WordPress is one of the most popular Content Management Systems. Originally launched in 2003, WordPress has come a long way. From an online tool to publish blogs to a full-fledged Content Management System. Today, WordPress is home to more than 40% of the world’s websites including some of the large brands. The support offered by plugins makes WordPress the most loved Content Management System. WordPress allows a huge number of plugins – free and paid, both. If you are looking to boost your online sales, we have compiled a list of the best eCommerce plugins for WordPress.

However, with so many WordPress eCommerce plugins available to choose from, it can be hard to pick the right one for your project. This is where this post comes in. You will find the ten best eCommerce plugins from WordPress to boost your online sales. Owning an eCommerce business involves a lot of hassles. But with the right support, it can be a piece of cake. The tools you use are equally essential to making any project a success. Here are the ten eCommerce plugins that take the burden off your shoulders since they provide the support and make the process easier. The best part is that they are easy to use and do not require you to study coding or programming! You can sit back and let these plugins work their magic. The eCommerce plugins from WordPress mentioned here have proven to drive sales and make your online business successful. Others too vouch for them.

Understanding eCommerce Plugins

WordPress is the most preferred platform for building websites. However, WordPress is mainly a content management system and not a website-building software. An eCommerce website is complex, and given the myriad features and functions, you may think that building one in WordPress is not possible. But that is where eCommerce plugins come in. eCommerce plugins add complex shopping cart functionality to WordPress, allowing you to create eCommerce stores that can have a complex catalogue, shopping cart, product variants, flexible shipping options, ready-to-use payment gateways, and much more.

With eCommerce plugins, you can turn your not-so-simple website into a fully functional eCommerce store. Using eCommerce plugins is easy, and you don’t need to have any technical knowledge to add any shopping cart functionality to your website. You just have to install the eCommerce plugin, like any other plugin, set it up, and start adding your products and product pages. You can easily manage your online sales as well. eCommerce plugins also have add-ons to add extra functions and features. eCommerce plugins are scalable and can accommodate the growth of your business. WordPress is the most trusted name in content management, and using specialized eCommerce plugins, you can run your eCommerce store without any hassles. Adding eCommerce functionality to your WordPress website is a seamless process thanks to different kinds of eCommerce plugins.

Criteria for Selecting eCommerce Plugins

When establishing an online business, deciding on the right software and creating your website is the first step towards entrepreneurship. Strongly recommended are versatile content management systems that allow building a unique platform to drive traffic to your business and reach your goals. When setting up an online shop, you will also need eCommerce plugins, which expand the CMS capabilities to facilitate product promotion and sales, provide information security, and more, thanks to their practical and technical functionalities.

What really makes a plugin stand out is its unique differentiators such as customer reviews, practical experience, features, ease of implementation, and technical support. What is important, is to not expose usability, functionality, and backend management, when implementing a plugin that supports you in your efforts to effectively maintain your eCommerce business management. After five years of running an online shop, I can share with you what to keep in mind when selecting eCommerce plugins for your platform. Here are my most important selection criteria:

– Usefulness for Shop Implementation – SEO, Performance, Security – Ease of Setup and Configuration – No Hidden Fees – Technical Support and Maintenance – Regular Updates – Other Users’ Opinions

Although we are going to refer to some premium plugins, which usually generate license costs, most of the selected plugins are free of charge. Most companies and individuals prefer to use free plugins, however, purchasing a premium plugin for your needs allows you to bypass further issues, such as difficult configuration and usability or lack of support functions that often appear with free plugins. As you should ideally make very few plugin implementations on your site to avoid further complications, the cheapest option does not always prove to be the best.

Plugin 1: WooCommerce

You cannot talk about eCommerce websites on the WordPress platform and not mention WooCommerce. In fact, it is the biggest eCommerce plugin in the platform’s history and powers around 30% of online stores today. Originally developed by a team, it was later acquired by a major company in 2015.

When it comes to extensive features, customization, and ease of use, WooCommerce cannot be beaten. In addition to supporting both physical and digital goods, it lets you sell things like membership-based products, subscriptions, along with additional services such as appointment bookings and event registrations. The plugin automatically adds various eCommerce-related pages (for the store, cart, checkout, and user account) to your website when you perform a setup. You can customize these pages in the same way you would modify a blog page.

With WooCommerce, you can accept a variety of payment methods including checks, cash on delivery, and other popular payment options. The old cliche, “money makes the world go round” is true in eCommerce as well, and having a range of payment options makes it easier for customers to buy from you. Other than these, WooCommerce gives you access to tax options and shipping classes, deals with sales and discounts, lets you track orders, supports coupon codes, and helps you with inventory management. Marketing is also given a boost thanks to its built-in tools for optimizing everything from SEO to customer reviews, as well as support for email marketing and affiliate links.

The best part about WooCommerce? You can extend its features by installing one or more of its hundreds of plugins. From payment gateways to better security to improved inventory to even better analytics, whatever you want to do is possible with WooCommerce.

Features and Benefits

WooCommerce is the official eCommerce plugin for the WordPress platform. At its core, WooCommerce is the simplest but most powerful way to sell your stuff online. With WooCommerce, your store’s setup can be fully customized, from styling to layout to functionality to features. WooCommerce is extremely flexible. You could sell a single product, or thousands of products, or digital downloads, or subscriptions, or even products that other people have created, all while integrating powerful inventory management and shipping systems. To these features you could add a number of extensions, both free and paid, that enable advanced features such as custom functionality, product filtering, custom reporting, and much more. What’s more, WooCommerce is free, and some of the best plugins for WooCommerce are free or have a free option so you can try things out before committing.

