WordPress was started to support bloggers and provide a platform for blogging, however, WordPress has increased its reach and the platform now can be used for almost any website.
If you are bounded by limited time and limited budget, then WordPress is the one where you can start your online presence. From magazines, personal blogs, professional websites, to online store, WordPress provides the ultimate support to its users so that your online business could grow.
To take the maximum advantage of WordPress and its capabilities, you can make the use of tons of plugins as per your requirements.
Here, I refer it to tons because there are actually 50,000 WordPress plugins only for eCommerce, and going through every single one of them to search a perfect one for yourself is a tedious task.
To help you choose the right plugin, here, I have listed down the best WordPress plugins among the hundreds for eCommerce.
What to look for in an eCommerce plugin?
There are hundreds and thousands of different eCommerce plugins in the market. But not all of them are suitable for each and every online store out there.
Some eCommerce plugins are made for selling digital goods and services such as photos, eBooks, audios, etc. Others are better suited for selling physical products that need to be dealt with differently.
So, what your online business or online store has to offer is what you should be looking for in a WordPress plugin.
However, apart from all these, some of the basic features that you must be looking for to run your online store efficiently are:
- Design and Customization
How your store looks is the first thing your customer interacts with and having plenty of templates available to choose from is what you should seek.Also, the designs and templates you choose should be customizable to put your own spin on it.
- Payment solutions
Your preferred payment gateway should always be the default way for your payment on your eCommerce plugin.
- Support
Customer support along with numbers of medium to connect is what you should make sure of your WordPress plugin. It can save a lot of time as well as money in the long run.
- Apps and Integration
To grow your business, you would need to have the support of as many third-party applications as possible.
Best WordPress plugins
WooCommerce
The most popular plugin for eCommerce is definitely WooCommerce. It powers 8% of the WordPress sites and 23% of the top 1 million websites, which is a big number.
WooCommerce creates a fully functional eCommerce store and offers incredible flexibility and customizability. The popularity of WooCommerce is backed by rock-solid features such as complete product and inventory management, customer profile, order management, shipping control, and many more.
This plugin is suitable for both digitals as well as physical goods and hence, a complete package for whatever you ought to do.
Key features
- A number of extensions and themes
- Supports digital and physical goods
- Built-in payment gateways
- Well formatted documentation
- Easy management of your products and inventory
- Beginner-friendly
Shopify
Shopify is not actually a plugin but still secures its place on our list because it is all in one solution and is hassle-free. Shopify is a fast-growing eCommerce solution and handles everything for you.
To start with Shopify all you need to do is sign up and you are ready to use Shopify on your WordPress website to take full advantage of it. It’s easy to use and start set up is what makes this solution beginner-friendly.
It is also equipped with a complete Inventory Management System and the integration of social networking sites. Another plus point of Shopify is that its support for both digitals as well as physical goods.
Key features
- Easy for beginners
- Supports both digital and physical goods
- Complete Inventory Management System
- Social networking sites integration
- Multiple payment options
- Streamlined shipping system
- Third-party app integration
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a cloud-based eCommerce solution rather than a plugin. It works seamlessly with WordPress websites and offers tons of features to support your online business.
BigCommerce is the solution that was specially designed to help online sales, however, with time it has made enough upgrades to support any online business. The performance provided by BigCommerce seems unrealistic, also the scalability and enterprise-grade security.
It automatically creates the sign in, cart pages, and other important pages for you. BigCommerce calls their working plan as headless commerce, which means all the resources are handled in the frontend to free up space so that payments and catalog management can be processed faster oh the backend.
Key features
- Multiple payment gateways
- Lightning fast
- PCI compliance handled
- Multiple website support
- Wide range of shipping and fulfillment options
- Highly customizable
- No transaction charged
Easy Digital Downloads
Yes, there are plugins that offer you the feature to sell both physical as well as digital products, but they aren’t as rich in feature as Easy Digital Downloads.
This is a WordPress eCommerce plugin that supports only digital goods such as eBooks, PDFs, audio files, etc. If you are thinking of working with only digital services, then Easy Digital Downloads, short as EDD, is the best plugin for digital online store.
The core plugin is free, however, you can pay an extra amount to upgrade it to a premium one. You can choose themes from hundreds of theme options, and features like multiple payment gateways, a cart system, option to create promotional sales, and complete payment histories are what makes EDD the best.
Key features
- Only digital sales
- E-mail support
- Easy to use
- Hundreds of extension available
- Very well documented
- Built-in themes
- Large and active community
WP eCommerce
WP eCommerce has always been the one that had been compared to WooCommerce in terms of features, pricing, and anything else that you would consider.
However, WP eCommerce does not have much fuss online as the WooCommerce does and the features are very similar. WP eCommerce is another free plugin that can be upgraded to premium if you would like to take advantage of more of its features.
This plugin is used to create a business site, sell physical products, digital products, services, and even membership. This plugin is extremely customizable and can be customized using HTML and CSS to fit your needs.
WP eCommerce handles an extension as Gold Cart that provides premium features such as live search, a grid view for your image galleries, and a premium payment gateways.
Key features
- Well documented support
- Great customer support
- Multiple add-ons
- Premium add-on or plugin for $49
- Gold cart for $99
- Order management
- Built-in tools
WP EasyCart
Sometimes WordPress plugins such as WooCommerce, Shopify, and BigCommerce, although are the best in business does not work for small business.
If you are just starting your business and are considered as the small businesses in the market with limited time and limited budget, WP EasyCart is an amazing add ons for your WordPress website.
This plugin works well with other software and hence, there is easy sync with Quickbooks along with an email marketing integration for MailChimp. Integration with ShipStation and TaxCloud works like magic for small business owners for establishing an online presence.
It is a free plugin with premium features such as support for unlimited products, advanced product variants, and live shipping calculator. However, you can also buy a premium version at $69 per year to avoid transaction fees.
Key features
- Unlimited products listing
- Suitable for small businesses
- A number of extensions
- Best customer support
- Support for digital goods, physical goods, invoices, and donations
- Beginner-friendly
- Easy interface
Cart66 Cloud
Cart66 is quite different than most of the eCommerce plugin you would find for WordPress. Almost all of the plugins work by adding new add-ons on the plugin, but it might be confusing for new users as well as for those who have been using WordPress for years.
Hence, Cart66 Cloud has most of the features built-in in itself so that you won’t have to keep on looking for new add-ons on the plugins. Another important aspect of Cart66 Cloud is that it offers its own marketplace of vendors giving you another platform to get the word out about your business.
It allows its users to place products on any post or page, run an affiliate program, and even set your own preferred currency.
Key features
- Best customer support
- Built-in features
- Development support
- Email integration
- Over 100 built-in payment gateways
- Premium features
- Price $49 per month for the premium version
Final Verdict
Normally WooCommerce and Easy Digital Download are the ones people choose but just because they are famous and popular does not make it the right choice for you.
So what choice should you make? It actually depends upon what are you looking for and how do you see your online business prosper.
If you are looking to customize a lot, WooCommerce, Easy Digital Download, and BigCommerce might just be the one for you.
While if you are a complete beginner, then consider Cart66 Cloud or WP EasyCart because they are extremely beginner-friendly. Similarly, you can draw out what are you looking for and finally make a choice.
This list is the ultimate list for the best WordPress plugins as I have mentioned the best in business for almost all the cases.