WooCommerce 3.8, in development since August 2019, is finally here with 516 commits by 28 authors.

3.8 represents WooCommerce’s move towards more frequent, stable and smaller releases. In contrast, WooCommerce 3.7 had 1290 commits by 22 contributors, which also means that version 3.8 is a minor release and if you’re worried about backward compatibility, you can sigh a breath of relief.

What’s New in WooCommerce 3.8?

There are new product blocks in the eCommerce-focused collection in Gutenberg, the Block Editor that shipped with WordPress 5.0.

The new suite of product blocks include:

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Apart from this, there are new hooks and some tweaks and fixes in the release that you might notice when you play around with WooCommerce 3.8. You can read the details in the ReadMe.

Also Read: Gutenberg 6.7: Bug fixes, Storybook & Gradient Backgrounds

WordPress & PHP Version

WooCommerce is planning a minimum of PHP 7.0 & WordPress 5.0 support for its next release, so in case you’re on an older version of WordPress or PHP, you’ll start seeing a prompt to upgrade. 

You still have a month or two to do that because of the next release of WooCommerce is set for a January 2020 release.

Before You Upgrade

This goes without saying, but before you upgrade to the latest and greatest WooCommerce 3.8, make sure you have a backup in place. Also, you can test the new version on a staging site before taking it live to avoid possible mishaps.

Shout-Out to the Contributors

Lastly, of course, a huge shout-out to the contributors in the WooCommerce community who make any release possible via reporting bugs, contributing in the commits, and spreading the word in the wild! 

Thanks to these awesome people, we all get to enjoy

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