WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS) that allows users to create and manage websites. People who do not possess any coding knowledge can still create their own websites with WordPress. However, WordPress does not provide features that are conducive to building e-commerce websites, so it can be challenging to build one.
WordPress is used by millions of people all around the world for various reasons. Software creators found it unnecessary to add e-commerce capabilities to each of the modules. Thus, if someone wishes to sell their products through their WordPress website, they must install WooCommerce.
The WooCommerce plug-in for WordPress was developed by developers Mike Jolley and James Koster of WooThemes, a subsidiary of WooCommerce. The plug-in was launched in 2011.
What is a Plug-in?
A plug-in is an add-on to computer programmes, web browsers, and apps, which enables its users to use a feature or functionality that was not previously accessible to them. Plug-ins add specific functionality to a fully functioning program. As a result, it doesn’t overtake or replace the software, but simply adds another feature that wasn’t there before. For example, it makes websites more dynamic by adding animation, pop-ups, music, etc.
WooCommerce is a plug-in that allows WordPress users to create e-commerce websites. It is easy to set up and free to install.
WooCommerce Features
The many features of WooCommerce make it such an attractive software plug-in. The key features of this product include:
- It gives its users a wide range of themes to choose from and the standard default WordPress themes.
- It encourages brand building by integrating blogging into e-commerce functionality.
- It allows the users to showcase their products on the blog posts as well.
- It provides its users with vital information such as stock levels and the cancellation of items.
- It allows customization based on categories and attributes, making it easier for customers to manage their research results.
- Similarly, it lets its customer’s sort and filter products based on popularity, relevance, ratings or price.
- They send timely notifications to their customers, notifying them about the shipment and delivery of their purchase.
- It provides prospective customers with customer reviews and ratings on the product page.
- It allows its users to customize their site as much as possible.
- It can calculate the cost of the item and the taxes based on the customer billing address.
WooCommerce increases the functionality and features present in WordPress to build an e-commerce site, but there are other aspects of building a site in which it falls short. Do not worry, WooCommerce provides hundreds of add-ons and plug-ins so you can customize your site however you see fit.
You might be wondering- what are some of the best WooCommerce Plug-ins available today. The plug-ins listed below are a list of some of the more specific and niche WooCommerce Plug-ins available today. Let’s check them out.
Best WooCommerce Plug-Ins
1. WooCommerce PDF Invoices and Packing Slips Description
Accounting and accountability rely heavily on invoices and receipts. Having the invoice that states your agreement with the seller allows you to hold the seller responsible in the event the item you ordered does not arrive.
This plug-in facilitates the same and automatically issues a PDF Invoice for the customer upon purchase and is sent to the customer in the order confirmation email itself. In addition to issuing an invoice for proof of purchase for the customer, it also generates an invoice for proof of sale. This is done by automatically sending the notice to the sellers’ printer.
Important Features
- Automatically attaches the invoice to the email.
- Allows the customer to download the invoice from the site as well.
- It offers invoice templates and allows for customization of the same.
- The feature is available in English, along with other major European languages and Japanese.
- If the website creator avails the premium extension, that allows the seller to receive packaging and shipment slips along with invoices in case of a refund.
- It also allows the website creator to customize certain designing aspects such as adding logos, selecting the size of the paper, etc.
2. YITH WooCommerce Wishlist
The Yith company is an independent developer of WooCommerce plugins. WordPress, which Automattic acquired in 2015, supports plug-ins from different developers.
One of the best aspects of online shopping is the variety in choices and the ease with which one can contemplate amongst each of these choices by saving them to their wish list. As the name suggests, a wish list lists items you one day hope to purchase. Maybe you are waiting for an offer to drop or a miraculous decrease in price, and a wish list does a great job in putting all of the things you one day wish to buy in one easy to find place.
Through this plug-in, the website creator can customize their site to facilitate this function.
Important Features
- Prospective buyers can sort through the products and pick the ones they consider buying. This increases interactivity amongst the site and the customer and invites them to visit again.
- Social media influencers use wish lists to earn money through affiliate codes. And this brings more traffic to your site.
- The website creator can decide on what page the wish list will appear.
- It allows the website creator to choose where to show the option for “Add to Wishlist.”
These are some of the plug-ins’ basic features. If the website creator wishes to avail of the premium option, they will get additional features.
