Website development has changed immensely in the last 10-15 years. The day of paying web developers to create a website for your business is slowly fading and a new type of web development has taken over – the do-it-yourself website builder.
Today we have at our disposal a myriad of different website builders that offer simple and easy to use interfaces combined with some awesome back-end technology. What does this mean? In essence, it means that practically anyone can now create a website using platforms such as Wix, Weebly, Web. com and Shopify.
One of the most popular and dominating website builder platforms is WordPress, which can create practically any type of website: blog, news site, online shop and many more. Almost a third of all websites online are built on WordPress, that’s how popular it is. Its flexibility, intuitive interface and premium hosting packages make it ideal for novices and webmasters alike.
The most popular WordPress eCommerce solution is actually a plugin called WooCommerce, which currently accounts for 42% (and growing) of all eCommerce websites on the web.
Just think about that statistic: nearly 50% of all e-commerce websites use WooCommerce. What other product can boast that kind of coverage and market dominance? WooCommerce has some amazing features and we have listed some of them below:
- Hundreds of different extensions to extend the functionality
- Ability to create an online store and start selling online immediately
- Variety of different supported payment options
- A range of pre-built themes for those who lack that creative spark
- A fantastic support section with guides and tutorials
- A dedicated community of developers
All of this can be obtained for the superb price of 0.
Yes, that’s right, WooCommerce is completely free!
Once you have installed WooCommerce, sometimes you need to tweak some of its default features to suit your or your client’s needs. Check out these Tricks to Customize your WooCommerce Store. You may ask how WooCommerce manages to operate as its main product is free? Simple – through its extensions. Although the WooCommerce plugin is free, the extensions it provides for the main part are not. The prices are completely reasonable, however.
However, some extensions are still free, such as PayPal payments, AmazonPay and LiveChat. We have listed some of the most popular WooCoomerce extensions below:
- WooSubscriptions: Allows customers to subscribe to your services and products;
- Google Analytics: Obtain a myriad of useful analytical statistics relating to your site’s performance;
- UPS: Shipping rates and management through UPS couriers;
- MailChimp: Create automated email campaigns and manage your mailing lists;
- LiveChat: Premium live chat software to improve your customer service.
These are just a handful of the available extensions. Consider looking at the WooCommerce extension store for a full list (sorted by different categories such as marketing, payments and store management).
And who develops and updates WooComerce? Currently, this eCommerce platform has a community of over 750 developers who contribute regularly. These developers add new code and refine the current platform.
Furthermore, WooCommerce employs a dedicated team of 40 extensions developers who manage the platform’s current extensions and look at developing new products in conjunction with other businesses.
As you can see, WooCommerce is certainly in a strong position in the web development industry. The infographic below provides additional insight and statistics about this WordPress plugin and its history:
Source: Website Builder
Now, you can easily integrate your WooCommerce store with the back-end ERP/CRM system to automate the business process!
You may also like:
Tricks to Customize your WooCommerce Store Part – 2
How to create Multiple Websites in Woocommerce
How to Integrate WooCommerce with Square POS
