Regardless of how big or small your online store is, building and managing it takes time and effort. If you?re looking to start an online store, the platform you choose is essential.
While business owners, marketers and designers certainly have countless options when it comes to digital platforms to enable a web presence in the form of an online store, WordPress is the most preferred platform.WordPress has gained a reputation for being a widely-used blogging platform to the extent that it is known to power approximately 30 per cent of all the websites on the Internet globally.
WordPress is, at its core, essentially a content management system (CMS), but owing to its ability to be completely customized and tailored to suit the needs of any organization, and the flexibility that it guarantees, it has earned the reputation of being a highly viable enterprise content management (ECM) solution.
Why WordPress?
WordPress is customizable software, which means that an online store can accomplish almost anything with it. It also has a lot of developer support so there are many WordPress plugins available, most of which are free.?
WordPress plugins? ubiquity has driven them to enjoy a rich ecosystem of connectivity and integration. The WordPress-enabled e-commerce platform ? WooCommerce offers purpose-built systems, data centres, tools, practical expertise, and most importantly pre-built WordPress Plugins to align with the goals and needs of organizations.
A Word about WordPress Plugins
As far as the design, development, and business perspective is concerned, WordPress offers an array of benefits. One of the major benefits of WordPress is that it is highly configurable, and can be entirely customized and personalised as and when the need arises. For instance, if an online eyewear store owner wants to expand his business and add a range of prescription eyewear, he can simply enhance his store by adding a WordPress prescription plugin or a WordPress Eyeglass prescription plugin. This will help them be precise and enable customers to upload their prescription and get the eyewear of their choice.
At the same time, while the platform is powerful enough to handle vast amounts of traffic, launching with the right scale is essential to foster maximum scalability.
WordPress makes it possible for users to create a website on the platform without the use of any programming ? an option that is extremely popular and sought after by many business owners as they are adept at their business but lack programming competence. What makes this possible is the 40,000 plus plugins available on the platform that can be downloaded from the WordPress Plugin Directory, allowing users to enhance their WordPress sites with added features and functions. A WordPress plugin is essentially a bit of code that adds new functionality or extends the existing functionality of WordPress website.
These plugins are designed to not only eliminate the need for hiring a professional programmer by the store owner, but also reduce the costs of building their website from scratch.
Let?s understand this with the help of an example. Assume that a traditional eyewear retail store wants to take its business online as his clientele is shifting online. He can simply start an online eyewear store through WordPress-enabled e-commerce platform ? WooCommerce, which provides all the benefits of WordPress and more. The following two plugins can come really handy for this kind of business:
WordPress Select Option Plugin
The business owner can upload inventory on the website and install the WordPress select option plugin so that customers on his website can select size, colour, and specify customizations of the eyewear before adding it to the cart. The WordPress select option plugin includes drop-down menu, multiple select, checkbox, text field, and text area options.
WordPress Eyeglasses Prescription Plugin
For an online store offering prescription eyeglasses it is essential that it incorporates a WordPress prescription plugin that would enable customers to upload their prescriptions and specify their requirements, and at the same time help store owner provide for the specific needs.
Prescription glasses are something that one cannot order without specifying the requirements.
The WordPress eyeglass prescription plugin allows websites to collect all the important information from the customer about lens like whether the lens is for distance, reading, or multifocal, and also display of additional price, sun colour tints, light adjusting colour tints etc. The WordPress eyeglass prescription plugin is the perfect solution for websites selling prescription glasses.
By incorporating WordPress plugins, organisations can accelerate their innovation by choosing an array of systems that support business requirements on long, medium and short-term timescales.
It is essential that a business owner does thorough research before adding plugins to his WooCommerce store. Plugins are excellent ways to simplify development of an online store, and is also cost-effective, and time-efficient.
However, wrong plugins could cause multiple problems for the store, like crash the site or make it slow to load, introduce malicious code, conflict with certain features of the website, and more.
Some research is required at the store owner?s end so that the correct WordPress plugins are chosen for the website that matches the requirements of the site, its users, and the owner.
When it comes to e-commerce, WordPress is king. While there are plenty of dedicated platforms for selling your products, only a few can offer power, protection, and personalization. WordPress offers almost unlimited scalability and stability, and powers some of the largest sites on the web.The platform is a cost-effective solution, and you can get your store off the ground for a very minimal investment.
So, what are you waiting for, get these amazing plugins and get your online business up and about!
As the editor of the blog, She curate insightful content that sparks curiosity and fosters learning. With a passion for storytelling and a keen eye for detail, she strive to bring diverse perspectives and engaging narratives to readers, ensuring every piece informs, inspires, and enriches.
