Why we use WooCommerce to build ecommerce websites.

Ecommerce web design and development is a big part of what we do here at Radical. Here’s why WooCommerce is our favourite tool for building online stores.

WooCommerce is the plugin we use for the vast majority of ecommerce builds.

Over the years, we’ve used it for all sorts of websites. From small retailers selling a handful of products to complex stores with thousands of SKUs.

In this post, we explain what WooCommerce is, why we use it and what to consider when deciding whether it’s the right fit for your online store.

What is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is a powerful, open-source, ecommerce plugin for WordPress. It’s not a standalone ecommerce platform like Shopify or Squarespace.

Instead, it can transform an existing WordPress website into a fully functional online store.

WooCommerce is hugely popular. It powers 4.17 million online shops and holds somewhere between 20% and 39% of the global ecommerce platform market share.

It’s consistently one of the most widely used ecommerce solutions on the internet, which tells you something about how reliable and capable it is.

Why use WooCommerce to build ecommerce websites on WordPress?

So why use WooCommerce when building your ecommerce website? Here are all the reasons the Radical team has been using WooCommerce for years.

1. It’s free

The WooCommerce plugin costs nothing. There’s no monthly platform fee and — unlike some hosted ecommerce solutions — no transaction fees taken from your sales.

Of course, you have to factor in the cost of hosting, a domain name, any premium extensions you use and the fees you pay for designing and building the store.

But the core platform is free, which means it’s perfectly possible to keep ongoing website costs down.

2. It’s modular

WooCommerce can be extended in all sorts of exciting directions. The core plugin covers the essentials. Stuff like product listings, cart, checkout, order management and basic shipping.

Everything beyond that can be added through extensions. Subscriptions, bookings, product bundles, affiliate programmes, advanced shipping rules, loyalty programmes — whatever you have in mind for your online store.

This modular approach means you never have to incorporate features or functionality you don’t actually need. So you get a streamlined backend and quicker website speeds.

3. You can sell anything

You can sell pretty much anything with WooCommerce. That includes physical products, digital downloads, subscriptions, memberships and customisable products.

The platform bends to fit your business model rather than forcing your business model to fit the platform. That flexibility is something we’ve found invaluable when working with clients who don’t just sell physical products.

4. It comes with built-in analytics

WooCommerce includes a built-in analytics dashboard that gives you a clear view of your store’s performance.

You can see revenue, orders, average order value, top products, customer retention and more. All this sits within your WordPress dashboard so you’re not jumping between platforms to understand how your store is doing.

Pair this with GA4 and you get a comprehensive picture of both your store performance and your website traffic.

5. It’s scalable

WooCommerce is capable of growing with your business.

You can start out selling just ten products, getting a handful of orders a week. But easily scale to thousands of products and high daily transaction volumes on the same platform.

This is an important consideration because switching ecommerce platforms is expensive and disruptive. Getting the platform right from the start avoids having to migrate everything when you outgrow your initial choice.

We’ve helped clients migrate away from more restrictive platforms to WooCommerce, precisely because their business had grown beyond what their original setup could handle.

6. WooCommerce stores are easy to manage

Build your online shop with WordPress and WooCommerce and you get a user-friendly content management system (CMS). That means it’s easy to update your website.

You can add products, update descriptions, adjust pricing, run promotions, process orders and manage stock through an intuitive dashboard, without any coding knowledge.

So you can run your store day-to-day, without relying on a developer for routine tasks.

7. You’re not locked into a template

Use WooCommerce to build your online store and you get complete design flexibility. You don’t have to work within the limitations of a predefined template.

Instead, you have the freedom to change everything. Website colours, fonts, layouts, checkout logic, data flows, automations. And anything that doesn’t exist out of the box can be built.

As a business owner, you can create a store that looks and works exactly the way you want it to. You’re not constrained by the platform you’re working on.

8. There’s a huge plugin and extension library

Beyond WooCommerce’s own extension marketplace, the entire WordPress plugin ecosystem is available to you. Everything from payment gateways to email marketing integrations to review platforms.

The range of third-party integrations for a WooCommerce store is bigger and better than almost any other ecommerce platform. This means you can add many features without coding.

9. It’s well-established

WooCommerce has been around since 2011. It’s regularly updated and supported by a global community of developers, designers and store owners.

If you hit an issue or need a specific integration, chances are someone has solved the same problem before — and written about it online.

And the downsides of WooCommerce?

Every ecommerce solution has its pros and its cons. We honestly think there are very few downsides to using WooCommerce. But there are a couple of things to bear in mind:

• It can get technical. The out-of-the-box setup is manageable for tech-savvy business owners. But if you want more than standard functionality you may need technical expertise. That means either developing those skills yourself or working with WooCommerce development agency.
• It requires maintenance. WordPress, WooCommerce and the plugins you add to your store all release regular updates. Keeping everything updated (while ensuring nothing breaks in the process) is an ongoing responsibility.

