WooCommerce is by far the biggest player in the WordPress ecommerce space. It has its own robust economy of premium add-ons both by its creators and an impressive array of third party developers. So much so that it can be easy to catch yourself thinking that every add-on worth having is premium. But like WooCommerce itself (and WordPress of course) quality/usefulness and a $0 price tag are not mutually exclusive. There are plenty of free WooCommerce plugins out there that can enhance your store without requiring you to spend a dime. In this post we’ve rounded up eleven we feel are worth checking out.
- 1 1. WooCommerce Multilingual
- 2 2. YITH WooCommerce Wishlist
- 3 3. WooRewards
- 4 4. WooCommerce Direct Checkout
- 5 5. WooCommerce Menu Cart
- 6 6. WooCommerce Currency Switcher
- 7 7. WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips
- 8 8. Amazon Pay
- 9 9. Woo Zoom
- 10 10. WooCommerce Gift Cards
- 11 11. Coupon Shortcodes + Coupon Countdown
- 12 Finishing Up with Free WooCommerce Plugins
1. WooCommerce Multilingual
Off the bat, you should know that expanding the languages your store is available in can increase sales and conversions. A language translation plugin can help with this. The WPML project is fantastic for that, and this plugin will let you make sure that your site reaches absolutely as many people as possible. I think the best part of this plugin is that it not only shows the pages on your site in a new language, but also allows emails that you sent to your customers to be translated, too. That’s good stuff.
2. YITH WooCommerce Wishlist
You want people to come back to your site. While one-off sales are okay, the real money is with repeat customers. And what better way to get repeat customers than to give them a chance to browse your store and throw whatever they want to remember onto a wishlist? It works for Amazon, so it will work for you, too. Just install the YITH WooCommerce Wishlist plugin and before you know it, conversions and return visitors will be soaring. Plus, the image they use to promote the plugin uses an elegant black dress. I say their word choice is an omen.
3. WooRewards
If you’re like most shoppers, free stuff gets you to buy more than you’d normally buy. Just the prospect of it being free is too tantalizing to miss. Even more than that, the best way to give something for free is to make sure they keep coming back to your store over and over again. That’s why rewards programs are so popular. With the WooRewards plugin, you can host your own rewards program for free. Just like the wishlist above, if you can get people to come back for any reason, they will most likely buy more stuff. And with something free dangling like a carrot on a stick in front of them, too, it’s a one-two punch that’ll knock ’em out every time.
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4. WooCommerce Direct Checkout
Remember how one of the most annoying parts of ecommerce is the abandoned cart? Well, that’s not an issue with WooCommerce Direct Checkout. Just install this baby on your site, and you won’t have any abandoned carts anymore. Zero. Zilch. Because you won’t have a cart at all. You can direct your customers directly to checkout with this plugin so that their impulse to buy is streamlined through the process perfectly. It’s totally free to use, but if you want a more robust experience, the developers have a pro upgrade you can opt for.
Just like it says, this plugin puts a cart icon in the menu of your WordPress site. Some themes don’t play well with WooCommerce, but that shouldn’t be a problem with this one installed. Just activate it, and you have a customizable spot in your menu bar that lets your customers keep track of everything they’ve set aside to buy. And if you don’t want it just in the menu bar, you can use a shortcode to render the cart wherever you want — widgets, footers, blogs, anywhere.
6. WooCommerce Currency Switcher
If there is one lesson we can learn from the current state of the film industry, it’s that there’s a lot of money to be made outside of the United States. So make sure that your customers know what they’re really paying by using this plugin. When installed, this plugin lets your users see exchange rates for the price you’ve set and their desired currency. No more guessing how many Euros equal how many US Dollars, or how many Ruples equal how many GBP. The free version only supports 2 currencies, but that may be enough if you have a dominant country in addition to your native one.
7. WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips
Running an ecommerce store is fun and games…until it’s not. The worst part about an online business (really, any business) is keeping up with all your paperwork. Thankfully, there is a slew of software out there to make it better for you, and this is one of the top options. With this free WooCommerce plugin, you can generate PDF invoices and packing slips (see why it’s named that now?) quickly and easily so your business keeps moving foward and doesn’t have to slow down while you push around a lot of paper.
8. Amazon Pay
PayPal and Stripe may be your go-to payment methods for WooCommerce, but you should absolutely think about Amazon Pay, too. Since roughly everyone in the world shops on Amazon, using this free, official extension will make your store run a bit more smoothly. It lets your users integrate with a payment processor that they are already comfortable with and trust, and you get the same benefits because you’re dealing with a gateway that’s based on one of the biggest infrastructures in the world. The only downside as I see to this (and this is a minor quibble) is that users can’t use rewards points or gift cards for purchases via Amazon Pay. As a consumer, that stinks, but as a vendor, it should be no different than taking PayPal or Stripe.
9. Woo Zoom
I don’t know what it is about image magnification, but there’s just something that screams a site is professional if you let users zoom in on your products. Installing this plugin makes it a breeze, and your shop will look a ton more professional immediately. You can upgrade to a pro version if you want more customization, but you probably won’t need to.
10. WooCommerce Gift Cards
Everyone loves gift cards. Whether they are getting free money to a favorite shop (yours, obviously) or picking out an easy present on the go that can be given immediately, people adore gift cards. If you have this plugin installed, your customers will have that option, and even if they don’t find the perfect gift for that special someone, that special someone can pick it out for themselves. The downside to the free version of this plugin is that while the gift cards are available to purchase on your site, you have to manually send the codes to the recipient. For smaller shops, that may be a good thing, as you have a bit more granular control, but for later sites, that just isn’t possible to keep up with. Other than that, it’s easy to use and set up, so you should definitely take a look.
11. Coupon Shortcodes + Coupon Countdown
To round it all out, let’s give your customers a reward for being so darn amazing. With the Coupon Shortcodes plugin, you can designate anywhere on your site as a location for your customers to get a code and apply it at checkout. While that’s awesome, it’s integration with Coupon Countdown is what really makes it cool — you can do a limited time offer for only specific parts of your site (maybe 404 pages or a sales page).
Finishing Up with Free WooCommerce Plugins
No matter what kind of store you run, there’s a handful of these free WooCommerce plugins that should probably be installed on your site. Sure, not everything will work for everyone, but even the ones with limited functionality can work as a demo to see if it’s the right fit for your store. Given that all these are free, installing some of them can only gain you sales, right? Happy selling!
What is your favorite WooCommerce plugin? Have any changed the way you do business?
Article featured image by Sammby / shutterstock.com
Some oldies and some new goodies here. Thanks for always helping us build great WordPress sites!
Thanks for the update, keep it coming.
WPML for woocommerce is free only if you run paid WPML.
What we want to know is when divi will make an integrated update to improve integration with Woocommerce. Example.
Optimized search module for products.
Personalization Product Search Page
Personalization Shop Page
Product Slider
etc….
I am pretty sure there’s a WooCommerce update in the pipeline. I am not 100% on the details of all the features, but keep an eye out. 🙂
I always use Booster for WooCommerce (booster.io). Great plugin that adds a whole lot of functionality to Woo.
Dear Keaton,
I sell digital goods and they are send to the eMail address of the buyer.
I need only the eMail address and the first name of the buyer as obligated fields to complete the checkout.
What kind of Woo plugin can I use as best fitting?
Best regards,
Peter
I instaleld this free plugin call woocommerce checkout field editing and remove all the shipping info. I only ask for their names and email address now.
MailChimp for woocommerce
Awesome, thanks for posting.
Please keep on updating this list whenever possible!
It’s always great to have free tools at hand.