Products

Shipping

Coupons

Payments

Orders

Personalising

Tracking – Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Jetpack

Marketing

Extending with Plugins and Themes Plus Adding Posts and Pages

Unlike many other platforms such as Shopify, WordPress normally comes with a single theme and 1 plugin installed by default. In a similar way, WooCommerce typically comes “barebones” so to speak. Out of the box it offers a basic but extendable shopping cart. There are several reasons they do this.  One is to upsell you paid extensions and the other is every store, and therefor every store requorement is different.

Our instant websites aim to reduce the time and learning curve as well as extensive research, searching and installing of plugins. You will however likely need to add additional plugins to extend the functionality of your wordpress website. Things such as printing order invoices or packing slips, shipping labels, customisable product options, weight based shipping or live chat are possible examples of plugins that you may want to install to extend WordPress/WooCommerce. The good news is there are thousands of free plugins available to help you get started extending your new website even further.

Divi – Divi Theme and Divi Builder

More Useful Plugins

Below is a list of some useful plugins that you may find helpful with your new website.

WP 404 Auto Redirect to Similar Post:  This plugin will assist you with redirecting old URL’s, for example from Shopify, to a new URL. It will automatically detect the correct URL and leave you with no 404 pages.

PPOM for WooCommerce: If you sell products that are customisable with different fields, this is the plugin for you. Offering text fields, radio buttons and dropdown selectors, you can even charge additional for each option. This is a must have for personalisation.

Better Search Replace: When you have completed your website on the staging site you can use this plugin to change any URL’s that point to the temporary URL to the live URL. Note: Use this with caution as it can break your website. If you need assistance please contact us.

To use this plugin after switching to the live URL  all you need to do is go to Tools>> Search Replace.

In the top field enter the current temporary URL, which will be either the IP address or server address. Note. Do not enter the http and www

In the second field enter the live URL without the http or www.

Select all tables using the shift button and click on the top and bottom

Do a dry run to check for results and errors

Do a live run

Remember, if not sure reach out for assistance.

WooCommerce AddressFinder: Get rid of incorrect addresses with this free plugin that validates delivery addresses using the Google Maps API.

Retainful – WooCommerce Abandoned Cart Recovery Emails and Next Order Coupons: Recover abandoned carts and offer a coupon with this free abandoned cart recovery plugin

Lucky Orange: See exactly what users are doing on your website with live recordings of every action. This plugin has a free trial then it’s a monthly subscription

Tawk.To Live Chat:  Offer live chat in an easy to use frontend widget. This free to use service offers multiple designs and also has a free mobile phone app s you can chat on the go.

WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips: Generate branded PDF invoices and packing slips for your customers. You can print or digitally attach these invoices to orders

WP Mail SMTP: Ensure your emails get the best chance of landing in the main inbox folder and away from the spam folder with this free and easy to use plugin. This works best with a free Sendgrid.com account.

Woocommerce Order address Print: If you print basic shipping labels for prepaid satchels or envelopes this plugin will allow you to bulk print basic shipping labels for a 6×4 landscape label (or other sizes with adjustments to settings) directly from your dashboard.

For a 6×4 label (Dymo 4xl) use the below settings

Paper format = Custom size

Width 104mm

Height 159mm

Paper orientation: Landscape

Columns 1

Rows 1

ECC M

Code size 3

Enable preview unchecked

Export doc unchecked

Enter the below into Address/order data and edit Your return Business Name and Address

Remove empty lines Checked

Font size 24pt

Address block width 14cm

Click save changes

Printing orders for eparcel, My Post, and couriers (own accounts): If you want to simplify the order printing process through your own courier company, eparcel or My Post Business we recommend signing up for an account at Ready to Ship. Ready to Ship will automatically import orders, and allow you to print shipping labels in bulk. For My Post Business it will allow you to download an export file that can be uploaded to My Post Business. 

They offer a 30 day free trial and the first 20 orders are free each month.

Visit Ready to Ship and start your free trial today.

Printing orders for couriers (courier aggregators): There are a vast number of courier aggregators available that will allow you to connect and print orders. A few notable ones include

Sendle (no plugin – simple web authorisation)

Interparcel (no plugin – simple web authorisation)

Shippit (plugin)

Their pricing models differ with some requoring a monthly subscription.