The plugin is very well supported with an extensive library, and it has a community of support specialists on forums throughout the internet. By using the secure payment gateways available with WooCommerce, your transactions will be secure and comply with global security standards. For plugins, WooCommerce has an enormous range of available extensions. If there’s something you want to use with WooCommerce, there’s every chance that there’s already a plugin that does it. Because WooCommerce extends WordPress, you’ll also be using a platform that a significant percentage of the internet relies upon. WordPress is Open Source software, secured against attacks with patches and updates that are pushed out all the time, all over the globe. You could also simply take WooCommerce and do it yourself if you need enterprise-level power and flexibility.

Installation and Setup

The installation of WooCommerce is similar to other generic plugins, but it does contain a detailed wizard that guides you through the general store settings before you finish the installation and activation. With over million active installations, one might expect WooCommerce to have a single-file installation, but it doesn’t. There are two reasons for that. First, WooCommerce is a complex plugin with a lot of functionality, data, and files that are necessary to power a successful eCommerce store. Second, the wizard helps configure some settings like trying to influence the kinds of products you want to sell and what payment options you’d like to enable. Those settings aren’t straightforward, and should be carefully selected since a bad configuration will insist and create more issues in the future.

Although they are not super technical, if you’re a visual type of learner and want to watch rather than read, I made a complete WooCommerce setup video guide that goes through the complete installation and basic-setup process. After dragging and dropping the WooCommerce plugin file to Upload Plugins, you must install and activate the plugin. This actually does the work of creating and inserting data for the pages WooCommerce needs for its operation. The pages created for you include the Shop page that features your products and what a customer sees first when visiting your store, but that could be used as a hierarchical page. This page can be set to use the default WooCommerce Shortcode or use a custom page template. You should customize the WooCommerce store pages using custom page templates rather than shortcodes when possible. Custom page templates are built by WooCommerce and contain all shortcodes and PHP code necessary to replicate your desired view.

Plugin 2: Easy Digital Downloads

When it comes to eCommerce plugins, Easy Digital Downloads is your best option if you’re looking to sell digital products. With 4.6 out of 5 stars on over 1,700 reviews, this plugin is an easy recommendation if you’re looking to get down to business. It’s also free! What’s more? There’s comprehensive free documentation to help you set things up just right.

With Easy Digital Downloads, you can track and manage sales, give discount coupons, issue refunds, track earnings, and manage customer information all in one place. You can even find ways to enhance your store, like creating “software licensing” or adding various services using paid add-ons.

You Can Capture Reports Easily We know how valuable data is today and EDD makes it easy for you to capture data using its default reports. Furthermore, if you have the Professional or Extended Pass, you can get additional data points through its Payments Exporter add-on. You can also connect with services for more advanced visualizations.

Easy Digital Downloads Installation And Setup Installing the EDD plugin is as easy as installing any other plugin from the WordPress repository. To do so, log in to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Plugins → Add New → Search for Easy Digital Downloads → Install Now → Activate.

Once activated, you’ll be taken to the setup wizard that makes everything even easier for you. You can choose to skip the step if you’d rather do it manually later on. The setup wizard will guide you through a couple of things including adding the pages that are essential to the functioning of your store like the shop page, checkout, success, and purchase history pages. It’ll also help you set up your payment processors and activate your required components amongst other settings.

Features and Benefits

The name says it all; if your goal is to sell digital downloads, this plugin is the one to do just that. Built with many of the features of E-commerce plugins, this plugin is focused on things that true digital content generally needs. This is the go-to plugin to sell digital downloads.

The many features of this plugin are what makes it the top choice when looking for a specific digital download plugin. It makes checkout easy, providing an easy, seamless checkout experience for your customers. Customers can be invited to check out with only their email using an innovative “Quick Purchase” feature, and payment from Credit Cards, PayPal, and several other prominent payment options is just as easy.

The plugin also includes Customer Management, where you can see information on customer purchase history; Sales Tracking, where you can easily see performance on a daily, monthly, or yearly basis; Discount Codes, a huge perk that many plugins use; Payment History, which can help easily manage customer transactions; and it can be integrated with email marketing services, an essential customer connection tool. All of these things brought together create a simple plugin that allows you to easily sell digital downloads. The pure simplicity of this plugin is what makes it so very popular.

Installation and Setup

Easy Digital Downloads is now offered as a free plugin in the WordPress repository. Once installed, you’ll be prompted to configure the default settings. You could do this right away, but we’ll discuss these settings in further detail in the next section, so here’s a quick overview of how to set up a simple store. You’ll be routed to the Downloads settings tab. You can keep settings at their defaults for now, but be sure that your page, details page, and success page all have the names Downloads, Download Details, and Download Success Page or whatever you decided to call your pages. Now, go to the Downloads tab at the left, hover, and click on Add New. Enter the title of your item in the Name field. The right section is the Download Prices and Files section. In the Download Prices field, enter the price of your download. Then, in the File field, add the downloadable file. You can do this by either dragging an element file into the box or by clicking the Select Files button. A box will pop up containing the files on your computer. Select the file you want and click the Download button in the upper right. The file will appear in the box. Underneath the price and file section, you’ll see a Download Images section where you can upload an image that is associated with the file. Then choose the download type, and whether or not you want to allow customer reviews. You can also set download limits or expiration date in the sidebar options. When you’re done configuring everything to your liking, hit Publish, and then check out the page to see how it looks. Make adjustments as necessary, and congratulations! You’ve just built a digital store with WordPress and Easy Digital Downloads.

Plugin 3: Shopify Integration

Shopify Integration is a powerful eCommerce plugin that allows you to sell through WordPress and Shopify seamlessly, all from the WordPress admin. The plugin lets you pick and choose whichever items you’d like to feature from your Shopify store in your WordPress site, including popular items or items that are on sale. You get a good-looking layout of your products, and eCommerce options from Shopify get built right in. The integration is great for bloggers or other content creators who wish to sell items for their audience to buy.

