Updated December 2020
If you’re looking to start an online store or already have one but it’s not functioning quite right, you’ll know how important it is to have a solid and reliable eCommerce solution. To maximize your sales, you’re probably looking for something that’s attractive, responsive and easy for both your customers and you to use. From our years of experience in testing and using different eCommerce solutions we’re strong advocates for WooCommerce. In fact, there’s no other system that we think comes close. Let us explain why WooCommerce for eCommerce is the best option for your online store.
What is WooCommerce?
WooCommerce is the world’s most popular eCommerce solution that’s designed to help small to large businesses sell anything online. By integrating seamlessly with WordPress, the WooCommerce plugin quickly transforms your website into a powerful online store. With almost endless flexibility and a wide range of optional extensions, you’ll enjoy complete control over the customization of all aspects of the online selling process.
Why Use It?
Developed by a leading team of experienced professionals and tested by hundreds of thousands of website owners and users, the WooCommerce plugin offers a simple yet impressively effective, all-in-one solution to all your eCommerce needs.
Using WooCommerce, your website can retain its specific look with a custom designed storefront that perfectly fits your current WordPress theme. Because it’s important that your customers can shop on their computers, tablets or phones the designs are also fully-responsive. Their simple and effective layouts have been refined to encourage sales with options to add ‘sale’ and ‘out-of-stock’ icons, customer review ratings and special messages to make the buying process easy.
How Does WooCommerce Work?
To convert your website into an online store, simply install the WooCommerce plugin. With this, you’ll immediately have access to basic product management and order processing with built-in shopping cart functionality.
Using these tools, you’ll then be able to add products to your online store manually or via the bulk-upload option. This can include a mix of physical goods, digital goods and affiliate products from other online marketplaces. WooCommerce for eCommerce is programmed to handle these specific product types so you’ll be able to customize your inventory, automatically calculate sales tax and shipping costs and add discount coupons codes. There’s even an option to automatically deliver digital goods after payment.
WooCommerce’s features are supported by an integrated and secure payment processing facility. This means that your store will be able to accept all major credit cards, PayPal, bank transfers and even cash on delivery. If those options aren’t enough, there’s more than 140 other, specific payment solutions that can be incorporated to your store including Stripe and Amazon Payments.
How Do Extensions Work?
On top of the incredible level of basic WooCommerce for eCommerce functionality, you’ll also be able to it with a range of premium WooCommerce extensions. These amplify the capability of the WooCommerce plugin even further to include things like being able to sell memberships, recurring subscriptions and make online bookings. There’s also options to integrate your store with third-party services like MailChimp, Xero and Amazon Web Services.
To enable any of these WooCommerce extensions, it’s as simple as downloading and installing your required solution. These can be added or removed at any time and won’t override any of your basic WooCommerce for eCommerce settings.
Is WooCommerce Easy to Manage?
Yes! The fact that WooCommerce is so easy to manage is just another reason why it’s the best eCommerce solution out there. Everything has been designed with the end user in mind. This means that unlike other, hosted eCommerce platforms, you’ll always be able to retain control regardless of how large your store grows.
Even if you do want to outsource your WooCommerce store management, the easy to use layout and in-depth how-to guides mean that you won’t have to. At any time, you’ll be able to log in using your existing WordPress site from anywhere around the world to view your current stock, manage sales, customize any options and review performance-based reports.
Thanks to a dedicated team of experienced developers who are always working to identify and promptly fix any bugs, your data will be secure too.
The Pros and Cons
In addition to offering a complete solution to all your eCommerce needs in a user-friendly fashion, some of the other benefits you’ll enjoy from using WooCommerce include:
- FREE access to all basic WooCommerce for eCommerce features
- Ability to sell all types of products including physical, digital, affiliate and memberships
- Secure, integrated payment system that accepts all major payment types plus many more
- Automatic calculation of shipping rates and taxes
- Mobile-friendly layout
- Automatic control of stock levels for accurate inventory management
- Unlimited potential for store growth
- Ability to retain full control over your data, store and reports
- Easy installation and use with current WordPress theme
- Large range of optional extensions for added capability and integration with third-party services
- Impressive range of customizable reports to make reviewing your sales results simple
- Easy access to tips for using WooCommerce and other support
If you are thinking about using WooCommerce as your eCommerce solution, do look at how much the premium features and/or WooCommerce extensions will cost you. Although the basic plugin is free, optional extras can add up so just be sure that using them will contribute to your total revenue.
Some people are also put off by the fact that WooCommerce isn’t a stand-alone solution and does require an existing WordPress themed website. However, this is exactly what allows you to create and retain total control over your business and web presence as you grow.
WooCommerce is Right for Business!
If you’re looking for a trusted eCommerce solution that offers full flexibility AND allows you to retain control over your own website and stock, the WooCommerce plugin is for you!
For more information about why you should use WooCommerce, contact us today. We’ll gladly have a look at your site to give you a personalized review of how the WooCommerce plugin can help you to start and/or develop your online store.
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