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"Remember when WordPress was used only for blogging?\nEven all of the talk about WordPress being a true CMS seems to be old news these days.  Therefore, make way for latest phase of WordPress\u2019 evolution: ecommerce.\nIf you\u2019re selling products online, you need to take a serious look at WordPress as your platform for ecommerce.  Third party shopping cart plugins for WordPress are not so new anymore.  They\u2019ve been slowly developing and evolving within the WordPress community for years.  Today, ecommerce on WordPress is ready for prime time.\nBefore we get into which WordPress shopping carts you should consider using, let\u2019s talk about why it\u2019s a good idea to integrate your CMS and shopping cart together under one roof (WordPress).\n\nClean Integration of Your CMS and Your Shopping Cart\nGone are the days of running two separate systems on your website: one for your marketing site/blog and another for your online store. By fully integrating your shopping cart with your WordPress CMS, you have complete control to cross-promote your products with other site content.\nFor example, your homepage might be used to promote \u201Chot\u201D products as well as your latest blog headlines.  You might want to announce a flash sale in your homepage slider and carry that callout through the rest of your site using global WordPress widgets.\nFrom an administration standpoint, you (or your client) only need to use one login for one system to manage everything in the operation.  Plus, it\u2019s easier to view and measure your sales funnel when your analytics tool tracks a single website.\n\nSeamless User Experience for Your Customers (and Your Developer)\nHow many times have you experienced this? You land on the beautiful homepage of some business.  They have an appealing design, strategic and friendly marketing copy and an overall positive user experience.  So far, you like what you see, so you click the link labeled \u201CStore.\u201D\nSuddenly, you\u2019re taken to what seems to be a completely different website, with an outdated design and clunky customer experience.  Your impression of the website, and in turn, your opinion of this brand, has taken a turn for the worse.  Now you\u2019re not so sure about buying its product. \nA fully integrated shopping cart system built into your WordPress site ensures that customers experience the same design and quality from homepage to checkout.\nFor developers, it means not having to fiddle around with two different systems, \u201Cfaking\u201D integration by closely matching two stylesheets, or making updates in two places each time.  Integration means one codebase, centralized functionality and easy maintenance.\n\nTop 4 Ecommerce Tools for WordPress\nThe following are just a few of the more popular systems out there, and new ones are popping up all the time, particularly as the WordPress community continues to expand.\nAs you can see, the ability to sell products on a WordPress site has come a very long way.  With all of the amazing plugins and frameworks that have been developed in this space, ecommerce on WordPress certainly deserves real consideration for any new online store project.\n\n\nTop 4 Ecommerce Tools for WordPress\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n1. WooCommerce\n\nJust last month, WooThemes released its ecommerce framework, WooCommerce.  This is arguably one of the most comprehensive shopping cart solutions available for WordPress.  It originated as a fork of the popular Jigoshop plugin, and offers a host powerful features including multiple product types (simple, configurable, downloadable, etc.), inventory management, comprehensive shipping and tax options, marketing tools and powerful reporting features.  The admin user experience is powerful yet easy to use.  Like everything from Woo, it can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n2. Cart66\n\n\nCart66 is a plugin for WordPress that offers all of the common ecommerce functionality we\u2019ve come to expect, including product configurations, shipping and tax options, and inventory tracking, among a long list of other features.\nThe thing that sets Cart66 apart from its competitors is its focus on premium membership subscriptions (recurring billing) and selling both digital and physical products.  This is a good choice if you\u2019re selling premium web content on a recurring basis, or mailing magazine subscriptions or the like.\nThe fully functional Cart66 plugin can be licensed for for $89-$399.  A \u201Clite\u201D version with limited functionality is also available as a free download.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n3. Shopp\n\n\nThen there\u2019s Shopp, another ecommerce plugin for WordPress.  This one has been available for quite some time, so you know it\u2019s been developed and improved quite a bit over its lifespan. What stands out about Shopp is its simplicity of design customization.\nShopp is licensed as a core framework ($55 - $299, depending on the number of sites you wish to use it on).  Like WooCommerce, Shopp offers additional functionality as premium add-ons, most of which are $25.  These include multiple payment gateways and shipping services integrations among other things.\nOne interesting upgrade available for Shopp are the \u201CPriority Support Calls.\u201D This is an interesting offer since almost all WordPress products go with a typical support forum with a day or two response time.  These paid add-ons ($49-$199) give store owners faster response times when they\u2019re in need.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n4. WP E-Commerce\n\n\nAlso known as GetShopped.org, this long-time ecommerce solution for WordPress takes a simpler approach to selling products on your WordPress site.  Again, this one gives you most of the common ecommerce functionality, plus a few stand-out features like its ability to work with WordPress multisite \u201Cout of the box.\u201D  This one is also highly SEO optimized, though to be fair, all of these solutions are.\nLike some of the other solutions, the core version of the WP E-Commerce plugin is available as a free download.  Additional features can be purchased as premium extensions.  Plus, there is a \u201CGold Cart\u201D package available, which combines several enhancements such as live product search, some payment gateways and shipping integrations, among other benefits.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Bottom Line\nAs you can see, the possibility of selling products on a WordPress site has come a very long way.  With all of the amazing plugins and frameworks that have been developed in this space, ecommerce on WordPress certainly deserves real consideration for any new online store project."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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