Industry analyst firm Gartner has published its annual report evaluating digital commerce solutions, the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce, and we’re thrilled to announce that Shopify has been named a Leader and placed highest in our ability to execute. We’re honored by the recognition from Gartner and believe this is an acknowledgment to our innovation and unique vision for commerce. 

Earlier this year, we kicked off an initiative to transform our partner program and give Shopify partners a competitive advantage to build for the long term. We have since exploded into leading enterprise commerce through Commerce Components by Shopify, a modern composable stack that provides retailers with the flexibility to integrate and innovate without restrictions. 

Our product teams continue to fuel commerce innovation for businesses of all sizes, breaking the boundaries of what’s possible—just check out Shopify Editions to see our hundreds of recent product releases.

We’re thrilled to have a diverse partner network including thousands of leading development and digital marketing agencies, system integrators, and technology partners around the globe to provide insights and feedback to continually improve and drive our innovation forward. Here’s what this new recognition from Gartner means for you as a Shopify Partner. 

Building the future of commerce for enterprise retailers 

Shopify addresses the clear demand for modularity, flexibility and advanced development capabilities in the ever-evolving enterprise landscape—and we continue to innovate. We partnered with Google Cloud to address search abandonment, extended the availability of Shop Pay to enterprise retailers outside Shopify for the first time, and upgraded our integration with Adyen to offer even greater payment gateway choices. But we’re not stopping there.

Our commitment to innovation is crucial for the industry. From handling colossal product catalogs, limitless order volumes, multi-channel selling, or complex inventory management, Shopify’s infrastructure scales seamlessly to exceed the demands of enterprise-level operations.

Take Shop Pay as an example. Because we’ve made it available to enterprise businesses off Shopify, any retailer can get the best converting accelerated checkout on the internet. In a recent study, one of the big three global management consulting firms found that Shopify’s overall conversion rate outpaces the competition by up to 36%. The same study found that Shop Pay can boost conversion by as much as 50%, outperforming other accelerated checkout solutions by up to 10%.

Why does that matter? Enterprise retailers have distinct requirements that demand tailored solutions. Instead of imposing off-the-shelf or difficult-to-integrate options, we think outside the box and provide businesses with the optionality and flexibility they need. This means we’re a more valuable partner in their success.

“Enterprises are re-evaluating their digital commerce strategies to provide faster, more innovative and frictionless experiences that meet the high expectations their customers need. We believe this recognition reinforces Shopify’s ability to deliver high-quality, on-time and on-budget solutions for enterprise clients.” – Travis Hess, Managing Director, Accenture Song

The new possibilities for your clients

Legacy enterprise SaaS was once the default choice for these businesses. Whether they opted for custom-built or off-the-shelf, they were often locked into one option — regardless of any issues that arose.

We believe our recent recognition by Gartner reinforces Shopify’s ability to deliver best-in-class solutions for your clients, but we also believe it underscores the market’s strong demand for flexible and customizable solutions that are quick to implement. As builders of technology that contributes to growth, job creation and profitability, we have a responsibility to continuously innovate. We are driven to do more and achieve greater things, and our teams worldwide are committed to challenging the status quo and delivering transformative solutions that give your and your clients a competitive advantage.

“As companies increasingly move to improve their digital commerce experience, it becomes even more important that they implement a robust platform with the flexibility and innovation to scale. By partnering with Shopify, we’re able to support our client ambitions with a powerful platform that provides the flexibility to integrate and innovate without restrictions, while offering trusted infrastructure components that help their teams move faster. ” – Benjamin Crudo, CEO of Diff Agency 

What this recognition means for Shopify Partners 

As a Shopify partner, this report can help you drive greater profitability by taking advantage of Shopify’s innovation, speed, and scale to win deals and identify new opportunities.

“With this recognition from Gartner, we believe it’s clear that there has never been a better time to partner with Shopify. With the highest converting checkout on the internet and hundreds of product releases and major enhancements every year, we’re committed to continuing to provide a best-in-class product to help our partners grow their business.” – Ritu Khanna, VP, Global Partnerships at Shopify 

Shopify Partners can share this report with their customers to:

• Serve as an essential report to make informed decisions when evaluating digital commerce solutions
• Discover transformational technologies that help organizations deliver great buying experiences
• Learn more about the technology and market trends driving digital commerce buying decisions
• Showcase the value that Shopify will bring to their business

Read the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce to learn more. 

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce, 21 August 2022, Jason Daigler, et. Al.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark, and MAGIC QUADRANT is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Are you looking for the best WPForms alternatives? 

