WooCommerce: How Hosting Impacts Scalability

Scalability is a vital factor to consider when setting up your WooCommerce store. It refers to the ability of your website to handle increased traffic and transactions as your business grows.

Essentially, it’s about accommodating growth without hampering site performance or user experience. If you foresee significant growth for your online store, scalability has to be one of your primary considerations from day one.

Hosting plays an integral part in ensuring scalability because as demand surges, server capabilities must keep up too. A scalable hosting solution will mitigate potential problems related to heavy traffic, and can upgrade resources accordingly to ensure smooth operation at all times.

If you’re a WooCommerce site owner and you are concerned about how well your setup can scale, read on for a rundown of the main aspects that matter when it comes to hosting, and the choices you have available.

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WooCommerce: WooCart Managed Hosting

In this blog post, I’ll review some of the more important features of WooCart. WooCart is a new hosting provider that fully specializes for WooCommerce. Compared to WP Engine, Flywheel, or SiteGround, WooCart doesn’t offer WordPress hosting at all. It’s a focused package for WooCommerce store owners.

Core difference between managed WooCommerce hosting and other hosting is convenience. In managed hosting everything is bundled up together. You don’t have to worry about any technical issues.

In non-managed hosting you have to manage cPanel, install WordPress, install WooCommerce then check the resource usage and if there is any issue you have to contact customer support, which is most of the time occupied with lots of things, have a scattered focus, and no specialized knowledge. 

Whereas in WooCommerce managed hosting, the team’s focus is only on WooCommerce. That gives you an idea of why they can offer better service. WooCart allows you to spend your valuable time on marketing your store and not fixing technical issues. 

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WooCommerce: What’s the Best Hosting Provider?

As a WooCommerce user, WooCommerce blogger and WooCommerce developer I often hear this question: “What’s the best hosting platform for a WooCommerce website?“.

Well, first and foremost, there is no “best” hosting for WooCommerce (and WordPress in general).

There are so many choices out there that defining the “best” is impossible. Besides, if there were a “best” hosting provider, there would be only one hosting company left in business.

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WooCommerce: Preparing Your Site for Black Friday / Cyber Monday

Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) are just around the corner. Is your WooCommerce site prepared? I hope so!

While time is running out, there are a number of things you can do to get ready. In this post, we’ll cover eight of the most important ones.

The potential of a Black Friday / Cyber Monday deal shouldn’t be underestimated. Indeed, many eCommerce sites report that a significant percentage of their annual revenue comes from sales during this brief period of time. 

Additionally, it’s important to remember that nearly all businesses run a BFCM sale, which means that anyone who doesn’t have an offer is missing out.

Before we jump into the eight important things you can do, a final note: failing to prepare may cost you a serious amount of missed revenue. Amazon, for example, stands to lose $13.22 million per hour of downtime! While that’s an extreme example, it is a reminder that downtime should be avoided as much as possible during once-a-year sales events.

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WooCommerce: Getting Started As An Expert – A Complete Guide

If you’re looking to start your own ecommerce store, no platform does it better than WooCommerce.

WooCommerce is your path to online selling success. It’s a flexible, open-source e-commerce plugin specifically built for WordPress websites. 

From setting up and customizing your shop, to mastering orders and sales tracking, this complete guide will walk you through becoming an accomplished WooCommerce expert.

Read on for all the info you need to get the ball rolling!

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WooCommerce: The Ultimate Guide To Printing on Demand

In today’s digital age, ecommerce has witnessed significant growth, offering numerous opportunities for entrepreneurs and businesses to thrive.

One of this space’s most popular and profitable business models is print on demand (POD). Did you know that the POD market is projected to reach a staggering $67.59 billion by 2032?

With its low, upfront costs, ease of implementation, and limitless creative possibilities, POD has become a lucrative venture for many online store owners.

In this ultimate guide, we will explore how to leverage the power of WooCommerce, a leading ecommerce platform, to set up and manage your print on demand store successfully.

