When running a statically generated WordPress site, you get the benefits of speed, security and scalability, but certain types of functionality may need to be modified or replaced in order to work in an environment that does not have an underlying processing server or database.
One example of this type of functionality is WooCommerce. WooCommerce depends heavily on interactions with the database for its shopping cart, and therefore won’t work out of the box on a static website.
Lucky for all of us, there are many fantastic ecommerce solutions out there that work great on static websites! One amazing option is Ecwid. Ecwid is a popular headless eCcommerce solution that not only lets you sell on static WordPress sites but also on Instagram, Facebook, Google Shopping, Amazon, Ebay and using a POS.
Ecwid is really easy to integrate with your WordPress site on Strattic, and we made you a video to show you how!
Watch an Overview Video
What You Get with Ecwid
If you have a store with less than 10 products you can get all of the core ecommerce features you need with their free plan!
There are also paid plans that offer additional functionality and unlimited products. If further customizations are needed they also have a rich JavaScript API that lets developers do just about anything they want.
Another major benefit of Ecwid (and other headless eCommerce solutions) is that all of the payments are securely processed through their servers so you do not have to worry about the extra cost and maintenance of running payments through your own server.
A Seamless WordPress Integration
To integrate Ecwid and WordPress is as simple as installing the Ecwid WordPress plugin. Once you connect your Ecwid account and your WordPress site with the plugin you will see your entire Ecwid dashboard appear in your WordPress admin area.
What is great about this integration is that none of your Ecwid data is stored in the WordPress database. It is all stored on the Ecwid servers and then pulled in live to the WordPress dashboard. With a plugin like WooCommerce, if your database is offline, none of the orders will process. With a solution like Ecwid, everything will work even when the WordPress database is offline. Then when you spin up your WordPress dashboard to make changes you will see all order and product updates from within WordPress.
And this WordPress version of the Ecwid dashboard is not limited in any way: you get access to the same options and features you do when you login to your account at ecwid.com.
The Ecwid plugin comes with a number of blocks and widgets so that you can design your ecommerce site exactly how you want. You can add groups of products, individual products and even Buy Now buttons wherever you want on your WordPress site.
Ecwid and Static WordPress
When you click the “Strattic Publish” button to convert your WordPress site to a static site, all of the Ecwid functionality gets pushed to the static version of your site and continues to work seamlessly.
All of the product information will be pulled live from the Ecwid servers each time a user visits a page. This keeps dynamic information like inventory synced and up to date. This means that regular content like a blog post about the hottest sandals this summer, can be paired easily with more dynamic content, like a list of your top 5 best-selling shoes available for purchase, which is exactly what you want with a static ecommerce site.
During the checkout process, all of the payment transactions will be processed by the Ecwid servers, but will appear to be taking place on your site. This enables you to retain your on-site brand while offloading all the technical and security issues related to payment processing to Ecwid.
As an important bonus, Ecwid offers a My Account section where customers can view all of their previous orders. This is a great feature that not all headless ecommerce solutions offer on static sites.
Try Headless WordPress and Ecommerce Today!
Whether you have a project in mind or would just like to get comfortable with the technology, try signing up for Strattic and Ecwid to get the benefits of static WordPress and ecommerce together!
We even have a Five Step Tutorial on How to Setup Ecwid Ecommerce on Strattic to help along. You can also find Ecwid, and many other tools that work great on static sites, in our handy Static Tools Directory.
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