Shopify Integration gives every page on your WordPress site access to your Shopify store’s inventory. Clicking on a product on any WordPress page takes you directly to your Shopify checkout, letting your customers buy with one easy WordPress click. Shopify Integration is especially good for selling affiliate links or one-off products associated with your content. When you want to sell a single item or just highlight a few of your Shopify goods, it works great. The apparent connection between your WordPress site and your Shopify store provides a smooth transition from browsing to buying.

Shopify Integration works for Amazon and Google ads and makes those third-party link ads shine. Installation doesn’t require much more than an API key. Once the plugin is connected to your Shopify account, you simply select the products and templates for your interface and set any redirects to apply to your products. Data gets cached in WordPress, but it does tie back to your Shopify account. Your links always lead to a Shopify checkout. All settings for customizations and redirects can be found under the Add Product Pages section. You can change templates and set the cache as you want.

Installation and Setup

A simple installation procedure allows you to concentrate on what matters most: establishing a successful online shop that enables you to make as much money as possible. After activating the plugin, go to Settings to see the configuration options.

The first time you visit the Settings page, you’ll see a notice offering to guide you through creating your account. This is really a simple process and takes few minutes.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a free plan, but you’ll only be charged after your store is open for business, and you can cancel your account within 14 days without incurring charges. If you want to play with your store before your site launches, but are on a tight budget, the best strategy is to create it with a free trial. Then, if everything works well, subscribe to your plan of choice and take your store live.

Next, you have to set the pricing options for your products. In the window shown, the default option is to use the prices as set in your store. However, it’s also possible to charge a different price for each country your store serves.

Afterward, set the currency to whatever you’re using online, and the dimension unit to either metric or imperial. The included dimensions determine whether the shipping price is greater than the limit specified.

You need to set your unique identifier to finish the process. This is a combination of the unique 32-character code for shops with the .myshopify.com ending. Business plan users can activate the print function, which allows you to request printed tags for your store’s products.

Plugin 4: WP eCommerce

WP eCommerce is one of the oldest eCommerce plugins designed intentionally for WordPress. It started doing the magic back when hosted services were two or three years old. You can now get a contemporary but equally nice plugin for eCommerce with WordPress. In short, WP eCommerce is a hybrid of both. You do not have to sell your product but play it smart. WP eCommerce also manages your products, configure your shipping, manage orders, customize shopping cart design via template and override the plugin settings.

WP eCommerce configures it with your WordPress settings. WP eCommerce gives the flexibility to set and change all settings like standard WordPress installations. With WP eCommerce, you can customize everything from the color scheme and the design to the checkout page through a built-in layout editor, so you can create a store that matches your look and feel. It also gives product reviews, coupon codes, discount features, related products, and gift wrapping features. Unlimited product support for digital downloads and physical products with custom attributes.

For installation, just like all other plugins, head over to the Plugins screen in your WordPress Admin Menu, search for WP eCommerce, and install the plugin. To set it up, switch over to the Settings screen and change the settings as necessary. You will need to set up the pages on which the shopping cart, checkout, and the user’s account will be shown. When finished, click on Save Page Settings at the bottom of the page. After that, Product Setup will be installed. Here you will set up important settings like currency, URL slugs, and shipping, tax, and order confirmation methods. Then you can start adding your Products from the Product Management.

You can purchase different add-ons for WP eCommerce via the Add-Ons page. The only features I felt were worth originating external products like eBay and Affiliate Manager ties in search engine optimization. If you are looking for an easy way to create an online store and unsure about moving WordPress, then WP eCommerce should be the answer for you.

Features and Benefits

WP eCommerce is one of the first eCommerce plugins released for WordPress, allowing you to sell digital assets and physical products from your site. The plugin has got multiple gateways for payments and provides a plethora of options to let users customize everything. WP eCommerce can be used to build an eCommerce store with WordPress and get features like SEO settings, analytics, payment gateways, and the ability to sell physical and digital items.

The plugin supports various extensions for added features such as adding additional shipping methods and different payment processors. With the help of built-in SEO settings, online stores can boost their ranking and visibility on different search engines presented in the platform. These features will help you with your on-page SEO and allow integration with Google Analytics to track complete user journeys. WP eCommerce allows you to sell both physical and digital products with SSL certifications on your site. The plugin supports various major shipping carriers, so you can choose between FedEx, UPS, USPS, and more.

The settings and features present in WP eCommerce allow users to optimize their store easily for even the most niche productions. Other notable features of the plugin include easy tracking of added items, easy checkout, and enhanced security for your site. Furthermore, you also get the ability to fast track new customers, greet returning customers, and build a fulfillment team easily. If you’re a new user, you can utilize their unique store management and track orders easily. When it comes to payments, the plugin supports various payment options from various processors. And if you don’t find a solution, you have the option to use an external processor.

Installation and Setup

While adding eCommerce into WordPress, you should think about eCommerce plugins. They will help you in creating an eCommerce site easily. In a matter of minutes, you can have your eCommerce site up and running with different modes of payment. WordPress hosts a number of plugins for different purposes. Different plugins serve different purposes.

You have to find out the suitable plugin that fulfills the desired purpose. Once you have found the plugin, you have the “install now” option unless it’s a paid plugin. For a paid plugin, you will first have to pay and then download. Paid plugins definitely have their own benefits. 1-click setup is usually there for free plugins. All you have to do is add in your email ID and create a password. Then, you have to get your desired theme and start customizing by add-ons. For paid plugins, you have to upload files one by one through uploading option while free plugins have 1-click setup.

Once you are done with your setup, it’s time to start customizing your site. For customizing, you have to choose a certain theme that will help in enhancing the look of your site. For eCommerce, the themes should be related to shopping or selling. There are both free and paid themes. Free themes don’t usually provide that layout that you inquire while paid themes are well organized and enhanced for better performance. These themes also help in improving the overall performance of your site. You can add product categories and list all the things that you are selling.

