best WordPress eCommerce plugins
Are you looking for one of the best eCommerce plugins to build the online version of your brick and mortar store, create product catalogs and listings, display products wherever needed on your website and generally create an excellent shopping experience for your customers?
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Today we are going to compare 5 best WordPress eCommerce plugins so that it will be easier for you to understand which one suits your needs and objectives better.
Since the advent of the global networking system, eCommerce activities have become something valuable in terms of smashing all kinds of international and geographical barriers and bringing the commercial world closer together.
And whether you are a startup businessman trying to find more clients for your local store, or have planned to go transborder to take advantage of the current e commerce based market at a lower cost, your entrance to the web based reality is highly appreciated.
Although eCommerce WordPress themes are developed with e commerce and WooCommerce in the developer’s mind, there is always a chance to strengthen the functionality of your WP based website or blog with better commercial touches and capacities.
Below you will find the comparison of 4 best WordPress eCommerce plugins so that you can make a right decision when it comes to acquiring the needed ecommerce tool for your website.
However, with any of them you can quickly pair with your website and do your shopping business across the continents without much of a hassle.
WooCommerce
Naturally, our list of the best WordPress ecommerce plugins opens WooCommerce, just because it is the most downloaded and much trusted commercial platforms by WordPress users.
While the current status of this plugin has passed the exam of time and thousands of users, we are going to share both advantages and disadvantages of it leaving the final vote to you.
Advantages
It is well developed and well supported. WooCommerce is authored by Automattic and has a user friendly and experienced community standing behind it. It means that any WooCommerce user will be well supported by the responsive developers of this product.
Many add ons and themes. WooCommerce suggests an avalanche of extensions and themes with dozens of options and controls so that you can result in the best look and feel of your e commerce website you have always wanted to have.
It is well documented. Along with a five star technical support, WooCommerce comes with complete documentation as well.
Disadvantages
Abundance of options. There are too many options and features WooCommerce users are going to find when working with this platform. Particularly, for the novices, it is going to be time consuming and bewildering to make heads or tails of WooCommerce options.
Shopify
The next highly valuable shopping and e commerce solution among the best WordPress ecommerce plugins we are going to explore is Shopify. Let’s see the pluses and minuses of it.
Advantages
It’s cost effective and affordable at least at the beginning. All in all, it’s the best open source commercial platform for different businesses coming as a mixture of quality and pocket friendly pricing, technical support and unlimited products possible at one place, but only if you are a beginner and don’t need to have much at your disposal.
You can have access to the basic features of Shopify with $29 (monthly price).
It supports both physical and digital products. It means you are free to open up a store for any kind of goods and merchandise, from clothing and bags, construction materials to ebooks and music, videos and courses, web elements and more.
Payment and shipping options, as well as social media integration are also among the advantages of Shopify.
Disadvantages
Fewer content management options. Well, Shopify is product management system and not content. But whenever you want to add some extra content to your products for a more descriptive view or showcase videos or carousels, Shopify is not the best option in this case.
Easy Digital Downloads
Easy Digital Downloads is one of the best recommendations for all those businesses who are selling digital products. Simple to start with, easy to use, multilingual ready, payment systems supportive… The advantages of this plugin are many.
Advantages
It makes selling digital goods effortlessly easy. From software and programs to ebooks and tutorials, training materials and courses, graphic designs and photography, professional services, translation, consultation, tickets, articles and more, absolutely any kind of digital product can be easily sold with this plugin.
Payment gateways integration by default and with add ons. Offering payment methods and gateways to your consumers is of great importance in terms of their convenience when it comes to buying and paying online. Easy Digital Downloads supports PayPal Standard and Amazon Payments, but you can use extensions to integrate even more options.
Disadvantages
It does not support non digital and external goods. Having this plugin for selling non digital goods is never a good idea.
Add ons needed for selling external products. Whenever you want to add external or affiliate product, you will be required to turn to a third party add on.
Shopping Cart & eCommerce Store
Another platform incorporating the qualities of the best WordPress ecommerce plugins comes as Shopping Cart & eCommerce Store.
It’s a reasonable solution both for startups and professional developers with an easy to control features for storefront management for the first group of the users, and more flexibility for the second one.
Advantages
This plugin is well coded and secure. With Shopping Cart & eCommerce Store you don’t need to worry about the security of your online shop or store at all, since the authors of this plugin have kept their focus on the important aspect of security and protection.
Different product types support. Add and sell any type of product you produce, make, own or somehow dispose of, whether, physical, digital or virtual.
Limited free support. If you feel you need any help to make the most of this plugin, you need to pay for it.
Few WordPress themes. Although Shopping Cart & eCommerce Store functions well with all kinds of WP themes, there are not many options which have been developed specifically for Shopping Cart & eCommerce Store integration.