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How to sell online: 5 steps to success online

Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2024 8:41 am
by tasnimsanika1
The best essential plugins for WooCommerce
Table of contents

Isn't WooCommerce a plugin, why more plugins?
How many plugins can I add to an online store?
How many plugins do you need for an online store?
How much do WooCommerce plugins cost?
Plugins for internal management of the WooCommerce online store
Security plugins for WooCommerce
Privacy Plugins for WooCommerce
WooCommerce Optimization Plugins
Abandoned Cart Recovery Plugins for WooCommerce
Order Shipping Tracking Plugins for WooCommerce
Plugins to add payment methods to WooCommerce
Customer Management Plugins for WooCommerce
Billing plugins for WooCommerce
Plugins to add other product types to WooCommerce
Appointment and Booking Service Plugins for WooCommerce
Membership Services Plugins for WooCommerce
Subscription Services Plugins for WooCommerce
Product Bundle Plugins for WooCommerce
Customizable Product Plugins for WooCommerce
Other essential WooCommerce plugins
Wishlist plugin
Frequently Bought Together Products Plugin
More plugins for WooCommerce
When we install WooCommerce to create an online store we have already made a lot of progress but we are not finished yet. There are many small and large steps to take before we can start selling online.

A good start that will also serve as a guide is the free WooCommerce video course on the SiteGround Spain YouTube channel.


There is a lot you can configure with WooCommerce alone, but there will always be some missing details, depending on the type of online store and products, and this is where the wonderful world of WordPress plugins begins.

Isn't WooCommerce a plugin, why more plugins?
WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, and with it alone you can create an netherlands whatsapp number data online store, but on its own it does not include all the options, product types and functionalities that any online store you are going to create needs.

Instead of including all possible options for every type of store and product in WooCommerce, the decision was made to offer the base that every online store needs, and then add the specific functionalities for each online store through other plugins.

How many plugins can I add to an online store?
There is no limit to the plugins or features you can add to your online store, not even taking into account the performance of the website, which will depend more on it being hosted on a good hosting plan specialized in WooCommerce and WordPress , optimizing its loading speed using techniques specific to each website, and the quality of the code of the chosen plugins.

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The question is not so much how many, but which ones to choose.

How many plugins do you need for an online store?
Depending on the type of online store you may not need any plugins or you may need dozens of them. It will depend on the needs of your store, your customers, the type of products you are going to offer and the services you offer.

To know how many plugins you will need for YOUR online store, I recommend asking yourself these questions:

Does WooCommerce have all the product types I'll be selling out of the box?
Does WooCommerce come with all the payment methods I want to offer out of the box?
Does WooCommerce come with all the customer-facing features I need out of the box?
Does WooCommerce come with the built-in tools I need to manage my online store?
If the answer to any of the above questions is negative, it is time to start looking for a plugin that meets that need.

What I do not recommend is that you install plugins following guides, like this one or any other, without evaluating whether they will really work for YOUR online store and its specific needs.

What we are going to see below are a series of plugins, chosen based on criteria of usefulness and quality of their code, that you should only install if your online store really needs them.

How much do WooCommerce plugins cost?
There are basically 4 types of WordPress plugins, whether for WooCommerce or any other need:

Free: Plugins that offer all their tools for free.
Freemium: Plugins that offer some tools for free but to access their full potential you have to pay for a paid plan.
SAAS: Software as a Service. The plugin is free but actually requires a fee because it does not work if you do not register for a paid plan.
Paid: Plugins that you need to purchase a paid plan to access their tools.
In the official WordPress plugin directory and installer you will find the first 3, while for the exclusively paid plugins, and some SAAS, you will only find them on the website of their developers.

Plugins for internal management of the WooCommerce online store
Before we start to assess the specific needs of your store, we are going to look at a series of essential plugins for any responsible online store manager.

Security plugins for WooCommerce
Offering a secure online store is not an option but a legal obligation, as legislation such as the European Union's data protection legislation considers offering secure browsing on any website that offers products or services to be part of the requirements, and this begins with offering encrypted browsing using an SSL certificate and includes implementing measures that protect user data information.

To do this, in addition to offering secure browsing via HTTPS, we must install a good security plugin that strengthens the WordPress + WooCommerce installation.

SiteGround Security
Price: Free

My first choice for a security plugin is always the one offered for free by SiteGround, as not only can you install it on a SiteGround hosting plan, but it is a fantastic security plugin that you can install on any hosting.

It offers the following tools:

Custom Access URL
Two-factor authentication for administrators
Blocking attacking IPs
Disable common usernames
Limiting attacks through mass access attempts
Protecting system folders
Hide WordPress Version
Disable plugin and theme editor
Disable XML-RPC
Disable Atom and RSS feeds
Adds HSTS, XSS and X-Content-Type security headers
Recovery actions after a hack.
There are other security plugins for WordPress and WooCommerce but none include as much as SiteGround Security in a simple and free way .

Privacy Plugins for WooCommerce
While WordPress offers privacy features such as creating a basic privacy page, basic cookie notices, and tools to delete and recover personal data, it is not enough to meet today's string