More and more people are starting to realize the benefits of online shopping. No wonder Amazon and eBay are raking in the profits everyday! If you are planning to build your own e-commerce empire with the help of WordPress, I’m pretty sure you are frantically looking for the best plugin that you can use for your online store. Well, look no further because we have the information you are looking for!
Below you will find the most popular WP e-Commerce plugins (in no particular order) that will make life a little easier for you:
1. eSHop
This is one of the most loved WordPress e-Commerce plugins for 2 reasons- it’s FREE and it’s super easy to use. eShop is recommended for small scale merchandisers. The admin area can be customized and you have various options for listing products and shipping. Checking your stats, adding and reviewing products couldn’t be any simpler. What’s great about this plugin is that it allows you to download sales data and upload downloadable products.
Download plugin | eShop website
You can create products by using posts or pages and build product categories. The plugin offers basic online store elements such as automatic emails on successful purchase, product search, etc. The email templates are customizable as well as the “out of stock” messages. eShop accepts different payment methods such as Paypal and cash/check.
NOTE: Authorize.net, Payson, iDEAL, WebtoPay and eProcessingNetwork are no longer supported.
2. WP e-Commerce
If you want a shopping cart plugin that has a lot more features than eShop then the WP e-Commerce is your best bet. It has awesome product widgets, quantity discounts, Google Sitemap, Google Analytics, cross selling on product pages and free shipping options. Your customers will surely love the straightforward shopping experience whether they are buying products and services or downloading digital products online. It has multiple payment gateways including cash/check/money order, Paypal, Google Wallet and Authorize.net among others.
The WP e-Commerce plugin provides search engine friendly URLs and a product sale feature. It works with any standard compliant WordPress theme and you can use it with other plugins. The plugin allows you to play with the appearance of your store. Use your own HTML and CSS with no problems! Another reason why users love WP e-Commerce is because of the forum. If you get stuck with the installation or if you are confused about something, ask away and there is a bunch of people in the forum that will help you.
Download plugin | WP e-Commerce website
3. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a free plugin that enables the user to customize their internet shop by using any of the 37 themes or by building their own with the built in shortcodes and widget. One of its coolest features is the dashboard widget which you can use to easily check the stats of your business. You also have the option to integrate different extensions from a wide range of WooCommerce extensions. Payment options include cash, check, Paypal, SagePay, Braintree, etc.
Aside from multiple payment gateways, WooCommerce is bundled with free shipping, flat rate shipping, international delivery, local delivery, local pickup and Google Analytics. The integrated Sharedaddy, ShareThis and ShareYourCart plugins will allow your customers to share your products with their friends.
Download plugin | Woocommerce website
4. Ecwid Shopping Cart
Many online merchandisers prefer this plugin because of its simplicity (extremely easy to install and maintain). Like most WordPress shopping cart plugins, Ecwid is highly customizable. You can have your online shop to look however you like. For ideas, you can check their showcase gallery which features websites that use Ecwid such as Café Grumpy and Embe Shop.
Not sure if you are going to like this plugin? Not a problem because you can take advantage of its free plan. If you want more out of the plugin, you can always switch to the paid plans- $12.50/month (100 products), $29.50/month (2,500 products) and $82.50/month (unlimited products).
5. Cart66
Cart66 is one of the few WordPress e-Commerce plugins that provides you with everything you need to set up your online shop. You can sell products (physical or digital), services, memberships and subscriptions using just one solution. Customers are allowed to have multiple subscriptions and they can choose among 50 payment gateways for recurring billing.
This plugin has the ability to secure your checkout page, product data and customer accounts. It can even save credit card information securely for repeat checkout. Cart66 will handle issues concerning PCI compliance so you can focus more on your business. If you want the free version, sign up for the Cart66 Lite plugin. For the paid version, you have 2 options- $25/month and $199/year. Both offer a 30-day risk free money back guarantee.
