Do you want to add a shopping cart to your website or store, but you are confused by the many add-ons available and you do not know how to choose the appropriate add-on? In this article, we will provide you with a comprehensive explanation of the best shopping cart plugins for WordPress or WooCommerce sites. We will also give an overview of the features of each of these plugins.
Then, at the end of the article, we will provide you with a practical explanation of one of these add-ons so that you can install the appropriate add-on for your store and adjust its settings to suit your requirements, so follow this article until the end to ensure that the steps are applied successfully.
Why do you need a WooCommerce shopping cart?
Adding a shopping cart to your WordPress website will turn it into a site dedicated to e-commerce and make it easier for your customers to purchase the product or service that you offer online. It enables you to accept payments from them, organizes the sending of their information to you, and also enables you to link the payment gateway to your store. Hence, you need a shopping cart to make your buying and selling experience smoother and hassle-free.
By default, WordPress does not include a built-in shopping cart widget or payment gateways. Therefore, if you have a WordPress website, you cannot sell products directly from your website, and all you can do by default is describe or display the products and services you provide, and write about their features on your website’s blog and nothing more. But by adding a shopping cart to your site, you will be able to turn the site into an online store, and you will be able to sell any product directly from within the site.
Therefore, to start creating your online store, you must, as a first step, install a suitable and reliable shopping cart add-on. Some site owners initially consider WooCommerce as a basic option because it includes a shopping cart implicitly, and installing it is sufficient to make your site a full-featured online store, so you may wonder if WooCommerce contains a shopping cart. So why add a new shopping cart?
WooCommerce is designed to be an integrated store that includes many services, so it does not need to add a shopping cart because it is a default feature among other features. However, there are some shopping cart add-ons that support WooCommerce to add additional features to your WooCommerce store’s shopping cart, so you must review the features of each add-on to decide if it is… Whether or not it meets your store’s requirements. There are other independent add-ons that can be installed on any website, whether it is only a WordPress site or a WooCommerce store.
WooCommerce shopping cart types
There are two main types of shopping carts on e-commerce sites:
1- Ready-made shopping carts
These are the carts that are easy to use and are suitable for small and medium store owners and are also suitable for beginners in the field of electronic stores, as their settings are configured automatically and their use does not require much experience, but their capabilities are limited.
Therefore, you may not be able to customize your store as you wish, and this is the biggest negative that may lead those who do not want this cart to work on a customized shopping cart, which we will explain in the next paragraph.
2- Customized shopping carts
Its software is open source, so you can customize it as you wish, but you must purchase hosting for it and install an SSL certificate. It is not recommended for beginners due to the difficulty of setting it up.
It is also not recommended for small store owners because ready-made shopping carts are sufficient and meet their needs away from complex setups and open source carts.
Choose the appropriate shopping cart
In order to choose the appropriate type of cart, there are several features on which you can choose your shopping cart. The shopping cart you want to get must solve a problem you have in your store, and one of the most important features that you must ensure is present in any shopping cart You choose:
- Supports various payment methods.
- It has an easy-to-use interface.
- Provides the ability to add and remove products easily.
- Compatible with the template you are using.
- Make sure the extension is secure.
The most popular custom shopping cart add-ons on WooCommerce
In the following paragraph, we suggest to you the most prominent shopping cart plugins that can be installed on a WordPress website to turn it into an online store:
1- Add WooCommerce
WooCommerce is one of the most successful free e-commerce solutions for WordPress users. It provides a complete, scalable online selling solution with all the features of e-commerce in one simple package.
Starting your own e-commerce store with WooCommerce is simple and effective. It provides a control panel that enables you to efficiently complete all your physical and virtual sales online.
Read also: WooCommerce explanation for creating an integrated online store – step by step
Read also: Steps to create an online store from scratch until achieving sales
However, although WooCommerce is the most popular, there are other additions to the shopping cart that you can rely on, as we will mention to you in the following paragraphs.
2- Add TFMiniCart&Product
The TFMiniCart&Product add-on is considered one of the best shopping cart add-ons that support Woocommerce, as it works side by side with WordPress and WooCommerce and includes several features that made us choose it for you as a suggested add-on.
Through this add-on, the customer can easily add or remove products through the shopping cart provided by the add-on by clicking the add button to the traditional shopping cart or by scrolling the product over the cart list that appears to the visitor in a drop-down form on your store page after you add it.
