Sarah Humphrey94WestDesign.com

Using WordPress for eCommerce: Optimizing and Best Practices

Hi! I am Sarah HumphreyI love the intersection of design, content, and technical nerdery, which makes website design a perfect fit!

• Designing websites since 2002, started website design business in 2011

• Specialize in SEO, eComm, and WordPress

• Owner of 94 West Design

• Away from the keyboard, I love live music, walking my naughty hound dog, and exchanging fart jokes with my two boys.

Adventures in eComm

• Ran my own eComm business for just over a year

• Travelled to Guangzhou, China to the Canton Fair in 2016

• Learned about the owner/implementation side of running an eComm business, in addition to the website/technical side

Maker Studio 3D

Shout Outs

WordPress Kansas CityWordPressKC.com

Freelance ExchangeKCFreelanceExchange.com

Join Sarah at GEW

Using WordPress for eCommerce

November 19 | 2-3pm | 18th & Vine

Getting Started with Google Ads

November 21 | 2-3pm | 18th & Vine

Today’s Discussion

Why Choose WooCommerce

Optimizing Your eComm site

Resources & Plugins

Equine nutrition supplements

WooCommerce

Open Source

Highly Customizable

Easy-to-use

SEO Capabilities

Highly Supported

All the benefits of WordPress

Can I do that with WooCommerce?

Yup! I bet you can.

WooCommerce Works For:• Simple Physical or Digital Products

• Variable Products

• Customizable Products

• Photo Products

• Product Bundles

• Event or Class Reservations

• Subscription Services or Boxes

• Distributor Pricing

• Product Catalog

• Anything else?

#1 Keep it Simple

Limit customizations and product options.

Customizing Your Product PageDIVI with the WooCommerce Builder Plugin

• Visual editor for creating WooComm templates

• 25 custom modules and 14 shortcodes

• Build One Layout for All Products

• Build Layouts For Products Based On Their Categories

• Build Archive Specific Layouts (Categories / Tags)

All the Product Options

• WooCommerce Extra Product Options - create priced product options and add-ons, conditional logic, build forms, style & validate features, convert the variation attributes dropdowns to radio buttons, image swatches, more

• WooCommerce Upload Files - allow customers to customize products with photos or text

B2B eComm Options

• Distributor Pricing (WooCommerce Wholesale Prices Premium) –manage wholesale customers and pricing – global or individual pricing options and minimum purchases

• Product Catalog (YITH WooCommerce Request A Quote) -turn your WooCommerce installation into a quote request system for custom-quoted requests

Uploading and Updating Products with EaseWP All Import with WooCommerce Add-On

• Works with any Theme

• Works with any XML or CSV file

• Imports images

• Simple drag-and-drop interface

• Can add new products or update existing

• Works for variable products and custom fields

#2 Keep it FAST

Loading speed is everything.

Speed Matters for UX & SEO:• Nearly 70% of consumers admit that

page speed influences their likeliness to buy.

• You have half a second to make a good impression

• 53% of mobile users abandon websites that take longer than 3 seconds to load

• Speed is an SEO signal

Test your site:

Google Page Speed Insights

GT Metrix

Don’t be Cheap: Upgrade your HostI’ve cut loading time for eComm sites in HALF by switching hosts. Would you pay double for hosting to double your sales?

Recommended:

WP Engine (Starts at $29/mo)

Siteground (Starts at $20/mo)

Flywheel (Starts at $23/mo)

Limit ScriptsWhat’s loading on your site?

• Intrusive popups

• Analytics and tracking

• Heatmaps, visitor recording

• Lead management

• Social sharing and buttons

• Videos

• Other? Limit to the minimum!

Caching Basics• A “saved” copy of your website at both

the browser and server level

• If you have great hosting, it might be built-in

• Plugin to use - WP Fastest Cache Premium – free or premium version, which includes database clean up

• AutoOptimize – script minimization

• Important to TEST – you don’t want to cache cart or check-out flow

CDN: CloudflareSecurity + Speed

Includes:

Firewall, DDoS protection, rate limiting, bot management, VPN, and more.

Intelligent routing, mobile & image optimization, cache.

#3 A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

Manage your images.

Balancing Look & Speed

Great pictures sell products.

Big pictures slow down websites.

Slow websites don’t sell.

• Use lots of well-lit, clear, well-staged product photos.

• Use remove.bg to get rid of backgrounds.

• Use an image compression plugin such as Short Pixel to optimize your images. Shortpixel improves website performance by reducing the image size. Resulted smaller images are no different in quality from the original.

#4 Trust Me

Give your customers reasons to trust you.

On-Site Trust Signals70% of consumers terminate on-line purchases due to lack of trust! (source)

• Include methods of payment in the footer (include logos)

• Use SSL

• Include a physical address in the footer. Make your contact info easy to find. Include a phone number.

• Include social links and links to any 3rd party reviews

• Include Terms, Conditions, Shipping, and Return info

• Include FAQ and About pages. Use photos of yourself and your team.

#5 Get Listed on Google

Enter the Google Ecosystem.

Google Product Feed

Make sure that you’ve made it easy to find your website and your products.

• Submit your sitemap to both Google and Bing

• Install Google Analytics

• Set up your Google My Business Account

• Submit your product feed to Google Merchant Center –Product Feed Pro Plugin – unlimited products, filtering, rules, etc. Also works for Facebook and other feeds.

• SEO/UX tip – include awesome, unique product descriptions! Include all specs. Include photos & video.

#6 Testing, Testing…

Never stop testing.

Get your FriendsGet your kids too. And your mom. And then have them get all their devices out.

• Create a 99% off coupon code. (Not free)

• Give it to your friends and family.

• Ask them to order something. Then CALL them and ask how it worked.

• No Excuses! Even (especially) if you are working with a web developer or team.

#7 Ship it.

Your package is on it’s way!

Shipping OptionsTwo good options that both:

• Sync your orders and allow you to choose from a variety of shipping providers.

• Create and print labels.

• Mobile app and package tracking.

• Free plugin and free trials.

• Start at approx $10/mo.

• ShipStation or Shippo

#8 Love it? Tell your friends!

Get serious about reviews.

Getting Reviews

Who here uses product reviews to make buying decisions?

• WooCommerce’s built-in review system isn’t very robust.

• There are a couple of lower-priced options that are good, but don’t integrate well with Google Seller ratings. (Stamped.io)

• Yotpo and Trust Pilot are great, but expensive.

#9 Own your assets.

Your URL is your business. Register it yourself.

Additional Basics

Maintenance is a cost of doing business.

• Update plugins and software

• Regular backups

• Security software

• Keep all your login info safe and in two places

• Know where your site is hosted

Bonus …

Lessons I learned from my eComm biz.

Things I Learned

• Get all agreements in writing from your distributor.

• Entering eCommerce is less expensive than traditional retail, but don’t think it is “cheap” or free.

• Be ready to interact with your customers.

• Prepare for logistics.

• Create content! Pick something you are passionate about, or hire someone who is.

THANK YOU!!

Need help? Have questions?

Slides will be posted at 94WestDesign.com

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Email me Sarah@94WestDesign.com

Leave me a Google Review!!