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WooCommerce: 11 Performance, Security, and Scalability Tips

WooCommerce websites need to be operational at all times: they must load quickly, be secure, and handle large traffic spikes. 

Achieving this can be a daunting task without the right strategy and expertise, particularly when dealing with a high number of visitors, as a single problem can result in hours of downtime and lost sales.

In this article, our special guest Martin Ronfort, founder of Dr Tech,  will share an overview of the strategies and processes that you can apply to your WooCommerce store and grow with ease

At Dr Tech, in fact, they manage thousands of WooCommerce stores – ranging from small businesses that are just starting out to stores with millions of requests and significant marketing campaigns – and deal with all the technical aspects such as hosting, loading speed, security, updates, backups, uptime, and scalability.

Let’s go, Martin! 

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WooCommerce: How to Level Up Your Email Marketing

In today’s competitive ecommerce landscape, email marketing plays a crucial role in connecting with customers and driving business growth.

With WooCommerce, you already have a powerful platform at your disposal to send and manage transactional emails effectively. However, when you need to send targeted marketing emails, additional plugins may be necessary. 

In this article, we’ll guide you through the process of optimizing your email marketing strategy using WooCommerce.

Whether you’re a seasoned email marketer or just getting started, we’ll explore actionable tips and practical techniques to help you level up your communication game.

So, let’s jump right in!

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WooCommerce vs. BigCommerce: Which Ecommerce Platform is Better?

Do you intend to create an online store? Cannot pick between self-hosted WooCommerce and cloud-powered BigCommerce? Don’t worry, you are not on your own. 

The only way to truly determine which of these two eCommerce solutions is more suitable, is to compare them side by side – we will take a look at their features, price, convenience of use, cost, support, security, customization, and many other factors.

In this article, we’ll help you determine which ecommerce solution more appropriate for your business requirements. Self-hosted or cloud? Subscription or free in theory? Customization or integrations? Huge or small community? There are lots of questions you may have.

So, are you ready for the battle of WooCommerce vs. BigCommerce? Let’s get started.

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WooCommerce: 10 Crucial Issues That Should Be Fixed Right Now

I just spent the last 3 days in Porto with another 2,300 WordPressers at the first in-person WordCamp Europe since Berlin 2019. I had a blast, held a nice (yet long) workshop, spoke to many, but got tired too soon.

Later on, I realized that that tiredness was something more serious – in fact I tested positive against COVID for the first time in my life, and I’m now in self-isolation hoping it won’t last long… Another 7 days without my kid – send help!

Anyhow, what really struck me at WCEU 2022, and based on various chats and some data that I’ll share below, is that the WooCommerce ecosystem is in trouble.

A nicer way to put that? WooCommerce is not moving forward as fast as it should, and unless some key issues are addressed right now, in a few years time we all may pay the consequences.

Please note, this is not a rant. It’s a proper analysis, full of actionable information.

@ WooCommerce team - if you're reading this - my plan is to give you constructive feedback and tell you what the community (really) thinks, needs and wants, so that you can get a better picture of the current situation. I know you've already started working on this, so this is just a recap/reminder and a way to get the whole community realigned. 

In this post, I will share my worries, my fears, the current WooCommerce issues, some data I collected at WCEU 2022 and then a list of actionable solutions that may be implemented in order to clear the backlog and get back on track – asap. Enjoy!

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WooCommerce: What Are The Fastest Themes?

Speed is an essential factor that directly impacts the conversion rates, business revenue, sales, and customer experience.

Akamai’s research suggests that even a 100-millisecond delay in the page speed impacts conversion rates by 7%, while a 2-second delay increases bounce rates by 103%. Thus, even a few milliseconds of delay can cost your store thousands of dollars – let alone dissatisfied customers, poor SEO ranking, and bad online reputation.  

Hence, page loading speed is the essence of an excellent customer experience and building a successful online presence.

Where possible, you want to eliminate unnecessary page loads, especially when it comes to the checkout process. Otherwise, you risk cart abandonment. That is the main reason you should use a checkout window, accessible straight from product and cart pages.

