Why WordPress is the perfect solution for many to start an online store

Written by Qamar Awad Mustafa
Have you ever thought about creating a professional online store ? If the answer is (yes), I think you are now looking for a suitable platform to create your online store. Good. Have you ever heard of (WordPress) for building online stores?

There are many systems that allow you to create an online store from scratch, among these systems is the WordPress system for creating online stores, which is the most suitable option for many to start an online store.

And due to the presence of other platforms for creating online stores with almost the same efficiency that you will find on WordPress, you may have some doubts! Why do I choose WordPress specifically?

This article was written specifically for you, as we will tell you about all the advantages that WordPress provides you when creating an online store, and after reading this topic, you will be aware of all the reasons why WordPress is an excellent choice for many, and perhaps for you as well.

Why is WordPress the perfect solution for starting your online store?

WordPress is considered one of the Content Management Systems or CMS, which allows you to build and fully control all types of websites, and in addition to blogs and regular websites, you can create an online store to sell products in an easy and simple way through WordPress.

Among the advantages of creating an online store on WordPress are the ease of building the store, ease of use, flexibility and the possibility of development, and many, many advantages; This is why many users prefer WordPress over other online store building platforms such as Shopify and OpenCart .

Here are all the features that made users prefer creating online stores on WordPress:

1. WordPress is free and open source

WordPress allows all users to create an online store for free, and it is an open-source system; That is, the primary owner of WordPress provides the basic codes for the program for free.

This, of course, provides the ability to modify it according to what suits each user, and this feature is useful in fixing errors, discovering gaps, and the emergence of new features in your online store.

2. Ease of use

Without the need for programming experience or agreement with a team of programmers, WordPress enables you to create an e-commerce site with ease. If you are familiar with some of the basics of WordPress, you will not find any difficulty in building the store, but if you are a beginner, you can learn these basics and get used to them very easily.

3. Search engine friendly

Do not forget that your store is nothing more than a website in the world of the Internet, and in order to reach the largest number of customers, your store must appear on the first pages of the search results.

Here comes the importance of WordPress in facilitating this step, as your online store based on WordPress will have many technical features and features that greatly contribute to its ranking in search results.

4. Freedom to customize

WordPress gives you absolute freedom to customize your online store. You control the design of store pages, side menus, the way products are displayed to customers, marketing methods, customizing the payment system and method, controlling new additions to the store, and many other variables that you can control according to your requirements. .

5. Thousands of templates and designs, and thousands of plugins as well

WordPress allows you to create a professional-style online store without prior experience in programming and design. This is because it contains approximately 8,000 templates, some of which are paid and some that are provided free of charge.

And in the event that you are a programmer and want a template made by your hands, WordPress provides you with tools dedicated to designing templates known as WordPress Page Builder Plugins, such as: Elementor and Visual Composer.

As for the add-ons, besides the add-on responsible for building the online store – whose features we will also explain – you will find many add-ons or tools that add great features to your store, including payment tools, communication tools, marketing tools, and others.

6. The ability to add content related to the store

The content of the online store is a free service provided by the store owner to customers, such as creating a blog to publish articles related to the store’s products, and this is provided by WordPress in an easy and simple way and without additional costs.

Here are three types of content that can be added to your online store:

• A series of videos explaining the features of your products, how to use them, and everything related to them.
• A blog for writing articles related to the field of the store, in order to review products and how to benefit from them.
• Chat and customer communication services, which can be easily added to your WordPress store.

7. Low operating cost

Compared to other e-commerce platforms , WordPress is inexpensive, and does not require large amounts of money, as in other platforms.

All you need is to host good websites such as hosting Bluehost for stores , whose price does not exceed ten dollars per month, in addition to a domain name , which you will give to him with free Bluehost hosting when subscribing to one of its packages.

What are the main steps to creating an online store on WordPress?

We did not devote this topic to how to create an online store on WordPress, but rather to answer the reader’s question (Why is WordPress the perfect solution for many to start an online store?), and to open the way to talk about the plugin responsible for building your store.

Now, we will briefly talk about the steps to create an online store on WordPress, which are:

1. Have a website on WordPress: If you have already created a website on WordPress, you can ignore this step and start from the next step, but if you do not have a website on WordPress, you have to create the site first.

2. Installing the WooCommerce add-on: After owning a website on WordPress, we come to the important step, which is installing the add-on responsible for converting the site into an integrated online store, and you can access this add-on through the Admin Panel on your WordPress site.

3. Start setting up the pages and menus of the online store: You can use the (WooCommerce Wizard) to learn about the steps to set up the store and prepare it to start selling products.

What is WooCommerce and what are its advantages?

WooCommerce is a WordPress Plugin that was designed in 2011 AD to make the WordPress site work in the system of large and small electronic stores.

This program has become widespread and used by a large number of online store owners due to its simplicity of installation and ease of dealing with it, and WooCommerce is a free and open source program like WordPress.

The WooCommerce tool is used to build e-stores by more than 36% of all e-commerce sites on the Internet, according to statistics from Statista.

And the numbers below show you how popular WooCommerce is among users:

• Active installs: +4 million downloads.
• Rating: 4.5 (based on over 3,000 reviews).
• Available languages: 54 languages.
• Price: Free.

Here is an overview of the most prominent features of WooCommerce, which made it widespread among users:

1. Free add-on

WooCommerce is a 100% free plugin, and it is open source – like WordPress – so once you pay for the website, you will not have to pay any additional fees.

2. Quick activation of the tool

After owning a WordPress website, you will simply go to the Plugins section, search for the WooCommerce plugin, download and activate the plugin on the site, and start setting up your online store settings.

