.0a fallback recognised for HTTP-only deployments using the WooCommerce REST API OAuth plugin

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Catalogue & inventory health

  • Published products missing a primary image (conversion + Google Shopping feed leak)
  • Products missing sku (breaks marketplace feeds and cross-channel SKU joins)
  • Zero-priced visible products (price 0 or empty while status=publish)
  • Out-of-stock products still visible (stock_status=outofstock on a published product)
  • Low-stock bestsellers: top-velocity SKUs (by total_sales) at or below low_stock_amount
  • Variable products with incomplete attribute matrices across variations (missing combinations break selection)
  • Stale draft products aged >30d that never published (catalogue rot)

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Order & fulfilment health

  • Failed orders (status=failed) spike >5 in 24h (checkout / payment-gateway regression, often a plugin update)
  • Pending / on-hold orders >2x the 30D average (processing backlog)
  • Avg processing-to-completed time >48h on 30D vsP (fulfilment slowdown)
  • Cancellation rate >3% on 30D vsP (status=cancelled share of orders)
  • Order-status spike: any status volume >2x its 30D average in 24h
  • Checkout error rate >2% in the last 24h (correlate with recent plugin/theme updates)

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Customer & retention

  • Repeat customer rate <20% (orders_count > 1 share of active buyers)
  • Customer churn: high share of base with no purchase in 90d
  • High-value customers (total_spent > P90) lapsed with no order in 90d
  • New-customer trend declining vsP (acquisition stall)
  • Low-star product reviews (1-2 stars) spiking in last 30d (satisfaction + conversion risk)

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Payments & refunds

  • Refund rate >5% on 30D vsP (status=refunded plus partial refunds via /refunds)
  • Rolling 24h refund rate >2x 30D baseline (anomaly)
  • Coupon stacking abuse: orders with >2 coupon_lines (WC Marketing > Coupons restrictions misconfigured, margin leak)
  • Discount as % of revenue >15% sustained (promo dependency eroding margin)
  • Refund-driven churn: customers who refunded and never returned

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Cross-channel revenue at risk (the killer area)

  • Active ads on OOS WooCommerce SKUs: daily spend on a sku with stock_status=outofstock (sibling = google_ads / amazon_ads / facebook_ads)
  • Marketplace listing drift: same sku, WooCommerce vs Amazon/eBay price delta >20% or stock parity broken (OOS on WC but active on marketplace)
  • Email-attributed revenue share <15% or drop >20% vsP (sibling = klaviyo / mailchimp / dotdigital / hubspot)
  • High-value WooCommerce customers (spend > P90) unengaged on email for 90d (sibling = klaviyo / mailchimp)
  • Pagespeed-driven cart loss: PDP/checkout LCP >2.5s with conversion drop (sibling = website_performance / crux / pagespeed)

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Data sources

  • GET {store_url}/wp-json/wc/v3/system_status - Auth probe + WP/WC version detection + active-plugin inventory
  • GET {store_url}/wp-json/wc/v3/orders - Revenue / order-count / failed-pending / refund / status-pipeline context
  • GET {store_url}/wp-json/wc/v3/products - Catalogue completeness: image/sku/price/stock_status/type + variable matrices
  • GET {store_url}/wp-json/wc/v3/customers - Customer count + repeat rate + churn-risk + high-value lapse
  • GET {store_url}/wp-json/wc/v3/coupons - Active coupons, individual_use flags + top usage for stacking detection
  • GET {store_url}/wp-json/wc/v3/products/reviews - Average rating + low-star review spikes
  • GET {store_url}/wp-json/wc/v3/reports/sales - Sales totals, discount totals, refund totals for margin + discount share
  • GET {store_url}/wp-json/wc/v3/refunds - Partial + full refunds for accurate refund-rate + top-refunded products