Posts tagged with ‘WooCommerce’

WordPress is a powerhouse. It’s nearly the perfect website platform, capable of running all kinds of websites.

But there’s a catch. Or, a couple of catches, rather.

WordPress is a piece of software = you can get it for free, but then you have to install it on a web host yourself, configure it, and ultimately launch a website with it.

Out of the box, WordPress is mainly a blogging platform. It provides no e-commerce features at all. Those you can obtain via plugins. Such as the popular WooCommerce.

Apart from the e-commerce plugin, you need a bunch of other plugins to handle some standard options like SEO and social media. You also need a good-looking and brandable theme (design) – to make your e-commerce store look unique and original.

What it all means is that WordPress is perhaps a solution for a bit more savvy user. You need to feel comfortable editing PHP files by hand, connecting to your server via FTP, and spending the afternoon in some settings panel.

That being said, the aforementioned WooCommerce is a great e-commerce plugin. It gives you all the features you might ask for, e.g shopping carts, product catalogs, online payments, coupons, and so on. Most importantly, the plugin is free!

You can find alternative WordPress shopping carts here. woocommerce

Option a): Use it if you already have a WordPress site and you’re familiar with the interface. For instance, WooCommerce uses the same admin panel organization for your products and orders, so there’s no additional learning curve.

Option b): Use it if you already have a WordPress site and you want to minimize costs by not having to invest any more funds in a new e-commerce platform.

Option c): Use it if you’re comfortable experimenting with source code occasionally.

Option d): Use it if you can cope without any fast-reacting customer support.

About that last part: Right now, you might feel that customer support is not such a big deal. But keep in mind that it’s your business we’re talking about here. For example, if something happens that causes your site to go down, not having it online for the whole day can and will mean a serious hit to your business income. Also, a lot of stress while we’re at it.

It’s those times when we tend to value customer support that’s operating 24/7!

You’re probably asking now what’s so special about WooCommerce and why is it the first in the world. Well, WooCommerce is the ecommerce extension of WordPress, the most popular content management system, powering 25% of all the websites worldwide.

So, I think it’s kind of obvious why WooCommerce is leading the ecommerce market. There are lots of WordPress users who have online shops, so WooCommerce is the most suitable solution for them.

But it’s not just that. WooCommerce provides great services, powerful features, it’s very easy to manage by everyone, and… it’s free. So, if you’re already on WordPress, you’re a winner, so to speak.

WooCommerce is at the top for its great and easy services, but it also comes with a couple of downsides. Well, nothing’s perfect. So, let’s talk a bit about both WooCommerce’s good and less good features.

It’s free.
Lets you add unlimited products and product attributes.
Works on all devices.
Once installed, it’s all yours. It comes with a large variety of customization options that are easy to use. You can control everything the way you want.
It’s very easy to install and to use. Provides an intuitive interface and you don’t need any coding skills to manage it.
It comes with user reviews and ratings, which means that you can give your customers the freedom to rate your products.

It doesn’t come with free hosting and you need to pay for it. In fact, WooCommerce is a plugin that works only on WordPress.
For a non-WordPress user, creating an online store can be a bit difficult because you need to take a host, install WordPress on it, choose a theme that is compatible with WooCommerce, and then install WooCommerce plugin.
Even if the plugin is free, it can get a bit expensive to set the store eventually.

You could say that WooCommerce is not that efficient if it doesn’t come with a fully-featured package, such as hosting and everything integrated. WooCommerce is not a stand-alone platform, it is a WordPress extension. WooCommerce is a plugin, whilst OpenCart, Shopify, and Magento are ecommerce-only platforms.

Shopify is the only platform amongst the most popular ones that comes with hosting integration. But, in the same time, it comes with a few limitations and doesn’t give you full control over your site. For instance, it provides only 3 product attributes: size, color, and material. Also, you won’t be able to make all the customizations that you need and you have to stick with what the platform has to offer. You can’t come with something from the outside. Shopify doesn’t offer a free plan either. But considering the fact that it’s bringing free hosting, it seems somehow legit. Plans start at $9 and end up at $179.

The other 2 platforms are free and you need to play for hosting too. But, the most important of all, you have a better control over your entire site. You can customize and modify every single detail about how your site looks, works, and the functionalities it should have.

Magento has a paid plan for the enterprises as well, which also comes with more complex features for big, international online shops such as Amazon.

WordPress is the best content management system out here and is far ahead of its competitors, Joomla and Drupal. It is leading the market with 67% of the total number of sites that use a CMS. Joomla ranks second with a 11% percentage, followed by Drupal, with 7%.