Introduction
Owning an online store on the WooCommerce platform requires using innovative features to continuously improve your business. WordPress WooCommerce is the most popular platform for creating online stores and provides many features to optimize your store.
In this guide, we'll cover 15 innovative features that will help you boost and optimize your WooCommerce online store. We'll provide detailed instructions on how to set up and use each feature, as well as provide code and script examples to help you easily implement these features into your store.
1. Smart sorting of goods
Smart product sorting is a key feature that can significantly improve the efficiency of your store. WooCommerce offers several standard ways to sort products, such as sorting by popularity, rating, price, and other parameters. However, these standard settings may not be enough to effectively operate a store with a large number of products and different categories.
To improve product sorting, you can use plugins such as “WooCommerce Advanced Product Sorting”. This plugin allows you to set up additional sorting options, such as sorting by newness, number of sales, or profitability of products. You can also create your own rules to sort products in specific categories or settings.
2. Dynamic price
Dynamic pricing is another innovative feature that allows you to set different prices for products depending on certain conditions. For example, you can set a higher price for products with certain characteristics or in certain regions.
To set up dynamic pricing, you can use plugins like “WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing”. This plugin allows you to create complex rules for setting prices, such as setting different prices for bulk purchases, offering special discounts when buying multiple items, or setting dynamic pricing based on specific product parameters.
3. Personalization of products
The ability to offer personalized products improves the customer experience and can increase customer satisfaction. For example, you can offer the ability to add a name or logo to a product or customize the color and size to suit each customer's preferences.
WooCommerce provides several ways to implement product customization. You can use plugins like “WooCommerce Product Add-ons” to add additional options to products, such as image upload fields, text fields, and more. You can also use product builders like “WooCommerce Composite Products” to create product bundles that can be customized according to customer preferences.
4. Reviews and ratings
Reviews and ratings play an important role in the purchasing decision for many buyers. Buyers can refer to product reviews and ratings to find out what other customers think and to evaluate the quality and reliability of the product.
WooCommerce provides a built-in review and rating feature that you can activate on your product pages. This allows your customers to leave reviews and rate products. However, to enhance the functionality of this feature, you can use plugins such as “WooCommerce Product Reviews Pro”. These plugins allow you to customize the display of reviews and ratings, add images to reviews, and more.
5. Cross-selling and linked products
Cross-selling and related products are ways to encourage customers to buy additional products from your store. Cross-selling offers the customer additional products that may be useful together with the selected product. Related products offer the customer products that are often purchased together with the selected product.
WooCommerce provides built-in cross-sell and linked products features that can be activated for each product. However, to enhance the functionality of these features, you can use plugins such as “WooCommerce Product Add-ons”. These plugins allow you to create complex rules for displaying cross-sell and linked products, such as setting specific product categories or excluding certain products from displaying.
6. Advanced shipping methods
Advanced shipping options can greatly improve customer satisfaction and streamline the shipping process. WooCommerce provides built-in options for free shipping, carrier-rate shipping, and in-store pickup. However, the built-in shipping options may not be sufficient to meet your store's specific needs.
To improve the functionality of shipping methods, you can use plugins such as “WooCommerce Shipping”. This plugin allows you to set up different shipping methods, including calculating shipping costs based on weight, volume, or customer location. You can also set up special rates or discounts for specific customer groups.
7. Sources and sales centers
Sales sources and sales centers allow you to track and analyze the effectiveness of your advertising and marketing campaigns. WooCommerce provides built-in features to track orders and revenue from various sales channels, such as ad campaigns, search queries, or links from other sites.
To improve the functionality of sources and sales centers, you can use plugins such as “WooCommerce Google Analytics Integration”. This plugin integrates your store with Google Analytics and allows you to track conversions, revenue, and other metrics in real time. You can also use plugins to track orders and revenue from other sales channels such as social media or email marketing.
