How to hire a WooCommerce developer

WooCommerce is a powerful ecommerce plugin that lets you set up an online store. It comes with quick access to payment gateways, inventory tools, optimized checkout pages, and a lot more. Even beginners can build a store completely on their own. But for many, it’s a better decision to hire a WooCommerce developer to unlock the full potential of the platform and launch more quickly.

These professionals specialize in designing and enhancing online stores built on this ecommerce platform. They can help you create a unique website from scratch, improve its security and performance, and set up ecommerce tools just for you.

In this post, we’ll take a closer look at the main reasons to hire WooCommerce developers. Then, we’ll dive deeper into their roles and discuss some factors to consider when choosing one. Finally, we’ll show you where to find the best WooCommerce professionals for your ecommerce project. Let’s get started!

WooCommerce is a beginner-friendly plugin that enables you to transform basic WordPress websites into thriving online stores. While it’s free and flexible, you might have a very specific goal in mind that requires extensive customization — which is exactly what WooCommerce is made for.

You can find a range of WooCommerce extensions to add certain features and functionality to your store. Plus, there are dedicated WooCommerce themes, built to make your shop look more professional.

A WooCommerce developer can design a stunning and unique ecommerce website for you from scratch. This can help you impress visitors and stand out from the competition. 

Here are some other benefits of hiring top WooCommerce developers:

• It’s a convenient way to set up an online store without having any technical skills.
• It frees up time to focus on other areas of your business (instead of getting bogged down with website maintenance tasks).
• You’ll have an experienced professional on standby, which is handy if you run into any issues that need to be resolved quickly.
• Developers are constantly learning about new technologies and processes, which ensures that your site is up to date with the latest web development trends.
• Developers can ensure data security and help you maintain compliance with data protection laws and regulations. 
• Developers also have extensive knowledge about things like accessibility, the best UX practices, the most helpful digital marketing and data tracking integrations, and more. 

Now that you know why it may be a good idea to hire WooCommerce developers, let’s take a look at some of the main tasks that these professionals can handle for you.

As we’ve discussed, WooCommerce development services are particularly useful if you have specific requirements or complex needs that you’re unable to fulfill with your existing knowledge and skills. But there are other situations where it makes sense to hire an expert.

You might want a developer to perform search engine optimization (SEO) to help you capture more organic traffic. It’s also common to use a developer to secure your WooCommerce store and prevent data theft and other cyber attacks. 

Let’s dive deeper into some of the tasks that WooCommerce developers provide most frequently.

1. Update WordPress core, plugins, and themes

If you want to ensure your ecommerce website runs smoothly and prevent the likelihood of security issues, it’s important to keep the software on your site up to date. This goes for the core software of WordPress, as well as plugins and themes.

While updates often come with exciting new features, they also tend to contain bug fixes for vulnerabilities that have been discovered in the previous version. Since the old version of the software has been available for longer, it gives hackers more time to exploit its vulnerabilities.

Naturally, if you decide to set up a WooCommerce site by yourself, it’ll be your responsibility to make sure that this task is handled properly. But web development professionals can take care of this so you don’t have to remember to run updates or keep checking whether updates are available.

What’s more, there’s always a risk that an update could cause conflicts. WooCommerce developers will perform updates in a secure environment like a staging site, and then push the update to your live site once it’s been deemed safe. 

Most experts will also create a fresh backup of your store. This way, if anything goes wrong, your site files and database can be restored and you won’t lose any of your data.

2. Design custom themes and templates

If you decide to create your own ecommerce site, you’ll have access to a selection of free WordPress and WooCommerce themes to define the look and feel of your shop. You also have the option to purchase a premium theme from third-party vendors.

Many website owners opt for popular themes with lots of active installations and good reviews. Although you can customize the design to align with your branding, without some development experience or the help of a professional, the overall structure will remain the same as other websites using the theme. 

That’s why it’s a good idea to hire WooCommerce developers who can build unique templates from scratch, just for you. This involves using custom code and it’s usually built with HTML-based editors or other software.

The main benefit of this is that you’ll end up with a website that looks like no other. And, there’s a lot more flexibility available, so the layout can be tailored to your specific needs and preferences. For instance, you may want a post template that only shows the main content and hides all sidebars.