It is also considered a highly customizable add-on, through which you can modify the shopping cart icon, counter, texts, colors, and other features.
3- Add Bigcommerce
The Bigcommerce add-on includes a secure shopping cart that integrates with Facebook, eBay, Google Shopping, and other sales channels.
This means that you can integrate it with many sales channels, and it contains various payment gateways that suit the customers who visit and buy from your store, and it also contains an abandoned shopping cart feature.
This feature is a number of messages and notifications that the shopping cart sends to visitors who have not completed the purchase process, that is, they have placed the products in the cart but have not purchased them yet. These messages serve as a reminder and motivation for them to complete the purchase process.
Note that this add-on works independently of WooCommerce, meaning it does not require WooCommerce to work, and you can install it on any WordPress site.
4- Add the WooCommerce Cart To Quote Plugin
This shopping cart works within the WooCommerce store, and it is very important for those who want to offer special prices to customers registered on the site, and other prices for new visitors to the site, as this feature is what makes this addition different from other shopping cart additions.
You can also hide the price and show custom text in place of the price if you want to write something in place of the price, such as using this place to refer to one of the offers you offer in your store – and this certainly does not apply to all products – it is illogical to hide the prices of all products. And put texts instead.
5-Add WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway
This add-on is considered a very important addition, as it supports the WooCommerce shopping cart, and it also features support for several safe, diverse, and easy payment gateways, as payment gateways are of great importance in your online store and even form the basis of e-commerce.
If you do not provide a suitable and secure payment gateway for the customer who buys from you, you will not be able to sell anything from your store, regardless of the products you offer. You need secure payment gateways.
The WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway provides you with the perfect solution to this problem, as it accepts payments via Master Card, Visa Card, Google Play Card, Apple Play Card, and Microsoft Card as well. Supports payment via Bitcoin
Read also: Payment methods in WooCommerce stores and how to choose the most appropriate method
6- Add WPC Fly Cart for WooCommerce
WPC Fly Cart for WooCommerce is one of the smoothest and easiest shopping cart add-ons as it appears beautifully and is not annoying to the user at all. It contains an add and delete button for the product. It also appears as a pop-up menu on a layer above the main page in the store (Flying Cart) and does not require reloading. page when you proceed to the payment page, which ensures a better user experience.
note:
To display the cart popup on single product pages without reloading the page, it is recommended to install the WPC AJAX Add to Cart plugin which helps in getting a better shopping experience.
This add-on also contains a calculator through which the total price of the products chosen by the customer is calculated, making it easier for him to consider his budget before purchasing without having to manually calculate the price of the products. It is highly customizable, so this cart is considered easy to use and saves a lot of time and effort. On the client.
7- Add Simple WordPress Shopping Cart
The WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart plugin enables you to add ( the button to add products to the shopping cart ) on any page and for any product in a customized manner. It also has many features that make it better than others because it is open source and gives you the ability to freely modify its features.
You can modify the page that the customer should go to after the purchase process or if he cancels the purchase. For example, you direct him to a page where he writes (Thank you for your purchase from our store) if the customer makes the purchase, and this is very easy to implement through this addition.
It also has several payment gateways, most notably Paypal, Master Card, Visa Card, and a number of other payment gateways.
Install and use the WooCommerce shopping cart plugin
In this explanation, we will show you how to use the WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart plugin with practical steps for several reasons, the most prominent of which is that it is comprehensive, meaning it includes all the features of shopping carts, from adding the required buttons to the presence of suitable and diverse payment gateways.
It also allows customers to quickly convert any WordPress site into an e-commerce site and buy products from it with just a few clicks. It provides you with an interface to include an (add to cart) button in posts or pages that display specific products using short codes.
Product details are associated with each button. The payment process is easily done through PayPal without the need to store customers’ personal and financial information on the site, which saves you the need to provide protection and privacy for this information. All you have to do is follow the following steps:
1-Install the add-on
First, go to your WordPress control panel, then click on the Plugins tab > Add New. Then a list of available plugins will appear for you. Search for the name of the WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart plugin in the search box and the plugin will appear as shown in the following image.
All you have to do is click on the (Install Now) button and then press the ( Activate ) button after you install the add-on, for the add-on to be successfully activated on your site .
2- Add the product add button to the shopping cart
In order to go to the add-on, whether to adjust its settings, or to add its shopping cart to a product, there are two ways to do that. The first is to go to the installed add-ons, then search for the name of the add-on, then click on Settings .