WPForms is the powerful drag and drop WordPress forms plugin out there. It lets you quickly create contact forms, payment forms, surveys, and more without any coding at all. However, there are a lot of other forms plugins out there, and we want to help you find the one that works best for your site.

In this post, we’ll explore some of the best alternatives to WPForms. 

Is There a Free Alternative to WPForms?

Yes, there’s a free version of WPForms! WPForms Lite gives you the most important features you need to get started with creating forms. 

With WPForms Lite, you can access ready-made templates and create unlimited forms right in the form builder. 

That said, let’s look at the best WPForms Pro alternatives. 

1. WPForms Lite

We do think that WPForms is the best form builder available, and if you’re not ready to purchase a license just yet, we suggest that you give WPForms Lite a shot.

It is the best alternative WordPress form plugin to WPForms Pro and offers plenty of features for free. With over 6 million professionals using the product on their websites, it’s one of the most popular plugins available. 

You can use WPForms Lite to: 

• Build unlimited forms without writing a single line of code
• Get unlimited responses 
• Protect your forms against spam 
• Receive entry notifications by mail 
• Create payment and subscription forms with Stripe integration 

Building forms only takes a few minutes, too. WPForms Lite lets you build many types quickly with its user-friendly drag and drop interface.

Simply choose your template and drag any field you want from left to right. 

The Lite version alone has plenty of field options, including multiple choice, dropdown, reCAPTCHA, payment fields, and a GDPR agreement.

Also, with the free version, you can email users when forms are completed for confirmation or direct them to the next steps.

WPForms Lite can connect with Constant Contact for lead generation, too. Once users submit their information through a newsletter form, the new contact will be added to your email list. Newsletter signup and user registration forms are a powerful way to get more leads from your WordPress site. 

You will want to use WPForms Pro to connect with other email marketing services like Mailchimp, GetResponse, AWeber, Drip, and others. 

WPForms Lite also easily integrates popular page builders SeedProd and Divi so that you can create and embed contact forms without complex shortcodes. 

But what if you want to connect your forms to a service that doesn’t have an addon? WPForms Lite connects with Uncanny Automator, which allows you to send WPForms submissions to other plugins and services. 

Unlike most free plugins which lack proper customer support, WPForms Lite provides support in the WordPress.org forums, and you can expect a typical response time of 1 to 3 business days.

If you’re a Pro member, you get help even faster since you can open a support ticket and expect a response within 1 business day. 

While it’s missing some advanced features like conditional logic and multi-page forms, WPForms Lite is the perfect tool for freelancers, creatives, or other business owners who only need simple forms. 

Pricing: WPForms Lite is completely free to use. If you want to upgrade to the Pro version, WPBeginner users can enjoy an exclusive 50% OFF discount on all plans by using our WPForms coupon. 

2. Formidable Forms

Formidable Forms is an advanced WordPress form builder and a great alternative to WPForms if you’re looking to create complex forms. 

WPForms and Formidable Forms share many similarities. For instance, both have user-friendly drop form builders to create forms. 

That said, Formidable Forms tends to favor developers and brands requiring complex forms with advanced functionality, while WPForms specializes in powerful forms that are easy to design and embed. 

Formidable Forms lets you create calculation forms, which is very useful for businesses like real estate or finance businesses.

You also get unique templates like car payment, paycheck, and mortgage calculations (along with many others), making Formidable Forms really stand out. 

Besides that, you can turn your form results into user-generated content. They create eye-catching reports, graphs, and charts using form submission data. The plugin can also export the data into many different formats, such as proposals, invoices, certifications, and more. 

Pricing: Formidable form plans start at $39.50 per year. However, you can also use the free version of the plugin as an alternative to WPForms. 

3. WP Simple Pay

WP Simple Pay is a plugin that makes creating and accepting payment forms on your WordPress site super easy. 

Your forms can capture one-time payments or recurring subscriptions to fit your needs. This is perfect for business owners, freelancers, and agency owners who want to accept payments on their site without the fuss of creating an online store. 

With WP Simple Pay, you can accept over 10 different payment methods, including credit or debit cards, ACH, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and other payment methods. This is more than just any other payment form builder, including WPForms.

If you need to take payments or donations on your site, then WP Simple Pay is a great alternative to using WPForms payment forms.

Pricing: Pricing plans start at $49.50 per year, giving you access to unlimited payment forms and no monthly fees. Higher plans offer features like Buy Now, Pay Later installment plans, and dedicated landing pages to help boost conversions. 

4. WP Charitable

WP Charitable is the best plugin for building non-profit donation forms and fundraising campaigns. 

