WooCommerce Archives - WPBeveiligen

A WordPress webshop with WooCommerce

12 December 2023/0 Comments/in Plug-ins, WooCommerce

WooCommerce is indeed one of the most popular and widely used webshop plugins for WordPress, and it has gained its reputation for being a powerful and versatile solution for creating online stores. Here are some key points about WooCommerce:

What is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is a webshop plugin for WordPress that is available for free. It allows users to turn their WordPress websites into fully functional online stores. Due to its popularity, there are numerous plugins available that further extend the functionalities of WooCommerce.

How to Install WooCommerce

You can find WooCommerce in the plugin database of WordPress, or you can download it from the official WooCommerce website. Installing WooCommerce is a straightforward process, but it requires proper configuration after installation.

Keeping WooCommerce Secure

While WooCommerce itself is a stable plugin for building webshops, it is essential to keep your WordPress website secure to prevent potential hacks. If your WordPress website gets hacked, a hacker can manipulate your WooCommerce webshop in various ways, such as stealing user information or adding their own products to your shop.

The downside of using free webshop software like WooCommerce is that anyone can download it and explore potential vulnerabilities to exploit or inject malicious code. Therefore, it is crucial to have robust security measures in place on your website.

A reliable security plugin, such as iThemes Security PRO, can help protect your website by blocking suspicious injections, blocking users or bots after a certain number of login attempts, preventing hacking attempts, hiding your WordPress admin panel, and keeping track of server activities.

WooCommerce and SSL

WooCommerce supports various Payment Gateways, which are payment methods that allow buyers to pay easily through your website using options like PayPal or iDeal. However, these payment gateways involve the transmission of critical customer data through your website to the bank.

To ensure that this sensitive information does not fall into the wrong hands, it is crucial to set up an SSL certificate. With an SSL certificate, your website will have an HTTPS link that securely encrypts the data before sending it over the internet. Even if intercepted by cybercriminals, the information remains encrypted and unreadable.

A Solid Start with WooCommerce

Before adding products and launching your webshop online, it is essential to set up WooCommerce securely. Just like you wouldn’t open a physical store without securing the backdoor, ensuring proper security measures for your online store is equally crucial.

By taking the necessary security precautions and using WooCommerce responsibly, you can have a solid foundation for building a successful and secure webshop on your WordPress website.

Keeping WooCommerce secure

21 October 2023/0 Comments/in Security, WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an extremely popular e-commerce platform, powering approximately 39% of all webshops worldwide. Its popularity can be attributed to its integration with WordPress, its free availability, and the ease with which users can set up an online store with just a few clicks. WooCommerce also offers a wide range of free plugins that allow users to customize their webshops according to their preferences.

However, the simplicity of setting up a WooCommerce webshop has also led to the proliferation of insecure webshops on the internet. These insecure webshops can become targets for hackers and may face various consequences, such as being hacked, sending spam to customers, leaking email addresses to third parties, transmitting credit card information without encryption, displaying unwanted links and advertisements, receiving Google’s “red flag” for security issues, and more.

If you are unable to invest in professional website security, following these four important rules can help you keep your WooCommerce webshop secure:

1. Install only one website per hosting package: Hosting packages are like closed spaces where your website resides. If multiple websites are hosted within the same package, a hacker or a hack-bot gaining access to one site could put all other sites at risk. Hosting each webshop separately minimizes this risk.

2. Regularly update WooCommerce: WooCommerce being a free platform, it is susceptible to hacking attempts. The developers behind WooCommerce regularly release updates with security fixes to counter such attempts. Keeping your WooCommerce installation up-to-date is crucial.

3. Use HTTPS: Having an SSL certificate and enabling HTTPS is not just about showcasing security; it is vital for securely transmitting sensitive data, such as payment information.

4. Limit the number of plugins: Although there are numerous plugins available to enhance WooCommerce, every plugin introduces a potential security vulnerability. Keeping the number of plugins limited to 3-5 WooCommerce addons can reduce the risk.

Remember, a webshop is like a physical store and requires proper security measures. WordPress, being the foundation of your WooCommerce shop, should be kept up-to-date and secured to ensure a safe and secure e-commerce environment.

Help! I’m not selling anything on my webshop!

19 October 2023/0 Comments/in WooCommerce

The importance of “getting customers on your website” is often underestimated. While there are many successful websites and webshops that attract millions of visitors and earn substantial profits, the reality is that the online market is highly competitive. Thousands of webshops offer products and services for sale, making it challenging for new businesses to stand out.

Before starting a webshop, it’s essential to ask yourself some critical questions:

1. Is my product or service already available on the internet? If yes, can you compete and are you willing to take on that challenge? If not, have you done market research?

