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WordPress has come through as the best option for many website designers, and there have been multiple creations for a WordPress eCommerce Plugin for each purpose to give businesses an edge.
There are over 55,000 WordPress plugins available on the internet, and it’s hard for business owners to choose the best WordPress plugin for their needs.
Choosing the right WordPress eCommerce plugin is crucial for your business because a better platform means more opportunity for growth. Users often lose money because they didn’t do proper research when choosing the eCommerce platform to start their store. In this publication, we help you describe the best WordPress eCommerce Plugins.
What to Look for in a WordPress eCommerce Plugin for Your Site?
Not all of them have the right set of features for your use-case. Different eCommerce Plugins are created to do different tasks.
For example, some eCommerce plugins are made for selling digital goods like eBooks, photos, music, etc. Others are better suited for selling physical products that need shipping.
You have to consider what you will be selling and what features you would need to run your online store efficiently.
Apart from that, the following are some of the most important factors you need to look for when choosing an eCommerce platform.
Payment solutions – Your eCommerce plugin should support your preferred payment gateways by default or through an extension.
Design and customization – Your store’s design is your customer’s first interaction with your business. Make sure there are plenty of templates and easy customization options available.
Apps and integrations – Check out integrations available for third-party apps like email marketing services, CRM software, accounting software, etc. You’ll need those tools to manage and grow your eCommerce business more efficiently.
Support options – Make sure that there are support options available. Good support can save you a lot of money in the long run.
What Do You Need to Run an eCommerce Website?
According to WPBeginner, here is the lowdown:
If you’re on a budget, then you can start with Bluehost. The Ecommerce plan comes with SSL Certificate, which you need to collect payments securely, dedicated IP, and a dedicated support line. They also install WooCommerce by default, which is the most powerful WordPress eCommerce plugin (as you’ll find out later in this article).
If budget is not an issue, and you want the best performance, we recommend using a managed WordPress hosting provider like WPEngine.
Next, you will need to choose a domain name for your website.
Lastly, you will need to choose essential business plugins that you will need, such as OptinMonster, to reduce shopping cart abandonment and increase sales.
The Best WordPress eCommerce Plugin For You
1. ProProfs
What is a better way to keep in touch with your customers and prospects than adding chat to your WordPress site? A WordPress live chat plugin can completely reshape your relationship with customers, and therefore, positively impact their determination to buy your products or services. That is what you are getting from ProProfs Chat.
A WordPress live chat plugin is a game-changer for your relationship with customers.
So, if you decide to add live chat for WordPress, installing ProProfs live chat, you get to:
Install the software in just a couple of minutes, using a convenient shortcode;
Customize chat experience owed to numerous possibilities of designing a chat window, including changing its colors, adding your logo, or choosing one of the awesome pre-made templates;
Record and track the messages received out of your work hours.
Collect essential statistics related to your operator’s performance, chat sessions' quality and duration, survey feedback and rating, etc.
2. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is the most popular WordPress eCommerce plugin. It is also the most popular eCommerce platform in the world. WooCommerce was acquired by Automattic (the company behind WordPress.com blog hosting service) in 2015.
There is a large number of addons and themes available for WooCommerce. They also have a passionate developer community behind it. Recently several hosting companies have started creating specialized WooCommerce hosting solutions.
Since WooThemes (the creators of WooCommerce) was acquired by Automattic in 2015, WooCommerce’s popularity has increased dramatically and is now known for powering 8% of all ecommerce websites online and 21% of the top 1 million sites.
Pros of Using WooCommerce
Here are some of the advantages of using WooCommerce as your WordPress eCommerce plugin:
1. Extensions and Themes – There are hundreds of extensions and themes available for WooCommerce, making it easy for you to add new features to your eCommerce site.
2. Supports Both Digital and Physical Goods – Supports digital downloads (ebooks, music, software, and more).
3. Complete Inventory Management – WooCommerce comes equipped with tools to easily manage your inventory or even assign it to a store manager.
4. Payment and Shipping Options – WooCommerce has built-in support for popular payment gateways, and you can add many other payment options using extensions. It can also calculate shipping and taxes.
5. Support and Documentation – There is excellent documentation available online for WooCommerce. Apart from documentation, there is a knowledge base, help desk, and community forums available.
Cons of Using WooCommerce
1. Too Many Options – WooCommerce is very easy to use, but the number of options available on the settings page can be quite intimidating for a new user.
2. Finding Addons – There are many add-ons available for WooCommerce; sometimes, users may not find the right addon for the features they need.
3. Theme Support – WooCommerce works with any WordPress theme, but it is not always easy to set up or good looking with all themes. You need a WooCommerce ready theme to take full advantage of its features without too much hassle.
4. Scalability – As your store gets larger, you will need to move to a managed hosting provider like WP Engine to scale your WooCommerce store.
