Social commerce allows businesses to sell products directly within social media apps. Users can buy a product without leaving the app, and the social media platform keeps a percentage of the sale as a fee.

Sounds easy, right? The question is, between owning your own eCommerce website versus selling via social commerce, which is best for you? Let’s take a closer look at both.

Social Commerce’s Growth

TikTok is planning to increase its social commerce offerings over the year. The company recently appointed a new head of eCommerce and Data Operations and will be ramping up its eCommerce options in 2023 to diversify its income streams. TikTok Shop lets merchants sell products directly on TikTok through videos, live streams, and a product showcase tab.

Meta offers a service called Shops that lets you sell products on Facebook, Instagram, or Facebook Marketplace. Instagram has some unique options for its “Checkout on Instagram” feature, such as product launches and live-stream shopping.

If you can sell products directly within social media apps, where your customers already are, then why should you bother developing and maintaining your own eCommerce store? Can’t you cut out all that trouble and just sell on social platforms?

Don’t Close Your eCommerce Shop. Here’s Why.

The social media landscape is unstable. Young people born in the 2000s or later are growing up with social media as an integrated part of society and view it as a staple of the world, but anyone older has lived through the churn of these platforms and has experienced their volatility.

Sometimes, social media platforms lose their luster.

Myspace is a classic example of this social media churn. Launched in 2003, Myspace was the first social media site to gain global adoption.

From 2005 to 2008, it was the largest social media platform, but it was overtaken by Facebook in 2009. Myspace has declined in usage ever since. It has been bought and sold by various entities but hasn’t been considered a major social media network for years.

Vine is an illustrative example of the rise and fall of a popular social media app. It was a short-form video service, letting users share six-second video clips long before TikTok exploded in popularity.

Vine launched in 2013 and was shut down by early 2017. It was one of the first social platforms that generated popular personalities, which paved the way for the “influencers” we know today. These stars gained money and fame on the platform, which all disappeared when the app was discontinued.

The sudden shuttering of the app was a shock to these creators. Some of them moved to YouTube and continued to find success, but others lost their careers overnight.

Algorithms provide a challenge.

Even on the more stable platforms like YouTube, algorithms change all the time, causing frequent headaches for creators. Trying to keep up with the latest algorithm updates can be a full-time job.

Content creators are constantly battling these updates. The algorithm changes force creators to modify video titles, descriptions, thumbnail images, video length, video content, and more. It affects creators’ income, so it’s not something they can afford to ignore.

Meta is undependable.

Facebook and Instagram are popular places to sell products, but these platforms are notorious for showing posts erratically, even trying to get people to pay to “boost” their content instead of simply adding it to their followers’ feeds.

The Oatmeal, a popular comic artist, famously created a comic about this situation, in which he laments creating posts that are never seen by his followers. Ironically, Facebook prompted him to pay to boost that post. He all but gave up on promoting his work on social media and asked his followers to visit his website directly instead.

Twitter is unstable.

Between 2022 and now, Twitter has experienced a lot of upheaval because of its change of ownership. Additionally, Twitter is heavily intertwined with politics in the US and around the world. Users’ and advertisers’ perceptions of leadership, including business decisions, political affiliations, and even morality, have caused many to abandon the site in protest.

Other platforms have emerged as competitors affecting Twitter’s numbers and engagement. Meanwhile, the news is full of scandals at Twitter headquarters regarding layoffs, policy changes, and the possibility of bankruptcy.

TikTok could be banned any day now.

TikTok, currently one of the most popular social media apps, is constantly under scrutiny due to its Chinese ownership. The US House of Representatives has banned it from any electronic devices used by House staff, and the US government is expected to ban it from all federal devices.

US policymakers consider TikTok to be a national security risk and are concerned that the Chinese government will misuse the personal data of US users and spread disinformation. Across the board, various nations are expediting efforts to ban TikTok.

The social media landscape is ever-changing.

Setting aside these issues of political intrigue, algorithm difficulties, and disappearing platforms, there is still the consideration of demographics. The demographics of social media users tend to be grouped by generation, but it changes over time.

For example, Facebook started out as a site for college students but is now known for being used by the Boomer generation. TikTok started out as a site used by kids but has gained popularity with a variety of content creators.

If you put all your products on a certain social media platform because you’ve determined that your customers are there, that assumption might become wrong in the future. Your own website is generation-agnostic—anyone can visit it at any time.

What to Do Instead

Take control of your online presence by owning your eCommerce store. You should always own your website’s domain name and have reliable web hosting.

Whether you use WordPress with WooCommerce or a dedicated eCommerce service like Shopify or BigCommerce, you should build and manage your own store without giving all away your power to social media apps.

When you own your eCommerce store, you can drive traffic to it by sharing content on social media or buying ads on the same platforms. You can use SEO, Google Ads, content marketing, and traditional marketing tactics like direct mail to increase your website’s traffic. You can still engage with the same audience on social media without being completely reliant on it.

Have your cake and eat it too.

Look for an option to sell on social media apps by pushing products to the app from your website. Your website will remain the source of the data and feed product information to the social media app.

