Table of Contents
Are you thinking of launching an online store? Or, perhaps you have one already but your sales aren’t growing as fast as you’d like?
Either way, keep reading because this article lists the 11 best WordPress eCommerce plugins to help you take your online store to the next level.
These free and paid tools can be added to your website within minutes. They can help you launch your WordPress e-commerce business, build an engaged email list, increase sales, and recover abandoned carts.
We’ll examine each option’s pros and cons and compare various options so that you can choose the best solution for yourself.
Ready? Let’s have a look!
Launching an online store
First, the list of eCommerce platforms will allow you to launch your store finally. (Skip this part if you are already running an online shop).
Depending on the type of goods you’ll be selling, here are the most popular options when it comes to the platform:
WooCommerce
Naturally, the first, and in our view, the best choice is WordPress’ native eCommerce platform (plugin)—WooCommerce. Why?
Apart from being free, it is also regularly updated, so you can rest assured that your store keeps up with the latest technology trends.
WooCommerce also has a Setup Wizard to guide you through turning your website into an online store.
It also offers a great set of features to make selling online as easy as possible:
- Option to add an unlimited number of products
- Ability to sell physical and digital goods
- Public ratings and reviews
- Different product payment options
- Highly customizable & access to multiple themes
- Product sorting and filtering
Cons:
- Adding integrations and plugins in excess can slow down the performance
Price: Free
Easy Digital Downloads
Next, a platform specifically designed to sell digital goods. Yes, it can also be used to sell physical goods, but it’s mostly recommended for digital sellers.
Easy Digital Downloads is a complete eCommerce solution for WordPress that can be easily customizable for your needs. The set of features includes:
- Extensive library of themes and extensions
- Integration with popular payment gateways and CMSs
- Advanced Reporting
- Discount codes and promotions
- Shipping and tax calculators
- Variable product options
Cons:
- Paid Payment Gateway add-ons
- Slow customer service
Price: Free
BigCommerce
Lastly, we’ve decided to include BigCommerce on the list, too. It’s a platform often compared to its two rivals, WooCommerce and Shopify.
The company went public in 2020, meaning BigCommerce might become a more significant player in the eCommerce space. BigCommerce is cloud-hosted and comes with the following features:
- Omni-channel sales, including social media, marketplaces, physical stores
- 80+ predesigned, responsive templates
- Abandoned Cart Saver feature
- More than 40 payment methods
- In-built blog and analytics
- Dropshipping management
Cons:
- Only paid plans are available (apart from a 15-day free trial)
- Lack of in-built option for launching a multilingual store
- Small app marketplace
Price: Starts from $29.95
Pro Tip: For choosing the best eCommerce WordPress plugin, check out Top eCommerce Themes for your WordPress website
Building an email list
Next is a short list of handy tools that allow you to build an email list from scratch and hassle-free.
A list of engaged subscribers can significantly expand your marketing and sales efforts. You can launch a newsletter, create a discount and promotion strategy, and send cart abandonment emails.
That’s why installing plugins that can help you collect the email addresses of your website visitors (and, therefore, potential customers) is so important.
Here’s a list of the best WordPress plugins for your eCommerce business:
KyLeads
A plugin that’s described as an “all-in-one customer feedback and lead generation”. You can use it to design interactive, engaging quizzes to generate qualified leads.
KyLeads also allows you to easily design pop-ups, customized forms, and surveys to collect email addresses. The list of core features includes:
- A/B testing
- In-built powerful analytics
- Pre-built templates and full customization
- Contact segmentation
Cons:
- Only paid plans are available
- Limited lead qualification features
Price: Starts from $49/month.
LeadQuizzes
Like the tool above, LeadQuizzes is a powerful addition to any eCommerce site wishing to acquire new leads quickly. With it, you can design fun quizzes in minutes (or use one of the many existing templates) and easily capture the email addresses of your site visitors.
LeadQuizzes is an excellent choice for those businesses that want to build a list of qualified leads to send personalized email campaigns in the future. You can segment your quizzes’ participants based on their answers and set up your email flows in an automated way to deliver them the most value.
Main features include:
- Design flexibility
- Access to free 75+ templates
- URL redirect
- Facebook and Google Ads Integration
- In-built analytics
Cons:
- Only paid plans available (14 days free trial)
- Limited integration options
- Not intuitive UI
Price: Starts from $37/month
Tidio
Tidio is an all-in-one tool designed specifically for small eCommerce businesses. It offers three interconnected products: live chat, chatbots, and email marketing. Although Tidio can also be used to close sales and recover abandoned carts, its power lies in chatbot automation, which is especially useful for generating leads.
