Choose WooCommerce – 7 Good Reasons You Can’t Ignore
Setting up an online store is one of the most important business decisions in the digital age. There are plenty of platform options – such as Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Magento and WooCommerce – but which one would you choose when your online store should be customizable, cost-effective and functional, especially in the long run?
In this blog, we present 7 key reasons why WooCommerce is an excellent choice especially for Finnish and Nordic online retailers. Especially if you are serious at all about the development of your online store.
Full Control and Freedom of Customization
WooCommerce is an open-source e-commerce solution on top of WordPress. You can integrate it directly into your WordPress website, blog or landing pages. With WP and WooCommerce, you can customize the store’s logic, appearance, checkout process and campaign structures exactly the way you want. Nothing is locked in, and you don’t have to wait for the next update for features. Since WordPress is one of the most widely used platforms in the world, there is also a lot of development help available for it.
Shopify, Wix and Squarespace users often encounter challenges with scalability and customizability. In Shopify, you can edit the theme’s Liquify code, but you can’t access the server side. Editing the checkout process, customized checkout, separate product structure, internationalization with different subdomains requires the Shopify Plus version (additional cost starting at +2300$/month).
In Shopify, many functions, such as wholesale, upselling and displaying delivery times, require additional applications, which are paid monthly and some of them are also code-protected. Application integrations are more limited in Shopify and it can limit options or cost more (Shopify Plus) in terms of, for example, the ordering system and product variants. The situation is different with the open source WooCommerce – it is freely customizable.
The Most Popular Payment Methods in the Market Are Included
Finns prefer online banking, while Swedes prefer Klarna and Swish. WooCommerce integrates seamlessly with online banks and payment services, such as Paytrail, Visma Pay, Checkout and Klarna. This is a significant advantage compared to international platforms such as Shopify, where local integrations often require additional work or are not available at all.
In Sweden, Klarna is the dominant payment method (invoice, installment, direct payment). Shopify also supports Klarna, but integrations can be slow or require the use of Shopify Payments, which is not always available in all countries (mainly only in the US, Canada, UK, Sweden and a few other countries). Swish, which integrates with Swedish bank accounts and phone numbers, is a popular mobile payment method in Sweden. It is not directly supported by Shopify, but requires an additional and limited integration with a third-party service such as Klarna, Paytrail or Nets.
One thing to keep in mind when choosing an e-commerce platform is that Finnish businesses need an electronic receipt with a VAT listed. Shopify does not easily provide an official tax receipt without an additional application (e.g. Sufio, Order Printer Pro). In WooCommerce, VAT breakdown is easier to manage.
3. Extensive Delivery Options for Finnish and Swedish Consumers or Businesses
Posti, Matkahuolto, DB Schenker, Budbee, PostNord, Instabox… Nordic customers can expect familiar delivery methods at checkout. WooCommerce makes it easy to connect these to the online store using extensions – without app store dependency or additional licenses. There are many ready-made and plugins made by domestic parties available for WooCommerce – for free.
Woocommerce Is Cost-Effective in the Long Run
WooCommerce itself is free, and many add-ons are one-time payments or even completely free. You do not pay monthly fees for just the platform or its basic functions. This way, you can really invest in growth of your business. You can develop your online store without encountering platform limitations.
The free database management and optimization possible in WooCommerce allows you to significantly speed up even a large online store, a fast-running online store won’t keep your customers waiting, and a well-functioning online store will get you more sales. (Read more about online store speed optimization here.)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in Order from the Get-Go
How could an online store succeed if customers can’t find it?
WordPress and WooCommerce are known for their good SEO capabilities, which are top-notch compared to many other platforms. You get to control URL structures, metadata, and perform speed optimization without restrictions or separate, additional-cost SEO applications that can potentially slow down the site.
Content-rich, structured, sourced, and inter-linked online stores are popular with search engines and artificial intelligence.
WooCommerce gives you access to optimize title tags, page templates, XML sitemaps, canonical URLs, and robots.txt files. Whereas in Shopify, some files and links are locked inside the system or have limited editing or are automatically generated.
Generally, Shopify can be as fast or faster in the beginning, but customizations and additional applications can reduce technical performance, which is a prerequisite for good search engine visibility. When using WooCommerce, speed is significantly affected by your hosting provider in addition to the implementation. (PS. Did you know that Seravo is the world’s fastest WordPress and WooCommerce hosting!)
6. Multilingualizing and Internationalization
WooCommerce easily supports multilingual and multi-currency stores – for example, Finnish, Swedish and English – using plugins such as WPML or Polylang. You don’t pay separately for each language or currency, and management remains within one site.
As a side note, currency support is often tied to what the payment service allows. For example, Paytrail, designed for the Finnish market, does not (at least not yet) support multiple currencies smoothly: it can display prices in different currencies, but only processes payments in euros. This can cause ambiguity and distrust regarding the price, as well as potentially additional conversion costs for the customer.
7. Don’t Marry the Platform
Your WooCommerce store is located on a server of your choice, under your own control, for example in Finland, close to your customers if you wish. You are not tied to the terms, price increases or a closed ecosystem of one service provider. If you wish, you can move the entire store to another hosting service or expand it without limits.
With Seravo, which offers domestic hosting services, you can choose the location of your server and we will take care of data security and updates for you. Our service has been developed and optimized specifically with the rapid operational reliability of WordPress-based sites and WooCommerce online stores in mind.
Summary
WooCommerce is an excellent choice, especially for technically savvy online merchants or those looking for long-term growth. It combines freedom, flexibility and cost-effectiveness – and most importantly, it works well in the Finnish and Nordic markets.
If you need help with maintaining or optimizing your WooCommerce online store or want to transfer your current store to our fast and secure server, please contact us – we are happy to help. Website transfers are a daily occurrence for us!
A home for your web store?
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Check our guide about getting started with WooCommerce!
Want to start building a WooCommerce online store?
You’ll need a name server and hosting of course, if you don’t already have them. When you order WordPress from Seravo, you’ll get a package that includes everything you need. After that, you can start building your online store with our help article.
Images: Adobe Firefly.
Text: The blog text used artificial intelligence to compare platforms, but the article was otherwise produced by our content team.