Due to the still relatively immature state of shopping cart solutions available for WordPress, choosing the right plugin is crucial for your business to succeed online. In this brief article, we will quickly glance over some of the leading options in the marketplace today.
Cart66 Pro: Arguably the most notable feature of this plugin is how easily it will integrate with your site’s theme. Unlike many perhaps more sophisticated offerings, styling with this shopping cart is very straightforward: just place the appropriate shortcode wherever you want your buy-now button.
Tribulant WP Shopping Cart: This cart plugin offers a nice AJAX cart so that shoppers stay focused on shopping instead of being redirected to another webpage! It’s also available as a part of the company’s money-saving package that features a rotating banner plugin and a newsletter plugin.
WP eStore: This is another WordPress eCommerce solution that can be purchased as part of a value-pack, with the additional functionality being your choice of an affiliate program, membership site manager, or another software listed on their site. WP eStore is probably the most straight-forward option for folks looking to offer only downloadable products.
WooCommerce: This is the latest shopping cart plugin available to the WordPress community, and it promises to be a game-changer. Initial reviews have all been very positive, and it seems to have a lot of potential for enterprise-level applications.
As mentioned at the outset, the state of eCommerce on WordPress is still comparatively immature, with no clear industrial-strength solution just yet. But for the overwhelming vast majority of small and medium-sized businesses, the solutions outlined here should be quite adequate. Fortunately, most plugins offer generous money-back guarantees and, even, absolutely free “lite” versions of their software, so aside from a few hassles dealing with the technical issues involved in setting things up each time you try one out, the process of finding just the right cart should be otherwise painless.
Some final thoughts to keep in mind, then: The most important factor in whether an eComm plugin is for you is you. That may sound mind-numbingly tautologous but it’s quite the truth, for without a clear understanding of what you need, you are simply much more likely to wind up with software that you really don’t want. Again, the state of eCommerce on WordPress is still rather primitive (actually, the New World has just been discovered and is being settled at the moment, so to speak), so it’s extremely important to really know what it is you and your business needs for success online.
For the fact of the matter is that not all eCommerce solutions work the same, though standards are emerging. Styling, for example, is one notorious area which can vary very widely from one cart to the next, with some allowing for complete freedom in where elements are placed while others force you into a certain kind of design. These designs are not bad, mind you, but you certainly won’t have a say in the issue, so if look and feel is important for your business, it’s important that you ascertain how customizable the cart is!