Monthly Archives: April 2019

The Best WordPress WooCommerce Themes for eCommerce Sites

The post The Best WordPress WooCommerce Themes for eCommerce Sites appeared first on HostGator Blog . Selling products online has never been easier, even for the smallest of businesses, thanks to WordPress-compatible eCommerce tools like WooCommerce and free themes to customize your store’s appearance. Whether you’re still in the planning stages or want to update your online store, it can be a challenge to pick the right theme from so many options. Here’s a look at some popular eCommerce themes for WordPress, along with a quick overview of WooCommerce for WordPress, to help you find what you need. Setting Up an Online Store on Your WordPress Site A lot goes into building an online store : product categories, search tools, inventory tracking, color and size options, a way for customers to pay, and shipping options. And those are just the basics. WordPress doesn’t provide these functions automatically, so you’ll need to install an eCommerce plugin to get started. One of the most popular eCommerce plugins for WordPress is a free, open-source program called WooCommerce . It’s used by small store owners and major brands around the world because it integrates so well with WordPress and because there are so many ways to customize it. For example, you can add support for different payment methods, email list management, and merchandising with extensions from the WooCommerce library. Want to sell memberships or subscriptions? There are WooCommerce extensions for that, too. (Many but not all WooCommerce extensions are free.)   Best WordPress WooCommerce Themes for eCommerce Themes give you another way to customize your WooCommerce store by changing its appearance and creating the user experience you want your customers to have. These are our picks for the best WordPress themes for eCommerce, and they’re all compatible with WooCommerce.   1. WooCommerce Storefront Storefront is a free theme built by and for WooCommerce. It includes schema markup for SEO, and it has a responsive design to so it looks good and works well on all kinds of devices. Storefront’s developers built it for fast loading and easy use. You don’t have to use WordPress shortcodes to customize Storefront, and it’s compatible with lots of payment, shipping, and SEO plugins. When you want to update your store’s look, you can use the WordPress customizer with Storefront. You can also switch to one of Storefront’s child themes. Each of the 14 child themes (free to $39 each) is tailored to a different type of business, like food, fashion, books, toys, and vacation lodgings. Storefront is a good choice for both: Non-tech people. Because it’s tightly integrated with WooCommerce, you’re unlikely to run into compatibility issues that would require coding skills to fix. And Storefront is compatible with the new block-based Gutenberg editor in WordPress . Tech people. If you’re happy to write your own code, Storefront and WooCommerce’s open-source foundation make it easy to build your own extensions to customize your store. Storefront’s not the only free WooCommerce theme out there. Let’s look at a few top choices from other publishers.   2. Astra Like Storefront, Astra is WooCommerce compatible and uses schema markup to help your store’s SEO. Astra’s developers recently released a free library of blocks you can use with WordPress’ new Gutenberg editor to customize your site without coding. Astra is very fast—it takes less than 0.5 seconds to load, using standard WordPress data—and it only uses about 50 KB of resources. That means your store pages will load fast and keep your shoppers from bouncing before they see your awesome merchandise. Astra also has a library of pre-made starter sites. You can use the Astra Starter Sites plugin to install one and save yourself a lot of time on store design. Upgrading to Astra’s pro or agency packages ($59 to $249) gives you access to more starter sites. Astra is a good choice for: Shop owners with lots of mobile customers. The store’s light weight and fast load times make it a good fit for m-commerce. People who want to a pre-designed site. Astra’s starter site library gives you instant site options.   3. eStore Another popular theme for WooCommerce, eStore is responsive, SEO-friendly, and designed to help your pages load quickly. If you’d like your customers to be able to make and share wishlists from your store—a feature that can earn you more conversions—eStore is compatible with the YITH WooCommerce Wishlist plugin . This theme has a couple of cool design features in its free version: the ability to color-code your product categories, and a template that lets you feature all products in a collection on a single page, as well as in their categories. The pro version ($69) gives you more options for customizing eStore’s appearance, with the addition of Google Fonts, more header and color choices, and testimonial and product tab widgets. eStore is a good choice for: Store owners who want wishlists. YITH Wishlist and eStore work well together. Sellers who regularly feature new collections. The eStore product collection template makes those displays easy to update.   4. MetroStore Like eStore, MetroStore supports YITH Wishlist and provides product-collection page templates. It’s also compatible with YITH WooCommerce Compare , a plugin that lets customers select and compare different items in your store. Comparison charts can help increase your store’s conversion rate, especially if you sell appliances, tech products, or other items whose specifications and features are big factors in your customers’ purchasing decisions. MetroStore’s free version also lets you add video backgrounds to your full-width banners—a pretty cool feature if you have a brick-and-mortar store, fashion shows, or product demos to showcase. The pro version ($55) lets you import demo pages to your store in a single click so you can set up your shop faster. Upgrading also gives you offers and team members sections for your store. MetroStore is a good choice for: Stores that sell tech, appliances, or tools. Support for the YITH WC Compare plugin lets your customers create comparison charts. Store owners who want to use video in their store design. The video-background banner makes that possible.   Choosing a WordPress Theme for Your eCommerce Site Before you choose a theme, it’s a good idea to explore their online demos on your laptop, tablet and phone to see if they’ll give customers the experience you want them to have. Then you can download the free versions of the themes you like best to try them out with your own content before you go live. After you debut your new theme, track metrics like bounce rate and conversions to see if your new theme is helping customers find what they want or whether you need to make adjustments. Ready to get started? Start building your eCommerce store today with HostGator WordPress hosting . Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading

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7 Mistakes Internet Entrepreneurs Make with Business Credit Cards