If you don’t have the budget to hire a WooCommerce developer, you can find dedicated WooCommerce themes to elevate your ecommerce site. Some of these integrate with the Site Editor, so you can customize nearly every aspect of your ecommerce store, including headers and footers.

3. Improve the user experience (UX)

The user experience (UX) defines how intuitive it is for visitors to navigate and interact with your website. It’s affected by a range of factors like page speed, readability, accessibility, and more.

A poor ecommerce UX can quickly frustrate visitors and lead to early exits. In fact, website errors and complex checkouts are some of the main causes of cart abandonment. 

Additionally, a bad user experience is likely to result in high bounce rates and less time on site (which is especially true when it comes to page speed). This can indicate to search engines that your website lacks value, thereby harming your site’s visibility even further.

WooCommerce developers can ensure a positive user experience with clear navigation structures, optimized performance, mobile-friendliness, attractive calls-to-action, and more. Better yet, developers can build certain features into the platform to reduce the need for plugins. 

If you don’t want to use a developer, you’ll find lots of quality extensions in the WooCommerce Marketplace. As an example, one of the ways to improve the UX is to personalize the content visible to each of your visitors. For example, you can make upsell and cross-sell recommendations using an extension like Product Recommendations.

Or, you might want to implement a quick checkout process using WooCommerce One Page Checkout. Meanwhile, you can present product details in a neat lightbox popup with the Quick View for WooCommerce extension.

Of course, a WooCommerce developer can also create these features for you. They may even build custom tools for your site (more on this later).

4. Analyze and interpret data

Once you set up your ecommerce store, it’s important to continually monitor performance so that you can see what is and isn’t working. This way, you can resolve any issues and make sure your website is running as smoothly as possible.

Naturally, even without WooCommerce developers, you’re able to collect website data thanks to extensions like Google Analytics and Jetpack Stats. 

You can track basic ecommerce data like cart actions, product reviews, traffic referral sources, and more. And, by default, if you use WordPress 5.3 or higher, you’ll get access to built-in WooCommerce Analytics reports to monitor important metrics.

That said, sometimes, analytics terminology can be difficult to break down. WooCommerce developers can simplify the process by interpreting this data and forming actionable recommendations to boost your revenue.

Alternatively, you might want to add or remove analytics sections in the dashboard to focus on the performance indicators that are most important to you. In these scenarios, it can be beneficial to defer to the knowledge and experience of a professional. 

5. Secure your site and troubleshoot issues

One of the most important considerations for ecommerce websites is security. Naturally, you’ll be dealing with lots of sensitive information like personal details and credit card data that you’ll need to protect.

Although WordPress is a secure platform, its popularity makes it a target for hackers who look to exploit weaknesses in the infrastructure. There are a range of attacks that your website can be susceptible to. These include SQL injections, brute force attacks, and distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS). 

Fortunately, there are ways to prevent ecommerce security issues and protect your website. For instance, Jetpack is an all-round security and performance solution for all types of sites, including online stores.

All you have to do is install and activate the plugin from your WordPress dashboard. Then, you’ll get real-time backups to keep your data safe and ensure compliance with data protection regulations like the GDPR. Additionally, you can automate malware scans to detect any suspicious activity and authenticate customer logins. 

WooCommerce developers will take care of all security measures and protocols for you, so you can focus on running your business. In addition to backups and vulnerability scans, they can strengthen the overall login process by providing a custom login URL that makes it harder for hackers to access your site. You can also get around-the-clock protection, encryption, spam prevention, and more. 

Better yet, thanks to their expert knowledge, web development professionals can carry out plugin and theme assessments to make sure that software is compatible with your site architecture. Plus, they may perform regular security audits to ensure that your site is as secure as possible. 

One of the main problems with basic security tools is that, although they’re capable of identifying and preventing issues, they don’t always provide actionable solutions. 

WooCommerce developers will know the best way to respond in the event of a threat and they’ll do it swiftly to minimize downtime.

6. Reduce load time

As the name suggests, page load time is a measure of how quickly it takes a web page to fully load. As such, it’s a key indicator of website performance and can affect the UX, search rankings, and more.

To give you an idea, the probability of bounce rate increases by 32 percent as page load time goes from one to three seconds. Meanwhile, conversion rates decrease an average of 4.42 percent with each second of load time.

