If you are a business owner running different businesses online on WordPress or wanting to cater to audiences spread across different countries, WooCommerce multisite can be an extremely useful tool for your business.
Through our guide, you will get to know everything you need about WooCommerce multisite, right from its benefits and challenges to setting it up and managing it effectively.
What is WooCommerce Multisite?
WooCommerce Multisite, also known as WooCommerce Multistore, is a network of websites that run the same WordPress installation and the WooCommerce eCommerce plugin. Essentially, this feature allows you to manage multiple WooCommerce stores within a single WordPress multisite network.
Each such store can be managed individually and independently, having unique products, multiple payment gateways, checkout process, specific user roles with centralized management etc., thereby providing you larger flexibility and control over your eCommerce operations.
Benefits of WooCommerce Multisite
- Centralized management of business
WooCommerce multisite acts as the single point of management for all your e-commerce operations. In other words, everything gets controlled from a single WordPress dashboard. This makes it easier to update themes, plugins, and WordPress core across all sites simultaneously saving cost and efforts. - Resource efficiency
By sharing themes, plugins, product and user database tables across the different webstores, WooCommerce multisite will help you to reduce the server load and resource costs. This ultimately results in making your business system efficient. - Scalability
WooCommerce Multisite is built with the objective of business scalability. This tool allows you to add new stores as your business grows without needing entirely new systems. This makes it a solid choice for large businesses operating across different business lines. - Consistent Branding
Multisite feature allows you to make changes to cater to different markets, customers or product lines for your business while still maintaining the maintain the unified brand image across all business stores.
When should you use Multisite feature?
- Multi-brand businesses: Multisite is a great facility for people having diversified product or service portfolio. You can simply create a separate store for each brand portfolio while maintaining a single point of administration. For instance, while Volkswagen is the parent brand, it has several co-brands such as Audi, Skoda, Porsche, Bentley etc.
- Multi-location businesses: You can even create a webstore based on geographies as each country may have its own cultural and legal norms. This customization will help you in establishing authority locally.
- Complex product catalogues: If you have a complex set of product or service portfolio, you can simply split your e-commerce setup across different websites to ensure business efficiency and performance at the Company level.
- Affiliate marketers: The multisite feature can also be used to create separate store for each affiliate program.
Setting Up WooCommerce Multisite
- Install WordPress multisite
- Start by installing WordPress on your server. Ensure that your hosting environment supports WordPress multisite. Ensure you have backed up all your existing website data to avoid any data loss. Also, deactivate all active plugins on your store.
- Enable multisite
- Edit your wp-config.php file to enable the multisite feature. Add the following line to the php file:
- /* Multisite */
define( ‘WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE’, true );
- Multisite network setup
- After enabling Multisite, go to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Tools > Network Setup.
- Choose between sub-domains and sub-directories as requested.
- Fill in the necessary details requested therein and click Install.
- Follow the instructions to add specific lines to your wp-config.php file. Once you have added these lines, you might have to clear the web browser cookies and thereafter login in again into the system.
- Update the admin settings
- A My Sites menu will appear in the top bar of your WordPress admin dashboard. Navigate to the Network Dashboard to manage network options. This will also have the details of all your websites currently in existence.
- Install WooCommerce
- Once your network is set up, install the WooCommerce plugin on your main site. Follow the steps – My Sites > Network Admin > Plugins > Add New > WooCommerce.
- This will make WooCommerce available to all subsites in your network. However, you will have to activate the WooCommerce plugin on each of your website separately.
- Configure Subsites
- Once WooCommerce is installed, you can create and configure your sub-sites as needed. To access your existing websites, Go to WordPress dashboard > Sites > All sites. If you want to create a new website, click on Add New and fill the details requested therein.
- Each subsite can have its own unique settings, products, and design as per the requirements of your business.
- In order to configure the settings related to each website, Go to the -subsite dashboard > WooCommerce > Settings. You can configure all the requisite settings for your website such as those related to products, shipping, payments, email etc, from this section.
- It may be noted that by default each website has a separate checkout page and payment setting. You can club all these options and manage them from one place through a multi-store plugin.
- Managing permission and roles across Multisite network
- If you want to assign a particular user that is having access to all your websites across the network, go to My Sites > Network Admin > Dashboard > Users > All Users.
Managing WooCommerce Multisite
- Centralized updates
Use the network dashboard to update themes, plugins, and WordPress core across all sites simultaneously. This saves time and ensures consistency. - User management
Manage user roles and permissions across your network to control access to different stores and functionalities. - Performance monitoring
Regularly monitor the performance of your multisite network. Use caching plugins and optimize database queries to maintain speed and efficiency.
Best Practices for WooCommerce Multisite
- Regular backups
Perform regular backups of your multisite network to prevent data loss. Use reliable backup plugins or services. - Security measures
To defend your network from attacks, use security features like two-factor authentication, security plugins, and strong passwords. - Testing and staging
Test significant changes on a staging site before implementing them to be sure they won’t have an adverse effect on your live stores.
Challenges of WooCommerce Multisite
- Increased complexity
When your product portfolio or business increases, managing number of sites can be a challenging task. You have to ensure that data is correctly synchronized across all websites and brand consistency is maintained. To tackle these issues, you can make use of various plugins as discussed below. - Performance tuning
Running multiple business with centralized control can significantly impact the performance of your websites. This will have a direct impact on the SEO optimization and Google search rankings of your website. To resolve this issue, you can make use of caching plugins such as WP Rocket or W3 Total Cache to manage the caches and optimize the website database. - Plugin compatibility
Not all WooCommerce plugins are designed with multisite feature in mind. This can hamper the functioning of the various plugins and make them obsolete. Thus, you may have to do custom selection of plugins for your sub-site’s basis the requirements.