Plugin 5: Cart66

Cart66 is Software as a Service (SaaS) eCommerce for your WordPress website. Cart66 Cloud makes it easy to create and sell memberships, subscriptions, and products on your website. Simply log in to your Cart66 Dashboard, add your product or membership, and choose the shortcode you want to use. Everyone who subscribes will be automatically added to your newsletter list. Your website will be integrated with the Cart66 payment processing service, which takes care of tax, security, and payment handling for you. Then paste the shortcode into your WordPress website, and you’re done! You can get started with Cart66 Cloud for free. You don’t need to add a credit card to sign up.

Cart66 Cloud is designed to remove complexity from WordPress eCommerce integration. You don’t have to worry about complicated setups, expensive things you don’t need, or ongoing hassle of keeping your eCommerce solution working. The SaaS Cloud removes the need for ongoing maintenance because Cart66 Cloud handles tax and security, and the Cart66 Software as a Service handles everything else for you. Cart66 for WordPress is totally free to use. The only thing you pay is a fee per transaction. It’s a simple, low-cost way to sell things on your website without adding the complexity of a full eCommerce solution.

With Cart66, you’re in control. No complicated setup. If you don’t want to change the design or layout of your website, then just copy and paste the Cart66 plugin shortcode to create a login, a product sales page, a membership signup, a product sales page, or a subscription signup. If you are a bit more experienced or just want more control over the look of the pages, you can use the Cart66 API on custom eCommerce pages in your theme.

Features and Benefits

With Cart66, what you see is what you get. Your store is already set up on your WordPress site and looks exactly like you designed it to look. All the checkout pages and buttons go to your domain, so they look like they belong to your site. As a result, you keep visitors on your site throughout the entire buying process. Your customers can choose from a variety of payment options, including credit and debit cards, PayPal, Check, Bank Transfer, PayPal Payments Pro, Authorize.Net, and Stripe. They can also create and send electronic gifts using whatever email service they prefer, and design custom error pages.

The Cart66 plugin “just works.” That’s because, unlike other eCommerce plugins for WordPress, Cart66 doesn’t need a ton of complicated extensions to get you going. To install it, you unzip a simple zip file and upload one file. That’s it. You have a full-featured, professional online store that you’re ready to build and customize. This solution is also a lot easier for you, the store owner, and all of your customers who go to your store to use and understand. And, if you need an easy way to sell one-to-one, private services—like coaching, consulting, or training—Cart66 lets you quickly set up item pages that send requests directly to your inbox. You can go back and forth with your client on any details, then finish the sale by sending them an invoice.

Installation and Setup

eCommerce plugins have a lot of functionalities, and depending on which you’ve installed, there may be many options for you to configure when first using the plugin. Cart66 is not like that. The first practical aspect that sets Cart66 apart from the crowd is the minimal options during installation and setup. In fact, it has only a single config page that allows you to either configure the plugin from your WordPress admin or use an online dashboard to manage your storefront configuration. This unique way of setting up a cart plugin is not only easier but also enables Cart66 to function incredibly quickly. Everything is stored on secure servers, meaning that there are no performance-hindering files added to your WordPress installation. It’s a set-it-and-forget-it approach with Cart66. Once you download the WordPress plugin and get an API code, you can take a breath.

In addition to being ultra-seamless, Cart66 allows you to create and change designs as much as you want. Thanks to extremely customizable templates, embedded cart products allow you to add any of your products to any of your existing pages, right where you want the product to go. You can choose from any of your pages or add it to your existing theme templates on your WordPress. If you need to change the design for a specific product (or group of products) on a page, you can — it’s simple conditional logic. You can even specify whether or not you want customers to skip the shopping cart for that product and proceed to checkout. This gives you complete control over how products are displayed on your site, as well as how your customers navigate once they’re ready to buy something.

Plugin 6: MemberPress

A shopping cart system can be a powerful way to boost your online sales, but it may not be for everyone. If you want to promote just a few items or want complete control over your promotions, then a shopping cart may not be for you. With these restrictions, selling your content or services directly may be your preferred option. In this lesson, we will be looking at how to build a digital content business that you sell through your website rather than a shopping cart system. This lesson is about creating unique and exclusive digital content and how to put it behind a pay wall.

Content-based websites come in many different flavors. These can include websites that display industry reports or advice. The industry reports can either be purchased directly from the website or the whole report can be viewed in multiple steps with a charge made for each step. This can also be true for industry advice. The person searching for the answer needs to sign up for your services before they can get the answer to their questions. If you provide a valuable service or item, this can lead to lucrative returns.

A unique and powerful choice allows you to bring your content to your audience through the complex digital products you create. It doesn’t have the sheer power or range of options as other systems do, but the emphasis is less on merchandise sales and more on individual items. If you sell FAQs, reports, or other advice for a charge, this option provides a paywall to protect this content from those who do not sign up for your services. The way it does paywalls is different from how a shopping cart works.

Features and Benefits

MemberPress is the best WordPress and WooCommerce membership plugin. There are many other membership plugins like WooCommerce Memberships, MemberMouse, Restrict Content Pro, etc. But, they are not so powerful and easy to use as MemberPress. MemberPress is loaded with lots of powerful features you need in your membership plugin. Lets quickly check the benefits of using MemberPress plugin to create your memberships and subscriptions website. 1. Easy to Use MemberPress is so easy to use that anyone can create a new membership site in under an hour. Due to its intuitive design, you have access to all options without hidden settings. This gives you a nice usable interface. If you run a small membership site or a large membership site with multiple membership levels, you can use MemberPress to create and manage your memberships easily. 2. Powerful Membership Options No plugins offer the level of detailed control over your membership levels as MemberPress. And on the off chance that you do need more functionality, there are additional add-ons available for purchase. MemberPress can easily connect to your existing payment gateways and membership site to take subscriptions and provide your member with the ability to manage own subscriptions themselves. 3. Powerful CMS & Content Restriction One of the biggest selling points of creating a membership site is that you can restrict access to select content. MemberPress allows you to restrict post, page or section. Not only this, you can also restrict access to custom posts, categories, or taxonomy terms. MemberPress gives you powerful content restriction options. This means you can create a membership site to offer the best and different content for each of your membership levels. 4. Ease of Use for Membership Set Up MemberPress makes it very simple to set up Memberships. You can set up your membership with payment gateways without any coding. You just need to add pricing information, offer expiry date, and configure access condition.

