Among the many reasons why you should use WordPress, one of the best reasons is the potential for translating site visits into direct online sales. There are several eCommerce platforms, payment gateways, and plugins that are available to WordPress site owners to help you sell digital and physical products online. But which are the best WordPress eCommerce plugins?
The right plugin makes it easy to add your products and start selling to the masses from your own eCommerce store with just a little time and configuration. With a full eCommerce site, whether for physical products or selling digital goods, you can take your WordPress site to the next level.
Here are some of the best eCommerce plugins to consider for your site.
WooCommerce
This giant eCommerce WordPress plugin is the most popular solution for business owners, actively being used by almost two million websites. WooCommerce is a free plugin that comes with a wide range of built-in marketing tools like analytics and discount codes. The WooCommerce plugin also offers paid add-ons for enhanced functionality, including the ability to integrate with other plugins and extensions.
The free version is a good place to set up a basic store, while the extra plugins can help with solutions like selling subscriptions or connecting to social media. With easy-to-understand analytics, freedom to customize themes, and a robust knowledge base, it is no surprise why WooCommerce is widely considered the best WordPress eCommerce plugin.
Shopify
Perhaps you already have an online store or account with a third-party provider such as Shopify. With a Shopify plugin for WordPress, such as ShopWP, you can seamlessly connect and display/sell your existing Shopify products directly on your WordPress website. With this option, you can take advantage of the benefits of two powerhouses in one and grow your online presence and marketing efforts. These plugins can help you sync products, Shopify buy buttons, and other features on your WordPress site.
Shopify itself is generally praised for its user-friendly approach that doesn’t require coding, as well as its variety of templates and themes you can use for customization. Shopify also includes several helpful tools like abandoned cart recovery. However, it charges per-sale transaction fees on top of its monthly subscription fee.
Easy Digital Downloads
Not every store is going to sell physical products. If you’re only selling digital products, it can be helpful to have a plugin that focuses exclusively on selling digital downloads for a more streamlined experience. Easy Digital Downloads is a popular choice in this area. It offers a free version for selling license-free products (like ebooks), as well as a paid annual subscription that unlocks more advanced features.
The free version includes reporting, shopping cart functionality, and support for payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe. However, many advanced features, such as free trials, software licensing, and support for Apple Pay and Google Pay, are locked behind the paid version.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is one of the most popular eCommerce plugins for WordPress among large enterprise businesses. It has both a fully hosted platform as well as a plugin for WordPress. It provides a separate platform for managing the store, and then automatically syncs to the WordPress store every five minutes. It also automatically creates key eCommerce pages, such as sign-in, checkout, and account pages.
BigCommerce’s monthly fees scale based on your revenue. This might not be the best if you don’t have predictable sales, as you could periodically experience a big jump in your monthly costs.
Choose the Right Plugin for Your eCommerce Website
In this era, implementing eCommerce is a smart decision for many businesses. The potential reach and buyer pool is far greater, orders can be placed 24/7, and potential buyers are given a shopping experience that makes them feel more in control. With that said, this makes finding the best eCommerce plugins for WordPress essential to grow your online business.
As this overview shows, there are many plugins that could work well, but you need to find the one that fits your business. Choosing the right plugin will give you the eCommerce functionality you need to deliver a quality shopping experience for your own customers. Contact us if you’d like to discuss the options for your project.
