Is WordPress Good for Ecommerce? [Pros and Cons]

Louis wants to build a website for his business so he can sell his products online. He searches around for the best ecommerce website builders in hopes of finding one that’s ecommerce friendly. He comes across WordPress and wonders, “Is WordPress good for ecommerce?” If you have the same question as Louis, you’re in the right place — we’re here to answer that question.

Keep reading to get answers to questions like:

• Is WordPress good for ecommerce?
• What are the pros of creating a WordPress ecommerce site?
• What are the cons of building a WordPress ecommerce website?
• Are there alternatives to using WordPress for ecommerce?

Is WordPress good for ecommerce?

WordPress is good for ecommerce, but not the best solution for ecommerce websites. Whether WordPress works for your ecommerce store will depend on your business and its needs for selling products online. That’s why it’s worth exploring WordPress alternatives, like Shopify.

Pros of using WordPress for ecommerce businesses

WordPress can be used for ecommerce and offers numerous great benefits.

Here are a few of the pros of using WordPress for your business:

1. It offers plugins to add ecommerce functionality

The cornerstone of building a WordPress site is plugins. Plugins help you craft a site that has all the functionality you need for your business. If you want to have an ecommerce site, WordPress offers numerous ecommerce-focused plugins to help you sell products on your site.

One of WordPress’s most popular ecommerce plugins is WooCommerce. WooCommerce enables you to:

• Create eye-catching storefronts
• Optimize your pages for search engines
• Customize product pages
• Choose from multiple payment gateways
• Set your shipping options
• Calculate sales tax with ease

This ecommerce plugin offers tons of great features to help you turn a WordPress site into an ecommerce store. There are dozens of other plugins you can use to shape up your ecommerce store, including:

• TrustPulse: Helps you leverage social proof from customers
• Cart Recovery: Helps you reengage people who abandoned their carts and bring them back to convert
• WP Product Review Lite: Helps you interact with reviews on your products
• Sucuri: Helps you add security to your site

Using plugins enables you to pick and choose the functionalities you need for your site. It can benefit your business because it allows you to simplify the process of building your site.

2. It offers dozens of template options

One of the most significant benefits of WordPress is the sheer number of templates they offer for building your site. If you want an ecommerce site that encapsulates your brand’s unique style, WordPress offers a template for it. WordPress has over 8,000 themes to choose from for your site, with over 1,200 ecommerce-focused templates you can use to build your site.

With so many options available, you can build a custom site that fits your business’s needs. Additionally, these themes are responsive, so users will have a great experience on your site, regardless of the device they use.

3. It’s SEO-friendly

One of the best things about building a WordPress ecommerce site is creating a search engine optimization (SEO) friendly site. If you want people to find your products when they search for them through a search engine like Google, you require a site that’s optimized to rank. With WordPress, you can implement plugins to help your site rank in search results.

You can use a plugin like YoastSEO to help you create an SEO-friendly site for your ecommerce store. This plugin enables you to optimize pages on your site to perform well in search engines and drive results. Since your pages are SEO-friendly, you increase the likelihood that you’ll rank in relevant product searches and drive qualified prospects to your page.

Cons of using WordPress for ecommerce

Along with pros, there are cons to choosing WordPress as your ecommerce site builder.

Here are some drawbacks to having a WordPress ecommerce website.

1. It’s not built for ecommerce specifically

While WordPress does have plugins to make your site ecommerce-friendly, it’s not an ecommerce site builder. You can create dozens of different types of sites with WordPress. Since WordPress isn’t ecommerce-focused, you may miss out on some crucial features you need for your ecommerce store.

You may miss out on these features simply because you don’t think of them or don’t know if there’s a plugin available to have that feature. For example, if you didn’t think about getting a plugin for cart abandonment, you’ll miss out on that feature entirely because you didn’t install a plugin for it. On an ecommerce platform, though, features like that are typically already integrated, so you don’t have to think twice about it.

Missing out on features like this can impact your sales and overall revenue.

2. Some plugins don’t play well together

One of the biggest struggles with WordPress is getting all the plugins to work. Some plugins may not be compatible with one another, which can create headaches when you’re trying to build your site. If you don’t have experience building a site, you may not find a workaround for these problems.

As a result, you might have to forego some features or use lower-quality plugins, which can negatively impact your business.

Are there alternatives to building an ecommerce website on WordPress?

Can WordPress be used for ecommerce? Yes. But a more important question to ask is: Is there a better ecommerce website builder than WordPress?

Yes. There are many platforms you can use to build an ecommerce-focused site. The three most popular platforms include:

• Shopify
• BigCommerce
• Squarespace

These website builders are built for selling products online and creating an ecommerce friendly site. They offer dozens of templates and ecommerce functionalities, from cart abandonment recovery to site security, to help you build the ecommerce site you need. But if you want to get the most from your ecommerce site, consider investing in ecommerce web design services.

With ecommerce web design services, you get the ability to customize your site how you want, like with WordPress, but get all the ecommerce functionality you need. You get all the customization and none of the worry about whether you have everything you need for your ecommerce site to succeed.

Is WordPress good for ecommerce? It can be, but there are better options

While WordPress is a great site builder option, it may not be the best for helping you create the site you need.

Not to mention, you must find the time to build your site on your own. If you don’t have experience with design, it can be a frustrating process. A great alternative to building a WordPress ecommerce site is investing in ecommerce web design services from WebFX.

We have a team of over 500 experts that can help you craft an ecommerce site that offers everything you need to grow online. We’ve designed over 997 sites, and we’d love to design yours too. Want to build an ecommerce site that drives more revenue for your business?

Contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our ecommerce web design services!