10 Things You Don’t Know WooCommerce Can Do

While WooCommerce is outstanding for adding an online store to your WordPress, you may not realize that, as a plugin, it is available for several other uses and it is versatile. Like WordPress, WooCommerce has multiple forms it can take, which includes methods of payment and giving options for selling.

Just as WordPress itself is capable of changing into many forms, similarly is WooCommerce. Regardless of the level of experience, you hold with eCommerce or WooCommerce in general, its potential may be an eye-opener for you. There are many hidden features in the core plugin which may come in handy, powerful options enabled via extensions, plus unrecognized productivity hacks you can try out to make your day easier.

The beauty of WooCommerce is that its potential for expansion and growth enables you — either as a developer or store owner — to build stunning things. And the more you know about the platform’s capabilities, the more you can create with it!

The main reason why WooCommerce can do numerous things is that WooCommerce has an excellent built-in payment engine, which other plugins can tap into. So even if you’re not actually selling products, you can still use these engines and its many other different payment methods.

Transforming your website of WooCommerce into something different is done by using additional plugins or extensions.

Our aim is to give you a look at 10 things you might not have known you could accomplish with WooCommerce.

1) Drop-Shipping

At first, this plugin looks like a very easy way of informing drop-shipping companies you work with new orders. In this way, you can sell their products as your own in your web store, and when an order arrives, an email gets sent to the supplying company.

But this plugin takes the process somewhat further, just by accommodating for status updates. It depends on the willingness of the supplier to cooperate, but if they do, you will only need to spend limited time on managing orders. This plugin even keeps track of the amount of money you owe the supplier.

2) Auctions

This is one of the favorites when it comes to originality. By adding certain extra functions to WooCommerce you are instantly capable of becoming ‘the new eBay’. This plugin allows you to run one or more auctions for your products, including countdown timer and bid history.

After winning bid is decided, the bidder can pay for their article right away, where everything is managed by WooCommerce. There is a ‘My Auctions’ section so bidders can keep track.

Everything sounds pretty obvious for an auction site, but don’t forget it is still WooCommerce we’re talking about. Pretty impressive if you take my opinion.

3) Subscriptions

Subscriptions are mostly used to allow recurring payments. This plugin is a very simple but powerful tool to sell subscriptions for online access, newspapers, products, etc. In addition to this, it synchronizes with many popular payment gateways. So when a customer cancels his/her subscription with the provider itself, the subscription gets canceled in your store as well.

It doesn’t matter if you are selling online or physical products with yearly or monthly subscriptions. As long as it is recurring, this plugin will fit the bill.

4) Paid Job Listings

Talking about this plugin similar to WP Job Manager Demo allows you to sell your job listings to recruiters the people who are searching for the candidates. This paid job listing plugin requires the no-cost WP Job Manager plugin to work, plus also has a paid extension.

• Easy steps and no additional signups
• Low-cost job board
• Make your WooCommerce work for you

This combination makes it simple and quite easy to maintain your own job board with low cost while making use of the power of WooCommerce. Save yourself time and effort during the recruiting and hiring process.

5) Quotes

At many times, you may not be willing to sell a product to a customer until the customer asks you for a quote. If a customer wants a large or special order, you may want to regulate the sale yourself and negotiate the price before the sale is complete. This plugin will allow you to filter these sales, making the customer ask for a quote first.

• Skip over hassling and negotiating
• Avoid selling a product before you’ve agreed
• Avoid lengthy phone or email negotiations

You will still need to have a follow up outside your web store, but this quote plugin saves you time, steps, and possible frustration, allowing you to agree on the price and close the sale.

6) Bookings

Whether you are selling hotel rooms like in the demo, or tickets to your very own stand-up comedy show, using a bookings plugin takes care of it. It uses a time calendar and date to allow visitors to select the time they want to place a booking.

This plugin is quite inventive by giving you enough ways to control your calendar, preventing the overbookings or no shows. You can even have a customer check availability with you being first. This booking plugin also takes care of the invoicing, using the WooCommerce payment option.

7) Facebook Store

WooCommerce gives a great deal by offering a free plugin to connect your web store to Facebook. This plugin allows you to set up a shop on your Facebook page, and synchronize your products between your web store and your Facebook page. Also included is a Facebook ads extension, which you can use to (re)target your visitors on Facebook by using a pixel.

Setting up is very convenient. After you install the plugin, you are guided through a process in which you can select the relevant page. The Facebook pixel is made on the spot, and the products are imported to your Facebook page right away. You then only have to wait for Facebook to process the images, texts, and links after which you’re done.

8) Memberships

WordPress itself has an excellent Groups plugin which can be further used to define membership levels. On combining that with the Groups for WooCommerce plugin and you can begin selling paid memberships. Adding the aforementioned Subscriptions plugin and you can even sell recurring memberships.

Paid memberships are very popular with mastermind or study groups. In this way, a new member requires to pay for a membership, after which they get access to the premium content which the author is providing. Coupled with subscriptions, the author is assured of a recurring income from their group.

9) Amazon Store

I mentioned this one before but it is such a great plugin it’s worth mentioning again. It uses Amazon’s API for fully integrating its products into your web store, in such a manner that visitors won’t even know it’s Amazon.

You can even utilize the reviews placed on Amazon itself and in addition to that it’s ‘Frequently Bought Together’ recommendations. Just only when a customer decides to checkout they are taken to the checkout page on Amazon.

As it’s just a WordPress plugin you still can use the native functionality. This way you can combine the plugin with other WooCommerce/ WordPress plugins, run a separate blog on your site, and functionality. This Amazon store plugin is perfect if you want to gain experience in running a web store, without worrying about stocks or payments.

10) Affiliate Stores

Simple to set up and use, the affiliate store plugin allows you to refer customers to other companies for sales. While this isn’t direct selling on your part, you do have the capability to up-sell or cross-sell and combine affiliate products with your own.

• Cross-sell or up-sell
• You can provide a shopping experience even if you don’t sell products directly
• Combine affiliate products

One benefit of using an affiliate store plugin is that you can still sell on your site even if you don’t have products to sell. You don’t even have to keep inventory, but customers can still purchase products through your website. And moreover, you can even combine the plugin with the Amazon store plugin if you’d like to.