Running a successful online store can be challenging, especially for small businesses and shop owner who is trying to make more sales and compete with bigger retailers.
However, WooCommerce offers a game-changing solution.
This powerful e-commerce plugin for WordPress allows you to create a fully-fledged online store with features that rival those of major retailers, without breaking the bank.
One crucial aspect of any thriving online business is customer feedback and reviews.
These WooCommerce reviews can make or break your brand’s reputation and heavily influence purchasing decisions.
To make the most of customer reviews, many store owners turn to WooCommerce review plugins.
In this post, we’ll explore the top WooCommerce review plugins available, their key features, and how to choose the right one for your e-commerce needs.
Get ready to take your online store from average to extraordinary with the power of WooCommerce and customer reviews.
What is WooCommerce?
WooCommerce is an open-source e-commerce platform built specifically for WordPress, the world’s most popular content management system.
It’s the ultimate solution for small and medium businesses looking to establish an online presence and start to sell physical products or services with ease on e-commerce websites for online sales.
It’s backed by a global community of developers who continuously contribute to its growth and improvement.
Founded in 2008 as WooThemes by three visionary entrepreneurs, the company (now known as Woo) has grown into an all-remote powerhouse with over 330 team members spread across 32 countries.
Who Created WooCommerce?
In 2011, three entrepreneurs – Mark Forrester, Magnus Jepson, and Adii Pienaar – started a company called WooThemes.
Their initial goal was to create well-designed themes and plugins for WordPress.
As their business grew, they saw a need for an easy-to-use e-commerce solution that worked well with WordPress.
So, they developed WooCommerce, an online shopping platform that integrated seamlessly with WordPress websites, allowing businesses to create a WooCommerce site.
WooCommerce quickly became popular among small and medium-sized businesses looking to sell products or services online.
It also allowed businesses to enable reviews on their products. As demand increased, WooThemes expanded to offices in San Francisco and Cape Town to better serve their global customers.
In 2015, Automattic (the company behind WordPress.com) acquired WooThemes and WooCommerce.
Today, Automattic continues to develop and support WooCommerce, with help from a worldwide community of developers who contribute to its improvement.
Benefits of WooCommerce
WooCommerce stores are a great e-commerce platform for businesses of all sizes, offering several key benefits:
Cost-effective
WooCommerce itself is free to download and use, making it a great option for businesses on a budget. You only need to pay for web hosting and your chosen domain name, and there are many free themes and plugins available to get you started.
Scalability
WooCommerce is designed to grow with your business. You can start with a basic store and then add features and functionality as needed through themes and plugins.
Customization
WooCommerce is highly customizable, allowing you to create a unique online store that reflects your brand. There are thousands of themes and plugins available to change the look and feel of your store, add new features, and integrate with other services.
Ease of Use
WooCommerce is built on WordPress, which is known for its user-friendly interface. Even if you don’t have any coding experience, you can easily set up and manage your online store with WooCommerce.
Security
WooCommerce is a secure platform that takes steps to protect your customer’s data. There are also many security plugins available to add an extra layer of protection.
Large Community
WooCommerce has a large and active community of users and developers. This means that there are plenty of resources available to help you get started and troubleshoot any problems you encounter.
SEO Friendly
WooCommerce integrates well with WordPress SEO plugins, which can help you improve your store’s ranking in search engines.
Powerful Analytics
WooCommerce provides you with valuable data about your store’s performance, such as sales, traffic, and customer behavior. This data can help you make informed decisions about your marketing and merchandising strategies.
Wide Variety of Payment Options
WooCommerce allows businesses to accept a wide variety of payment methods, making it easier for customers to pay and complete the checkout process quickly.
Easy Customization
With customizable themes, plugins, and extensions, WooCommerce offers businesses plenty of ways to customize their store’s look and feel—allowing them greater control over how they present themselves online.
Mobile-Friendly Design
Thanks to its mobile-friendly design, WooCommerce websites are optimized for visitors on any device or screen size—ensuring that your products will always look great no matter how people view them.
Robust Reporting Tools
With detailed sales reports and analytics features built in, businesses can keep track of everything from their site’s performance to customer engagement with ease.
