Even if you don’t have an online business, you probably have heard about WooCommerce. What is WooCommerce, and why is it important for many e-marketers around the world? While there are many free WordPress plugins you can find online, WooCommerce presents special features and benefits that increase the profitability of ecommerce websites.
Here are facts you need to know about WooCommerce, and why you should consider using it, both as developers and marketers.
The Beginning
WooCommerce started with a conversation in 2008 between Magnus Jepson, Mark Forrester, and Adriaan Pienaar, the team behind “Premium News Theme” in WordPress. They wanted to create a theme that can help online business owners to turn their WordPress-based websites into a store in easy steps.
WooCommerce was first released in September 2011 by WooThemes, a developer of WordPress themes. Developers Mike Jolley and James Koster worked on this project, designing WooCommerce as an integrated platform for WordPress-based e-commerce websites, with functions that support both small and large businesses.
Series of products followed WooCommerce release. For example, in August 2012, WooCommerce Slider was officially launched. This product gives interactive slideshows to the website, creating an eye-catching product gallery. WooCommerce 2.1 was released in 2014, bringing REST API in its system for easier website development and integration.
In 2015, WooCommerce had reached more than 7 million downloads worldwide and used by 30 percent of online stores in various countries.
WooCommerce’s Main Features for Marketers
WooCommerce is made to support e-commerce websites. Its main benefit is easy integration between a WordPress website and a fully-functioned online shop. There are various similar e-commerce platforms in the market right now, but WooCommerce offers special features for marketers, such as:
Professional themes.
Marketers can get tons of professional WooCommerce themes, with clean and customized designs suitable for running a proper business. Thanks to WooCommerce’s popularity, developers have created various themes you can use to promote restaurants, coffee shops, bookstores, music stores, handicrafts, games, and much more.
Various selling options.
The woocommerce platform offers diverse selling options for the modern business. You can create an online store where customers can order physical and online goods, download (music, game, app), or book (such as in travel business websites). You can also use extensions to offer options such as membership, affiliate, subscription, and such.
Flexible payment options.
WooCommerce platform comes with the ability to offer various payment options to customers. You can offer payments with major credit cards (VISA, MasterCard, American Express), Cash on Delivery, bank transfer, and check. Depending on the region, WooCommerce also offers payment options through Amazon Payments, PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, and more.
Easy control and store management.
WooCommerce was created to give store owners full control and easy management. The platform has a straightforward design for the control panel, which enables users to adjust the plugins and extensions based on specific needs. Store owners can also add people to manage the store, but without creating a new admin, ensuring full control.
Complete documentation.
WooCommerce has good documentation, reporting, and data storage system, ensuring safe and easy access for users. This helps with tasks such as inventory, analyzing, data reviewing, and tax reporting.
All these features are the main perks of WooCommerce. As the best online business platform for WordPress-based websites, WooCommerce offers ease and flexibility for users to run their stores.
WooCommerce’s Features for Developers
WooCommerce is also famous as an e-commerce platform that is developer-friendly. Currently, the platform receives contributions from more than 350 developers all around the world. Here are special features that make this WordPress-based platform famous among developers:
REST API.
The new version of WooCommerce comes with REST API, a system that creates easier integration and control between various functions. Developers can make websites that respond to specific e-commerce tasks (purchase, order, add to chart, and much more) without burdening the data storage. There are numerous tasks developers can accommodate with this system.
GitHub open source.
WooCommerce has an open source development system in GitHub. Here, developers around the world can contribute to software, apps, and plugins easily. If you are a developer, this open source will make collaboration and specific project finishing easier.
Hundreds of official extensions.
Creating specific e-commerce website design means adding various extensions. Currently, there are more than 400 extensions available for developers to create and customize websites.
SEO-friendly system.
Since WooCommerce is WordPress-based, this e-commerce platform is already equipped for Search Engine Optimization. Developers can easily create a website that will increase online exposure, which in turn creating more profits.
Complete documentation system.
Good developers understand the importance of documentation. WooCommerce has complete documentation system that takes notes of every change you apply, from REST API to extension addition. This documentation is helpful if you need to do improvement or troubleshooting.
With all these features, no wonder that WooCommerce is a famous platform for developers to work on.
The Upsides of Using WooCommerce
Compared to other similar services, WooCommerce offers several benefits, such as:
More freedom.
Website owners who use WooCommerce can use hosts of their choosing, complete with personal domain names. There are also no uptime and bandwidth restrictions, giving more freedom to grow a website and its content, especially if the user plans to create a big business.
International business with more ease.
Planning to grow your business to international level? WooCommerce is a great platform to choose because it has features such as international shipping extensions, international transactions, multiple language translations, Right to Left layout, and more. You can create websites with numerous languages and serve international customers.
Optimized for the mobile version.
All good business websites must provide equal experiences when viewed from computer and mobile gadgets. All WooCommerce themes are already mobile-friendly, but some professional themes may be more optimized for mobile versions. Check the details of each theme before making your decision.
So, in short, what is WooCommerce? Judging from all the features and benefits, you can see that this is a great e-commerce platform for WordPress users. Both marketers and developers can get benefits from using WooCoommerce, especially when creating and operating specific website designs.