WordPress is definitely an ideal choice for every webmaster who is looking to build an e-commerce website at a low budget.
Why?
Simply because WordPress can help small businesses to reduce their website development cost by more than 50%. But the key is to choose the right plugin.
Although there are several plugins available for each function that you need to add to your WordPress website, a single wrong selection can affect the performance of your website.
In this blog post, we have shared the 4 best WordPress plugins to build an e-commerce website or convert your WordPress blog or website into an online store.
Let’s dive in.
#1 WooCommerce
WooCommerce is perhaps the most popular e-commerce plugin available to create an online store using WordPress.
Since WooCommerce also allows website builders to customize a website to a great extent, most WordPress developers prefer to use this plugin.
Below are some of the major benefits that you get with the WooCommerce plugin:
- By default, WooCommerce allows you to accept payments using top-notch payment gateways like PayPal & Stripe.
- There is a wide range of themes that you can use to build a WooCommerce store. Since WooCommerce is a popular plugin, most of the theme developers prefer to make their theme compatible with WooCommerce.
- As we mentioned above already, WooCommerce allows you to customize its default features however if you are not a coder, you may need to hire a WooCommerce developer to do this job for you.
- Most of the themes that are compatible with WooCommerce come with a responsive (mobile-friendly) design.
- There is a huge range of e-commerce plugins that you can integrate with your WooCommerce website.
With so many benefits available, you won’t really give it a second thought to choose WooCommerce for your e-commerce website development. Isn’t it?
#2 WP Easy Cart
WP Easy Cart is an under-rated WordPress plugin that can be used to build an e-commerce website. This plugin is very much similar to WooCommerce in terms of features however its not as popular as WordPress.
If you do not possess any technical knowledge but you still want to build your website without the help of any website developer, then this plugin is for you.
Although WP Easy Cart comes with both free & paid packages, you can find all the necessary features in the free package only, that are required to run a successful e-commerce business.
This plugin is an ideal choice for small businesses because its free version includes several great features like email marketing, accounting integration, etc. however if you go for the paid/premium version of WP Easy Cart, you can get access to several advanced features like AffiliateWP, Subscription-based products, etc.
Below are the major reasons for you to choose WP Easy Cart:
- The premium version of WP Easy Cart can cost you $99 only that comes with several useful features. This price is comparatively lower than the individual plugins that you may have to purchase if you go with WooCommerce.
- With WP Easy Cart, you will also get great support to resolve any kind of bugs or issues that may occur during your website development.
- If you buy the premium version of WP Easy Cart to build your online store, you may not need to hire a website builder because you will get assistance from WP Easy Cart support team. Therefore, you can save a lot on your website development cost.
- This plugin is suitable for you if you intend to sell goods, accept donations or sell downloadable eBooks & PDFs.
#3 Easy Digital Download
If you intend to sell digital products, then the Easy Digital Download plugin is for you. This plugin can help you to build a digital e-commerce website.
Although WooCommerce also allows you to sell digital products, this plugin has a lot of advanced features that empower you to sell digital products efficiently.
The basic version of the Easy Digital Download plugin comes free of cost to use.
With the help of the Easy Digital Download plugin, you can sell digital products like:
- eBooks
- PDFs
- Videos
- Audio clips
- Software
- & more…
When any customer buys a digital product from you, they receive an order email notification along with the URL to download their purchased digital product.
#4 WP E-commerce
WP E-Commerce plugin is yet another great plugin to build your e-commerce store using WordPress.
The pricing model of WP E-Commerce is similar to that of WooCommerce. This means that although both of these plugins are free to use, you may need to purchase & install additional plugins.
Not only the pricing model, the backend interface of both WP E-Commerce & WooCommerce are also quite similar.
Below are some of the major reasons for you to choose WP E-Commerce:
- There are lots of add-on plugins that you can use with WP E-Commerce (both paid & free) in order to enhance the features of your online store.
- You can subscribe for the ‘premium support‘ of WP E-commerce by paying just $49 per month or $499 per annum. When you subscribe to this package, you won’t need the assistance of any website developer because WP E-Commerce’s support team will help you to resolve all of your queries related to website development and can guide you at every step.
