As a small business, you have been thinking about setting up your own e-Commerce website in order to start selling your products online. You’ve thought a lot about which platform you should use to design and host your site. After doing your research, you’ve decided that WordPress best fits your needs and will be able to handle everything that you need your e-Commerce site to accomplish. As you begin to build your new e-commerce store, you now have to figure out which of the many e-Commerce plugins will best fit your needs.
Since May of 2003, when WordPress was first released, businesses have been relying on the free blogging tool and content management system to create great sites that are customized to meet their particular needs and it is the most popular platforms on the Internet notes Kelli Shaver. One of the more popular aspects for using WordPress for your e-commerce sites is the 26,000 wordpress ecommerce plugins that will allow you to customize the functions and features of your site and tailor it to your specific needs. Armed with the right plugins you’ll be able to build a nice brand for yourself notes Freddy Muriukli, writer for WP Explorer. For your e-Commerce site, you don’t have to worry about sorting through the 25,000+ plugins as there are a number that are tailored specifically for e-Commerce sites, and you should be able to find one that will be the best fit for your site.
WP e-Commerce
One plugin that has been around for some time, and has proven to be quite popular is WP e-Commerce. Available as a free download, this plugin allows you to create flexible coupon codes and discounts, control shipping calculations, basic inventory control, support for multiple currency and so much more. You also have the option of paying for more add-ons, as well as upgrades to make this plugin an even more powerful option for your e-Commerce site.
JigoShop
Having an e-Commerce site professionally designed and developed can be expensive. With JigoShop, you can get a professional looking shop without spending the money to hire a professional and it only takes a few minutes to create a full-fledged online shop with various JigoShop products and services explains Hongkiat Liam. The main plugin is a free download with premium themes and extensions available for purchase. JigoShop features the ability to manage orders, inventory tracking, and discount codes, a customer account area, and much more.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is also a popular choice for owners of e-commerce sites because of the large selection of premium themes that are available. These plugins not only work with the WooThemes, they also work with a number of third-party themes that have been specifically developed to be integrated with the WooCommerce plugin. With WooCommerce, you can run sales reports, control shipping and tax charges, and control product and inventory levels.
Cart66
Cart66 has a number of options that you can choose from. They have a free version that includes order management capabilities, promotional abilities, along with control of tax and shipping charges and many other features. The paid version, offers support for setting up recurring payments and member access making Cart66 a great fit for many e-commerce businesses.
Shopp
Shopp is one of the most popular paid plugin options for the WordPress e-Commerce sites. For a single-site license fee of $55 you can have control over tax and shipping costs, order management, email notifications to your customers, RSS feeds, and many other features. Shopp is a premium plugin that has been on the market for several years.
Easy Digital Downloads
If you’re in the business of selling digital downloads, then Easy Digital Downloads is the WordPress plugin that you’ll want to consider. It was specifically created to help e-Commerce sites to sell digital downloads. With this handy plugin you won’t have to deal with extra features that you don’t have any use for since you aren’t selling any physical products. They also have nearly 200 extensions to improve the functionality of your download storefront notes Megan Totka, writer for Small Business Trends.This plugin is free and has a number of extensions and themes that you can purchase to work with the plugin.
Ecwid
WordPress isn’t the only content management system that Ecwid will work on. A free download, it can be integrated into your Facebook page or profile along with your WordPress site. It has both a free plan that comes with all of the regular e-commerce features that you need, or you can pay $15 per month to add on extra features like discount codes, inventory management and others.
Setting up your e-Commerce store couldn’t be easier with the help of WordPress and any number of free e-commerce plugins that work with the popular open source blogging tool and content management system. There are literally tens of thousands of different plugins for the popular WordPress platform so it is important that you do your research and understand what functionality you need from your e-commerce site, so you can make the best decision when choosing which plugin to use.
