WordPress is one of the most popular as well as most used CMS. It is popular because it is flexible, feature rich and easy to use. Moreover, it is free and opensource. WordPress is also one of the best alternatives for creating your ecommerce website. Even though it is not particularly designed for ecommerce, it has made it’s place among the best ecommerce platforms. This is due to its adaptability and the incredible and the best WordPress ecommerce plugins that make it possible to turn your WordPress website into a fully fledged online shop.

Confused? Refer this article to find out – Is WordPress good for ecommerce?

Here is a list of the best WordPress ecommerce plugins that make it possible for you to create a full blown ecommerce website effortlessly.

WooCommerce ecommerce plugin

Lets start with WooCommerce. It is the most popular ecommerce plugin for WordPress. Creating a WordPress ecommerce website with this plugin is as easy as a pie. Install WordPress, make necessary configurations, upload your products and you’re ready to go. This makes it possible for you to start selling online without writing or tweaking a line of code.

What I like the best about WooCommerce is the “setting options”. Firstly, all the settings options are greatly grouped and organized and you won’t have to click on ten links to find a certain options. Next is the fields of these options are self-explanatory and generalized phrases. Intuitive options make the configuration very easy.

When it comes to features, WooCommerce has everything that you need for an online shop. Inventory management, Shipping, Discount, smooth checkout, accounts, etc. Adding products is equally easy using the “add product” form. With WooCommerce you can sell shippable as well as downloadable goods. WooCommerce has some addons that enhance the functionality of WooCommerce and helps you make your ecommerce website more facilitated.

WP Ecommerce plugin

WP Ecommerce is an alternative to WooCommerce. It is also a full-purpose ecommerce plugin to start selling online with your WordPress website.

The payment processing will be SSL secure and allows integration with many payment gateways. This plugin surely provides you with powerful tools to create, manage and maintain your ecommerce website. WP ecommerce provides the basic selling features and then you can go for the add-ons for more features. It is good for selling physical and digital goods, membership and subscription packages.

Easy Digital Downloads WordPress shopping cart free

As the name suggests, Easy Digital Downloads is for selling the intangible goods. You can create a WordPress website to sell digital goods using this plugin. You can sell music, ebooks, photographs, icons on your WordPress website.

So the bottom line is, get this plugin if you are determined to sell the digital products only. You can do this by any other ecommerce plugin like WooCommerce or WP Ecommerce but Easy digital downloads provides you with solutions specifically designed for downloadable files. WP Ecommerce also lets you maintain and view accounts. You can create discount codes and track the activities of your users too.

Go for it if you want to create a straightforward website that allows digital downloads!

iThemes exchange WordPress ecommerce plugin

iThemes exchange is an ecommerce plugin which claims to be “simple”. It lets you create online shop, display your products and collect payment for them. Moreover, you can add more features if you want.

iThemes exchange is more of a straightforward system that makes it possible to sell with your website, without involving unnecessary complications. However, if you like more options and more features, WooCommerce is the one for you. One noteworthy thing about iThemes exchange is that you can use the add-ons to extend the functionality of your website. It allows stripe and PayPal for accepting payments.

iThemes exchange gives you pretty-much everything without actually complicating the process. So you can decide the features of your online shop and add them as you go.

Shopify ecommerce for WordPress

Shopify is one of the most successful ecommerce platforms. This independent ecommerce platform allows you to easily create and manage ecommerce website without any technical know-how. However, if you are affluent with WordPress and want the shopify features into your WP website, then this plugin is a gift for you.

Shopify promises professional product presentation, shopping cart and secure checkout features. It is flexible and simple. It allows SSL safe checkout and integration of PayPal and Stripe for transactions. Besides there are many other features that makes it a reliable choice for selling on your WordPress website.

I recommend this plugin if you want to sell a few products along with your blog or business website. Because, to create a full fledged shop, you can instead go for shopify ecommerce platform or opt for WordPress + WooCommerce.

Jigoshop ecommerce plugin for WordPress

Jigoshop is indeed a feature rich ecommerce plugin for WordPress. This plugin lets you create online shopping website with all the features it requires.

Even though it is not as widely used as WooCommerce, it does prove to be a complete ecommerce solution. It is easy to setup and configure. It lets you add products as easily as WooCommerce does. It helps you manage shipping and taxations. You can also create discounts, view reports and manage stock.

This plugin is extendable. You can add more features to your ecommerce website using the 100+ addons.

ecwid WordPress shopping cart free

Ecwid is has made its reputation a pluggable shop. The first thing you should know about it is Ecwid stands for Ecommerce Widget. The name gives quite an idea about what it does.

So now you create your shop with ecwid and then you can plug it into your existing website. With ecwid you can sell on facebook, ebay, etc. This is a great advantage to those who already own a website with great traffic and credibility. You would definitely want to use these benefits to help your online shop. So, create a new page and insert your pluggable eshop and start selling right away. The best things about ecwid is its portability and compatibility. It is surely one of the best alternative when you already own a website and want to start selling through it.

Cart66

Cart66 focuses on security. They strive to provide the most secure ecommerce service. It claims to be the most secure ecommerce plugin for online sales.

Cart66 supports more than 100 payment gateways. It lets you sell physical goods, digital products, subscription and membership packages. It lets you manage inventory, view reports and even charge recurring payments. It has the easiest way to manage taxes, shipping, promotions, discounts, etc. Furthermore, it has an HTML  based email center that lets you send promotional emails or notifications.

Shopp WordPress ecommerce plugin

Shopp is simple, flexible and secure ecommerce plugin for creating efficient online shopping websites. It has been in this business for a long and there are a number of stores successfully running their ecommerce businesses with Shopp.

Shopp focuses on quality of the features. It does not overwhelm you with distinguished features, but at the same time, it does everything that it should. With this ecommerce plugin, you can create a secure shop. Shopp is one of my favorites.

Marketpress ecommerce

Marketpress is an efficient ecommerce plugin that does everything out of the box. They don’t seem to like the concept of using the add-ons and extensions for adding features to your website.

If you are determined to create a massive ecommerce website with maximum features, Marketpress will let you do that. It supports most of the currencies as well as payment gateways. It is easily customizable and comes with widgets and shortcodes for easy management of your shop. It works well with BuddyPress too.

Conclusion

Ecommerce website demand efforts, not just to create it, but also to maintain and manage it. CMS like WordPress and other ecommerce platforms, however, revolutionized the concept of website building. There was a time when all this had to be done by coding and the domain of website building was restricted to the programmers. The merchants, traders and retailers had no alternative but to hire a programmer at great costs to sell their products. But now, with the availability of these ecommerce platforms and automated tools, even a person with no technical knowledge can create and maintain his own website.

Where once it was required to write lengthy and complicated codes, now all you need to do is fill up the fields and configure these plugins according to your requirements. Creating and managing ecommerce website has definitely become simpler, easier and efficient. You have a considerable amount of options to choose from the ecommerce platforms. WordPress alone gives you the choice of choosing the ecommerce plugin for your ecommerce website.

We hope this list helps you choose your WordPress ecommerce plugin easily. You can leave your suggestions, opinions and reviews in the comment section below.