2. What is the net profit margin of your product or service? It’s crucial to consider all costs, including investments, expenses, and overhead, to determine the actual profit.

3. Are you starting this webshop as a hobby or a serious business plan? Understanding your commitment and goals is crucial.

4. How much are you willing to invest, and what sacrifices are you prepared to make to achieve your goals?

Once your webshop is up and running, you will face various challenges:

1. Building a customer base and establishing a brand may take 2-5 years.

2. Dealing with customer complaints and issues, even if your product or service is excellent, is part of running a business.

3. Determining the duration and level of customer service you can provide is essential.

4. Handling negative publicity effectively is critical.

5. Acquiring and retaining customers require a thoughtful marketing strategy.

6. Ensuring steady income streams and long-term business growth is essential for sustainability.

7. Having a clear vision of where you want your business to be in 5-10 years is important for setting goals.

8. Having a backup plan (plan B) in case things don’t go as expected is essential.

Starting a webshop with a positive outlook is natural, but it’s important to be prepared for the challenges and responsibilities that come with it. Online webshops have at least 60% of the problems and challenges that physical stores face.

To succeed, you need to find a way to differentiate your webshop among thousands of others and attract customers on the vast internet. It may seem easy to start an online business, but it comes with various challenges that require careful planning and preparation.

If you have a WordPress website or are planning to have one, WPbeveiligen specializes in securing WooCommerce webshops, which is crucial for WooCommerce and WordPress due to potential vulnerabilities.

10 WooCommerce extensions you can’t live without

17 October 2023/0 Comments/in WooCommerce

WooCommerce is one of the fastest-growing webshop software on the internet, and a significant reason for this is that WooCommerce runs on WordPress and is available for free download. Additionally, it’s easy to install with just a few mouse clicks.

However, WooCommerce is not entirely free. The trick lies in how the webshop operates. While WooCommerce seems comprehensive at its core, when you want to customize the registration fields or the checkout page, you’ll find that you need extensions. These customization options are not included by default in WooCommerce, and as you might have guessed, you can purchase them separately.

Does this sound familiar? Yes, it’s similar to the free games for phones with in-app purchases.

Nevertheless, there is an advantage:

Your webshop is not overloaded with features by default.

Below is a list of “extensions,” as WooCommerce calls them, that are crucial for a large webshop. Most of them can be purchased from the WooCommerce store, and we have provided links to each extension.

Essential WooCommerce Extensions

Extension 1: Customize Checkout Fields

The checkout field editor

This extension is necessary if you want to customize the fields that visitors fill in during the checkout process.

Extension 2: Wishlist

The wishlist addon

Allow visitors to save their favorite products. Without registration, they can save favorites and come back later to purchase them. The favorites are stored for 30 days, and for registered users, favorites can be saved as long as they want. It allows the customer to save for later.

Extension 3: Newsletter Subscription

Newsletter subscription

Customers can subscribe to the newsletter with just one click during checkout. This extension works in conjunction with Mailchimp.

Extension 4: Currency Converter

Currency converter widget

Visitors from other countries can choose the currency in which they want to see the amount. The currency converter widget uses a general database to display the currency at the current exchange rate.

Extension 5: PDF Invoices

PDF invoices

While you might expect WooCommerce to send invoices in PDF format by default, everything is done via emails. This extension ensures that customers also receive a downloadable PDF that can be printed or used for administrative purposes.

Extension 6: Payment Gateways

Mollie gateway

To receive payments via iDEAL and other methods, you can establish complicated connections with your bank. But this involves a lot of work.

Mollie is a Dutch company that provides payment options and simply deposits the various payments into your account without the need for contracts with your bank.

Extension 7: Multiple Shipping Addresses

Shipping multiple addresses

By default, you can only enter one shipping address during checkout. But what if you make multiple purchases at once and want them sent to different addresses? This extension allows that.

Extension 8: Product Image Watermark

Product image watermark

Prevent others from copying and using your product images by automatically placing your logo on the image with each new upload.

Extension 9: Multilingual Webshop

WPML

This is not an official extension of WooCommerce itself but a plugin that works with the webshop to make it multilingual. WPML has a Multilingual E-Commerce module specifically designed for this purpose.

Extension 10: Security

WordPress antivirus

An antivirus for WordPress is not a luxury but a necessity, especially if you use WooCommerce. You want to protect your customers and their data as much as possible, and you can achieve this with this antivirus plugin for WordPress.

Paid Extensions vs. Free Extensions

For the above extensions, you pay a small amount. However, it is recommended to make this investment over free alternatives. These paid extensions can be downloaded from the WooCommerce site, ensuring that there are no hacks or backdoors.

The Sky is the Limit?

