Episode 341: Talking eCommerce and WordPress With Ryan Waterbury  ## Metadata - Author: [[The SDM Show]] - Full Title: Episode 341: Talking eCommerce and WordPress With Ryan Waterbury - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/5be0548b-7424-498b-ab16-bf8662147b88 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **WooCommerce's Dominance and Challenges** - WooCommerce is the de facto eCommerce plugin for WordPress but can be heavy and requires optimization and proper hosting. - Other eCommerce solutions exist but WooCommerce dominates due to its integration with WordPress and flexibility. Transcript: Speaker 2 Change a little bit that will commerce isn't the only game in down is it? Speaker 1 Exactly the I Mean it hasn't always been the only game in town, but it's it's the You know, it's the de facto plug-in from automatic that we all use the base plugins free There's a lot of Extensions around it You know, and it just works There's a lot of good things about it. I use it on my own site to manage my web care and recurring billing and it's got a lot of great integrations, but it's pretty pretty heavy and You know, it takes some optimization to get Speaker 2 It to run properly And I think optimization by the way not to cut your short includes the proper hosting So you're not gonna run a good WooCommerce site on a 295 a month hosting plan let's Let's get that right off out of the way right off the top, right and and If you're gonna run WooCommerce, I think you're better off going to a host that offers Managed Woo hosting and then Offers a pile of value add with that Right. Speaker 1 Yep, and that that's definitely one of the tiers in my web care that we specifically optimize server and Does offer stack for WooCommerce specifically? But a lot but WooCommerce a lot of times Is always a good fit? You know for those Customers that have one or two products if they're not telling a million of those there are other solutions that out there that might make a better fit and And you know, We're starting to see some growth and some competition in the market and it's been kind of slow in that area For a long time, but now we have options Of course, we've had a long time option If you're doing digital only products with Easy digital downloads, but then again, you know, that's kind of a heftier Plug-in and kind of complex for a lot of folks out there Yeah, and Speaker 2 Before we go further with what's in WordPress? We know the number one competitor Outside of Woo is Shopify, would you agree? Like they are probably number one and my argument would be Against using Shopify is data privacy here we go again I just love this discussion because you don't own your data on privacy On Shopify. So ([Time 0:03:07](https://share.snipd.com/snip/8f59ee72-1e74-44da-af58-0d8baf75a90f)) - **Use Managed WooCommerce Hosting** - Don't run WooCommerce on cheap hosting; use managed WooCommerce hosting with optimized server resources. - Proper hosting improves performance and customer experience significantly for Woo sites. Transcript: Speaker 2 And I think optimization by the way not to cut your short includes the proper hosting So you're not gonna run a good WooCommerce site on a 295 a month hosting plan let's let's get that right Off out of the way right off the top, right and and If you're gonna run WooCommerce, I think you're better off going to a host that offers Managed Woo hosting and then offers a pile of value Add with that Right. Speaker 1 Yep, and that that's definitely one of the tiers in my web care that we specifically optimize server and Does offer stack for WooCommerce specifically? But a lot but WooCommerce a lot of times Is always a good fit? You know for those Customers that have one or two products if they're not telling a million of those there are other solutions that out there that might make a better fit and And you know, We're starting to see some growth and some competition in the market and it's been kind of slow in that area For a long time, ([Time 0:03:51](https://share.snipd.com/snip/8f184106-c4c0-4443-9321-728278d8317e)) - **Data Ownership in WooCommerce vs Shopify** - Shopify is the main competitor to WooCommerce, but it lacks data ownership and privacy as Shopify owns your store data. - WooCommerce allows you full control over your data since you self-host and own the entire store. Transcript: Speaker 2 Yeah, and before we go further with what's in WordPress? We know the number one competitor Outside of Woo is Shopify, would you agree? Like they are probably number one and my argument would be Against using Shopify is data privacy here we go again I just love this discussion because you don't own your data on privacy On Shopify. So that's problem number one Problem