EDITS.WS

Tag: e-commerce

  • WooCommerce vs Adobe Commerce (2023) — Let’s Compare

    WooCommerce and Adobe Commerce are two popular e-commerce platforms available today. They both have their unique strengths and are suitable for different needs. While WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress, Adobe Commerce is a standalone product, formerly known as Magento. They are supported by their strong communities, with WordPress users favoring WooCommerce and Adobe advocates supporting Magento. In this post, we’ll compare WooCommerce vs Adobe Commerce to help you decide which platform is best for your business.

    Similarities of WooCommerce vs Adobe Commerce

    WooCommerce and Adobe Commerce are both open-source products, meaning that the original code is freely available for anyone to modify or build on to create a customized product. The vast communities that support these products are due in part to the culture of sharing that open-source software fosters.

    One of the reasons WooCommerce and Adobe Commerce have such large communities is that open-source software creates an appreciation of sharing. Developers go on to share their versions of the open-source software to carry on this aspect of giving.

    WooCommerce community

    As a new business owner, using open-source products like WooCommerce or Adobe Commerce means that you can take advantage of a free initial product and the support of a large community. However, it’s worth noting that with Adobe Commerce, unless you’re willing to pay a high price or use a hosting provider with one-click installs, you’ll need a good understanding of command-line installation and coding to get the platform up and running. This is not the case with WooCommerce, which is a plugin for WordPress and can be easily installed with a few clicks.

    How Easy is Set Up and Use?

    Starting an e-commerce business can come with its own set of challenges, but you don’t want the platform you choose to be one of them. If you’re already using WordPress and want to add e-commerce functionality to your site, it makes sense to choose the WooCommerce plugin. This way, you won’t have to get used to a new interface or migrate your site to another platform.

    However, when comparing WooCommerce vs Adobe Commerce, one important factor to consider is the ease of use. While WooCommerce is easy to install and set up, Adobe Commerce may require more technical knowledge and experience, particularly when it comes to customization and advanced functionality. It’s important to evaluate your skill level and the needs of your business to determine which platform is the right fit for you.

    WooCommerce Set Up

    WooCommerce documentation

    WooCommerce is a great option for beginners, even if you don’t have a WordPress site yet. This is because WordPress is very user-friendly and WooCommerce is an extension of it. There are numerous plugins available for customization through WordPress, including options from Yith and other providers. In addition, WooCommerce provides extensive documentation to help with the setup process.

    Adobe Commerce Set Up

    Adobe Commerce e-commerce platform

    Adobe Commerce, being built on Magento, requires web development knowledge to get started. Like WordPress, it requires a hosting environment built on Apache or Nginx, as well as PHP and MySql. However, to install Magento, you’ll need to either use the command line interface, which may be overwhelming and frustrating for beginners, or research hosting providers that simplify the process.

    Once set up, Magento’s interface is user-friendly and supported by tutorial videos and documentation. It also includes a full installation wizard. However, adding extensions to your site can be challenging, and may require the expertise of a Magento-specialist developer or personal effort.

    Therefore, when it comes to ease of use, WooCommerce vs Adobe Commerce is the clear winner.

    WordPress Adobe Commerce
    Ease of Use 🥇 Winner

    WooCommerce is as simple to set up as WordPress, with a simple walk though set up wizard.

    		 Unless you have strong dev skills or a host that offers set up, Adobe Commerce is difficult to install, requiring command line interface.
    Choose WordPress Choose Adobe Commerce

    What are the Associated Costs of WooCommerce vs Adobe Commerce?

    Both e-commerce platforms are free to download and start building your shop but to grow your business, you may need more payment options beyond PayPal and bank transfers, which can cost additional fees.

    WooCommerce

    WooCommerce extensions

    WooCommerce has limited basic options, so you need to buy plugins and extensions, which can add up. There are many options available, including some free ones, but if you want a unique shop, you’ll need to spend money or do some coding.

    Divi by Elegant Themes

    Thanks to themes like Divi, creating a beautiful online store is easy using the Visual Builder to customize colors, fonts, and more. You can find some great child themes through the Divi Marketplace, such as Divi Ecommerce, which provides everything you need for a stunning online shop that can be set up in a matter of minutes.

    Adobe Commerce

    With Adobe Commerce, you’ll find it necessary to add extensions to both e-commerce platforms, which will require additional costs as your business grows. While WooCommerce offers a wide selection of free and paid plugins, Adobe Commerce’s extensions are pricier, and you’ll need a Magento specialist to install them correctly. Additionally, finding a Magento developer is harder than finding WordPress developers.

    Overall, WordPress is more user-friendly and easier for individuals with varying levels of experience, while Magento would require more time and expertise to set up and manage.