While the speed of your WooCommerce store depends on multiple facets – such as your web host, image, media files, and the code of your store, the theme you choose also plays a significant role in ensuring faster store speed. 

Calculating your store’s page speed and making sure you choose the right WooCommerce theme that checks all the boxes can get frustrating and overwhelming considering the plethora of options you can choose from – especially 1300 WooCommerce themes on ThemeForest. 

So, in this article, we share the top WooCommerce themes you can use, along with a few factors to look for when picking a suitable theme for your store. But first, let’s understand what makes a WooCommerce theme slow or fast and how to calculate the speed. 

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WooCommerce vs. Shopify: Which Ecommerce Platform is Better?

Shopify and WooCommerce are top of mind for any business owner considering ecommerce for the first time. These ecommerce platforms are convenient and easy to use; however, each comes with its own pros and cons.  

While Shopify offers ecommerce infrastructure as a service, powering 1% of all websites, WooCommerce is open-source and grants users more flexibility, powering 4.9% of all websites

So, while each platform comes with its own strengths and limitations, choosing the one that suits your needs and provides the features you require is important. Here are some of the key factors you need to consider when determining the right platform for your business: 

  • Ease of use 
  • Budget
  • Payment methods & checkout experience
  • Scalability 
  • Integration options

In this article, we’ll cover the essential factors mentioned above to help you determine which ecommerce solution is best suited for your business requirements. But first, let’s begin with a quick overview of both ecommerce platforms.

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WooCommerce: How to Sell Craft Beer Online

If you sell craft beer, one of the things you can do to increase your sales is setting up an online store where you can sell your beers. Through an online store, you can easily meet the demands of your customers and even deliver the beer to their doorsteps.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, many businesses including craft beer businesses could not meet their targets with regards to sales. Their selling activities were affected because they could not deliver beers to restaurants and pubs (they closed down), could not sell to their customers directly, and most shops and stores were closed down.

Selling online and making sure that customers get their beers was the only way left for them. Even though the world has opened up, online shops have picked up and every business needs them for success. So, how do you get started?

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WooCommerce: How to Build a One-Product Website

Crocs started by selling just foam clogs, and now they’re a billion-dollar company. Casper earned millions selling only mattresses, while Sara Blakely became one of the youngest self-made female billionaires with Spanx, which sold only underclothes initially. 

Can you guess what all these brands have in common? It’s that they started off by selling just one product, built their entire brand around it, and yet became successful. 

Today, most eCommerce businesses sell multiple products – because of the presumption that the more products you offer, the higher chances of converting visitors and making a sale. But from managing operations to inventory, a store with many products comes with its own problems.

On the other hand, selling just one product can streamline your store’s operations and make inventory management and handling orders easy. 

It allows you to focus all your energy and resources on creating, marketing and improving a single product. If done correctly, this can help you build a significant brand value – as people will start associating your store with your flagship product, making you an expert in your market and helping you stand out from your competitors. 

Given its benefits, creating a one-product store is an excellent idea – all you practically need is the right product for your customer’s needs and a solid, easy-to-navigate website. 

Lucky for you, this article will help you with the latter, taking you through all the steps of creating a fantastic WooCommerce website for your one-product store

Let’s begin!

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WooCommerce: How to Generate Invoices For Free

Running an online store is no easy feat.

You have to take care of order management, inventory, customer relations, production, marketing, and so much more.

A simple business process like invoicing doesn’t seem like it will take too much of your time, but it often ends up doing so.

That is why your best bet is to automate invoice generation. That way, you can attend to the revenue-generating activities that will let you take your business to the next level.

If you run a WooCommerce store, you know it comes with many useful functionalities but not invoicing automation. But the good news is you can choose from many great invoicing plugins available to do the heavy lifting. 

We’ve done the legwork and prepared a list of free WooCommerce invoicing plugins you can use to put your invoice generation on auto-pilot.

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WordPress: Growing Your Plugin (Part 1: Website + SEO)

If you build it, they may come – but not in as great a number as they would otherwise. 