number two is did you know there's a lawsuit going on in Canada that CRA the Canadian Revenue? Association, which is the guys like Who manage our taxes and all that and CRA is going at Shopify right now the force them to turn over the records of all the Shopify Canadian people because They don't believe they're paying taxes and With out a court order, which is even better and Here's the problem with that one. So the beauty of if you were using a woo solution at least Then all your data is self-contained and you can protect integrity your own data, correct? Speaker 1 Absolutely first and foremost Even if woo is not a perfect fit, you know, as far as store If someone wants to own their own data, that's a benefit right out of the box You're self-hosting The store you control everything But then again you start to get into your own clients issues that you have to manage everything where Shopify is a nice solution where It it's easy to Spin up a story, but your store looks like everyone else is for one and two They still haven't fixed their long URL structure for SEL So WooCommerce still When we talk about stores dominates The ([Time 0:05:17](https://share.snipd.com/snip/75cbdfce-4f93-4e1e-a14c-7b272488e5f8)) - **Adult Store Case with Shopify Shutdown Risk** - An adult toy store client uses WooCommerce because Shopify would shut down his legal store overnight due to their social policies. - This shows the risk with hosted platforms deciding what is allowable based on company standards rather than legality. Transcript: Speaker 2 At their mercy and True and in respect to businesses. It's a problem. I have a client who's in the adult toy store business and Otherwise known as an adult store and he's doing nothing illegal He's doing nothing He shouldn't be doing and trying to find if He was to do his stuff on Shopify They would shut him down overnight because it just doesn't it here to their quote social standards and I'm sorry I don't think a web host has the right to Pick and choose if it's legal. It's legal if it's not It's not that's a whole new discussion for another day, but you know You know that's part of the problem. He's got and he runs his ([Time 0:08:38](https://share.snipd.com/snip/21ec97ef-56f8-4e62-8123-5ae81769a788)) - **Prefer Self-Hosted eCommerce Solutions** - Avoid hosted WordPress eCommerce carts that don't let you fully own data; better to use self-hosted full WooCommerce solutions. - Be aware when your store data is processed by third parties as it impacts privacy and control. Transcript: Speaker 1 Own it the actual cart and check out This hosted somewhere else. They do the heavy lifting of all the processing So you're still kind of in that same boat, you know, we talk about a shortcut where that's a new one from brainstorm force It's a it's a nice Product But really what rubs me the wrong way there is the fact that it's You know a hosted solution that you're just framing it into your your WordPress website that you don't actually Speaker 2 Own it Yeah, I'm saying wouldn't it be better than To protect your dating integrity to go with a full Blue solution which is built right in the WordPress and then you don't have that problem Like I I hate to say it But I'm not sure any of these other solutions You totally own all your own data correctly and from No, not at all and That's something that you need to signify in your Speaker 1 Privacy ([Time 0:09:50](https://share.snipd.com/snip/2d818237-bca0-43ea-a4fe-751188dd6c7f)) - **WooCommerce Origins and Small Store Options** - WooCommerce is a fork of Jigga Shop, which died around 2019-2020 as eCommerce WordPress solutions diminished. - The simplicity of smaller form plugins fills a niche for very small product stores but has limitations in shipping and inventory. Transcript: Speaker 2 Has its drawbacks, you know and one of the drawbacks I'm talking about is its flexibility I agree with you, you know, it's funny I did it if memory server may correctly didn't I themes Before they were sold the stellar jumping that space and try and create a A shopping cart type of ecosystem and then when they sold the stellar That shopping cart stuff was sold off if I recall right to somebody like jigga shop at one time And then it's kind of gone by the wayside because it's just hard to maintain um Jigga shop actually is what WooCommerce became. Speaker 1 I mean WooCommerce is a fork. Yeah, I wasn't I was thinking of the police product that they they sold it off to somebody and I you know, um Jigga shop it kind of died in 2019 2020 I I think the I think product died around That time Um, and you know, so it it's been kind of barren for other e-commerce solutions So, you know, you have the route if you're really simple and want to take