Create a Successful WordPress WooCommerce Store with Expert Tips

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Last updated - July 8, 2021

One of the simplest decisions you can take when looking to create an online store would be to opt for WordPress WooCommerce as the platform to build it. One reason for this is the huge popularity of the platform with over 28% online stores around the globe using it. Another reason is the flexibility of WooCommerce where you can customize various features according to your store’s specific needs. However, just starting a store won’t be enough. Creating a successful business involves quite a few complex aspects that you need to consider. This article focuses on some of the expert eCommerce tips that a store owner can follow for his/her WordPress WooCommerce store.

Advantages of having a WordPress WooCommerce store

Choosing WooCommerce to build your dream online business obviously comes with a set of advantages. Firstly, let’s take a quick look at these.

It comes from the WordPress team

WordPress is arguably one of the best solutions to create a website at the moment. As WooCommerce comes from the same team, you can integrate a perfect integration. The expert team of WordPress WooCommerce surely provides you awesome support in all your innovative business ideas. In addition, you will get the rightful guidance in all times of need.

You can sell any kind of products

WordPress WooCommerce offers great flexibility to help you sell any type of products through your online store. These include physical products such as t-shirts, downloadable products like software, virtual products like training sessions, and even affiliate products. The numerous possibilities that it opens up definitely attracts more budding entrepreneurs to the platform and its several solutions.

Great options to uniquely design your site

WooCommerce offers great design choices with its own in-house theme, Storefront, along with the many child themes. As it is created by the same team, Storefront ensures perfect integration with WordPress WooCommerce and avoids possible conflicts with plugins. Moreover, it helps you define your own style and signature on your WooCommerce store.

Great choices of payment gateways

WooCommerce comes equipped with a range of payment options built into the platform. These include PayPal, BACS, Cash on Delivery, etc. However, if you need a specific solution for your store, you have myriad options in the form of extensions. You can take a look at some of the popular WooCommerce payment gateway extensions here.

Awesome flexibility when it comes to shipping

Shipping is one of the tedious aspects that you have to deal with when selling physical products. However, WooCommerce offers great solutions to help you with the entire process of delivering products to your customers. You can set up flat rate or free shipping according to the different geographical zones that you sell your products to. And, if you want to set up an advanced shipping option, you can find a large variety of awesome extensions to help you with that.

Control over tax calculations

WooCommerce also offers great control to store owners to control the complicated process of tax calculation. It will even help you automate the tax calculations according to your specific requirements. And, as it is in the case with other functionalities, you can find high-quality tax extensions to aid you in the process.

You are the owner of your own data

One of the aspects of WooCommerce that offers a huge advantage over other eCommerce platforms is that you are in control of your data. If you opt for a hosted eCommerce platform, you always run the risk of losing your data when problems arise with the service.

How to successfully manage a WordPress WooCommerce store?

You have already seen how WordPress WooCommerce can be a great solution to set up your online business. However, what else do you need to do to ensure the success of your business? Here is a detailed look at some of the oft-repeated ideas of industry experts:

Think in terms of your customers

This is one of the fundamental things that you can do if you wish to be successful in your online venture. You need to identify your potential customers and target users well in advance. Having a clearly defined customer target would provide you a strong foundation for the strategies that you are going to incorporate later.

Once you identify a target audience, you need to clearly understand their perspective. Why would they order from you? What precise things are they looking for in your store? Is the user experience of your website adequate? The answer to these questions would give you valuable pointers on how your site design should be, and what products you should line up.

If you are able to create a customer friendly store, the chances of you making a mark in the eCommerce world will be really high. The secret behind the success of big names such as Amazon is their “customer first” approach. So putting customers a priority is definitely the right strategy to go about when you start an online business.

Instead of obsessing over competitors, companies like Amazon focused on customers to be successful.

The visual appeal of your site

Having a great set of products is not enough for your store to be successful. Often the primary determinant of how customers come to your site is the design. You need to have a great visual identity in accordance with the interest of your customers. A good web designer will help you create a great site to match your unique sensibilities. If you prefer simpler ways, you can choose one of the popular themes to go to your site.

The importance of the visual aspect of your site doesn’t end in the overall beautification of the site. How each specific product is displayed plays a role in the customer perception of your site. Again, this is mostly determined by the type of products you sell on your store. For example, fashion apparel might need a minimalist approach with professional photographs of models wearing the clothes. Keep the copy on the product page to a minimum and let the visuals talk more in such a scenario. Whereas, with a digital product, you might want to give a more detailed description to capture the attention of the audience.

