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 WooCommerce Review 

The most popular e-commerce platform on the internet has two major advantages, it is free and incredibly customizable, so it can do almost anything you want it to. It requires a little more work to set up and maintain as a WordPress plug-in, but many companies find the extra work to be well worth it.

Although "Shopify" has come to be associated with e-commerce software, WooCommerce holds the most market share. WooCommerce is clearly the better platform, as evidenced by the more than 3.8 million websites that use it (more than twice as many as Shopify). It has an advantage over the competition due to its unbeatable price: it is free. The GNU Public License (GPL), which governs open source software, mandates that WooCommerce be free to distribute and use.

The platform was created in 2008, or at least that is when it first came to be. To put it gently, the attempt of WooThemes, a business that specialized in developing WordPress themes and plugins, to develop an e-commerce plugin for the well-known content management system did not go well. They focused on an already-existing platform that was thought to be the best: Jigoshop/ Woo attempted to buy it outright, but Jigoshop rejected the offer, calling it arrogant.

Jigoshop then discovered the hard way that your ownership only extends so far when working with open source software. Mike Jolley and James Koster, the two programmers in charge of creating Jigoshop, received an offer from WooThemes. They were unable to take their work with them, but they were able to fork the source code (copy it, then modify it) and produce something entirely different. After accepting the deal, Jolley and Koster informed Jigoshop that it may go fork itself going ahead.

WooCommerce eventually debuted in 2011, and together with WordPress, it gained popularity. With a market share of 60.4 percent, WordPress is the most widely used content management system worldwide. As a result, WooCommerce is the most widely used e-commerce plugin for today's most widely used CMS. But once more, does that automatically make it the best?

It appears that Automattic, a firm, agrees. They fully purchased WooThemes in 2015, and WooCommerce became their main offering. This gave Automattic the credibility it needed to secure $300 million in funding from Salesforce in 2019 along with a number of other notable acquisitions (including Tumblr). The most recent fundraising round increased Automattic's worth to an incredible $3 billion. WooCommerce's proprietors have been making a lot of money, so if the platform isn't already the best one out there, it will undoubtedly get better with time.

WooCommerce doesn't have many if any, well-known brands as clients, but they're undoubtedly content with their roughly 4 million less-famous customers. Continue reading to learn what's good and bad about the software that runs most of the commercial internet.

Important Characteristics

Woo's open source base and free price tag don't always mean you've awoken in a utopia as envisioned by John Lennon, where capitalism is extinct. 

The reason Automattic, the company that owns the software, spent so much money to purchase Woo in the first place is that they obviously failed to understand the portion of the song where we're supposed to envision having no possessions (it would have been simple if they tried). By selling add-ons and expansions, they hope to recuperate that money. WooCommerce is therefore pre-built for selling products and comes with a lot of bells and/or whistles to liven things up. 

But here are some things you can do for nothing:

Blocks for WooCommerce products: Building your website with product blocks is easier. When you add a block for a certain item, that item will show up on the store page you're building. Create a link to a new page (and the page) of all the items that fall under the category by adding a category block. More than 20 different block kinds are available to help you organize and build your site more quickly.

Create a Full Online Store: You can build a whole website from top to bottom with regular content, blogs, and of course a catalog of goods you can sell online if you're using WordPress, which implies you're utilizing WooCommerce.

Gifting: You can either manually send a gift or set up a system of rules to automate gifting for your clients. When a customer complies with the requirements, a gift may be gratuitously placed in their basket automatically, or they may be given the option to select from a list.

Rewards & Loyalty: a method of accumulating points that rewards clients for doing business with you; points can be exchanged for savings or a free present. Having free gifts in mind.

Discount codes and coupons: With Woo, coupons are very adjustable, allowing you to set discounts in terms of percentages or dollars, at the level of individual products or entire carts, or even depending on a selection of products.

Inventory Control: Woo provides simple inventory features for keeping track of your item quantity. Inventory decreases by one when an order is placed; if it is canceled before it is sent, it is added back to stock. Customers cannot see the item if it is out of stock. To get much deeper than that, you'll need an extension, but at least you won't upset any clients by unintentionally passing off something you don't have.

Unlimited and Flexible Products: You are not limited to only selling tangible goods that you ship. There is no restriction on the number of things you can carry, and sales of digital goods (like software) and subscriptions are also possible.

Cross-sells and upsells: Woo may exploit the potential for upselling and cross-sell that are created when you link particular products in the backend.

Reporting & Dashboard: WooCommerce has always included quick glances and detailed analyses of what's happening with your business, but with the most recent update, they have been completely redesigned and enhanced. Analytics is better than data, which is always nice, and you'll get both.

Automation: With the release of version 4.0, Woo unveiled a number of automation features. It is now able to recover abandoned carts, follow up with inactive customers, follow up after sales, send birthday emails and texts, create customized coupons, and more.

Shipping using WooCommerce: This only works with the US Postal Service and lets you calculate shipping charges for consumers in real-time during the checkout process. You may also optimize processes and print shipping labels with it at a discount.

Organizing Your Store

You must install WooCommerce manually in order to utilize it, unlike other SaaS e-commerce platforms. It's not tremendously difficult to do this you just need to search for the plugin in your WordPress installation, click the button to add it, and the rest of the installation will be guided. 

It resembles setting up any other competitive platform in that you must name your store, choose a currency, define tax information, and define other fundamental characteristics. Installing WordPress won't be too difficult for you technically if you're familiar with it. Start learning WordPress if you are unfamiliar with it. WooCommerce is a component of WordPress and operates within its architecture.

