What is WooCommerce and what are its advantages for your online store?

Shopify and Magento are the two best-known managers for running online stores, but the arrival of WooCommerce is displacing them due to its easy handling and open source status. Read on to learn more about this CMS tool and its benefits.

What is WooCommerce and what are its advantages for your online store?

WooCommerce is an open source plugin that is installed on WordPress and is designed to make it easier to create virtual stores. This plugin has managed to position itself as one of the best solutions when it comes to creating and managing an ecommerce system for those businesses that are managed through WordPress.

What can I do with WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is a comprehensive solution that allows customization and adaptability to any need your business may have. What stands out about this tool is its ease of administration and the speed of loading the website, which will be essential for the proper functioning of your e-commerce. The plugin can be installed both for creating your online store and if you want to improve your existing store.

WooCommerce: Features

This CMS tool adapts to the device from which the customer is browsing, therefore, it improves the user experience when browsing the online store and, as a result, will maximize the purchasing possibilities. In addition, by having WooCommerce you will be able to carry out detailed monitoring of your e-commerce since you will obtain reports, graphs and advanced diagnostics on the buyer's journey , so you can continuously improve your online store. Read on to learn all about the features of WooCommerce.

• Register products or services : within the CMS tool you can add and edit the products of your online store. In addition, you can create comparison sections between products that are similar.
• Payment Methods : WooCommerce offers more than 140 payment methods that will be available to your customers, this ensures that your customer does not leave the dreaded abandoned cart by not finding a payment method that does not fit their needs.
• Abandoned Cart : The plugin includes a module to reactivate abandoned carts by sending emails. The purpose of this section is to remind users of the products they did not buy and, therefore, achieve their conversion.
• Open Source : As we said before, one of the most important features of WooCommerce is that it is open source and allows it to be adaptable to the needs of the business.
• Order monitoring : you can contact the customer from the purchase to the delivery of the product. In addition, you can offer free shipping or calculate the shipping cost.
• Subscriptions : This CMS tool offers you the possibility of making monthly or subscription payments for the services you offer in your ecommerce.
• Reporting – It’s important to have access to all the information about your sales and customers to improve your website and user experience. WooCommerce makes this task easier for you by creating statistics and reports on the most purchased products, ways to access the website, etc.
• Offers and Promotions : WooCommerce allows you to create sales strategies related to promotions or offers so you don't fall behind other retailers. For example, you can activate a countdown or create limited-time discount coupons.

Advantages and Disadvantages of WooCommerce

Advantages of WooCommerce

• Easy to use : being a plugin that can be installed in WordPress, its use is simplified.
• Brand visibility : This tool has been developed within the WordPress CMS, therefore, the platform favors the content so that the products offered on the website are optimized for SEO .
• It is a free plugin : this is because its system is open source and thus programmers can add new features without additional costs.
• Market recognition : Thanks to the ease with which you can install the plugin and make changes to your e-commerce, WooCommerce has become the most used solution by developers .

Disadvantages of WooCommerce

However, there are some points you should keep in mind when using this CMS tool:

• Web Developers : While this is a simple system to install and manage, some more specialized features may require a web developer .
• Web security : To manage the padlock on the URL where it indicates that the connection is secure, you need a security certificate .

What is the price of WooCommerce?

WooCommerce, as we mentioned earlier, is an open source tool designed for WordPress. But is it completely free? What is the price of WooCommerce? Just because it's open source software doesn't mean it doesn't cost anything. WordPress and WooCommerce are free , but you should keep the following in mind:

• Web hosting and ecommerce setup : WooCommerce is a plugin to install on WordPress, but it requires a server to keep the website running . You must also include a domain name .
• Web design – The CMS tool has a limited variety of themes and designs for your online store, however, they are not the most visually appealing. That is, you will need a professional designer or select a premium theme .
• Basic Features : For more advanced uses in your ecommerce such as SEO, payment processing or other marketing functionalities, you must pay for extensions.
• Advanced Settings – After setting up your ecommerce with WooCommerce, there will be some tools that are not installed such as notifications or subscription tools.

What is the difference between WooCommerce and WordPress?

To answer this question we need to understand that WordPress is a content management system while WooCommerce works within that management system in order to be used in an ecommerce. That is, WooCommerce cannot work without WordPress , but WordPress does not need WooCommerce to be operational.

Download and Configure WooCommerce Plugin

1. Access the “ Plugins ” section in the left menu of WordPress.
2. Click on “ add new ”.
3. Type “ WooCommerce ” in the search bar.
4. Click “ Install Now ”
5. Once the installation is complete, click on the “ activate ” button.

WooCommerce offers an automation service in four easy steps once it has been installed:

• Page Setup : In this section you should place the essential sections for your online store ( home page , shopping cart , checkout or page where the customer enters their data for the purchase and My Account , where customers who have already purchased can review their orders).
• Local store : where you must inform which country the business is located in, what currency you will use, and the units of weight and size.
• Shipping and Taxes : Indicate whether you will ship the products or, on the contrary, only pay the fees.
• Payments : In this section you have to define the payment methods that will be available on your platform.

At Línea Gráfica we work with WooCommerce. If you still don't know how to install or implement this plugin in your e-commerce… Contact us now!