Top 10 WooCommerce plugins for your online store

So you’ve just installed and set up WooCommerce on your website. You might have even started to add in your products and pick out a theme for the store.

But you need some extra functionality for your online store. Maybe you realize that being able to print shipping labels from your dashboard would be really helpful. Or that you need to add more payment gateways to give your customers more options to pay at checkout.

Well, the good news is that there are a ton of different extensions and add ons available for you to download and install on your store. The problem is that because there are so many out there, it can be pretty hard to figure out which one you should use. And that decision could help or hurt your online store.

So here are the top ten extensions you should install on your website to add in the extra functionality you need.

What is WooCommerce and why should you use it?

So if you don’t know, WooCommerce is one of the best plugins to turn your website into an online store with just a couple of clicks.

It’s an extremely powerful plugin that allows you to basically do whatever you want to do with your online store. It’s easy to add in products and manage inventory, pricing, sales, notifications and so much more.

Plus, there are a ton of different add on and extension plugins that you can add to your website to add even more functionality to your online store. And there are a number of themes that are styled specifically for WooCommerce that you can use to give your website a great design.

And it has a large user base. It’s currently activated on five million websites worldwide. And there’s a great community around it, so you can get any help you need very easily online.

If you want to sell physical products for your business or even side hobby, I definitely would recommend that you use WooCommerce for your website.

And if you want to take a deeper dive into what WooCommerce is, you’ll want to check out this video I did on it.

Stripe

Price: Free

WooCommerce already comes with Paypal as sort of default payment gateway for your checkout process. But another popular option is Stripe, which is what I primarily use on this website.

And with this add on, you can easily add in Stripe as a payment option for your customers.

I wrote a little bit more about Stripe when I went over payment gateway options for your online store, but here’s a quick refresher if you need it. Like Paypal, it allows you to take credit card payments online. But unlike Paypal, it integrates right with your website so customers don’t need to leave your website to complete the checkout process and then come back.

And don’t worry. If you’re concerned about storing credit card information on your website, it actually does that for you on its own, secured server.

Plus, it’s PCI compliant has support for both Google and Apple pay, as well as other payment options. And it offers better fraud protection.

Also, it’s free which is a major plus.

If you want to add in Stripe as a payment gateway for your website, this is the add on for you.

WooCommerce Shipping

Price: Free

If you’re selling physical products, you’re going to need to ship them to your customers after they purchase them. And in order to do that, you need to have shipping labels.

Fortunately, this add on makes it easy to do that right from the dashboard.

All you have to do is select the link to create a shipping label from each order and then print it off right from your home or business. The extension takes care of filling in all of the details that might take forever to copy over to the fulfillment software.

In addition to saving you time, it can also save you money. For orders shipped through the U.S. Postal Service, you can save up to 90 percent, and you can save up to 67 percent on DHL shipping rates.

Plus, it can show your customers shipping rates during the checkout process, so they aren’t surprised by any shipping fees.

So if you’re going to be shipping a lot of products (and I hope that you are that successful), this add on can save you a lot of effort.

Booster for WooCommerce

Price: Free (or $99.99 per year for the premium version)

If you need a plugin that adds in a lot of extra functionality for your online store similar to what Jetpack does for your website, then Booster for WooCommerce is an extension that you’ll want to look at.

This plugin can do a lot of small things that might make a big impact on your ecommerce website. For example, it features a bulk price converter and can convert prices between currencies.

Also you can enable certain products by country, which might come in handy based on what you sell. Plus, you can easily change the “Add to Cart” button labels, which might be something you’ll want to do.

And if you’re worried about extra bloat and increased page load times, the plugin is separated into modules that you can enable one-by-one, so you only run what you need for your website.

This plugin adds in so much functionality to your website, and I recommend that you check it out to see what you might be able to use for your online store.

WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips

Price: Free

Sometimes you might want to also add in an invoice to the order confirmation email sent to customers as some sort of receipt. And WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips makes it super easy to add that functionality to your online store.

You can customize these invoices with your business’ logo as well as modify the data shown on the invoices and add in your own disclaimer in the footer as well.

You can also download the packing slips from the admin to make it easy to start the shipping process.

There’s also a premium extension that gives you access to more templates to choose from as well as integrations with other plugins to make the shipping process even smoother.

YITH WooCommerce Wishlist

Price: Free (or $94.99 per year for the premium version)

One of the best additional features any online store can add to their website is a wishlist. This can allow potential customers to add in items to their wishlist, either just for them to remember or to share with their friends and family.

And YITH WooCommerce Wishlist makes this super easy to add to your website. Your customers will be able to create their own wishlists and designate it as public, shared or private. Plus, you can see what items are in a wishlist to see what items are popular for your online store.

Also, they can share that wishlist with their friends and family, which gives you free marketing, since more people will learn about your business and what you offer. If done correctly, this could pay off the price of the premium version by itself.

There is a free version and a premium version of the plugin. As with all plugins like this, I recommend starting with the free version. Then, if the wishlist feature is helping your customers and maybe even boosting sales, go with the premium version, although it is $94.99 per year.

