WooCommerce Guide for Beginners
The Internet offers a wealth of opportunities for clever entrepreneurs. If you have something to sell, it is quite easy to boost your business profits by offering your product or service online. Several companies offer full online store solutions, but most of them are too cumbersome to use, especially for people who don't work in the IT industry.
The good news is that several WordPress developers have built e-commerce plug-ins, and WooCommerce is by far the best solution for this platform. WooCommerce is free to use and powers almost 30% of all online stores on the web. Download it from here, and then install it; you will discover that your site has gotten product management and order processing features, as well as a very powerful shopping cart.
Not only that, but WooCommerce is an open source project, so its source code can be extended and tweaked according to your particular needs. It has hundreds of free and paid extensions, so it can handle pretty much everything you will throw at it.
I am talking about extensions that help you sell physical and digital goods, including recurring services, for example. Inventory management, tax management, event-triggered coupons and discounts are also possible. Here's a list with the top 10 most popular WooCommerce extensions:
- PayPal Powered by Braintree, which allows you to process credit card and debit card payments;
- Zapier, which allows you to integrate your store with 1000+ cloud services;
- WooMembers Bundle, which helps you build a flexible memberships platform;
- Amazon Pay, which allows you to sell products using Amazon widgets, so the buyers will be kept on your site at all times;
- WooCommerce Google Analytics, which helps you understand how your customers are utilizing the online store;
- USPS Shipping Method, which helps you get shipping rates straight from the USPS API. This way, your customers will find out how much they have to pay for shipping, no matter if we are talking about domestic or international parcels;
- WooCommerce Customer / Order CSV Export helps you export orders and customers to a CSV file either manually or automatically, according to the desired schedule;
- MailChimp for WooCommerce connects a WooCommerce store with your MailChimp account. MailChimp will allow you to use its services without paying anything until you exceed 2,000 subscribers, so be sure to try this free WooCommerce extension;
- WooCommerce Print Invoices & Packing lists will help you generate invoices, packing slips, and pick lists for all your WooCommerce-based orders;
- Smart Coupons allows you to create gift certificates, give your customers store credit, generate coupons which are based on purchases, and much more.
And the best news is that WooCommerce is now a part of Automattic, the developers behind WordPress. This means that the platform is coded using the latest standards and will be compatible with most WordPress installations.
The website includes extensive documentation, of course. In addition to this, WooCommerce is supported by a team which operates in 58 countries, so you will always find help if you run into trouble.
If you find the idea of setting up WooCommerce by yourself a bit intimidating, you will be glad to discover that the website also lists certified companies which will work with small businesses and huge enterprises alike.
WooCommerce is definitely the most customizable e-commerce plug-in for WordPress. If you plan to set up an online store, this is the platform you don't want to miss.