That allows you to sell from your own website and on the apps while retaining your independence. This is a useful diversification option that creates multiple streams of income for the same set of products.

All in all, it’s never a good idea to completely put your eCommerce business in someone else’s hands. Social media evolves quickly, which creates instability.

Platforms rise and fall in popularity, demographics change rapidly, constant algorithm updates cause fluctuations in results, and apps are sold to new owners who change existing policies. Take ownership of your business by developing and maintaining your own eCommerce site where you are in control of your products and sales.

Ready to launch an eCommerce website? Contact WebDevStudios.

At WebDevStudios, we know how to build an eCommerce website designed for success. Plus, our team knows exactly how to integrate your company’s social media platforms into your website for a seamless experience your customers will love. Contact us. Let’s talk about your new eCommerce site.

The post eCommerce vs. Social Commerce: Which Is Best for You? appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Improve Your User Experience (UX)

User experience is critical to the success of your website. A good UX will help visitors navigate your website, find the most important content, and understand the actions they need to take. A poor user experience will frustrate your visitors by preventing them from seeing what they want and tripping them up when they submit a form or purchase. You can solve this problem by redesigning your website every five years.

Visitors who encounter an optimized user experience are more likely to engage with your content. Meanwhile, visitors who have a terrible experience will become frustrated and leave, never to return.

When redesigning your website, you can improve UX using modern, well-researched design principles. A well-designed website that is easy to navigate can increase engagement and conversions.

Achieve Better SEO Results

Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential to driving traffic to your website. Websites that aren’t optimized for search engines are unlikely to appear in the top results for relevant search queries.

SEO is a field that’s constantly changing. If your website was optimized for search engines years ago, it might not achieve the same results today that it did in the past. Search engines like Google and Bing constantly tweak their algorithms, and website owners must keep up with those changes to stay relevant.

When you redesign your website every five years and keep SEO in mind, you help to improve your search rankings, increase traffic, and generate more leads and conversions.

Mitigate Costs

Are website redesigns cheap? No.

But it’s much costlier to redesign a 15-year-old website than a 5-year-old website.

Processes, such as a website redesign, require more labor and time on old interfaces. As software evolves, your old website gets further and further behind.

When a redevelopment project is underway, more of the website must be rebuilt from scratch. Here are some examples.

• Data Migrations: More work will need to be done to migrate old content into a new system because the old and new databases don’t match up.
• Old Code: Old technologies, plugins, and code libraries will no longer be applicable and must be replaced.
• Information Architecture: The website’s structure, such as its information architecture, URLs, and navigation, might need to be reworked entirely.
• More significant Design Project: A complete website redesign, rather than a facelift, will be necessary to refresh the look and feel.
• Editorial Experience: New systems must be implemented to meet your editorial needs, which will have evolved in the years since your last website development project.

You’re better off having a website redesign performed every few years rather than every 10-15 years. But suppose you get to the point where you haven’t redesigned your website in a long time. In that case, it’s an excellent opportunity to do a significant overhaul and rethink all aspects of its design and functionality.

Take Advantage of New Features and Technologies

If you haven’t redesigned your website in 10 or 15 years, you’re missing out on the latest developments in web technologies. Here are some examples of technologies you can take advantage of now that your old website isn’t capable of.

• Headless WordPress: You can use WordPress as backend software to manage your data and content while using other technologies for the frontend display of the website.
• React and other JavaScript Libraries/Frameworks: JavaScript has evolved at a breakneck pace over the past 10 years, and libraries like React are used to build interactive user interfaces and web applications quickly and efficiently.
• Blocks and Site Editing: WordPress is undergoing a significant shift and now includes a block editor that allows content to be easily arranged and edited in a whole new user experience.
• CSS3: The latest innovations in CSS give developers access to tools like media queries, CSS Grid, and Flexbox that significantly improve responsive layout and design. CSS is now capable of animations, which could previously only be done with JavaScript. Designers and developers can create interactive and visually appealing websites with less work.
• WordPress Plugins: You can accomplish much more with your WordPress plugins. In the last 10-15 years since you overhauled your website, new plugins will have been developed that solve your business needs, and existing plugins will have been updated with new features.

Updating your website more often will allow you to keep up with emerging technologies and trends in web development. You don’t have to keep up with everything, but you also don’t want to miss out on technologies that would benefit your business.

Move Away From Old Tech

As new technologies are developed, old technologies are discontinued, fall out of favor, and become security risks.

• Discontinued Code: Flash is an excellent example of a web technology no longer used. Flash was popular before JavaScript evolved enough to replace everything it offered, and it eventually reached an official End Of Life and is no longer supported.
• Discontinued Browsers: Internet Explorer was once frustrating for web designers and developers because it was so difficult to support. Microsoft has permanently disabled it and discontinued all support, so it’s no longer necessary for your website to keep it.
• Security Patches: Whether or not you completely redesign your website, keeping up with security updates is essential. WordPress themes, plugins, and WordPress itself regularly release security patches. You’re opening yourself up to many well-known security holes if your website is significantly outdated.

Security is critically important to keep on top of, and developing your website using new features can also eliminate old headaches and streamline your development processes.

