WooCommerce Plugin—Most Trusted Free eCommerce WordPress Plugin
The eCommerce Revolution:
Before pinpointing the pros and cons of the world class eCommerce WordPress plugin, it is logical to have a brief overview of the practice and scope of eCommerce in general. The introduction of online trade has revolutionized the commerce at international level and made it more dynamic, easier to work and quicker to access than ever before. Concerning commerce, it is the large scale activity of buying and selling that has an impact on the business prospects of a nation’s economy. The firms, with an eCommerce-based platform, are flourishing day by day and contributing their part to the global economy. It has, undoubtedly, become a source of earning a great fortune in short time for the businesses. If a new such project is backed by the most advanced tools and techniques, it will start making profits within days!
Why Shouldn’t You Code an eCommerce System Yourself?
Inspired by its great and long term advantages, if you want to launch your own eCommerce platform, you will have to look for a ready to use online trading tool. Self-coding of such a system would require an advance level of professional skill on your part. Moreover, you will also have to devote a lot of time and effort for this cause. Still, the success of the project is likely to remain uncertain until it is confirmed by proper testing. On the other hand, if the most advanced and trusted plugin is available totally free of cost, it would be the wisest thing to go for it.
What Advanced eCommerce Functionalities Do You Need?
There are a number of basic and advanced requirements for an accomplished and fully managed eCommerce system. On the first place, you need to display icons, buttons and tags to let the people know that you are offering online buying and selling facility for your products. An “Add to Cart” button, attached to the product to be sold, will enable the interested buyers to add it to their shopping cart for purchase along with other selected items. A price tag with discount coupon is to attract the potential buyers. A shopping cart icon is meant to show the shoppers all the items they might have selected to buy. Here there should also be an option to remove the selected items if necessary. The next phase is concerned with making online transactions through a safe, secure and trusted payment gateway, such as PayPal. So, your system must also be integrated with such internationally reputed payment systems. Likewise, certain other advanced features are also to be found in your eCommerce system for the maximum facilitation of the buyers.
The Most Trusted Free eCommerce WordPress Plugin—WooCommerce Plugin:
With over a million active installs, WooCommerce enjoys the distinction of being the world’s most widely used eCommerce tool ever. At the same time, it excels in all aspects of power and functionality as compared with the competitors in the market. The same is obvious from the fact that hundreds of users have rated it as a 5-star product. As a usual practice, the developers do not provide free updates and customer support for a free product but the same is not true for WooCommerce. WooThemes, the developers of the product, keep on launching updated and improved versions of WooCommerce WordPress plugin on regular bases, whereupon new advanced features are added and the plugin is made compatible with the latest version of the WordPress platform. The users are not disappointed even on the front of customer support as the developers facilitate them in every possible way in the resolution of different coding or customization related issues.
WooCommerce versus WP eCommerce and Others:
In addition to WooCommerce plugin, a number of other shopping cart plugins are available that are integrated with PayPal and offered for free, such as WP eCommerce, WP EasyCart, Simple WordPress PayPal Shopping Cart, Simple eCommerce Shopping Cart, Ecwid Shopping Cart and MiwoShop, etc. Carrying out comparison, you will see that WooCommerce is the choice of the majority. It has got maximum number of active installs and more 5-star ratings. The positive reviews further signify its worth. The power, variety and quick functioning of the features are also better than those of others.
Features That Set WooCommerce Apart:
Given below is a list of some of the exceptionally powerful features of the best shopping cart plugin:
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Excellent Coding:
The coding of the world’s most popular online trading system is based on the best WordPress practices. As a result, you get a perfectly structured error-free product that will pose no difficulty while working.
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Easy Installation:
You can integrate this eCommerce system into your website through the WP platform with just a couple of clicks.
- Quick Customization: After installing the plugin, you would definitely like to show shopping cart icon, “Add to Cart” buttons and price tags, etc. at the desired locations on the webpage. All these things and different kinds of other customizations can be carried out in just a few seconds. To make the work easy for you, different shortcodes and widgets are also provided that are ready to use.
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Popular Payment Gateways:
WooCommerce plugin is integrated with world’s most popular payment gateways, including PayPal Standard that can accept payments from Credit Card as well as PayPal account. Similarly, Simplify Commerce, BACS, Cash on Delivery are also provided.
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Shipping Methods:
Among shipping methods, you can make use of ‘free shipping’ and ‘flat rate shipping’.
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Keep Updated about Sales, Reviews, Performance and Stats:
The smart and efficient dashboard widgets will keep you stay updated about the sales of your products; reviews left by the customers; performance of the general store; stock levels; different statistics; and all other kind of information related to your online store.
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Many Free Extensions:
WooCommerce is not only receptive to different eCommerce related extensions but also comes packed with a collection of free extensions. You will need such plugins to add extra functionalities to your online store. The free extensions include Google Analytics, WooCommerce Customizer, Sequential Order Numbers, PDF Invoices and Packing Slips, Delivery Notes, Custom Product Tabs, Affiliate Integration Lite and Admin Bar Addition.
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Compatibility with All Themes:
Owing to the high level of flexibility, you can use the plugin on almost any kind of WordPress theme without making any changes in its coding structure.
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Updates and Customer Support:
Contrary to the common practice, this free online trading system is improved and updated on regular basis. Whenever, a new version of WordPress is launched or new theme building trends are introduced, a new update of the WooCommerce is released to make it stay compatible with everything and never go outdated. Similarly, free customer support is offered to the users on their request.
Final Remarks:
WooCommerce is, indeed, a great product for all those who want to launch a thoroughbred eCommerce store with all the modern buying and selling functionalities, including the highly celebrated payment gateways, like PayPal. Installation and customizations are particularly very easy. The smart dashboard widgets give you information about sales, performance and all other things related to the online shop. For additional functionalities, you can make use of free and premium extensions. You will always find it compatible with the latest version of WordPress and themes as updates are launched regularly.