WooCommerce online stores for West Michigan businesses
Quick answer: WooCommerce is a free, open-source ecommerce plugin for WordPress. It adds products, a cart, checkout, payments and shipping to your site. 45Squared builds WooCommerce stores for West Michigan businesses and quotes each store after a short call.
What is WooCommerce?
WooCommerce is the most widely used way to sell on WordPress. It’s a free plugin, which means it runs inside your existing WordPress site. Products, orders and customer data live on your own site instead of a rented platform. You choose the payment processor, the hosting and the extensions. If you ever want a different developer or host, the whole store moves with you.
What can a WooCommerce store do?
A WooCommerce store can handle almost any small business sales setup:
- Product catalogues with photos, variations and stock levels.
- Checkout and payments through processors like Stripe or PayPal.
- Shipping rules by weight, zone or flat rate, plus local pickup.
- Taxes calculated at checkout.
- Subscriptions and bookings with the right extensions.
Who is WooCommerce right for?
| Good fit | Maybe not |
|---|---|
| You already have a WordPress site | You need to be selling tomorrow with no help |
| You want to own your store and data | You want zero technical upkeep ever |
| You sell a focused catalogue | You sell tens of thousands of SKUs |
| You want content and store in one place |
How is a store different from a regular site?
A store has more moving parts. Payments, taxes, shipping and order emails all need testing. We build every store on a private preview and run real test orders before launch, including refunds. After launch, our managed hosting keeps WooCommerce and its extensions updated. Stores need that care most, because a broken checkout costs sales every hour it stays broken.
What did we build for Wilde Thyme Foods?
For Wilde Thyme Foods, a family-owned food brand selling direct to its customers, we built an online store and shot custom product photography. The goal was a store the family could run themselves, with photos that make the food look as good as it tastes. You can read the full case study on the 45Squared site.
Common questions
Is WooCommerce free?
The WooCommerce plugin itself is free and open source. You still pay for hosting, your payment processor’s per-transaction fees, and any paid extensions your store needs, such as subscriptions or advanced shipping. We list every one of those costs in your quote. There is no monthly platform fee on top of your sales.
WooCommerce or Shopify?
Shopify is simpler to start and charges a monthly plan, with prices published on its site. WooCommerce gives you more control and ownership of your store and customer data. If you already have a WordPress site, WooCommerce is usually the natural fit, because your content and store live in one place and one login.
Can you photograph my products?
Yes, we’ve done custom product photography for clients, including Wilde Thyme Foods. Good photos matter more than almost anything else on a product page. Ask about photography when you request a quote, and tell us how many products you have. We’ll include it as a separate line so you can decide.