The second method is by opening the plugin through the side menu in the WordPress control panel by clicking on its name, Simple Cart , as shown in the following image:
After opening the add-on settings, the necessary instructions will appear for you to add the ( Add to shopping cart ) button, which is by copying the code designated for that and pasting it on the page of the product for which you want to add the shopping cart.
Copy this code
Then paste it on the page or article about the product to which you want to add a shopping cart button, but modifying the name Test Product, as you must put the name of your product, and also modify the product price, so you must put the real price of your product.
As for the second code
It is intended for displaying shopping cart details. These codes are added as shown in the following image, where we added a new page here called Shirt and wrote the following code in it:
The first code, as we explained, is responsible for adding the button (add to the shopping cart or shopping cart), while the second code is designated (to display a list of details that enable the customer to know the price and choose the sufficient number of this product for him). When this page is displayed, it will appear as shown in the following image:
3. A general explanation of the add-on settings
You need to customize the basic plugin settings to make it work properly on your site. Choose the name of the plugin from the WordPress control menu, then choose Settings to display a menu containing multiple options, as shown in the previous image, and we will explain them in detail:
1 – PayPal email address:
Put your PayPal account here, then any sales you make through the WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart will go to the account you put in this field.
2 -Shopping Cart title
Here you can put a title for your shopping cart by writing it in the text box here.
3 – Text/Image to show when the cart is empty.
Here you can write custom text or place a link to a specific image to appear if the cart is empty.
4 – Currency
In this field you can choose the currency in which you would like the price to appear. The default currency is the dollar, but this addition provides you with more than 10 various currencies that you can compare between to suit your store.
5 – Currency Symbol
Here you can choose the currency symbol you want, and it is better to leave it in the automatic setting, as it does not make sense to put the euro symbol for the dollar or vice versa!
6 – Base shipping cost
Here you put the value of the shipping cost for the purchase made by the customer, and if your store specializes in selling digital services such as images, audio and video materials, or books, or if you do not want to collect a value for shipping, then put the value here (0).
7 – Free shippings for orders over.
Here, a specific value can be set. If the customer buys more than that, the shipping is free, meaning no shipping fees are collected from him.
8 – Must Collect Shipping Address on PayPal
If you activate this option, this means that you will force the customer to enter his own address before leaving the PayPal payment page.
9 – Use PayPal Profile Based Shipping
If you activate this option, this means that you will rely on the Paypal account in the Paypal account in the customer’s profile.
10 – Add to Cart button Text or Image:
From here you can add text or an image to the shopping cart. You can add text by writing it in this box, while the image is added by placing its link.
11 – Return URL
Here you place the link to the page that the customer will go to after completing the purchase process. It is preferable to add a new page and write an motivating phrase for the customer so that he returns to your store in the future, such as directing him to a page that says (Thank you for purchasing from our store, or You are welcome. ..)
12 – Cancel URL:
Here, put the link to the page to which the customer will go when he cancels the deal.
13 – Products Page URL
Here, put the link to your products page, as the shopping cart will display a link to this page when the cart is empty.
14 – If you activate this option (Automatic Redirection to checkout page),
it will automatically redirect the customer to the payment page after adding a product to the shopping cart.
15 – If this option (Open Paypal Checkout Page in new tab) is activated,
the Paypal payment page will open in a new tab.
16 – If you activate this option (Reset Cart After Redirection to Return Page),
the shopping cart will be reset after the customer clicks the return button.
17 – If you activate this option (Hide Shopping Cart Image),
the shopping cart image will disappear while the customer is browsing your store.
18 – Custom Checkout Page Logo image
In this field, you can change the image of the payment page by placing the link to the image in this field.
19 – Finally, if you activate this option, the add-on will verify the payment email address, i.e. the PayPal email, so that the specified PayPal address is the same as the one in which the payment was deposited.
Thus, during this article, we have learned about the types of shopping carts and which type is suitable for your store. We have also learned about the best shopping cart add-ons that can be added to your online store. We have reviewed the method of using the WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart add-on in detail, and we have explained in practical steps how to use it and the most important special settings. With it
All you have to do is choose the add-on that you deem appropriate by reviewing its most important features and determining the add-on that suits your store according to the criteria that we mentioned to you in the article.
Share with us in the comments what are your experiences in customizing your store’s shopping cart?
