Order Volume Monitoring

The Order Volume Monitor watches e-commerce sites for unexpected drops in order activity, alerting the team when a site stops receiving orders — which may indicate a checkout failure, payment gateway issue, or site outage.

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How It Works

1. Each monitored site has an expected order frequency (e.g., "at least 1 order every 8 hours")
2. The monitor runs periodically (every 2–4 hours)
3. It checks each site's recent orders via API
4. If orders fall below the threshold → email and SMS alerts fire

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Viewing Results

Log Viewer

Navigate to the plugin's log viewer to see recent test results:

Column	Description
Timestamp	When the test ran
Site	Which site was checked
Status	SUCCESS or FAILURE
Message	Detail (e.g., "3 orders in last 8 hours")

Status Meanings

Status	What It Means
✅ SUCCESS	Orders are flowing normally
❌ FAILURE	No orders within the expected window — investigate

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Configuring Monitored Sites

Settings are managed via ACF (Advanced Custom Fields) on the plugin options page.

Adding a Site

1. Navigate to the plugin settings page
2. Click Add Row in the "Sites to Monitor" repeater
3. Fill in the fields:

Field	Description	Example
Site URL	Full URL of the store	https://store.example.com
Platform	WooCommerce or BigCommerce	WooCommerce
Order Frequency	Hours between expected orders	8
Minimum Orders	Minimum orders in that window	1
API Key	Authentication credential	varies
Consumer Key	WooCommerce consumer key	ck_...
Consumer Secret	WooCommerce consumer secret	cs_...
Store Hash	BigCommerce store identifier	abc123def
Contacts	People to notify on failure	repeater

Platform-Specific Setup

WooCommerce Sites

You need:

• Consumer Key and Consumer Secret from WooCommerce → Settings → Advanced → REST API
• Create a key with Read permissions
• The site URL must be accessible from manage.rhinogroup.com

BigCommerce Sites

You need:

• Store Hash (from the BigCommerce admin URL: store-{hash}.mybigcommerce.com)
• API Key (Access Token from BigCommerce API Accounts with Orders read scope)

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Setting Frequency Thresholds

Choose the Order Frequency based on the site's normal traffic pattern:

Site Volume	Suggested Frequency
High (50+ orders/day)	4 hours
Medium (10–50 orders/day)	8 hours
Low (1–10 orders/day)	24 hours
Very Low (weekly orders)	72 hours

tip

Start with a generous threshold and tighten over time. Too-tight thresholds cause false positive alerts.

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Night Adjustment

Between 3:00 AM and 9:00 AM (server time), the system automatically extends the monitoring window by 8 hours to account for natural low-traffic periods.

Example: A site set to 8-hour frequency effectively becomes 16-hour during nighttime checks. This prevents false alerts during hours when few customers are shopping.

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Notification Contacts

Each site can have multiple notification contacts:

Field	Description
Name	Contact person's name
Email	Email address for alerts
Phone	Phone number for SMS (digits only)

Email Alerts

Email notifications include:

• Site name
• How long since the last order
• Expected frequency
• Direct link to investigate

SMS Alerts

SMS messages are brief (carrier gateway limits):

[store.example.com] No orders in 8+ hours - investigate

note

SMS uses carrier email gateways (e.g., [email protected] for Verizon). Only US carriers are supported.

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Understanding Failures

Common Causes

Cause	How to Investigate
Payment gateway down	Check gateway dashboard (Stripe, PayPal, etc.)
Site crashed	Visit the site URL, check hosting dashboard
SSL certificate expired	Browser will show security warning
Plugin conflict	Check for recent plugin updates
Hosting issue	Check WP Engine or server status page
API credential expired	Regenerate keys in store admin
Legitimately slow period	Review historical order patterns

False Positives

Not every FAILURE means something is wrong:

• Holidays or seasonal dips
• Site undergoing planned maintenance
• Marketing campaign ended (traffic drop)
• Very low-volume stores on slow days

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Troubleshooting

"Connection Error" in Logs

• The monitor can't reach the site's API
• Check: Is the site up? Are API credentials valid?
• For WooCommerce: Ensure REST API is enabled and not blocked by security plugins

"Authentication Failed"

• API credentials are invalid or expired
• For WooCommerce: Regenerate consumer key/secret
• For BigCommerce: Create a new API token with Orders scope

Not Getting Alerts

• Check contact email addresses are correct
• Verify WP Mail SMTP is configured and sending
• Check spam folders
• For SMS: Verify phone number format and carrier gateway

Alerts Firing Too Often

• Increase the Order Frequency value
• Ensure night adjustment is working (check server timezone)
• For low-volume sites, consider 24–72 hour windows