WordPress is a powerhouse for creating websites, but one thing it isn't is a one-stop-shop for ecommerce—unless you equip it with the right tools. If you're set on using WordPress for your online store, you'll definitely need a solid ecommerce plugin. Choosing the right one can make all the difference.
Out of the thousands of plugins available, it can feel overwhelming trying to pick the perfect one for your needs. That's why we've done the heavy lifting for you and narrowed it down to 12 essential WordPress plugins for any ecommerce website.
Each of these plugins has been carefully selected to cover various aspects of running an ecommerce business—from managing inventory and processing payments to optimizing customer experience and boosting SEO. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to upgrade your existing setup, these tools will help streamline your operations and improve your site’s functionality.
12 best WordPress ecommerce plugins
1. Shopify Buy Button
First on our list of the best WP ecommerce plugins is the Shopify Buy Button. This tool is a must have if you want to add ecommerce to your WordPress site quickly. Shopify provides a code that you just paste into your WordPress site to start selling.
The Buy Button creates a mini-site that operates within your WordPress site, but it's powered by Shopify's secure platform on the back end. This means you get to leverage Shopify's robust ecommerce features while keeping the seamless look of your WordPress site. Plus, you can customize the button's appearance to match your existing design.
Shopify Buy Button also provides the following features:
- Unlimited product listings to help you expand your offerings
- Advanced sales tracking to help track sales and growth trends
- Support for 100+ gateways, including PayPal and Amazon Pay
- Automated handling of currency conversions and foreign taxes
2. Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is hands-down the best ecommerce plugin for WordPress SEO.
With Yoast, you can easily add meta titles, SEO descriptions, and even optimize your posts for relevant keywords. This helps improve your chances of ranking higher in search results.
The plugin also provides a user-friendly interface that simplifies the SEO process, making it accessible even if you're not familiar with SEO jargon.
Other key features of Yoast SEO include:
- XML sitemaps that help search engines better index your site
- Readability checks to ensure your content is visitor-friendly
- Automatic redirects and suggestions for internal links on Premium plan
3. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is one of the top Wordpress online store plugins out there, and it’s easy to see why. It's free and easy to start with. You just install it, run through a setup wizard, pick a storefront theme, add your products, and voila—you’ve got an online store ready to roll .
Plus, WooCommerce provides tons of addons to help expand your store. Whether you’re into selling cool t-shirts or downloadable e-books, you can provide a unique experience with subscriptions, social media connections, or even mobile payment options.
And don’t forget, WooCommerce connects with over 100 payment gateways, so whether your customers are paying with PayPal or credit cards, you’re all set. Just keep in mind that keeping WooCommerce updated is part of the deal to keep things running smoothly.
WooCommerce’s key features include:
- Built-in SEO and marketing tools to attract potential customers
- User-friendly inventory management to keep track of orders
- Robust analytics to help track your business performance
- Physical and digital products support, with the option add more product types
4. WPForms
WPForms is the ecommerce plugin for website owners looking to streamline communication with their customers. It allows you to set up contact forms, order forms, and even payment forms with its user-friendly drag-and-drop tool.
WPForms offers pre-built templates that make setting up new forms quick and easy. You can customize these templates to suit your specific needs, ensuring you never have to build a form from scratch unless you choose to.
Plus, smarter workflows designed within the plugin save you time by simplifying the creation and management of even the most complex forms.
Notable features of WPForms include:
- User journey report to improve your form conversion process
- Abandoned form recovery to boost subscriptions and grow email list
- Instant form notifications to facilitate quick responses
- Spam protection to automatically prevent bot submissions
5. Veeqo
Veeqo is one of the best website plugins for keeping your online store organized. It allows you to manage inventory and orders from WooCommerce, Amazon, eBay, and Etsy in one spot. You can easily keep track of what’s in stock to avoid selling items you don't have.
The tool integrates with major shipping companies like USPS, FedEx, and UPS. You can quickly ship orders, print shipping labels in bulk, and provide customers with a tracking page. Veeqo also provides unlimited shipping labels and orders at no monthly cost, courtesy of the shipping volume passed to its partner shipping carriers.
Veeqo’s other key features include
- Forecast on previous high-sales periods and best-selling items
- Supplier lead time info to prevent sell-outs and overstocks
- 21+ integrations to ship orders worldwide
- Live search and advanced filter options to help find orders quickly
6. WC Vendors
WC Vendors is a WordPress ecommerce plugin built to turn your site into a marketplace. You can add sellers, manage orders, and configure commissions for both you and your vendors. Remember, you'll need WooCommerce to handle your products and orders.
The free version of WC Vendors offers basic tools, like setting commissions and providing a front-end dashboard for vendors to handle orders. However, it's a good idea to upgrade to a paid WC Vendors plan. This upgraded version includes features like discount coupons, various commission options, and automatic payouts for vendors.