    Hosting Considerations

    When it comes to hosting, it’s important to consider that while WooCommerce can run on WordPress hosting, Adobe Commerce requires more advanced hosting options like dedicated servers or cloud plans. Cloudways is a recommended provider for Magento users, and their one-click install makes it easy to set up your website. If your product portfolio grows, you may need to upgrade your hosting to ensure your website runs smoothly.

    When deciding between WooCommerce vs Adobe Commerce, it’s important to consider your long-term goals and budget. While the initial costs of setting up both platforms are low, it’s important to think about your future needs. Do you require the advanced features of Adobe Commerce, or will WooCommerce suffice? If you anticipate needing those features, it may be worth investing more money upfront rather than having to migrate your site to Adobe Commerce later on. Keep in mind that Adobe Commerce hosting plans are expensive, costing over $1000 per month. However, if you’re a large company with the budget to invest in it, it could be a wise choice.

    WordPress Adobe Commerce
    Associated Costs 🏳 Draw

    WooCommerce can get pricey depending on how customized you want your online shop to be.

    		 🏳 Draw

    Adobe Commerce (Magento) is free, but installing extensions is expensive and may required developer assistance.
    Choose WordPress Choose Adobe Commerce

    Which is Better for Customization?

    Both WooCommerce and Adobe Commerce offer various customization options, but the level of customization needed will depend on your specific needs and preferences. For instance, to customize your website’s branding, you’ll need to unlock this ability through plugins or a developer’s time. It’s worth noting that being able to customize your site is only possible because both WooCommerce and Adobe Commerce are self-hosted.

    On the other hand, hosted solutions like Shopify allow you to quickly build an online store, but customization options are limited. Therefore, WooCommerce and Adobe Commerce are excellent options if you want to make your e-commerce shop truly unique.

    Additionally, when comparing WooCommerce vs Adobe Commerce, both platforms offer extensive customization options that allow you to tailor your online store to your specific needs. The level of customization required, however, may differ depending on which platform you choose.

    WooCommerce

    WooCommerce vs Adobe Commerce themes

    WooCommerce has many themes, both free and paid, that let you customize your site’s appearance. You can also find themes made by third-party developers, like Elegant Themes and Elementor, that are compatible with WooCommerce.

    WooCommerce supports various custom plugins, including payment and shipping provider plugins like Printify, to enhance its functionality. Developers can also use custom code and APIs to build custom integrations with third-party applications.

    Adobe Commerce

    Magento Marketplace

    Like WooCommerce, Adobe Commerce offers a variety of free and premium themes to customize your online store’s appearance. However, unlike WordPress, most of these themes are created by third-party vendors rather than Adobe itself. Additionally, the Magento Marketplace provides access to over 5,000 extensions that can enhance the functionality and appearance of your store. It’s worth noting that customization on Adobe Commerce may require more technical skill than it does on WooCommerce.

    Furthermore, with code customization, you can achieve incredible things on Adobe Commerce. Creating custom modules, extensions, and themes can add a unique flair to your online store.

    WordPress Adobe Commerce
    Customization 🥇 Winner

    With so many third-party plugins and child themes available, there are no limits to customization with WooCommerce.

    		 While there are extensions and themes available, they are expensive and time-consuming. Therefore, most will opt for the simple look and feel of a basic Adobe Commerce site.
    Choose WordPress Choose Adobe Commerce

    Comparing Features

    With any e-commerce platform, you’ll need a shopping cart and the ability to upload and categorize products. You get these basic features with WooCommerce and Adobe Commerce. When comparing WooCommerce vs Adobe Commerce, which has more features to offer?

    WooCommerce

    WooCommerce is user-friendly and has basic built-in features like ratings and widgets, but advanced features need add-ons. It can also work with other WordPress plugins. The navigation is not as advanced as Adobe Commerce’s as it only allows filtering by one attribute.

    WooCommerce features

    WooCommerce offers easy-to-manage extensions through WordPress plugins, some of which are free. Popular examples include Rank Math for search engine optimization, Askimet for spam filtering, and Gravity forms for creating forms.

    Adobe Commerce

    Adobe Commerce offers cross-selling, up-selling, product comparison, discount codes, and advanced filters, making it a winner in this area. It also allows you to view multiple stores on the same account, which is useful for creating localized versions of your store.

    Google Analytics Integration

    Adobe Commerce and WooCommerce provide Google Analytics for business success assessment and product portfolio strategy. However, when it comes to features, Adobe Commerce has the better basic features, but you’ll need to invest more to improve your site.

    WordPress Adobe Commerce
    Features 🏳 Draw

    WooCommerce offers plugins, custom code capabilities, and Google Analytics integration.

    		 🏳 Draw

    Adobe Commerce has advanced features for cross-selling, product comparisons, and discount codes right out of the box.
    Choose WordPress Choose Adobe Commerce

    WooCommerce and Adobe Commerce Alternatives

    Consider Shopify if you want an easy-to-use online store without many customization options. However, if you want more control over the looks of your store, you should check out our WordPress vs Squarespace comparison.

