From Content to Commerce: The Best Ecommerce Plug-ins for Your Existing WordPress Site
WordPress is one of the easiest ways to publish to the web. The user-friendly platform allows creators and entrepreneurs from all over the world to build their own websites and publish their own blogs.
If you love WordPress for creating content and building community but want to make the leap to commerce, you won’t have to leave your preferred platform behind—there are many turn-key ecommerce plug-ins for WordPress available today. Here are a few popular, trusted options for turning your existing WordPress site into a checkout-ready storefront.
7 best WordPress ecommerce plug-ins
7 best WordPress ecommerce plug-ins
1. Shopify Buy Button
- Price: $5/month, included in all Shopify subscription plans
- Mobile app features: Track sales; add and edit products; view reports; manage staff; process orders; upload product photos; get order notifications
- Point of sale (POS): Shopify, Amazon Pay, Authorize.net, PayPal, Braintree, BitPay, Checkout.com, and more.
With the Shopify Buy Button, you can add ecommerce to your WordPress site in minutes. Shopify will give you a code you can put on your website wherever you want the Buy Button to appear. It’s a straightforward way to monetize your pre-existing WordPress blog or website.
With the Shopify Buy Button, all you have to do to start selling is copy and paste the code to your WordPress site. You can even customize the look and feel to match what you’ve already built.
Rather than creating a whole new Shopify store from scratch, the Buy Button creates a mini-site independent but co-existent to your WordPress site. On the front end, it appears on your WordPress site, but it’s actually connected to your secure Shopify platform in the back end—so you get to take advantage of Shopify’s other ecommerce features.
Other advantages of the Shopify Buy Button include the ability to add unlimited products, integrate more than 100 compatible payment gateways, track sales and growth trends, and simplify foreign taxes and currency conversion.
Turning your WordPress site into an online storefront is as simple as generating a code with just a few clicks. Simply drop the Buy Button into place and choose the product you’d like to feature. The Shopify Buy Button creates a standalone mini-storefront on your WordPress website and connects directly with Shopify’s secure shopping cart platform. All you need is a product to sell and you’re ready to launch.
Create your own Buy Button with Shopify.
2. WooCommerce
- Price: Free
- Mobile app features: Add products, receive real-time notifications, manage orders, track statistics, manage multiple stores
- Integrations: WooCommerce Payments, Stripe, PayPal, Square, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Google Shopping, Walmart, Etsy, eBay, Wish, Reverb, Lazada, Bonanza
WooCommerce is an ecommerce plug-in for WordPress built by Automattic and is one of the most popular ecommerce plug-in options. WooCommerce was developed specifically to fill WordPress’s ecommerce gap. You can customize WooCommerce’s look and feel to match your branding, as well as leverage its many integrations.
With Woo, you can sell both physical and digital products and tap into more than 100 compatible payment gateways. Create product variants, sell affiliate items, and configure sales tax and shipping settings.
While WooCommerce sounds straightforward and seamless, real-world users have a different experience. Many integations break and aren’t as in sync as you might think, and the platforms feel disjointed and clunky. It also requires a lot of maintenance and constant updates if you don’t want your site to break.
3. Easy Digital Downloads
- Price: $99–$499/year
- Mobile app features: iOS only, sales statistics, earnings tracker, individual sale information, customer database, and recurring payments
- Integrations: Stripe, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Braintree, Authorize.net, 2Checkout, SOFORT Banking, BitPay, Coinbase
Easy Digital Downloads is a WordPress plug-in for selling digital products. With it, you can customize a basic shopping cart and accompanying Buy button to embed on your WordPress site.
Easy Digital Downloads has a few helpful features worth noting, including the ability to use discount codes and create customer profiles. You can also track your sales with Easy Digital Downloads’ analytics reporting.Plus, merchant reviews comment that the support team is both responsive and helpful.
However, Easy Digital Downloads is limited in that you don’t have an unlimited number of SKUs. So if you have growth or product expansion plans, this probably isn’t for you. And if you want to venture into tangible products, you may have to find another WordPress ecommerce plug-in altogether.
Plus, Easy Digital Downloads offers very little SEO support and functionality. If organic search is a part of your marketing strategy, you may want to look at other options.
Learn more: With Shopify's Digital Downloads app, you can upload digital files like videos, songs, and graphic designs as products on your store.
4. BigCommerce for WordPress
- Price: $29.95 to $299.95/month
- Mobile app features: TK
- Integrations: Square, PayPal, ConnectPOS, Epos Now, Hike POS, Vend, Heartland retail, Google Shopping, Mercado, Wish, Facebook, Sellbrite, Walmart
BigCommerce is a standalone ecommerce platform that also has a WordPress plug-in. It has a lot of the same standard features as many other plug-ins on this list, including POS integrations, multichannel capabilities, analytics reporting, and SEO tools.
Some areas where BigCommerce lacks include ease of use and customizability.
What sets BigCommerce apart the most is its complexity. Because the platform caters to large businesses and enterprises, it’s extremely comprehensive and robust. For many online brands, it’s actually too complex for their needs. Rather, BigCommerce is a platform you grow into, not launch with.
5. MemberPress
- Price: $129 to $349/year
- Mobile app features: n/a
- Integrations: Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.net, open API
If recurring payments are your top need, MemberPress could be the WordPress plug-in for you. Designed specifically for the WordPress platform, MemberPress allows for subscriptions, memberships, and other recurring-payment business models.
With MemberPress, you can view and manage paying members, share individual landing pages and assets, and create coupon codes. You can also build a community forum to engage with your community of subscribers.
Though MemberPress is awesome for recurring payments, that’s pretty much all it does in the way of ecommerce. If you want to sell physical products or process one-time transactions, you’ll want to look at one of the other WordPress plug-ins on this list.
6. Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping Cart
- Price: Free to $99/month
- Mobile app features: Scan products, track inventory, manage sales, accept payments
- Integrations: Square, Clover, Vend, Alice, Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, eBay, Google Shopping
The Ecwid WordPress plug-in is another great option that works via HTML embed. You can also use it in social media and other online platforms, making Ecwid ideal if multichannel selling is part of your business strategy.
The beginner-friendly ecommerce tool includes unlimited storage, regular backups, and seamless upgrades and security updates. It also syncs inventory data across platforms and channels, as well as automates sales tax reporting and filing for US-based merchants.
Ecwid is more limited than other options in terms of payment gateway integration, though you can still choose from one of 40 compatible tools. Also note that Ecwid has tons of integrations with different platforms, and they may each vary—this can make it difficult to feel comfortable using the platform in different contexts.
7. WP EasyCart
- Price: Free plans available; paid plans at $69/year and $99/year
- Mobile app features: Order notifications
- Integrations: Square, Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay
WP EasyCart is a shopping cart plug-in made specifically for the WordPress platform. As such, it’s generally simple to set up and integrate with your site completely. There’s a long list of features suited for selling physical and digital products alike.
Features include the ability to sell gift cards, set up recurring payments for subscriptions, send invoices, and collect donations.
For all that WP EasyCart has packed in feature-wise, it’s disappointing that the user interface is lacking. It’s not particularly intuitive or easy to use.
Also note that WP EasyCart has acquired Cart66.
The best online store builder doesn’t need an ecommerce plug-in
When you use a platform like Shopify, you don’t need to bother with a plug-in to make your first sale. You have all the tools you need right from the start. Then, as your business grows, choose from thousands of integrations and plug-ins in the Shopify App Store to turn your online store into a full-blown ecommerce empire.
Illustration by Eugenia Mello