Download plugin | Cart66 website
6. Jigoshop
Jigoshop is another free WordPress e-Commerce plugin that offers solution to those who want to build a full-fledged online store. You can group your merchandise and provide various attributes like sizes and color for clothing. This will help your customers find what they are looking for with just a few clicks.
You can view detailed reports (sortable sales graphs, review notifications, stats, etc.) inside the custom dashboard so you can monitor your business’ performance. Jigoshop lets you manage stock levels and customer orders with ease. Want to maximize the plugin’s functionality? You can do so by integrating different payment gateways, shipping methods and extensions (for a fee) into your Jigoshop plugin.
Download plugin | Jigoshop website
7. Shopp
Another excellent WordPress shopping cart plugin that is preferred by many online merchandisers is Shopp plugin. It was developed to blend seamlessly with WordPress administration tools, shortcodes, custom menus and widgets. The price starts at $55 and with this you get a single license for the software. The extra plugins such as payment gateways and shipping modules (FedEx, UPS, USPS, etc.) can be bought separately. Sure there are other free plugins that you can try but Shopp will wow you with its cleaner interface and exceptional customer support.
This plugin is easy to install and use plus the look of the shopping cart is highly customizable. If you want the developer access right off the bat, it’s going to cost you $299. Not the cheapest thing in the world but you’ll surely get your money’s worth. The developer access includes features like user guide, API & KB guides, nightly development downloads and community & developer forum among others.
8. MarketPress
MarketPress is a no-frills WordPress e-Commerce plugin that you can use to build a stylish online store. It works with any WordPress theme and the best part is you can download the plugin for free. It offers various payment gateways like Paypal, Google Checkout, Authorize.net, eWay, etc. You have the freedom to sell whatever products you like (real objects or digital downloads).
This shopping cart plugin is 100% customizable but if you are not into the HTML or CSS aspect of your online shop, you can just choose from any of the themes and preset CSS styles. You can even customize the themes to suit the style of your store so it won’t look like everyone else’s website. The hot product thumbnails come with lightbox zooming features. MarketPress also allows for multiple shipping options, order management and stock tracking, checkout for non site users and global shopping cart. Did I mention that you can link any product to an external link? Amazon associates will surely love this feature!
9. Quick Shop
If you are looking for a free shopping cart plugin that has both Paypal and e-mail functionality then you are going to love Quick Shop! What makes it standout among other free plugins is that it comes with a sidebar widget. This widget will allow your customers to see what they currently have in their cart. Also, they can easily remove items from their shopping cart. The only downside is that you need to make your own CSS for this. Not a great news for those who don’t know how to create CSS layouts.
Aside from the shopping cart widget, this e-Commerce plugin features inventory listing tied in to TinyMCE, ability to format widget layout and ability to create different product options (drop down menu).
10. ShopperPress
ShopperPress is another great option for those who are not impressed with free e-Commerce plugins. To date, there are more than 10,000 online merchants that are using this premium plugin. For $79, you get 24/7 customer support, order management system, customizable product fields and more than 20 extra store designs.
This WordPress e-Commerce plugin can be customized to suit your online shop’s style. It’s easy to set up and the plugin itself is optimized for search engines, helping your store to get indexed and rank quickly in major search engines. You also have the option to include affiliate stores such as Amazon and eBay to your site. ShopperPress accepts payment gateways such as Paypal, Google Checkout and WorldPay among others.
So, there you have it folks- the 10 most popular WordPress e-Commerce plugins we have today. I’m sure everyone has their own opinion when it comes to the best shopping cart plugin. But the purpose of this post is to provide you with a diverse list of plugins that you can choose from to make your online shop successful. You can check different WordPress forums or blogs for and see what other online merchandisers recommend.
If you want to share your thoughts and experiences about any of the plugins mentioned above or if you know other great plugins, please let us know by leaving your comments in the box below. Thanks for stopping by!