If you're already familiar with WordPress, this makes the learning curve really simple. You'll be able to use WooCommerce if you're familiar with the admin dashboard and know how to add a new page or blog entry. Your learning curve with WordPress will be comparable to utilizing another e-commerce platform with its own controls and interface if you are unfamiliar with it. 

In actuality, the only individuals who would find it challenging to become proficient with WooCommerce are those who have prior knowledge of other CMS and e-commerce platforms. Everything will appear pretty strange if you are switching from, say, Shopify or Wix. But learning won't be difficult; rather, you'll need to relearn what you already know.

You can move forward with setting up your store once Woo is installed and set up. It's simple to add products; just select "Add New" from the WooCommerce product menu and begin filling out the fields. It is simple to fill out the fields for the product's name, category, description, price, delivery information, and attributes. 

Because the platform distinguishes between "Simple Products" and "Variable Products" as a top-level property, adding item variants becomes a little more challenging. The majority of systems only let you add a product. If there are variations, you must define them; if not, you can ignore those fields. Before you even add the product, you must inform WooCommerce if there will be many variations. 

For instance, if you offer earbuds, you might not consider the product to be changeable and add it as a simple product. Later, when the manufacturer decides to sell it in more color options, you want to stock those choices. Before beginning to add the additional properties, you must convert the product type. To put your entire catalog online, you can either upload products one at a time or in bulk through an import.

Content Administration

Because WooCommerce was created as a plugin for a content management system, it does not come with a built-in content management system. Utilizing WordPress tools and themes, all of that design work is done at the site level. 

Installing a theme that is properly labeled as a WooCommerce theme is important. You can use any of the tens of thousands of WordPress themes for your store, but getting one to function properly with your Woo-specific pages may require additional effort if it even does. The WooCommerce Storefront theme, which is extremely configurable and speeds up the creation of the site, is an option you can use during installation. 

For the Storefront theme, there are a few distinct skins (referred to as Child Themes) that you may choose from too rapidly modify the appearance, or you can go detail by detail and personalize to your heart's delight. There are about 1,300 additional WooCommerce-specific themes on ThemeForest if you can't find what you're looking for.

Integration services

The WooCommerce Store has a startling number of products available. Almost anything you can imagine has probably already been created and is downloadable. 

They have add-ons for dropshipping, marketing, CRM, social media, social proofing, payments, analytics, multi-channel selling, shop management, and store improvements.

Remember that Woo is an open source platform with a public API that anyone may use to integrate any software if, on the odd chance, it is unable to handle what you require.

Price

WooCommerce is open source software, which means it is free to download and use forever, as was indicated in the Overview. WooCommerce has a "freemium" model rather than being free, and Automattic would not have spent the money it did on purchasing Woo if it didn't believe it would generate considerable revenue from it.

Although you can get online and start taking orders right away with all the essential capabilities, more sophisticated functionality has to be downloaded and deployed as an extension. Some extensions are also free, although many come with a cost. These expenses could involve a one-time price or ongoing charges. 

If you're considering utilizing WooCommerce, it's a good idea to have a clear understanding of the features you need in advance so you can investigate each extension you'll need to add. You won't be able to determine the true cost of utilizing your free program any other way.

WooCommerce may increase your prices further depending on where you host your WordPress website. You must sign up for a "Business Plan" ($25/mo) if you're creating a website on WordPress.com in order to even be able to install plugins. Similar limits might also be placed by other hosting firms that offer WordPress as a CMS option. 

If you owned and operated your own server or hosted with a firm that solely offers shell access, you would know for sure that you could use WordPress and WooCommerce without being forced into a plan. You'll need to be more attentive about keeping track of all your various charges if you don't want to pursue these selections or don't understand what they entail.

WooCommerce has its own payment system, which goes by the name of you'll never guess WooCommerce Payments. The cost per transaction for credit and debit cards issued in the US is 2.9 percent plus 30 cents. The price increases by one point for any card from another nation, making it 3.9 percent plus 30 cents per. 

Woo is free source and highly versatile, so keep that in mind. Additionally, you can connect almost any other payment method to operate with the platform or utilize PayPal or Stripe straight out of the box. Woo does not impose a per-transaction cost if you choose another payment source, in contrast to competitor systems like Shopify.

WooCommerce has a supplementary fee, which is their customer support. I should say, their lack of it. Yes, the product is free, but you get what you pay for in terms of support: there is an online knowledge base with how-to guides and product documentation. You can submit inquiries to Woo directly through a web-based help system and user forums.

You'll have to wait around 24 hours before you hear back from anyone, but they do have individuals who will respond and try to assist. A support technician will advise you to delete any third-party extensions you may have installed in order to enhance functionality. Given how DIY the platform is, you can and should employ a so-called WooExpert for third-party support; add that to your WooCommerce usage charges.

Conclusion

With good reason, WooCommerce is the most popular e-commerce platform in the world. It provides more than enough capabilities by default to build an e-commerce website with a professional appearance, and it does so for free. However, with that price tag comes a little more responsibility because you'll need to go through a long learning process before you feel completely comfortable setting up and running your company.

This may not be the platform for you if you are not tech-savvy. It's not as simple as something like Shopify, but it doesn't require any expert skills to set it up or keep it running. This platform will undoubtedly be too much for you if you've ever needed assistance using your smartphone. Even if you lack any other expertise, you will succeed if you are the person that others turn to for assistance. Most likely, your online business will perform better.