Stay Ahead of the Competition

Finally, redesigning your website every five years can help you stay ahead of the competition. If your competitors have recently redesigned their websites and you haven’t, you could be falling behind.

A website developed recently with a modern design and updated technologies will look and operate noticeably differently than a website from 15 years ago. You can either be the business with the current website or the business left in the dust.

A redesign can help you stay on top of the latest trends and technologies and ensure that your website meets your customers’ needs. Now that you know contact WebDevStudios. Let’s chat about your new website redesign.

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What is a WordPress Custom Post Type?

WordPress comes with default post types. When you’re working in the WordPress dashboard, the two most visible post types are posts and pages.

Posts are usually arranged within archives and organized by category, while pages are used for static content like the homepage or About Us page. There are other default post types, such as attachments, revisions, and navigation menus.

Custom post types are commonly used when you need to create a new content type that extends the functionality of the default posts post type. A post within a custom post type is similar to a default post but can have a custom layout, custom fields, custom taxonomy, and its own archive pages. If that sounds like technical mumbo-jumbo, hold on because all of these terms will be explored and illustrated in this article.

Creating a custom post type allows you to take control of your content. You can create an editing experience structured and organized around the specific content you want to publish.

Questions to Ask Yourself

When considering whether your WordPress website will need a custom post type, there are four questions that you can ask yourself. A custom post type is a good idea if you answer “yes” to one or more of these. All four will work together to create a comprehensive custom post type.

Question 1: Will I be creating many posts that need a special layout?

A custom post type will help you create a collection of posts with a standardized layout. You can structure your post type to show your custom content in the same place each time. This helps you develop your content and creates a consistent user experience for your readers.

Couldn’t I do this with a block pattern?
Yes, you could!

With the new block features in WordPress, you could create a block pattern to save a reusable block layout. It takes minimal development work, and once it’s been set up, you could use your block pattern every time you create a post that needs that layout. However, WordPress would not automatically generate an archive of these posts that is separate from the rest.

Question 2: Will I be creating lots of posts that will need their own custom fields?

Custom fields are usually assigned to custom post types, allowing you to create content specific to that post type. For example, let’s consider a custom post type for books. In this custom post type, you could define custom fields for things like the author name, publisher, publication date, ISBN, language, description, format, rating, and retail links.

When you combine these custom fields with a custom layout, you can create a consistent editing and reading experience for all of the posts within this custom post type.

Couldn’t I create these fields for all posts, and just not use them on the posts that don’t need them?
You could, but that would be a confusing mess!

You would have to ignore those fields on any post type that they don’t apply to. You would also need to consider whether posts output unnecessary markup on your web pages, which could create issues for SEO and accessibility.

Question 3: Will I be creating many posts that need their own archive page?

Custom post types come with their own archive pages. Default posts automatically get an archive, which you’re already familiar with. This includes the directory of all your posts (such as /blog/ or whatever you have defined) and the category and tag pages.

When you use a custom post type, any time you publish a new post, that post will be automatically added to the archives for the post type. You can link to the archive in your site’s navigation to direct users to all the posts within the custom post type.

Couldn’t I just make a page and link to the posts that I want to include?
You could, but that’s a lot of manual work.

Every time you publish a post, you must remember to add it to the page. If you forget, the page will become outdated and will be missing posts that should be there.

Question 4: Will I be creating lots of posts that need their own special set of categories?

With custom post types, you can create custom taxonomies. These are useful if you want to define special categories for your custom post type.

You can keep them separate from the default posts so that they can be easily found by your readers. For example, if you had a custom post type for books, you could create categories for each genre.

Couldn’t I just use the regular categories and make a category for book posts?
Yes, you could. If all you’re doing is writing default posts on a certain topic, you can make a category for that topic.

You can even use the default categories with a custom post type. However, if you do that, you will be including posts from your custom post type in the standard archives, so they will be mixed in with your default posts. That is completely fine to do if you do not need them separated.

Examples of Custom Post Types

So far, we’ve reviewed some fairly technical considerations about custom post types. Now we’ll take a look at five real-world examples of custom post types that will help us understand what custom post types can be used for.

Each example includes a basic wireframe-style graphic that illustrates the concept of the post type as seen on the front end of the website. Orange boxes indicate elements that come built into the post from WordPress, like the title, featured image, and main content area. Green boxes indicate custom fields.

Events

Basic event information could be handled with a custom post type. Each post could have custom fields related to events and a specific layout for the data to be displayed on the front end of the website. An archive for event posts would let the user browse all upcoming events.

Custom fields for an events custom post type could include:

• Location
• Map
• Directions
• Start Date
• Start Time
• End Date
• End Time
• Description
• Schedule
• Sponsor Logos

Events that require advanced features like registration and payments might need to be set up in WordPress with a plugin such as The Events Calendar. That plugin will create a custom post type as part of its installation process.

Recipes

There are many recipe blogs online, and a custom post type would go a long way towards helping a chef organize their website.