Don’t clutter your webshop with too many extensions/plugins. Each plugin loads code, which can slow down your website. Additionally, hackers frequently test plugins for vulnerabilities, and they often find them. In short, every additional plugin is a potential vulnerability.

Try to have your WooCommerce webshop work with a maximum of 5-8 targeted plugins. Less is more when it comes to security.

In 4 Steps: Putting a new product in your WooCommerce shop

9 October 2023/0 Comments/in WooCommerce

The advantage of WooCommerce is that the shop makes use of the existing features and appearance of WordPress.
Although you see many possibilities, creating a new product is similar in many ways to creating regular WordPress pages and posts.

Step 1: Title and Description

The title you choose is very important for visitors and for your position in Google. The product title is also used as the link/page name.

The description should correspond to the product and provide an explanation. It is your opportunity to sell the product and be found in Google.

A description of 200-300 words is recommended at a minimum. For example, you can describe what the product does, its benefits, and how to use it.

Step 2: Product Image

The product images determine 50% of whether you sell the product or not.

TIP: Make sure you have multiple images of the product!

Think of 1 clear image/photo and multiple photos taken from different angles. Don’t be fooled by the small size you see in the product gallery because visitors often click on it and then see a larger version on the website.

Step 3: Price, Shipping Method, and More..

This is often the moment when you take a deep breath because there are only a few fields you need to fill in, but there are so many options to see!

Don’t be intimidated; what you mainly need to fill in are:

Selling price
Quantity (if you have a stock that can run out)
Extra: related products (display other products)
Extra: enter some dimensions and weight
Extra: enable/disable the rating option

Step 4: Categorize and Publish

Finally, choose a category so that you can easily find the product and show visitors more similar products.
You’re familiar with save as draft or publish from pages and posts, but don’t forget the blue button 😉

Improve your WooCommerce webshop with this checklist

3 September 2023/0 Comments/in WooCommerce

The first impression

Just like in a physical store, your products should look attractive in the woocommerce webshop:
According to statistics, customers decide in the first 5 seconds whether they want to continue their product selection.

Do you have clear pictures
A clear description of the product

The appearance of your webshop:
Although the visitor mainly looks at the products, the subconscious (the feeling) also determines a large part of the purchase.

Is your WordPress webshop easy to use on mobile and tablet (40% of visitors use a mobile or tablet)
Do you have a clear logo
Is the text legible (not too small)
Do the colors of your webshop match your products (Orange-yellow is nice for a travel website, but not for watches, for example)

User Ease

Can the visitor see with 1 mouse click:

Who is responsible for the webshop (About us page)
What is the return policy/warranty
How others experience your services or products (references)
Whether you have a quality mark

Speed

How fast does your WooCommerce webshop load:
The top 3 biggest reasons for clicking away from the webshop appear to be Pop-ups, misleading texts and a slow webshop.

Do you know the loading time of your webshop (Should be a maximum of 7-10 seconds)
Check the speed of your webshop now at gtmetrix.com
Do you have 1 optimization plugin (Think Autoptimize, WP-Rocket)

Google

How is it doing in Google:
70% of visitors come from Google. The description they see with their search result partly determines whether they visit your webshop.

Do you have an SEO plugin (Think Yoast Seo)
Have the descriptions of products and pages been adjusted (by default it takes the first sentences of your webshop)
Do you have a sitemap (Can also be arranged via Yoast, at advanced)
How many pages are indexed, are all your products indexed

Security

Is your webshop safe for customers:
Customers fill in their payment details, sometimes personal details, home address and that must not fall into the hands of hackers

Does your webshop have an https certificate (SSL)
Is your WordPress admin secure (redirected, brute-force protected)
Is your webshop up-to-date (plugins, WordPress core, the theme)
Does your webshop or WordPress not contain any malware (Check it at rescan.pro)

Do you want to be sure that your WooCommerce webshop is safe? Let us secure your webshop.

How the WooCommerce plug-in turns WordPress into an online store

20 August 2023/0 Comments/in WooCommerce

WooCommerce is the plugin that turns WordPress into an online store.
It’s interesting to note that WooCommerce is developed by the same creators as WordPress, namely Automattic.

While WooCommerce itself can be downloaded for free, many related plugins come with a price tag.

Now that you know who develops WooCommerce, let’s delve into the details.

Did you know that WooCommerce is simply an extension through the Custom Post Type?

The Custom Post Type is just one of the many built-in features of WordPress. This demonstrates the versatility of WordPress’s built-in functionalities.

But what exactly happens when you activate the WooCommerce plugin?

Grab a cup of coffee or tea, we’re going into the depths!

The Size of WooCommerce

From a data perspective, WooCommerce is not just an “additional file.”
A fresh download of WooCommerce amounts to a whopping 22+ MB and consists of 1807 files.
WordPress itself consists of 1907 files, which means that WooCommerce almost doubles the number of files.