Installation and Setup

Unlike many plugins that require you to start with an empty website, for MemberPress you’ll want to have content to protect before using the plugin. In particular, you’ll need to create the pages for your membership options, login, and account. If you want to control what other users can see, it makes sense to create some dummy content that you’d like to protect, create the appropriate pages, and then start the plugin installation and setup. The installation and setup for this plugin is straightforward, although it does require multiple steps. First, install the plugin as you normally would and activate it. You’ll then be taken to the Welcome tab, which prompts you to configure your license. Once you’ve done this, you’ll see a series of setup tasks, which MemberPress will guide you through one by one. The initial setup tasks include: – Activating the plugin. – Connecting your payment gateway. MemberPress integrates with a variety of payment gateways. You’ll need to create an account with one of these services before connecting it to MemberPress. – Updating your account page. This page allows members to change their profile information. – Selecting your Redirection Options. MemberPress allows you to customize the URLs users are sent to after they log in/out and register. When these tasks are completed, you’ll be taken to the Options tab, which is a bit more involved than the initial setup. In the Options settings, you can create any of the following where appropriate: – General Options: Customize messages and errors; determine how long users will stay logged in. – Payment Options: Select how often users will be charged, and configure your payment gateway and refunds. – Account Options: Modify the content of account emails. – Email Options: Customize what users see when they receive various account-related emails.

Plugin 7: WooCommerce Subscriptions

The WooCommerce Subscriptions Plugin for WordPress is the best option available for turning your WooCommerce-powered store into a subscription-based sales powerhouse. Easy to use, packed with features, and helping you increase your online revenues, this WooCommerce extension is a must-have for those wanting to increase their online profits through WordPress.

Features and Benefits

For a small subscription-based business, it’s plausible to manage billing or other subscription-related aspects on your own. But for a full-blown eCommerce site that exists on its ability to bring in substantial profits, it’s better to avoid making mistakes or billing people at the wrong time. This can help with this. It makes it easier to create and manage products in the subscription business. Also, the recurring amounts are automatically billed without requiring the customer to come back to the website each time.

With this, users can add subscription products with multiple variations. They are free to make one-time purchases of simple, listed and variable subscription products. It allows the administrator to set subscription intervals with automated billing on a monthly, yearly or weekly basis. You can also make use of sign-up fees, free trials, and other promotional tools for customers who choose to buy subscription products. You’ll receive email notifications about completed payments, and you can manage, approve or suspend orders if the customer has a recurring payment issue. You can also use Product Bundles and Memberships together with this.

Once a customer decides on a subscription product and starts paying, they’re creating a long-lasting relationship with the products sold on your website. It establishes the relationship and creates customer loyalty. Your customers will come back for weeks, months, or even years – not just because they love the products sold on your site, but also because it has become a ritual for them.

Installation and Setup

If you have not installed WooCommerce yet, navigate to the Plugins > Add New menu in your WordPress admin area. In the search bar, search for “WooCommerce.” The plugin should come up at the top of the search results. Click the Install Now button located next to the WooCommerce plugin title. After the download is complete, you will have the option to activate the plugin. Click the Activate button. Once the plugin is installed and activated, you can customize its settings just like any other plugin by navigating to the WooCommerce > Settings page in your WordPress admin area. However, WooCommerce has a built-in setup wizard that will help you get started. You can launch the wizard by clicking the Run the Setup Wizard button after activating the plugin.

If you do have WooCommerce installed already or if you would like to manually install the WooCommerce Subscriptions Add-On, navigate to the Plugins > Add New menu in your WordPress admin area. Type in “WC Subscriptions” in the search bar, and click Search. The WooCommerce Subscriptions Add-On should pop up at the top of the search results. Click the Install Now button located next to the plugin title and click the Activate button when the download is complete. You may also upload the WooCommerce Subscriptions Add-On file if you have purchased your plugin utilizing the Upload Plugin field at the top of the page. You will also need to purchase an extension if you have not done so already.

Plugin 8: WP Simple Pay

WP Simple Pay is one of the first WordPress plugins created for Stripe payments. You can process both one-time payments and subscriptions with it. You don’t need to use WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads to accept one-time payments with a product/service description. There are options to add coupon codes, customize the success messages, and select the payment confirmation page.

With WP Simple Pay, you can easily create a Stripe payment form on your WordPress site. This plugin is not as fully-featured as WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads, but it doesn’t need to be. If you just need to process digital payments with Stripe, WP Simple Pay is the best solution for you. You don’t need to mess with all the added complexity that a full-fledged eCommerce platform entails since you likely don’t need the additional features.

With WP Simple Pay, you can customize the color and appearance of the payment forms, integrate with templates, add checkout buttons to existing pages, create coupon codes, and more. There is also a built-in donation button feature. Note that these features are only included in the premium version. WP Simple Pay also supports subscription payments, but you need the premium version to check if they have any kind of trial periods available. The premium version starts at a yearly fee, which is a bit steep for a plugin that has a limited use-case.