There are solutions for those who want to reduce page load time. You can install a caching plugin, optimize and compress images, or use a content delivery network (CDN).

WooCommerce developers enable you to take performance to the next level. You’ll receive tailored optimization advice based on comprehensive speed tests.

Let’s say your site contains a lot of digital resources like large video files. A developer may suggest lazy loading paired with a top-tier caching program.

Experts will often help you record and assess findings so that you understand the results. Plus, any speed fixes that are implemented will be monitored over time to see whether or not they’re effective.

7. Perform search engine optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization refers to a set of guidelines and best practices that make your website more visible in search results. When implemented correctly, SEO can drive more organic traffic to your pages. This way, you wouldn’t have to rely on paid advertising and other costly digital marketing strategies. 

There are plugins you can use in your WooCommerce store to improve SEO. Yoast SEO is a popular option.

This plugin gives you real-time SEO suggestions as you create content in the WordPress editor. If you enter a keyword, the tool will help you optimize your headings, meta descriptions, permalinks, and page content with this search term in mind.

Plus, you’ll get recommendations for text length and outbound links, and you can add structured data to help Google better understand your site.

Still, WooCommerce developers optimize on a deeper level — all the way down to your site’s architecture — so that search engines can crawl your site more efficiently. They’ll also focus on site speed and mobile-friendliness aspects which can impact SEO as well..

What’s more, professionals can create sitemaps, perform social media optimization, and even conduct keyword research. They may also track keyword and SEO performance for you, and continually update your strategy. 

8. Add custom functionality

The free WooCommerce plugin comes with lots of available features like secure payment gateways, key shopping pages, and unlimited product listings. But, users that have more complex needs may require additional functionality.

The good news is that there are plenty of free WooCommerce extensions that can enhance your online shop. Perhaps you want to add different payment gateways or use buy now pay later options.

If that’s the case, you can install extensions like Square, Braintree, and Klarna.

Meanwhile, if you have a global customer base, you might need a solution like MultilingualPress to translate your store into multiple languages. Alternatively, if you sell physical goods, it’s a good idea to use Table Rate Shipping to define shipping rates based on factors like location, weight, and item count.

That said, the best WooCommerce developers can integrate this functionality into the bones of your website, so you don’t need to rely on extensions. Also, you might have more specific goals in mind. Perhaps you want to sell subscriptions or enable booking functionality. If this is the case, asking a developer to do this for you might be quicker than setting it up yourself with an extension. 

If you decide to hire a professional to build your website, you have two main options. You can either hire an independent developer or use a WooCommerce agency. 

There are pros and cons to both, so it’s best to consider the size and complexity of the project as well as your budget.

With an independent developer, you’ll often find that the initial cost is a lot lower. For instance, you can find freelance developers on sites like Fiverr and Upwork that charge between $80 and $300 (more on these options later).

Since you’ll be working with a developer directly, you’ll often receive more customized attention, swift responses, and quicker turnaround times. But, there are limitations to working with a single developer. 

Primarily, you’ll be limited to just the knowledge and experience of that individual. And, since technologies and processes are constantly evolving, some web development professionals prefer to stick to what they know, so you might not get a website that’s as cutting-edge as you’d like.

On the other hand, an agency brings together many professionals, each with their own area of expertise. Therefore, you can benefit from a more varied collective skillset, as well as the advantage of having multiple pairs of eyes on your project and the ear of a dedicated project management professional.

Additionally, agencies tend to be a good fit for more complex projects since they often have well-established methodologies in place. And, if you’re expecting significant growth, agencies often have the power and resources to scale up your website. 

Agencies will likely be able to complete projects more quickly than freelancers. Sole developers tend to take on as many new clients as they can to make more money, which can result in delayed projects and missed deadlines. Meanwhile, agencies tend to assign a team member to a single project so they’re able to give it their full attention.

Of course, agencies may be a lot more expensive than independent developers, often costing thousands of dollars. Therefore, you’ll need a bigger budget if you opt for an agency so it’s not always the best option for a small business.

With this in mind, you may consider hiring a developer to set up your website, and then going to an agency with more specialized tasks.

Now that you know why it can be a good idea to hire WooCommerce developers, let’s take a look at five factors to consider when choosing a professional to work on your website.

