When building an e-commerce website, the first important step is choosing the right hosting platform. For many, WordPress ticks all the right boxes. It’s quick, simple and it comes with a huge range of plugins that can help you to build, grow, and market your online business. These plugins offer a variety of functionalities and one thing that you can be sure of is that there is a WordPress tool every e-commerce need.
Whether you’ve already got a well-established e-commerce site or you’re still in the early stages and just getting started, there are a number of essential plugins you should consider this year. Want to know more about them? Well, you’re in luck! Below, Irish Parcels has pulled together a list of the 10 best WordPress plugins for your e-commerce site in 2020.
For adding e-commerce functionality
First and foremost, you want to add e-commerce functionality to your WordPress site and you want to number of great plugins to choose from:
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WooCommerce
This plugin is responsible for 30% of all online stores created through WordPress. It is flexible and simple to use. In just a few clicks you can create yourself a beautiful e-commerce store. Best of all, it’s completely free!
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BigCommerce
BigCommerce could be the plugin for you if you’re looking for a powerhouse that can drive sales. Big brands such as SkullCandy and Ben & Jerry’s use this tool as it offers scalability and high-quality performance.
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Shopify
You may have already heard of Shopify, this popular selling platform can handle everything from sourcing products to payment gateways and taxes. And you can integrate your Shopify store seamlessly with WordPress using this plugin.
For creating marketing campaigns and driving conversions
In order to reach customers and drive conversions, you need to make sure that you’re running effective digital marketing and conversion campaigns. This is very important in 2020 if you hope to stand out from the crowd.
If you’re not very experienced in this area, don’t panic! WordPress has a variety of plugins that can help you to do this. Some of the best include:
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Constant Contact
Constant Contact is a marketing tool designed to be used as an email service provider so you can run targeted email campaigns to potential and existing customers. From pre-designed email templates to marketing automation, it has it all.
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Sendinblue
This is another user-friendly email service provider that is packed full of useful sales and marketing features. Using Sendinblue you can also launch SMS campaigns and use audience segmentation for truly targeted marketing.
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OptinMonster
OptinMonster can help you to create high-converting campaigns using pop-ups, floating bars, and more! The easy to use, drag and drop builder makes things simple and these features can really help to drive sign-ups to your mailing list or services.
For increasing visibility and page rankings
If you want to make your e-commerce business successful, you need to make sure your webpages and your website are as visible as possible and rank well in search engines. This is especially true in 2020 with literally thousands of other e-commerce websites to compete with.
The best way to do this is through Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) but again, don’t freak out if you’re not an expert in the field or if you’ve never really heard of it before! There is one plugin, in particular, that is going to be your best friend:
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Yoast
Yoast will help you to create optimized, user-friendly content that will help you to increase traffic to your webpages. The simple traffic light system helps to guide you and offers tips and advice on how you can improve your content such as product descriptions and blog posts.
For social proof
If there’s one thing that helps to drive sales and build your reputation nowadays, it’s social proof. In the age of the internet, most consumers rely on the reviews, opinions and recommendations of their peers when making purchases. Being able to add elements of social proof to your e-commerce site can work wonders for driving sales and conversions. Some plugins you can use for this are:
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TrustPulse
TrustPulse notifies visitors to your site each time someone interacts positively with your website. For example, every time someone makes a purchase. This makes your brand appear more trustworthy and in-demand. And you can try it out for free.
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WP Product Review
Product reviews are important to consumers, these can make or break their decision to purchase a product or service. Especially if they’re going to be parting with large sums of cash. Using this plugin you can add product reviews to your e-commerce site to help guide your customers.
For re-engaging customers
You’ve probably had this happen to you in the past, you’re browsing a website, you add a few things to your basket before thinking better of it and leaving the site with your bank balance still intact. But then, you receive an email reminding you what was in your basket – it’s a sign, you have to go back and buy it! You too can add this functionality to your e-commerce site using plugins like the following:
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Cart Recovery for WordPress
Cart Recovery works in conjunction with a range of other great WordPress plugins such as WooCommerce. It helps you to track abandoned carts so you can retarget those consumers, all whilst complying with GDPR laws.
For security
Your e-commerce website is one of your most important assets. Think about it, you wouldn’t leave your shop unlocked, so don’t leave your website vulnerable to cybercriminals either. WordPress has so many incredible security plugins that you can use for peace of mind, including:
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All In One WP Security & Firewall
This plugin does what it says on the tin! It is an all in one security solutions to protect your e-commerce site against cyberattacks. And better still, if you get stuck or something goes wrong, the friendly support team is always on hand to help.
