WordPress is the most popular CMS platform in the world. It’s vast selection of themes and easy-to-use admin panel have revolutionized the web world. Once regarded as a mere blogging tool, WordPress is now being used by big brands like CNN, BBC, TechCrunch, Mashable and many more. However, there is still a lot of debate regarding WordPress’s eligibility to run an eCommerce site.
The answer will depend what the user needs. Some eCommerce businesses can be better managed using Opencart and Magento. For the rest, WordPress can work wonders. Before launching your online store, read on to determine if WordPress is right for you.
Advantages
If you are a WordPress blogger, you probably already know how easy it is to install and set up. You don’t need to be a coder to manage a WordPress site. All it takes is just a few hours of study. No matter if it is product upload or sales monitoring, WordPress does it in just a few steps.
WordPress is known for its wide range of themes and plugins. By just using the right themes, you can turn even a basic blog site into a million-dollar online store. Plugins help customize your site as you want without writing a single code. You can also add different kinds of functionalities to your site by using plugins for completely free.
Another reason to use WordPress is its easy eCommerce integration with your existing site, be it a blog site or a lead generation site. For example, if you have a WordPress blog, you can turn it into an eCommerce store without having it redesigned. Just install a plugin like WooCommerce and you are on your way.
The user-friendliness of an eCommerce store depends a lot on the payment gateways that it supports. With WordPress, you don’t have to worry about that. It supports various payment gateways like PayPal, Google Checkout, Wordpay, ChronoPay, CCAvenue and more. Apart from this, WordPress also comes with manual payment options.
Disadvantages
Because most system codes are easily available online, there are a lot of questions regarding the security of your eCommerce store. Though there are solutions like Wordfence and Secury, they are third party plugins. This means there’s a risk of losing your important data.
WordPress releases a lot of updates every year in order to combat pirating and hackers. Some of these updates can be useless to your site. You’ll need to make sure that you know and understand the updates and have the skills to manage and make them work for you.
WordPress sites include a lot of generic codes that can slow down the loading time of your website. For an eCommerce site, this can result in a higher bounce rate. Therefore, if you are using WordPress for online selling, you need to optimize the code to maintain the speed of your site.
WordPress can be fine for your online store. You just need to stay on top of the regular changes and updates that are necessary for your site. For any tips and advice, you have a huge community to ask on WordPress itself.