Plugins to manage WooCommerce multisite
- WooMultistore
- WooMultistore allows you to manage large number of WooCommerce webstores from a single WordPress Multisite installation.
- This plugin provides features such as centralized inventory management, order management, product synchronization by pushing product changes across websites at the same time, and bulk product updates across different sites simultaneously.
- Cost – $199 per year for a single site license, which includes one year of support and updates.
- WooCommerce API Product Sync
- This plugin is created by miniOrange. It makes use of WooCommerce REST API to help you sync your products across multiple WooCommerce stores at the same time. This plugin ensures that all your products data remain consistent across the websites and provide a consistent brand to the users.
- The major benefit of this tool is the real time updates of inventory details across all your websites and migration of entire product catalog across websites with one click.
- Cost – The premium version starts at $499 per year and the enterprise version at $699 per year. You can customize your plan as well basis your business requirements.
- WP Activity Log
- This plugin allows you track the activities of users accessing different websites across your WooCommerce multisite network. It helps you monitor changes, detect suspicious behavior, and maintain security of your websites.
- By using this plugin, you can track changes to pages and user profiles, manage user sessions and even terminate idle user sessions.
- Cost – The premium plan starts at $139 per year, while the enterprise plan starts at $189 per year.
- WP Global Cart for WooCommerce
- WP Global Cart provides one of the most unique global shopping experiences for your WooCommerce Multisite network. This plugin will allow your customers to add products from different ecommerce stores to a single cart and then checkout seamlessly without the hassle of jumbling for different order placements.
- This plugin also provides you detailed reports on your customers, orders and product stocks across all webstores globally.
- Cost – Starts at $120 per year for a single network license. The developer license, which includes unlimited networks, is a one-time payment of $290.
- WooCommerce Multisite Duplicator
- This plugin will allow you to duplicate your WooCommerce products, product categories as well as settings across your multisite network from a single place.
- This plugin comes in handy when you want to set up a new webstore with similar configurations as the existing one.
- Cost – Part of the Duplicator Pro package, which starts at $199.50 per year for up to 20 sites.
- User Role Editor
- User Role Editor allows you to manage the user roles and capabilities across your multisite network. This plugin is particularly helpful for controlling access to different stores and functionalities.
- With this plugin, you can assign specific responsibilities to a user or remove them at the click of a few checkboxes. This plugin even allows you to assign multiple roles to user at the same time.
- Cost – The Pro version starts from $29 per year for Pro Personal and goes upto $318 for Pro Unlimited Lifetime for a lifetime access to the plugin.
- User Switching
- User Switching will allow you to quickly switch between user accounts in your multisite network. It is highly useful for testing and managing user roles.
- You as an administrator can instantly log in or log out as the desired user through this plugin. This is a community developed and supported plugin.
- Multistore Multivendor
- This plugin will enable a multivendor marketplace across your WooCommerce Multisite network. Through this plugin, vendors can manage their products and orders from a single dashboard, while you maintain control over the entire network of your website.
- Multistore Multivendor also offers the facility of centralized inventory management for all vendors on your webstore as well as centralized order data management.
- Cost – The premium version costs £299 for lifetime access.
- LiteSpeed Cache
- LiteSpeed Cache is a powerful caching plugin that helps you with improving the performance of your WooCommerce Multisite network through features like image optimization, database optimization, and server-level caching.
- Through this plugin you can also minify and combine the CSS and JavaScript files.
- Cost – The LiteSpeed Cache plugin itself is free. You can download it from the website. However, as per the plugin provider, you will need a LiteSpeed server, which have certain associated costs.
- Central Stock for WooCommerce
- Central Stock helps you manage inventory across multiple WooCommerce stores. It ensures that stock levels are synchronized, preventing overselling and stock discrepancies.
- Cost – Starts at $99 per year for a single site license. The developer license for up to 5 sites is $199 per year.
- MonsterInsights
- MonsterInsights is an analytics plugin that provides detailed insights into your store’s performance, helping you make data-driven decisions. Through this plugin you can integrate with Google Analytics and have a real time view of statistics on your WordPress dashboard.
- This plugin also provides you with detailed reports on source of traffic across your websites and the user behaviour across your webstores.
- Cost – The Pro plan, suitable for eCommerce sites, costs $199.60 per year for up to 5 sites.
Conclusion
If you a multi-business or product line owner or wishing to expand your business globally with a local touch, WooCommerce Multisite is your go to feature. The feature will allow you to cut expenses and save time by centralizing management, pooling resources, and simplifying upgrades. You may overcome typical obstacles related to setup of different websites and give your customers a flawless buying experience with a customized touch to local culture.
So are your ready to boost your business and create an appealing ecommerce experience for your business with WooCommerce Multisite? Contact Wisdmlabs expert team today.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Does WooCommerce multisite network has different themes option?
It is possible to utilize distinct themes for every website. This will enable you to independently alter each website’s look. - Is it possible to share products across multiple stores in a WooCommerce Multisite network?
Yes, you can make use of plugins like Central Stock for WooCommerce or Woo Multistore to share your company products across different web-stores. - How do I handle payments in a WooCommerce Multisite network?
Depending on your needs, you can either utilize a centralized payment system or independent payment gateways for every e-commerce site.
