Starting an eCommerce business is never easy. Some people think that the process is easy, but it’s full of challenges. To improve your chances of success, you will need the best eCommerce platform. Since there are many eCommerce platforms on the market, it is crucial you compare them to identify the most suitable platform for business success. In this regard, you will be happy to know that WooCommerce platform is one of the best in the industry. The platform stands out from the crowd for a variety of reasons. Keep reading to learn more about the platform as well as woocommerce marketing.
Table of Contents
What is WooCommerce?
This is a WordPress-based, open-source eCommerce platform that’s easy to customize. The platform was developed specifically for small and medium-sized enterprises. Launched in 2011, WooCommerce is easy to use and is considered one of the most cost-effective platforms for eCommerce websites. If you are familiar with WordPress, it will be easy for you to start an eCommerce business with WooCommerce because the system is built around the popular WordPress system. WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, which means in order to function properly it needs to be hosted on a WordPress-optimized plan.
5 Reasons Why You Should Use WooCommerce
There are many reasons why you should consider using WooCommerce, but the following are the top 5 reasons:
1. It’s Open Source
The vast majority of the top eCommerce platforms on the market are not open source. This means that users have to pay a fee to use these platforms. Since WooCommerce is open source, you can use it without paying any of those fees. You are also at liberty to customize the platform as much as you want without worrying about developer restrictions. In addition to that, the open-source nature of the platform means that you have complete control over your online shop.
2. It is Flexible
Many eCommerce platforms are not versatile because they are only designed for specific products or services, or for a specific niche. For instance, you will find a platform that can only be used to sell physical products as well as others meant only for affiliate marketing. This means that business owners have to pick a platform that’s best suited for their preferred niche. With WooCommerce, however, you have a highly flexible and versatile eCommerce platform that allows you to take advantage of every opportunity out there. From selling physical products likes computers, phones and couches to promoting affiliate products and earning from webinar sessions and downloadable books, WooCommerce offers it all.
3. WooCommerce is SEO-Friendly
Search engines are basically computer algorithms that are updated regularly to improve the accuracy of search results. The top search engines have been developed around the powerful and easy to use WordPress system. Since WooCommerce is also built around WordPress, it is much easier for search engines to find and rank content on WooCommerce. This means that WooCommerce is SEO-friendly, so you can be assured of getting high search engine rankings for most of your products and services. Since you are already familiar with WordPress SEO, you will not have a hard time optimizing your content and web pages for SEO. As a result, you can be assured of ranking highly on Google and other major search engines.
4. Easy to Customize
One key benefit of WooCommerce is that it makes it easy for users to customize their eCommerce websites. There are thousands of themes available for you to choose, both free and premium options. This means that with little knowledge of HTML or CSS, you can easily modify your store to create a superior eCommerce theme for your business. When using other eCommerce platforms, it is usually extremely difficult to customize the store once the website has gone live. To get the best results with WooCommerce, however, it may be a good idea to hire a third party to help you customize your store to ensure you have a truly unique eCommerce store that is primed for success.
5. Enhanced Security
When customers are shopping online, they want to feel safe. Therefore, every eCommerce store should have enhanced security. Popular eCommerce platforms, like WooCommerce are usually the main targets for hackers, so maximum security is a basic requirement. The good news is that WooCommerce works with the top security providers on the market to ensure all threats are identified and dealt with to ensure the online marketplace is safe. Security protocols are always being updated on WooCommerce to ensure new threats are identified and dealt with. The platform also allows users to add a security plugin to continuously scan your store for malware and other threats to give you an extra layer of protection against hackers. This makes WooCommerce one of the most secure eCommerce platforms on the market.
In addition to these 5 benefits, it is worth noting that WooCommerce is super-flexible as far as integration capabilities are concerned. You can integrate third party shipping service, CRM system and tools for order management among other types of systems onto the platform with ease.
While you can easily integrate third party analytics solutions onto WooCommerce, the platform offers all the usual analytics, such as total sales by date, customer shopping statistics, order history and the likes. Basically, the platform can provide you with all the data you need to make informed business decisions.
One of the key benefits of WooCommerce is that it has a large community of users. The number of websites running on WooCommerce at the moment is 4.5 million, and the number is expected to rise in the coming years. This is good news because platforms that have few users often have to shut down. This means that WooCommerce is here to stay. You can engage with other users through the available forums to get tips and assistance whenever you have a problem using the platform.
While there are several alternatives to WooCommerce, the versatility of the platform, advanced security, interactive community and ease of using WooCommerce makes it the best eCommerce platform for small and medium-sized online businesses. To get the most out of WooCommerce, be sure to work with experts in the industry.