e-Commerce Provider Comparison (WordPress edition): WP eCommerce, Shopp, or Woo Commerce

Though my work tends to find me disruptive innovations, startups, and even yes, search, one of the most sought posts I’ve written is a mere audit of leading eCommerce platforms. A comparison of Shopify, BigCommerce, Volusion, Pinnacle Cart

Written years ago, what the research led me to discover is that eCommerce is an industry desperately in need of some of that disruptive innovation, while each of the platforms has their subtle advantages, at the end of the day, they simply play catch up with one another, releasing updates to keep up with norm. For the traditional retailer, the stability of such hosted platforms is just what the market needs; store owners all need the same functionality: templates, carts, checkout and payment infrastructure, an optimized site, and product management for inventory, shipping, pricing, etc. Other features, such as a mobile UX, accounting, marketing automation, social integration and the like are nice to haves and indeed, every hosted eCommerce platform has them to offer in one shade or another.

It was my work with the startup community that led me down the path of wondering what platforms are most extensible, flexible, and with what could a business really create any store experience they can imagine, without coding it from scratch. WordPress of course. With the added benefit of easily integrated communities, a seamless experience with a blog, parallax and responsive designs, and a community of thousands of other developers contributing ideas, code, and plugins, WordPress is where to turn when a merchant has need of more control and customization. And that begs the question, which of the major WordPress eCommerce solutions is best? Thanks a collaboration with 20/20 Outlook’s Brad Young, here’s the down and dirty on WP eCommerce, Shopp, and Woo Commerce.

So… WP eCommerce, Shopp, or Woo Commerce?

As was the case with Shopify, BigCommerce, Volusion, and Pinnacle Cart, I’ll try to keep this up to date and I certainly welcome your input if you know of a new feature, or a change in something I’ve documented here.

I’d also love your opinion of WP eCommerce, Shopp, and Woo Commerce as the matrix here isn’t likely all inclusive of everything that matters, nor is my experience so deep as to have actually setup and run a store with each of the plugins.