The world of online retail is a crowded and fierce market with a multitude of online competitors. For the customer, finding the best value product for the best price is key, but there are also other factors that entice the customer to buy when setting up a successful eCommerce website.
For your business, your website can be so much more than a stand-alone selling platform. With WordPress plug-ins, some of which are free to implement, you can extend what your site can accomplish for your business ‘behind the scenes’.
Liam Webster, CEO of Identify Digital says the “Your eCommerce website needs to provide a sleek buying process. From the moment a potential customer lands on your eCommerce WordPress website, it needs it to ooze appeal, as well as being easy to use.”
The following are key to a successful WordPress eCommerce setup:
High-level shopping features from WooCommerce
With PayPal as a standard integration in their free plug-in, WooCommerce has created a plug-in that adds a range of top-end features for any eCommerce website.
Use this plug-in, and you will be in good company, with major names such as Harley Davidson reportedly using the plug-in for their site. They also have an extensive range of WooThemes, perfect if you are looking to revamp the shopping experience on your website. Speak to your web designer about the features, and they’re sure to be able to explain how it could fit on your site.
Sales and stock monitoring from Jigoshop
This reliable plug-in from Jigowatt is perfect for small to medium-sized enterprises and affords all kinds of handy ‘extras’ that become essential as your online business grows.
It features a dashboard that is perfect for ease of use, a great plus if you also have staff working on behind the scenes stuff of your eCommerce website. As well as amazing themes, there are all kinds of reporting features too, including sales graphs and stock reports, ideal for when you need to monitor stock in, as well as sales.
Slimline shopping cart with MarketPress
This third plug-in from MarketPress has the main motive of creating a simple shopping cart experience.
One of the biggest off-putting factors for customers is a buying and paying experience that lasts over several pages. Although security is important, having a new page or level for every step of the buying process can put customers off.
As well as the free version, you can also upgrade to a premium version and take your pick of some great themes.
Install the Yoast SEO plugin
Anyone serious about running a successful eCommerce website needs to be actively optimizing their site in terms of SEO to make sure you are maximizing your potential traffic which intern will provide the opportunity to make more sales. Luckily Yoast offers the perfect plugin for this, just download the plugin and enter all the information required information on each of your most important “money” pages.
Tracking Setup with Google Analytics and Search Console
One of the most important aspects of an eCommerce store is to track all the actions carried out on your website accurately. This allows you to keep track of how well your store is doing in terms of traffic and conversions and allows a significant amount of useful data to be collected which can be used in your marketing efforts.
Google Search Console can be set up by visiting here to set up your account and get your HTML tag which can then be added to the site via the Yoast plugin.
Google Analytics requires you to set up an account here and get your tracking code which can be added using a variety of plugins.
And the rest
Your eCommerce website also needs to be optimized for marketing. As you would expect, there are plug-ins perfect for any eCommerce WordPress site that promotes usability, email marketing, more secure and slimline checkout, and more.
Of course, it’s essential you have a web designer that understands your needs, as they will be able to suggest the best plugins for your eCommerce site. And if all else fails, you may want to consider asking your web designer for a custom-built website that offers all the assistance your back office needs for marketing, user experience, and stock control.
