Currently, 30 % of eCommerce websites are powered by WooCommerce.
Are you looking to sell a product or service online? Foundry know that deciding upon an eCommerce platform for your business is a big decision and that the options available may be overwhelming. So today we are going to talk about WooCommerce, our current ecommerce favourite.
Ecommerce has changed the possibilities of business in the modern world. With WordPress’ huge, and growing user base, WooCommerce has become increasingly used, contributing to the shifting way in which business is carried out online. Powering 30% of online stores and offering a vast array of features in a user-friendly style, it has huge potential to long-term monopolize shop website plugins.
WooCommerce is sold as a plugin that ‘allows you to sell anything, beautifully’. But what features enable this ‘beauty’?
One of WooCommerce’s biggest benefits is its flexibility. Although a free content management system, it offers an extensive range of features, and can be adapted further by purchasing add-ons that extend the design and function options
- Your shop can be tailored to selling physical and digital goods of all shapes and sizes, with prices and categorisation being edited dependent on the type of items.
- There is also flexibility in terms of payment, with hundreds of different payment platforms able to be integrated to a WooCommerce shop page.
- This flexibility also enables adaptation for a business’ growth as can be modified according to a seller and business’s needs.
WooCommerce enables a professional structure to be created, which is key to creating and maintaining a successful shop. Order tracking, viewing past and open orders, updating delivery statuses etc etc are necessary factors for a professional shop and are all readily available via WooCommerce. Similarly, WooCommerce can aid inexperienced and experienced merchants alike by providing a built in analytics system that houses all stats necessary for a clear view of the shop’s progress.
Its foundation of WordPress enables you to easily have a blog accompanying your shop and website. Patrick Rauland, a WooCommerce engineer, stresses the importance of raising the profile of your products through blogging. Therefore, its WordPress foundation helps extend your customer network.
Similarly, it helps you sustain a client’s custom by providing the detail of a check box by which a customer can agree to join the shop’s mailing list. You are therefore more likely to get returning customers as you can maintain contact with potential customers through your newsletter marketing.
This can all be set up without you needing to know all that much about the technical side of the programing. Indeed, its existence as a WordPress plugin, renowned for its user-friendly set up, makes WooCommerce a platform on which you can create an appealing shop without confusion. Shop owners can edit content, removing the delay of having to rely on web design and coding professionals.
Another perk of WooCommerce is their desire to continue expanding features to maintain user satisfaction.
LATEST EXPANSIONS OF WOOCOMMECRE PLUG IN OFFERINGS
Ecommerce Platform Main Features
Flexible Product Catalogue
- Flexible site navigation allowing for easy product browsing by product grouping
- Display an unlimited number of products, product groups and product subgroups
- Automated site navigation features including menu navigation and ‘breadcrumb trail’
- Customised Section Summaries/landing pages
- Bespoke Product page layout
- Specify shipping weights for each product
- Support for multiple product images, custom defined fields
- Display featured products in their own prominent panel
Shopping Basket & Secure Payment Features
- Fully featured shopping basket including product summaries, quantity and totals
- Integration to your preferred online Payment Service Providers SAGE
- Request a Quote – Support for customer-generated enquiries/quotations
- Modify or amend product quantities directly within the basket
- Shopping basket summary visible on every page
- Order confirmation emails are sent to customer and shop owner automatically
- Orders are saved to a secure database, for peace of mind
Powerful Searching
- Easily search by keyword across the entire site
- Filter search across a subset of categories
- Powerful searches across all product details on the site (product names, codes, brands, descriptions, product values, meta data, etc.)
- Refine product searches by ordering results by Product name or by price
Flexible Shipping Models
- Fully comprehensive, flexible shipping features
- Choose between International Shipping or UK only
- Charge for shipping based on weight or order value
- Offer free delivery over a set order value or weight to increase sales
- Multiple carrier support (e.g. Royal Mail, UPS, etc.)
- Define and manage your own delivery zones
Stock Management
Display Stock levels on the product pages, or more generic messages such as ‘In Stock’ or ‘Out of Stock’
Suspend ordering for out of stock items or allow out of stock ordering
Flexible VAT options
- Define multiple VAT rates
- Set VAT levels on individual products to allow for exempt items
- Set rules to exempt VAT on overseas orders
- Display prices including or excluding VAT
Clear WooCommerce Back Office
Online shop management
- Built-in order-processing – flexible workflow allows processing of orders from receipt to shipment
- Simple visual management of product categories, allowing for multiple levels
- Accurately calculates shipping and taxation costs
- Create and view sales reports
- Flexible searching and sorting of orders and products
- Comprehensive online product management and maintenance
- Simple entry of product and category meta data to aid with site search
- Automated Customer Communication – automated customer emails each step of the way
Additional Modules
My Account – Customers can log in and track their orders, view order history, manage/update their details, and manage their shipping addresses
Multi Currency – Adds the facility to display prices in multiple currencies across the entire site
Advanced Reporting – View the top search phrases used on the Web site, View detailed reports on a per product basis, including value of sales over time and quantities sold
Volume Discounting – You can control the inclusion of discounts for more quantity or weight of order
Should you need assistance building a WooCommerce ecommerce site, be sure to contact us to see how we can assist in bringing your WooCommerce store to life.
