What is WooCommerce?
Have you ever wanted to explore the world of e-commerce but were put off by the complexity? You need not fear. There is a simple solution and it’s free - WooCommerce!
WooCommerce is a plugin that works superbly with WordPress. It’s both easy to install and to use. There’s even a set up wizard to make the process easier. But before you attempt to replicate Amazon on your website, you should be aware that the more complex your store, the more complex the set up.
However, that’s the great thing about WooCommerce. It has the flexibility and range of features to cover almost every contingency. Check out these success stories for inspiration.
The history of WooCommerce
You may not care about the history of WooCommerce but it does have a bearing on why it’s so successful.
WooThemes created the plugin in 2011. It quickly became a popular solution for businesses – and individuals – to start delving into e-commerce.
In 2015, Automattic acquired the plugin and it now sits firmly among their highly successful family of products. This is important for users as it means that WooCommerce has the backing of the owners of WordPress, which ensures its stability and ongoing development. It also guarantees the two products are tightly integrated.
Nearly a third of all websites on the Internet use WordPress. And over 30% of all online stores use WooCommerce.
Features
This article is an overview and not intended to cover every feature or function of WooCommerce. There are excellent guides on how to set up a basic online store using the plugin. But before getting to that stage, you may want to get a feeling about what it can – and cannot - do.
WooCommerce’s biggest feature is its flexibility. I’ve worked with clients who have set up complex stores, with a wide range of products, without knowing any of the technicalities involved. And why should they?
One client offers training courses, books (both paperback and downloadable), as well as running competitions - all within WooCommerce.
The plugin is also mobile friendly, responsive and geared for SEO.
Let’s look at a summary of the most notable aspects of WooCommerce:
Flow
To a great extent, you control the sales process. The standard flow is the customer visits your store, selects products which are then displayed in their Cart. From the Cart, the customer can choose to return to the Shop or go to the Checkout page to complete the purchase and pay.
Increasingly, websites are streamlining this process to avoid too many steps between choosing a product and paying for it. Many online store owners perceive each additional step as an ‘opportunity’ for the customer to change their mind and abort the purchase.
WooCommerce allows you to miss out the Cart step if you want.
Products
Everything you sell in WooCommerce is a product. And here the flexibility gives you great scope to be inventive. You can categorise your products to group them to make it easier for customers to find. Your products can be physical, virtual, downloadable and even external. You will assign prices – and perhaps discounts or even coupons.
The information and images about a product can be simple or elegant. Similar or related products can be offered as suggested purchases or alternatives. You can add galleries, audio and video should you choose to.
Stock
As your store develops, so will your need for better stock control. WooCommerce gives you the ability to track stock levels automatically or manually. It can notify you of low stock and hide out-of-stock items – if you want it to. The many stock handling options make running an online store much easier and safer – no selling stock you don’t have.
Checkout
The Checkout page is where the customer can make decisions about shipping and payment. WooCommerce can geo-locate your customer to automatically calculate the correct shipping and tax rates to use. If you’re operating internationally, it will determine the appropriate validations for such things as the address. For example, only accepting a properly formatted UK postcode for an English address or a valid zip code for the US.
WooCommerce will accept payments via PayPal, bank transfer, Stripe, C.O.D. and others.
Reports, Statistics and essential information
To be successful, any online store owner must have complete and accurate information at their fingertips.
There is a wealth of information available. Too much, in fact, to cover here. You can track orders, along with their payment status and delivery status. The system will give you sales statistics, average orders, customer stats, graphs and reports.
With this information – and the many extra details provided – you can monitor what’s happening now and analyse the trends. All in real-time.
Venturing Outside the Box
The standard WooCommerce plugin is likely to give most starting online stores everything they need straight ‘out of the box’.
According to woocommerce.com, WooCommerce has been downloaded over 60,000,000 downloads and has millions of active installations. So it’s hardly surprising that a standard set up will not satisfy the requirements of all these stores.
Developers have added a lot of functionality to make these different online stores stand out from their competition. There are now over 400 WooCommerce extensions available. Together with the thousands of WooCommerce-related plugins on offer, store owners have many ways to increase the functionality and competitiveness of their store. These cover everything from customising emails, adding a multicurrency capability to giving the online store owner simple options to further customise the screens, products and flow.
For the more technically minded, WooCommerce was designed with modifiable templates. Although this requires some coding skills, modifying the templates is relatively easy. This further increases the scope for flexibility across all aspects of the plugin.
Pros and Cons
After reading what’s been said, you may feel that WooCommerce is the best e-commerce software ever written. Surely it sounds perfect for every type of store and products? Unsurprisingly, like any software, WooCommerce has its bad points as well as its good.
The degree to which the negatives become serious will vary on a case by case basis. To a great extent, the Cons are either common sense or typical of any online store software. But if you’re new to e-commerce they may be a surprise. Let’s remind ourselves of the Pros before we consider the Cons:
Pros
- The core WooCommerce software is open source and free.
- The plugin is fairly easy to install into WordPress.
- You can build a complete standard online store with no technical knowledge.
- There are over 40 WordPress themes available designed as storefronts for WooCommerce.
- The majority of other themes work well with WooCommerce.
- There are over 400 extensions and plugins available for expanding the features and flexibility.
- WooCommerce has over 2,600 5 star ratings and reviews on WordPress.org.
- Automattic regularly update the software and often include new features and functions. WooCommerce blocks are now available for WordPress 5 Gutenberg.
- WooCommerce is so widely used that many WordPress developers are available to provide assistance if needed.
Cons
- If the functionality you need is not standard, you will probably need extensions or plugins to get what you need. Some are free but others require a licence and cost money.
- Like all WordPress plugins, some of the free add-ons are not updated regularly. Occasionally a few become unsupported.
- People new to e-commerce often underestimate the time involved in setting up an online store properly.
- If the preparation is incomplete, your online store could run into problems. You will need to make decisions about how your store will operate: such as settings relating to customer management, tax rates, shipping, inventory control, to name just a few.
- Not all WooCommerce themes are coded well and/or are robust. So buyers need to make sure they purchase templates from trustworthy theme developers or use tried and tested free themes.
- Not all developers who say they know WooCommerce actually do. This can lead to trouble when it comes to updating WooCommerce.
- WooCommerce updates are regular and normally straightforward. However, major updates may involve some extra work for the user, especially if there have been modifications to the templates.
Is WooCommerce for you?
Using a product that is part of the WordPress family has obvious advantages. Using a product that has been downloaded millions of times and used by large, well-known online stores should provide a good level of confidence.
But every store is different and yours may have special requirements. If you’re not sure, why not contact us and discuss what you need. We can advise you on how well WooCommerce will provide the necessary functionality for your online store.
MavenWebs can implement WooCommerce on your existing website or create a new online store. If you have specific requirements, we can customise the system in various ways, always using the most appropriate. These may include simple CSS or shortcodes for cosmetic changes or code snippets for minor functional changes. For more extensive modifications, we can develop plugins specific to your website.
Let us help you bring your online store dreams to life!