Let’s start with explaining what WordPress is for those who are not quite clear about what exactly WordPress is. WordPress is a CMS, or content management system that allows you to alter and edit the appearance of your website without the use of the code.
At first, WordPress was simply used as a blogging platform but then it becomes very WordPress was simply used as a blogging platform, but then it becomes very complex and can be used to create and manage any website including e-commerce. At the same time, you will create an online shop and utilize the site for something as well.
WordPress lets you have overall control over your website. Apart from the fact that you combine online store with another purpose such as portfolios, blogs, corporate pages, etc., it provides various tools, integrations, and themes with plenty of modern online services. WordPress is compatible with almost everything online. If you are on a budget then also, it’s perfect as it’s free. So there is a variety of prices and tools to fit anyone’s tastes and pockets.
Why is WordPress a good E-commerce Platform?
Apart from the benefits already given above, here are some of the points in favor of WordPress as a platform for e-commerce. WordPress can be easily added with the help of an e-commerce plug-in. Most popular e-commerce for WordPress is Woo Commerce. It handles all of the functionality required for online selling-storefront, shipping, payment gateway, automatic transaction mails, inventory management, and much more. There is a plug-in for plug-ins themselves, letting you extend the functionality even more.
Here are some of the benefits why WordPress is good for e-commerce platform:
WordPress Themes
There are hundreds of themes available for WordPress. Only a part of these themes are perfect for e-commerce, but it still leaves space for you. WordPress themes can be easily edited, and its open-source approach will let you modify them as you want.
WordPress Plugins
When someone says that there is a WordPress plug-in available for any functionality that you like, they are not that exaggerating. Due to its widespread appeal, there is a large amount of plug-in available usually cost-free to add new functions to WordPress. Plug-in is just the word used for WordPress; these plug-ins are not very different from apps that other e-commerce platforms discuss. For example, Shopify apps.
Low-cost to implement
WordPress is very versatile, whether you prefer DIY or leaving the website design for experts. You can get your e-commerce website started for less than $100 on your own including domain name and a good theme. But of course, its popularity means that there will be plenty of experts to help you put a WordPress e-commerce together.
Why is WordPress not such a good E-commerce Platform?
- Its popularity may also be a reason for its downfall. Due to its large installed base, it’s constantly facing various hacking attacks. Although there are regular upgrades, there is still a constant threat of getting hacked.
- When your e-commerce business will grow, and you will need to process more orders, concurrent scripts executed by WordPress for this purpose may burden web servers.
- Provided that you will require various plugins and added a theme to make WordPress work well for e-commerce, there may be an issue while upgrading your installation of WordPress. Your installed plugins and theme may not prove to be compatible with WordPress upgrade.
- WordPress, its plugins, themes have to be upgraded all the time. So some of the customizations that you will make will be overwritten every time you upgrade.
Final Word
WordPress was not developed to become an e-commerce platform. It’s renowned as a blogging platform and it has led developers to cover the basic program with heavy plug-ins and themes so that it works for e-commerce too. This is the reason for the above disadvantages.
The bottom line is that if you have resources to manage WordPress e-commerce website, either on your own or by hiring a dedicated developer, then you will surely enjoy the power of customizing store as per your needs. WordPress is the right choice. But if you simply want to sell products and won’t be affected by the limitations of the online store due to hosted platforms, you will like platforms like Shopify.
From the security point of view, WordPress is secure, and you have to ensure that it remains secure by regularly maintaining, optimizing and updating it. If you can do it, you will enjoy the customization capabilities of your online e-commerce site.
About Article Contributor:
Rahul Som is a CEO and co-founder of Hopinfirst, one of the top android app development company. Rahul is passionate about SEO, Technology and management and blogs frequently on the topics.