    WooCommerce vs Adobe Commerce: The Verdict

    Adobe Commerce is a preferred choice for larger businesses or agencies that manage e-commerce sites for their clients. It’s scalable, making it perfect for those with grand plans or an already successful online store. Adobe Commerce offers a few more basic features, and the extensions are excellent once they are installed by a developer. However, it’s worth noting that setting up this kind of store requires a significant budget.

    Final Comparison

    WooCommerce is a great choice for small businesses and those with limited development experience. As your business grows, add plugins like Rank Math and Yith to enhance customer experience on this platform with basic e-commerce functionality. WooCommerce is a simple way to sell products on your website if you’re familiar with WordPress or have an existing domain.

    WordPress Adobe Commerce
    Ease of Use 🥇 Winner

    WooCommerce is as simple to set up as WordPress, with a simple walk though set up wizard.

    		 Unless you have strong dev skills or a host that offers set up, Adobe Commerce is difficult to install, requiring command line interface.
    Associated Costs 🏳 Draw

    WooCommerce can get pricey depending on how customized you want your online shop to be.

    		 🏳 Draw

    Adobe Commerce (Magento) is free, but installing extension is expensive and may required developer assistance.
    Customization 🥇 Winner

    With so many third-party plugins and child themes available, there are no limits to customization with WooCommerce.

    		 While there are extensions and themes available, they are expensive and time-consuming. Therefore, most will opt for the simple look and feel of a basic Adobe Commerce site.
    Features 🏳 Draw

    WooCommerce offers plugins, custom code capabilities, and Google Analytics integration.

    		 🏳 Draw

    Adobe Commerce has advanced features for cross-selling, product comparisons, and discount codes right out of the box.
    Choose WordPress Choose Adobe Commerce

    WooCommerce’s integration with WordPress can benefit those familiar with the platform. Ultimately, the choice between WooCommerce vs Adobe Commerce comes down to the specific needs of your business and your budget.

    Article thumbnail image by IdeaGU / shutterstock.com 

    The post WooCommerce vs Adobe Commerce (2023) — Let’s Compare appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

  • WooCommerce to Launch WC Blocks Extensibility Monthly Chat

    WooCommerce is calling on its developer community to join a new monthly chat focused on WooCommerce block extensibility. The chat is being run as a three-month pilot program with different topics each month.

    “During these sessions, we want developers to actively shape the future of WC Blocks by hearing what developers’ integrations need from us to be successful and get feedback on existing extensibility points,” WooCommerce developer advocate Stephanie Pi said.

    In order to have the right engineers available for the sessions while testing out the format, the first three months will focus on the Cart and Checkout blocks. WooCommerce developers have recently been attempting to solicit feedback on Cart and Checkout block performance on GitHub, though few have weighed in on the topic so far. This monthly chat may provide a more casual way to get extensibility issues on the WooCommerce team’s radar.

    The first session will be held in the #developers channel on the WooCommerce Community Slack on Monday, February 13, at 1600 UTC. At the end of the pilot program, WooCommerce will evaluate whether it’s a good use of the community’s time and if the monthly chats should be continued.

  • WooCommerce Seeks to Improve Cart and Checkout Blocks Performance

    WooCommerce Blocks maintainers are asking the developer community to share feedback on any performance issues they are experiencing with the Cart and Checkout blocks.

    “We’re aware there is work to be done in this area and we want to improve,” WooCommerce developer Alex Florisca said.

    “We’re specifically interested in any performance related issues that may be stopping merchants or developers from adopting the Cart and Checkout blocks over the shortcode version.”

    The plugin’s repository has nine open issues categorized as related to performance. Most of them are not straight forward and require more research and testing. For example, an issue with running multiple blocks of product grids was reported as having increased response times of 4+ seconds. Contributors have proposed a few different ideas to address performance issues, such as experimenting with useSuspenseSelect to improve the perceived loading experience for various blocks and finding a way to track the performance of the Cart and Checkout blocks. Neither of these tickets have seen much movement yet.

    Store owners will not be eager to switch over to a checkout experience that is slower, so the WooCommerce team is seeking feedback that will help them make the cart and checkout blocks faster. So far, one user reported that due to a bug in a third-party plugin, he got a glimpse of what the block-based checkout adds to the JS asset payload.

    “I think this adds at least ~300 kB (compressed) JS payload (initial numbers, my measurement process is still ongoing),” Leho Kraav said.

    “We don’t plan to convert our classic theme to a block theme any time soon, but still, I feel uneasy about this direction.”