Low Upfront Costs
Unlike other ecommerce platforms, which require more significant upfront investments in order to get started, many aspects of setting up a new store with WooCommerce are free or low cost due to providing an affordable solution for entrepreneurs just getting started out in the world of business ownership.
“WooCommerce is one of the most versatile and customizable ecommerce platforms available, powering over 30% of all online stores.”
Best Features of WooCommerce
WooCommerce has become very popular as an e-commerce platform for online stores and ecommerce websites.
Its advanced features, such as shopping carts, product displays, customer reviews, order management, and secure payment processing, make it a preferred choice for many businesses.
Due to its advanced capabilities, WooCommerce has emerged as the most widely used content management system for WordPress sites that want to sell products online.
Here are some of the best features that make WooCommerce stand out from other solutions:
Setting up Your Store and WordPress Site
WooCommerce is flexible and can be customized with additional features as needed.
Since it works with your existing WordPress plugins, you won’t have to change what you already use.
This allows you to easily add a powerful e-commerce website to your WordPress site.
You can design the homepage according to your style preferences and use menus to help customers browse products.
You can set up different payment and shipping options to suit your customers’ needs.
The New Store Owner Guide provides all the information required to set up an online store, making the process less daunting.
Flexible and Secure Payments
The WooCommerce plugin integrates with payment gateways like Stripe, Google Pay, and others, enabling you to accept credit/debit cards and online transactions securely.
It also supports alternative payment methods such as Cash on Delivery, direct bank account transfers, and checks.
As an ultimate e-commerce solution, WooCommerce offers a flexible and secure platform with over 140 payment options to choose from.
It caters to diverse customer preferences by supporting digital wallets, subscriptions, and a wide range of convenient payment choices and even accepts crypto payments.
Managing Orders on the Go
WooCommerce is an e-commerce site solution for managing online stores.
It is built on WordPress, providing a user-friendly dashboard with a familiar interface.
This makes it easy to update products and fulfill orders with automated tax calculations and live shipping rates from leading carriers.
With the mobile app available for both iOS and Android, you can manage orders on the go!
WooCommerce offers various shipping options for your customers:
Pick up their order.
Local delivery.
Shipping through carriers.
You can restrict options based on customer location and set flat rates or product-specific shipping rates, such as additional charges for heavy items.
Customers will see accurate rates during checkout, and you can offer free shipping for certain products or locations.
For customer accounts and guest checkout:
Customers can register with a username and password.
Alternatively, they can check out as a guest without registration.
Returning customers will see a login reminder, while those who don’t want to register can use the guest checkout option.
Enhance Your Store
WooCommerce is designed to work seamlessly with various WordPress website themes, including the default themes and popular third-party options like Astra, Divi, and Hello.
This allows you to choose a custom theme that suits your preferences and familiarity.
To enhance your online store’s capabilities, WooCommerce offers a vast selection of free and paid extensions.
These extensions add features, integrations, multichannel options, and point-of-sale capabilities, ensuring you can find the right enhancements to meet your specific needs.
In addition, WooCommerce allows you to personalize your online store by utilizing various actions, filters, custom AJAX endpoints, and webhooks.
It is a global platform, with shops and developers from all around the world, including Norway, South Africa, Canada, and India.
Affordable Growth
WooCommerce is the most affordable way to start selling online, with no transaction fees and easy setup.
You can manage multiple stores through one plugin, allowing you to quickly scale up or down as needed and track performance optimization.
With over 400 official extensions and numerous plugins available, ranging from payment and shipping to marketing and accounting, you can sell a wide range of products and services.
This includes physical products, digital downloads, subscription-based services, as well as booking reservations and appointments.
Product reviews are an important aspect of any e-commerce store.
WooCommerce allows you to track product reviews effectively with star ratings, using an existing review form or adding custom ones easily.
Verified reviews help increase trust in your products while adding an extra layer of protection from malicious activity.
WooCommerce Pricing
To get started with WooCommerce, the first step is to choose a hosting provider and purchase one of their plans.