Features and Benefits

WP Simple Pay is a software solution that gives sales teams and marketers a way to add on-site payment processing to their business website through Stripe. While traditional e-commerce solutions use cart checkouts that funnel customers through multiple steps before making a purchase, WP Simple Pay can enable customers to complete their transactions in one easy step without leaving your site. This quickens the payment process by eliminating the added task of cart creation and management and helps improve potential conversion rates as a result. Users can opt to only sell one-off products or set up subscription services that automatically bill customers at regular intervals. No shopping cart feature available in tons of WordPress plugins is supported. Setting up subscriptions with WP Simple Pay is incredibly straightforward. In just a few clicks, users can create, configure, and publish beautiful forms using the included form designer. You can create forms to process one-time payments or take payments for subscription charges. The plugin also allows you to accept fee estimation payments for invoices built and sent with WordPress. Also supports a total of 14 different payment fields for form creation.

WP Simple Pay lets WordPress users accept credit, debit, and Apple Pay customers from their WordPress website. By using WP Simple Pay, onsite customers can make purchases without the need to jump through hoops or leave your site entirely to complete the payment process. However, WP Simple Pay has some limitations. For example, it doesn’t come with a shopping cart feature – meaning that any items you’re selling need to be enabled to accept payment individually. This can be a hassle if you want to process multiple transactions in one seamless customer journey. Due to the single-item processing, WP Simple Pay may be better suited for specific types of digital stores that deal with unique transactions frequently, such as releases from musicians with an established fanbase. WP Simple Pay is not the typical e-commerce solution. In fact, it’s not an e-commerce solution at all. It’s a way to process onsite payments for potential customers who prefer to make quick and hassle-free transactions without being forced to navigate the time-consuming shopping cart process.

Installation and Setup

Installation of the WP Simple Pay is relatively simple. Simply log in to your WordPress admin and navigate to Plugins → Add New. In the Search plugins bar enter the following “WP Simple Pay”. After you’ve located the plugin, click Install Now and Activate. After you’ve activated the plugin you may be redirected to the WP Simple Pay’s setup wizard to create your first payment form. The wizard will take you through the steps to connect your website to Stripe and create your first payment form within minutes. If instead you’d prefer to set up your payment forms without the wizard you can do so on the main WP Simple Pay page found in your admin sidebar. Simply click on the Payments Forms tab at the top of the page and click on the Add New button. This will take you to the main payment receipt page where you can select the type of payment to accept, set a price, and more. In the form settings section of the payment receipt page you’ll see the option to connect Stripe. After selecting the connect option, clicking on the provided link will take you to a page where you can connect your Stripe account to your website. After that, much like creating a blog post, you can fill in the required info on the payment form settings which include the form title, customize the payment button, enable payment notifications, choose your currency and payment interval, upload a logo, and set which account the funds should go to. After that, you can fill in the settings for the payment form display settings which include configuring the URL on your site where customers will be taken after completing their purchase, customizing the checkout fields and buttons, configure your form style, and other things.

Plugin 9: YITH WooCommerce Wishlist

YITH WooCommerce Wishlist allows your customers to create personalized wish lists with their favorite products, which boosts their chances to find exactly what they want in your store. This optimized process will help users to be more likely to purchase their favorite items and will increase your conversion rates. Additionally, you can configure the plugin to send the wishlist via email to the user or to a friend so they can receive it as a reminder.

Features and Benefits

For many customers, online shopping is not only about making purchases. They also take pleasure in browsing items and gathering ideas for future purchases. A wishlist is a great tool to facilitate this process. It also gives customers a chance to save money. For these reasons, many companies have created the wishlist feature to enhance their user experience, give them a chance to come back, and save converted customers more money.

The wishlist allows your customers to create their own wishlist on your website. The wishlist can contain single or multiple products and is managed from a single place. Customers can share their lists with their friends and families via email or social media. This feature also allows you to create multiple wishlists, which is a great feature for eCommerce websites that offer different product categories.

Because everything in eCommerce is about views and visits, the wishlist helps you monitor which items are visited more often. With these statistics, you can use targeted marketing actions via email, target ads to specific customers on ad networks, or simply reduce the stock for those products while increasing their prices. It is an extremely powerful feature, not in its implementation but in the decisions you can make after retrieving this type of information.

As with many plugins, the installation and basic setup are very easy. After you install and activate it, the wishlist is created automatically and you can start optimizing it from the options page. However, it is worth noting that the free version lacks many important features like the management of multiple wishlists.

Installation and Setup

There are two ways to install a WordPress plugin: uploading it from your computer or searching directly within your WordPress dashboard. For this specific tutorial, let’s use the latter method.

To install a WordPress plugin directly from the dashboard:

1. In your WordPress sidebar, navigate to Plugins → Add New.

2. In the top right search bar, type in the plugin name. In this case, we’ll search for the plugin.

3. In the list of resulting plugins, click Install Now.

4. Once it installs, click Activate.

Once installed and activated, a new tab will appear in your WordPress sidebar: → Wishlist. Click on it to access the plugin’s settings.

Configuration Settings

You’ll land on your Plugin’s main settings page. Most of the Configuration settings are super easy to navigate. However, let’s take a closer look at them, just in case.

General Settings Visibility Enable Wishlist: Apply this only if your shop has at least one product available for purchase. The Wishlist will also be accessible when the person who placed products in it isn’t logged in.

Show the Wishlist to guests: Define if you want your users to share their Wishlist products without logging in to your store. Show the text link to the Wishlist: Activate this if you want your customers to gladly leave the link to their Wishlist on your store page.

Number of links in the Wishlist: Indicate here how many users can share their Wishlist.

Share Enable Sharing: doesn’t come with sharing features by default. However, you can activate this option to allow your users to share their Wishlist easily via email or other social networks.

Title of the share box: This is the title header of the Share Wishlist pop-up. For example: “Share your Wishlist.”

