10 Essential WooCommerce Plugins for Managing Your Store

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What makes WooCommerce such a compelling eCommerce platform is that, just like other WordPress plugins, it can be extended to perform more and more tasks. For example, complex functionality (advanced reporting, rewards programs, etc.) that used to be reserved for high-end SaaS providers is now within everyone’s reach.

Even so, shopkeepers don’t always need something complicated. In fact, they often need to add more basic functionality that makes life easier for both them and their customers. And plugin authors have excelled at extending WooCommerce in this area, as well.

Here are 10 plugins that you can use to build the WooCommerce store you’ve always wanted:

WooCommerce Wallet

WooCommerce Wallet is an interesting solution for shops who want to allow customers to keep a balance on hand.

Customers can deposit funds, earn cash back and even request a refund. The plugin also allows for partial payments which could be handy for big-ticket items. Site admins can directly add funds to a user’s account from the back end, as well.

WooCommerce Ultimate Reports

WooCommerce Ultimate Reports serves a very important need. It generates a variety of reports to help you make sense of your sales. You can view reports for product variations, taxes, inventory, and coupon use, along with various profit types.

Overall, there are 55+ reports included. Data can also be exported to XLS, CSV and PDF formats. Finding trends and analyzing data isn’t a strongpoint of WooCommerce out-of-the-box, so adding it in is critical.

XL WooCommerce Sales Triggers

While XL WooCommerce Sales Triggers doesn’t add big-time functionality, it does specialize in adding the little details that help to drive sales. Many of the seven included sales triggers are staples of major eCommerce retailers.

The Countdown Timer, Stock Alert and Potential Savings encourage action. The Most Recent Sales Activity, Guarantees, Best Sellers and Satisfaction Rate increase consumer confidence. They may be little things, but they can add up to something big.

WooCommerce Ultimate Points and Rewards

WooCommerce Ultimate Points and Rewards enables you to set up a rather sophisticated customer rewards program.

You can reward customers based on their purchases, referrals, posting comments or just for signing up. As an admin, you can assign cash value to points and customers can then redeem them via a coupon. Various settings allow for tweaking the program to meet your specific needs.

WooCommerce Products List Pro

While WooCommerce looks great by default, creating a custom product layout can provide a huge boost to UX. WooCommerce Products List Pro provides an attractive and highly-customizable product listing table for your shop. You’ll be able to create custom lists and filter products in numerous ways.

Choose which product data you want to display with your listing. A simple Shortcode can be generated so you can display your lists anywhere. Developers will like that the plugin includes several hooks and filters for even further tweaking.

WooCommerce Product Variations Layouts

Taking custom layouts one step further, WooCommerce Product Variations Layouts makes variable products much more attractive. Variable products require the user to select options – think of a T-Shirt with multiple sizing and color options.

Their default layout consists of boring old HTML select boxes. This plugin lets you display them in a more visual way. Choose from Table, Grid, List or Boxed layout. The result is better usability and maybe even better sales.

WooCommerce Support Ticket System

If you’re running an online shop, then you need to think about how you want to handle customer support. WooCommerce Support Ticket System is a clever plugin that integrates both orders and customers with support tickets.

Also included is Pay Per Ticket, which allows you to sell blocks of support tickets for premium service. Tickets can include front-end formatting via TinyMCE and customers can even upload attachments.

Stock Synchronization for WooCommerce

Stock Synchronization for WooCommerce allows for automatically synching product inventory from an outside source.

This provides a whole lot of convenience for shops that sell in multiple places with the same inventory. Syncing occurs through a remote CSV file (Google Drive, Dropbox and password-protected files are supported). Set synchronization to run hourly, daily or twice daily.

WooCommerce Simple Bulk Discounts

Offering bulk purchase discounts is a great way to create loyalty. With WooCommerce Simple Bulk Discounts, shopkeepers can create custom percentage or fixed bulk discounts.

Discount rules can be set on a per-product basis. You can even assign bulk discounts based on a user’s role. For example, you might set things up so that only registered customers have access to a deal.

ARG Multistep Checkout for WooCommerce

ARG Multistep Checkout for WooCommerce enables you to customize and enhance the checkout process.

The multistep process can do wonders for UX and can be customized to achieve the look you want. The tabbed layout is responsive and is ready for tweaking. Colors, button and label text can be easily changed. Specific steps can be hidden if desired.

Power Up Your WooCommerce Shop

If you’re using WooCommerce to power your online store, you have an almost unlimited selection of additional functionality to choose from. The plugins above are only a small sampling of what is available.

No matter what type of shop you run or the type of features you want to implement, chances are that there is a WooCommerce extension out there to make it happen.