    Florisca followed up on this feedback with a few cursory benchmarks comparing the legacy shortcode checkout with blocks checkout and Shopify:

    Blocks Checkout Shortcode Checkout Shopify
    Total Payload 2.9MB 935kb 6.1MB
    Total Transferred 2.1MB 1.3MB* 3MB
    Number of requests 144 77 146

    “The number of requests has almost doubled for Blocks, which isn’t great so this is something that we can look into,” Florisca said. “I suspect the reason is because we rely on a few layers of abstraction on top – WooCommerce and WordPress, each with their packages and set ways of doing certain things. We can investigate if we can simply this.”

    The discussion on how to improve cart and checkout block performance is still open for more developers to give feedback, and investigations are ongoing. The good news is that WooCommerce maintainers are aware of how much weight the block-based checkout adds and are actively looking for ways to improve it for users.

  • WooCommerce Blocks 9.4.0 Adds Support for Local Pickup

    WooCommerce Blocks version 9.4.0 was released with support for a new block-powered Local Pickup option under shipping settings. The feature plugin offers users early access to new blocks and improvements to existing blocks before they become available in WooCommerce core.

    Local Pickups introduces two new blocks: a shipping method toggle block that allows shoppers to select between regular shipping or pickup from a specified location, and a pickup location block that displays local pickup rates.

    image source: WooCommerce Blocks 9.4.0 release post

    These blocks can both be enabled and configured via a new local pickup settings page. Store owners can even rename Local pickup to something else, and optionally add a price for this option.

    It’s important to note that the new Local pickup blocks can only be used with the Checkout block. WooCommerce Blocks also introduces a change with this new Local Pickup experience that will support location-based taxes based on the pickup address, improving tax reporting. Previously, WooCommerce based local pickup taxes on the store address.

    WooCommerce Blocks 9.4.0 includes a handful of other small enhancements and bug fixes. Check out the release post for a more detailed look at everything that’s new in the latest version of the plugin.

  • WooCommerce 7.3 Introduces New Products Block in Beta

    WooCommerce 7.3 was released this week with the new Products block now in beta. In December 2022, the Products block went into testing in WooCommerce Blocks version 9.1.0. It’s based on the Query Loop block and is intended to replace all of WooCommerce’s current product-displaying blocks.

    This first beta version of the Products block allows users to list products based on specific criteria and their layout in the list or grid.

    Version 7.3 also introduces three “commerce-adjacent” patterns for building WooCommerce store pages. These are patterns that do not tap into WooCommerce store data but allow store owners to customize the images and the links. These patterns were also tested in WooCommerce Blocks 9.1.0. They include an alternating image and text block pattern, a product hero with two columns and two rows, and a “Just Arrived” full hero pattern.

    image source: WooCommerce 7.3 release post

    This release also brings store owners a new multichannel marketing experience in beta. Under the Marketing menu in the admin, users can now view a list of recommended marketing extensions without leaving the dashboard. These can be installed directly from the Marketing page.

    Other notable features in WooCommerce 7.3 include Pinterest and Codisto extensions added to the onboarding wizard, a new warning banner when the tax settings have a conflict, and an improved UI for creating product attributes and uploading product images.

    Check out the release post to see the template changes and all the new actions and filters available for developers. The full 7.3 changelog is available on GitHub.

  • WooCommerce Blocks 9.1.0 Introduces Products Block in Beta

    WooCommerce Blocks version 9.10 was released today, hitting a major milestone for the development of its new Products Block. The plugin serves as a place to iterate and test new blocks, and this release introduces the new Product Query-powered Products block in beta.

    In this first iteration, users can arrange products by popular presets and control the layout in the list/grid.

    The new Products block is based on the core Query Loop block. WooCommerce Blocks contributors are aiming to replace all of the plugin’s current product-displaying blocks with this one.

    “This new block should be flexible enough to reproduce all of the use-cases currently covered by existing blocks (e.g. showing all products, showing only new products, or products on sale, etc.), while also being filterable via dedicated filter blocks and compatible with FSE templates (i.e. it should replace the placeholders we currently use in archive templates),” Automattic-sponsored WooCommerce contributor Marco Lucio Giannotta said in the ticket proposing the new Products block.

    The first iteration still requires some polishing but it’s meeting the basic objectives for allowing users to display and customize products using the new query-based block.

    Version 9.1.0 also unveils three new “product-adjacent” patterns. These are patterns that don’t use WooCommerce store data but rather focus on presentation. They include the following patterns:

    • “WooCommerce Alternating Image and Text” block pattern. (7827)
    • “WooCommerce Product Hero 2 Column 2 Row” block pattern. (7814)
    • “Just Arrived Full Hero”  block pattern (7812)

    WooCommerce Blocks contributors are also working on patterns that connect to store data and will be releasing new patterns soon. Other notable additions in this release include support for the alignment setting in the Add to Cart Button and Product Rating elements.