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Do you consider running a WordPress website and starting online sales? You want to install the WooCommerce plugin and begin a business, but you are unsure if that is your best choice? Worry no more.
We at Howtohosting.guide will provide you with a short, but at the same time comprehensive review of the most popular eCommerce plugin for WordPress – WooCommerce. You may learn things about WooCommerce that you did not know before reading this review.
What Is WooCommerce?
WooCommerce is an eCommerce plugin for WordPress, the most widely-known plugin at that. It will convert your website to an effectively selling online shop. You can design a website with it, without much coding knowledge.
WooCommerce is also an open-source platform. Among all eCommerce plugins out there, this one has the most extensibility by having add-ons which could enhance the capabilities of WooCommerce further.
In terms of payments, WooCommerce is bundled with PayPal (for accepting credit card and PayPal account payments), BACS, and cash on delivery for accepting payments. The payment processing is done for you, you can set up products as well as do other modifications to your site.
Upon further review, you can plainly see that WooCommerce also integrates with hundreds of solutions and networks, such as:
- MailChimp
- Stripe
- Fulfilment by Amazon
- Sage
- Zapier
- ShipStation
- Square
Speaking of integration, WooCommerce also fully integrates with the open-source WordPress content management system. You will get more control over your site, but also will have to familiarize yourself more with knowledge about hosting, domain names, and website design if you have not done so already.
The above fact is the reason why WooCommerce is the more preferred eCommerce plugin. Other, similar plugins, such as Shopify offer more limited options and packaged deals, which come with hosting and require payment.
Features of WooCommerce
WooCommerce has so many features that it would be quite difficult to include all of them in a single article. We will review only the features that we deem most important for you to know.
Let us now review the crucial features of WooCommerce.
- Design Customization with Visual Builders or Via Code
- Hundreds of Extensions for Advancing the Design and Functionality
- Access to the REST API for Managing and Integrating Products, Orders
- Numerous Themes to Customize Your Shop According to Your Needs
- Checkout Pages and Product Pages Look Amazing
- Product Ratings and Each Review Boost Your SEO and User Experience
- Unlimited Products and Galleries to Choose From
- Advanced Product Assortment and Filtering, which Helps SEO Ranking
- Support for Physical, Digital, and Affiliate Products
- Import and Export Large Product Lists
- Customizable Checkout Areas with Guest Checkout, Emails, Free Shipping, etc.
As you can see WooCommerce has the needed core features that you will see in any updated eCommerce plugin.
Advantages and Disadvantages of WooCommerce
Let us review the advantages of WooCommerce:
- Suitable for WordPress Websites
- Highly Customizable Due to Open Source
- High Number of Integrations Available
- The Plugin is Easily Scalable with Enhancements
- It is Free and Easy to Learn
- Big Number of Free and Customizable Designs Available
- Active Community of Experts and Developers
To review the disadvantages of WooCommerce would be to list the following:
- WooCommerce Updates Do Not Always Work with WP
- Self-hosted, No Automatic Updates or Maintenance
- Requires Some Knowledge and Proficiency in WordPress
- WooCommerce Needs Hosting, Development, Maintenance, which Can Cost You
Conclusion
After reading our short but information-rich review of WooCommerce, you should now have familiarized yourself with the plugin enough to begin using it.
Even if you do not know everything about WooCommerce you can still try it out and see how easy it is to start selling products on your website.
Read our other articles related to plugins that we have a review of:
Best WordPress E-Commerce Plugins
17 Best Countdown Plugins for WordPress (2021)
Beginner’s Guide to E-commerce Tracking