If you’re looking to build an online store for your business and the platform of your site is WordPress, you must know the right plugins to be used. Choosing the right plugins is crucial because upgrading the platform means a better opportunity for growth in sales.
Surely, you must decide on a plugin depending on what you will be selling and what kind of features you will need to make your online store more efficient.
But first, you must decide on a WordPress theme that supports the plugin you are bound to use. Kind of a pain this one, but once the mind is made up, sky’s the limit. You may think of WordPress as being a typically blogger or publisher based platform, but you can easily turn it into a fully functional ecommerce site, thanks to its adaptability and huge arsenal of plugins.
In order to decide which is the right plugin for you, we’ve made this list:

1. WooCommerce
This is the mostly known ecommerce plugin. More than 30% of the total online stores in the entire world are using it and so it’s here on the first recommendation place. Shipping configurations, huge array of product variations, a big team of passionate developers are working behind this and, of course, we’re adding to the praise, it is already acquired by Automattic, the company behind WordPress.org blog hosting service in 2015.
There are hundreds of extensions and themes for WooCommerce, which makes it easier for everyone to add new features to their site. Large collection of themes means tons of options when choosing your site design and layout.
Plus it has the ability to accept major credit cards and also cash on delivery. Basically, it offers a good overall solution to your ecommerce needs. You can add many other payment options using extensions and you can also calculate shipping and taxes. Using WooCommerce you can add affiliate or external products to your site. Even if it has too many options, which can be quite intimidating for the new user, the interface is very easy to use.

2. Easy Digital Downloads
As its name already says, it allows you to easily sell digital downloads online using WordPress. It is very easy to use and helps you create a beautiful and functional digital goods store.
The plugin is so well documented it has its own free support forums, tutorials and videos, also an IRC Chatroom. It works with almost any WordPress theme and it also has themes built specifically for this plugin. It is really useful for the beginners and has many gateways for payments and helps you add more features.

3. Shopify
Starting May 2016 Shopify is available for WordPress. All those typical Shopify features are available here, including payments, secure checkouts, shipping and fulfilment, taxes and inventory) and can be easily integrated in your WordPress site.
There are three themes available to choose from and they already come equipped with the Shopify Buy Button. It is super easy for beginners, supports both physical and digital goods, so it can handle all even if you’re selling bread or digital music.

4. Shopp
Fourth on this list is a plugin that can handle physical, digital and also virtual goods for your online store. Unlike other plugins on our list, the Shopp plugin allows you to sell products with recurring payments without buying another extension. Faster queries and faster pageloads for the users means performance for both the plugin and the user.

5. Ultimate Reviews
An honest dialogue with your clients means you are a trustworthy retailer and this means growth, too. Ultimate Reviews allows you to accept and manage user reviews, create more in-depth reviews and has a multiple rating system, also has the ability to use custom CSS.
Just remember, even the bad reviews are helpful, just reply with speed and be civil about it, proofread and you’re good to go.

Here you go, 5 plugins for your consideration. Of course this list is just a tiny bit of what it’s out there, but you can have the taste of what is achievable for your WordPress online store in the future.

Credits – Photographer: Negative Space