Is Woocommerce the right extension

[AWA Training]

Is WooCommerce the best plugin to use?

I do like it, and it interfaces well with Wordpress, but i often like more freedom in how i sell things.

 

[fisicx]

If you want more freedom get something bespoke built.

 

[AWA Training]

I will add that to the bucket list

 

[antropy]

I do like it, and it interfaces well with Wordpress, but i often like more freedom in how i sell things.

You could install OpenCart in a subfolder - that's open source and very easy to modify if you're a PHP developer.

 

[iDigLocal]

Woocommerce is a very good ecommerce plugin. You get the power of great ecommerce functionality combined with wordpress.

A lot of the other ecommerce platforms are not very good for being able to add additiional content very easily. You have Wordpress's blogging capabilities thrown in.

All platforms have restrictions on what you can do but mostly they are going to cater for your needs. If you have unusual behaviour that you need then it is unlikely that any of the ecommerce platforms are going to cater for it off-the-shelf and you will need to employ an experienced php development agency.

@AWA Training , When you say "but i often like more freedom in how i sell things" what exactly do you mean?

 

[fisicx]

Woocommerce is a very good ecommerce plugin. You get the power of great ecommerce functionality combined with wordpress.

It's not actually that good. It may be popular but it's mostly patches and hacks. The code is awful and you have to add all sorts of filters and workarounds to get it to do it's job properly. For example, just changing the number of columns on the shop page needs a whole load for fixes and it's nigh on impossible to change the images size to something decent.

 

[iDigLocal]

@fisicx that's just simply not true. its very easy to change woocomerce product images.

You can just do it via the admin area. Like all websites how well the dimensions you pick work will depend on your theme or template.

As to changing number of products per row. Again this is straight forward. Sometimes this functionality is built into a theme, sometimes not but then it is a simple matter of changing it.

For example you can use shortcodes: [recent_products per_page="12" columns="5"]

And yes there are hooks and filters, this is in part what makes woocommerce very powerful as it can be very easy to build bespoke layouts, which is what these elements are designed for: Versatility.

A lot of the other ecommerce platforms we work with are very clunky in comparison. I mean Magento is very powerful, great for international sales, but updating it can seem like something out of the 1980s.

 

[Alan Bagley]

What are you looking sell it WooCommerce? I have used this on my WP site for over 4 years and have only had positive things to say about it.

If you are using WordPress already then it would make sense to use WooCommerce

Kind regards
Alan

 

[fisicx]

@fisicx that's just simply not true. its very easy to change woocomerce product images.

It's not as simple as you suggest. Changing the dimension means regenerating the thumbnails and for that you need a plugin. If you are developing a site this soon becomes very tedious.

As to changing number of products per row. Again this is straight forward. Sometimes this functionality is built into a theme, sometimes not but then it is a simple matter of changing it.

For example you can use shortcodes: [recent_products per_page="12" columns="5"].

And now make this responsive. Try settings the number of columns for different devices.

 

[serendipitybusiness]

If you want freedom to sell your products, your way, then woocommerce is great for this, there are plenty of plugins that allow you to do a multitude of things easily. I have developed plenty of woocommerce websites and always managed to get it to do what I want it to, it is much easier than many of the other platforms I used before jigoshop/woocommerce came on the scene.

There are also a lot of themes already developed for it, that are responsive.

 

[iDigLocal]

It's not as simple as you suggest. Changing the dimension means regenerating the thumbnails and for that you need a plugin. If you are developing a site this soon becomes very tedious.

And now make this responsive. Try settings the number of columns for different devices.

Really there is no real difference between wordpress and any other CMS with regards to images. Unless you are using svg images there is a scalability issue. If you are using an existing theme there will be an optimum image size that you will need to use, regardless of cms. If you are developing a theme then, once again there will be an optimum image size.

If you are developing a theme in wordpress then of course you can create as many image sizes as you want and specify the croping behaviour for when they are imported. This way you can use different images sizes in different places. But again there will be an optimum image size to start with.

If you upload an image to Facebook for example, not all original image sizes work well. You have to think about resolution and aspect ratio.

In respect to columns you can do a number of things. It is very easy for a professional web designer to change the number of columns dependent on device. The most common way is of couse to use CSS styling media queries. Alternatively you can use AJAX to update column configuration.

All of these issues are website development issues in general, not specific to any platform.

Choices have to be made during the web design process as to what the site is optimised for. Generally though, given the plethora of different devices and screen resolutions available one needs fluid design.

In web design you can please some of the devices all of the time, all of the devices some of the time but never all of the devices all of the time.

 

[serendipitybusiness]

Thats why you buy a premium theme and edit that, so the developer has already been through this processes and their buyers have bug tested it for them. Headaches avoided!!

 

[fisicx]

In web design you can please some of the devices all of the time, all of the devices some of the time but never all of the devices all of the time.

Yes you can. It's not that difficult. Unless you are using woocommerce.

 

[postbrexitandbeyond]

I really like WooCommerce. I feel like that it is the next step after Shopify for many, because you get more freedom and the reliability of WP.