So, as per the opinion of eCommerce experts, you need to define a visual style for your store based on the type of products that you are selling. The customer demographics also play a major role in determining the design aspects. It is always better to do a thorough research before finalizing the design.

Create a good user experience on your site

The user experience on an eCommerce store is spread across multiple areas. How products are displayed, how easy it is to navigate, what are the payment options, how fast customers can complete the checkout, etc., are all critical. Your customer base will have a preferred approach, and finding that is really key to devising the right strategy. An optimal strategy would be to test all these aspects several times before implementing. Your customers need to be able to navigate on your site pretty easily. Decent product search and filters are especially important in ensuring that. Here are two articles that would help you with WooCommerce product search and product filters.

Similarly, a hassle-free checkout is a definite expectation of an eCommerce customer. You can find out more about how optimized checkout plays an important role in customer experience here. The payment gateways that you choose are also important when it comes to customer satisfaction. Here is an article that would help you find out some of the best payment gateways for WooCommerce that ensures a great customer experience.

Ensure you have good shipping options

One of the major reasons for shopping cart abandonment is hidden shipping charges. A great way to avoid this is by having a robust shipping strategy. Many customers would really love it if you have a transparent system displaying real-time shipping rates. Showing shipping options from multiple carriers might also help your cause in a good way.

Maintain an awesome online support

You need to ensure that your customers are happy even after making a purchase on your store. You can ensure this by having a great customer support. Sometimes, your customers may need help in getting acquainted with the product. Sometimes, they may encounter defects or problems with the product. Whatever be the case, being open and approachable is essential to winning the trust of your customers. In fact, studies have shown that customers who have contacted a store’s customer support with a positive outcome trust the brand more than those who never contacted. So, even if there is quite a lot of customer queries regarding a product, you need not worry if you can rectify them all satisfactorily.

WordPress helpdesk plugins might be of great use to you if you are running a WooCommerce store. Similarly, incorporating live chat and maintaining a blog or knowledge base might do a world of good to keep customers engaged all the time. Your goal should be to ensure reliable support at all stages of the purchase process.

Use social media effectively

You can use multiple social media channels to market your products and engage with the customers. The advantage here is that, you get multiple channels to focus on, and if something doesn’t offer expected results, you can easily change strategies. Another advantage is that you can get really creative when it comes to advertising ideas. Moreover, there are several solutions that will help you integrate all the social media activities on your WooCommerce store. In addition, you can also use analytics tools to measure the results of each of these campaigns, and accordingly invest.

Keep product reviews in your store

According to studies, most eCommerce users prefer going through product reviews before making a purchase decision. So, you need to keep reliable product reviews in your store to help the customers do a proper evaluation of the products. In fact, experts say it is wise to include both negative and positive reviews on your product pages. Displaying only positive reviews might not help to make your site look real. However, getting positive product reviews is not really easy. You may need to go after the customers at an appropriate time to get satisfactory reviews. Here is an article that will probably help you with your WooCommerce product review strategies.

Constantly check your pricing strategy

WooCommerce offers several plugins that will help you with advanced pricing strategies. You need to constantly be on the watch about the pricing of your competitors or may lose out on potential customers. With eCommerce gaining popularity all around, there are several websites that offer price comparisons between online stores. In such a scenario, if your products are not competitively priced, customers might go for a similar option elsewhere. You may have to do a thorough market research at regular intervals to stay on top of this aspect. WooCommerce dynamic pricing is something which you can really try out.

Offer discounts

Customers are constantly on the lookout for discount deals. So, it is a really good strategy if you feature discount offers on your store. WooCommerce, by default, has options to create and manage coupons. And, if you want advanced options for coupon management, you can always find good plugins for that. However, you need to take care to use discount strategies only occasionally. If discount deals are a regular feature on your store, your customers might buy from you only when discounts are on. This might adversely affect the prospects of your store.

Conclusion

Creating a successful online business is not an easy task. Often, you may have to try out several strategies to spot the right one. Choosing WordPress WooCommerce as the building block of your online store might be a really good idea. As WooCommerce is an economically viable and functionally flexible solution, more users across the world are opting for it.  With the ever-growing community, there will never be a dearth of innovative ideas. This article has presented some of the best features of WordPress WooCommerce to remind you why it is loved so much. You may have also found quite a few strategies that eCommerce experts vouch for to create a successful online venture. Let us know if you have any suggestions or queries.

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