Although WordPress provides e-commerce flexibility and scalability, is it the best platform for your company?

A popular option for creating e-commerce websites is WordPress. WooCommerce, which is based on the WordPress platform, powers more than 4 million online stores at the moment.
The platform provides online sellers with a plethora of advantages. Thus, it’s simple to understand why so many e-commerce companies decide to use WordPress for their operations.
Is it, however, the greatest option for your company?
Before we decide, let’s go over some of the benefits and drawbacks of WordPress.

E-commerce WordPress

WordPress powers a large number of well-known, prosperous e-commerce websites. However, should you have faith in WordPress’s ability to manage an online store?
Although WordPress offers e-commerce vendors some clear advantages, there are drawbacks as well. When determining whether or not to proceed with WordPress, you must weigh the advantages and disadvantages.

The Advantages

WordPress boasts a close-knit, helpful community and a wealth of support resources for anyone in need.
Using WordPress for e-commerce has many advantages, but the platform also gives its users access to robust performance-tracking analytics and optimization opportunities.

No Transaction Fees

You will be conducting some transactions on the website if you are creating an online store.
As a charge, certain e-commerce platforms and website builders retain a portion of each transaction that takes place on the website. That is not what WordPress does.
You simply need to pay your payment gateway provider the processing cost when you use WordPress. There are no fees associated with the website builder.
This might make utilizing WordPress for online sales more affordable, particularly for smaller companies.
In addition, WordPress easily connects with many payment gateways outside of the most well-known ones. PayPal and Stripe are available, but WordPress also accepts other, less well-known, local payment methods.

WordPress Is Free

With WordPress, there is no monthly subscription required.
While starting is free, you must pay for the name, hosting, and other features.
This is in contrast to other services, which require a one-time payment before you can even use the platform.

Increased Personalization

Your website must have a striking appearance and be unique. By doing this, you may create a more memorable experience and strengthen your distinctive brand identity.
Unfortunately, cookie-cutter websites with the same layout, visual style, and feel are available on a lot of e-commerce platforms. Your brand may find it more difficult to be distinctive and stand out as a result.
However, WordPress offers dozens of themes that let you personalize your website to fit the distinct style of your company.
You also have access to the source code when you create a WordPress website. This allows you to change every element of the website and go beyond just changing the theme. Development experience is the sole prerequisite.
Thousands and thousands of plugins are also available for WordPress. In addition to allowing you to personalize your website as you see fit, these plugins provide features that improve the online experience your company provides.

Ownership of Websites

Your e-commerce store has been launched with a great deal of effort and resources. You want to maintain ownership of it and reserve the right to relocate it at any time.
WordPress makes this feasible.
The website you create with WordPress is entirely yours. You are free to use all of the website’s data and files, including the content, however you see fit.

Adaptability in Hosting Choices

Managed hosting is offered by several well-known e-commerce platforms, which is fantastic, but it can become difficult as your company expands or your priorities and objectives change.
In addition to providing hosting, WordPress lets you purchase hosting from outside companies, allowing you to host your website wherever you like.
As your company expands, you can transfer hosting providers thanks to the variety of hosting alternatives available.
Being independent of a single hosting company also enables you to move your website to another one in the event that host-side server problems cause performance to deteriorate.

Scalability

Eventually, your e-commerce company will expand. More visitors and sales will result from it; therefore, you need a website that can expand with you and help you achieve your goals.
WordPress provides the scalability you require when managing a rapidly expanding business thanks to its many plugins and flexible hosting options.

Friendly to SEO

Organic searches account for almost 33% of all traffic to e-commerce websites. As you are aware, SEO is an essential component of website optimization.
Even if your SEO strategy is fantastic, it must be supported by your e-commerce platforms.
WordPress contains tools and plugins that might help you with your SEO efforts and improve the results.

Integrations in Marketing

Your marketing plan includes more than just SEO. To keep up your growth trajectory, you must employ more strategies.
Numerous marketing integrations are supported by WordPress to support your social media and email marketing campaigns.
Additionally, it includes social proof and customer engagement plugins to ensure your e-commerce store has all it needs to create value.

