WordPress powers 43.5% of all websites worldwide, and WooCommerce runs over 4 million global online stores. These numbers prove that WordPress e-commerce is a mature, widely adopted ecosystem.
With the rise of no-code e-commerce platforms, launching an online store has never been easier. But here’s the thing: behind every e-commerce website is a business that needs to sell consistently and grow over time.
Yet not all e-commerce sites are built to support that growth. Many settle for basic setups without using the features and tools that unlock their platform’s full potential.
That’s what this article is about: how to build a high-performing e-commerce site on WordPress. Here are 5 proven strategies to get you there.
Why choose WordPress for e-commerce?
Choosing a platform for your e-commerce site is no simple decision. But regardless of your criteria, WordPress remains a reliable and relevant CMS. Let’s explore why before diving into strategies to ensure continuous growth and performance for your online store.
WordPress: a powerful and scalable e-commerce ecosystem
WordPress currently powers 43.5% of all websites worldwide. And 62.5% of sites using a CMS run on WordPress. Contrary to common belief, WordPress isn’t just a CMS for creating a blog. It offers a dynamic ecosystem for various projects such as e-commerce stores, allowing you to sell products and develop a business.
What also sets WordPress apart is that it’s a free and open-source CMS. In other words, you don’t risk vendor lock-in like with proprietary CMS platforms. Being open-source means you have complete control over the source code and customization. You can start from WordPress’s foundation and develop a custom e-commerce solution built to your specific needs.
Speaking of customization, it’s undoubtedly one of the biggest advantages of the WordPress ecosystem. You have access to over 50,000 plugins to extend the CMS’s core features. The same goes for thousands of customizable themes available to quickly launch your project. The WordPress community also includes thousands of developers and IT experts who maintain the codeand provide support. You benefit from a mature, secure tool that’s regularly inspected by top international talent.
One last point, but certainly not least, is the comprehensive range of marketing, automation, and SEO tools available for WordPress. To achieve the best performance for your e-commerce store, you’ll want to leverage existing best practices. That’s exactly what you get with WordPress. Numerous plugins like Yoast SEO or All in One SEO help you move quickly. Since we’re talking about online commerce, let’s take a quick look at e-commerce within WordPress.
WooCommerce: the leading solution for e-commerce
WooCommerce is an e-commerce plugin for WordPress. It’s a modular solution designed to extend WordPress’s functionality for online sales.
WooCommerce has established itself as a leader today, powering over 4 million e-commerce sites. Just like WordPress, WooCommerce has a vast and solid community. You’ll easily find experts to support your needs: agencies, developers, e-commerce specialists, and more. Similarly, you have a wide range of plugins and themes specifically designed for WooCommerce. This includes add-ons for major payment gateways, such as Stripe and PayPal, as well as product management, subscription management, and inventory automation.
The free nature, ease of use, and customization options make WooCommerce an excellent choice for launching your e-commerce project. Many plugins offer a free plan to get you started. You don’t need a monthly payment like with SaaS platforms such as Shopify to manage your store. And you maintain complete control over your store.
Now that we’ve reviewed the reasons to choose WordPress and WooCommerce for your project, let’s look at strategies to achieve optimal performance and support your business growth.
Strategy #1: Optimize your WordPress e-commerce site from day one
Launching an e-commerce site has never been easier. But here’s the real challenge: building a modern, high-performing store that lasts. Even if you’re starting small, think medium to long-term from the start.
Which theme will you use? How will you ensure fast load times? How should you structure your product categories for easy navigation? These questions might sound technical, but they make or break your web store’s success and your ability to sell effectively online. Here are three fundamentals to get right from the start.
Conversion-focused design: Your e-commerce website exists to sell products. Strike the right balance between aesthetics and conversion optimization. In 2024, 74% of global e-commerce transactions happen on mobile, up from 68% in 2020 (Statista, 2024). That’s why mobile-first design isn’t optional. It’s essential to showcase products and sell effectively to mobile users.
Technical performance: Technical performance directly impacts your bottom line. If your site loads too slowly, prospects will close the tab before they even see your products. Keep your code clean, follow Core Web Vitals best practices, and choose WordPress hosting that can handle your traffic. Quality hosting ensures your store stays fast as you add more products and scale your business. If you haven’t reserved a domain yet, make sure to choose a domain name that’s easy to remember and relevant.
User experience-driven structure: A well-structured site benefits both SEO and user experience. Build a clear products category architecture. Use short and descriptive URLs. Write engaging product descriptions. These details make navigation seamless for search engines and customers alike.
Strategy #2: Expand your WordPress store’s features with top eCommerce plugins
WordPress offers thousands of plugins to extend your site without coding. But choose quality over quantity to avoid slow performance, security risks, and conflicts.
Here are key plugin categories for your WordPress e-commerce store.