Custom fields for a recipes custom post type could include:

• Ingredients
• Directions
• Prep Time
• Cook Time
• Yield
• Servings
• Nutrition Facts
• Image Gallery
• Cuisine Type

A custom taxonomy would be ideal for a recipe post type because it would allow you to create categories based on the type of cuisine, how long the recipe takes to make, or dietary restrictions.

Books

A site that posts content about books would benefit from a books custom post type. It would help organize the metadata about each book and provide an archive of books.

Custom fields for a books custom post type could include:

• Author
• Publisher
• ISBN
• Language
• Description
• Format
• Genre
• Rating
• Retail Links
• Other Books You Might Like

Avid readers are always interested in finding more books. This custom post type could create associations between authors or genres to connect books together and make reading suggestions.

Directory of People or Organizations

Companies that display a directory of employees often have a “team” page with photos and bios for each team member.

Custom fields for a team custom post type could include:

• Photo
• Title
• Location
• Contact Info
• Social Media Links

The individual’s name and bio would be included in the standard fields. The title of the post would be used for the name, and the regular content editor would be used for the bio.

Another similar use case for a post type like this would be a directory of organizations. These might be member organizations, contributors to your service, or client profiles.

Portfolio

Designers, freelance web developers, consultants, small businesses, and many other professionals create portfolios to impress potential clients. A custom post type would help organize portfolio posts so that your work examples look polished and professional.

Custom fields for a portfolio custom post type could include:

• Image Gallery
• Project Type
• Client Name
• Technology or Materials Used
• Call to Action

The call-to-action might be made up of a heading, paragraph text, and a button that invites readers to contact you.

A Custom Post Type Illustrated

Now that we understand what custom post types are typically used for, let’s flesh out one of our examples a little more.

Using the example of the books custom post type, we can add a few more details to its custom fields. Additionally, we can consider the layout for single posts and archive pages.

This wireframe for the single post expands on the basic example above and shows a layout that includes a brief description, a full description, and a publication date.

Next is an idea of what the archive could look like. It uses these elements:

• Breadcrumbs at the top of the page would let the user navigate up a level to see all genres
• A heading for the category name (such as Fiction, Fantasy, Travel, etc.)
• A couple of paragraphs of text that describe the genre category
• A grid of book covers, each of which links to the post for that book
• Pagination links at the bottom of the page

Since this is a category page for a genre, this would be a custom taxonomy defined for the post type, allowing the site administrator to categorize books into genres.

Creating a Custom Post Type

This article focuses on understanding custom post types and whether your WordPress website needs one. But while we’re at it, let’s take a quick look at how you would create a custom post type if you decide you need one. This is not an in-depth technical tutorial, but an overview of the process.

There are two pieces to creating most custom post types: making the post type itself and defining custom fields. There are different methods for this, with varying levels of programming needed, but custom development work is necessary.

Make the Custom Post Type and Taxonomy

The most popular option for creating a custom post type is the Custom Post Type UI plugin, which provides an easy interface for creating custom post types and taxonomies in WordPress.

Using this plugin to create a “books” custom post type would look like this:

We can also use Custom Post Type UI to create our “genres” taxonomy and attach it to our custom post type:

Take a look at the Custom Post Type UI Tutorials for more information on how to use the plugin. Additionally, Custom Post Type UI Extended lets you easily make custom layouts for your new post type.

Add Custom Fields

The next step is to define custom fields for your post type. In our books example, fields include author name, publisher, rating, language, and retail links.

The industry-standard method for creating custom fields is by using the plugin Advanced Custom Fields. It has a free version and a pro version with extra features.

A field group for our books custom post type would look something like this:

Defining your custom fields is only part of the procedure. After you have set up your fields within the plugin, it’s also necessary to use code to tell WordPress how to use these fields with your custom post type.

Get started with the documentation on displaying values in your theme. The details are outside the scope of this article, but there are many resources online that provide full tutorials on creating custom post types.

Final Words

WordPress is a customizable publishing platform that allows you to create custom post types, define your design and layout for posts and archive pages, and publish exactly the type of content you want to show the world.

With the information in this article, you should now understand what custom post types are, what they can be used for, and whether your WordPress website could benefit from them.

If you need help developing a custom post type, contact us! We’d love to hear about what you’re creating.

The post Does Your WordPress Website Need a Custom Post Type? appeared first on WebDevStudios.

The TL;DR is that posts are part of the blog system of WordPress, often published by date and arranged in reverse chronological order. They are organized with categories and tags. Pages stand alone outside of that blogging structure, and are not dependent on the publication date.

If that still seems a little murky, keep reading.

A Brief Look Into History

Back in the olden days of the late 90s and the early 2000s, blogging was just getting started. Teenagers posted their angst on LiveJournal. Blogger was a more professional blogging platform.

Blogger was bought by Google in 2003 and you can still sometimes find it in use today. WordPress was initially released in 2003 and started out as another way to create a blog.

All of these early platforms were designed to be online journals. You would write a post that was the equivalent of a journal entry, and it would be dated and appear at the top of your journal. Every post had a date and was chronologically ordered. Posts were grouped by month and year to create an archive.

