As we count down the hours to 2014 and most of the WooThemes team enjoy some much deserved time off, we reflect on a monumental year.
The year of growth
Our mission for 2013 was to double-down on the products & revenue channels where we saw most traction & growth and concentrate on creating long lasting relationships with our existing customers through our platform offering. With our flagship product WooCommerce gaining huge momentum it took us 629 days to reach 1 million downloads, and only 184 days to reach 2 million. Over 150,000 sites are now using WooCommerce to power their shopfronts and all data suggests we are one of the fastest growing eCommerce platforms online. Needless to say we found ourselves with a lot of new customers.
Whilst we place significant emphasis on WooCommerce in our growth strategy, the long tail has been very effective in driving and acquiring new customers. WooThemes has had a massive year in terms of theme and plugin releases. We’ve re-factored a lot of code and removed a lot of bloat from our themes – replacing in-built functionality with a heap of free plugins. We’ve optimised our site, both visually and technically. Powered by WooCommerce in 2013 there was just shy of 100,000 transactions processed on our site, and whilst we may not be the biggest store in terms of product numbers, we’re even more confident WooCommerce can power a shop of any size with the right hosting infrastructure.
With this kind of growth, we’ve experienced a year of much change in terms of organisational structures, new policies, stricter targets, deadlines, as well as increased and improved communication through product and support hangouts, p2 messaging and the implementation of Hipchat. The whole team now even has Fitbits and help encourage each other to step away from the computer and exercise – from the other side of the world.
Team highlights
When I asked the team what their highlights were of 2013 the common theme was our team get-togethers, namely the WooTrip, as well as WordCamp Atlanta where our stateside team met and WordCamp London were some of our UK team congregated. The long lasting effect these get-togethers have is immeasurable, but the relationships they help build between remote team mates is very tangible. We look forward to more meetups in 2014.
For our chief happiness officer, Mike Krapf, personal highlights were our much anticipated theme updater and new docs site, as well as new support ninja recruits to help ensure customer happiness and accomodate our growing support strains.
2014 teaser: Expect more community support resources & possibly events too.
What the team had to say:
WooCommerce 2 million was definitely huge but my favorite moment at work was the company dinner and fireworks that followed at WordCamp Europe / WooTrip 2013 – Scotty Basgaard
Everything about WooTrip 2013 was incredible as always. I’m really excited for the plans and strategies that were laid out this year to come to fruition in 2014. Our leadership is on key – Ryan Ray
WooCommerce 1M and 2M, WooTrip 2013 (the whole trip!), WooSlider growing up (2.0.0) and many more. Favourite theme of the year would have to go to Upstart – Matty Cohen
Definitely the growth of WC, hitting 1M and 2M downloads. WooTrip is always the highlight of the year, meeting everyone again (or for the first time) – Coen Jacobs
The moshpit at WCEurope – Magnus Jepson
Overall, WooThemes has matured as a business and overcome some big obstacles. We’re a constant work in progress, but have some very specific goals set for the new year that we are going to strive towards together. We look forward to sharing more with you our community soon.
Bring on Twenty Fourteen!
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Hi there, looks like you guys are having fun! I’m a new customer here at the end of 2013 and enjoying Canvas so far.
Question 1: What floating social sharing plugin are you using on the left side of this post?
Question2: How do you get the author image to appear above it?
Thanks and good luck in 2014!
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for jumping into the WooCommunity, Canvas is a great way to start. 😛
Our social sharing area is all custom coded, it’s not a plugin currently. Some fancy HTML/CSS to make it work and look as it does. The same goes for our author avatar. We’re using each author’s profile to pull in their Gravatar and then some HTML/CSS to place and style it.
Hi,
When will the Photography extension be available please?
No set ETA on it, unfortunately.
As we say, it will be released once ready. I know that is of great help. 😉
http://wordpress.org/plugins/bulk-photo-to-product-importer-extension-for-woocommerce/
Yes, I’ve just came upon this site, and look forward to see the photography page up.
We need a good theme for our wp page:
http://www.canvasarts.eu
Congratulations on the achievements in 2013 and I’m looking forward to see your products (especially the improved vendor plugin) and services in 2014! All the best!
Thank you very much Johnny. 2014 will be a great year of products from us. 🙂
Great to hear, looking forward to it!
Really looking forward to the Photography Extension!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Wanted to buy a couple woo commerce plug in’s and was wondering if you guys are having a sale or anything for the new year? Thanks!
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