What is WooCommerce? Everything you need to know

Thousands of new e-commerce enterprises open their doors every year, and new online retailers have many platforms to choose from. 

Is it better to go with a hosted platform like Shopify or a self-hosted program like Magento or WooCommerce? Should you go with the simplest solution or one that can scale with your company?

WooCommerce is a popular e-commerce platform used on over 2.3 million websites worldwide. It is especially favorable to novice e-commerce merchants since it combines ease of use with great power, flexibility, and functionality.

What is WooCommerce, and how does it work?

WooCommerce is a WordPress eCommerce plugin. It simplifies the process of setting up and running an online store by providing respectable levels of flexibility and several essential features such as inventory and tax administration, secure payment processing, and shipping integration.

It is one important release yet, and it's completely free. WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin application and theme library that enables individuals and businesses to turn their websites into professional e-commerce stores. 

WooCommerce's goal is to be an e-commerce toolbox that allows anyone to sell anything on the internet. Some of its features include:

• An admin interface that looks and feels more like the WordPress dashboard, making it more familiar to the ordinary WordPress user.
• Analytics, graphs, and built-in support for Google Analytics e-commerce (goal) tracking have been added to the reporting.
• Catalog sorting and built-in up-sells / cross-sells are among the new front-end capabilities.
• The coupon system has been updated to include expiration dates and usage limits.
• HTML email templates are pre-installed.
• Order management has been improved.

Why Should You Use WooCommerce?

Order tracking, customer engagement, delivery status updates, inventory management, and other capabilities are all available with WooCommerce. WooCommerce powers 99% of all WordPress stores, with over 27 million downloads to date. WooCommerce is a simple-to-use platform. It's simple to use for new website owners.

WooCommerce is the most popular and perhaps most acceptable e-commerce plugin for WordPress. Its integration allows the addition of both SEO value and e-commerce functionality to the site. 

WooCommerce's Background

Let's look back at WooCommerce's beginnings now that you know what it is. After working on a clone of the e-commerce plugin Jigoshop, Mike Jolley and James Koster launched WooCommerce in 2011. 

Automattic, the parent company of WordPress, bought WooCommerce and its brother plugin WooThemes in 2015.

When WordPress and WooCommerce merged, WooCommerce's growth accelerated even more. Automattic is still actively developing WooCommerce today, and the plugin is reaching new heights.

How to Get a WooCommerce Store Up and Running

The simplicity of WooCommerce's installation is perhaps why so many website owners ask, "What is WooCommerce?" The four-step procedure is straightforward: 

• Go to your WordPress dashboard
• Pick "Plugin Options" 
• Search for WooCommerce
• Install the plugin on your site. 

The Setup Wizard will then guide you through the simple process of setting up your online store.

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What are the Benefits of Using WooCommerce for your Online Store?

Why use WooCommerce when there are so many other e-commerce plugins to select from? 

WooCommerce provides unprecedented compatibility, flexibility, and ease of use for WordPress site owners. 

But let's delve a little deeper into WooCommerce's advantages. Here are ten reasons you should use WooCommerce to run your online store.

Pricing for WooCommerce

Price is likely to be a significant consideration when a new store selects a platform. E-commerce applications vary in price from free to thousands of dollars per year. 

However, the price difference isn't always proportional to the application's functionality. As a result, the first incentive to use WooCommerce is entirely free to use.

WooCommerce is comparable with top enterprise eCommerce platforms. Still, because it's free, it's accessible to any business or entrepreneur who doesn't want to commit to pricey maintenance contracts or proprietary software licensing.

One must be aware that some third-party payment apps for WooCommerce and other extensions may charge a fee. However, this will not be addressed to WooCommerce.

WooCommerce is a modular platform

We need to look at WooCommerce's modular framework to comprehend it entirely. WooCommerce, like WordPress, has a robust set of functionalities that can be expanded with the inclusion of plugins. 

WooCommerce users benefit from this modularity in two ways: they have access to thousands of WordPress plugins and themes, as well as hundreds of WooCommerce-specific extensions.

A modular system's genius fosters a community of developers who create extensions to offer specialized functionality, something that monolithic programs can't do. 

Setting up a WooCommerce store can be the ideal e-commerce platform for any retailer with the correct plugins. These plugins may enhance shipping, payments, and product handling, among other things. When utilizing WooCommerce, the company has created and suggested several additional plugins.

WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that allows you to sell your products online

"But isn't WooCommerce just WordPress?" you might wonder.

In truth, the integration between WordPress and the WooCommerce plugin is a feature of WooCommerce. WordPress is quite popular due to its versatility and functionality. 