That was all fine, but something immediately became a problem: what if you wanted to make an “About Us” page or a “Contact Us” page? If you created a post, titled it About Us, and published it, it would be at the top of your list of posts, at first.

As soon as you wrote a new post, your About Us post would be bumped down. Pretty soon, after you published a few more new posts, your About Us post would be lost within the archives.

Pages were invented to solve this. The blogging platforms each released another type of content that existed outside of the archival system and wasn’t dependent on the date of publication. Pages could be created and added to the blog’s main navigation and they would stay there forever.

Posts

Nowadays, posts are still used as blog posts but don’t have to be. Posts can be used for any type of content, and you don’t even have to show the publication date if you’d prefer your content to be more evergreen.

It’s still a best practice for posts to be organized into categories. Categories help group your content into useful topics, and you can even link to your category archives in your navigation menu.

Tags can be used in a similar way, but think of them more like hashtags on social media—instead of category groups, they’re more like keywords.

Pages

Pages are designed for static content that you always want to exist in the same place on your website. Common examples of pages are the About Us page, the Contact Us page, or a Privacy Policy page. These pages are editable but don’t drastically change very often.

Pages usually don’t use categories or tags. Unless you have a specific reason to do so and want to develop that feature or use a plugin.

Pages are outside of the archiving system, so they’re not found by year or month, and they won’t be pushed down an archive page after new content is published above them. Instead, they exist as standalone pages on the website and are linked to within the header or footer navigation.

Aside: What Does “Blog” Actually Mean?

The word “blog” is short for “weblog.” Jorn Barger, the author of a blog called Robot Wisdom, coined the term in 1997.

Since the word “blog” refers to the entire blog section of your website, a common mistake people make is to refer to each individual post as a blog. Each individual post is a “blog post” and the collection of all blog posts is a “blog.”

You can think of it in the format of an SAT question:

blog is to website
as
blog post is to web page

Get Writing

Now that you have a better understanding of what posts and pages are, go forth and create your WordPress content!

The post What’s the Difference Between Posts and Pages in WordPress? appeared first on WebDevStudios.

But what if you’re running a WordPress website? Can you create an eCommerce store on WordPress? Is there an eCommerce solution that’s native to WordPress?

Yes! It’s called WooCommerce.

What Is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce has a funny name, but it’s one of the world’s most popular eCommerce platforms, powering about 40% of all online stores. It was originally developed by WooThemes and was acquired in 2015 by Automattic, the developer of WordPress itself.

WooCommerce is an open-source platform, like WordPress. It’s a free WordPress plugin that helps you create a fully-functional eCommerce store on your WordPress website.

It also has a massive marketplace of extensions, some free and some paid. You can find just about anything you need to set up your eCommerce store and start earning cash. There are also extensions for marketing, payments, shipping, customer service, and more.

Creating an eCommerce Store on WordPress with WooCommerce

To get started with WooCommerce, download and install the plugin like you would any other WordPress plugin.

When you activate the plugin, it will walk you through some initial steps for setting up your store. This will include basics like your location, the types of products you’ll be selling, and other simple configuration options.

Selling Physical Products

WooCommerce allows store owners to sell both physical and digital products. For physical products, you can manage important details like inventory and shipping.

The inventory settings let you set the product’s SKU, stock quantity, backorder options, and how many of each item can be purchased per order.

Out of the box, WooCommerce offers limited shipping options, which include weight, dimensions, and shipping classes for products.

Most eCommerce stores that ship physical products use extensions that let them extend these capabilities, such as bulk stock management and “back in stock” notifications. More importantly, you can get extensions that integrate with popular shipping solutions like Shippo, ShipStation, USPS, UPS, FedEx, and many more.

These shipping extensions provide options that are used by the shipping service. For example, the UPS Shipping Method extension can calculate domestic and international shipping costs for a variety of shipping methods, such as Next Day Air, Ground, or Worldwide Express. It also provides measurement and weight options that UPS uses to calculate shipping prices for packages.

Many store owners are interested in selling customizable products or collections of products in bundles. Check out extensions like Product Bundles and Product Add-Ons, and there are lots of other extensions available to suit your needs.

Selling Digital, Virtual, and Downloadable Products

It’s easy to sell digital, virtual, or downloadable products with WooCommerce. When setting up a product, all you have to do is check the boxes for “Virtual” and/or “Downloadable.”

The “Virtual” checkbox removes the shipping option, and the “Downloadable” checkbox adds a downloadable file setting so that you can select a file for your customer to download. You get the ability to limit the number of times a customer can download the file, and you can set the download ability to expire after a certain number of days.

Another use for virtual products is when you need to sell nontangible items, like access to events. It’s possible to combine WooCommerce and a plugin like The Events Calendar to sell tickets for events that are in-person or online, such as webinars.

If you need to sell access to something else, you can use WooCommerce with an extension like WooCommerce Memberships to sell association memberships, subscriptions to online magazines, or memberships to eLearning sites.

Taking Payments

In order to sell products, you’ll need a payment gateway. Payment gateways process credit card payments for you.

