Platforms like Shopify are great for launching a store quickly that you are managing yourself. But what happens when you're ready to scale? Ecommerce platforms are not one-size-fits-all and they come with their own strengths and weaknesses, based on the size, complexity, and the type of store you run. Whether you’re a small business that's ready to scale or a large business looking to accelerate growth, WooCommerce can take your store to the next level. In this conversation we will explore the pros and cons of WooCommerce and how it measures up to other eCommerce platforms to help you decide if WooCommerce is right for your build. Earn recurring revenue, simplify your site management, and continuously showcase your value to clients!

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February 23rd, 2022

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Choosing the Right eCommerce
Platform for Your Build.
Using WooCommerce to Scale Your Store.

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Agenda.
1. Overview on the State of eCommerce
2. Defining Site Priorities, Objectives, and Values
3. Pros and Cons of WooCommerce
4. The future of eCommerce
5. Q&A

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VP, Product
eCommerce,
WP Engine
MODERATOR: Sajal Agrawal
Solutions Engineer,
WP Engine
@aaron_onken
Product Manager, Sr.
eCommerce,
WP Engine
Product Marketing,
WP Engine
@jdailey
Sajal Agrawal Joshua Dailey
Aaron Onken Jeremy Benoit
Welcome.

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• Online purchasing and selling accelerated in 2020 and 2021
• 2022 Continues on the Momentum
• Creativity, innovation, and greater investment in new business models
• eCommerce platforms are not one-size-fits-all
State of eCommerce.

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State of
eCommerce.
Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/379046/worldwide-retail-e-commerce-sales/

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How do you make the best choice
for your brand or customer?
Defining site priorities, objectives, and values.

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What do you value for your store?
Scalable Performance optimized Low cost
because it’s an MVP
Customizable Need to get to market
fast
Able to edit without a
developer
Organic SEO Easy to migrate Is your business
subscription
(or other model)

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Categories to consider.
Fast
Need it now
Good
Quality
Affordable
budget conscious

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Pros and Cons
Solutions Engineer
WP Engine
@aaron_onken
Aaron Onken

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• You own your store and your content
• Your store is portable
• You have more customizability due to WordPress being
an entire CMS
• There are plenty of WP developers out there to help you
• You have more payment gateway options at your
disposal
• WooCommerce itself is a free plugin to install, lowering
the price of entry
• WordPress is great for SEO.
• No transaction fees
• Subscriptions
Pros

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• This means you can do what you want with it
• You can stand one up, take it down, import products,
export products, move it to one host or another, all
as you see fit
• Fairly easy to export your content and import it into a
different CMS
• You have total control over your site
• Some WordPress hosts don’t even have content /
product restrictions
You own your
store and your
content.
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• Choice of host
• Various price points out there
• Some managed, some unmanaged
Your store is portable.
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• Thousands of free themes available
• You can make the front-end of WordPress
look almost any way you want
• With the right developer, the possibilities are
endless
• If you’re a developer at an agency, you have a
great deal of freedom
• Headless WordPress opens even more
opportunities
You have more customizability
due to WordPress being an
entire CMS.
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• If you hire a Shopify dev, you’re restricted to that
specific platform
There are plenty of WP developers
out there to help you.
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• WooComm gateways may be easier out of the gate to
set up
• Historically, WooComm has had more payment
gateways than other ecomm platforms, but some are
catching up
You have more payment
gateway options at your
disposal.
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• You can download WooCommerce itself for free
• WordPress itself is also free
• There are also some very inexpensive WordPress
hosting packages out there
WooCommerce
itself is a free
plugin to install,
lowering the
price of entry.