Either way, you should look into adding a wishlist to your online store.

WooCommerce Multilingual

Price: Free (but you need the WPML plugin)

One of the challenges for international stores is being able to translate the website into whatever language is needed. And that is where WooCommerce Multilingual steps in to help you out.

This plugin can translate all of the products you enter into WooCommerce. You can manage the translations for products, categories and attributes. And the selected language for a customer will stay in place throughout the checkout process.

Plus, it will even enable a different payment gateway based on the user’s location. And it will send the customer emails in that customer’s language.

You will need to also have the WPML plugin on your website, and that will cost you $29 at a starting point to buy that plugin. Which, if we’re being honest, is pretty cheap for a plugin.

But if you really need to make sure that your website can be read in multiple languages, WooCommerce Multilingual is definitely a plugin you should have on your online store.

Checkout Field Editor

Price: $49 per year

There are a number of fields that a customer needs to fill out during the checkout process. But if you need more fields to get more information about the customer, Checkout Field Editor is a plugin that’s worth paying for.

This extension makes it super easy for you to add in extra fields to the checkout process without any lines of code. You can add them right from the admin area.

Checkout Field Editor supports text, select, datepicker and checkbox fields. And you can also move around the default WooCommerce fields as well to make the checkout page flow the way you want it to.

So if you’re going to be collecting more information about your customers (and make sure you explain why you are), Checkout Field Editor is the extension for you.

WooCommerce Menu Cart

Price: Free

One small thing that could go a long way in making sure people complete their purchase is by having a little cart icon or something similar in the menu bar. You’ve probably seen this when you’ve been shopping online on other websites.

And WooCommerce Menu Cart makes it super easy to add that functionality to your own online store.

This will add in a cart icon to your menu when someone is shopping on your website. You can have it display all the time or only if someone has something in their cart. Plus, you can just display the icon or also add in the total amount in their cart. And you can have it on the left or right side of your menu.

There’s also a premium version of the plugin, which allows you access to different cart icons and added functionality to the icon. But the free version will likely be all you need for your website.

Enhanced Ecommerce Google Analytics Plugin for WooCommerce

Price: Free

If you truly want to grow your online store and your business, you need to have analytics on your website. Google Analytics is going to be the best option. And what makes it even better is that you can connect your online store and open up an enhanced ecommerce section of your analytics.

Now doing this does take some effort because there’s extra code that needs to be added, but this plugin takes care of that for you. Just activate it, add in your Analytics credentials and you’re good to go.

Once you’ve got sales coming in, you’ll be able to see more data about what people are buying or how far they get down your sales funnel before finally leaving. And from there you can make decisions about what to change on your website or what to offer in your store.

And it works with the new Google Analytics 4 property.

So use this plugin to open up another treasure trove of analytics to help guide your decisions.

LiveChat for WooCommerce

Price: Plugin is free but it requires a LiveChat subscription that starts at $16 a month

Live chat functionality is becoming more and more popular for online stores in today’s world. It allows potential customers a chance to ask questions about your product or services to help them make their decision to purchase or not. And if you’re really serious about selling online, it might be a good idea to try it out to see if it can help your conversions.

The LiveChat plugin does a really good job of allowing you to easily add in this functionality to your website. It’s easy for you to use and to chat with customers that need help or have questions to ask. Plus, you can see what they have in their cart, in case you need that information to help them out.

And it has a nice modern look to it on the front end and can fit into any website design.

The one issue I might have with this plugin is the price for the subscription. Depending on how much you sell, the price might be a bit too much. But there is a 14 day free trial that you can try out to see if it’s worth it for you.

How to pick the right add ons

So, how do you pick the right extensions and add ons for your WooCommerce store?

Well, the process is pretty similar to how you would choose and select other plugins for your website.

First, I would try to get the plugins from WooCommerce’s official marketplace. That way you know what you’re getting is authentic and working. And they are only going to keep plugins that they think are going to help their users in that marketplace. So if it’s in the marketplace, it’s good to use on your website.

Outside of the marketplace, make sure that you read the descriptions on the plugins and make sure that they’re going to do what you need them to do.

Also, read the reviews from others who have used it. This might be a mixed bag, depending on the type of reviewers, but it can help you get an idea of what others think about it.

Next up, make sure it works with your version of WordPress (which should also be the latest version of WordPress). And be sure it’s been updated recently. If it’s been a while, it might not be supported anymore and could leave you vulnerable to security issues.

Finally, make sure that you don’t overlap functionality between plugins. You don’t need two plugins that do shipping labels or add in Stripe as a payment gateway. It just adds more code that needs to run which increases page load time, and it can add in conflicts between the plugin.

Create your online store today!

Are you ready to create an online store for your business? Want to create it for a price that won’t wreck your budget? Great! Let’s work together to create that online store that looks professional, is built correctly and quickly but doesn’t break the bank. You’ll also get a great foundation from which to build your digital marketing foundation — from social media to email marketing to Google Ads.

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