WooCommerce is a free-to-use and open-source WordPress plugin for transforming a website into an e-commerce site. It was first released in 2011 and quickly became popular among those who want to step into e-commerce. Its easy-to-use interface and its capabilities still draw the attention of merchants, it is currently used by 29% of the top 1 million e-commerce sites. According to WordPress.org, WooCommerce is currently installed on over 5 million websites.
Because of the huge popularity of the plugin, there are a lot of WooCommerce-related extras such as themes. ThemeForest, one of the biggest WordPress theme shops, is currently distributing 1,300 WooCommerce focused themes. WordPress.org directory also includes 1,122 themes.
Its extensions count in hundreds and additional plugins go above 1,000. Those extensions and plugins further enhance the capabilities of the website making it even more useful. Although the plugin itself is freeware, several paid extensions and additional plugins are available. The most useful ones are generally paid annually. WooCommerce also has a shop containing paid and free extensions, by third-party developers and WooCommerce developers. From shipment tracking to booking capabilities, and product bundles, it is possible to find a solution to what an e-commerce website might need.
WooCommerce enables users to create an e-commerce website with some basic knowledge. Its most basic form can handle the most vital needs of an e-commerce site such as inventory and tax management. WooCommerce’s current versions will also help users to set the website up; directing step-by-step for every single adjustment. When the initial setup is complete, the website is generally ready to place the inventory.
WooCommerce plugin adds a new menu item to the WordPress interface that contains Home, Orders, Customers, Reports, Settings, Status, and Extension submenus. The Products menu remains separated from the main WooCommerce menu for easy access. The Home menu contains useful information such as sale stats and some notifications. The Orders menu shows the ongoing and completed orders and all the details needed while providing additional capabilities such as attaching a shipment ID to the related order. Showing the low-stock products at a glance is also one of the capabilities WooCommerce provides.
What is WooCommerce used for?
WooCommerce is used for easily creating e-commerce websites with all necessary integrations. It provides most of the tools with its most basic, free-to-use version. Owners of the WooCommerce websites can add paid or free extensions with a click for further improvements when they need to.
What are the benefits of WooCommerce?
The most striking benefit of WooCommerce is its packaging which includes almost everything that an e-commerce website needs. It is also developed for WordPress, the most popular website-creating platform globally, making it easy to find solutions related to WooCommerce. Besides those, WooCommerce is easy to scale whenever the users’ shop grows as well as its needs.
Is WooCommerce free to use?
WooCommerce is free-to-use and it can easily be downloaded from the WordPress repository to your WordPress website. However, you will still need to pay for ordinary website expenses such as domain, hosting, SSL certificate, etc. You will also most likely need additional paid extensions for WooCommerce as your customer base grows, raising your expenses.
Can I use WooCommerce for a large store?
You can use WooCommerce for a large store. However, the most basic shared hosting plans will not be sufficient after putting 1,500+ products on the site and will slow down. If you upgrade your hosting plan as your shop grows, the sky is the limit for WooCommerce.
Is WooCommerce better than Shopify?
The answer depends on your needs. Shopify comes with ready-to-use hosting and security solutions while WooCommerce needs a WordPress-installed hosting service. On the other hand, Shopify cuts transaction fees if you decide to use a non-Shopify payment gateway. So if you are looking for the fastest and easiest way to shoot an e-commerce site, Shopify might be the way to go. But if you are looking for flexibility and you don’t want transaction fees for each order, WooCommerce is better for you.
What big companies use WooCommerce?
The biggest companies and organizations that use WooCommerce are Chaka Khan, All Blacks Rugby Team, Orange Guitar Amps, Weber South Africa, Singer Australia, Daelmans Stroopwafels, Good Dye Young, and Airstream Supply Company. The globally known e-commerce companies mostly develop their shops with their development teams without using any ready-to-go solutions (not talking about the libraries etc.).
Can I use WooCommerce for dropshipping?
Yes, you can use WooCommerce for dropshipping. There are dropshipping-related extensions for WooCommerce for integration with e-commerce giants such as AliExpress and Amazon.
Does WooCommerce integrate with Amazon?
WooCommerce integrates with Amazon with the help of extensions. WooCommerce shop integration helps users immediately copy their products listed on the websites to the Amazon store. Amazon Pay integration for payments is also available via extensions.
Is WooCommerce difficult?
WooCommerce is not so difficult for users who are familiar with WordPress. However, those who are not familiar with the WordPress interface and its basics might find it difficult to use at the first time.