WooCommerce and WordPress have been making steady strides toward combining content and commerce in a way that allows stores to better serve customers.

In the upcoming release of WooCommerce 3.7, we continue that trend by including three new Product Blocks and enhancements to existing blocks that make it easier for people to find and buy what you’re selling. 

Read on to learn more about what’s new with WooCommerce 3.7.

Note: Product Blocks require you to have WordPress 5.1+ or the latest version of the block editor plugin installed.

We are pleased to announce that WooCommerce 3.7 has been released!

Similar to our previous release back in April, WooCommerce 3.7 focuses on performance improvements while adding new WooCommerce Product Blocks and enhancing existing ones. This update also increases the PHP and WordPress minimum version requirements to optimize your store’s performance and security – more on that shortly.

Google Search Console is a powerful, free tool that can help online store owners have a healthy, search-engine-friendly website. 

It was created to help you monitor and maintain your site’s presence in Google search results by alerting you to errors, security issues, and indexing problems that may affect your search rankings. Search Console is the only place to get search engine optimization (SEO) information about your website directly from Google.

That being said, it can take some time to learn how to use it effectively.  So, to help you get started, we’ve put together a guide of the key elements that can help improve your online store’s visibility. 

If you have a successful storefront on eBay or Amazon, you might have thought about expanding to your own, standalone WooCommerce store. It may seem a bit overwhelming, especially after you’ve invested time and money into getting where you are right now.

But it’s worth it.

Yes, Amazon and eBay come with a host of benefits like a built-in audience and brand recognition. But a WooCommerce store will help you provide more product offerings, build your brand, and, ultimately, grow your business.

You can even integrate WooCommerce with your existing eBay or Amazon store seamlessly, so your business can benefit from both existing marketplaces and a standalone online store.

Here are just a few ways that a WooCommerce store will help you grow:

Nonprofit marketing is, in many ways, no different than any other kind of marketing. 

You must become known, continue to make yourself known, and give people something to care about that inspires them to take action. Whether that action is donating, volunteering, signing up for your email list, attending an event – those are just the details of your individual campaigns. 

But at its core, nonprofit marketing requires you to stay on top of people’s minds who care about your mission. They must see your organization as part of their lives. In today’s super-fast media and online climate, this requires continuous effort and smart strategic planning. 

The good news is nonprofits of any size can effectively market and promote their organization online. What follows are nine nonprofit marketing and promotion strategies you can use to grow your organization and make the world a better place. 

7 Ways to Rise Above the Ocean of Competing Products

Online sales in the age of Amazon can be tough for sellers of common products like candles, chocolates, and coffee.

By devoting some extensive and uninterrupted planning time to your marketing, audience, and product line, you can learn how to make your online store stand out and keep people coming back.

To get you started, here are seven ways to boost your sales and avoid getting drowned out by similar, mass-produced products competing for the same buyers. 

It’s tempting to focus solely on your WooCommerce store rather than expand to other marketplaces.  You can retain control, connect with people who love your products, and not worry about additional fees and third parties.

But you’re missing out!  

Using marketplaces like eBay and Amazon in addition to your WooCommerce store allows you to reach audiences you may not otherwise access and build an additional revenue stream. Plus they offer tools that are particularly useful to new store owners.

If Pinterest isn’t already part of your marketing playbook, you’re missing out on an opportunity to tap into a highly-engaged community. Over 250 million users log in each month, actively looking for inspiration and new ideas. 

Pinterest for WooCommerce is a new extension that creates a seamless, secure connection between your store and Pinterest. Get set up in minutes, and start driving sales from Pinterest users as they discover your products.

What is Pinterest, and why does it matter for eCommerce?

Pinterest is a social network that enables you to share and discover visual content, such as images and videos. It’s a bit like sharable bulletin boards: You can pin interesting or relevant content to thematically-organized boards.

Many people use Pinterest as a visual mood board to plan an event (such as weddings or parties), a space, or a creative project. It’s also a great place to explore your own interests – from recipes to tattoo ideas, you’ll find boards full of inspiration.

Branded content with visual appeal finds a comfortable home on Pinterest. Users are open to exploring what brands have to share, and product photography features prominently.

Around 70% of “pinners” say that they use Pinterest to discover new products. Pinterest also drives more referral traffic than other social platforms (33% more than Facebook, 71% more than Snapchat, and 200% more than Twitter).

Want to spend more time managing your WooCommerce store, and overseeing day-to-day business, than handling taxes? The road to compliance need not be paved with bumps and setbacks. It can be as simple as syncing WooCommerce with a software solution and automating the sales tax collection process.

Before thinking about automation, you need to understand the basics. Thankfully, Internet sales tax is just a pass-through tax exchanged between seller and state. You’re not on the hook for paying anything out of your own pocket. You are, however, responsible for collecting the right amount, in the right state, and remitting in a timely manner.

