Selling Online
WooCommerce and e-Commerce
E-commerce
"E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. [...] Typical e-commerce transactions include the purchase of online books (such as Amazon) and music purchases (music download in the form of digital distribution such as iTunes Store), and to a less extent, customized/personalized online liquor store inventory services."
History of E-commerce
"In 1971 or 1972, Stanford students, using ARPAnet accounts at SAIL, engaged in a commercial transaction with their counterparts at MIT. Before Amazon, before eBay, the seminal act of e-commerce was a drug deal. The students used the network to quietly arrange the sale of an undetermined amount of marijuana"
John Markoff
Dot-com Bubble
"The dot-com bubble (also known as the dot-com boom,the tech bubble, and the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble caused by excessive speculation in Internet-related companies in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Composite stock market index rose 400%"
Wikipedia
Post-bubble Adoption
"E-commerce markets are growing at noticeable rates. The online market is expected to grow by 56% in 2015–2020. In 2017, retail e-commerce sales worldwide amounted to 2.3 trillion US dollars and e-retail revenues are projected to grow to 4.88 trillion US dollars in 2021. Traditional markets are only expected 2% growth during the same time."
Wikipedia
E-commerce in RSA
"E-commerce accounted for only 1.6%, or $1.2 billion, of South African retail sales in 2019, according to London-based market research firm Euromonitor International. [...] However, Euromonitor expects sales to double this year while Nielsen South Africa’s retail lead analyst Gareth Paterson predicts up to 200% growth in online food purchases."
SA E-commerce is a COVID-fired Market
Eye Witness News
Post COVID
"A survey conducted by Visa found that 64% of consumers in South Africa bought groceries online for the first time because of the coronavirus outbreak and that 53% made their first online purchase from a pharmacy. [...] “This was the quantum shift,” said Anthony Thunstrom, chief executive of clothing and homeware retailer TFG. “We probably advanced two to three years in terms of online demand because of COVID-19.”
SA E-commerce is a COVID-fired Market
Eye Witness News
WooCommerce
"WooCommerce is an open-source e-commerce plugin for WordPress. For the 3rd week of September 2015, Trends indicated that WooCommerce ran on 30% of e-commerce sites and millions of active installs. The current 2019 market share for WooCommerce is 22% of the top 1 million sites using eCommerce technologies."
WooCommerce
Wikipedia
History
"WooThemes was born as a globally distributed company with a small IRL presence in Cape Town. While growing a large portfolio of commercial themes, it became clear that our customers required more functionality. We decided to try something new, venturing into the world of plugin development. Our first plugin, WooCommerce, saw the light of day in 2011, enabling users to transform their WordPress site into a professional eCommerce storefront."
About Us
WooCommerce
Functionality
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Physical Products (Free)
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Digital Products (Free)
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Subscriptions ($199/year)
Recurring payments
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Memberships ($199/year)
Recurring payments with content access control.
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Bookings ($249/year)
Sales correspond with a specific time-slot.
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Add-ons
($49 - $79/year each)- Products
- Search
- Checkout
- Coupons
- etc.
Other
Native Integration
- Mailchimp
- Google Ads
- Jetpack
Themes
- Free Themes
- Recurring theme subscription
- Third-party theme providers
Open-source Ecosystem
"WooCommerce has attracted significant popularity because the base product, in addition to many extensions and plugins, is free and open-source. In 2018, WooCommerce has near 330 extensions and over 1,000 plugins. In addition, there are thousands of paid add-ons for fixed prices."
WooCommerce
Wikipedia
Plugins
- Referral Special Offers
- Coupons
- Cart Abandon Offers
- Product Recommendations
- Currency Switchers
- LiveChat
- Real-time Product Filters
- Product Image Zooming
- Wishlists and/or Waitlists
- Multilingual Support
- Checkout Field Editors
- Stripe-integrations
- Extra Shipping Options
- PDF Invoices
- Additional Analytics
- Gift Cards
- Subscriptions
- Comparing Products
- Extra Search Options
1000+ more on
WooCommerce website
Alternatives
A Word on HTTPS
"The principal motivations for HTTPS are authentication of the accessed website, and protection of the privacy and integrity of the exchanged data while in transit. It protects against man-in-the-middle attacks, and the bidirectional encryption of communications between a client and server protects the communications against eavesdropping and tampering. In practice, this provides a reasonable assurance that one is communicating with the intended website without interference from attackers."
Product Types
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Simple: Majority of physical products we will sell
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Grouped: Products that are related, but need to be purchased individually
- Virtual: Sales that don't require shipping or download.
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Downloadable: Provides option to download files after purchase.
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External: Products sold somewhere else (URL link)
- Variable: Product with toggle-able variations (color, size, etc.)
Default Payments
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Bank Transfer
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Check Payments
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Cash on Delivery
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Paypal Standard
(Credit Card, but does not support ZAR)
Payment Providers
"Typically, a PSP can connect to multiple acquiring banks, card, and payment networks. In many cases, the PSP will fully manage these technical connections, relationships with the external network, and bank accounts and therefore takes care of the technical processing of payment methods for online shops."
Payment Service Provider
Wikipedia
PayFast
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Credit, Debit or Checque Card (3.5% plus R 2.00)
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Instant EFT (2.0% minimum R 2.00)
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Zapper (3.5% plus R 2.00)
NOTE: Snapscan requires manual integration
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Rewards
Mobicred (3.5%)
Masterpass (3.5% plus R 2.00)
SCode (4.5% plus R 5.00)