donations or you have One or two products with um, you know flat rate or free shipping Form plugins feel a really great role for that and all the form plugins Do e-commerce, you know from that standpoint pretty Well gravity forms has ([Time 0:12:35](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a475a015-97f8-47da-8f4b-e2e7c230a778)) - **Leverage WooCommerce Add-Ons and Tools** - Use new complementary tools like Shop Kit blocks and plugins that sync WooCommerce data to external sheets to streamline management. - Explore evolving plugins enhancing WooCommerce to simplify complex operations. Transcript: Speaker 1 From wp management Um parent company it does fluent crm and fluent forms They built in Um, you know on top of it some ability to build in products and um be able to use that as a checkout solution And it's completely self-hosted So we're starting to see other products come to market that Give us some of the tools that we want Uh, when wu-commerce is just overkill And then there's Speaker 2 Some other cool little products like cadence for example Uh blocks have developed a product called shop kit that interfaces director of hulu commerce and makes a lot of stuff easier And I know in talking to a couple devs there's even products out there that will take all your Inter products are entered sales and automatically make a copy of those to a Uh, google sheet Or stuff like that to make things easier. So there's all kinds of ([Time 0:14:38](https://share.snipd.com/snip/51bba15c-eebc-4ec1-a0b0-85cfc612a55c)) - **Choose WooCommerce Hosts Carefully** - Choose WooCommerce hosting providers with sufficient server resources for your store size to avoid performance issues. - Do not use cheap hosting expecting to run a high-volume WooCommerce store effectively. Transcript: Speaker 2 Newfolders jumped onto it with blue host. They bought all the yith plugins so they're in that space as well And I think what's kind of? Distinguishing it if you're gonna go in the managed route The one thing you gotta look at is server resources. What are your resources? How big your shop's gonna be? I happen to know That go daddy's managed who hosting in their their higher end one is both based on Paisley infrastructure which helps because pages accompany no one for great things For hosting wu sites that go daddy acquired So that kind of helps The point of making is don't go out and buy five dollar hosting the host that wu shop you want to make $20,000 a month. It's just not worth it Oh Not at all. Speaker 1 Uh when you look at wu commerce Uh, that's one of the drawbacks and it uh takes ([Time 0:16:18](https://share.snipd.com/snip/1b996e98-415f-4867-9e2a-d1d0c83c3237)) - **Critical WooCommerce Security Practices** - Perform backups frequently based on site volume; high-volume WooCommerce sites require hourly backups for transaction integrity. - Use software firewalls and regular updates to protect your WooCommerce store security. Transcript: Speaker 2 To talk about security because I have to go there because that's what I do, right? So One of the problems is when you're building out a wooset And yours and I went through this with a client who is speaking $20,000 a day So first of all is number one mistake was he bought Cheap posting not problem Number two problem was you figured his cheap posting was gonna do all the security with the firewall layer mistake number two And frankly at the end of the day, I think Security with the wooset is more important. So by that, I mean Are you doing your regular updates? Are you looking for vulnerabilities? Are you running a software firewall? And by the way, are you doing backups and depending on the volume of business you're doing Maybe you should be doing those backups multiple times a day on all I say. What do you think about that? ([Time 0:22:30](https://share.snipd.com/snip/bdf13341-10af-45b1-bb4b-3892d2c71bdf)) - **Invest in Paid SSL Certificates** - For mid to high-end WooCommerce sites, pay for SSL certificates to boost consumer trust even if free SSL works functionally. - Verified SSL certificates improve customer confidence in site security and legitimacy. Transcript: Speaker 1 Thing to remind clients that Hey credit card data is being stored with Stripe and they have extra security No, the other thing I would suggest while we're talking security is if you're Speaker 2 Running a mid to a high-end Woo site Don't use a free ssl certificate go and pay for one because I think you're better served You're kind of rolling your eyes at me as I say that Do you not Agree? Speaker 1 You know functionally there's no difference But uh, it really comes down to consumer confidence ([Time 0:25:45](https://share.snipd.com/snip/28a2bc3e-dd22-4c44-91e9-bdf72f2deeca))