The internet has truly changed the way we do business!
Want to get your product out into the market? The internet’s got you covered. It has simplified the practice of buying and selling like never before. Post your offerings to your online store and attract the right people to your offers.
On the subject of online stores, one can’t help but mention WooCommerce. What started as a simple eCommerce plugin now powers over 42% of online stores!
While impressive in its own right, we’ve observed an oft-debated question about WooCommerce: “Will it work for my B2B wholesale store?”
The following article is an attempt to answer that query by outlining five reasons why B2B companies should opt for WooCommerce to create a wholesale store.
1. It’s the Most Popular CMS Out There!
Powering nearly 2 million eCommerce stores on the internet, WooCommerce is a prime choice for individuals looking to venture into the B2B wholesale arena.
While popularity alone should never be a reason to purchase a product, WooCommerce comes equipped with tons of features that can prove beneficial in getting your wholesale store up and running.
Let’s look at some of them.
Vast Product/Services Ecosystem
WooCommerce is a genuine market leader whenever the discussion of ecosystems comes up.
Within the ecosystem of WordPress, WooCommerce has a whole range of eCommerce-specific products and services that you can choose from.
Are you looking for a customizable store theme? Want a plugin that automates your ordering processes? Want a hosting and maintenance service? What about performance optimization or search engine tools?
Well, WooCommerce has all that, and then some!
Quality Assured and Robust
Even with the most quality-assured software products, you can bet that there are bugs. The worst-case scenario would be to subscribe to an unpopular product or one that has proprietary code. Not only are you getting bugs, but you also don’t know when a new release will be scheduled.
With a WooCommerce wholesale website you can be at ease knowing that there are thousands of other users using the same product as you. This helps in ensuring that the majority of bugs get reported and fixed quickly.
Extensive Support
When choosing a wholesale platform provider with a small or niche following, there is always the risk of you losing your website because it could soon cease to exist.
In contrast, WooCommerce is a platform that provides you extensive support in the form of detailed “How-To’s”, a knowledge base of articles, support videos, and relevant documentation so that you can get up and running without knowing much of the technical information.
2. It’s More Than Just a “Plugin”, It’s an eCommerce Solution!
There is a common misconception that because WooCommerce is a free plugin, it is not that effective. This section is dedicated to dispelling that myth!
For wholesale, as well general eCommerce businesses, WooCommerce is a sophisticated platform that comes equipped with tons of features and functionalities that lets you set up your store from the ground up and scale it accordingly.
To give you a preview, here are some of the things you can do with a wholesale B2B store built with WooCommerce:
- No limits on the number of products you want to add.
- Organize your store products into categories and sub-categories.
- Multiple payment options via PayPal, Credit Card, and other related gateways.
- Tax settings that vary from region to region of operations.
- Offers a quote request functionality for your store, allowing customers to inquire about the price of a particular product.
- Control shipping and postage costs for different zip code locations in different areas as well as countries.
- Review in-depth analytics regarding your store’s performance.
- Add a quick order table for efficient checkout.
- Assign roles and permissions for your B2B buyers.
- Manage new and old orders effectively.
All of this should be a clear indication of the breadth that WooCommerce provides to its users.
As you can see, this covers most of what you’ll need from your wholesale store. And, it’s all available straight out of the box!
3. It’s Extensible
For your B2B wholesale store, WooCommerce is fully extensible and comes with tons of plugins that help you add more features to your store.
Best of all, these plugins work well for both B2B and B2C stores. Here is how you can update your wholesale B2B store on WooCommerce:
Wholesale-Savvy Display: While regular product catalogs are a built-in feature of WooCommerce, you can go beyond that by including a quick order or product display plugin that helps you display products in the table.
WooCommerce fully supports these plugins, and they add serious value to your store by allowing customers to view, purchase, or inquire about products more efficiently.
Hide/Show Categories or Store: The B2B pricing strategy is a lot different from B2C, and most store owners keep the prices confidential or hidden under a “Inquire Price by Signing In” button.
With the help of plugins, you can hide your B2B prices by adding a “sign-in” gate, a “request price” option, or through a price protection gate. Moreover, you can even hide your entire wholesale B2B store from the public eye – making it only accessible to B2B parties interested in your product.
Boost Conversion Rates: There are plenty of plugins available on WooCommerce that help you boost conversion rates. From adding a coupon referral functionality to the more B2B focused quick order plugin that we mentioned above – the possibilities of converting store visitors into paying and recurring customers are simplified with WooCommerce.
While all of these factors do help extend a WooCommerce store, more is possible. From product listing plugins to multiple WooCommerce accounts, a myriad of plugins are available to help boost the functionality of WooCommerce.
4. It’s Free
Compared with other platforms that charge, you might think that WooCommerce is equally expensive.
But fear not because WooCommerce and WordPress are, for the most part, free to use. The only payments that you will need to make are for web hosting, purchasing a domain name, and settling payment provider fees, if you want online payments for your business.
Using WooCommerce is generally free with most of the plugins for your wholesale store also being free. However, if you want to add more juice to your store operations, then you will have to incur the costs for the premium plugin versions you are already using or for only-paid plugins.
5. It’s Scalable
When running a business, it is always best to plan for both the short and long run. If you operate your business successfully, chances are, you’re going to want to scale your business. Now herein lies the question: is WooCommerce built to help you scale?
Well, the answer is yes! WooCommerce does a good job of ensuring you don’t have to go through growing pains since you can set an unlimited number of products. Moreover, if you have a reliable hosting plan, you can have an unlimited number of visitors to your store without having to worry about your site slowing down.
While critics will dissuade you from using WooCommerce for your wholesale store with the statement that it is “not-scalable”, this case study by WP Engine might make you think otherwise.
Conclusion:
There are plenty of reasons why WooCommerce is suited for your B2B business. From being the most popular CMS out there to providing you the scalability and support that you need for your store – WooCommerce has it all.
Are you interested in setting up your wholesale B2B store? Talk to us at Codup.co
