In order to have a really great online store with which your e-commerce can actually grow, there are initial questions to answer and first things to consider. But when we talk about moving the ‘brick and mortar’ into the web, basically all you need is these three elements. The holy trinity of an online store, which you can get all for totally FREE.
The Great CMS WordPress
image: msayyed75
WordPress is a PHP- and MySQL-powered content management system (CMS) so popular that one third of the biggest sites on the web use it. But beyond its most popular usage as a blogging platform, WordPress offers e-commerce functionality. Build and launch your online store with it so you can grow your online business faster as WordPress is:
Packed with Many Features
Plugin architecture, templating system, advanced link management are only few among WordPress’ many powerful features.
Easy to Install
Several web hosts offer tools to automatically install WordPress, but if you want to do it on your own, it takes less than 5 minutes anyway.
http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress#Famous_5-Minute_Install
Easy to Manage
You can easily add, edit and delete content within WordPress.
Easy to Customize
The templating system includes widgets you can arrange with drag and drop. No need to edit the PHP or HTML code on backend. You can also change the entire layout by switching themes. But if you are code literate, you can do almost unlimited tweaks for more advanced customizations.
Easy to Track
WordPress has Trackback and Pingback, excellent ways to build links and traffic to your online store.
Search Engines Friendly
WordPress code structure ensures that your online store can be easily recognized by and listed on the first result pages of search engines.
Rapidly Developed
WordPress has gone through a very rapid development cycle since May 2003, which keeps it at the cutting edge.
Supported by a Solid Community
You can find countless plugins and themes developed by WordPress enthusiasts and professional designers. If you seek help in the forum, they will be glad to help you.
The Great Shopping Cart WP e-Commerce
Of all shopping carts available for free, one that gets along really well with WordPress would be its first e-commerce plugin, Getshopped‘s WP e-Commerce. The plugin’s free version alone is enough to gear up your online store, because it is:
Feature Rich
Compared to other free WordPress e-commerce plugins, WP e-Commerce has the most features. Using it you can easily manage product catalog, pricing rules, orders, checkout, various payment options, shipping and marketing strategies.
Easy to Install
WP e-Commerce is easy to install, even if you have no idea how to code!
http://getshopped.org/resources/docs/installation/wp-e-commerce/
Easy to Customize
WP e-Commerce allows you to be totally creative with CSS and HTML on backend, providing your online store the most unique interface and usability.
image: JoeRocketh
Easy to Manage
Using WordPress as its bare bones, of course WP e-Commerce is easy to manage. You can add new products to your online store and assign them to either single or multiple categories. You can also set each’s price rules, including for the occasional sales.
Search Engine Optimized
With Meta-information and RSS feeds for products and categories, as well as integration with Google and All in One SEO plugin for WordPress, WP e-Commerce ensures that your online store is search engines friendly.
Updated Regularly
Getshopped is excellent in its development cycle, as you can see from their recently released development roadmap.
These are of course only few among all features WP e-Commerce comes with. And if you have questions regarding the plugin, you can contact Getshopped customer support.
The Great Tokokoo WordPress e-Commerce Themes
The third part of the holy trinity of an online store is WordPress e-commerce theme. And that is where Tokokoo comes in, as we offer you FREE WordPress e-commerce themes for various online stores.
In each of Tokokoo’s WordPress e-commerce themes you will find:
CMS Bridge
Tokokoo’s WordPress e-commerce themes do not eliminate any feature within WordPress and WP e-Commerce. They in fact comes with a special CMS bridging both, allowing you to add categories and products, and then display them as feature products, recent products and more.
Easy Installation
Installing any Tokokoo’s WordPress e-commerce theme is easy, you can even do it in 3 minutes! And to help you even further, every theme comes with a user guide.
Easy Management
Using the magical menu tree you can manage custom menu by pages, categories and more with drag and drop. A small PHP script allows you to crop, zoom and resize web images of any type.
Easy Customization
Tokokoo’s WordPress e-commerce themes allow you to easily modify logo, favicon, footer text, custom CSS and more. They also comes with IE6 upgrade alert you can enable or disable within a click.
More Money with Ads
Tokokoo’s WordPress e-commerce themes have several Ad slots on every page, you can manage them by uploading, assigning and adding hyperlinks.
Easy Monitoring
All features work perfectly only if all related plugins are active. With Tokokoo’s WordPress e-commerce themes you can monitor them easily.
Easy Tracking
With Google Analytics you can be more prepared to decide the best marketing strategies for your online store. Every Tokokoo’s WordPress e-commerce theme allows you to manage it easily.
Bigger Online Exposure
Tokokoo’s WordPress e-commerce themes come with Twitter, Facebook and RSS feed integrations. You can display your social media accounts to gain bigger online exposure.
Special Features
Every Tokokoo’s WordPress e-commerce theme has special features so that it is suitable for certain online stores’ needs. For example, Disco is geared with MP3 sample preview, making it the best theme for music stores, musicians’ portfolios, music artwork displays and other music related industries. While Kelontong comes with wish list and is designed for application and gadget stores.
Your Wish Coming to Reality
WordPress ninjas in Tokokoo love to design WordPress e-commerce themes and thus they would also love to hear your wish. Should you need certain features for your specific online store, tell them and they may design it for you. For FREE!
You would also love to read:
Completely Test Our WordPress eCommerce Themes
WP e-Commerce Documentation Map
Beautifully Designed WP eCommerce Powered Online Stores