Last month, I wrote about the benefits of having a shopping cart on your website, even if you don’t plan to sell a thing online (you’ll have to read it to make sense of that one!), as well as how to choose the right shopping cart for your business.
This article is a sequel, in which we’ll explore an alternative shopping cart provider… WordPress. You’re probably familiar with WordPress as a blogging platform. However, it’s not just the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world, although that’s a big enough feat in itself! In its 10 years, WordPress has evolved into a fully functional content management system. What does that mean? Basically, you can use it to create your own website and you don’t need to know anything about computer programming to do it! Thanks to an array of customisable templates and plugins, small business owners can tailor a website to their unique needs and aesthetics at a low price. What’s more, WordPress provides an all-in-one service — you can also register a domain name and host your website.
Um, what does this have to do with eCommerce?
Plenty! WordPress offers a huge selection of eCommerce plugins. In case you don’t know, a plugin is a little software “extra” that gives your website additional capabilities, in this case a shopping cart.
A WordPress shopping cart is a poor cousin… or is it?
Let’s go back a step… some people believe a WordPress shopping cart is a bit like that embarrassing relative you hide in the far corner of the Christmas dinner table. Sure, this might have been the case while the application was finding its eCommerce feet, but it’s definitely not true now. In fact, a true computer geek, one who makes me look quite mild, recently told me the WooCommerce WordPress plugin leads the shopping cart market. Full stop. He says Magento, one of the best known non-WordPress shopping cart applications, is only now catching up. Discussion closed!
How to choose a WordPress plugin
The same criteria I discussed in last month’s post on choosing a shopping cart in general still apply. Essentially, you need to:
- Research what’s available in the market
- Do a web search for reviews and comparisons
- Look at “live” sites powered by those plugins
- Weigh up the pros and cons
- Choose the plugin that best suits your needs… there’s no “one size fits all” because every small business (and small business owner) is unique.
To give your search a kick start, though, here are 10 of the most commonly recommended WordPress shopping cart plugins. They’re in no particular order and include a couple for niche markets, including artists or businesses that sell on a credit system, such as photo libraries:
Finally, remember that many WordPress “themes”, that is, templates, are built to integrate well with specific eCommerce plug-ins. So, to add a shopping cart to an existing website, check which plugins suits it best. Alternatively, if you haven’t developed a site yet, choose your plugin first, then match it with an optimised theme.
