Find out why WooCommerce could be the right choice for you.
We know a thing or two about WordPress and we’ve chosen WooCommerce as our preferred e-commerce platform. If our glittering recommendation isn’t enough, here are a few of the reasons why WooCommerce agencies have fallen in love with it and why you should too – so why WooCommerce?
1. It’s affordable
First things first, using WooCommerce won’t break the bank. If you’re a new startup with a limited budget, WooCommerce allows you to start selling without a huge initial outlay.
If you have got a larger budget, we can make Woo to whatever you want it to!
WooCommerce is free to use, and the payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal have no up-front costs.
In order to get the most out of your WooCommerce shop, you may need to spend some budget on a few premium extensions to further enhance your store’s functionality, but these won’t break the bank.
As one of the most popular e-commerce platforms available, you’ll have a wide variety to choose from at a range of price points.
2. It’s safe
You can never be too careful when getting people to spend money with you online.
We’re pretty sure you want your customers to be safe and secure too so:
WooCommerce is audited by Sucuri, the industry leader in plugin security.
They make sure that WordPress best practices and coding standards are adhered to, and the platform is kept secure and up-to-date.
3. It’s easy to use
From speaking to clients in the past, we’ve learned that the number one thing that puts people off starting an online store is the fear that they won’t be able to use it easily.
No such fear with WooCommerce.
The interface will be familiar to anyone who has been using WordPress, and even if you’re a complete novice, it doesn’t require any specialist knowledge to get started.
You can set up and start selling almost immediately – this is one of the main reasons why WooCommerce is so awesome.
4. If you find it difficult, help is at hand
Despite the simplicity of using WooCommerce, you might want to defer to the experts with some aspects of developing your shop.
Because WooCommerce is such a popular platform, there are some wonderful developers out there doing exciting things with it – including us!
Whether you’re looking for help finding the best plugin to do something, or just need help with some WordPress development work, we can help.
WooCommerce is 100% open source which allows you to benefit from an active and growing community of contributors.
5. It can be customised
WooCommerce can be pulled apart and put back together to work just how you need it to.
You can get EXACTLY what you need.
From standard e-commerce to fully bespoke builds, Woo allows us to import its templates into your theme and edit them just as we do with standard template files.
This makes WooCommerce incredibly flexible and means it can accommodate any specific requirements you might have.
6. It’s future proof
WooCommerce was recently acquired by Automattic – the people behind WordPress, so it’s not going anywhere.
What’s more, this means that it’s going to benefit from the continued development that WordPress itself benefits from.
It will also improve how Woo and WordPress work together (for example, a recent development saw WordPress themes automatically recognise a Woo install – something that previously had to be sorted at theme level).
7. It attracts some of the best plugin developers
WooCommerce is used on 1000s of websites. This means that some of the best plugin developers are focussing on creating plugins that support it.
As e-commerce develops, so will WooCommerce, so you’ve got an online selling platform that’s going to grow and improve constantly.
8. It can talk to your fulfilment choice
Many couriers, including Royal Mail, have recognised the growth of WooCommerce and are creating plugins and APIs to talk directly to WooCommerce when orders are taken.
These hook-ups automatically work out postage costs on-the-fly, which means less hassle for you.
9. You can embrace social media
WooCommerce also has plugins that work with social media, such as options to allow customers to log in with their social media accounts, tweet and share for discounts and a wide range of other functions to get your current and potential customers sharing your content and coming back to your site.
There are also powerful affiliate plugins to help you grow your referrers and backlinks – two things that heavily influence your domain rank and position in the search engines.
10. You have full control
Unlike sites like Shopify, you can do what you like with WooCommerce. It seamlessly integrates with your WordPress site, so your blog, site pages and product pages are all part of your site.
There’s no need to have a site AND a shop – it’s all there within your WordPress install.
Remember this:
Your WooCommerce store is YOURS – as Woo and WordPress are opensource, you own your site – you’re not held over a barrel by a third-party supplier.
And then some…
WordPress is THE #1 CMS on the planet, so you’ve unlimited control over what you need your site to do.
Yes, the upfront costs of setting up Woo might be higher than Shopify, but as your site grows, you’re going to outgrow off-the-shelf apps.
We think it’s best to start your online store on a platform you can stay on, rather than having to re-do EVERYTHING when you discover you’re being limited by someone else’s e-commerce platform.
Does this answer the why WooCommerce question?
We are huge advocates of WooCommerce. It’s the most effective, secure and expandable business platform for SMEs who want to get started selling online. Ready to begin? Give us a call on 01295 266644 and we’ll explain why WooCommerce is the best choice for selling online.