Plugin 10: TrustPulse

The popularity of social proof in marketing can be attributed to a very simple fact: people follow the actions of their peers. When they see an overwhelming number of people trying something, taking action on something, then they feel more at ease and are more likely to get on board. This is where a social proof approach can help you. It displays recent actions taken on your site to potential customers in real time. Want to let everybody know that a certain purchase has just been made? This is possible with this approach.

Tax season can be a peak time for accounting businesses. Wish to leverage social proof to inspire trust in your services? You can show that people are indeed signing up for your services. Fashion e-commerce site? Use this approach to show that indeed people are purchasing multiple clothing items from your site. What content should you use in your notifications? You can show any actions related to your e-commerce site. This includes purchase confirmations, signups, downloads, etc. Your notifications can be customized in terms of text, frequency, and duration of the notification. Notifications can be displayed on specific pages or for certain visitor segments based on the devices they are using, their location, etc.

If you send any SMS or e-mail notifications, this approach can integrate with your system for even broader reach. It can also be integrated with other e-commerce tools. Because it fosters a sense of trust, this approach can also be used on non-e-commerce type of sites, to display newsletter signups or downloads of an ebook, for example. The base plan is free, and offers affordable paid plans for more advanced features.

Features and Benefits

An SSL certificate secures website data and gives your visitors peace of mind. If you want to convert visitors into customers, make sure you keep their personal data safe. Displaying a trust badge on your site is one of the best ways to let them know your site is secure. A trust badge indicates your site protects customers’ payment details, credit card information, and other sensitive data. It’s one of the most effective strategies to establish credibility with your visitors.

A plugin makes it easy to boost your conversion rate and drive up sales. This simple plugin allows you to display the badges that are best suited for your site to make sure your customers feel secure about making a purchase. Especially if you’re a small business or startup or even trying ecommerce for the first time, giving your customers a sense of comfort may help increase and convert more sales.

You only need to install this plugin once, and it works across your entire site. With this easy task done, you’ll have peace of mind knowing your sales are protected by a security badge, ensuring your customers are thinking about each purchase and how you work to keep their data safe. Along with an SSL certificate, using this plugin on your site is a small way to make a big impact.

Installation and Setup

Installing TrustPulse is as easy as installing any WordPress plugin. Simply download TrustPulse from the WordPress plugins directory or search for it from your WordPress backend and install it. After activating, you will need to connect TrustPulse to your website using your account. If you don’t have an account yet, you can create a free account directly from your site dashboard. When you click ‘Connect’, you will be redirected to create a new account. Just add your name, email, and password and TrustPulse will automatically connect to your site once you submit the form!

Once you have set everything up and have connected TrustPulse to your website, you will have to create a new notification in order to set everything up. Just select ‘Create New Notification’ and then pick the type of notification you want. TrustPulse offers three types of notifications: Social Proof, Subscriber Notification, and Review Notification. Each one serves its own unique purpose and can be used for different goals such as increasing product sales or boosting email signup.

Set up the notification type and feel free to customize as much as possible. You can set different types of info to show off and create urgency. TrustPulse also lets you choose the location for your notifications. You can put non-intrusive notifications or sticky notifications at the bottom of your site. It’s all up to you! Finally, you can also decide when to show your notifications. You can either set a specific time and date window or let it play continuously. Once you are done, click on ‘Create Notification’ and you will be all set!

Comparative Analysis of the Plugins

WordPress plugins extend website features and functions. While most WordPress plugin features are accessible, additional website features or functions may require to purchase the paid version. WordPress ecommerce plugins help online stores to effectively manage large numbers of inventory and customers. These plugins also help to overview sales process from product order to shipping. Many ecommerce plugins are available in the market today. Some plugins offer exclusive features attractive for online vendors. A majority of ecommerce plugin features are set to paid versions.

Some of the WordPress ecommerce plugins that help you to easily create your online stores are described in the following table. The table explains short description, hosting support, price, features, and benefits:

WooCommerce plugin is one of the most popular WordPress plugins that allows a vendor to sell almost anything using a WooCommerce powered online store. Store management is simplified with this powerful ecommerce plugin. WooCommerce manages product details, product display, using coupons, payment and shipping options, and sales overview.

Easy Digital Downloads plugin is a popular WordPress plugin to sell digital products. This plugin is best suited for pledging productivity of yourself by selling digital downloads which boost your productivity in your business. This ecommerce plugin manages and tracks customers, sells products or services, and creates an affiliate program.

MemberPress helps you to sell subscriptions and membership websites. This plugin manages memberships in a single site and handles user login, file access, and video protection. This ecommerce plugin also controls subscriptions using automated member account management.

Case Studies: Successful Implementations

In this chapter, we will showcase case studies of successful eCommerce implementations using WordPress, specifically WooCommerce and other plugins. These real-world examples will demonstrate the power and flexibility of WordPress as an eCommerce solution and provide inspiration for your own online business.

Selling Products in a Bar: Story Behind The Horn Barbecue Before having their restaurant, The Horn Barbecue founders would often host barbecues at home for their friends. They wanted a good barbecue place in the middle of Denmark, but there was none. So they opened their own outdoor barbecue restaurant with seating for around 50 people. Last summer, they expanded their menu by launching a range of barbecue sauces. They never expected that the sauces would fly away. Not long after opening, the colors of success were there. Their barbecue sauces got an excellent fit with their business. Customers could book a table on their website and buy sauces and grill rubs right after the meal. The business was booming and the season once again coming to an end. The business model worked perfectly on their website. But, what if an ordinary consumer decides to order a shop’s sauce and use it for their own backyard barbecue in the middle of winter? Dragging the 30-kilograms sauce jug to the car wouldn’t seem easy, so why bother? So they thought about how to solve this issue. They planned to take the restaurant into the online world and create delivery options. They needed a website that could integrate this information and quickly update it. Not an easy job, most agencies wanted to charge a ton of money. That’s when they stumbled upon WordPress.

