The Pros and Cons of Using WooCommerce for Your Online Business

Want to launch a website quickly? Have a brilliant eCommerce idea – convert it into a website or mobile application. You should deploy the website before your immediate competitor copies your idea and pastes it into a website.

You should invest in the right tools and framework to accelerate development methods and increase developer efficiency. WooCommerce has repeatedly proven its productivity and efficiency as an eCommerce development tool. This WordPress plugin allows you to use the CMS platform to create and manage highly efficient eCommerce websites.

It isn’t too fancy yet, and it can help unleash the most experiential and intuitive websites to meet your requirements. The WooCommerce plugin has been downloaded close to 161.9 million times (WPSwings). According to the reports, the plugin is downloaded at least 30k times daily. 

This showcases the plugin’s popularity and shows how often it is used for eCommerce development. While it is a great tool, it may only be helpful in some cases. We will discuss the pros and cons of the plugin in eCommerce development to understand when and how you can use the plugin. 

Pros of Using WooCommerce for eCommerce Development

We can first look at why WooCommerce is preferred by several developers for eCommerce website development. This will help us understand the true benefits of this plugin for better and more effective development. 

Open-Source Framework

There are two separate benefits associated with open-source frameworks. An open-source framework allows you to look at the source code. You can easily reinvent the code, identify the useful parts and refine the others to meet your eCommerce website requirements. The openness allows you to glance through the code, make modifications and quickly recreate the new code.

As it is open-source, it is available for free. You don’t need to spend money to purchase the framework. This is your second benefit. It automatically reduces the cost of development. You won’t need to invest in too many plans or pricing solutions to create the application. With minimal investment, you get an eCommerce application.

Strong Backing from Interactive Community

When you are developing a strong website, your community is your immediate friend and support system. You can rely on the community to help identify ways to define your idea as a website. The community will help with the code development, debugging, troubleshooting and other aspects of eCommerce development.

There are Facebook groups, code-sharing groups and other communities where you can post your queries, seek suggestions and get help in real-time. Several WooCommerce users can help you in multiple ways. 

Improve Website Security

As an eCommerce website, you need to ensure maximum security. Several people, including businesses and individuals, follow your website. You should ensure that people sharing their data feel secure and add their cards for easy checkout. These instances can help in immediate transactions and improve your business conversions. 

WooCommerce ensures you can bring to the website maximum security. It offers extensive authentication layers and encrypts most of the data users share. The stores can also add data in the encrypted format for maximum protection. You may maximise your income when you also protect your site with extra malware protection. 

Easy to Customise

When developing an eCommerce solution, you want to include all the features and functionalities that matter to your audience. However, most ready-to-use tools and frameworks will only allow you the ability to customise if you buy high-end versions. 

That’s not the case with WooCommerce. You get to customise the free version of the plugin in multiple ways. Create the choicest header or checkout pages for your website that can convert into profits for you. You can maximise the number of users by including experiential and user-centric features/functionality.

They use proven technologies like CSS and HTML to build the application, which makes it easier for developers to code and customise. 

Flexibility in Selling Online

You are not restricted by what you can sell online using the WooCommerce plugin. This plugin helps sell all types of products, including digital and physical.  

The extensive flexibility you get with this plugin ensures smooth and quick website development. You can also create your store as an Amazon affiliate with this plugin. 

Cons of Using WooCommerce for eCommerce Development

While there are several pros to the WooCommerce plugin, you cannot ignore the negatives. This plugin has its share of cons, which makes it unusable for several reasons. 

WordPress-only Plugin

There you go; the first con limits the functionality of this plugin to WordPress. Let’s try to understand this a bit. You cannot create websites for your eCommerce requirements.

To use the WooCommerce positives, you should build a CMS site using WordPress. This locks you in several ways. Even a thing as simple as moving the data can become difficult, as migration is challenging. 

Plugin has Costs

You cannot rely on WooCommerce alone to create your website; you will need extensions and plugins to add functionality. This will take up a lot of money.

Most of the extensions you may need for website development come with an additional price. This will increase the cost of eCommerce website development, which can lead to budget revisions. 

Performance May Be Hampered

There have been multiple instances when low-performing websites have received increased churn rates. This can eventually cost you money in terms of profits. Performance is the core reason for the increased churn rate. You must image to maintain your performance as an eCommerce website owner.

However, when you use the WooCommerce plugin, there is a good chance you are battling performance issues. This plugin demands several plugins and extensions to support the development cause. This will eventually cause performance issues, as too many plugins can lower the quality.

This is a major disadvantage of using WooCommerce for eCommerce website development.

Conclusion

WooCommerce is a great way to engage in eCommerce website development for your business. It comes with strong community backing and can handle all your security issues. It offers extensive encryption, fast coding methods and the backing of WordPress CMS.

However, it can go expensive if you choose fewer paid extensions to build the website. Moreover, if you add too many plugins, it can hamper the experience and performance too.

If you plan to develop a website with WooCommerce, check if it is feasible and affordable. Make sure to partner with WooCommerce developers to lower costs and maximise performance.