It doesn’t matter how good you are at using WooCommerce; even if you have plenty of experience with it, chances are you are currently not using (and are probably not even aware of) many of its less obvious functions. Both by itself and with the help of extensions, it has potential for improving your store long after you believe that you’ve already done everything you can with it. In this article, we will cover some of these possibilities so that you won’t have to discover them yourself.
1. Set up Slack notifications
If you don’t use Slack, its convenience in conjunction with WooCommerce is an excellent reason to start doing it. If you do use it, then there is no reason not to tie it in with WooCommerce. Firstly, it is probably the best of currently available tools you can use to keep in touch with other members of your company, especially if you have employees and colleagues from different locations and time zones. Secondly, if you use WooCommerce Slack extension, you can set up automatic notifications for all kinds of things: new orders, low or out-of-stock products, recent feedback from clients, newly sign-up customers and much more.
2. Designate featured products
You’ve probably already noticed a conspicuous column of stars in your products list. Clicking on a star corresponding to a product makes it “featured” – what exactly it means depends on the theme you are using, but its primary goal is to place a number of products into the special “featured” area (usually a separate section on the front page, where visitors immediately see them). It is an excellent way to single out items you want visitors to pay attention to, e.g., new or exclusive products, currently discounted items and so on. For example, if you run a watch store and recently started selling something special like Rolex Yachtmaster, you may want to draw attention to this fact.
3. Allow visitors to zoom in on your product images
It may seem like a small and simple thing, but it may be exactly what leads a visitor up to a decision of making a purchase. If your clients have an opportunity to inspect the images of your products in detail, they will obtain fuller information about the item they want to buy and are more likely to choose in favor of making a purchase. And of course, it merely makes your store look professional and sleek. The function is available via YITH WooCommerce Zoom Magnifier.
4. Add separate images for different product variants
If you sell one product, let’s say, in a variety of colors or materials, you usually have to rely on text to get this information to the customer. Well, you don’t have to, as there is an option to add separate images for each of the variants. This way, the customer will always see the exact product he is browsing without having to worry if he is making a mistake. To do so, expand the variation, click the blue image icon and upload your new image.
5. Flatten the navigation
The fewer clicks a visitor has to make to find the product he is looking for, the more likely he is to buy it. Each subsequent click makes him more likely to give up and leave. This is why the way to go is not to create multi-layered navigation but to flatten it – i.e., display links to the most popular pages right off the bat, sprinkling it with new and highly relevant content (such as sales or new products). You don’t have to invent anything – simply find a theme that follows this principle, like this one.
6. Remove unnecessary features
More features is always better, right? Wrong. If you don’t need something for your store to operate efficiently, it may be a good idea to remove the clutter. For example, you can disable reviews for individual products (it may be a good idea for free items or products by different manufacturers), remove unnecessary fields at the checkout. You may even turn off the function of buying products completely (if you want your website to serve as an online catalog).
There is plenty more to learn about WooCommerce – you just have to be ready to dig a little deeper.