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How to Create WooCommerce Consumer Key & Secret?

Last updated: August 01, 2024
Written and researched by experts at AvadaLearn more about our methodology

By Sam Nguyen

CEO Avada Commerce

With the development of technology, more and more enterprises plan to build their own application for their WooCommerce store to offer customers more ways to purchase on their store. To do that, the first thing that they need is the data of the WooCommerce store. But, how to get it?

The fastest and easiest way to get and exchange the data of the WooCommerce store and another platform is via REST API. With it, interoperability over platforms or devices will no longer be a big problem with developers. And in the API key, there are two crucial parts that we would like to introduce to you today - They are customer key and consumer secret.

So, what are customer keys and consumer secrets? What can they be used for? And, how to create them in your WooCommerce store?

All will be clarified in this post!

Let’s scroll down to explore all the necessary information of customer key and consumer secret!

What are customer key and consumer secret in WooCommerce?

Customer key and consumer secret are two keys of the API key in the WooCommerce store, which provides interoperability over multiple platforms and devices. With these keys, developers will be allowed to access such vital information as products, categories, etc… which is necessary for building an app for your WooCommerce store.

After creating an API key in WooCommerce, the customer key and consumer secret will be displayed as parts of the key details, and people can copy and paste them easily to start working.

Benefits of using WooCommerce customer key and consumer secret

  • Get access to numerous platforms: With the customer key and consumer secret, users will be able to exchange the information among various platforms which are completely different from their store. Hence, you can access the data from a third-party platform directly from your WooCommerce dashboard.
  • Simplify the connectivity with other devices: Instead of using a third-party tool or complex process to manage your WooCommerce store on multiple devices, now you can do this by using customer key and consumer secret.
  • Synchronize data with ease: the customer key and consumer secret from the WooCommerce API empower developers to sync the data easier than ever. It can work well on a lot of HTTP requests like GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, which provides them with interoperability among multiple websites regardless of the environment. Support the mobile app development: As mobile becomes an integral part of people’s lives, developing a mobile app is considered an important mission for any eCommerce store to increase sales. Via the customer key and consumer secret, developers can link the app with their WooCommerce store seamlessly and rapidly.
  • Customize data in real-time: one of the most highlighted features of API is the ability to let people create, update, retrieve and update the data in real-time. Hence, you can freely access the data and customize it from any website or third-party application by pasting the customer key and consumer secret.

How to Create WooCommerce Consumer Key & Secret?

Step 1: Open settings

Log in to your WordPress dashboard. There, select WooCommerce open Settings

Open settings

Step 2: Open REST API

In Settings, you will see a bar including General, Product, Tax, Shipping, Payments, Account & Privacy, Emails, and Advanced. Open Advanced.

There, choose REST API.

Open REST API

Step 3: Create API keys

In REST API, click on Add key to create a new API key.

A window will appear on the screen, and you have to enter the essential details, which are description, users, and permissions.

In the permission section, based on your desire, you can select one out of three accesses for that API key, which are: Read Write Read/ write

Create API keys

When it is done, click on Generate API key.

Step 4: Get the customer key and consumer secret

After generating the API key, a new window of key details will be displayed on the screen. You will see the customer key and consumer secret there.

Customer key and consumer secret

You can copy these keys and secrets to use in the cases that require the WooCommerce API. Please enter it in the necessary field, and the system will request your URL.

Final thoughts

In conclusion, it can be seen that customer key and consumer secret play important roles in helping developers build an application and manage their WooCommerce store. Moreover, it is not difficult to create the customer key and consumer secret. By following these four steps above, everyone, even newbies with no knowledge of WooCommerce stores, can get it after several minutes.


Sam Nguyen is the CEO and founder of Avada Commerce, an e-commerce solution provider headquartered in Singapore. He is an expert on the Shopify e-commerce platform for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems. Sam loves talking about e-commerce and he aims to help over a million online businesses grow and thrive.

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