1. Skills and experience 

To make sure you pick the right WooCommerce developers for your website, it’s important to first identify your primary goals. There may be multiple objectives that you want to achieve in the long term, but it’s a good idea to nail down the most significant or urgent goals.

To give you an idea, you might like to focus on improving website security or building a custom plugin for your online store. Alternatively, if you’re just getting started, you might need an entire website built from scratch. 

Once you’ve identified your most important goals, you’re ready to find a developer with the relevant experience and technical expertise. If you want a custom website, you’ll need a developer who commands programming languages like HTML, CSS, and PHP (as a baseline, but ideally they’ll know more or even qualify as a full stack web developer).

Most quality WooCommerce developers provide customer reviews or testimonials on their website or profile. You may want to read through the latest comments to get an idea of the developer’s skills. 

Plus, some developers may have a public portfolio where you can see work they’ve completed previously for real clients. If they don’t, there’s nothing stopping you from contacting them directly and asking to see past work or samples. 

It’s important to stick to reputable sources and platforms when you go looking for developers. Woo Agency Partners guarantee a high quality of work since developers on this platform have been thoroughly vetted and verified by the Woo team.

Woo Agency Partner membership is completely exclusive and limited to just a few openings, so those who are listed on the platform offer some of the best services you’ll find. These individuals also have a track record of building and customizing scalable sites, and they get priority access to the Woo support team. 

2. Availability 

Another factor to consider when selecting the right WooCommerce developer is availability. Typically, very good developers are in high demand, so it’s best to plan and prepare your project way ahead of time, especially if you need to meet a strict deadline.

When you make a request to a developer (or fill out a contact form), most professionals will maintain complete transparency regarding time frames. You can also assess this for yourself by asking the following questions:

• Does the developer reply promptly during initial communications?
• What do customer reviews say about the ability of the developer to stick to deadlines?
• Has the developer committed to a date by which the project will be completed?

If you do require a quick turnaround, it can be a good idea to choose top WooCommerce developers who share the same time zone as you. This way, you can reduce the chance that work gets delayed due to communication issues. 

Keep in mind that agencies often schedule work months in advance. Therefore, if you’ve left it until the last minute, an independent developer may be a better option as they’ll be able to take on your project right away.

3. Cost

As you might expect, more experienced or specialized developers may charge more for their services. Therefore, cost is another important factor to consider as you look for the right developer for your ecommerce website.

The cost may also be impacted by the scope of the work. So, if you’re looking to improve search engine optimization, this might cost less than those creating websites entirely from scratch. 

On Fiverr (at the time of writing), smaller tasks start at $30, but the total development of custom ecommerce websites can hover between the $500 to $1000 mark. Very large or complex projects will result in higher costs, as can tighter deadlines or more urgent tasks. 

Fortunately, there are some ways to keep ecommerce costs low. Rather than outsourcing all the work to developers, think about whether there are some tasks that you might be able to handle yourself, using WooCommerce extensions and WordPress plugins. 

With that in mind, Jetpack is an excellent option if you require a security solution since you’ll get access to real-time backups, malware scans, one-click fixes, and more. Meanwhile, there are plenty of Woo extensions listed in the marketplace that can extend the functionality of your site.

You might want to create a membership website or start a subscription business, in which case, Woo Subscriptions is a great option. Or, if you want to configure a custom checkout page, the Checkout Field Editor lets you add, remove, or edit fields to reflect your exact needs.

4. Communication and support

Another key factor to consider before hiring WooCommerce developers is the level and quality of communication and support. This is especially relevant if yours is a more long-term project that will require ongoing work and maintenance.

Again, it’s useful to evaluate the developer’s response times, but it’s also important to assess the helpfulness of messages. To give you an idea, when you ask for a quote for the project, most professionals will go a step further and provide a clear breakdown of the costs, so that you understand what you’re paying for.

After the initial consultation, you can also consider whether the developer has a solid understanding of what you want to achieve. Is the developer open to feedback? How will revisions be handled? 

These are some of the ways that you can determine whether you’re likely to strike up a productive working relationship with the developer.

5. Contracts

If you intend to work with web development professionals on an ongoing basis, they will likely present a contract that outlines the expectations of all parties, the scope of the project, the predicted costs, the terms and conditions, and more.