Note: Not all of these files are used or loaded on the website. Many files are options that are used 1-2 times or are only loaded in the front-end or back-end.

WooCommerce & the Database

By default, WordPress has 12 tables, and WooCommerce adds 18 additional tables.
In the screenshot below, you can see the green tables that are part of WordPress by default and the blue tables that are added when you activate WooCommerce.
The “Recommended” Plugins

The number of files has doubled, and there are 18 additional tables. And just when you thought that was it, there are also the “recommended plugins” that are suggested in step 4 of the installation process.

Note: Do not install and activate everything without consideration. Think of it like a car where they offer racing seats, spoilers, extra brake lights, and winter tires… you don’t need everything!

The following are recommended:

The Storefront theme
It’s a decent theme, free, and reasonably customizable.
A VAT plugin
Is this the best one? Judge for yourself.
The WooCommerce admin
A faster admin interface, useful for managing a lot of information, but some users have experienced issues with this plugin.
Mailchimp
If you plan to send newsletters and collect email addresses, Mailchimp might be for you. Personally, I prefer Laposta.
A Facebook plugin
Only activate it if you have a specific use for it, as it creates APIs or connections that can slow down your website.
In step 5, Jetpack is offered…
Useful if you have experience with WordPress.com, as it brings some features of WordPress.com to your self-hosted WordPress installation.

If you install everything, you end up with 7 plugins,

resulting in 7 times updating plugins. This increases the risk of vulnerabilities. Your WordPress site becomes less secure and slower. Be cautious with the use of plugins, as having too many plugins can lead to various issues!

WooCommerce in the Back-end

In the admin area, you will see two new menu items: “WooCommerce” and “Products.”

WooCommerce is a collection of settings, reports, order overviews, and more.
Products, technically speaking, refers to the aforementioned “Custom Post Type,” where you can create products and categories to populate your online store.

If you have installed the WooCommerce Admin plugin, you will also see an “Analytics” menu item.
PS: If you encounter errors or non-functioning features, try deactivating this WooCommerce “admin” plugin. It sometimes conflicts with certain themes or plugins.

WooCommerce also adds a series of fields to the user profile, which can be seen under “Users” when clicking on a profile. These fields include billing and shipping addresses.

WooCommerce on the Front-end

Initially, you won’t see much of the online store.
That is until you add the following pages to your menu:

Shop: This is where your products will appear.
Cart: This is where customers can view the products they have selected to purchase.
My Account: Customers can update their account details, including the aforementioned billing and shipping addresses.
Checkout: This is where customers can pay for their selected products. By default, PayPal and Stripe are included as payment options. Many users add Mollie to their setup. Mollie is a Dutch payment service that enables iDeal payments. They offer a dedicated Mollie plugin for WordPress.

Summary

The technical adjustments mentioned above transform your WordPress website into an online store.
WooCommerce utilizes the existing users, admin area, and familiar structure for products and categories.

The transition from a WordPress website to a WooCommerce store is not as daunting as it may seem.

However, keep in mind that running an online store entails legal obligations and responsibilities. You’ll need to handle taxation on earnings, manage inventory, deal with customer support, address complaints, and handle other aspects typical of an online store.

Securing Your Online Store

Do not underestimate the importance

of securing your online store, as it deals with customer and payment information.

The following measures are not luxuries but necessities when it comes to handling payments:

E-commerce SSL certificate: Secure the connection between your website and customers’ browsers with an SSL certificate. This ensures that sensitive information is encrypted during transmission.
Secure hosting: Choose a reputable web hosting provider that prioritizes security and offers features such as regular backups, server-side security measures, and strong firewall protection.
Secure payment gateways: Only integrate trusted and secure payment gateways into your online store, such as PayPal, Stripe, or Mollie.
Regular updates: Keep your WordPress core, WooCommerce, and all installed plugins and themes up to date to patch any security vulnerabilities.
Strong passwords: Encourage your customers to create strong passwords for their accounts, and ensure that you and your team also use secure passwords for admin access.
Monitoring and malware scanning: Implement a security plugin or service that can monitor your website for suspicious activity and perform regular malware scans.
User access control: Restrict access to your website’s admin area to authorized users only. Use strong passwords and consider implementing two-factor authentication for added security.
Data protection and privacy compliance: Familiarize yourself with data protection regulations in your jurisdiction and ensure that you handle customer data in compliance with applicable laws.

By implementing these security measures, you can help safeguard your online store and protect the sensitive information of your customers.

Remember, maintaining a secure online store is an ongoing process. Stay vigilant, keep up with security best practices, and regularly review and update your security measures to stay one step ahead of potential threats.