Neither of these issues tends to be a deal breaker. But they’re worth factoring in when you’re deciding whether WooCommerce is the right fit.

WooCommerce vs hosted ecommerce solutions

The main alternative to WooCommerce and building an ecommerce website on WordPress is a fully hosted ecommerce platform, like Shopify, BigCommerce or Squarespace.

Hosted platforms handle the technical infrastructure for you — hosting, security, updates, platform maintenance. They’re quicker to get up and running and require less technical knowledge.

The trade-off? Less flexibility, less control over your store’s design and functionality, and — depending on the platform and your plan — potential transaction fees.

If you’re deciding which ecommerce solution to use, here’s a quick summary.

Use WooCommerce if:

• You want full control over the design and functionality of your store
• You have complex or unusual selling requirements that don’t fit a standard template
• You’re already using WordPress and want a single CMS for your website and store
• You’re thinking long-term and want a platform you won’t outgrow

Use a hosted platform if:

• You want to get a basic store live as quickly as possible

You’d rather not think about website maintenance

Your online store is going to be relatively straightforward and unlikely to change much

Using WooCommerce to build an ecommerce store: the basics

Whether you’re just getting started in ecommerce or you’re embarking on an ecommerce website redesign, the process of building with WooCommerce follows a similar path.

1. Set up your hosting and domain name
2. Set up a WordPress website
3. Install WooCommerce as a plugin. Then configure it to meet the needs of your business.
4. Design and develop your store. You can take a template approach, choosing a pre-built theme and customising it within limitations. Or you can build something bespoke…

The benefits of working with a WooCommerce website design agency

You can use templates in WooCommerce. But a custom-built store is designed specifically around your business, your products and your customers.

It allows you to make full use of WooCommerce capabilities, rather than working around the constraints of someone else’s design decisions.

For a custom build, you usually need the support of a WooCommerce web design and development agency. Here’s what that means for your business:

Your store looks like yours. Off-the-shelf themes are used by thousands of retailers. No matter how much you tweak them, there’s only so much you can do to make them feel like your brand. A bespoke website design gives your store a visual identity that is genuinely its own.

You get the functionality you actually need. Templates are one-size-fits-all. If your business has specific requirements — like custom pricing logic, a non-standard checkout flow or bespoke integrations — a template will require awkward workarounds. Custom development builds those requirements in properly from the start.

Performance is a consideration from the start. Your hosting setup and the way a site is put together have a direct impact on how fast your online store loads. A custom build by an experienced agency means these things are considered from day one. So your site can hit the ground running.

You get a great ecommerce website, not a serviceable one. There’s a real difference between a store that works and one that converts. Professional web design ensures every page, every product listing and every step of the checkout has been thought about from the perspective of your business and customers.

Ongoing support comes as standard. Working with a WooCommerce agency means you can sign up for a website maintenance plan after launch. You can keep your store updated, secure and running smoothly without having to manage it yourself.

The businesses that tend to get the most from WooCommerce are those that make use of its full design and functionality capability, with the help of a team who knows the software inside out.

Why use WooCommerce? A summary

WooCommerce gives us — and our clients — the flexibility, control and scalability that most ecommerce businesses need as they grow. It’s basically free to use, offers a huge range of extensions and it’s built on the most widely used CMS in the world.

Radical is a WooCommerce web design and development agency. We build bespoke WooCommerce stores, designed around your products, your customers and the way your business actually works.

If you want to build a new ecommerce store — or update one that isn’t working as well as it should — get in touch with our team. We’d love to chat about your website project.

FAQs

How much does WooCommerce cost?

WooCommerce is completely free to use. However, when building a WooCommerce and WordPress online shop, you need to budget for hosting, a domain name and any costs associated with designing and building your store.

Some premium extensions carry their own costs, typically as annual license fees. But WooCommerce doesn’t charge monthly platform fees or transaction fees.

What’s the link between WordPress and WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is a plugin that runs inside WordPress. It turns a standard WordPress website into a fully functional online store.

You need a WordPress installation to use WooCommerce — WooCommerce isn’t a standalone platform. The upside is that your website content and your store all live in one place, managed through one dashboard.

Can you use WooCommerce for services?

Yes, WooCommerce works well for selling services. You can:

• Sell fixed-price services or digital downloads as simple products
• Get users to pay for bookings and appointments
• Ask for charity donations
• Use subscription extensions for retainer-based services

WooCommerce is great for professional services websites, B2B websites and charity websites, too — basically any website taking payments.

Why work with a WooCommerce agency?

WooCommerce is easy to use if you want a straightforward setup. But to get the most out of it — particularly for stores with specific design requirements, complex functionality or growth ambitions — you need technical expertise.

A WooCommerce agency, like Radical, brings experience across design, development, performance optimisation, conversion optimisation, SEO and ongoing maintenance.

They’ll build your WordPress online shop properly from the start, which almost always works out cheaper and less stressful than fixing problems that emerge from a DIY build.