Does your eCommerce store run on WooCommerce? Have you been wondering how to ​get more sales for your store? Hi, my name is Francisco, and I am the owner of Planet Marketing, a Digital Marketing agency. My company specializes in Google Ads, Facebook Ads and Remarketing. I have been in business for over ​a decade. In that time, I have helped quite a number of eCommerce businesses achieve growth ​in a highly competitive environment. Today, I am going to show you ​6 essential WooCommerce plugins to help boost sales for your eCommerce store. This article is divided into the following sections;
Introduction
WooCommerce is one of the powerhouses as far as eCommerce software is concerned. Today, nearly 29% of all the eCommerce stores that are out there run on WooCommerce. ​But why is the WooCommerce platform so popular?
I have previously written an article in which I outlined some of the best eCommerce software for beginners that can be found out there. One thing that I noted was that WooCommerce is ​popular because it is mostly free. You do have to pay for some of the extensions, but the basic software is free.
Another reason for WooCommerce’s popularity is that it’s so easy to integrate with WordPress. You may be aware that WordPress is the most popular CMS on the market today. If you have a WordPress website, integration with WooCommerce is a simple matter of installing a plugin. In fact, 93.7% of all WordPress websites use the WooCommerce plugin.
​Top WooCommerce Plugins to ​​Improve your Sales
Use of the correct WooCommerce plugins can boost your sales
WooCommerce is free, but to get the most out of the platform, you are going to need to install plugins. Thing is, some of these plugins are paid. Some are free. Whether paid or not, there are some WooCommerce plugins that are important as far as improving the performance of your business is concerned. The following are the top WooCommerce plugins to get more sales for your eCommerce Store;
1. Facebook for WooCommerce
Facebook for WooCommerce is essential if you do Facebook Ads
These days, a lot of people spend most of their days on Social Media. And of these, the biggest is, without doubt, Facebook. I noted earlier ​that I specialize in Facebook Marketing. The platform is great for reaching out to customers for all types of businesses.
If you own a WooCommerce eCommerce website, then Facebook for WooCommerce is one of the plugins that you can use to get more sales. That’s particularly important for those that do Facebook Ads. The plugin can be used in the following ways;
- It makes it easy for you to​ connect your Facebook Page to your eCommerce store. Thus you will be able to drive people from Facebook to your store.
- You can also quickly create Facebook and Instagram ads based on the items that are on sale in your store. The process is quicker than creating Facebook Ads from Ads Manager. NB: If you need help creating Facebook Ads, get in touch with me. It’s what I do!
- ​Another advantage of using this plugin is that it simplifies the process of integrating and using Facebook Pixel. Facebook Pixel works by tracking visitor activity on your site. People are then shown your ads in their feeds the next time that they visit Facebook.These ads will be based on each person’s interest on your site.Â
- Facebook Pixel enables you to create dynamic ads, where products are drawn directly from your cart and displayed to people on Facebook based on their previous interest on your site. That way, you can boost your conversion rate by as much as 400%.
How much does it cost?
Facebook for WooCommerce is free, making it accessible to everybody. Of course, you will have to pay something if you are to run Facebook Ads. But, as I noted elsewhere in this article, Facebook Ads are way cheaper than the alternatives. What’s more, they are more effective.
2. PayPal Checkout
PayPal Checkout makes it easy for your customers to quickly and securely make payments
Did you know that the average eCommerce conversion rates stand at a dismal 2%? Well, that’s ​a sad fact. Most eCommerce business owners go through a lot of trouble to get people to their websites. Perhaps you have been doing a lot of SEO. Search Engine Optimization is great for getting free traffic.
Or maybe you have been advertising on Google. Google Ads are great as a bridge between ​the time when you ​launch your store and when you start getting results from your SEO activities. SEO tends to be slow, so you should not expect results before the end of a year, at the very least.
You could also have been doing Facebook Ads. That’s a great option that every eCommerce business should explore. Facebook Ads are cheaper than all the alternatives. And you can get a lot of great results if you do things right.
Anyway, the point that I am trying to make here is that it takes a lot to get people to your website. So, it can be disheartening that a lot of them will leave without making a purchase. In fact, quite a number will first put ​products into their shopping carts before hopping off in a huff.
You need to have safe payment methods on your site
One of the major reasons for the abandoned cart phenomenon is that people are ​nervous about losing their financial details while making unsecured payments. It’s a scary world out there, and people have reason to be wary.
Anyway, ​you can increase their confidence by enabling safe payments on your site. And nothing says “safe” better than PayPal. One of the plugins that you should absolutely have on your eCommerce store to improve sales is PayPal Checkout.
This plugin is designed not only to make it easy for your customers to make payments, but also to make the entire process ultra secure. Paypal is used by over 330 million people around the world. Many of these will be your potential customers.
And they trust that their sensitive data is safe while making payments via PayPal. With the PayPal Checkout plugin, people can pay directly from your Product Pages.
That’s unlike other payment methods, where people are moved from the Product Page to the Catalog Page, and then to the Payments Page. The idea is to make payments faster and easier, which should help decrease the harm that’s caused by abandoned carts.
How much is PayPal Checkouts
The PayPal Checkouts plugin can be installed on any eCommerce site free of charge. Of course, PayPal will get a small amount per transaction, but that shouldn’t be a problem.
3. Yotpo Social Reviews
With Yotpo Social Reviews, you can display reviews on your site. You can also syndicate them to Google for use in Store Ratings
Online reviews are a subject that I have covered quite extensively on the Planet Marketing blog. And there is a very good reason for that. Did you know that up to 90% of people will first read reviews before making a purchase?
And up to 88% of buyers trust online reviews, despite the fact that they are left across the internet by complete strangers. So, reviews are something that every eCommerce business needs to take seriously. They can have a significant impact on your bottom line.
