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WooCommerce

An online shop within your WordPress site

WooCommerce is an open-source plug-in that turns a WordPress site into an online shop. It is not a separate system: your products sit in the same admin area as your pages and articles. That is the advantage, and the responsibility, because you arrange hosting and maintenance yourself or with us.

Discuss your online shop

An online shop that is part of your site, not beside it

This page is for anyone who already has a WordPress site and wants to add an online shop, or for whom content and selling matter equally. An article can refer to a product, a product page to an explanation, and everything sits in one admin area.

Because a WooCommerce shop is a WordPress site, everything that comes with WordPress applies: you choose the hosting, and WordPress, the theme, WooCommerce and the extensions receive updates that need to be managed. We agree in advance who does that.

What we do for a WooCommerce online shop

Four areas, tailored to your existing site or a new one.

Products and shop pages

Product types, variants, categories and filters, plus product and basket pages that fit the design of your site.

Choosing extensions

WooCommerce has free and paid extensions, for example for subscriptions, bookings or memberships. We choose as few as possible, because every extension means another update and often another subscription.

Integrations through the REST API

WooCommerce has a REST API that lets other software read and change products, orders and customers. Access is managed through API keys that you create and can revoke in the admin area.

Customer-facing features

For the customer-facing side, there is the Store API: public endpoints for the basket, checkout and product display, without access to sensitive shop data. This lets a bespoke feature, such as a product selector, work with the basket.

Two online shops that belong within WordPress

Possible applications, not completed commissions.

An online shop alongside a knowledge base

Problem

You write expert guidance about your field and sell the materials that go with it. Articles are on your site and products in a separate online shop, so readers have to search for themselves to find where they can order something.

Solution

One WordPress site where articles link to the right products and product pages link back to the guidance. The online shop uses the same design, navigation and management.

Data involved

Articles, products and variants, the references between them, orders and customer data.

Value

A reader orders from the article, and you manage content and the online shop in one place.

Depends on

How many products there are, whether the existing online shop needs to be migrated, and whether your hosting can handle the shop.

Selling courses or appointments

Problem

You are not selling a box but a place: an evening course, a workshop or an appointment. Registrations arrive by email and payments through a separate link.

Solution

A WooCommerce shop with a booking extension or a custom product type for course dates, where the customer chooses a date and pays straight away.

Data involved

Courses or services, dates and available places, attendees and payments.

Value

Registration and payment happen in one step, and you can see who is coming on each date.

Depends on

Whether an existing extension does what you need, what it costs each year, and whether your calendar is managed elsewhere.

WooCommerce fits when you want content and an online shop together

This is a good fit if

  • You already have a WordPress site and want to add an online shop

  • Content and products matter equally

  • You want to choose where your site and online shop are hosted

  • You want room for bespoke features through plug-ins and the API

This is less suitable if

  • You do not want responsibility for hosting and updates

  • Your online shop is the main focus and content plays hardly any part

  • No one will manage the maintenance of WordPress, WooCommerce and the extensions

If you mainly want to sell without arranging hosting and updates yourself, an online shop platform such as Shopify is more suitable. We make that comparison on the ecommerce page.

From WordPress site to working online shop

  1. Review the existing site and hosting. If you already use WordPress, we look at the theme, plug-ins and hosting. WooCommerce has its own requirements for WordPress and PHP versions; we check these against the current release.

  2. Define the range and extensions. Which product types, payment and shipping methods, and extensions are genuinely needed.

  3. Design and setup. Product, category and basket pages in the design of your site, followed by the product range.

  4. Integrations and test orders. Integrations with stock or accounting through the REST API, and test orders from basket through to processing.

  5. Launch and maintenance agreement. The online shop goes live, and we record who applies updates, how often backups are made, and what happens if an update breaks something.

What we need for a proposal

With WooCommerce, the proposal covers your online shop and the site around it.

  • The address of your WordPress site, if you already have one

  • Who provides your hosting

  • What you sell, and roughly how many products and variants you have

  • The extensions or plug-ins you currently use

  • The software you use for stock, accounting or shipping

  • Only during the build: your own administrator account, and API keys that you create or ask us to create with that account

What a WooCommerce online shop costs, including after launch

Amounts are set out in the proposal. With WooCommerce, recurring costs carry significant weight.

  • Product range. Number of products, variants and product types.

  • Extensions. Which functions come from extensions and which require bespoke work.

  • Design. How many shop pages receive their own design within your existing site.

  • Integrations. Which systems the online shop exchanges data with.

  • Existing site. Whether your current WordPress site first needs cleaning up or updating.

Recurring costs

  • Hosting suitable for an online shop

  • Paid extensions

  • Payment method costs

  • Maintenance: updates to WordPress, WooCommerce, the theme and extensions, checks and recovery

  • Backups and security, if these are not included with hosting

Questions about WooCommerce

Can my existing WordPress site have an online shop?

Usually. We first check whether the theme, plug-ins and hosting can support an online shop. Sometimes clean-up is needed before WooCommerce can be added.

Is WooCommerce a separate system that I need to learn?

No. It is a plug-in within WordPress. Products and orders have their own place in the admin area you already know.

What happens if an update breaks something?

That is why backups and a fixed process belong in maintenance: first test, then update, and if there is a problem, return to the previous version. Who does this and how quickly is set out in the maintenance agreement.

Can you improve an existing WooCommerce online shop?

Yes. We review the extensions, theme and integrations, and look at what makes the online shop slow or difficult to manage.

Further with WooCommerce

Tell us what your site is now and what you want to sell

The address of your WordPress site, your hosting and a broad outline of your range: that is enough for us to see whether WooCommerce fits and what it requires.

Discuss your online shop