Future Trends in eCommerce Plugins

The word of eCommerce is rapidly evolving, and so are the eCommerce Plugins that are designed to facilitate your business. With technology getting better and better, we can now expect several innovations to come: The most important trends we see are a greater use of Artificial Intelligence, more mobile-friendly features and payment options, a stronger effort to meet the needs of the physically disabled, social integration and vision for Community-focussed Brands, further Automation, Voice recognition and Virtual-Augmented Reality. eCommerce transactions increasingly happen via mobile devices and eCommerce Plugins that aim to support these transactions step by step, or in ways that accelerate the process will prosper with the rest of the mobile economy. eCommerce Plugins will emphasise various functionalities that help create a better mobile experience. This means quicker load times, less scrolling, large alphabetical sections, getting rid of the Drop-Down Menus, optimised payments, better navigation and faster opt-in checkouts.

Payment methods will also become an increasingly important area of focus for eCommerce Plugins. iPhone Pay, Android Pay and co. need to be implemented quickly to answer to the demands of mobile shoppers who want their purchases to be simple and quick – simply clicking to pay, being able to simply click on the ‘buy now’ button and being done. Further, Security is also expected to be improved with highly visible email-verification and visible Purchase Protection certificates. Digital Trust will become more and more important along the process. The more trust you can establish, the more likely a customer is to purchase from you, and to do so again.

More than 15% of the entire Western World has a physical disability, whether it be visually impaired, hearing impaired, physically impaired to NOT see the tiny details or the fine print of the products such as Size – this is a small market that needs catering to. Community is becoming a stronger and stronger driving factor of today’s Brands. These have an ideal, focus on social change or eco-friendliness, and want to either position themselves within their communities, or do it by supporting their communities. Shoppers want to be socially integrated, and they want to share their experiences with others, and find acknowledgment in the process. eCommerce Plugins that facilitate this Integration, and Plugins that cater to NGOs that want to build a humanitarian-store model will do well in the future.

Best Practices for eCommerce Plugin Usage

Regardless of the plugins your site uses, having too many of them can slow down your site’s performance, especially when it comes to loading speed. It can also jeopardize the security of your entire site by becoming a rich target for hackers. eCommerce sites are more prone to attacks, and hackers are always prowling over sites looking for vulnerabilities. So, performing regular audits of your site and plugin usage can help alleviate some security concerns. Regular plugin updates or site health checks can also help with site speed.

Another suggestion is to scrutinize all the different themes available for your site. Themes are a popular way to help online store owners dress up their websites. Many eCommerce website themes come prepackaged with things like design, layout, menus, and media galleries. But they can quickly impact your site’s performance and cause loading speeds to sluggishly crawl. Are you using a theme that contains several optimized features already loaded? If you are indeed doing this, compromises will likely happen if you are also using too many plugins as well.

User experience is one thing store owners must always think of first. Websites that are easy to navigate often result in repeat customers and others recommending the site to friends and family. That is why it is best to steer clear of embarrassing design faux pas like broken links, outrageous page sizes, and bad quality images. Removing or disabling unused and unwanted plugins and keeping the number of active plugins to a minimum will help reduce many user experience-related problems.

Common Challenges and Solutions

WordPress is very easy to use, but if you run into some trouble, it can be a challenge to find a solution. Below, we’ve gathered some handy troubleshooting tips for some of the more common problems.

My Theme or Plugin is Not Working

WordPress is constantly growing and changing, meaning that plugin or theme code written years ago may be outdated. Often, other code will update around a theme or plugin, and the plugin will get knocked out of commission. Don’t panic if this happens to you — here are the steps you should take to remedy it.

First, look for a newer version. Most plugins and themes will get new updates at least once a year. If the plugin or theme you are using hasn’t been updated recently, check for alternatives. Free plugins and themes are often created and maintained by volunteers, so it is possible your version may have been abandoned.

Next, temporarily deactivate your plugins. Sometimes plugins are not compatible with one another, which creates errors. All you need to do is go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and deactivate one plugin at a time, loading up your site again after each deactivation. When your error has resolved, then you’ve found the problematic plugin and can either update it or get in touch with its creator.

If the plugin or theme doesn’t work for a while, try switching themes. Sometimes the whole theme just needs to be updated. If the theme you have paneled is a premium theme with premium support, contact the creators and ask for help. If it’s a free theme, you may want to look for another.

Also, consider removing unused plugins. Not only do unused plugins take up server space, but also any plugins left hanging can fall behind on security and performance updates. Scanning regularly and organizing will ensure your WordPress is running at optimal capacity.

Conclusion

The advancement of technology has significantly boosted the eCommerce industry and opened new doors for both customers and entrepreneurs. It has become increasingly easier for businesses to reach a wider audience around the world and present products that meet client needs. Likewise, customers can choose from a large number of vendors and find affordable price options with just a few clicks on their computers. And due to the rise of eStores, the competition for big brands has also increased. They have to come up with innovative ideas on a regular basis to keep their clients coming back to their websites. However, we must also admit that setting up a successful eCommerce store is not enough for entrepreneurs to be ahead of their competitors. We are living a digital era where people seek immediate solutions to their needs through the internet. Therefore, entrepreneurs need to plan unique promotional strategies to get people to visit their online stores where they present their products. Otherwise, if no one gets to see their products, it doesn’t matter how innovative and attractive they are, the business will likely not be successful. WordPress is an easy-to-use open-source content management system providing many exciting features to both entrepreneurs and clients. Entrepreneurs can create beautiful eCommerce websites and present their products, while clients can browse different vendor sites to purchase their needed items. WordPress also allows store owners access to a wide range of eCommerce plugins to create new strategies, attract more visitors, and boost online sales while giving them full control over their online stores.