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• You can also blog!
• Other ecomm platforms have limited blog features
• Headless WP (via Atlas) has been huge for performance, and therefore SEO
WordPress is great for SEO.
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Other ecomm platforms do.
WooComm itself charges no transaction fees

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• You need a WordPress website.
• Requires extensions for larger-scale product inventories
• Extensions or custom development can be expensive
• Scaling your store often means increasing costs
• Maintenance
• Plugin support takes time.
• Can be challenging to set up for non-developers.
• Hosting is a separate expense
Cons

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• Some people just don’t want one
• When some people hear “WordPress”
they think “insecure”
• WordPress does require maintenance
You need a WordPress
website.
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WooCommerce can handle
subscriptions with a free plugin.
(Shopify can’t accommodate
subscriptions without a premium
plugin.)
Subscriptions.
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• I’ve migrated a lot of WooCommerce sites in my time
• Almost none of them have only one WooComm plugin
Requires extensions for
larger-scale product inventories.
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Although you can do just about anything
with your WordPress site, that often means
either more plugins or hiring a developer
Extensions or custom
development can be expensive.
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• Your WordPress database grows with time
• Plugins need to be updating and they potentially
introduce security vulnerabilities
• Although there are various agencies out there
that offer “Shopify maintenance” services, most
of those services are actually external to Shopify
• Unless you have a managed host,
WooCommerce also means maintenance to the
WordPress core, PHP, MySQL, etc.
• Again, if you pay a developer for this, developer
time is expensive
Maintenance.
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• Shopify support comes directly from
Shopify
• WooCommerce support can take time
• Even if you have a responsive host,
support for plugin-related issues often
still has to go to the plugin developer’s
support channels
Plugin support takes time.
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• Initial setup takes time for DIY-ers
• Once again, you may have to hire a developer for a site
with heavy customization
Can be challenging to set up for
non-developers.
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• Your Shopify fees cover your hosting
• Your WooCommerce plugin fees don’t
Hosting is a separate expense.
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PROS
● You own your store and your content
● Your store is portable
● You have more customizability due to WordPress
being an entire CMS
● There are plenty of WP developers out there to help
you
● You have more payment gateway options at your
disposal
● WooCommerce itself is a free plugin to install,
lowering the price of entry
● WordPress is great for SEO
● No transaction fees
● Subscriptions
CONS
● You need a WordPress website
● Requires extensions for larger-scale product
inventories
● Extensions or custom development can be expensive
● Scaling your store often means increasing costs
● Maintenance
● Plugin support takes time
● Can be challenging to set up for non-developers.
● Initial setup takes time (for diy-ers)
● Hosting is a separate expense
WooCommerce pros and cons.

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The Future of eCommerce
eCommerce Product Manager, Sr.
WP Engine
Jeremy Benoit

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A future for eCommerce.
1. Structure worthy of a true eCommerce engine
2. Collaborating for a better WooCommerce
3. eCommerce Creativity
4. Headless with Atlas

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• An Orders table adds the structural integrity of a true
eCommerce engine
• Dedicated indexes & less busy tables
• Better support especially for
▪ High traffic stores
▪ Stores with larger product catalogs
Improved Scalability, Reliability &
Speed of Orders.
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• Help to validate performance success
• Stable and performant hosting for a
new world of Orders
• Updates to these changes will be
available in the coming months
Collaboration for a better
WooCommerce.
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• Shopify continues to lean into a closed environment with
their latest payments platform
• Checkout customization can be critical for business
▪ Submitting additional data for B2B
▪ Customizing send-off and customer engagement
experiences post checkout
• WordPress & WooCommerce offer the best storefront
customization experience
▪ Product building experiences within the storefront
eCommerce Creativity.
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• Atlas enables WordPress as a CMS for modern web development
toolkits
▪ Allows publishers to use the interface they know and love
▪ Gives developers flexibility in UI and Application frameworks for
front-end development
• Focused on developing the optimal method of customization of the
site experience and backend integrations
Headless with
Atlas.
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Q&A
For any questions we don’t get to cover off today,
please reach out to joshua.dailey@wpengine.com, thanks!

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Thank You!
For any questions we don’t get to cover off today, please reach out to joshua.dailey@wpengine.com, thanks!

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• Structure worthy of a true eCommerce engine
• Collaborating for a better WooCommerce
• eCommerce Creativity
• Headless with Atlas
A future of eCommerce.