8. Possibility of pre-ordering goods
Offering pre-orders can be useful if you have products that are not yet available for sale but are expected to be available in the near future. Offering pre-orders allows your customers to reserve products in advance, and you can deliver them as soon as they become available.
WooCommerce provides a built-in feature for pre-ordering products. You can activate this feature for each product and specify the start and end date of the pre-order. You can also use plugins like “WooCommerce Pre-Orders” to extend the functionality and options of pre-ordering, such as setting up automatic charges upon pre-order or offering discounts for pre-orders.
9. Social media integration
Integrating social media into your store will help you attract more customers and improve the satisfaction of your existing customers. WooCommerce provides built-in features to connect your store to various social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more.
To enhance the functionality of social media integration, you can use plugins such as “WooCommerce Social Login”. This plugin allows your customers to log in to your store using their social media accounts such as Facebook or Twitter. You can also use plugins to automatically post products or reviews to social media to attract new customers.
10. Automatic sending of notifications
Automatic notification sending is an important feature that allows you to keep your customers updated on the status of their orders, payments, deliveries, and other events related to their purchases. WooCommerce provides a built-in feature for sending notifications that can be customized for each type of event.
To enhance the functionality of automatic notifications, you can use plugins such as “WooCommerce Follow-Ups”. This plugin allows you to set up automatic notifications via email or SMS, for example to remind you of unfinished orders or to offer special discounts after a certain time.
11. Promotions and discounts
Promotions and discounts help you attract new customers and encourage repeat purchases. WooCommerce provides built-in features for creating promotions and discounts that can be customized for each product or for the entire store.
To improve the functionality of promotions and discounts, you can use plugins such as “WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing”. This plugin allows you to set up complex rules for setting discounts, such as offering discounts for multiple items, creating special discounts for specific customer groups or for specific time periods.
12. Automatic tax calculation
Automatic tax calculation is an important feature for online stores, especially those operating in different regions with different tax rates. WooCommerce provides a built-in feature to automatically calculate taxes based on your store settings and the customer’s location.
To improve the functionality of automatic tax calculation, you can use plugins such as “WooCommerce TaxJar”. This plugin integrates your store with the TaxJar service and allows you to automatically calculate taxes based on the customer’s location.
13. Multilingual support
Multilingual support allows you to create and manage stores in multiple languages. WooCommerce provides a built-in multilingual support feature that can be customized for each language.
To improve the functionality of multilingual support, you can use plugins such as “WooCommerce Multilingual”. This plugin allows you to create translations for all parts of your store, including product titles, descriptions, categories, pages, and other elements. You can also use plugins to automatically translate content or manage translations using specialized services.
14. Mobile adaptation
Mobile responsiveness is an important feature for a successful online store, given the growing number of mobile users. WooCommerce provides a built-in mobile responsiveness feature that allows your store to display well on a variety of devices.
To improve the functionality of mobile adaptation, you can use plugins such as “WooCommerce Mobile Assistant”. This plugin allows you to set up a mobile application for your store, making it convenient and easier to manage your store from a mobile device.
15. Virtual reality and augmented reality
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are innovative features that can significantly improve the customer experience in your store. These technologies allow your customers to view products in a virtual environment or add additional elements to reality using special devices or applications.
To implement VR and AR into your WooCommerce online store, you can use specialized plugins and tools. However, implementing these features may require specialized knowledge and skills.
Conclusion
WooCommerce provides a wide range of innovative features that allow you to improve and optimize your online store. In this guide, we have covered 15 innovative features to enhance your WooCommerce store, including smart product sorting, dynamic pricing, product personalization, reviews and ratings, cross-selling and linked products, advanced shipping methods, sourcing and hubs, product pre-ordering, social media integration, automatic notifications, promotions and discounts, automatic tax calculation, multilingual support, mobile responsiveness, and virtual reality and augmented reality.
Use these features to create an amazing WooCommerce online store and attract more customers!