Reviews can be found all over the place across the internet. You will find them on Yelp, on Google, on Facebook and on many other platforms. Those are important. However, some of the really powerful are ones that are displayed on your products pages.
They boost trust, which gives people confidence in buying from you
If you go to a platform like Amazon, you will understand what I am talking about here. Reviews can make or break a product. And it’s important to display them for each and every of your products.
Remember what we said about abandoned carts being caused by a lack of trust? Well, one way of building that trust is by displaying reviews on your site. They tell prospective buyers that a product has already been tried and tested by their peers.
​Yotpo is one of the biggest online review companies that can be found out there. In fact, I have written a lot about Yotpo on this site. Check out my Yotpo vs Shopper Approved article. The great thing about Yotpo is that it has a WooCommerce Plugin that you can use for your eCommerce store to get more sales.
Is the Yotpo Social Reviews plugin free?
The Yotpo plugin is partly free. You can install it on your site and you won’t need to pay anything. Afterwards, your customers will get prompts in their mailboxes to ​write reviews about their experiences buying from you. Reviews will also be displayed on your site, thus boosting trust in your business.
The paid version
However, if you want full functionality, you will have to go for the paid version of Yotpo. The premium version comes with the ability to gather and display user generated photos. You also get social integration, and Google Store Ratings and Products Ratings.
These are important for businesses that advertise on Google. ​Yotpo Social Reviews also allows you to quickly and easily use your reviews as ads on Facebook and Instagram, which can increase your CTR by as much as 300%.
4. WooCommerce Points and Rewards
WooCommerce points and rewards helps you build customer loyalty
Building customer loyalty should be one of the major preoccupations for all eCommerce stores. Unfortunately, most focus so much on attracting new people that they forget all about retaining ​their old customers. But what can you do to make sure that people keep coming back to your store​?
Offer people rewards
People love being incentivized in one way or the other. We all love freebies, right​? There is nothing that keeps us coming back better than the prospect of some rewards at the end of the day. That’s a quality that you can exploit to help get more sales for your eCommerce Store.
The WooCommerce Points and Rewards plugin make it possible for you to ​offer rewards to your customers. When they buy from you, they get points. These points can then be used to get discounts. So, this is an absolutely clever way of fostering customer loyalty. ​Points and Rewards is, therefore, one of the best WooCommerce plugins to get more sales for your eCommerce Store.
How much does it cost?
​The Points and Rewards plugin costs $129 per year. In my views, that’s a small price to pay for the massive ​benefits that you get at the end of the day.
5. Countdown Timer
Another of the best WooCommerce plugins to boost your eCommerce store
The average buyer is, in today’s environment, rather spoiled for choice. They can either buy from you, or they can buy from a thousand other sellers in Bangladesh, Bhutan, South Africa and all over the place. So, it can be rather difficult to push them to take the desired course of action.
One strategy for getting more sales for your eCommerce store is to create urgency in your potential buyers. People react well, at least from the point of view of the seller, if there is a perceived shortage. But how do you create this urgency?
Count down on deals, promos and other activities to create urgency
​Countdown Timer is another of the great WooCommerce ​plugins that you can use to get more sales for your eCommerce store. In fact, by using this plugin, you can boost your sales by as much as 300%. So, this is not just a gimmick.
With the Countdown Timer, you can make it look to your potential customers as if there is a limited supply of your products. Or you can make it appear as if your offers are time bound. As an example, you could have 3 days before the end of a promo that you are running. By displaying a countdown timer, you give ​visual aspect to that fact.
That, in turn, compels people to make a purchase “before it is too late”. This plugin appeals to humanity’s baser instincts. There was probably a time when we needed to hoard things to survive in the wilderness. That was because there were limited supplies and it was survival of the quickest.
By having a countdown timer, you will have people rushing to buy from your eCommerce. And you will reduce the problem of abandoned carts. People will feel that if they leave without buying, the product may run out before they have had the chance to come back.
How much does it cost?
The Countdown Timer plugin for WooCommerce costs $19 per year. That’s a small amount to pay for a potential increase of 300% in sales. So, this is one of the best plugins to get more sales for your eCommerce store during the course of the current year.
​6. ​Smart Coupons
One of the best WooCommerce plugins to get more sales for your eCommerce store
This is ​another of the best WooCommerce plugins to get more sales for your eCommerce Store. The idea behind coupons is similar to what were talking about when discussing the Points and Rewards plugin. People love freebies and discounts.
In fact, human beings are always on the lookout for some advantage. That’s a quality that you can exploit to help boost your business. Offer people coupons, and they will come flocking to your eCommerce Store.
What does it do?
This plugin allows you to offer discounts, credits, vouchers, giveaways, promos and coupons to your customers. One thing to note is that you do need to have an extensive mailing list for this work. If you have been in business for some time, then you will have no problem getting one. You will ​have ​been collecting the contact details of people who have already bought from you.
​How much does it cost?
Smart Coupons costs $99 per year. Again, that’s a worthy investment, considering the benefits that you will get from increased sales for your business.
​Summary
​Those are the ​6 best WooCommerce plugins to get more sales for your eCommerce Store. There are many other great plugins on the market today. So, you can use our list as a guideline. You do not have to use the particular plugin that we mentioned here. If you can find cheaper or better alternatives, then by all means go for them.
What I wanted to do here was to point out the essential elements behind successful eCommerce stores. As an example, successful eCommerce stores display customer reviews. That’s a good way of building trust.
Successful stores also have secure and quick payment methods. Not only that, but they also have great marketing strategies, including offering discounts and other incentives to customers, and creating a sense of urgency in prospective buyers. Anyway, get in touch with me if you need help setting up your eCommerce site or integrating with Facebook.
