Why WooCommerce is the Smartest Choice for SMEs (Startups)?

Starting an online store is overwhelming, especially when you are a startup or small business with limited resources and budget. But, things have changed now.

There are a number of platforms, where you can quickly launch your eCommerce store and start selling products in no time.

Among them, WooCommerce stands out as the leading platform to build and launch eCommerce stores. It is flexible, and affordable and you get complete ownership of your store.

In this article, we are going to discuss how WooCommerce is helping small businesses grow and we will also compare it with the other platforms available.

Let’s first start with how the eCommerce businesses would operate without WooCommerce.

How startups and small businesses would launch eCommerce businesses without WooCommerce?

Imagine this, you are a non-tech guy with no knowledge of how the eCommerce store runs, and how much does it cost to develop and maintain an e-commerce platform.

You would be spending a significant amount of money and time on,

• Developing an eCommerce store from scratch
• Develop custom features for everything including search, filters, and more
• Hiring a developer team to run and maintain the store
• Handling payments and order management
• Paying hosting and other fees involved
• Build systems to keep track of inventory levels and avoid fake orders

Its not the same anymore. Everything is simplified.

Every challenge that we mentioned above can be solved with WooCommerce at a significant lower cost. How? Lets see.

List of WooCommerce benefits for small businesses/How WooCommerce helps small businesses grow?

Free and Open Source

Most platforms today offer eCommerce solutions for a monthly fee. It can be anything like a transaction fee, or a fixed monthly cost. But, WooCommerce is completely free and open source.

You only have to pay for hosting and additional plugins if you need any. It makes it the most effective eCommerce solution for startups.

Get full control over your store

WooCommerce gives you full control over your store. Thats means, your design, data and every functionality you build is yours.

If you compare it with other platforms, they control pricing, features and sometimes store policies based on the plan you select.

Customizable and flexible

As WooCommerce is an open source platform, it offers unlimited customizations. It even makes things easier with number of available plugins, that offer ready to use features.

So, whether you need advanced SEO tools, automation, or custom checkout options, you can easily add them.

Payment and shipping options

WooCommerce supports multiple payment gateways like Stripe, Apple pay, PayPal and more. So you can customize them and even offer multiple payment options on multi language sites to reach wider audience base. Also, it provides customizable shipping options, so you can deliver the best experience to your customers.

SEO friendly

Every WooCommerce business owner relies on SEO to get organic traffic. And since WooCommerce runs on WordPress, it already is optimized for SEO.

It comes with tools like Yoast SEO, Rank Math and built in blogging features, so your store can rank higher on search engines.

Apart from the technical benefits, there are other WooCommerce benefits for small businesses like,

• You can quickly launch a store and test your product demand before investing significant amount in building site and inventory.
• WooCommerce is very easy to scale as your business grows.
• Its strong community and developer support is a big plus, as if anything goes wrong, you can quickly get help.
• You can sell both locally and globally without any restrictions.
• You get more control over your customer data, so you can use it personalizing your marketing campaigns to get higher conversions.

Now, you must be wondering, there are other platforms that offer almost everything that WooCommerce does. Then why should I go with WooCommerce and not with Shopify, BigCommerce and other platforms?

Let’s compare them to give you better clarity on choosing the right platform for you.

WooCommerce VS. Shopify: Why WooCommerce is the best choice for startups?

Shopify owns the highest share of eCommerce platforms with 26.2% built on Shopify compared to 20.1% on WooCommerce. Well, it would be wrong to say that Shopify isn’t the best.

But higher market share doesn’t always means it is the best. It comes with certain challenges for startups and small businesses that WooCommerce can easily solve.

So, if you are considering building your store on Shopify, here are a few things you should reconsider.

Shopify uses Liquid

Shopify uses liquid in its templates, so if you want any customizations you will have to hire Shopify developers. Unlike WooCommerce, which uses PHP. It is widely used and you can easily hire developers at comparatively cheaper cost.

Theme limitations

Shopify has its theme limitations which limits your ability to customize. It limits customizations unless you are using Liquid or use other third party apps that can cost extra.

But with WooCommerce, you can fully customize everything and anything. Also, it offers numbers of free plugins and themes, which is a big plus.

No restrictions on payment gateways.

With Shopify, you will have to pay transaction fees upto 2% on domestic and upto 3% on international payments unless you use Shopify payments. But with WooCommerce, you can use any payment gateway you want.

No monthly fees or subscription lockins

As a startup, the last thing you need is recurring payments. On Shopify, you will have to pay monthly fees for running the store and transaction fees.

It takes a hit on your profits. But with WooCommerce, you only have to pay for hosting, so that saves your cost

Shopify’s platform dependency

Shopify hosts your store on its platform. So, you are dependent on its policies, pricing and rules. But since WooCommerce is open source, there are no such limitations.

Also, you can easily migrate if you want to move to other platforms, which might not be as easy with Shopify.

These were some points, that you should consider before choosing between Shopify and WooCommerce. Now, let’s compare WooCommerce with other platforms.

Here is a table that gives you a clear picture

WooCommerce vs Other eCommerce Platforms for Startups: A quick Comparison Table

It is now clear that WooCommerce is the most cost-effective and reliable choice for startups wanting to launch their own eCommerce business.

Now, lets get into how small businesses can set up their online store with WooCommerce. Here are a few simple steps that every business can use to set up their online WooCommerce store.

Easy steps for setting up an online store with WooCommerce for small businesses

Get a Domain and Hosting

Choose a reliable and cost effective hosting provider. You can choose from options like SiteGround, Bluehost, or Cloudways. Also, register a domain name that represents your brand.

Install WordPress

Most hosting providers provide one click WordPress installation, so nothing to worry about. Once you have installed it, log in to your WordPress dashboard.

Install WooCommerce

Now, go to Plugins > Add New, search for “WooCommerce,” and install it. Don’t forget to activate the plugin.

Configure WooCommerce Settings

Set up your store details, currency, payment methods, and shipping options.

Choose and Customize a Theme

Pick a WooCommerce-compatible theme like Storefront, Astra, or Flatsome. Customize it to match your brand.

Add Products

Go to Products > Add New, enter product details, upload images, and set pricing.

Install Essential Plugins

Install plugins for SEO, security, analytics, and marketing. Some must-have plugins include:

• Yoast SEO (for search optimization)
• MonsterInsights (for analytics)
• WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway (for payments)
• WP Rocket (for performance optimization)

Test and Launch

Run test transactions, check site speed, and ensure everything works perfectly before launching your store.

Conclusion

For startups and small businesses, WooCommerce is the smartest choice for setting up an online store. It gives you full control, affordability and customizability that you need as a small business to represent your brand without breaking the bank.

At Jnext, we are a WooCommerce development agency, that specializes in building custom plugins, themes and stores. We provide range of services to help WooCommerce stores run and maintain their online stores without having to worry about the technical jargon.

So, while you focus on growing your eCommerce sales, we handle all the technical details for you.

Lets connect!