If you’re thinking of starting an online business, or you already have one that needs an overhaul, WooCommerce could be the answer. As a WordPress plugin, WooCommerce turns your website into a powerful sales machine. It’s easy to use, fully customisable, and that’s just the start. Here are 6 main reasons WooCommerce is the shot in the arm your business needs.
Open-source platform
What is an open-source platform, you might ask? Well, because WooCommerce itself is a plugin, it means it’s not just developed by one team of people. Thousands upon thousands of developers contribute to WooCommerce’s source code to make it better. While that sounds risky, you don’t need to worry, there are protections in place to stop people from tearing the system down!
Being open-source means continual improvement and development based on real customer needs. Importantly, being open-source also means it’s free to install.
Integrates easily with WordPress websites
Because WooCommerce is a plugin for the WordPress platform, it integrates easily with all WordPress websites. So, if you’re already running a WordPress site, it’s going to be cost-effective to use WooCommerce. You might still need to work with developers to truly customise and build the eCommerce website you want, but it’s cheaper to work with WooCommerce than to build from scratch.
Thousands of plugins
We know, this might just sound like its plugins upon more plugins. WooCommerce is already a WordPress plugin, so why do we need more? Well, there are thousands of additional plugins you can choose to enhance your website. These plugins allow you to add extra features and functionality, turning your website into the powerful sales tool you’ve always wanted.
Great payment options
In eCommerce, it’s all about options. Especially for customers – they want to pay using their preferred method every time. So, as a business owner, you’ll convert more leads into sales if you give the customers what they want. WooCommerce allows you to integrate heaps of payment options, including:
- Stripe
- PayPal
- Credit and debit cards
- Apple Pay
- Square
WooCommerce also doesn’t charge any of its own transaction fees. Third-party payment providers and banks may still charge their own, but you won’t have additional charges through WordPress.
WooCommerce makes SEO easy
SEO is huge for any business, but perhaps even more important for those in eCommerce. If customers can’t find you, they can’t buy from you. So, you’ll need to get your website ranking well on search engines to get noticed. WooCommerce is great for that, because WordPress already has fantastic SEO functionality built in.
Of course, there are other SEO plugins you can use as well, but overall, WooCommerce makes it easy to create SEO friendly product pages. Once you get started, you don’t even need the help of a developer.
It’s free!
Finally, the big concern for most businesses, especially when you’re starting out, is the cost. WooCommerce is free to install. You’ll still have expenses such as hosting, security, etc, but that’s the same with any website. The other costs include the price of development, but again, that depends how customised you want the site. WooCommerce has free themes, free apps and plugins, so in theory you could do it all yourself. For best results though, we recommend working with someone who has coding knowledge to get the most out of your website design.