WooCommerce is the perfect choice for any eCommerce website. It has a large community of developers and users, many add-ons and themes, excellent support for multilingual websites, and the best free and paid support options.
3. Easy Digital Downloads (EDD)
Hello Digital sales – here is your plugin of choice.
Easy Digital Downloads (often referred to as EDD) offers a simple, intuitive plugin for managing and selling digital products on WordPress. You can use Easy Digital Downloads to sell our software like WPForms and MonsterInsights.
The EDD core plugin is free. However, you also have the option to upgrade to a yearly subscription. The subscriptions start at $199 per year and go all the way up to $899 per year for the all-access pass. All plans include full customer support, site licenses, and updates. You’ll also receive some extensions and unique integrations for things like email marketing and payment gateways.
Pros of Using MemberPress
1. Sell Subscription-Based Products – Allows you to easily sell subscription-based products, membership plans, pay per view content, and more.
2. Powerful Access Rules – Powerful access control allows you to define user access levels and content restrictions. Only users with permissions will be able to access restricted content.
3. Powerful Extensions – You can integrate it into your WooCommerce store or LearnDash LMS. There are tons of extensions to connect MemberPress with third-party services.
Cons of Using MemberPress
1. Limited Payment Options – MemberPress only supports PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.net.
2. Yearly Pricing – Pricing plans are available on yearly terms alone.
MemberPress is the perfect eCommerce plugin to sell subscription-based products, sell courses, or build a membership website. It is beginner-friendly and can be easily extended with addons, which allows you to take your eCommerce website in any direction you want.
4. OptinMonster
OptinMonster is a conversion optimization and lead generation software offering tools for publishers, eCommerce, agencies, and B2B.
With OptinMonster, you can create targeted campaigns using out-of-the-box features like referrer detection, onsite retargeting, geolocation targeting, and cookie retargeting. It also offers seamless integrations with things like your email marketing service so you can easily personalize, segment, and target campaigns with excellent results.
Key Features:
Campaign triggers like exit-intent and time display.
Targeted campaigns using referrer detection, location, and cookie retargeting.
Actionable insights like A/B testing, automated personalization, and smart success
Why You Need It:
Businesses live and die by their leads. When you use OptinMonster, you can rest assured that you’re not getting junk leads that are going nowhere.
Leads generated through OptinMonster have higher conversion rates than cold leads. This is because the leads you get through OptinMonster are highly targeted and on purpose. In other words, an actual person has indicated that they WANT whatever it is you’re selling. You don’t get that with purchased leads.
With OptinMonster, you can create killer campaigns in minutes to keep your leads list growing and converting.
5. Shopify
Shopify is a fast-growing eCommerce platform that handles everything for you. Shopify isn’t a plugin, but it’s an all in one solution that’s completely hassle-free.
See the guide on Shopify vs. WooCommerce for a detailed side-by-side comparison of the two platforms.
Let’s look at the Pros and Cons of Shopify.
Pros of Using Shopify
1. Super Easy for Beginners – There is no need to worry about an eCommerce store's technical aspects, such as setting up SSL, integrating with different payment gateways, handling shipping, worrying about taxes, etc. Shopify handles it all.
2. Supports Both Digital and Physical Goods – Whether you’re selling physical goods like shirts or digital downloads like music, Shopify can handle it all.
3. Complete Inventory Management – Shopify comes with an inventory editor and bulk importer combined with an order tracker, making managing inventory a breeze.
4. Payment and Shipping Options – Shopify makes it easy for you to accept credit cards both online and in person. Their shipping system streamlines your fulfillment process with direct integration with popular providers like USPS.
5. Facebook Store and Buyable Pins – Shopify integrates with everything. Whether you want to create a Facebook store or create buyable pins on Pinterest, you can do it all with Shopify.
Cons of Using Shopify
1. Monthly Platform Fee – Shopify charges you a monthly fee to use their platform, comparable to purchasing hosting and individual add-ons using the other plugins in this list.
2. Shopify Payments – Shopify encourages you to use their payment platform, Stripe-powered, and a perfect beginner option. However, if you want to overcomplicate things and use external systems, Shopify charges you an additional fee.
If you want to have a powerful platform without dealing with technical issues, then Shopify is the solution for you. While the monthly fee sounds bad at first, the hassle-free approach and peace of mind are worth it because it allows you to focus on what you do best, your business!
Shopify does not have a native integration with WordPress. BigCommerce #2 solution in our list gives you everything Shopify offers while offering seamless integration with your WordPress site.
MonkeyPesa is here with a ready-made Business Management Suite that helps streamline everything from Leads to Deals, Tasks, Accounts, and contacts.
MonkeyPesa is genuinely built for Sales teams. It is simple but well streamlined and organized.
This Software allows for the integration of services like Email Marketing, SMS, and Social Media marketing, and customer support, all in a single business system.
You can contact us on or by a phone call or WhatsApp +256757537658
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