Place an order for an existing customer
Shop as customer lets an administrator or shop manager load an existing customer's details in classic checkout while remaining signed in to their own staff account. It supports POM Theme checkout layouts and other themes that retain the standard WooCommerce checkout hooks.
Configure assisted checkout
- Activate WooCommerce and use a checkout page containing the classic checkout shortcode.
- Open Settings → POM Tweaks → E-Commerce → Accounts & privacy → Shop as customer.
- Enable the control and choose Order ownership: Selected customer assigns the order to the loaded customer; Staff account (legacy behavior) keeps the order on the employee's account.
- Enable Load the customer shipping address too to fill shipping as well as billing. Without a separate saved shipping address, shipping falls back to billing. Missing shipping phone and email values use the billing contact details, including POM Theme shipping fields.
- Save the settings.
Previously configured shops retain staff ownership and billing-only loading until these options are changed. Customer ownership is the default for a newly enabled control.
Load and review a customer
- Add the customer's chosen products to the cart and open checkout while signed in as authorized staff.
- Enter the customer's account email in Customer account email and select Load customer, or press Enter in that field.
- Read the confirmation, including which account will own the order. Review billing, shipping, email, taxes, delivery and totals.
- Complete custom checkout fields separately. Native address fields and the POM checkout tax ID are loaded; arbitrary custom fields are not copied from the account.
- Complete any required acknowledgment again after changing customers, then place the order normally.
The customer must belong to the current site and be an account the staff member may edit. Protected staff accounts cannot be selected. A missing or inaccessible account produces the same message.
Clear selection restores the details present when checkout opened. Editing the lookup email makes the selection pending: load that customer or clear the selection before placing an order. Reloading the page clears the selection. Each checkout tab has its own selection.
Ownership and saved profiles
Assisted checkout does not overwrite either account's saved addresses or POM tax ID. Changes made in the checkout form are saved on that order. The order administration screen records the operator and selected customer. The recorded operator can view that order's valid completion page while retaining staff permissions.
Staff stays signed in throughout. Catalog access, role prices and staff-session behavior remain those of the staff account; this is not customer impersonation. Coupons and tax/shipping calculations still use WooCommerce rules and the submitted checkout data. Review extensions that apply additional customer-specific rules before using this workflow.
For authorized staff, POM Theme shows editable checkout addresses instead of staff-owned address-book shortcuts while this control is enabled. Ordinary customer address-book behavior is unchanged.
The customer selector is available only in classic checkout. It does not appear in the Checkout block, on order-payment links or on the order confirmation page. Normal customer checkout is unchanged.
Verify and troubleshoot
Use a sample customer to check billing and shipping, then inspect the resulting order owner and the Assisted checkout entry in administration. Confirm both saved account profiles remain unchanged. In a stepped layout, customer details must allow advancing to payment before accepting the final acknowledgment.
If the selector is missing, check staff permissions, the control's enabled state and the checkout type. If no customer is found, check the exact account email, current-site membership and whether the staff member may edit that customer. If a selection expires, reload checkout and load the customer again. Review unsupported custom fields manually.