As we learn more about the environmental impact of the clothing industry, many online retailers are cleaning up their manufacturing practices to be more ethical and sustainable. In the case of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), being kind to the earth came first and has been driving their initiatives since. And it’s no different for their recent foray into eCommerce, which reflects their commitment to promoting eco-friendly choices thanks to a well-designed product and an equally slick online shop.
From Non-Profit to Retail Startup: How the World Wildlife Fund is using eCommerce for Good
September 27, 2018 - 5 Comments
Why to Recommend WooCommerce and WordPress for SEO-focused Businesses
September 11, 2018 - 28 Comments
As the owner of an SEO-focused agency building large and small eCommerce sites, the first question I ask potential clients is if they’re playing the long-term game, and by that I mean: what’s the ultimate goal for their business? Market leadership? ROAS (return on advertising spend)? Steady growth with excellent brand recognition?
If they have set their sites on any of these, we know they need to optimize for the top of the funnel and build awareness of their site with strong search engine optimization. And for that, we always recommend building with — or migrating to — WooCommerce and WordPress.
Keep Your Eye on The Prize: The Story of Mariener Eyewear
August 23, 2018 - 4 Comments
They say necessity is the mother of invention. For Dutch entrepreneur Marien Klootwijk, this rings true: In 2012 he needed to replace an expensive pair of sunglasses, was disappointed with the selection within his price range available in The Netherlands, and was inspired to launch Mariener Eyewear.
From clear vision to competitive company
Even in the beginning, Marien had a clear idea of what his company was about. “Mariener offers no-nonsense eyewear with a clean, high-performance design at entry-level prices,” he says.
Representing The Netherlands in his branding was also important, demonstrated by generous splashes of orange, the national color of the country, throughout his website.
GenSol Case Study: Providing Affordable Genetic Testing for Man’s Best Friend
August 2, 2018 - 6 Comments
From military-grade shelters to DNA testing for dogs: we use WooCommerce to help all kinds of clients grow their businesses. Here’s the story of how we worked with Micah and Adriana to turn their own passion for dogs into an online canine genetic testing service, so all dog lovers can learn more about their canine companions.
Shopping on Instagram: Tag WooCommerce Products in Posts and Drive Traffic to Your Store
July 31, 2018 - 27 Comments
You’re exploring whether Instagram and its one billion users can help grow your business, right?
If you have a WooCommerce store, you have even more Insta-opportunity: Shopping on Instagram makes it simpler than ever to move people from your photos to checkout.
Let’s leverage the power of Shopping on Instagram for your business!
Note: Shopping on Instagram is currently only available for physical products.
Should Your Business Use Instagram for Marketing? Six Questions To Ask
July 27, 2018 - 7 Comments
Wondering if your business should be on Instagram? The short answer is that whatever you’re selling, you should consider it. Instagram now has over one billion monthly users — as of January, 2018, 7 percent of internet users in the United States accessed Instagram once every few days.
And if you’re in certain eCommerce categories or selling a visual product, you definitely should.
Here are six questions to ask if you’re weighing whether Instagram should be part of your marketing strategy.
Using Brand Archetypes to Craft Unique Digital Experiences: Meet Herdl
July 24, 2018 - 4 Comments
When you begin to suspect “the way things are” in your industry no longer serves you or your customers, do you keep your head down — or buck the trend?
Earlier this month we chatted with WooExpert Neuralab and today we hear from Herdl: a U.K. agency born from of a desire to shake up the status quo.
Having co-founded Herdl just over five years ago, here’s what co-founder Gareth Morgans had to say about productivity, brand archetypes, WordPress, and WooCommerce.
An Introduction to eCommerce for WordPress – WooCommerce
July 16, 2018 - 7 Comments
New to WooCommerce? It’s a free plugin that transforms WordPress websites into customizable eCommerce stores. First released in 2011 by WooThemes, a WordPress theme development agency with roots in Norway, the United Kingdom, and South Africa, it was later acquired by Automattic, makers of WordPress.com and Jetpack. In the U.S. alone, WooCommerce powers a whopping 55% of all eCommerce sites and nearly 2.3 million online stores.
Over the next few days we’ll look at some key questions and topics, starting with an introduction to eCommerce for WordPress. Welcome to Woo!
Building an Omnichannel Business with WooCommerce and Square
February 8, 2018 - 16 Comments
In a survey of 1,164 U.S. business owners by Mercury Analytics last year, 42 percent stated that they take credit cards online, while 76 percent reported that they accepted credit card sales in person. In the blend of online and brick-and-mortar sales, what is the state and stance of your business? Perhaps you’re thinking of making a leap from digital to physical (or the reverse) and are weighing your options.
Let’s dive into how to build an omnichannel business and, in particular, how to do it with WooCommerce and Square.
Use AMP to Make Your WordPress Site Load Faster
February 7, 2018 - 18 Comments
It’s no secret that as a retailer, your mobile strategy has become more and more important to staying competitive. As much as 50% of eCommerce transactions come from mobile today. In the holiday season of 2017, mobile purchases (tablet + smartphone) set a new holiday record, generating 47% of visits and 33% of revenue.
