For individuals looking to open up a B2C eCommerce Store, the presence of WooCommerce offers an ideal solution. A powerful plugin for the WordPress CMS, WooCommerce is open-source, free to use, and customizable according to your preferences.
With the multitude of themes and plugins available, store owners gain the freedom to customize their store according to their preferences. These factors, combined with a multitude of other factors, make WooCommerce stand out as an ideal eCommerce “platform” rather than a plugin.
With over 5 million downloads, you cannot go wrong with WooCommerce.
But what does an ideal store built on WooCommerce look like? We’ve compiled the following features that make an eCommerce store stand out from the digital crowd.
6 Features to Look for In an Ecommerce Store
While the basic WooCommerce layout is aesthetic and functional in its own right, there are plenty of things you can do to make it even more functional. These include the addition of the following functionalities to your store. We’ve compiled some of the finest plugins you can have for a B2C WooCommerce store. So, without further ado, let’s begin with the first one.
1. Marketing Tools
These tools are meant to help you improve your product marketing operations. Anything from SEO tools such as Yoast, to pop-up creation tools, performance optimization tools, and referral tools are all essential considerations for an eCommerce store.
Referral System for WooCommerce
This Referral Plugin for WooCommerce is made to increase your store’s conversation rates by introducing both points and rewards, coupons, discounts, and referral functionality in your store. Compatible with WooCommerce Points and rewards plugin, it’s an all-in-one customer engagement tool for your store.
Using the coupons and discounts, you can retain your existing customers by giving them an incentive to stay in your store. Moreover, they can even avail points or discount coupons if they refer the product to their family members and acquaintances. Once a new user signs up through the referral link, not only the referrer gains the points, but the referee can also gain points depending on your settings.
If you’re a store looking to convert existing traffic into customers, gain new customers, and beef up your email marketing strategy, then you should definitely try using the Referral System for WooCommerce plugin.
Starting at $49/year, the plugin adds so much value that it is well worth the investment.
2. Taxation Tools
While WooCommerce offers a built-in tax calculator, it’s always best to have Sales Tax automation tools, postcode shipping rates calculators, and more. Depending on the complexity of your operations, these tools are optional.
It’s free.
3. Subscription Tools
Used to add a subscription functionality to your store, these include Subscriptions and Subscriptions Add-Ons that let you add subscriptions pre-checkout to give your regular buyers an option between direct purchase or subscription.
Subscriptions Add-On for WooCommerce
Working on top of the WooCommerce Subscriptions Plugin, Subscriptions add-on allows you to select specific products for whom you can add a subscription option at checkout.
The inception of this plugin came about with the inability of the WooCommerce Subscription to provide an optional functionality related to subscriptions. This means that whenever you install the plugin, it automatically makes all of your products subscribable. This becomes a problem if you have a range of products that don’t fall under the subscription category – causing problems with the user experience.
Subscriptions Add-On for WooCommerce offers users the ability to enable subscription options for selected products. All it does is adds a neat little box that asks the users the start and end date of their subscription. By giving users the choice to select between immediate purchase and subscription, you are improving the customer experience. At the same time, you also don’t have to overhaul your entire business model.
A win-win for both the store owner and customer, Subscriptions Add-On for WooCommerce enables you to simplify the user’s checkout experience in your store.
The plugin starts at $49/year.
4. Online Booking Stores
For online booking stores with lots of bookable products, this plugin gives store customers the ability to search for products that fall under their budget, preferences, availability, and other metrics.
Booking Filters for WooCommerce
An extension of the WooCommerce Bookings Plugin, Booking Filters is an extension plugin that adds an advanced search and filter functionality to your booking products.
The main goal of Booking Filters For WooCommerce is to enhance the functionality of your eCommerce store. By introducing filters for start and end dates, timings, reservations, availability, ratings, price range, and keyword-based search – the plugin helps users navigate your site without getting lost or feeling that your bookable products are only limited to fancier bookings.
The plugin’s pricing begins at $99/year with a 30-day money-back guarantee and extensive support.
5. Checkout Tools
Tools that simplify the checkout process and leads to better conversions. This could include easy sign-ups, cart management, and address management.
Address Manager for WooCommerce
This Address Manager Plugin is made to facilitate the checkout processes of your WooCommerce store by allowing your regular customers to add multiple addresses within their account.
The aim of this plugin is to make a checkout as fast as possible. It does so by saving the address of your regular customers. Now, whenever they make a purchase on your site, all they have to do is select on their addresses and checkout without a hitch. Since the majority of site bounces occur at the checkout page, the plugin can help increase conversions and reduce bounce rates in the process.
Starting at $29.99/year, having this plugin installed in your arsenal can reap significant benefits to your store.
6. Payment Integrations
Payment gateway management tools that ensure simplified payment processes through multiple channels. This enables the customers to pick a payment option that best suits their needs.
Wrapping Up:
WooCommerce is a powerful eCommerce Platform, that goes without saying. There are plenty of options for you to improve your eCommerce setup just the way you like it. To wrap things up, we would just like to say these plugins, while useful, work best when analyzed with Google Analytics. Perform A/B tests and if the plugin aids your conversion rate strategies, then it’s best you keep it with you for the foreseeable future.
