If you’re looking to provide an online shopping experience for your customers, choosing the right eCommerce provider will be the very first step.
But with so many choices out there, how can you tell which will make the most sense for your business?
To help you make the right decision we have produced a series of eCommerce guides to cover the main benefits, costs and integrations for some of the most popular eCommerce carts.
In this particular blog we will be taking a look at WooCommerce.
What is WooCommerce?
WooCommerce is an open-source eCommerce platform that is fully customisable and runs on WordPress. It is currently the leading platform for UK eCommerce, making up 23.43% of the market share worldwide.
WooCommerce Pricing
Both WooCommerce and WordPress are completely free.
However, there will still be other costs when it comes to launching and running your eCommerce store.
As WooCommerce is an open-source eCommerce cart solution, you will need to consider the costs involved with the initial web development of your site, in addition to ongoing security and software updates.
Key Benefits of WooCommerce
Plenty of ways to improve your store’s features and functionality
One of the biggest benefits of using an open source eCommerce platform is the amount of control you have over building your online store.
There are over 6,000 WordPress plugins available directly from the WordPress plugin directory, with an additional 500 found on the WooCommerce extensions store.
These plugins make it possible to link WooCommerce to other web apps to extend your store’s functionality.
If you’re looking to offer your products overseas, some plugins make it possible to provide a wide range of languages to your customers online.
WooCommerce Multilingual (WPML) provides support for more than 40 languages for any WooCommerce store.
This plugin can translate your products and store emails, is compatible with all of the popular WooCommerce extensions and themes and makes SEO in different languages a much easier process.
More control over your store’s design
If you’re eager to revamp the entire design of your store, WordPress.org provides more than 1,300 WooCommerce site themes. These themes are highly customisable and free to download and install onto your website.
You Can Sell Digital Products
WooCommerce isn’t limited to just physical goods, you can also sell downloadable digital products.
The core features of WooCommerce include the ability to:
- Set download limits based on your type of product
- Sell a combination of physical and digital for the same product
- Offer free trials or demos for a set period of time
By configuring the ‘Downloadable Products’ settings within your WooCommerce dashboard you will have the option to choose from 1 of 3 downloadable file methods for your digital goods:
Force Download – helps to keep files secure but requires powerful servers for larger files.
Redirect Only – redirects your customers to a different URL where the file can be accessed, anyone with the link will be able to access.
X-Accel-Redirect/X-Sendfile – secure and reliable, but will require your web hosting provider to enable a specific module on your server in advance.
Payment Integrations with WooCommerce
Among many of the previously mentioned plugins are those which allow payment gateways and one-stop shop payment solutions to connect with your WooCommerce store.
To start accepting online payments from your customers you will need to integrate one of these solutions into your cart.
Want to know more?
For more helpful hints on growing your eCommerce business, search #PixxlesPowerUps or visit our ‘News & Views’ page to read more useful blogs.
