How To Add Country Restrictions For Woocommerce

If you’re using WooCommerce, like 13.2% of all WordPress powered sites online, you’ll find that it’s chock full of features that you can take advantage of. This includes adding a country restriction. In this article you’ll learn how to add country restrictions for WooCommerce as well as why you might want to do that.

Adding country restrictions in WooCommerce is essential for several reasons, particularly for managing shipping logistics, legal compliance, fraud prevention, and providing an optimized shopping experience for both the store owner and the customer. Here’s why implementing such restrictions can be critical for an online business:

• Shipping Limitations and Costs
• Legal and Regulatory Compliance
• Payment Gateway Restrictions
• Fraud Prevention
• Target Market Focus

Shipping Limitations and Costs

One of the primary reasons for adding country restrictions in WooCommerce is shipping logistics. Shipping products to certain countries can be cost-prohibitive or may involve complex customs and duties procedures. Some regions may lack reliable shipping carriers, making it difficult to ensure timely delivery or package tracking. By restricting countries, businesses can limit sales to areas where shipping is feasible and cost-effective, avoiding the potential for lost or damaged products in transit or excessive shipping costs that eat into profit margins.

Legal and Regulatory Compliance

Different countries have varying laws and regulations governing eCommerce, taxes, and consumer rights. Some products might not be allowed in specific countries due to legal restrictions, such as prohibited items (e.g., alcohol, pharmaceuticals, or specific electronics). Restricting countries ensures that businesses stay compliant with local laws and avoid legal liabilities. Also, different countries impose different tax rates and rules for cross-border transactions. Limiting sales to countries where your business can easily comply with tax regulations helps avoid complex international tax issues.

Payment Gateway Restrictions

Not all payment gateways support transactions in every country. For example, a store may primarily use a payment processor that only works in select regions. To avoid payment failures or having to implement multiple gateways, businesses often restrict sales to countries supported by their payment provider, ensuring a smoother checkout experience for customers and reducing the risk of payment errors or fraud.

Fraud Prevention

Some countries have higher rates of credit card fraud or chargebacks, especially in regions where consumer protection laws are weak or enforcement is lax. Restricting sales to high-risk countries can significantly reduce the likelihood of fraud, protecting the business from potential financial losses and ensuring customer trust.

Target Market Focus

Businesses often want to focus on specific regions that align with their target audience or marketing strategy. By restricting countries, WooCommerce stores can concentrate their efforts on areas where they expect the most engagement and revenue, offering tailored products and services that meet the preferences and needs of a specific demographic.

Adding country restrictions in WooCommerce is a relatively straightforward process that allows store owners to control where products can be sold, shipped, and ordered from. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to add these restrictions using WooCommerce’s built-in settings, and optional plugins for enhanced functionality.

1. Login into WordPress Admin
2. Navigate to WooCommerce Settings
3. Set Allowed Selling Locations
4. Set Allowed Shipping Locations
5. Save Changes
6. Configuring Payment Gateway Settings (Optional)
7. Using Plugins for Advanced Country Restrictions (Optional)
8. Test Your Settings
9. Additional Customization (Optional)

Step 1: Log into WordPress Admin

To access your WordPress Dashboard, go to the login page for your WordPress site, and log in with your admin credentials.

Step 2: Navigate to WooCommerce Settings

From the WordPress Dashboard, find the WooCommerce menu in the left-hand sidebar. Once you’ve found the menu item, click on WooCommerce, and then select Settings.

Step 3: Set Allowed Selling Locations

Once you're in the WooCommerce Settings page, you’ll want to head over to the General tab. Scroll down to the section titled "Selling Location(s)".

You’ll see a dropdown menu with the following options:

• Sell to All Countries - This is the default option, where products can be sold globally.

• Sell to All Countries Except for - Select this option if you want to exclude specific countries from purchasing products.

• Sell to Specific Countries - Choose this option to limit sales to only selected countries.

After selecting "Sell to Specific Countries," a new field will appear where you can enter the countries where you want to allow sales. Begin typing a country name, and it will auto-complete, making the process easier.

Step 4: Set Allowed Shipping Locations

Below the selling locations setting, you’ll find the Shipping Location(s) section. Similar to the selling locations, you can:

• Ship to All Countries You Sell To - This allows shipping only to countries where you have allowed sales.

• Ship to Specific Countries Only - Here, you can select specific countries where shipping will be permitted, even if you are selling in additional countries.

• Disable Shipping & All Shipping Calculations - This option can be used if you're offering only downloadable products or services and do not need shipping.

Step 5: Save Changes

After selecting your selling and shipping locations, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the Save Changes button to apply your new restrictions.

Step 6: Configuring Payment Gateway Settings (Optional)

If your chosen payment gateway doesn’t support transactions in certain countries, you can adjust its settings to match your restrictions. In order to do this, go to WooCommerce > Settings > Payments and select your active payment gateway. Look for an option related to “allowed countries”, and ensure that the settings align with your sales and shipping country restrictions.

Step 7: Using Plugins for Advanced Country Restrictions (Optional)

If the built-in country restriction options are not sufficient, WooCommerce offers additional plugins that provide more advanced control over country-specific access, such as:

• WooCommerce Geolocation Plugin - Automatically restrict access to products based on the customer’s location.

• Country Based Restrictions for WooCommerce Plugin - This plugin allows you to hide products, categories, or even entire shop pages based on a user’s location.

Any of these plugins when activated, you will find a new menu option under WooCommerce settings, where you can define which products or categories should be visible or restricted based on location.

Step 8: Test Your Settings

1. After saving your changes, it's a good idea to test your store by accessing it from different countries (using a VPN or asking someone in another country to test).

2. Ensure that customers from restricted countries are not able to complete a purchase, and confirm that shipping is correctly limited to allowed regions.

Step 9: Additional Customization (Optional)

You can further customize the user experience by showing specific messages or error notifications when users from restricted countries attempt to make a purchase. This can be done through custom code or plugins like WooCommerce Conditional Shipping and Payments..

Adding country restrictions in WooCommerce helps manage shipping logistics, ensure legal compliance, streamline payment processes, prevent fraud, and allow businesses to focus on target markets, leading to a more efficient and secure eCommerce operation. Hopefully this tutorial on how to add country restrictions for WooCommerce will help you in case you need to take advantage of this feature.