E-commerce has been a trending business model for many online entrepreneurs. The automation of sales, inventory and customer service has made it possible for aspiring business owners to generate a good amount of income online. Some individuals who used to own physical stores have even shifted to e-commerce as it proves to be more efficient, cost-effective and easier to manage.
However, there is some technical knowledge that needs to be learned in order to set up an e-commerce website. As a beginner, most would turn to Shopify, but the costs of paying a monthly fee along with your domain and hosting may be too much. You are paying Shopify for the easy and intuitive setup, and it is highly recommended if you want to skip the complex learning curve. If you are willing and able, you can set up your own e-commerce store by using free WordPress plugins yourself.
Read further to learn more about 5 WordPress plugins you can use as an e-commerce shop owner.
1-WooCommerce
WooCommerce is one of the most popular plugins in WordPress that’s highly customizable both for physical and digital products. Recently, it enabled a feature called Stripe, which makes it easier for your users to have credit card payments apart from PayPal. WooCommerce is packed with so many features even as a free version, so it is has garnered a lot of positive feedback from store owners, especially those who sell physical products. It may take a while to get used to WooCommerce’s interface. First, you have to learn how to create product posts and arrange them in categories. You are also given the option to set the pricing and attach a picture as a thumbnail preview of your product. Once this is done, you also have to set up your payment details with Paypal or your bank. Try installing the WooCommerce plugin and see if it’s a good fit for you.
2- Easy Digital Downloads
Easy Digital Downloads is a plugin that’s highly specialized for virtual products. These include E-books, music, online courses, and other intangible products that you can sell online. The interface is very simple and similar to WooCommerce, but it has lesser options to choose from, which eliminates all the unnecessary clutter that may appear if you don’t have plans selling a physical product. You can choose to process the payment first and place a link where your customers can access the file, or offer it on your own website. Easy Digital Downloads is also PayPal enabled, so users can purchase products using a credit card or their PayPal account. This is highly recommended for e-commerce store owners who want a simple plugin to sell digital products.
3- Enhanced E-commerce Google Analytics Plugin for WooCommerce
As an e-commerce store, it is important to gather insights on which of your products stand out for your customers. The Google Analytics Plugin for WooCommerce does that job well. Through this plugin, you can track user behaviour within your website, so you can optimize it better and offer other products which can generate more sales. You can also view product impressions, click-through rates and other helpful statistics that can help you make informed decisions about your e-commerce store.
4- Email Subscribers & Newsletters
Another easy-to-use plugin to help you sell products even when users are away from your website is through email marketing. E-commerce email marketing can be useful to turn first-time customers into repeat buyers. Through this plugin, you can invite your website’s visitors to sign up for your newsletter and get updates about product sales or new items in your inventory. You can also create feature posts about your products that will also entice them to visit your website.
5- Holler Box – Lead Generation and Popups for E-commerce
Holler Box is a unique yet powerful tool to generate leads in your e-commerce store. It creates simple pop-up messages that can be customized to help you close more sales. You can create popup messages on which items have discounted rates, newly released items or best sellers. These pop-up messages can be customized to prevent users from being annoyed. Features such as time delays or limiting which pages will have the pop-up will make the plugin effective depending on your preference.
If you are a serious e-commerce store owner, it is highly recommended that you start installing these plugins as early as possible. As you scale your business, you can consider moving from these free WordPress plugins into more advanced ones.
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For e-commerce, there are also useful tools for creating quiz – marketing surveys that help customers decide on the choice of services or goods. You can create a quiz through any constructor, for example, through stepform.io where a quiz is created in the visual editor mode.