Your eCommerce store can gain revenue from two types of customers: New customers and existing customers. In both cases, you can dramatically increase sales by offering helpful and relevant product recommendations in the form of upsells or cross-sells. 

What’s the difference between an upsell and a cross-sell? 

In brief, an upsell means you offer the same type of product at an increased price. This could be a more robust, more feature-rich, bigger, or more customized version of the product. “Would you like to upgrade to a larger size?” is a simple example of an upsell from takeout restaurants. 

In contrast, when you offer additional product recommendations that complement the original purchase, you are offering a cross-sell. So upsells relate to different versions of the same product. Cross-sells relate to different products.

Consistently upselling and cross-selling to new and existing customers can increase revenue double digits, depending on your business. Not using this time-tested marketing strategy means you’re leaving money on the table. 

A sudden surge in website traffic is every online store owner’s dream.

If you’re already working to promote your site using social media, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and other marketing strategies, you’ve probably seen a steady growth in your traffic over time.  But what if your store gets a sudden surge of traffic?

Is your website equipped to handle it?  If not, you could encounter a number of problems that could cause you to miss out on sales or damage your reputation:

• Your site’s performance may suffer and your pages may load slowly
• Your website could go down entirely
• Users may experience issues at checkout and with their cart

So, to avoid all of these, it’s important to try to gauge when a spike might happen and learn how to prepare your eCommerce site for a surge in traffic. 

One of the biggest benefits of running an online store is the ability to serve customers across the world. It’s also an opportunity to set up your store to handle international transactions in the local currency.

Do you have concerns about selling worldwide? Don’t.

According to data shared by Pitney Bowes in 2017, 70% of online consumers purchase from international retailers. That’s a 6% increase over the same study from 2016.

Not only are more people shopping internationally online, they’re also spending more. According to Statista, the average order value of international sales is $147.

That’s 17% higher than your average domestic eCommerce order.

There’s a lot of revenue potential, and those statistics prove that customers expect online retailers to sell and ship worldwide. Your competitors are catching on, as 93% of online retailers either plan to or already offer international commerce.

If you want to stay competitive, then you need to meet consumer expectations.

Shoppable Posts Offer a Powerful Way to Connect Followers to Your WooCommerce Store

Over one billion users log on to Instagram each month, and half of those use the popular image app every single day. With the addition of shoppable posts and stories on Instagram, those 500 million users can now more easily become your customers.

A recent Facebook study showed that 70% of Instagram users find new products and services using the Instagram App, and over 130 million visitors tap shoppable posts each month.

Not using Instagram to sell your products? It might be a lot easier than you think.

As developers and online store owners, we often treat accessibility as a bonus.  But it’s really a requirement! Each piece of a website build should be considered from the perspective of all site visitors, no matter their age, capabilities, or impairments. After all, it’s important that everyone can easily use your store and purchase your products.

When it comes down to it, accessible content is defined as:

1. Perceivable.  All information must be presented in ways that users can perceive, no matter what user agents (browsers, screen readers, or other software) they operate or what disabilities they have.
2. Operable.  Visitors need to be able to navigate around the site and use all functionality even if they don’t utilize a traditional mouse.
3. Understandable.  Content, forms, menus, links, and other site components need to be easily understood by users.
4. Robust.  A variety of tools, including screen readers, voice recognition software, and braille readers should all be able to read your content.

But how does accessibility become a core part of the development process?  What factors should be considered and how do you adapt an existing store? What tools can be used to test for web accessibility? 

All of those questions will be answered below, but if you’re interested in a more in-depth look at why accessibility is so important, take a look at The Importance of Accessibility for Your Online Store.

Your website’s designed, you have all of your products created, and you’re ready to launch your eCommerce site.  But with how much work goes into launching a new online store, it can be easy to miss something.  Who knows, you may even be missing something you didn’t know you were supposed to do!

Forgetting a small detail can be as easy as missing that crucial item at the grocery store – but the consequences are much more severe. 

So, to make sure you never get that sinking “what did I forget” feeling, we’ve put together the essential pre-launch checklist. Just like a rocket, don’t launch until you’ve gone through the entire checklist – twice!  

Increase Online Sales Through Strategic Upselling, Discounts, and Bundling

It’s a lot easier to increase revenue from your existing customer base than it is to attract new customers. One way to do that is through upsells at the point of purchase.

The key to successfully increasing eCommerce sales through upselling is to add value to your customers’ shopping experience with your product and add-on recommendations. Trying to sell additional products without demonstrating their value may cause you to lose the sale altogether. 

However, when your recommendations are relevant to your customers’ needs, they will appreciate having options, and reward you with future purchases. 

Here are four types of strategies you can use to increase online sales: