Ever wondered which is the most popular e-commerce platform being used?
No surprises here- it’s WooCommerce!
According to Trends, Intelligence and Internet Research – 29% of online stores use WooCommerce.
But why is that so?
Having worked with WooCommerce for 4 years now, we’ve pretty much understood the ins and outs of the system. But what’s even better, is that we’ve understood why clients prefer it over other e-commerce platforms.
Based on the feedback we’ve received from our clients, the general sense of the e-commerce community and a comparative analysis we’ve run, here are 5 reasons which make WooCommerce more popular than most e-commerce systems out there:
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#1 It’s Free
You’re telling me this reason’s not worth a look?! You’re kidding right?!
Most clients want to consider WooCommerce because it’s free. But see, clients do not opt for WooCommerce, because it’s free. They do so because of the incredible list of extensions that form the WooCommerce ecosystem.
Now, those extensions are not free. But they are cheaper than having them custom made.
See, the benefit of having a free plugin is that it helps fellow plugin developers quickly build extensions. Now, because of these readily available extensions- may it be shipping extensions, payment gateways, marketing tools and so on- the cost of building an online store on WooCommerce is low.
(Psst! We’ve got more than a few extensions too!)
#2 It’s Easy to Use
So I agree- ease of use is subjective.
But if you’ve got 99% of your clients saying that WooCommerce is easy to use. It is because WooCommerce is easy to use.
WooCommerce gets you started with a setup wizard, to help you setup your store within no time.
The setting options are pretty simple too. You’ve got a majority of options right in the default plugin.
And in case you’re stuck anywhere, they’ve got one of the best plugin documentations I’ve seen!
What’s more, is that WooThemes spends sufficient time analyzing customer feedback, along with tracking the plugin’s usage, to make the plugin user-friendly and strip it of unwanted setting options.
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#3 Based on WordPress
When WooCommerce was launched, it gained popularity because of the popularity of WordPress.
No denying that.
I mean it is a plugin on WordPress, it can’t be used without it.
But there’s another way of looking at this.
You see, as compared to standalone e-commerce platforms, WooCommerce has the WordPress advantage. It’s more than just an e-commerce system. Along with the power of content marketing through blogs:
- There are SEO tools available
- Email marketing tools or related integration
- Social networking tools
- There are thousands of themes available to customize the look of your website easily
- It can act as an e-commerce cart for e-learning, event management or a services website
With the acquisition of WooThemes by Automattic, the WordPress bond has just strengthened. You have the guarantee that WooCommerce will grow along with WordPress, and have the awesome community support.
Today the popularity of WooCommerce is comparable to that of WordPress. Services are specializing in WooCommerce development and not just WordPress development. But the advantage that WordPress brings to the table makes it unique.
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#4 The Incredible WooThemes Team
It’s difficult to imagine a popular plugin that lacks good support. Good support, if not more, is just as important as the plugin itself. And this is what’s worked for WooCommerce.
It is the quick, reliable, helpful, educative support that’s made WooCommerce popular.
The code’s impeccable too.
It’s clean, developer friendly, which makes customization work easy. There are sufficient action hooks, filters, templates to override WooCommerce in every way possible. And surely if development isn’t up your alley, you’ve got WooCommerce experts (trusted by WooThemes) to help you out.
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#5 The WooCommerce API
WooCommerce provides a powerful REST API that extends WooCommerce’s capabilities.
With this API, you can use WooCommerce as your e-store backend and use a different front-end. It can even power your mobile app.
If all this is Greek to you, all you need to know is that owing to this API WooCommerce can be seamlessly integrated with an external inventory or order management system, CRM or lead-capture system and more.
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Now now, don’t get carried away.
WooCommerce is by far the most popular e-commerce platform for small to medium scale businesses. But enterprise businesses prefer a purely e-commerce platform. If you were to head back to the e-commerce trends, and filter this data to the 10k most popular e-commerce sites, you’d notice the leading platform is Magento. That’s probably because larger business have the capability to invest in a platform like Magento, which is more scalable and capable of handling complex product configurations as compared to WooCommerce.
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WooCommerce is packed with the needed goods to take your business online and provide you with robust support.
But if you’re unsure and need a reliable voice to help you out here, you can always discuss your detailed requirements with us or write to us in the comment section below! 🙂
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