That’s right WordPress-lovers! This one’s for you.
The dream of many a startup is to sell stuff online. I mean, it sounds great, right? The website handles half the work, and you just send the stuff out. If your goods are electronic, you may never have to deal directly with the customer.
You know, unless something goes wrong… but I digress.
Many online vendors, preferring the familiar comfort of the WordPress admin interface, have turned to plugins to provide them with the e-commerce functionality they need.
Why plugins? Well, from a branding perspective, it’s far better to have a shop on your site that looks like it’s on your site. Many website owners would rather avoid using software or services that they don’t host themselves. Plugins like WooCommerce and Jigoshop give them more of the control over the branding and user experience that they want.
That said, services like Shopify have a lot going for them, in that they can take a lot of the hassle out of running your own online store. But, wishing to give their customers the best of both worlds, Shopify has introduced a plugin of their own, which will allow you to add any of your products to pages and posts. The plugin implements a full shopping cart as well.
Basically, your store will have your branding on it in the most complete way possible. Shopify will still handle things like:
payments, secure checkout, shipping and fulfillment, inventory, and taxes — all the hard things about selling online.
Now, if you don’t already have a WordPress site to start with, there are three new themes that come with the Shopify plugin already integrated. The best part? They’re all free! Zillacommerce by Themezilla, Simple by Themify, and Pulse by Ultralinx.
This move by Shopify really is a no-brainer. They have everything to gain. Existing customers can now implement their stores in WordPress. WordPress users who were previously hesitant to use Shopify have one more reason to jump in. Online retailers in general have one more option. One might wonder why they didn’t get around to it sooner.
Knowing how much work goes into developing a product like this, however, it’s easy to see why they waited.
And now, we wait and see how the Shopify for WordPress experience compares to its direct competitors.