3. WooCommerce is easy to use

You will not need any prior experience while adjusting the settings of the home page, the side menus of the store, and the structure of the site, and if you encounter any difficulty in adjusting these settings, you can use the (guide for new store owners) that explains to you how to use, you will find this guide immediately after downloading WooCommerce.

Note: Although WooCommerce is easy to use, there are easier options for building an online store, such as using the Shopify platform.

4. Offer flexible and secure payments

Unlike most of the online store building platforms that suffer from the problem of payment methods, you will find WooCommerce offering you many flexible and secure payment methods, such as: credit cards, checks, bank transfers, the payment system on delivery, and a number of electronic payment platforms, such as:

• Paypal PayPal.
• Stripe.
• Amazon Pay.
• Google Pay Google Pay.
• Apple Pay Apple Pay.

5. With WooCommerce you can sell anything

WooCommerce enables you to create an integrated online store and sell everything that can be sold to customers, whether you want to sell physical products or digital products.

A physical product is a physical form in reality that can be shipped and delivered to customers, such as: devices of all kinds, tools, furniture, and many others.

As for the digital product, it is what is circulated – digitally – via the Internet, such as: e-books, educational courses, selling services via the Internet…. etc.

6. Get support

WooCommerce technical support forums help you answer questions, troubleshoot errors, and fix problems with your WooCommerce store. It should be noted that WooCommerce lacks direct support, and this is one of the very few drawbacks that you will find in WooCommerce.

7. Expanding the scope of work

WordPress developers are keen to make it a comprehensive and global platform, so WooCommerce was presented as a multi-language and multi-currency platform, as WooCommerce works in more than 54 languages, and supports different types of currencies; This is to make your online store more convenient for customers from all over the world.

8. Extensions to develop your online store

WordPress developers are interested in creating plugins for WooCommerce, which help develop and enhance your online store, and there are dozens of free and paid plugins.

Here are examples of free plugins:

a) WooCommerce Blocks plugin: With one click, it allows you to add more categories and components for the store, such as (best-selling products) or (newest products), and other components.

b) WooCommerce Tax plugin: This tool saves you the trouble of adjusting product prices and adding taxes to them if your store is in one of the countries that impose tax fees, as this plugin automatically calculates the tax value and adds it to the purchase invoice.

c) Facebook For WooCommerce extension: It allows you to link your online store to your business page on Facebook or Instagram alike, in order to easily export your products to the page, and it also allows you to add a button to buy the product on Instagram or Facebook directly.

Hint: You can access WooCommerce plugins in two ways: the first is through the official WooCommerce website after activating WooCommerce, and the second method is through the WordPress control panel from the Plugins section.

9. Compatible with all carriers

Perhaps it is one of the most important features in WooCommerce, as most international shipping companies support delivery of WordPress store products, allowing customers to follow up on their purchases directly until they are delivered.

10. Quick response

The WooCommerce plugin is very responsive compared to other platforms and doesn’t cause any speed issues no matter how many products you have in your store.

Comparison of WordPress and Shopify

In order to better answer our question (Why is WordPress the perfect solution for many to start an online store?) In this paragraph, we will present a simple comparison between the two most popular platforms for building online stores: WordPress and Shopify, taking into account three aspects of comparison.

Here comes the question, why compare WordPress to Shopify specifically? Shopify is considered one of the most used platforms after WordPress in creating online stores and one of the most prominent competitors to WordPress, as the percentage of Shopify usage is about 10% of online stores on the Internet, according to Statista statistics.

Shopify, unlike WordPress, offers an integrated system in one platform to create and manage online stores without the need for any other tools, in exchange for a monthly subscription fee.

Here are the main comparisons between WordPress and Shopify:

1. Cost: In Shopify, you will need to pay a monthly amount as a subscription value in exchange for the integrated solution you get to build, manage and host your store, in addition to a professional support service from those in charge of the platform.

As for WordPress, you will apparently get everything completely free of charge, except for the hosting of the sites that you will subscribe to independently to host your store.

But from a practical point of view, there are other expenses that may appear in the event that you want to display your store, such as subscribing to one of the paid add-ons or obtaining more paid features in adding WooCommerce, which are called extensions.

Anyway, the winner in this part of the comparison is WordPress, but only on the surface as we explained above.

2. Ease of use: Dealing with WordPress and WooCommerce is not difficult, and you can discover and learn it yourself, and if you encounter any difficulty, there are many explanations on YouTube.

In the case of Shopify, creating an online store is very easy and easy, and this is what Shopify is particularly interested in, and with the presence of Shopify customer service, here the winner in this part of the comparison is Shopify, well deserved.

3. Flexibility and Scalability: Since Shopify is a self-hosted, closed-source platform; This means that the store owner will find it difficult to adjust it to suit the increasing volume and number of sales, and he will have no choice but to upgrade the subscription package. Which means an increased cost and this is one of the downsides of Shopify.

We have mentioned time and time again that WordPress is open source, and this applies to WooCommerce as well, and since you are fully responsible for your online store and modifying it, this means that there are limitless options in modifying and developing the store, in addition to thousands of free and paid plugins that you can download to upgrade the performance of the store mail.

From here, it is clear to us that WordPress is superior to Shopify in terms of flexibility and the ability to develop the store.

Conclusion

Using the WordPress platform with the addition of WooCommerce is an excellent and ideal option for many who would like to start an online store with the lowest costs and the highest level of flexibility, but of course this does not necessarily mean that it is the ideal option for everyone.

In this article, we shared with you everything you need to know about WordPress as a platform for building online stores, what are its advantages, and what are the most important aspects in which it excels over its biggest competitor, Shopify.

We hope that the article was useful to you, and we await your participation in the comments, or if you have a question or inquiry.