To set up a payment gateway, navigate to WooCommerce > Settings > Payments. When you installed WooCommerce, it came with a few starter payment gateways: WooCommerce Payments, direct bank transfer, check payments, and cash on delivery. These are less frequently used than payment gateways that process credit cards, but you can set them up if they work for your business needs.

Common payment gateways are PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, Affirm Payments, and Klarna Payments, and there are extensions available for all of these.

Before you take a customer’s credit card, you might want to offer a coupon or a discount. WooCommerce has a built-in coupon section where you can create coupon codes. For each coupon code, you have the ability to set the type of discount, the coupon amount, an expiration date, and other usage restrictions.

And, of course, WooCommerce makes it easy to offer even more coupon options with extensions. You can create coupons for groups of people, free gift coupons, store credits, and more.

Customizing Your eCommerce Store’s Design

What about your store’s design?

WooCommerce works with your current WordPress theme, so you can set up your store without changing your website’s design. There are also WooCommerce themes that work especially well if your entire site is dedicated to a store.

It’s also common for theme developers to override aspects of the design of WooCommerce by making copies of the plugin’s template files and changing them. This is developer-level work and involves changing HTML, CSS, and PHP.

This can be a good investment because it will allow you to change the design of WooCommerce elements like the shopping cart, the order confirmation page, or the automated order confirmation emails. Get started with this documentation.

Marketing Your eCommerce Store

Marketing is a big topic in the world of eCommerce. After all, what’s the use of having an eCommerce store if nobody shows up?

Installing WooCommerce will give you a “Marketing” tab on the sidebar in WordPress. Open that and you’ll find a list of recommended marketing extensions.

Email is a long-standing part of marketing, and WooCommerce recommends MailPoet as the official solution. MailPoet lets you create newsletters, promotional campaigns, automated follow-up emails, and cart abandonment recovery emails.

There are social media extensions for Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok that will help you promote your store on those platforms. There are also extensions for services like MailChimp, Trustpilot, Zapier, Google Ads, and many more.

Conclusion

If you want to create an eCommerce store on WordPress, WooCommerce is the way to go. It provides a comprehensive solution for selling physical products and downloadable products. Plus, WooCommerce simplifies taking payments, creating a store design, and marketing your shop.

WebDevStudios is well-experienced with eCommerce projects. We would love to hear about your WooCommerce store. Reach out to us and tell us how we can help you.

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In this blog post, we’ll explore what gamification is and take a look at some gamification examples around the web. Then we’ll check out some interesting gamification statistics and brainstorm some ideas for adding gamification to your website.

What Is Gamification?

Gamification is the process of adding game-like elements to applications in an attempt to increase engagement by motivating users. Gamification can be found in many settings and industries, such as business, education, fitness, software, apps, and website technology.

In business, elements of games can give people a sense of fun in an environment that would otherwise feel like work. On your website, gamification is a deliberate strategy to increase user engagement, and it can also enhance motivation and loyalty.

Elements of Gamification

You can gamify a non-game system, such as your website or app, by using a variety of components. Here are some of the most common.

Points

The basic attribute of any game or gamified application is the collection of points. They are awarded for activity on your website and will add up as the user takes action across the system.

This gives the user a direct and simple method to see their progress. Points are allocated in different ways, such as for experience or reputation. They add up over time, contribute toward achievements, or are redeemed for rewards.

Badges and Achievements

Badges and achievements usually go hand-in-hand, with the user earning a badge for achieving specific milestones within the system. In video games, achievements are awarded for completing long-term or difficult tasks.

As elements of gamification, achievements are awarded once a user has reached a certain number of points or completed a series of activities. The user earns a badge that is displayed on their profile.

Leaderboards and Competitions

In gamified systems that feature leaderboards, users compete against each other and are ranked according to points accrued or achievements. Apps might also create competitions between users in which people will compete for the highest score in a set time frame.

Scores are displayed publicly so that users can compare their progress against their competitors. Competitions are arranged in teams or played by individual users.

Unlocks

Both points and achievements are used to unlock new game elements once the user has reached a certain threshold. For example, once users attain a certain number of points, they might be awarded new privileges within the system. Or, having completed certain achievements, the user might be presented with new challenges.

Progress and Completeness Bars

Progress bars and completeness trackers are ways to encourage users to complete all steps in a particular series. For example, this is commonly used to help people fill out all pieces of their user profiles.

Adding a profile photo, location, and other details will move the progress bar toward completion. Completeness bars can also be used to guide customers along the process of requesting a quote, completing a purchase, or filling out a long form.

Random Chance

A traditional form of gamification that’s easy to implement is random chance. This has been used at work, school, and home for centuries.

People use chore wheels to assign chores to family members by spinning a wheel. Drawing numbers out of a hat is another common way to use the random chance to make decisions.

Even though it’s random, it can help people feel more motivated to participate in tasks because they know they weren’t singled out for the chore and that it will change next time. Many card games, board games, and video games rely heavily on random chance to progress game elements.

Gamification Examples

Gamification can be found around the web in a variety of ways that you are probably already interacting with, but might not have noticed.

