Most often when you hear people say they want to open an e-commerce store, you will find that they talk about using "Magento", "Opencart", "Prestashop" or "Shopify" as CMS options to build the e-commerce site. And if you'd ask them why not use WordPress, the general answer would be "No" because of the following reasons:
- Its not scalable.
- It can not handle so much traffic.
- Doesn't have a good e-commerce platform, WP is only for blogs!
- A lot of e-commerce features have to be built in to the WP CMS.
- Doesn't have a good back end support for inventory management, sales reports ...
- Vulnerable to security threats.
- Doesn't support ERP integration
Apart form the last one "ERP integration" which is currently being developed (see more on this here), I am glad to say WordPress has a strong answer for all the arguments. Most of this has particularly changed in last 6 months, with the coming of some awesome WordPress plugins such as WooCommerce, which has revived the e-commerce in WordPress.
One of the biggest reason why I am asking you to consider WordPress, is because of its Huge community.
WordPress is the most popular website platform ever, of all the sites hosted on CMS's WordPress hosts about 63% which means a huge community and since it is open source you can get answers almost for everything.
Now, if you're asking me how many of e-Commerce sites are on WP, well thats what this article is about...:)
Scalable? Cannot handle much traffic?
WordPress is one of the best CMS ever built for scalability, popular websites like Techcrunch, Gizmodo, SmashingMagazine..which are handling millions of visitors per day there is no doubt that WordPress is a scalable platform
Scalable as e-Commerce Platform?
Well.. this is one point which yet remains to be proven, I haven't found any example yet, but I am a firm believer that it is scalable as an e-commerce platform.
WP is only for blogs?
Now, here's a wakeup call for all those who still think that WP is only for blogs. WP as a CMS has now been a proved fact for about 2-3 years. You can build directories, classified sites and you can also built a social network over WordPress using popular Buddypress and WPMU plugins.
Ecommerce Features?
Well, you need to take a serious look at WooCommerce and its features. You get a plethora of features and rest can be attained by installing some paid and some free plugins. With all this you can get :
- 1. Review system and ratings
- 2. Sales and inventory chart
- 3. Custom Recommendations : You may also like
- 4. Multi images support
- 5. Multi image and Zoom feature
- 6. Social integration
- 7. Multiple Payment gateways integration {from Paypal, 2CO to CCAvenue}
- 8. Credit/Debit/Net Banking Direct integration {read more about stripe.js & this plugin}
- 9. Multi currency handling for payments
- 10. Affiliate system
- 11. Save Cart/Publish Cart/Share Cart on social platforms
Vulnerable to security threats..
While one may say that since WordPress is an open source platform, it could be hacked easily. But on the other hand WordPress has the largest community, who contribute to WordPress trac, submit bugs and the WordPress core get frequently updated. Updating the core is as simple as a click of a button. Now, every e-commerce system has been built on an open source platform, so is it different from the others.
Now, its not just the above mentioned features which make WP a contender, every ecommerce site wants to include some social aspect, like
- Users create an account on their site
- Users participate in reviews.
- Users share their carts.
- Users make groups and friends.
- Users start discussions and forums on products and campaigns.
WordPress combined with BuddyPress combined with WooCommerce gives you one of the most powerful platform to host your large to small scale e-commerce website.
Think of how many possibilities you get with WP+Buddypress+WooCommerce+BBpress. I haven't seen any WordPress theme on Themeforest or MojoThemes or WooThemes or Elegant themes which is utilizing even half the potential that WordPress provides currently. Though the potential is huge, I see very few takers for this, so at the end this leaves us with a huge opportunity 
.
I saw many eCommerce sites with WordPress.
If you can operate better on WordPress, why not.
I understand WordPress better than joomla. But joomla is more powerful.
Great article, I agree with pretty much all your points. I've been having the same discussions with a client and have come to the same conclusion - that wordpress is a viable option for e-commerce and it will only become more so in the future.
agree with jay, if i can handle it, why not? actually wordpress especialy woocommerce has many features on it. great for selling stuff.
I am waiting for a good plugin to connect my administration/bookkeeping software with Woocommerce. If you start selling A LOT without such an integration you'll be doing A LOT of extra work
I have been using wordpress for two of my websites and found it the best cms among all. Though I don't have a product based business but do trust that using wordpress for ecommerce will be really good.
We moved from a hosted shopping cart solution, to a custom open source based solution which cost us $$$. We recently tried WordPress with Woocommerce plus a premium theme, and haven't looked back. Our time on site increased, and our conversion increased. We then converted all of our e-commerce sites (of which we have many), and couldn't be happier. We would find it very difficult to recommend other alternatives, unless you had very specific needs.
Great to hear WP success in e-commerce. I am a firm believer that WordPress would excel as "THE" CMS for all the needs, primarily because it is simple to use. Usability of Admin Panel and User experience of front end are the KEY features which would lead the way for WP.