Top 10 Add-Ons For WooCommerce

WooCommerce is one of the most commonly used eCommerce platforms for WordPress, and it’s no surprise! This open source eCommerce platform easily plugs-in to any WordPress.org site, and it does so completely free of charge.

You may be asking yourself: how can WooCommerce afford to offer their services 100% free? There’s an easy answer to that: Add-ons. WooCommerce makes money by selling extensions to their basic program.

WooCommerce calls this a Core+Extensions model. Instead of paying a monthly price for lots of features you need (and a whole bunch you don’t), WooCommerce gives you the option to pick and choose what you want to add on to your platform.

And, boy, do they give you options! The WooCommerce Extensions page lists over 300 add-ons for your store.

With so many options, it’s hard to know where to begin.

For your sake, I’ve compiled a list of the top WooCommerce add-ons. Now, I have one disclaimer: when I say “top” extensions, I do not necessarily mean “best.” In many cases, comparing add-ons is like comparing apples to oranges. What I do mean is that these WooCommerce extensions are both popular in the WooCommerce Marketplace and well-recommended by other third party review sites.

Note: I’ve chosen to exclude payment gateways from this list. Payment processing is obviously a key part of your sales funnel, but I feel that the gateway’s customer service and transaction rates are much more important than the quality of their plug-in. Here at Merchant Maverick we review payment gateways as well. Check out those reviews here.

Check out our full WooCommerce Review for everything you need to know about this platform. Without further ado, here is our list of the top 10 add-ons for WooCommerce.

Shipping Solutions

1. ShipStation Integration

ShipStation (see our review) is an order processing service, and we think it’s pretty great (just read our review). You can integrate your WooCommerce site with ShipStation for free, but you will have to pay ShipStation’s monthly subscription fees. They range from $9/mo to $145/mo, depending primarily on the number of shipments you make.

Here are the features that ShipStation adds to your program:

• Order management. ShipStation lets you create and print labels in batches. You can also automate many other aspects of your order processing.
• Sync with marketplaces. Use ShipStation to process orders from Amazon and eBay as well as from your WooCommerce site.
• Advanced features. Advanced features include return label generation and shipping service mapping features (among others). View all of ShipStation’s features here and here.

2. Table Rate Shipping

Table Rate Shipping gives WooCommerce merchants the tools they need to create complex shipping rules. You can adjust shipping rules based on any number of factors including shipping zones and item type.

The integration starts at $99 for a single site.

With Table Rate Shipping, you can:

• Create shipping zones. Charge more for farther distances.
• Make rules within those zones. Even within shipping zones, it’s possible to establish different rates. You can base those shipping rates on weight, the number of items shipped, or by item class and price.

In essence, Table Rate Shipping is designed to let you specify your shipping charges so that you don’t lose profit to miscalculations.

3. USPS, UPS, FedEx

WooCommerce offers three separate integrations with the APIs of the USPS, UPS, and FedEx. These integrations allow you to display real-time shipping rates.

Each individual integration costs $79.

Other Third-Party Add-Ons

4. YITH Essential Kit for WooCommerce #1

YITH Essential Kit is a free plug-in that incorporates a whole host of other plug-ins in one package. If you only download one plug-in from this whole article, this is the one to download.

YITH Essentials kit is well-recommended on multiple third-party sites and comes with the following features:

• Ajax Search
• Ajax Product Filter
• Compare Products
• Zoom Magnifier
• Quick View
• Infinite Scrolling
• Wishlist
• Request a Quote
• Out-of-Stock Waiting List
• Catalog Mode
• Product Badge Management
• Advanced Reviews
• Review Reminder
• MailChimp Integration
• Authorize.Net Payment Gateway Integration
• Stripe Integration
• Order Tracking
• EU VAT
• Multi-Vendor
• Live Chat
• Tab Manager for Product Pages
• Custom Cart Messages
• Product Add-Ons

These features can be enabled and disabled whenever you please. Because they all come in the same package, you don’t have to worry about your various plug-ins cooperating. They all work together great.

In order to use YITH Essentials Kit, you’ll need to have WordPress 3.5.1 or higher. It is compatible up to 4.7.

5. WooCommerce Order/Customer CSV Export

CSV exporting helps to automate and streamline your processes. With WooCommerce Order/Customer CSV Export, you can quickly and easily convert information on your site into a CSV file (like an Excel spreadsheet). That spreadsheet can then be sent to your order fulfillment team and your CRM software.

Pricing begins at $79.00 for one site and includes a year of updates and support.

