If you’re new to eCommerce or have just starting given some thought to selling your products or services online, it’s likely you’re beginning to peruse your options, trying to ascertain perhaps not which is best overall but which is best for you and your business.
Maybe some eCommerce platform names have popped up frequently during your online searches or when conversing with others about choices. Shopify was likely one of those names. That’s because it’s one of the largest eCommerce platforms in the world. Many online stores choose Shopify because it’s so well-known, but there are indeed other choices to consider – like WooCommerce, which also works hand-in-hand with your WordPress website.
What is WooCommerce?
WooCommerce bills itself as a “flexible, open-source eCommerce platform built on WordPress” and touts the platform as ideal for newbies to the business world, for those branching out from a brick-and-mortar store to an online format, or for those simply looking for a new and/or more manageable platform for their sales. They note the ease of setting up the store and using it as well as the ability to greatly customize your store to fit your needs and likes.
If you already have a WordPress site, it takes only a few minutes to add WooCommerce and then you’re ready to get started. With the help of the experts at Watershed9 and the new store owners guide available from WooCommerce, things can be up and running before long. Compared to other platforms, the speed to launch is excellent.
What can you do with WooCommerce?
Like most eCommerce platforms that have similar functions, WooCommerce takes the buyer all the way from the browsing stage to the step when they can “check-out” and claim their product or service. Here are some of the positive perks of the platform.
- Sell just about anything – You can customize the “selling” part of your WooCommerce site to accommodate all the things you sell and all the ways you do it. If you just simply sell items in quantities of one or more with little fuss or variation, that’s fine. But if you have an inventory with which you get a little more creative, such as selling in bundles or via weekly/monthly, etc. subscriptions, WooCommerce can handle that as well.
- Offer multiple secure payment options – WooCommerce has the ability to accept all the payment methods you’d expect, like major credit cards, bank cards, and even cash on delivery. In addition, however, there are 140 region-specific gateways to choose from and integrate with, including Stripe, PayPal, Square, Amazon Pay. Apple Pay, Google Pay, and more. Customers have a plethora of choices, which means they’ll probably never walk away from a full cart due to payment-related frustrations.
- Ease of management – WooCommerce’s dashboard is easy to use, so it’s simple for our clients to manage their store themselves or teach others to do so. (Of course, we’re happy to help.) Product updating. Order fulfilling. Calculating taxes and shipping. These tasks and more are easy to do, including from the convenience of WooCommerce’s mobile app, which is available for both Android and iOS.
- Hundreds of extensions – Your store will never be boring and will always suit your needs with the multitudes of extensions (both free and paid) available for WooCommerce. Whether you want to integrate marketing tools like Google Analytics or simply wish to enhance your store, you’ll likely be able to find what you need amongst the available extensions. That means your store can grow and grow without the need to switch to a different eCommerce platform.
- Help at the touch of a button – Whether you hire a website developer/manager or take care of your store on your own, you can be sure that WooCommerce offers the help you need to decipher a problem or simply explain something you don’t understand. Both a dedicated support team and a public support forum are readily available to assist you. Documentation, reference materials, and tutorials are also easy to locate.
We’ve found that, overall, choosing WooCommerce is quite affordable and is the perfect choice for many of our clients. It costs nothing to add it to your WordPress site and there are no transaction fees other than what the payment service provider changes. Furthermore, as an open-source platform, you – the client – have complete ownership of your store and the absolute freedom to build it your way.
For more information on WooCommerce as well as other eCommerce solutions for your website, contact the web development experts at Watershed9 for a free consultation. Call us at 604-337-1449 or use the contact form on this website.