WC Vendors’ notable features include:
- Email alerts for vendors and marketplace admin to keep them informed of store activities
- Various commission options, such as percentage fees, fixed fees, and membership subscription-based commissions
- 100+ payment gateway options to accept payments from customers worldwide
- Self service vendor dashboard with easy settings based configuration
7. Easy Digital Downloads
If you're looking for WordPress ecommerce solutions to streamline selling digital goods, look no further than Easy Digital Downloads. This plugin is a breeze to use and supports a wide range of payment gateways, platforms, and services.
It’s specifically designed for WordPress, ensuring a seamless fit with your existing setup. Easy Digital Downloads even offers specially crafted themes that enhance the functionality and aesthetic of your digital storefront.
Join the ranks of 50,000+ successful business owners who leverage Easy Digital Downloads to manage and expand their digital product sales. From ebooks to plugins and more, you can start selling in minutes with features like secure payments and subscription billing.
Easy Digital Downloads key features include:
- Advanced content protection paired with streamlined store management
- Secure payment options and subscription billing cater to diverse business needs.
- Unlimited products and transactions with no monthly fees
- Comprehensive reporting tools and over 100 integrations
8. WP EasyCart
WP EasyCart is an ecommerce WordPress plugin that enables you to sell anything online from your WordPress site. It's been around for over 10 years, focusing on being easy to use so you can get your store up without any fuss. Whether you sell digital downloads or physical goods, it’s equipped to support your journey.
Getting started with WP EasyCart is risk-free thanks to a 14-day money-back guarantee. Simply install the plugin, set up your products, and begin selling. The platform supports a range of payment gateways and offers excellent customer support to help you every step of the way.
Wp EasyCart’s main features include:
- Customizable display options like lists or grids for customer engagement
- Live visual editor to change colors, fonts, and layouts or add custom CSS.
- Discount codes and promotions to engage customers and boost sales
- Digital wallets like Google Pay for easy payment collection
9. MemberPress
If you're looking to turn your WordPress webshop into a membership hub, MemberPress is your go-to plugin. It's designed to handle everything from digital content and courses to downloadable products, all behind a convenient paywall. Set up different membership levels—like Premium, Silver, and Gold—and easily control what content is available to each level.
Creating a professional-looking pricing page is a breeze with MemberPress. You can start with one of the built-in templates and customize it with your own CSS to fit your brand. The integration with top payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.net ensures that setting up payments is seamless and secure.
MemberPress also takes care of subscription management automatically—reminding users about renewals and managing access if they don’t pay on time.
Key features of MemberPress include:
- Paywall & content Dripping to provide control over who accesses your content
- Coupons & promotions to help attract new members boost sales
- Community building to foster customer relationships and brand loyalty
10. WP Simple Pay
WP Simple Pay is one of those wp ecommerce extensions that serve as an alternative to pure cart software. This Stripe payment plugin allows you to accept payments without the need to set up an extensive shopping cart.
Setting up WP Simple Pay is quick and painless—it only takes about five minutes. It comes equipped with a user-friendly drag-and-drop form builder and several ready-to-use templates, making it perfect for selling everything from digital downloads to event tickets.
Plus, WP Simple Pay supports various payment methods and ensures secure transactions with Stripe's PCI-compliant servers. Just set it up, and you’re ready to start collecting payments without any complications.
WP Simple Pay’s key features include:
- Efficient payment processing with Stripe’s PCI-compliant servers
- Recurring payments to automatically bill users
- 10+ payment methods to capture revenue from different buyers
- Buy Now Pay Later to make shopping flexible for customers
11. Social Warfare
If you want to make it easy for visitors to share your products on social media, Social Warfare is the web site plugin to use. It works well with WordPress and major ecommerce plugins like WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads. This means people can share your products on their social networks with just a couple of clicks, helping you reach more people.
Social Warfare is easy to set up and comes ready to use. You can also adjust the look of the share buttons to match your website's design. This social media marketing plugin is built to be fast, so it won’t make your site slow.
Another great thing about Social Warfare is its Share Recovery feature. If you change your site’s domain or switch to SSL, you won’t lose your past share counts. This helps keep your social proof safe even when your site changes.
Social Warfare also offers other key features like:
- Twitter cards to improve your content's social media visibility
- Social analytics to provide insights into follower activity
- Follow widget to turn readers into followers
- Customizable share buttons to match your website’s branding
12. myCred
myCred is a plugin that adds a loyalty program to your WooCommerce site—users earn points and ranks by engaging with your site, which they can redeem for discounts or special perks. This setup motivates customers to visit more often and spend more time interacting with your offerings.