- Core e-commerce: WooCommerce is the leading plugin for WordPress. It handles physical and digital products, subscriptions, and variations. For digital-only stores, Easy Digital Downloads works well.
- Payments and conversion: Integrate gateways like Stripe, PayPal, or WooPayments. Less checkout friction means better conversions.
- Forms: Forms let you capture leads, collect feedback, and handle customer inquiries. WPForms and Gravity Forms are reliable choices. To go further, use our integrations for Gravity Forms or WPForms to sync with platforms like Brevo, SendGrid, or Odoo.
- Marketing and email: Email remains one of the most effective channels for e-commerce conversions. Plugins like WooCommerce Mailchimp or Klaviyo sync customer data and personalize campaigns for better results.
The key is to use a few well-chosen, regularly updated plugins that offer good support, rather than a collection of outdated extensions.
Strategy #3: Integrate your WordPress store with business tools
Building a functional WooCommerce store is just the first step. The real power of e-commerce comes from connecting your store to your entire business ecosystem: CRM, ERP, sales management, invoicing, accounting, and more.
Without integrations, you quickly find yourself entering the same data manually across multiple systems:
- Copying orders from WooCommerce to your ERP
- Exporting customers to your CRM
- Updating inventory manually across platforms
- Managing stock tracking and inventory for your products by hand, etc.
This is time-consuming and error-prone. More importantly, it takes you away from growing your business.
This might sound technical, but many no-code WordPress integrations can handle it. With specialized plugins and add-ons, you can connect WooCommerce to Odoo, Brevo, HubSpot CRM, and other management systems. This automates your order flows and customer relationship management for better efficiency.
Product catalog management can also get complex quickly. Our Air WP Sync for WooCommerce plugin simplifies this by syncing WooCommerce with Airtable. You can centralize and manage stock tracking, inventory, and product information from a single interface. Then, you can build custom dashboards, segment customers, and automate management workflows using Airtable’s no-code features. In addition, there are many plugins and tools, often free, with various features to connect your systems.
Strategy #4: Automate to accelerate your e-commerce growth
Automation is what separates a small shop from an e-commerce business that scales effectively. With WordPress automation, you can automate repetitive tasks and free up time to focus on growing your online store. Here are key WordPress automations to implement.
Marketing automation: Set up automated email sequences based on customer behavior. A welcome email after signup, product recommendations after a first purchase, or re-engagement campaigns for inactive customers. These workflows run 24/7 without manual intervention while bringing customers back to your store.
Automated follow-ups: Recent studies show that 70% of shoppers abandon their cart before completing checkout. Follow-up emails are essential for boosting conversions. Automate abandoned cart recovery to drive purchases and improve conversion rates.
After each order, schedule automated review requests. Customer reviews build trust and improve your reputation.
Promotions and discounts: You can also automate promotions and discounts. For example, automatically reward loyal customers with personalized promo codes after their 3rd, 5th, or 10th order. You can also create discount rules that apply automatically based on purchase history.
Of course, your e-commerce website has other processes you can automate, such as user registration and account management. That said, start smart: you can’t automate everything at once.
Strategy #5 : Track key KPIs and continuously optimize
Building and optimizing your e-commerce store isn’t a one-time project. It’s an ongoing process. To improve performance, you need to measure what matters and make data-driven decisions. The days of running a business blindly are over.
Start by defining the key metrics to track. Don’t drown in dozens of data points. Focus on the essential KPIs for your business, including:
- Revenue
- Conversion rate (percentage of visitors who buy)
- Average order value
- Cart abandonment rate
- Return rate
- Customer lifetime value (CLV)
These numbers give you a clear view of your store’s health.
For traffic and user behavior data, use Google Analytics or Matomo with e-commerce tracking enabled to monitor your visitors. WooCommerce also offers built-in reports that provide insights into sales, product performance, and seasonal trends. Create dashboards that bring your critical metrics together in one place for easier tracking.
Finally, optimization requires experimentation. After analyzing your metrics, regularly run tests to improve what isn’t working well. Test different product page versions, adjust your calls-to-action, or try new pricing structures. A/B testing lets you objectively compare what works best. Each test is a learning opportunity that improves your conversions.
Final tips for a successful WordPress e-commerce store
WordPress and WooCommerce provide a solid foundation for launching your online store. But as we’ve seen, real success comes from continuous optimization and applying the right strategies.
The five strategies we’ve covered in this article, from design to automation, including metrics tracking and experimentation, enable you to build a consistently high-performing e-commerce site. One key principle ties everything together: User experience should guide all your optimization efforts.
Integration and automation often remain weak points. Too many e-commerce businesses waste time and money on manual data entry across different systems. They can’t use analytics effectively to make data-driven decisions. Yet, solutions exist without technical complexity. Explore our WordPress integrations to extend your site’s features and support your growth.