WooCommerce recommends hosting services like SiteGround, Bluehost, Hostinger, Pressable, or the WP Business plan from the WordPress dashboard as they offer specific WooCommerce expertise.
Running a WooCommerce store involves various costs to keep it up and running. Here are some key areas to consider:
Communications
Email marketing tools like MailPoet (free, paid plans start at $10/mo) and AutomateWoo ($119/yr) allow you to reach customers, recover abandoned carts, and track conversions.
Security
WordPress security plugins offer features like backups, malware scanning, and firewalls. Options range from free to premium tools like Jetpack Security ($19.95/mo or individual tools at $9.95/mo).
SSL Certificate
SSL certificates encrypt sensitive data and are typically provided for free by hosting providers.
Additional Spending: Customer Experience Enhancement
WooCommerce offers free and premium extensions to enhance the customer experience and drive conversions, including:
Product page features (e.g., gift wrapping, waitlists, name your own price)
Cart and checkout enhancements (e.g., upsells, social media login)
Store customization (e.g., pop-ups, slideshows, online catalogs)
Navigation and search improvements (e.g., advanced filters, table views, brand assignment)
Marketing integrations (e.g., social media, Google Shopping ads, follow-ups)
It’s important to balance the use of extensions to avoid slowing down your website, which could impact sales.
Ultimately, WooCommerce pricing and the amount you spend on your site is up to you and your business needs.
WooCommerce offers flexibility to accommodate various budgets.
WooCommerce Pros and Cons
WooCommerce is a widely used tool for building online shops, and it has both good and bad points that you should consider.
Pros of WooCommerce
Free and Open Source: WooCommerce itself is free to download and use, making it cost-effective for businesses on a budget. Being open-source means there is a large and active developer community contributing extensions and providing support.
Highly Customizable: WooCommerce offers extensive customization options through themes and plugins, allowing you to design your online store exactly how you want it to look and function.
Scalable: WooCommerce can handle a wide range of product volumes and business sizes, making it suitable for both startups and established businesses. It can adapt to your growing needs.
SEO Friendly: By integrating with WordPress, WooCommerce benefits from its SEO-friendly architecture, which can help your online store rank higher in search engine results.
Large Community and Support: With a vast user base, there is a wealth of resources, tutorials, and community forums available online to help you troubleshoot any issues you may encounter.
Flexibility: WooCommerce is not limited to selling just one type of product. You can use it to sell physical, digital, and even subscription-based items, allowing for diverse business models.
Integration Capabilities: WooCommerce can easily integrate with various tools and platforms, such as CRM systems, order management software, and third-party shipping services, enhancing your store’s productivity and adaptability.
Content Marketing Opportunities: Built on top of WordPress, a content management system, WooCommerce allows you to leverage content marketing by easily creating and publishing relevant content for your audience.
Analytics: WooCommerce provides built-in analytics, giving you insights into your store’s performance, sales, and customer behavior without any additional effort.
Security: The WooCommerce team works closely with security experts to patch any discovered vulnerabilities and regularly release updates, ensuring the security of your online store.
However, some drawbacks to using WooCommerce should be considered when making a decision. These include:
Cons of WooCommerce
WordPress Dependency: WooCommerce is designed to work exclusively with WordPress, which may not be suitable for those who want to use a different content management system or website platform.
Hidden Costs: While WooCommerce itself is free, various extensions, plugins, and tools required for additional functionality or business needs can add up to significant costs.
Plugin Management: Integrating multiple plugins can strain website resources, leading to performance issues if not managed properly. Inexperienced users may overload their site with too many plugins.
Regional Limitations: As a platform developed in the United States, WooCommerce may not be tailored to meet the specific needs or regulations of other markets or countries.
Legal and Tax Compliance: WooCommerce lacks built-in legal documentation, such as terms and conditions or data protection policies, which could lead to potential legal or tax-related issues for businesses in certain regions.
Updating Challenges: The updating process for WooCommerce and its plugins can be complex, requiring compatibility checks and testing to avoid disruptions to the site’s functionality.