Additional features to note:

• Export on-demand or automatically. You can enable your site to export information at regular intervals, or you can start exporting at any point.
• Work and export. You don’t have to stop working on your site while your data is being exported. Both can happen simultaneously!

Before you purchase CSV export, you should note that it requires WooCommerce 2.4.13 or higher.

6. WooCommerce Direct Checkout

You won’t find this plug-in in WooCommerce’s Extensions page. Rather, it’s available as a WordPress plug-in. Direct Checkout does exactly what you’d expect it to do; it simplifies the checkout process for your customers.

Here’s what it allows you to do:

• Place “Continue Shopping” buttons in product pages. Let customers move from product pages to your browsing pages without hitting the back button.
• Change “Add to Cart” text. Make the “Add to Cart” button say whatever you want–perhaps, “Buy Now.”
• Update “Redirect to page” option. You may choose to send customers directly to the checkout page when they add products to their cart or you can choose to send them elsewhere.

This plug-in requires WordPress 3.0 or higher and is compatible up to 4.6.1. It’s free to download and use.

WooCommerce’s Extensions

7. WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing

This extension provides what it calls “Dynamic Pricing,” which is really just a fancy way to say “Discounts.” With WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing, you’ll be able to set up discounts when customers purchase in bulk or purchase multiple items from the same category.

WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing costs $129.00 for a single site. That price includes one year of updates and support.

Here are a few of the features that come with Dynamic Pricing:

• Tiered bulk discounts. Customers pay less per item when they purchase bulk orders.
• Fixed discounts. Set fixed price adjustments or percentage adjustments.
• Deductions based on category. For example, you can apply a set percentage discount to a single category. Or, you can set discounts like the following: Discount 20% off items from X category when a shopper buys $100 of items in Y category.
• Role-based pricing. Provide different discounts to different customer groups.

8. WooCommerce Bookings

WooCommerce Bookings is designed for service-based businesses like salons and clinics. WooCommerce Bookings lets you manage time and allows clients to schedule appointments online.

Pricing begins at $249 for a single site.

Here’s what WooCommerce Booking lets you do:

• Create fixed time slots. For example, if you’re a tutor who schedules students for sixty-minute tutoring sessions, you can make sure that students only sign up for appointments within those sixty-minute blocks.
• Filter and update. Sift through existing appointments and make changes to any that need updating.
• Create appointments manually. Schedule appointments on behalf of your clients.
• Send email notifications. Notify clients of upcoming appointments to reduce no-shows.

9. Product Add-Ons

Product Add-Ons lets you sell custom products. You can provide input boxes (also known as custom fields), dropdowns, and checkboxes so that customers can select the customizations they prefer. This is great for business that do a lot of monogramming, engraving, and gift messaging.

The app starts at $49.00 for a single site and (like most) includes a year of updates and support.

A few features to mention:

• Price variation. You can increase the price of your products depending upon the customizations that your customers select.
• Allow customization store-wide or on a product-by-product basis. If you allow the same customizations on all your products, save time by setting them up all at once. Otherwise, manage customizations for each individual product.

10. WooSubscriptions

WooSubscriptions lets you harness the power of recurring billing. With WooSubscriptions, you can sell subscription products and services, and you can let customers update and manage their accounts on their own.

Pricing for this extension begins at $199 for a single site. You will receive one year of updates and support.

The following is a brief list of WooSubscription’s tops features:

• Process recurring payments. This is what the add-on is all about! You can securely bill stored credit card numbers.
• Works with over 25 payment gateways. Take your pick.
• Let subscribers manage their plans. Give your customers the freedom to order more frequently or less frequently from you.
• Renewal notifications for you and customers. Receive and send notifications when a customer’s card is billed for their next order.
• View reports. See how well your recurring billing campaign is going. We can’t all be the Dollar Shave Club, but we sure can try!

Selecting the Right Extensions for your Site

Now that you’ve got a list of the Top 10 Add-ons for Woocommerce, you may be tempted to go out and download them all. But before you do so, I suggest you pause and ask yourself: “What does my business really NEED?”

Keep in mind that when adding on any extension (even popular, widely recommended extensions), you run the risk of creating errors within your system. Multiple add-ons further complicate things and, more importantly, can weigh down your site. You may find that your site runs a bit slower when you’ve got all of your features enabled.

I recommend that you only incorporate add-ons that are necessary for your business. If you absolutely need more functionality, you can always purchase more later. Take it one add-on at a time.