Social Media

Reddit is a great example of a social media website/app that uses different elements of gamification:

• Users gain “Karma” points, which are awarded by other people in the form of upvotes on their posts or comments.
• Users can give awards to each other, which are displayed on an individual post and in the user’s profile with icons and titles.
• Users gain trophies, which are similar to badges, for certain milestones like numbers of years on the app or for taking actions like verifying their email address.

Stack Overflow is a message forum website where people can ask questions related to programming and development. The platform uses these gamification techniques:

• Users gain points when other people upvote their questions and answers. Some activities award larger amounts of points, such as when a user’s answer is marked as “accepted.”
• Then, these points are shown as reputation earned, and indicate how helpful a user has been in answering questions.
• As users gain reputation points, new privileges are unlocked, including the ability to ask questions. Users must first be helpful before they can receive help.
• Badges are awarded at increasing levels of reputation.

Social media websites and apps like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are gamified with likes and shares. Those add up by post, instead of contributing to a user’s overall score, and they motivate people to create more content and improve their posts to garner more likes and shares.

Education and Training

Treehouse is a website that offers online courses on web development and related coding topics. It’s a fantastic example of gamification in an educational setting with points, badges, and learning tracks.

• Learners gain points when taking important actions on the platform, such as completing quizzes, doing code challenges, finishing courses, and participating in forums.
• When users gain achievements they earn a badge that’s displayed on their profile.
• Courses are arranged into tracks, which are collections of courses on a related topic that move a learner from beginner to advanced skill level. These keep students motivated as they see their progression through the track.

Health and Fitness

Fitness trackers like Fitbit and Apple Watch include a lot of gamification to make workouts more motivating and fun. For example, Fitbit users aim for goals like the number of steps per day, resting heart rate, pounds lost, and the number of minutes exercised per week.

• Data from workouts is tracked and displayed on a dashboard.
• A number of steps is counted and displayed throughout the day.
• Weight loss or maintenance is tracked and displayed graphically.
• Users earn badges for reaching specific goals.

Fitbit also includes virtual events and competitions. Users can compete against each other in daily or weekly goals, but they can also participate in “Fitbit Adventures” where they use their real-life steps to follow virtual trails, reach destinations, and collect hidden items.

Work and Business

Gamification can be built into our daily working lives. Here at WebDevStudios, we use a Slack integration called HeyTaco that helps employees build relationships and give each other kudos for a job well done.

HeyTaco works by allowing users to give each other taco emojis in Slack or Microsoft Teams. They’re typically used to say thank you, good job, or congratulations. It goes a long way toward building camaraderie, especially in a remote work environment.

HeyTaco includes a few elements of gamification:

• Tacos add up like points.
• A monthly leaderboard ranks employees based on how many tacos they received that month.
• Tacos are exchanged for real-world rewards, set by the organization, such as gift cards or extra time off.

A 2019 study found that 89% of employees said that gamification made them feel more productive and 88% said it made them feel happier at work. Eighty-nine percent also said that when a task is gamified, they feel competitive and eager to complete it. (Source)

LinkedIn even has some gamification in the form of skill badges. Users take skill assessments, and if they score in the top 30%, they earn a badge that will display on their profile. The promise of a reward for a high score makes the skill assessments feel more important to the user, and it’s also useful information for potential employers.

Gaming

Gamification is even found within gaming systems themselves. For example, Xbox Game Pass members earn Microsoft Rewards points by playing games that are included with the Xbox Game Pass library.

• Players earn points by playing Game Pass games daily and weekly.
• The points are tracked within the user’s profile in the Xbox console and mobile app.
• These points are redeemable for rewards like Xbox gift cards, in-game content, movies, and more.

Gold Stars

Other forms of basic gamification exist in our daily lives. In elementary school, teachers sometimes award gold stars for good behavior or exceptional grades.

The stars are shown on a board next to each student’s name. This gamification takes the form of both points and a leaderboard and motivates kids to do well in school.

Website and App Gamification Statistics

Most website owners would like to improve certain stats on their website, like the bounce rate, time spent on the site, and the number of pages viewed. Higher user engagement with a website should lead to an increase in conversions and revenue.

• Gamifying your website can boost browsing time by up to 30%. (Source)
• A fully engaged customer tends to net an average of 23% premium in terms of profitability. Actively disengaged customers represent a 13% discount. (Source)
• Gamifying a website boosts comments by 13%, social sharing by 22%, and content discovery by 68%. (Source)
• Gamifying a website can lead to a 100-150% increase in engagement metrics including unique views, page views, community activities, and time on site. (Source)

These companies experienced measurable success with their website and app engagement rates due to gamification:

