What Is WooCommerce?

If you’re looking to run a successful online store, your first priority needs to be the platform you’ll use to build it.

While there are countless options on the market, I always recommend companies consider what WooCommerce brings to the table.

But before I get into the “why”, let’s answer the question that brought you here: “What is WooCommerce?”

WooCommerce is an open-source plugin that allows WordPress users to customize their sites so they’re fully-functional eCommerce stores.

Or, in the words of WooCommerce themselves:

“WooCommerce is a customizable, open-source eCommerce platform built on WordPress.”

So, unlike other eCommerce platforms I’ve covered in the past, you can’t take advantage of WooCommerce without first using WordPress to build your site.

Nonetheless, this hasn’t stopped WooCommerce from becomingthe most popular eCommerce platform in the world – a contest it wins handedly.

Source: https://trends.builtwith.com/shop

There are probably many reasons for this distinction, but one of them is definitely the platform’s price tag…

WordPress is completely free, which, in part, explains whythe platform powers 40% ofallthe websites in the world.

But its popularity has as much to do with the fact that you can customize WordPress in countless different ways, thanks to an incredibly large library of plugins.

WooCommerce is one of the most popular WordPress plugins and much ofthatcan probably also be attributed to the fact that it’s free, too.

Well, sort of.

As I’ve discussed before,the actual price of WooCommerce involves paying for a handful of services, from hosting to development to cybersecurity.

Still, I can tell you from experience that a number of our clients are still surprised by how much bang-for-their-buck they get by relying on WooCommerce.

Alright, now that you know what WooCommerce is, let’s talk about some of the specific reasons so many companies – big and small – have used it to build their eCommerce websites.

I’ve already covered one of the most important reasons: it’sveryaffordable.

But in case you’re worried that WooCommerce may turn out to be one of those lessons in “you get what you pay for”, here are fiveother reasons this might be the perfect platform for your business.

Both WordPress and WooCommerce have reputations for beingextremelyuser-friendly. As far as WooCommerce goes, you just have to download the plugin from WordPress’s directory, which you can access from your WordPress site’s admin panel.

Once you’ve downloaded it, WooCommerce’s Setup Wizard will take you through the setup process in a matter of minutes.

Now, let me be a bit of a buzzkill for a second.

Just because WooCommerce is incredibly user-friendly, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be able to build a world-class eCommerce store from scratch. If you look at some of theseimpressive examples of WooCommerce stores, I can promise you that they weren’t built by someone without experience. As flexible as WooCommerce is, building the unique site you want may require you actually alter the platform’s code – maybe even extensively.

So, if you’re still reading, allow me a quick shameless plug.

Our team ofWooCommerce developers would love to build your site or answer any questions you may have before deciding on this platform.Just let us know. We’re always happy to provide feedback aboutanythingrelated to eCommerce.

Okay, with that out of the way, let’s move on to another reason to love WooCommerce.

WooCommerce is just one of many plugins you can use to turn a basic WordPress site into an incredible – and highly-profitable – eCommerce store.

So, the possibilities for your store are endless.

As long as you know which plugins to use (and one more time, this is where an experienced developer can help), practically anything is possible for your WooCommerce website.

In fact, there are many plugins designed specifically for WooCommerce sites.

The same goes for themes, which configure the layout and look of your site. There are a number of WooCommerce themes designed specifically for this platform, many of which are even free (are you noticing a theme?).

Whether you have 1 product or 1,000, WooCommerce can scale to support your inventory. Even if you get to 1,000,000 products, as long as your hosting solution can handle it, this platform will keep pace – and without any added costs.

WooCommerce also makes it easy to sell different product types. It has product settings for:

•        Affiliate
•        Downloadable
•        Grouped
•        Simple
•        Subscription
•        Variable
•        Virtual

Another user-friendly feature is how easy WooCommerce makes it to choose different product variations, like:

•        Colors
•        Images
•        Prices
•        Sizes
•        Stock Levels

And these features are just the tip of the iceberg.

WooCommerce makes managing your inventory a breeze. Monitoring stock levels, addressing backorders, triggering notifications for low inventory levels, and so much more is easy to do when you have a WooCommerce store.

From the very beginning, one of the biggest advantages of using WordPress was thatthe platform is great for SEO. It allowed business owners to make modifications to their sites with just a couple clicks that were critical for generating traffic. One of the most popular SEO plugins of all time, Yoast, was even designed specifically for WordPress.  

So, while WooCommerce doesn’t come packed with its own unique SEO features, it benefits from all that WordPress can do. This includes a long list of plugins you can use to increase traffic with relative ease.

Finally, WooCommerce offers a host of reports that make it easy to check on your eCommerce store at a glance or in great detail.

From your admin panel, you’re just one click away from seeing your sales by order, by date, and by category. You can also check on updates about customer downloads or coupon reimbursement. Basically, any of the numbers you want to see day-to-day are right there in your dashboard.

And when you want to get more granular about what’s happening in your store, look no further than theAnalytics report that comes with WooCommerce. You can look at all kinds of data related to the operation of your store across any date range you choose.

In short… probably.

There’s a reason – well a lot of them – that WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce platform and it’s not just because of its unbeatable price.

Whether you’re looking to launch an online store or you need a better platform to support your current version, it’s worth exploring all that WooCommerce has to offer.

If you’d like help with that, please feel free tocontact us to speak with one of our WooCommerce experts.

You can also check out the following posts I’ve done comparing WooCommerce to other popular eCommerce platforms:

•      BigCommerce vs. WooCommerce
•      Magento vs. WooCommerce
•      Shopify vs. WooCommerce