Hundreds of millions of businesses, charities, clubs, individuals and organisations have websites based on WordPress. It’s hard to see it not being the number one CMS any time in the future, either, such is its dominance, its support ecosystem and the expertise and familiarity there is out there.
But while the platform is well known as a means of producing informative and entertaining websites with interactive elements, not everyone understands that it can also be the basis of a solid eCommerce website too. But it’s true – around 4 million online retailers have a site that’s based entirely on WordPress, not Magento, Shopify or such like.
What these millions of sellers recognise is that WordPress’s own eCommerce plugin – WooCommerce – is an excellent option for setting up an online shop. Here’s why.
It’s seamlessly WordPress
If you’re used to updating WordPress websites – and it’s simplicity itself to do – then you’ll intuitively understand how to operate WooCommerce.
Not all eCommerce stores start life as eCommerce. A local baker or fashion store might set up a basic WordPress site to advertise their products to local passers-by, but something (let’s say a global pandemic) might make them look into doing deliveries in the locale or further afield.
With WooCommerce, it’s a simple case of installing the plugin and populating it with products, and it’ll start making a standard website into a selling machine.
It’s powerful
WordPress is well known for being a nimble, powerful site – as long as it’s run and hosted sensibly, not overloaded with needless plugins and processes. And by extension, WooCommerce plugged into a WP installation is powerful and scalable. So as your business grows thanks to its own success, you shouldn’t need to migrate anything, although the occasional upgrade to your hosting package might not go amiss.
You get all the themes and plugins
WordPress is loved because of the whole industry that has sprung up around it. There are creative and technical wizards making themes and plugins that just keep getting better.
So whether you want to give your site a makeover, get new analytics or page speed enhancements, or integrate an email marketing plugin – there will be someone out there with the expertise to help you.
It’s well supported
Because of its popularity, support for WordPress is massive on the informal and professional scales. So if the person sitting next to you in the shared office space can’t help you, you can probably find a solution online or employ the services of a specialist WordPress developer if you’re looking at a more substantive project.
That’s just four reasons why the four million have chosen WooCommerce as their online retail platform, but essentially, even without the fact that it’s based on a familiar CMS, it would still be an excellent eCommerce platform if it were a standalone product.
If you’ve already got a WordPress site, just try the open source plugin and have a play with it. And if you’re looking to start a new website from scratch to sell your products, you can’t really go wrong with WordPress and WooCommerce.