You can easily implement this rewards system with myCred. Users have control over managing their points and tracking their progress, which keeps them actively involved. The plugin also supports over 100 integrations, making it flexible for different website needs.
Integrating myCred allows you to offer digital badges, create discount coupons, and let users convert points into cash. These features help build a loyal customer base and increase sales by making the shopping experience interactive and rewarding.
MyCred’s key features include:
- Email alerts to inform your users via email about their points status
- Payment gateways to enable shoppers to their myCred points as a payment method
- Statistical to help visualize points usage and circulation
How to choose the best WordPress ecommerce plugin
Finding the right WordPress ecommerce plugin took some hands-on testing on our demo store. We evaluated how easy they are to use, the depth of features, and the unique benefits that make them stand out. Here’s a rundown of what to look for when choosing a WordPress ecommerce platform:
- Simplicity. Especially important for beginners, the plugin should be easy to set up and manage. Complex tools can become a barrier to effectively running your online store.
- Various payment options. The best plugins offer multiple ways for customers to pay and make it easy to add more options as your business grows.
- Fast loading speed. No one likes waiting, so plugin speed is crucial. A good ecommerce plugin should not slow down your site because that impacts both user experience and SEO rankings.
- Good customer support. Strong support is a lifesaver, especially if you're not tech-savvy. We looked for plugins that provide free, accessible support—this can drastically cut down on stress and troubleshooting time.
- Cost-effectiveness. Value for money is key. It’s not about finding the cheapest option, but ensuring that you're investing in a plugin that meets your needs without overspending.
- High compatibility and customization. The plugin should seamlessly integrate with your existing WordPress theme. Customization is crucial as it should allow you to tweak the look to match your brand without hassle.
- Scalability. Your business will evolve, and so should your ecommerce solution. We searched for plugins that can scale with you, offering advanced features and integrations as your needs expand.
- Marketing tools. Promotional tools like discount codes and gift cards can boost your sales. We focused on plugins that include these marketing features to help attract and retain customers.
Additional specifics for establishing a WordPress ecommerce website
In addition to choosing an ecommerce plugin, you also need to think about where your WordPress site will live. This means picking the right web hosting.
For those starting out or keeping an eye on budget, Cloudways or SiteGround are solid picks. They offer plans that are tailored for ecommerce sites, coming with must-haves like SSL certificate, a dedicated IP, and direct support lines for any help you might need.
If you're ready to invest a bit more for stronger performance, Kinsta specializes in WordPress ecommerce hosting. They provide powerful services designed to handle lots of visitors at once, ensuring your site stays speedy and smooth even when traffic spikes.
Besides picking a host, you'll also need a domain name—the unique address where people find your site online. If you’re not sure where to start, a domain name generator can kickstart your creativity. Once your hosting and domain are set up, you’re ready to move forward with those crucial ecommerce plugins and really get your online store going.
Go from site to storefront
That wraps up what you need to know about WordPress ecommerce plugins. With the tips and plugins we talked about, you're all set to turn your website into a dedicated virtual storefront. Just remember, picking the right plugin is key to growing your business.
WordPress ecommerce plugins FAQ
What is an ecommerce plugin?
A WordPress eCommerce plugin is a tool that you add to WordPress to turn a website into an online store. It allows you to manage products, take payments, and keep track of orders.
Is WordPress free for ecommerce?
Yes, WordPress itself is free to use, which is perfect for setting up an ecommerce site. However, you'll need to cover the cost of a domain name and hosting to get your site online. These costs are generally low, offering a variety of options based on your specific needs and budget.
How do I integrate ecommerce into WordPress?
To integrate ecommerce into WordPress, start with WooCommerce—it's a free, open-source plugin designed specifically for WordPress. WooCommerce provides all the tools you need to create and manage an online store. For additional functionalities—like payment processing, shipping, and inventory management—you can install other plugins that work seamlessly with WooCommerce.
Is WordPress good for ecommerce?
Yes, WordPress is a solid option for ecommerce. It's an open-source platform that offers a wide range of plugins and themes, making it easy to set up an online store. It also boasts strong search engine optimization capabilities, supports multiple payment gateways, and handles various languages, all of which are great for ecommerce.
Is WordPress good for dropshipping?
Yes, WordPress works well for dropshippers. You can use WP plugins like WooCommerce to set up and manage your online store. Then, by adding the Spocket addon for WooCommerce, you can seamlessly connect to a vast network of suppliers, automate your inventory and order management, and start selling with minimal hassle.
Which free WordPress ecommerce plugin is best for small businesses?
For small businesses selling physical or digital products, WooCommerce is the best free WordPress eCommerce plugin. If you specialize in digital downloads like PDFs or audiobooks, Easy Digital Downloads is a better fit.