Creating a new e-commerce website can be a lengthy, tiring, and expensive process. So if you already have a WordPress site that you use for your blogs or any other purpose, you can install an e-commerce plug-in and turn it into an online store.

But apart from the plug-in, you also need other crucial elements on your WordPress site to make it usable for e-commerce. Here, we will discuss five essential features that you must include in your monetization strategy. These features are in addition to installing an eCommerce plug-in like WooCommerce on your WordPress site.

E-commerce Theme

Before you can start selling from your WordPress site, you will have to adopt an e-commerce theme. It could mean a lot of work, but you will need an optimized theme to display your products. One good thing about WordPress is that you will not lose your website content even when you change the theme.

However, some features might get lost if the new theme does not support them, such as fonts or user comments. Even though a free theme might suffice for a blog site or article directory, it may not be adequate for an e-commerce website. You will get several paid native WordPress plug-ins that you can use for your website.

If you do not find anything suitable, you can also check out professional designer websites like Templatic.com for premium WordPress themes. Always make sure that you check these criteria before you choose an e-commerce theme.

• Ease of navigation
• Loading speed
• Security
• Mobile-friendliness
• SEO options

Shipping Cost Calculator

You will need a shipping plug-in that provides shipping cost estimates to your customers. It is crucial, as customers would want to know how much they need to pay to get the product delivered to them.

There are many shipping plug-ins available for WordPress, and most of them are compatible with WooCommerce. These are some things that you can expect from a shipping plug-in:

• You should be able to program the shipping prices according to your conditions.
• There should be a form where buyers can enter their shipping address to get the estimates
• The shipping cost should get adjusted if required according to what the buyer chooses.

The plug-in will add the shipping cost to the total amount that a customer has to pay. Make sure you choose a shipping plug-in that allows you to designate shipping zones, and it calculates the cost automatically. It should also adjust the shipping prices based on weight, numbers, location, and other factors.

The plug-in should work with the drop-down menu and must have options for free shipping, flat shipping rate, and shipping cost based on the shopping cart. If you want, you can also add a plug-in that enables your customers to track your shipment.

Check Out and Payment Gateway (News - Alert)

The checkout and payment gateway plug-ins allow the customers to put in their billing addresses, credit card numbers, or bank details to pay you. You will find several payment gateway plug-ins for WordPress, including PayPal (News - Alert).

Sometimes you may have to install the payment gateway plug-in after you have installed the WooCommerce plug-in. A payment gateway plug-in should calculate the total price of products on the shopping cart and add the shipping costs to it before charging a customer’s credit card or any other means of payment.

It should also notify you as the customer once the payment is completed and transfer the money to your bank account. Payment gateway plug-ins may charge an additional percentage of each transaction as fees.

Marketing and SEO

By marketing, we do not mean advertising. A marketing plug-in on WordPress is intended to collect customer details, create pop-ups, and boost your site ranking on search engines like Google (News - Alert). SEO and marketing plug-ins on WordPress can also help you spy on your competitors, evaluate backlinks, suggest keywords, and track SEO campaign progress.

Yoast is probably the most popular SEO plug-in available for WordPress sites. It will tell you if the right keywords are present on your webpage and whether your SEO approach will fetch results.

It is especially useful when you are converting a regular WordPress site into an e-commerce website. Visibility on search engines can be a determining factor to drive leads and sales. You will have to install additional plug-ins like MailChimp to collect customer email addresses.

Product Sourcing

If you are not creating your own products, you will need a plug-in to help you source them. These plug-ins are especially useful for drop shippers as they can source the goods, match inventory, and change the prices.

An ideal product sourcing plug-in should provide a list of verified suppliers and manufacturers willing to ship the products of your choice to you. You should have complete access to a dashboard and offer support for a chosen payment gateway.

Product sourcing plug-ins will save you a considerable amount of time as you will not have to review dozens of websites looking for the best quality and prices. You can also copy the pictures and product descriptions to your website. However, you Will have to constantly monitor the prices as suppliers and manufacturers may change them automatically.

There are a few other plug-ins that you may find useful for your e-commerce websites, such as Google Analytics or social media integration. Plug-ins are crucial to ensure the success of your WordPress e-commerce site.

So make sure you take some time to research the right plug-ins before you choose them. Some of these plug-ins can be expensive, so look for free versions or the ones that offer a trial period/money-back guarantee.