The WordPress has long since ceased to be a simple weblog application exclusively for private homepages. In the meantime, the full-grown CMS operates over 60 % of all CMS-based websites. With the free plugin WooCommerce, the popular CMS can be extended to a complete webshop and e-commerce system. Let's take a look at what the plugin can do.
A little statistics to get you started
According to BuiltWith statistics from December 5, 2016, WooCommerce runs over 1.5 million webshops worldwide and is by far the most used webshop software. WooCommerce thus has a Market share of 39 %. By way of comparison, according to the same statistics, the second-placed e-commerce system Magento operates just under 235,000 webshops, which corresponds to around 6 %.
The WordPress plugin is also extremely popular among German webshop operators. 25 % of German webshops use WooCommerce. Second and third place go to Magento with 14 %, followed by Gambio with 8 %.
The advantages of WordPress
With the WordPress plugin you get all the benefits that WordPress itself delivers. These include:
- easy to install and use
- Free open source software
- many free and paid Plugins and themes
- extensive literature, course offerings and many design and developer stores
- large, helpful and active community
- Relatively secure and sufficiently scalable
- very many webhosts with preinstalled and configured installations
In general, WordPress projects should be noted that simple solutions can be implemented very quickly and easily. The larger and more specialized the projects become, the more complex the necessary manual work becomes. Here, other - especially the big - e-commerce platforms and CM systems have their advantages.
The advantages of WooCommerce
One of the main advantages of WooCommerce is that it is much simpler than some other e-commerce platforms. This keeps it clearer and easier to use. Especially when you're getting started with online commerce, this pays off. Some of the big platforms literally slay the newbie with a myriad of business features that only big businesses really need.
Nevertheless, you hardly need to miss any feature as the platform is very flexible. There are a lot of plugins available, with which your store can be expanded to almost any trading system. However, you should keep in mind that - as with WordPress projects in general - solutions that deviate from the standard are increasingly more complicated to implement.
Other advantages include:
- WooCommerce, like WordPress itself, is free open source software.
- many WordPress themes are compatible with the plugin. Webshop and company blog get a uniform design this way
- many webhosts offer ready-made WordPress and WooCommerce installations including support
- besides help in free forums you can get professional support from developers
Since to the developer team some SEO experts the plugin is capable of handling all important SEO functions. If the provided options are not enough for you, you can use plugins like "Yoast WooCommerce SEO" to add many more SEO functions. In addition, both Google Analytics as well as Piwik for a detailed and individual site analysis.
Legally compliant German webshops with WooCommerce Germanized
WooCommerce is one of the few e-commerce platforms that makes it quite easy to build webshops according to German legislation can be set up. Although the software itself does not contain any special adaptations to the German market, with the free plugin "WooCommerce Germanized", however, this can easily be made up for. The plugin is available through Trusted Shops pre-certified, is actively developed and constantly updated.
It provides all important German mandatory adjustments as well as many other functions and extensions. In addition to legally compliant templates for terms and conditions, privacy policy and cancellation policy, the plugin provides the display of unit and base prices as well as for shipping costs and delivery times. Furthermore, adjustments for the small business regulation, functions for the automatic creation of PDF invoices and delivery bills and much more are included. The plugin masters the correct handling of VAT including VATMOSS rules and other tax aspects.
Summary
With the WordPress plugin WooCommerce you have all the important functions for webshops and E-commerce systems is available. It requires a bit more manual work than other store systems, but is relatively easy to install and use. Besides the general WordPress advantages, the plugin itself has a lot to offer. In particular, the good adaptation to the German online commerce laws is a strong pro-argument.