Despite the quantity of mobile traffic, over 75% of sites take over 10 seconds to load on a 3G connection. A slow loading site results in content shifting around on the page as users are reading or interacting. Buttons are unresponsive resulting in seemingly broken pages and frustrated users. And worst of all, sometimes the page times out, leaving your customers in the no-man’s land of loading spinners.
It’s no wonder that 53% of mobile site visitors leave after 3 seconds. And this affects your bottom line – we’ve seen that just a one-second delay in load time can lead to a 7% decrease in conversions. As a customer, it’s easy to complain about a slow site, but as a retailer, creating a fast and functional mobile site often takes a lot of effort and requires constant updating.
An Introduction to GDPR Compliance for WooCommerce Stores
December 20, 2017 - 10 Comments
Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into effect on 25 May 2018 – is your shop ready?
What is GDPR and what does it have to do with you?
I attended WordCamp Manchester and WordCamp Stockholm in the last few months, and they had one thing in common: lots of questions about GDPR. I heard a number of discussions around what WooCommerce site owners needed to do, and if they were ready for GDPR.
To help our WooCommerce site owners get ready for the GDPR, we wanted to provide some information about the regulation, along with our GDPR plans at WooCommerce.
On 25th May 2018, the GDPR enacted by the EU will come into effect.
Stronger rules on data protection from May 2018 mean citizens have more control over their data.
There’s a great infographic breaking down the different components. The GDPR for WordPress site includes a summary of site owners’ obligations in regards to collecting data related to EU citizens, which we’ve listed below:
- Tell the user who you are, why you collect the data, for how long, and who receives it.
- Get a clear consent [when required] before collecting any data.
- Let users access their data, and take it with them.
- Let users delete their data.
- Let users know if data breaches occur.
Each of these bullet points is subject to many caveats, exceptions, and degrees of how much you need to do, but they do serve as a good starting point.
Why stores running on WordPress are winning
August 22, 2016 - 20 Comments
According to the most recent report from BuiltWith, 39% of all eCommerce sites are powered by WooCommerce and WordPress — over 1.5 million active stores. Add in the usage of additional eCommerce platforms powered by WordPress and the CMS’s own 17.6 million live sites (over 26% of the entire internet!), and, well… that’s a lot of sites.
Developers and store builders don’t just choose to work with WordPress because it’s free (although it is) or because “everyone else is using it” (although they are). There are some pretty convincing reasons why WordPress has climbed to the top of the charts, and why WooCommerce has soared in popularity right along with it.
Stores backed by WordPress have multiple advantages over those on other platforms. And these advantages allow them to work faster, spend less money, and ultimately become more successful than their counterparts.
Let’s take a look at a few convincing reasons why shops running on WordPress have a competitive edge — and why you should join their ranks, if you’re not already among them. 🙂
The Benefits of Jetpack for your WooCommerce store
May 26, 2016 - 9 Comments
Jetpack is one of the most versatile free plugins available for WordPress. Its built-in offerings range from statistics to a content delivery network to automatic social sharing of new posts, and much more.
If you’ve used WordPress for a while or are familiar with it outside of the realm of your online store, chances are you’ve had an encounter or two with this powerful plugin. But have you tried using it in combination with WooCommerce?
In combination with WooCommerce, Jetpack can bring store owners easily-integrated attack protection, downtime alerts, content sharing, and a slew of other features designed to make your life easier. It’s the equivalent of strapping a rocket to your store — but a lightweight one. 😉
Let’s explore why we think Jetpack is well worth your while, and how it can help you soar to new heights. We’ll start with a quick overview of why we here at Woo use it, and chose it to power our Shipping and Tax services.
WooCommerce Security: The 7 Things You Should Do First
February 15, 2016 - 12 Comments
While security measures are built into WordPress and WooCommerce out of the box, there are a few basic things new store owners should be doing to keep their customers, team, and data safe in the event of those worst-case scenarios.
Here are the seven things all new WooCommerce store owners should do first.
New store? Quickly detect fraudulent transactions with NS8 Protect.
Developing as a developer at WordCamps
November 24, 2015 - 4 Comments
At Woo, we take it for granted that developers know why they should attend their local WordCamp. For us, the benefits are clear and we find huge value in these events. However, this may not be as clear for everyone.
If you’ve never attended a WordCamp before and you don’t really know why you should, then we’re here to change your mind. Here is why showing up at a WordCamp is one of the single most important things you can do for your career, life, and community as a WordPress developer.
How to evaluate a plugin for your WooCommerce store
August 21, 2015 - 7 Comments
Plugins are awesome — that’s a fact. They make incredible things possible with WordPress, and can take your website or WooCommerce-powered store to new heights.
But plugins can also be problematic. A rogue update, an untested bit of code, an incompatibility between two extensions… in the blink of an eye, you can go from fully functional to completely inoperable. And let’s not even talk about how easy it is to get caught up in the desire to install more plugins, which has its own drawbacks.
Before installing any plugin, you should evaluate it against a list of pre-established criteria. This evaluation doesn’t have to take long, and your can set your own criteria, because what matters to you might not be important to someone else. But doing a few minutes of due diligence could prevent hours of headaches, not to mention customer complaints and lost sales.
Today, we’re going to share a few of the things you should do when evaluating a WordPress plugin for possible use with your WooCommerce store. Keep reading to learn more about this process and the steps you should take.