Most eCommerce businesses use Tidio to add chatbots to their stores with a welcome message or a discount code. It’s also common to see companies switching to 24/7 customer support via chat or setting up a FAQ bot.
Features consist of:
- Live typing preview
- Visitors’ viewed page history
- In-coming visitor notification and live visitor list
- Library of chatbot and email templates
- Contact segmentation and analytics
Cons:
- Limited analytics and reporting
- No default white label option
Price: Freemium (forever) plan available
Pro Tip: If you are struggling with bringing traffic to your WooCommerce store, check out this resource: 7 tips to leverage both traffic and revenue for your WordPress website
Recovering abandoned shopping carts
This list of plugins could not be complete without giving you a few options for tools that help recover abandoned carts.
Cart abandonment is a real plague among eCommerce businesses and something that keeps online store owners up at night. Yet, some tools can help you reduce cart abandonment rates and get more potential customers to complete their purchases.
Here are a few hand-picked options to get you started.
TI WooCommerce Wishlist
I am starting with a viral eCommerce plugin for beginners – Ti WooCommerce Wishlist. The tool is designed not to recover abandoned carts in a given moment but to allow visitors to return to their purchase later by adding the desired product to their wishlist.
The option to save an item to a wishlist is a nonintrusive way to upsell your products. Customers often return to their wishlists to add more items they plan on purchasing.
TI WooCommerce has the following set of features:
- Automatic removal of a wishlist product once it’s added to the cart
- Customizable wish list table columns
- “Add to wishlist” button or link on the product page
- Appearance customization
- Multi-wishlists per user (premium)
Cons:
- Slow customer service
- Limited multilingual options
Price: Free
Cart Recovery for WordPress
A simple plugin that captures the email addresses of users on the checkout page. When integrated correctly, you can set it up to send an automated series of follow-up emails. It’s simple to install, and you can personalize the email sequence to fit your brand in minutes.
This plugin is quite popular among WP users also because it offers the following features:
- Ready-to-use follow-up email templates
- Webhooks/Integrations
- GDPR Compliance
- Reports
Cons:
- Limited email editor features
- SPAM issues
Price: Free
OptiMonk
Optimonk is a tool that can reduce your cart abandonment rate and help you optimize your customers’ journey on your website. It is a great choice for beginners looking for an all-in-one plugin to start their eCommerce journey.
When set up correctly, this tool will allow you to get users’ insights and optimize your customer journey to fight cart abandonment, build an email list, boost sales, and collect feedback in one place.
Main product features include:
- A/B Testing
- Cart based targeting
- Custom form fields
- Multi-step campaigns
- 150+ responsive templates
Cons:
- Pricing model based on page views
- Limited customization options
Price: Free
Reviews and testimonials
Finally, let’s examine plugins that allow users to leave reviews and testimonials about your products.
Collecting customer feedback is a crucial part of any successful marketing strategy, as social proof has become one of the critical factors that helps consumers decide whether doing business with you is a good choice.
Here are a few popular WordPress plugins for reviews and testimonials that you can add to your store within minutes. Let’s take a look.
Stars Testimonials WordPress Plugin
One of the most widely used eCommerce plugins, Stars Testimonial, reached the top because of its extensive functionality and beneficial technical support from the team behind it. It’s easy to install and use and offers options like start ratings and customer images.
You can preview and moderate each testimonial and easily integrate it with popular page builders such as Elementor, Divi, Visual Composer, WPBakery, and more.
The main features consist of the following:
- Unlimited testimonials quota
- Appearance customization
- No-coding testimonial widget editor
- Images and star rating feature
Cons:
- Limited free version features
Price: Free
WP Product Review
Themeisle created this reasonably popular plugin to help WordPress users collect and display reviews efficiently. Now available only in a free version, WP Product Review is an excellent option for beginners.
It’s a great tool for interacting with your users and boosting social proof. You can display product reviews effectively and add a “buy now” button to close the sale faster.
Some of the most valuable features include:
- Appearance customization (colors etc.)
- Option to add rich snippet (schema) to posts
- Download button for the posts
- Option to post reviews in different review sections with shortcodes
Cons:
- Has bugs sometimes messing up the CSS
- No pro version available – limited free features
Price: Free
Wrapping up
There you have it—the 11 best WordPress eCommerce plugins for launching or running your online store.
With so many options available, picking the right one might seem tricky, so save yourself time and money by testing the free ones first. Your eCommerce digital marketing strategy would be incomplete without the right toolkit.
Now it’s time to roll up your sleeves, download your chosen plugins, and watch your email list and sales grow even when you sleep. Good luck!