E-commerce Website Design Service
Total Control Of Your Companies Sales, Content, Inventory, Pricing And Much More.
What Is E-Commerce and What Can It Do?
E-Commerce is selling either physical or downloadable products through your very own website. An e-commerce site utilizes shopping cart pages where visitors can order the products or request quotes.
Brick-and-mortar retail stores are in decline nationally while we’ve seen an increase in small business owners selling items online. If you’re in the business of selling goods, now is the time to do it online. Fortunately, Big Ten Web Design uses WordPress and the WooCommerce plugin to build custom e-shops tailored to your enterprise and branding.
WordPress is an open-source web design platform that powers 28.9% of the entire global internet, and WooCommerce is the industry standard e-commerce solution. WooCommerce runs 42% of the e-commerce market, while its closest competitors are Shopify, with 7% market share, and Magento at 4%. The WordPress and WooCommerce combination is search engine friendly, and with Big Ten’s SEO expertise your items will be found easily when people search online.
WooCommerce Numbers vs. Competitors
What WooCommerce Does
WooCommerce is an e-commerce plugin that turns your WordPress site into an online store. You can list tangible goods, digital products like songs or software, and even services. Customers log in either with WordPress login or by using social media logins like Facebook credentials and order any item that you add to the site. Items can be ordered in different quantities and can be priced dynamically (i.e. bulk order discounts or membership discount options). WooCommerce will calculate the sales tax by your location. You may choose multiple shipping rates depending on location and product weight, or use a flat rate. What makes WooCommerce stand out is its overall versatility, user-friendliness to add new items, and loading speed for your end user. Also, WooCommerce Custom Product Tables Plugin Boasts 30% Faster Page Loads.
Extensions (Added Versatility)
WooCommerce is highly versatile thanks to its range of extensions. These are purchased individually and added to the free basic version, so your store can be as unique as you:
- PPC Ads integration with Google Shopping (Image Ads with Pring).
- Facebook Store integration. Automatically populate and retarget ads on Facebook.
- Coupons are enabled so you can run deals and promotions.
- Include a “wish list” that customers can add items to and shop for later.
- WooCommerce will send PDF invoices and shipment tracking information.
- Custom order status, follow-up emails, and text notifications (via Twilio) for the customers’ benefit are helpful options. These will bolster your relationship with buyers.
- Use Shipping Easy to print shipping labels for USPS, UPS, and FedEx. Many extensions are integrations with 3rd party services which will handle the work of your business.
- It integrates with cloud storage services like Google Drive and Dropbox to store your digital products. Integration with Jira assists in the creation of your downloadable goods.
- CRM apps like HubSpot, Salesforce, Highrise, Zoho, Infusionsoft, Zendesk, Buffer, Freshdesk, Campaign Monitor, SuiteCRM aid in marketing your products. These services track data and build relationships with customers, all to promote repeat buying.
- Integration with Harvest allows you to track time for services and to be paid accordingly.
- You can connect bookkeeping apps like QuickBooks, and Freshbooks for easier accurate accounting.
- WooCommerce enables you to add email subscribers with email marketing services. These include Drip, Constant Contact, MailChimp, AWeber, and many more. When visitors subscribe, you can send marketing emails such as newsletters and promotions. You can email pre-populated URLs to subscribers, sending them to individual products you want to push.
- Your store can accept payment through secure gateways including Square, Stripe, PayPal/BrainTree, Amazon Pay, Authorize.net, Elavon, and much more. Sensitive credit card information is never stored on local servers. You create an account with the payment gateway of your choice and collect when customers check out.
- Use dropshipping extensions to send automated order notification emails to your wholesale supplier. These let you run an e-commerce website without needing to store, fulfill, and ship the products yourself.
- Sell tickets to events with The Events Calendar or Foo Events extension.
- The Yith plugins allow you to generate quotes for your services and sell them through your site and much more.
The list of extensions is always growing and can be made to do anything. Consult with Big Ten Web Design to pick the right WooCommerce setup that is customized for your business.
“Get A Quote” feature enabled on Client’s Website
Portability (Not Locked In)
Shopify offers a lower startup cost with limited/restrictive features that most clients don’t think they need until a year or two down the road. With Shopify, you will have to host on its servers because Shopify is a stereotypical walled garden. There is no option for a Custom SSL and using your own CDN is also not an option. Then if you add a basic feature of calculated shipping, that is an additional $250 monthly fee! That is an extra $3,000 yearly that can be solved for a fraction of the cost when using WooCommerce!
Comparison: The Cost of Development & Hosting
The cost of hiring a designer and developer for the lesser used Shopify or Magento (Note: The top-ranked Magento developer hiring website is made in WordPress) is usually quadruple (but typically more) a WooCommerce website designer & developer. Website hosting is a hidden fee for Magento. This article published by a Magento competitor about “How much does a Magento Website Cost” will shed some light on how the Community Magento Edition is free (just like WordPress/WooCommerce) to get started, however, the hosting is astronomical due to Magento being a resources hog. Shopify’s hosting is included, and you must host your website on Shopify’s servers where you are limited on features, and stuck with your content on their servers. Two interesting articles comparing Shopify vs. WooCommerce/WordPress by Website Setup and Shopify vs. WooCommerce by Cavera (in Canada). We’ve found that page load speeds greatly affect eCommerce conversion rates.