Can WordPress be used for ecommerce?

WordPress is a free and open-source content management system created by a core group of main developers and a completely volunteer-run community. About a quarter of all websites on the Internet use WordPress as their content management system, and for a good reason: it combines ease of use with plugin-based modularity, allowing it to be extended to fulfill any demand virtually.

Because there are so many preset themes suitable for online retail, WordPress is very beneficial for developing an ecommerce website. It also includes plugins that give a site full ecommerce credentials, from product display through shopping cart and checkout. As for stability and scale – WordPress is a great engine to use as a base for some solutions and it can be scaled to serve many users/requests/items. It all depends on your configuration and ability to optimize your server and WP. Another good choice for ecommerce is the Shopify and Shopware platform. 

First step

As a fundamental step, setting up your WordPress ecommerce store is choosing a domain name. This will be your website’s address in the future. To access a website, type the domain name into the address bar of your browser.

Although WordPress is free, you will have to pay for your domain name, which starts at $10 per year. It’s well worth the money because having your own domain name (i.e., yourbusinessname.com) looks a lot more professional than having your name on someone else’s (i.e., yourbusinessname.otherdomain.com).

Step Two

Select an ecommerce plugin.

The Most useful ecommerce Plugins for your WordPress Site are:
WooCommerce
Easy Digital Downloads (EDD)
WP eCommerce
Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping Cart
Jigoshop eCommerce
BigCommerce for WordPress

WooCommerce

WooCommerce comes with a full ecommerce backend that allows you to create and organize product pages, as well as a shopping cart and payment procedure. It’s free to use, but you may enhance its capabilities with a variety of premium and free plugins. 

Extensions can do everything from providing AI-driven recommendations to clients on product landing pages to enabling planned group and daily promotions that kick in when a certain amount of people buy something.

Easy Digital Downloads (EDD)

While most ecommerce plugins and platforms are immersed in the sale of physical goods, Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is intended exclusively to assist you in selling digital goods. 

EDD provides extensive tracking and data reporting of downloads, sales, and other statistics, as well as the power to establish discount codes and place restrictions on downloads. 

Extensions allow you to add further capabilities to your EDD shop, such as the ability to offer software licenses and subscriptions, as well as payment processors like PayPal. EDD is a free program with a number of premium add-ons available.

WordPress ecommerce

WP eCommerce isn’t as feature-rich as WooCommerce, but it’s a popular and reliable option for setting up an online store using WordPress. It has all of the essential functions, such as product pages, shopping carts, and checkout, as well as superb data reporting and inventory management. 

It’s free, like the other plugins, but it has paid and free extensions that can increase capabilities. A premium Gold Cart package alternative is also available, which includes more complex tools, layouts, and functionality. Premium payment gateways such as Stripe and Authorize.net can also be purchased.

Step Three

Installment of a plugin and the following steps:

Log in to your WordPress dashboard.

On the sidebar, go to the Plugins section and click “Add New”.
In the search bar, type “WooCommerce” and hit Enter. Click “Install Now” on WooCommerce by WooThemes.

Step four

Set up the product pages.
At the very least, every product you add must have the following features:
o Product name
o Price
o Image
o Brief description

Step five

Payment

Payment is the final step in any WordPress ecommerce setup, just as it is in the shopping process, both online and offline. Customers must be able to make payments on your ecommerce site.

When a customer completes a transaction on your site, they are taken to the payment gateway’s page, where they provide financial information or sign in to their account. Money is safely transferred from the customer to the payment gateway, which subsequently deposits the funds into your merchant account. Payment accounts are also hosted by some payment gateways.

One piece of advice from my end is to use optimization techniques to speed up your ecommerce store and use WordPress Managed hosting’s like Cloudways. This will make your life significantly easier since it comes with a built-in optimization plugin.If all the above information feels overwhelming, solution25 outsourcing team can be the ecommerce agency that can assist you with developing ecommerce platforms and Apps.