WordPress is a versatile platform allowing users to customise their website to fit a variety of purposes. The core functionality of WordPress can be quickly and conveniently extended via the plugin system and when it comes to ecommerce applications there are a variety of excellent options to choose from.
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Our top 5 in no particular order
WooCommerce
Out of the box WooCommerce is a feature rich eCommerce platform covering all of the operations you’d expect from cart and billing, product and inventory management to shipping and analytics.
Additional functions can be added to the platform with specific plugin extensions, whilst a range of free and paid-for themes can help you to create the store front of your dreams quickly, easily and without needing extensive knowledge of code.
If you’re looking for a comprehensive, versatile yet intuitive ecommerce platform then you should strongly consider giving WooCommerce a try.
WP eCommerce
WP eCommerce is among the most long standing and popular ecommerce plugins for WordPress, second only to WooCommerce.
In addition to the standard ecommerce features such as billing, product management and shipping, for example, it also offers detailed sales reports and tax calculations to help you run your store more efficiently.
However, a streamlined checkout process is possibly the standout feature helping guide customers through the buying process without distraction leading to an overall increase in conversion rates.
MarketPress
MarketPress makes it equally easy to sell physical and digital products and is no slouch when it comes to features offering a comprehensive range of shopping cart, product management and shipping and billing options.
A major advantage of MarketPress is the sheer amount of inbuilt functionality it comes with. This is in contrast to many of the other top ecommerce plugins which rely on third party extensions, some of which are only available for a premium.
A range of themes and templates has made it easy to create a visually impressive storefront, however should you prefer, you could just as easily customise the standard platform and design your own.
Easy Digital Downloads
Easy Digital Downloads is a standout choice if your store specialises in digital products.
The core functionality is free and includes all of the features you’ll require to get up and running such as shopping cart, customer management and products and downloads, while extra functionality can be applied in the form of highly rated premium plugin extensions.
As a highly customisable platform and with over 200 themes and templates, from both official and community sources, people of all abilities and experiences will be capable of creating an impressive storefront.
Ecwid
Ecwid is unique among our list as it is the first plug in which caters to people looking to add eCommerce functionality to their pre-existing site as opposed to building a dedicated online store from the outset.
Another standout feature is the ability to add your storefront to multiple sites, manage them all from a single dashboard and have all of the sales, discounts and stock fluctuations update automatically across all of the sites.
Add to this mobile responsive design and a dedicated app and all of a sudden Ecwid lets you place orders or make sales any place any time, and its all kept up to date via the dashboard.
Closing Thoughts
The above list is by no means exhaustive, they are just some of the plugins that we’ve had exposure to or experience with. Many of these plugins are highly comparable and there are no bad choices in this list, or even among the tens of other ecommerce plug ins we could just have easily chosen to feature.