DETROIT – Whether you want to create a full-fledged online store from scratch or add a small one to your existing blog, WordPress doesn’t lack tools for making the whole ordeal easier. That’s why it’s even more popular than Shopify for eCommerce!
But, of course, you won’t be able to make do with just the barebones version of WordPress. You’ll need the help of some plugins to create an online store that would rival the looks and functionality of your competitors.
Which plugins should you consider, though? There are hundreds of them out there, after all. So, don’t worry if you feel a bit lost. You’ve come to the right place! However, all these plugins can slow down your website if you do not have the proper hosting resources. To ensure that you have enough bandwidth, storage, and memory, consider purchasing cloud hosting.
A friendly warning, though: even if such plugins make running an online store easier, you’ll still need to put in a lot of effort. So, make time for it by turning to services like paper edit on WritePaper, and get ready to spend more than one evening tinkering. With this out of the way, let’s break down the top seven beginner-friendly, time-saving, and result-delivering solutions out there!
WooCommerce
- Rating: 4.5/5
- Pricing: free, with paid extensions available
WooCommerce is, by far, the most popular eCommerce plugin for WordPress websites out there. It has more than 5 million active installations under its belt!
What makes it so popular? Well, for starters, it’s open-source and free. And it offers plenty of features free of charge, such as:
- Adding affiliate or external products;
- Selling both digital and physical goods;
- Managing your inventory;
- Supporting the most popular payment gateways;
- Calculating shipping and taxes.
Long story short, WooCommerce has everything you may need to run a store. Plus, it also supports dozens of integrations with third-party services like Stripe, Zapier, Google Ads, Mailchimp, HubSpot, and more.
BigCommerce
- Rating: 4.0/5
- Pricing: from $29.95 to $299.95 per month (15-day free trial available)
BigCommerce is WooCommerce’s main rival. Although it’s not as popular as WooCommerce (and it’s not free, either), don’t overlook it just yet. It comes with several advantages that WooCommerce can’t offer you:
- It doesn’t charge transaction fees, so you’ll have to pay only the payment service provider directly;
- It’s more scalable and allows you to grow your small business into an enterprise without having to move your website;
- It allows you to sell via other channels, such as social media or Amazon, from one place.
The only two caveats are the price, of course, and a yearly sales threshold for each plan. As soon as your sales surpass that threshold, you’ll be moved to the next (more expensive) plan.
Easy Digital Downloads
- Rating: 4.7/5
- Pricing: from $99.50 to $ 399.60 per year (14-day money-back guarantee)
Are you in the business of selling digital goods like eBooks and online courses on your WordPress blog? Then this is the solution for you! Unlike WooCommerce, it’s designed for selling digital downloads. So, you can expect it to be tailored to your needs without any extra features you won’t ever use.
Apart from its laser focus on digital products, Easy Digital Downloads is also praised for:
- Being adapted to first-timers in eCommerce: the interface is easy to wrap your head around from the get-go;
- Having plenty of extensions and third-party integrations available;
- Supporting a variety of software licensing options for digital products.
The only downside of this solution is that it doesn’t support external products out of the box – you’ll need to install an add-on for it. And, of course, if you want to sell both physical and digital goods, this isn’t the right solution for you.
MemberPress
- Rating: 4.8/5
- Pricing: from $179.50 to $399.50 per year (14-day money-back guarantee)
Are you looking for a way to earn from subscriptions? Your search is over – MemberPress is what you’ve been looking for. This plugin comes with a full range of features you’ll need, including:
- Paywalls and access rules management;
- An in-built LMS platform for online course creators;
- Customizable coupons;
- Automatic content dripping;
- Payment gateway integrations and automated billing.
So, whether you’re an online course creator, an online school startup, or an aspiring membership website owner, MemberPress is the solution for you. It’ll help you set everything up without any tech expertise needed. Yes, even if you’re a beginner in the world of WordPress!
Ecwid
- Rating: 4.5/5
- Pricing: free, with premium plans from $12.50 to $82.50 per month if paid annually
If you’re planning to sell only via your WordPress website, you can skip this solution. But if you want to run your business on several platforms at once (and would prefer not to have a headache because of that), Ecwid deserves your attention.
Ecwid allows you to run your business on social media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, Pinterest), Google, Amazon, and your website – all from one dashboard. So, you won’t have to manually update all those spreadsheets to keep track of your sales and inventory!
Apart from this main selling point, Ecwid can also boast:
- Automatic shipping and taxes calculation;
- Hundreds of extensions and integrations;
- In-built automated marketing tools;
- Subscription-based sales support;
- Automatic backups.
ShopWP
- Rating: 4.1/5
- Pricing: free, with paid plans from $199 to $499 per year
Already have a Shopify store? If so, perhaps, you find that Shopify’s design toolkit can’t rival WordPress’s editor and free themes. But you might still want to preserve all the functionality of Shopify. If that hits close to home, good news: you can wrap Shopify’s backend in WordPress’s frontend, all thanks to ShopWP!
In a nutshell, ShopWP allows you to enjoy the best of the two worlds. You’ll get to take advantage of WordPress’s simple yet powerful website builder, along with thousands of free themes and plugins. And at the same time, you’ll have all Shopify features, like built-in fraud detection and a first-party POS system.
But, of course, you’ll have to keep paying the Shopify subscription fee to use ShopWP. The pricing starts from $29 per month.
Wholesale Suite for WooCommerce
- Rating: 4.8/5
- Pricing: from $148.50 to $298.50 per year (14-day refund policy), a free plugin version is available
Are you involved in B2B sales in any way? If so, the solutions above probably won’t do for you. But don’t give up just yet – there’s a Wholesale Suite designed for B2B businesses, and them only!
Technically speaking, this is a plugin for another plugin, WooCommerce, developed by a third party. So, you’ll need to add WooCommerce to your website before you can use this suite. But once you do, you’ll get to enjoy the following features, among others:
- Built-in wholesale pricing and order forms;
- User tiers and user-role-based product visibility;
- Wholesale tax control on autopilot.
However, the lite version of this solution is somewhat watered-down – but it can give you an idea of what to expect from this full-fledged bundle. With the free version, you’ll be able to assign a new wholesale user role, manage wholesale prices, and disable coupons, for example.
Source: In Conclusion
So, which solution should you opt for? Let’s sum up this whole list in this TL;DR mini-guide:
- Want a maximum of features and total flexibility? Choose WooCommerce.
- Need a highly scalable solution with no transaction fees? BigCommerce is for you.
- Plan to sell digital products only? Opt for Easy Digital Download.
- Want to get into subscription-based sales? MemberPress is your best option.
- Prefer to manage all of your sales channels from one dashboard? Ecwid allows doing precisely that.
- Need to integrate your Shopify store with a WordPress website? Opt for installing ShopWP.
- Working with B2B sales? Wholesale Suite can be your best friend.
And if there’s any final piece of advice to give, it’s this: try before you buy!
Article provided by Lily Greenwood