• Duolingo used gamification in language learning efforts to help grow its user base to more than 300 million. (Source)
• After introducing gamification to its mobile app, Foursquare expanded by 10 times within a five-year period. (Source)
• In 2018, Roblox launched its Roblox Education program, which helped increase the number of active Roblox users to over 90 million in a year. (Source)
• Autodesk used gamification to increase its trail usage rate by 40%, with conversion rates increasing by 15%. (Source)
• The logistics company Kenco saw a 45% increase in sales after using a sales gamification tool. (Source)
• Ford Motors increased sales by more than $8 million and boosted Facebook likes by 600% with gamified content. (Source)
• Coop saw an 39% average increase in spend amongst customers who stayed engaged with its gamification system long enough to collect a prize. (Source)
• Masai experienced a 50% cost-per-lead reduction. (Source)
• Samsung Nation increased its customer product reviews by 500% and site visits by 66%. (Source)
• Teleflora increased traffic by 105% and conversion rates by 92%. (Source)
• IBM has shown a 299% increase in comments posted. (Source)
• Texas bank Extraco tested a gamified process that taught clients about its offers and benefits, which led to a rise in conversion rate, from 2% to 14%, and raised customer acquisitions by 700%. (Source)

Ideas for Gamification of Your Website

Gamification is easy to apply to most websites with a little creativity and web development. Start with these ideas.

Gamification of eCommerce Websites

eCommerce websites are well positioned to take advantage of gamification since they already have a user database that can be expanded upon to include gamification elements like points and discounts.

Points and Progress Bars

A progress bar, shown prominently on the website, can track the customer’s number of purchases. The progress bar fills based on point accumulation for every purchase and amount spent.

Badge Achievements

Specific call-to-actions (CTAs) earn users badges and achievements. These CTAs are commonly used.

• Follow the company on social media
• Share an invitation to the website with a friend
• Use a coupon
• Sign up for the email list
• The customer’s first order
• Order number milestones such as 10 orders, 20 orders, etc.

Spin a Wheel

Displaying a wheel with various prizes such as discounts or free shipping is enticing. The user spins the wheel, which lands on a prize and adds the reward to their account.

Product Recommender

Product recommenders are like quizzes that allow the user to find the products they’re looking for. The user selects from product attributes and the results of the quiz show the customers which of the store’s products meet their needs.

Checkout Progress Bar

Users stay on track by monitoring the progress bar during checkout. It shows the stages of the checkout, such as shipping, billing, and review. This lets the user know what to expect during checkout and where they are within the process.

Gamification of Business and Professional Service Websites

Professional service websites include businesses like creative studios, web development agencies, marketing agencies, health industry businesses (clinics, doctors, dentists), lawyers, accountants, insurance, cleaning services, home repair services, and more. These businesses sell services instead of products, but many of the gamification methods for eCommerce apply here as well.

Product Recommender

If your business offers different levels of service, such as different packages, a product recommender is an interactive way to let clients discover which of your packages is best for them. The user selects from package attributes and the results of the quiz show them which of the services best meets their needs.

Completeness Tracker

If your website includes a database of user accounts, it can be beneficial to encourage your clients to fill out their profile. A completeness tracker can motivate them to input data like their location, times available for meetings/appointments, user photos, budget range, and preferred types of services. You can request the data that’s important to your business.

Achievements and Badges

The completion of action items can result in achievement levels and badges. Here are some common examples.

• Following the company on social media
• Sharing an invitation to the company with a friend
• Signing up for the email list
• Completing a large project with the company
• Keeping up with recommended activities (like six-month dental checkups or annual home maintenance)

Gamification of SaaS Websites

Software-as-a-Service websites can take advantage of gamification in training and sales. Some of the top SaaS companies include Salesforce, HubSpot, G Suite, Microsoft Office 365, Amazon Web Services, and Dropbox.

In addition to the sales and purchasing ideas mentioned earlier, SaaS websites can make great use of gamification in educational training for their product.

Some education and training ideas are:

• Award the user achievements and badges for watching training videos.
• Give the user different amounts of points for completing different tasks. Some activities might award more points, such as 10 for watching a video, and 20 for passing a quiz.
• Guide the user through the process of setting up the software for their business with a completion tracker.
• Award the user a downloadable certificate when they have successfully passed a course.

Gamification of News, Review, Blog, and Informational Websites

Informational websites include news websites, product review websites, personal blogs, professional/industry blogs, or advice columns. Text articles mostly make up the composition of these sites, which lack complex features like eCommerce.

While these websites might not directly sell products, they can still benefit from some of the same elements of gamification. Think about ways to include these elements:

• Encourage website visitors to sign up for your email list with a spinning wheel of prizes. Prizes can be anything that makes sense for the topic you write about.
• If you review products, you can treat them like any e-commerce site would, and offer a recommendation quiz that will help users find the content they’re looking for.
• Include a “Surprise me!” button that sends users to a random article.
• Run giveaway contests for special content like books written by the authors of the website.
• Add interaction that’s similar to social media, such as a robust comments feature with upvotes and downvotes. If your site has a user database, you could rank commenters by the number of comments.
• Include interactive elements that give the reader something to do. Buzzfeed quizzes are a great example of this.
• Embed social media posts, especially from your readers, to build a community and take advantage of social media’s built-in gamification of likes and shares.

Conclusion

Gamification is a compelling way to add interaction and fun to your website. Moreover, it can enhance websites in any industry by using game-like elements such as points, badges, and progress bars.

Statistics show that gamification improves user engagement, motivation, and ultimately revenue. That said, it’s worth gamifying your website to cash in on these benefits.

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