Lower Market Share: Compared to platforms like Shopify, Amazon, or Alibaba, WooCommerce has a relatively smaller market share, which could be a disadvantage in terms of widespread adoption and compatibility.
Steeper Learning Curve: For those new to WordPress or website building, WooCommerce may have a steeper learning curve compared to hosted e-commerce platforms, requiring more setup and maintenance efforts.
Hosting and Maintenance Costs: While the plugin itself is free, you’ll need to pay for web hosting, and domain name, and potentially hire a developer for customization or troubleshooting.
Performance Issues: With many plugins and extensions, your WooCommerce store can become slow and clunky if not optimized properly, potentially impacting user experience and search engine rankings.
Technical Requirements for Your Wocommerce
After weighing the pros and cons of WooCommerce, it’s crucial to find the right web hosting for your online store.
WooCommerce often requires more resources than a typical website, such as at least 128MB of WordPress memory limit.
If you plan to use plugins like WooCommerce Subscriptions, you’ll likely exceed the memory limit of standard web hosts.
Read our article on WooCommerce hosting, where we detail the four most important factors to consider when choosing a hosting plan for your online store.
The current system requirements for WooCommerce are:
PHP version 7 or higher
MySQL version 5.6 or higher, or MariaDB version 10.0 or higher
WordPress memory limit of at least 128MB or higher
SSL certificate
Setting Up Your Online Store
WooCommerce is a plugin that works with WordPress. So, you need to first install and set up WordPress before using WooCommerce. Here are the basic steps:
Hosting and Domain Name To make your store available online, you’ll need a web hosting service and a domain name (e.g. yourstore.com). Choose a reliable WordPress hosting provider.
Install WordPress After signing up for web hosting, you’ll need to install the WordPress software on your hosting account.
Install WooCommerce Plugin WooCommerce is a free plugin. Log into your WordPress admin area, go to Plugins > Add New, search for “WooCommerce”, and install and activate the plugin.
Choose a WooCommerce Theme Next, you’ll need to select and install a WordPress theme that is compatible with WooCommerce and suits the look and feel you want for your online store.
Configure WooCommerce Settings Once installed, you can access the WooCommerce settings in your WordPress admin area to configure important details like payment gateways, shipping options, taxes, etc.
Add Products and Content After the setup, you can start adding your products, descriptions, images, and any other content you want on your WooCommerce store.
Comparison to Other Platforms
Here’s a quick comparison of WooCommerce to other popular ecommerce platforms:
Shopify
WooCommerce vs Shopify boils down to customization vs ease of use.
Shopify offers a user-friendly, all-in-one solution with built-in features and excellent customer support, but less flexibility in design and functionality.
WooCommerce shines with its extensive customization options through themes and plugins, ideal for those who want a unique store experience, but require more technical know-how and potentially a developer for complex setups.
BigCommerce
Similar to Shopify, BigCommerce is a hosted platform known for its scalability and robust built-in features, making it suitable for medium to large stores.
However, WooCommerce offers greater flexibility and lower overall costs in the long run, especially for smaller businesses.
Magento
Magento is a powerful open-source platform like WooCommerce but with a much steeper learning curve. It caters to large enterprises with complex needs and high transaction volumes.
WooCommerce is a more approachable option for businesses starting out or with moderate technical knowledge.
Why Choose WooCommerce?
WooCommerce has been an invaluable asset for growing my online business. By leveraging its powerful features and capabilities, I’ve been able to craft an incredibly smooth checkout experience for my customers.
This seamless process, coupled with the ability to easily display product reviews via ecommerce, has driven higher conversion rates and kept shoppers engaged throughout the purchase journey.
One of WooCommerce’s biggest strengths is its ability to automate critical ecommerce operations like generating discount codes.
I’ve set up automated order processing, inventory management tracking, and comprehensive reporting functions.
This automation has allowed me to efficiently scale my business operations while still delivering exceptional customer service every step of the way.
With WooCommerce as the engine powering my online store, I’ve achieved amazing results that have propelled my business’s growth and success.
The platform’s versatility and robustness have been invaluable for streamlining sales while providing my customers with a top-notch online shopping experience that includes product reviews WooCommerce and easy discount code management.