The post 7 Mistakes Internet Entrepreneurs Make with Business Credit Cards appeared first on HostGator Blog . A business credit card is a powerful financial tool that all good entrepreneurs should have at their disposal. But as they say, with great power comes great responsibility. When you’re running an eCommerce business , a business credit card helps you build business credit, allows you to finance a variety of important business-related purchases, and provides lucrative rewards, perks, and protections. It truly does it all. That being said, it’s easy to lean too heavily on your business credit card, or otherwise misuse it in an attempt to wring all possible value out of it. Not understanding the relationship your business credit plays to the rest of your business also leads to errors that have a ripple effect on your bottom line. Whether you’re exploring options for your first business credit card, looking for another card as your eCommerce venture scales, or a long-time business owner who hasn’t given your business credit much thought in awhile, here are seven mistakes entrepreneurs make with business credit cards . 1. Using their credit card to finance overly large purchases It can be tempting, once you get a hold of your new business credit card, to finance everything with it. Cloud-based software subscriptions, shipping costs, inventory—you name it. If you get points back on every purchase, why not get a discount on every purchase you make? This works, but only to a point. But financing hugely expensive purchases that will take a long time to pay down with your credit card doesn’t make sense—your credit card interest rate will likely be too high. Unless you have a 0% APR during your introductory period, or a plan to pay down your charges quickly, the extra costs will rack up. If you want to purchase something on credit that you expect will take months, or even years, to pay off, consider finding an alternate source of small business financing , such as a line of credit, loan, or inventory or equipment financing. 2. Maxing out their credit cards Whether it’s personal credit cards or business credit cards, using as much of your credit available to you as possible is never a good idea. One of the main perks of having a business credit card is its flexibility. Hit with an unexpected charge, or want to surprise your team with a party for meeting an end-of-the-month goal? If you’ve already maxed out your cards, you lose out on your ability to spring for sudden purchases. Additionally, maxing out your cards throws your credit utilization ratio out of whack. This ratio is simple: How much credit is available to you, and how much of it are you using? Lenders look at this ratio when you apply for a loan to get an idea of how much outstanding debt you have. If you already appear overextended, creditors are less likely to offer you additional funding. Keep your credit utilization ratio below 30% and you’ll appear much more responsible to future lenders—as well as have plenty of wiggle room to take on unexpected expenses.  3. Carrying a balance from month-to-month Carrying your balance over from month-to-month is another mistake business owners make when they put too much stock in rewards points over their ability to repay their debt. The bottom line is that reward points and perks will never be worth having to make interest payments on your purchases. Your exact APR will vary depending on your credit history and situation, but even the best cards have APRs north of 13%, and it will likely be higher. When possible, only put on your card what you can afford to pay back at the end of the month. This habit will help build your business credit score and keep your money where it belongs—in your business bank account.  4. Mixing business and personal expenses If you use a business credit card for only one reason, it’s this: To separate your business and personal expenses. Everything else is window-dressing—albeit quite attractive window-dressing.  So if you’re ever in a situation where you want to cover a personal expense with your business card, or vice versa, due to convenience or forgetfulness or wanting to take advantage of reward points—don’t.  Mixing your expenses is also called “ piercing the corporate veil, ” and doing so may expose your personal assets in the event that your business goes bankrupt or you’re the subject of a lawsuit. Even a seemingly harmless one-off purchase can have repercussions. Plus, come tax season, you’ll be so much happier that you don’t have to parse through all of your personal credit statements for the odd business expense to write off. 5. Offering corporate credit cards to employees without setting boundaries You may get to a point in your small business where it’s easier to extend individual corporate credit cards—physical or virtual—to your team members, rather than forcing them to contact you for the approval of every purchase. This is a good thing: It means your business is growing and you have faith in your team. That being said, your employees may not be privy to all of your cash flow needs, and may not understand how easy it is to hamstring a small business with uncapped spending. Worse, their unchecked spending may affect your business credit, hampering your borrowing capabilities for years to come. Before issuing credit cards, discuss with employees exactly what qualifies as a business expense, and let them know that you’ll have clear oversight into their spending.    6. Overlooking credit cards with annual fees There’s a tendency for small business owners to want to cut costs any way they can. Often, this frugal mindset serves the well, and innovative techniques are borne out of the necessity to stay under budget. Sometimes, however, small businesses need to invest. And while there are plenty of excellent no-fee credit cards out there, some business credit cards have an annual fee that are worth it—depending on how you plan to use it. Research annual fee business credit cards and see what you get for your money. If you spending habits align with the perks offered on the card—point multipliers on travel, for example—you may actually come out ahead each year quite easily. Bottom line: Don’t instantly write off a credit card just because it’s not free.    7. Closing rarely used accounts As you continue to open up lines of credit and credit cards throughout the life of your business, you might think it’s time to close up your old accounts so you have an easier time reviewing your finances. But closing your accounts affects your credit utilization ratio. If there are no clear benefits to closing those accounts other than streamlining things, it’s better to just leave them open and give your business even more credit overhead. If your accounts are charging you money—e.g., with an annual fee—and you need to close them, time your decision strategically. About to apply for a loan from a bank or online lender? Hold off until after the deal is done.   *** Many of the best practices for personal and business credit cards are typically the same: Don’t be late with your payments, don’t spend more than you can afford. The difference with some of the above mistakes that they can truly prevent your business from taking important steps in its growth process. Don’t limit your business to unaffordable lending options, or waste your time parsing through mountains of expenses. Make your life simple by avoiding these mistakes, and everyone involved in making your eCommerce business a success will be happier for it.  Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading

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