WordPress is the platform of choice for millions of businesses because it provides the best website foundation. It's quick, safe, and simple to use. The compatibility of your existing WordPress themes with WooCommerce themes ensures seamless integration. 

WooCommerce takes all of WordPress's strength and stability and puts it to work for retailers and their consumers to create a world-class e-commerce experience.

WooCommerce can sell almost anything

Another amusing approach to respond to the question, "What is WooCommerce?"

—It's a method for selling anything. WooCommerce is highly adaptable. If you want to sell something, WooCommerce is the way to go. Physical things, digital products, subscriptions, appointments, and much more are all included. 

WooCommerce is the Swiss Army Knife of e-commerce apps, whether you want to sell a single digital product or a wide range of material things.

WooCommerce has a Vibrant Developer Community

Both WooCommerce and WordPress are open source, which means that retailers are free to change or add core features, build new extensions, and create custom themes. 

It is difficult for some less popular e-commerce applications to find developers capable of doing that work. If you can find a developer, they are expensive to hire.

WooCommerce's advantage is that retailers benefit from a large pool of developers and WooCommerce professionals. If one needs to make changes to the WooCommerce store, it won't be hard to find someone to do the work for. 

Further, its widespread use and network of developers make achieving optimal WooCommerce security much more accessible.

WooCommerce comes with powerful analytics

Analytics is another way to answer the question, "How does WooCommerce work?" Another WooCommerce advantage is built-in analytics. The more you know about your customers and how they interact with your store and its products, the better.

WooCommerce comes with a comprehensive set of analytics displayed in a simple and easy-to-use interface. Furthermore, it is simple to integrate WooCommerce with external analytics services such as Google Analytics using extensions.

WooCommerce expands with your company

It is a good idea to consider your company's future when selecting an e-commerce application. It may be small now, but it will grow over time, and you should choose an application capable of supporting a busy store without imposing too much complexity in the beginning.

One of the advantages of WooCommerce is that it can accommodate stores of all sizes. It can scale from a few products to thousands and a few customers per day to hundreds of customers per second. 

The online store's functionality can grow in tandem with the WooCommerce website.

WooCommerce offers best-in-class Content Management

WooCommerce, as you might expect from an eCommerce application built on the world's most popular content management system (CMS), is no slouch when it comes to content.

Ecommerce marketing, sales optimization, and search engine optimization rely on content. WordPress and WooCommerce work together to provide a wide range of content management options, such as blogging, landing pages, email marketing, and product descriptions. 

Yoast WooCommerce SEO and other WooCommerce-compatible SEO plugins simplify retailers to optimize their content for search.

WooCommerce is quick

WordPress and WooCommerce can provide online stores of all sizes with a fast and responsive e-commerce experience. This is a significant advantage of WooCommerce.

You can also speed up your WooCommerce store by combining it with performance-optimized WooCommerce hosting designed to maximize performance. 

Although standard web hosting can support WooCommerce, it cannot provide the highly optimized PHP, MySQL, server, and network environments required for a responsive, low-latency e-commerce experience.

WooCommerce is designed to sell

Another advantage of WooCommerce is that it is built to sell. It contains everything a new e-commerce retailer needs to get started. Over 100 payment gateways are available for easy integration with your store.

WooCommerce shipping methods include multiple shipping zones and shipping classes that can be customized. An easy-to-use backend for stock management, refunds, order management, email management, and everything else you need to run your e-commerce store efficiently.

Let’s summarise 

In short, WooCommerce offers a complete e-commerce solution that is quick, simple to use, and adaptable to the needs of the e-commerce business. So, what exactly is WooCommerce? It is the most effective way for a WordPress user to grow their e-commerce site.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is WooCommerce free?

Yes, WooCommerce itself is free to use. However, additional extensions, themes, and premium features may come at a cost.

What can I sell with WooCommerce?

WooCommerce supports the sale of physical products, digital downloads, subscriptions, bookings, and more. It offers versatility for various types of online businesses.

Can I customize the appearance of my online store?

Absolutely! WooCommerce offers a wide range of customizable themes and design options to create a unique and visually appealing online store.

Does WooCommerce support multiple payment gateways?

Yes, WooCommerce supports a vast number of payment gateways, including popular options like PayPal, Stripe, and Square, allowing you to offer convenient payment options to your customers.

Can I integrate WooCommerce with my existing website?

Yes, WooCommerce is designed to seamlessly integrate with WordPress websites. You can add it to your existing site and start selling products without having to migrate or recreate your website.