WordPress has been one of the topmost choices for businesses to build an online store. The major reason behind this is the variety of plugins that it offers. WordPress also offers better customizing options than any other platform and is much easier to use. Not only does it gain the highest rating for SEO but it is cost-effective as well.
Talking about WordPress eCommerce plugins, some are best for selling digital goods while others are more suitable for physical goods that require inventory management and shipping. In order to efficiently manage an eCommerce site one needs to be aware of the plugins that would be best for a particular business.
There are several plugins available on WordPress and we have narrowed it down to 7 of the best WordPress plugins. They are:
WooCommerce
It is the most popular WordPress eCommerce plugin and is great to use for building a storefront from scratch. It is known to be powering around 10% of all eCommerce websites and 22% of the top one million sites.
It is one of the best solutions to rapidly build and expand an online store. It is free of cost and can support unlimited products as well as visitors depending on the hosting infrastructure.
It gets frequently updated with amazing themes and it has in-built support for top payment gateways worldwide. It doesn’t matter that you are a beginner, it has a simple interface that can be operated by all.
Easy Digital Downloads (EDD)
It is a simple and intuitive WordPress eCommerce plugin that enables managing and selling digital assets online. EDD has better support and a cleaner interface than most other plugins. The customer management system of EDD is advanced and helps in tracking customers’ lifetime value as well as activity.
The integrated system gives you a detailed report on taxes, sales, logs, and earnings by date along with categories. You don’t need any other plugin to track payment history as you receive an interface for every record.
There may be times when WordPress storage isn’t enough, EDD has it covered as it comes with integrated Amazon S3 and Dropbox.
Cart66
It is a WordPress eCommerce plugin that has built its reputation on being a smart way to approach building an online store. It has lowered the need for extra plugins which has resulted in it having several features built-in. It is very easy to set it up and the reviews are all positive. The email marketing feature is stronger than most competitors.
This plugin can be used to sell both digital as well as products. It provides around 100 payment gateways and also enables you to restrict content in case you sell an online course or study material. If you need developers by your side for maintaining your business, Cart66 is the way to go.
Ecwid
This WordPress eCommerce plugin enables you to include a shopping cart on any site. It helps first-timers with a to-do list and has a feature like abandoned cart recovery built-in. It is better than any other plugin when it comes to translation with 50+ languages available on auto as it detects consumers’ settings.
It is focused on helping you sell from multiple platforms. You can sell your products on platforms like eBay, Amazon, Google Shopping, Facebook, and more. It also has a feature like real-time shipping rates which gives you the price of delivering a package then and there. This plugin is a good choice for people looking to sell digital goods.
WP eCommerce
It is a free WordPress eCommerce plugin with out-of-the-box marketing tools. It enables cross-selling of products which can significantly increase sales. You can get shipping rates from UPS/USPS or set your own rates. It gives the option to customize using CSS or HTML and the management of orders is taken care of by powerful built-in specifics.
With WP eCommerce you get the option to set discounts as well as distribute time-based coupons to lure customers. It has no transaction fee and runs on multiple processors. This plugin is best for small businesses and is a good option for setting up a membership business.
WP EasyCart
This WordPress eCommerce plugin makes trading easy no matter what the product is. It supports 25+ payment gateways, multiple languages, and comes with integrated Google analytics to receive accurate reports. It is SEO optimized for each commodity and supports sharing on social media accounts.
It connects with business tools like Mailchimp, Shipstation, TaxCloud, and Quickbooks. The plugin is specifically built for small businesses. You can sell anything from retail items to gift cards and subscriptions to downloads.
BigCommerce for WP
It is a WordPress eCommerce plugin that combines the content management power of WordPress with the amazing eCommerce features of BigCommerce. It has functionalities that could serve all types of business models. It offers a secured store with reduced risk and enables unlimited scalability.
The experience for developers is seamless as it comes along with the integration of all tools needed for large-scale online business and it does not comprise user experience in any way. The check-out process is easy and it is an intuitive control panel via which one can manage shipments, catalog updates, and orders for multiple websites.
Conclusion
To conclude, it’s correct that WordPress was built for blogs but with time it has progressed to be a great tool for building complex websites like eCommerce. If you are planning to open an eCommerce store, the above-mentioned plugins would come in handy.
Keep in mind that these WordPress eCommerce plugins may not cater to all needs and you would need to add some plugins. They all come in free versions but we would recommend you to use the paid version to have a seamless experience.