My Experience Using WooCommerce
As an entrepreneur seeking to elevate my business, I was on the hunt for an ecommerce solution that could propel me forward.
That’s when I stumbled upon WooCommerce, and it quickly became evident that this platform possessed everything I needed and more.
What drew me in initially was WooCommerce’s integration with WordPress, allowing me to harness the content management system I was already familiar with.
Setting up my online storefront was a seamless process thanks to WooCommerce’s user-friendly interface and intuitive dashboard.
Beyond the basics, WooCommerce opened up a world of possibilities through its vast ecosystem of extensions.
I could effortlessly incorporate advanced features, integrations, and multichannel capabilities to create a truly unique and comprehensive shopping experience for my customers.
Perhaps most impressive was WooCommerce’s mobile app, which granted me the freedom to manage my store on-the-go, ensuring I never missed a beat when it came to product updates, order fulfillment, or customer inquiries.
Yet, what truly sealed the deal for me was WooCommerce’s affordability.
As an open-source platform, it provided a cost-effective solution that didn’t compromise on quality or functionality.
Looking back, choosing WooCommerce was one of the best decisions I’ve made for my ecommerce venture.
It has empowered me to scale my business efficiently while delivering a seamless, secure shopping experience that keeps customers coming back.
And with its constant evolution, I’m confident that WooCommerce will continue to be my trusted partner for years to come.
Ecommerce Platform Alternatives
Drupal Commerce – A flexible, open-source e-commerce platform that allows businesses to build customized online stores with extensive functionality and scalability
Big Cartel – An e-commerce platform that enables independent artists and makers to create online stores and sell their products with minimal expense.
Zen Cart – An open-source e-commerce platform with customizable templates, product management, and payment and shipping tools.
BigCommerce – An e-commerce platform that enables businesses to create and manage online stores with advanced features and integrations.
Wix – An all-in-one website building platform that offers a range of tools and features designed to help users create professional and customizable websites.
Shopify – a comprehensive e-commerce platform that provides users with everything they need to create an online store, including product management, payment processing, and shipping integration.
Volusion – A cloud-based e-commerce platform that provides businesses with tools to create and manage online stores.
Should You Buy WooCommerce?
To summarize, WooCommerce emerges as a truly powerful ecommerce platform, packed with an extensive array of features and benefits.
Its easy setup process, support for flexible payment options, secure checkout system, robust WooCommerce product reviews functionality, and affordable pricing model have propelled it to become one of the most popular solutions for businesses venturing into online sales.
Regardless of whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, WooCommerce presents itself as an exceptional value proposition and the ultimate solution for launching a successful online store.
Its versatility ensures that it can cater to the diverse needs of businesses across various scales and industries.
If you’re seeking to elevate your business to new heights and tap into the vast potential of ecommerce, giving WooCommerce a try is an opportunity you should strongly consider.
This comprehensive platform could very well be the catalyst that helps your business grow and thrive in the digital marketplace.
I hope this overview has provided you with a better understanding of how WooCommerce can be a valuable asset in driving the success of your ecommerce endeavors.
But don’t just take my word for it – experience the power of WooCommerce for yourself by signing up and launching your online store right away.
Frequently Asked Questions for WooCommerece Review
How reliable is WooCommerce?
WooCommerce offers high-quality e-commerce solutions for small to medium businesses. With almost 3 million new online store installations already in place, the platform topped a recent Forbes list.
What are the downsides of WooCommerce?
The use of Woocommerce has several advantages, but it has its drawbacks. WooCommerce plugins can also inhibit otherwise impressive performance. An experienced user will see the poor performance of their software if they install the incorrect plugins.
Is there anything better than WooCommerce?
Shopify is an effective WooCommerce alternative for anyone who needs to make high profits. The software is much easier to use in terms of performance, aesthetics, and support. Besides the e-commerce tools, you will get many other options for free.
Is Shopify better than WooCommerce?
Shopify provides a security feature since the website is PCI-DSS compliant and SSL-enabled with the account. This will require plugins or extensions from WordPress and is not secure unless you configure it properly.
