Setting up an eCommerce store is a very challenging task. It demands a lot of features and functionalities to work effectively in sync. There are many dedicated ecommerce platforms available that help you with that and WordPress is one of them.
Installing a WordPress ecommerce plugin to build your online store is easy. The platform provides all kinds of features. You must choose the most apt WordPress plugins to ensure the security and growth of your website. Sometimes the lack of research during the selection phase leads to a loss of both time and money. And to make sure that doesn’t happen, this article discusses the top seven WordPress eCommerce plugins and uses them to your advantage.
Best WordPress Plugins for eCommerce websites
WooCommerce
It allows you to sell anything, including items on your WordPress site, products from third-party sellers, or anything you can think of that’s digital.
WooCommerce has many different types of payment gateways that work with any credit card processor such as PayPal (PayPal Express), Stripe, Google Wallet, and more. You can even integrate affiliate programs with WooCommerce.
It grants you complete control over your online business. It has its built-in shopping cart and checkout system, so you don’t need to use any other software.
Some other features include:
- The ability to create unlimited categories with custom taxonomies (product type) and tags (attribute), including the ability to create custom attributes that are not available in the WooCommerce UI itself.
- Advanced inventory management tools that enable you to track inventory levels across multiple stores or websites in one place.
- Customizable product pages where you can add images, videos, pricing tables, and more!
- Multiple languages supported.
Easy Digital Downloads
Easy Digital Downloads is a premium WordPress plugin that offers a simple way to sell digital downloads of your products. It allows you to sell digital downloads, such as eBooks, music, videos, and software.
Easy Digital Downloads has an incredibly intuitive interface that makes it easy to create new products, add media assets and assign your listings to different categories.
With Easy Digital Downloads, you can create a simple “Download” page for your products and add a single line of code to your website. The plugin handles all the rest, including setting up Google Analytics tracking so you can see how many people are buying your downloads, as well as tracking if they’re using PayPal or another payment processor.
Easy Digital Downloads also has integrated payment options so you won’t have to worry about setting up your payment gateways or chargebacks.
Easy Digital Downloads come with several features that make it easy to get started:
- The ability to create a product catalog that can be used to display all your products in one place.
- A built-in blog feature so you can write about your business and showcase your products at the same time.
- Sellers can also add images and descriptions for each product so shoppers know more about what they’re buying.
- The plugin also features integration with WooCommerce so you can easily import your order data from any other store or platform into WooCommerce in just a few clicks!
MemberPress
MemberPress is a great tool for any ecommerce site, but it’s especially great for selling physical products on your website.
MemberPress takes care of all the technical stuff for you like servers, databases, or hosting. All you have to do is add products, create content, and then set up how your members interact with the site
You can use MemberPress to create an online store with a single-page checkout process and PayPal integration. You can also add affiliate links to each product page, which will help you generate additional revenue from commissions on sales made by those affiliates.
MemberPress offers the following features:
- Member integration: Members can add content to your site and build their profile pages.
- Member management: Members can edit their profile information, publish content, and access member-only pages.
- Blog integration: Members can post blog posts on your blog using the MemberPress blog widget.
- Activity stream: All activity within your site can be viewed on one page using the Activity Stream widget.
- An admin dashboard that gives members access to all their content
- A customizable theme builder that allows you to build and customize your themes (or use one of the built-in templates)
- A custom post type editor that allows members to create their posts on the site
WP EasyCart
WP EasyCart is a simple, easy-to-use, and responsive e-commerce plugin. This WordPress plugin allows you to sell your products online easily. It has all the features you need to create an eCommerce site including an easy-to-use frontend and backend, WooCommerce integration, A/B testing, and user registration.
The plugin comes with a powerful admin panel that allows you to create an unlimited number of shop pages, add products to those pages, add product categories, and manage orders and customers.
To start selling your products with this plugin, all you need is a working installation of WordPress. The plugin works with all the major shopping carts available in the market like WooCommerce and iThemes Exchange.
eCommerce Product Catalog Plugin for WordPress
eCommerce Product Catalog is the most popular WordPress ecommerce plugin on the market, with over 2 million active installs. Users can build elegant and fully functional product catalogs for their ecommerce website. It allows users to create beautiful and functional product catalogs for their online store. This plugin is also widely used in WooCommerce plugin as well.
The plugin also offers various features so you can build a customized store with increased performance and functionalities. You can install and activate this plugin easily with just one click.
It comes with a lot of pre-styled templates that you can use with few changes. The premium version of this plugin provides hundreds of templates for you to design your store. The theme options are available under Theme Options > Theme Options > Layout Settings section in your admin area.
This plugin is very useful because it allows you to have an easy way of managing your products. You do not have to worry about adding or deleting any product because this plugin will make sure that everything is done properly. This plugin will allow you to create as many categories as possible so that it will take less time for you to find the right category for each product.
Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping Cart
Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping Cart is a WordPress eCommerce plugin that allows you to sell products and services on your website. It comes with a lot of features, such as automatic product images, Google Analytics, PayPal and Stripe payment processing, and much more.
It also allows you to manage your store from the admin panel. You can add new products, add new categories and subcategories, modify the product description and customize the entire website according to your needs.
Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping Cart also allows you to create custom checkout pages for each category of products so that customers can choose which checkout page they want to use. When they check out, they will be redirected to this specific page where they will enter their payment details and confirm the order.
Some of its most popular features include:
- Quick and easy installation procedure
- Easy-to-use interface with drag and drop features that goes through every single step of the installation process for you
- Convenient customer portal where customers can place orders and manage their accounts
- Built-in payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe so you don’t have to worry about setting up new payment methods on your site
- Fully responsive design for all devices and screen sizes
- Email marketing integration with MailChimp, Aweber, and GetResponse (more coming soon)
- Social media sharing tools
Shopify
Shopify is a great solution for those who are looking to get started with ecommerce but don’t have the technical expertise to create their website or online store.
As per your requirements, you can opt for the paid and free versions of Shopify. The free plan includes all the basic features you need to get started selling products online, like a Shopify store builder, email marketing tools, and order management tools. There are also premium plans available if you want additional functionality such as payment processing and customization options for your storefront.
Shopify also offers integration options with many other platforms and services, including Dropshipping (where you sell products using another retailer’s inventory), hosting, and shipping deals together with WooCommerce (an extension of WordPress).
Final words
It isn’t like there are only seven plugins that you could use, there are many more to choose from but the ones discussed are widely used because they are easier to use and provide more effective results. Hopefully, you can figure out your requirements and pick the one that fulfills your needs.