I have seen WordPress developers reach as many as 10,000 active installations without spending a single minute on dime marketing. However, on every occasion that I hear such a story, I pause to wonder: how big would this theme or plugin be if the developer behind it thought about distribution?

Maybe their product spawns a company and they become the next YITH or Yoast, toasting after a major acquisition not thought possible in their wildest dreams

The first hurdle to overcome as a developer is the fallacy that your product is tainted by even the slightest speck of marketing, as if it was a glass of unadulterated, pure spring water sourced from the streams of Mount Olympus.

The WordPress ecosystem is not the plains of Dion – it’s more like the dregs of Romulus. More and more, it is guaranteed that you will face competition from the optimates, the big guys who come in the form of hosting providers, prolific WordPress development companies, super plugins, site builders, etc. 

The best themes and plugins don’t always win in the face of superior brands and warchests. In fact, the more disillusioned among us would say that they rarely do these days.

The good news is that the best themes and plugins can win, even if their developers are unknown and resource-constrained. But it all begins by bringing the horse to water. After that, if the product is good enough, the horse will drink. If it does not drink, there is more development to do. 

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WordPressopoly: WordPress Acquisitions Are Not a Game Anymore

wordpressopoly

Is there a Monopoly version of WordPress yet?” – Cory Miller.

There is now, Cory, at least in png form. 

The WordPress ecosystem, and the unwalled WooCommerce garden contained within it, is experiencing a wave of consolidation, so much so that a webpage dedicated to tracking acquisitions now exists. 

Yesterday, LiquidWeb/StellarWP acqui-hired LearnDash LMS.

A few days ago, WooCommerce acqui-hired SomewhereWarm, the team behind some of the most popular WooCommerce marketplace plugins.

On September 8, 2021, Jetpack acquired Social Image Generator, which is a WordPress plugin that does what it says on the tin.

On August 30, 2021, Automattic acqui-hired Frontity, to further develop Gutenberg and full site editing.

The list of acquisitions is never-ending. And this wave won’t stop.

So, what’s really happening, and why?

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WooCommerce: WooExpert Roundup

There are currently 28 WooExperts according to WooCommerce, which defines WooExperts as “hand selected high quality experts that understand our products”.

These are web development and design companies with deep ties to the WooCommerce team, enabling them to stay updated on best practices and new trends in order to lavish their clients with a world-class WooCommerce development experience.

This post provides a brief overview of the services that each of these WooExperts specializes in as well as individual company profiles, portfolios, and contact links.

Even though most of these companies have one or more office locations, many are distributed a là Automattic.

Since I know many in the audience are developers, do note that more than a few of these companies are actively hiring. Alternatively, if you already have a dog in the fight, check out the Becoming a WooExpert page if you think your company has what it takes to become a WooExpert. 

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WooCommerce: Bulk Delete Orders / Products Super Fast

There are times when you have thousands of WooCommerce orders, products, categories, tags, coupons, customers or custom fields and the “Bulk Edit > Delete” option in the WordPress dashboard is simply not cost- and time-effective.

Maybe because your website goes down as it can’t process that much information at the same time, or maybe because you’re on a low budget and can’t afford to hit “delete” 100 or 1000 times by hand.

Thankfully, WooCommerce information is stored in the WordPress database, which means we can access it, write a “SQL DELETE statement”, and bulk delete anything you like, in seconds. Of course, and you will find warnings below, NEVER DO THIS on a live website as I can’t guarantee this won’t have any side effects.

So, have fun!

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WooCommerce B2B: How to Set Up a Wholesale Store

The ecommerce sector is seeing incredible growth, year after year, with no foreseeable end in sight. The same is true for B2B ecommerce, yet there aren’t many good platform choices available for small-to-medium businesses that want to sell wholesale. There are several SaaS solutions on the market, but these are costly, closed-source, and mostly oriented towards larger businesses.

If you are a business owner or developer, WooCommerce is a solution that’s free, versatile and powerful. 

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