WordPress for e-commerce Business: All You Need to Know
E-commerce most certainly offers plenty of new opportunities for thousands of entrepreneurs today. Over the last few years, the market has witnessed significant growth because more and more consumers today prefer online shopping.
Therefore, building an online store poses a unique set of challenges. They extend beyond standard website design realms — from ensuring the website is mobile-friendly from a buyer perspective to building trust with fast load times, product reviews & seamless navigation. So, how well does e-commerce site is designed can be the difference between success and failure?
It is no secret that WordPress is a celebrated content platform and for valid reasons too. But did you know that WordPress is a solid choice for e-commerce stores too? This is because WordPress can easily tend to all e-commerce requirements, including the development of full-fledged and top-notch e-commerce stores, simply via add-ons and plugins. Oh, and let us not forget just how SEO-friendly WordPress the content platform is.
Anyway, before we delve any further into the nitty-grittier of using WordPress for your e-commerce store, let us first take a quick look at some of its pros:
1. Quick and easy to set up
2. Additional enhancements for the website
3. Unambiguous stock management
4. High levels of efficiency for data storage
5. Avant-garde analytics
Now, to be fair, there are also some disadvantages of using WordPress for e-commerce, including the ones listed below:
1. Necessitates the use of WordPress e-commerce plugin support
2. There are not a lot of options when it comes to WordPress themes for e-commerce stores
3. The use of WordPress for e-commerce also involves far too regular upgrades and updates
With that being said, the fact remains that WordPress is still a fantastic tool to use for e-commerce store development. So, let us now also take a look at how to use WordPress for e-commerce development:
1. The first step in the process is figuring out if you want to use a self-hosted WordPress version or the cloud-hosted WordPress version
2. Next step in the process is identifying and installing a WordPress eCommerce theme that suits your requirements and expectations
3. Once the theme is installed, you will need to install and configure the WooCommerce plugin
4. Now, you can start adding products to your eCommerce store’s catalog
5. Install any supplementary plugins you may need
6. It is now time to start creating content to drive sales
Wait, before you decide to take the plunge, here are some factors you would do well to consider before selecting a plugin:
1. The plugin you choose for your e-commerce store must offer ample scope for personalization
2. The plugin you choose should be conducive to integrations with third-party apps, including ones for accounting systems, CRM systems, email marketing software, etc.
3. Make sure that you have access to robust technical support for the plugin you choose. This will help make sure that you can successfully and quickly recover and restore the e-commerce store’s data and services in case of a crash or any other incident that causes such a loss.
Finally, let us wrap this up with a quick list of some important plugins you may want to consider using:
1. WP eCommerce
2. WooCommerce
3. BigCommerce
4. WP EasyCart
5. MemberPress
That about sums up pretty much everything one ought to know about using WordPress for setting up and running a modern and successful e-commerce store. The endeavor may seem a tad overwhelming at first, but the fact remains that WordPress legitimately makes things much simpler than you could imagine. So, if you too are convinced about putting this nifty offering to work for your e-commerce business as well, you would do well to start looking for a trusted company that provides WordPress website development services. It would be a good idea to choose a vendor with expertise in the e-commerce sector.