This is very typical if you choose to hire a WooCommerce developer on retainer (or even in-house). Since it creates a legal obligation, it’s very important that you pay close attention to the clauses in the contract.

You’ll want to make sure that things like the deliverables, payment terms, and liability are very clear. Also, you’ll want to see who will have ownership of the work upon completion, as some professionals may claim intellectual property rights. 

Plus, it’s useful to know what will happen in certain situations like breach of contract and termination. Will you get a refund if, for some reason, the developer is unable to complete the project?

Now that you know how to choose the best WooCommerce developers for your project, let’s take a look at four places where you can find qualified professionals. Each has its own set of advantages and unique characteristics. Almost every option will give you a quicker start than simply searching, “Hire WooCommerce developer” in Google. 

1. Woo Agency Partners

One of the best places to find WooCommerce developers is the Woo Agency Partners Marketplace. These are developers that are vetted and verified by the official Woo team. Therefore, it gives you access to trustworthy and reliable professionals with a proven track record for high-quality work.

Woo Agency Partners are a fantastic option for every type of project you can think of. You might need a professional to help you migrate ecommerce platforms. Or, you may want an experienced developer to build a custom store that’s simple to scale in the future.

Woo Agency Partners get exclusive access to WooCommerce webinars and training materials, so they’re always up to date on the latest software development trends and processes. They may also get discounts on extensions, web hosting, and payment providers. 

Plus, they get priority access to the support team, which can help you resolve issues quickly and minimize downtime. Better yet, you get to work with developers directly to map out the scope, timeline, and cost of the project, which keeps everybody on the same page.

2. Codeable

Like Woo Agency Partners, developers on Codeable endure a very rigorous vetting and hiring process to make sure you’re matched with top-quality experts. The team checks for technical knowledge, problem-solving skills, and code quality.

Additionally, candidates must pass a behavioral interview, an internal course, and a 90-day trial. Plus, the standard of work is continually monitored, with low-quality developers being quickly removed from the directory if they’re not performing well. 

For each developer, you can see statistics and details like clients, completed projects, location, star rating, and more. You’ll also find their areas of expertise on their profiles. These may include things like database development, plugin customization, and maintenance.

What’s more, you can get a free estimate for your project with no obligation to hire. And, Codeable boasts some impressive metrics like a seven-minute response time and an average rating of 4.95 stars out of 5. 

3. Fiverr

Fiverr is another solid option for matching with independent freelance developers. There are hundreds of professionals listed here, so you’re more likely to find experts with a higher level of flexibility for tight turnarounds and revisions.

One of the best parts about Fiverr is that the starting price is displayed clearly beneath each listing, so you can assess the cost right from the get-go, without needing to make contact. Plus, professionals are assigned to one of three levels that show that they’ve met certain performance criteria in the marketplace.

Another standout feature of Fiverr is that many professionals include the time it will take for delivery. Plus, customer feedback is broken down into helpful categories like “seller communication” and “service as described”. 

4. Upwork

Like Fiverr, Upwork is a large job marketplace where you can find freelance developers for your project. But, the sheer size of this marketplace means that it can take time to find the right person for the job, especially if you’re looking for a very specific type of expertise.

That said, you can use the search bar to discover suitable professionals for your project, and even filter by quality talent badges if you want to find top-rated experts. Additionally, Upwork has a dedicated “WooCommerce” filter option to help you narrow down the results.

For each listing, you can see the hourly rate, job success rate, earnings so far, and special skills. Plus, freelancers on the platform can make it known that they’re currently available to take on more work, and that you can instantly book consultations to discuss your project. 

If you’re looking to set up an online store, the WooCommerce plugin can help you get started without any prior knowledge of website building. It’s completely free to use and highly beginner-friendly. But, your ecommerce site might need special functionality that requires more advanced skills. Or, you may simply lack the time (and patience) to invest in building it.

Therefore, sometimes it makes more sense to hire WooCommerce developers who have the skills and experience to design a unique website for you. Plus, these professionals can handle a range of other tasks on your behalf, like performance optimization, security enhancements, troubleshooting, and much more. 

Although there are plenty of platforms where you can find WooCommerce developers, Woo Agency Partners are a great choice, since each agency is vetted and verified by the official Woo team. Get started today!

About

Mary Voelker