The Drawbacks

Even while WordPress is fantastic for e-commerce, there are a few drawbacks to consider before choosing to utilize it for your online business.

WordPress Lacks User-Friendliness

It costs nothing to get started with WordPress. It can also be easy. However, technological know-how is necessary to operate a profitable WordPress e-commerce site.
Anything more than simply logging into WordPress to get started has a learning curve.
Although there is support and easy access to hundreds of tutorials and help blogs, it takes time and effort to learn how to create a WordPress website from start using online instructions.

Requires Frequent Updates

Both the core WordPress platform and its plugins receive regular updates. To ensure that your website is current, you typically need to manually deploy these updates.
Your website may become more susceptible to attacks and run the danger of being ransomed or hacked if you don’t follow these upgrades.
To reduce the chance of exploitation, you will need to invest effort in monitoring all of these updates and making sure they are installed on time if you own or administer a WordPress website.

It’s Your Duty to Secure the Website

WordPress websites are more susceptible to security breaches due to their widespread use and the abundance of themes and plugins that the typical website uses.
WordPress has a security team that continuously scans the core software for security flaws and distributes patches and updates; however, in order to protect your website and prevent hacking, you must apply these updates on time.
30% of WordPress websites are vulnerable because nearly 70% of them use the most recent version of the program.
It takes a lot of work to apply updates and keep track of them manually. For this reason, a lot of entrepreneurs fail and wind up with a website that is more vulnerable to attacks.

Plugins May Cause Issues

WordPress plugins offer improved functionality and allow you to modify your website, but they also come with a number of drawbacks.
First of all, if you install too many plugins, your website’s code may become bloated and slow. Every second that your website doesn’t load correctly costs you business in the realm of e-commerce.
Second, plugins require installation of security patches and updates, just like the main software.
If this isn’t done, plugins may introduce backdoors into your website that bad actors could take advantage of.
Even if you keep up with the latest updates, plugins might be dubious and increase the risk of assaults if they are not carefully reviewed before being downloaded.
97% of all newly discovered security flaws in WordPress websites were caused by plugins.

WordPress Is Not a Platform for E-Commerce

One type of content management system is WordPress. Although it is not designed for that purpose, it can support e-commerce websites.
The purpose of other e-commerce systems, such as Shopify and BigCommerce, is to facilitate online sales.
Because of this, WordPress might have certain e-commerce constraints, particularly when compared to other major e-commerce companies.
This is not to imply WordPress is incapable of handling e-commerce. Yes, it can. To increase your chances of success, all you need to do is do your homework, add a variety of plugins, and properly maintain the website.

WordPress vs. BigCommerce and Shopify

Other well-liked options for creating e-commerce websites are Shopify and BigCommerce.
How does WordPress compare to these? Is it superior? Is it worse?
In actuality, both BigCommerce and Shopify are managed systems. They are made to make it simple for folks who don’t know how to code to create and run e-commerce websites.
Because of this, Shopify and BigCommerce are both more user-friendly and simpler to operate, even though WordPress could have a learning curve.
But when it comes to versatility and personalization, WordPress continues to lead. Though they are less feature-rich than WordPress, Shopify and BigCommerce both provide themes and apps with improved functionality and aesthetic appeal.

Conclusion

Everything you need to create an online store is included in WordPress. Although it offers several plugins, has no transaction fees, and supports payment gateways, all of these features have drawbacks.
It might take a lot of time to maintain a WordPress website. There could be a learning curve, and your website might become vulnerable to security flaws if you neglect upgrades.
Therefore, your business, objectives, and priorities will determine whether you choose WordPress or another managed e-commerce platform.
It can be an excellent choice for you if you have the resources and technical know-how to manage, update, and maintain a WordPress website.
You might want to check into other possibilities if you’re looking for a platform that makes creating and managing an e-commerce site easy.