- The website owner can choose whether to enable/disable the feature for people who haven’t logged in.
- Allows the customers to shift items from one wish list to another.
- It gives customers the option to make their list public, other visitors of the site, or private.
- It gives the customers the option to rename or delete their lists and create as many lists as they wish.
- It gives the website creator the option to customize the layout of the wish list page.
- It gives the customers the freedom to arrange the list as they please.
- It shows the option to add the items to the cart in the list.
- This feature enables the seller to send emails to prospective customers informing them about the availability of items present in their wish list.
3. Custom Product Tabs for WooCommerce
While scrolling through the internet looking for items to buy, it is much more convenient to have all of the necessary information under the relevant tab. This information can be presented under their specific tabs, such as the product description, product specifications, shipping and delivery details and a list of similar items.
And this is exactly what the Custom Product Tabs for WooCommerce does. It allows the sellers to present information about individual products systematically and methodically.
One of the interesting features of this plug-in is that you can save a commonly used tab to use for multiple products. And it allows the website creator to change their order, add or delete a tab with ease.
4. WooCommerce Multi-Currency
Often while perusing the internet looking for things to buy, you might come across items from foreign sellers and have a tough time calculating the cost of the item in your local currency.
With WooCommerce Multi-Currency plug-in, however, you won’t face any problems since the plug-ins’ main function is to convert currency and figure out how much the item costs in your local currency.
Important Features
- Calculate the prices in the customer’s selected currency.
- To round off the prices after conversion and include conversion commission.
5. WooSlider Products Slideshow
Through this plug-in, the seller can design a dynamic website. This plug-in uses a slideshow to display products more creatively. The slideshow can display selected items or featured products as per the sellers’ requirements.
The slideshow can be curated based on specific criteria, such as products in stock or on sale or available only for a limited period. The slideshows can be displayed on blog posts, and web pages and are very dynamic and attention-grabbing.
6. Shipment Tracking
As the name suggests, this plug-in sends information regarding the item’s delivery to the customers. Once an order is placed through the WooCommerce Shipment Tracking plug-in, tracking information will be sent to the customer via email, through which they can keep track of their order.
7. Doofinder
Do you find it annoying that when you type in an item to look for on a website, it doesn’t give you the best results or completely misunderstands your intent?
Doofinder is a plug-in that can be used in several applications and isn’t specific to WooCommerce. However, it is a very useful plug-in as its job is to make it easy for the customers to search for items on your website. It is easy to download, use and has many advantages.
- It aims to provide customers only relevant search results instantly.
- While searching for items, it allows the customers to use signs and symbols.
- It is tolerant of bad spelling.
8. WooCommerce Product Reviews Pro
One of the advantages of online shopping is reading customer testimonials for cheap laughs and seeing if they had a positive or negative experience with the item you are considering buying.
Reviewers are extremely important for the seller and website creator, as they can make necessary changes to the site based on their feedback.
Customers’ reviews and ratings can make or break the sale of an item and thus play a very important aspect in curating a user-friendly website. This is where WooCommerce Product Reviews Pro comes into play.
This WooCommerce plug-in makes it easy for the customers to leave reviews and rate the products/services of the vendor.
Important Features
- It allows the seller to accept videos and photos as reviews.
- The seller can decide how many reviews a prospective customer can see at a time.
- The seller can sort and filter reviews based on ratings.
- The seller can respond to feedback and weed out the unhelpful ones.
9. WP Mail SMTP
This plug-in is a way to ensure that your emails are being delivered to the customers’ inboxes. Without SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), emails sent through WordPress can either be blocked or marked spam. But with WP Mail SMTP, you can make sure that your emails are being delivered properly.
Optinmonster
This plug-in is used to create, and market offers on your website. Through the plug-in, the sellers can create their personalized offers from their templates and design themselves. By using their targeting engine, they display the offer at the right time to prospective customers. Provide the sellers with vital information about how offers have impacted traffic and sales.
While these might be 10 of our favourite WooCommerce plug-ins, there are hundreds of others that might fit your specifications perfectly. Plug-ins are a great tool for optimizing your site’s performance; just make sure to download them from a legitimate source and make sure to use them judiciously as they might clash with each other and slow down the performance of your software.
WooCommerce is an incredibly easy-to-install and use plug-in that has helped thousands of small businesses and individuals to use the e-commerce functionality.
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