Collecting and managing donations in WordPress can be difficult since most donation and fundraising plugins are either too pricey or too limited. Expensive platform fees can quickly add up and eat into your fundraising efforts. 

If you’re building donation forms, WP Charitable is the best choice. Since the platform doesn’t charge transaction fees, you can be assured that your donors’ generous donations won’t be taxed on your website.

With WP Charitable, you can create unlimited fundraising campaigns and set goals for each cause. 

The free version of WP Charitable supports PayPal donations and offline payments. With the paid plans, you can add other payment gateways like Authorize.net and Stripe. 

Pricing: Plans start at $99 per year with access to unlimited campaigns and donors. With higher plans, you will get addons such as recurring donations, peer-to-peer fundraising and crowdfunding, and newsletter software integration.  

5. Typeform

Typeform is a popular form builder that allows you to create forms, applications, quizzes, and even surveys or polls. 

Like WPForms, there’s no coding involved. There are over 120+ integration options, and everything from logos to videos can be edited in the Typeform software, so you can build an appealing form. 

You can also choose from 100+ templates based on different industries and use cases, including ecommerce sites, medical institutions, and more.

That said, Typeform does have some drawbacks. The biggest downside is the cost. The Basic plan starts from $25 per month to create unlimited forms. That’s something WPForms Lite can do for absolutely free. 

There’s also a cap on how many monthly responses you can receive based on the type of plan you choose. The Basic plan only captures a mere 100 responses, which isn’t enough for most small businesses. 

Plus, the most expensive plans run $996 USD per year, which drives up the cost of running a website by a lot. 

Also, it’s a SaaS (software as a service) tool, meaning it stores data onto external services. This can be a security threat since you’ll be leaving your customer’s personal data in someone else’s hands. 

Pricing: Typeform’s Basic plan starts at $300 per year with a small limit of 100 responses. The most advanced plan costs $996 per year and gives you extra features like conversion tracking, custom branding, and priority support. 

6. HubSpot Form Builder

HubSpot Form Builder allows you to create simple contact forms. It is a great alternative to WPForms if you already use other HubSpot products like the HubSpot customer relationship management (CRM), email marketing, or live chat tool.

What’s unique about HubSpot Form Builder is that you can create custom forms that meet your website need and automatically sync your new contacts collected from your forms into the HubSpot CRM.

You can create embedded forms, popup box forms, forms as standalone pages, or as dropdown banners. As a result, you can place lead generation forms at the right time and place in the customer journey. 

Also, the plugin has an automation feature, allowing you to send emails to the user once they’ve submitted your forms. However, it’s only available as part of paid plans. 

One of the biggest disadvantages is that the HubSpot Form Builder is quite limited in form templates, giving users only a handful of templates to work with. So if there isn’t a template to match your needs, you’ll have to create the form from scratch. 

HubSpot Form Builder is part of a larger ecosystem of tools, meaning you don’t have to use third-party tools like Google Analytics for insights. You will have a built-in analytics dashboard to see how your forms are performing. And best of all, you can create a HubSpot form right in WordPress.

Pricing: The HubSpot Form Builder is free. However, if you want to access some of the other tools along with the form builder, pricing starts at $216 per year. 

7. Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms is a powerful solution to create custom forms in WordPress. 

With this plugin, you can build contact forms, surveys, and quizzes for your website with ease. 

It comes with plenty of advanced features like conditional formatting, which shows or hides certain questions based on the user’s previous answer. 

Gravity Forms also offers many addons to help you get the most out of the plugin. You can track users by geolocation, allow signatures, and collect partial form entries. 

That said, Gravity Forms does fall short when compared to WPForms. It only comes with 15 templates and lacks a free version. If you’re using Gravity Forms on multiple sites, the licenses still provide a decent value for money. 

Pricing: The Basic license starts at $59 per year, providing only access to 1 site and a few integrations. 

8. Ninja Forms

Ninja Forms is another WPForms alternative you can start using for free. It features a drag and drop form builder so you can build interactive online forms without coding. 

The plugin offers a wide range of addons for purchase, such as conditional logic, file uploads, Excel export, and multi-step forms. Unfortunately, you have to buy each one separately, which can quickly rack up, especially when buying more than one or two addons. 

Out of this list, Ninja Forms offers some of the most integrations out of any tool. For example, you can connect them with different payment apps like Stripe and PayPal, CRMs like Salesforce, and other tools like webhooks and Slack. 

Pricing: The base plugin is free to download in the official WordPress repository. However, you can buy a subscription with additional features starting at $99 per year or purchase individual addons. 

9. Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 rounds out our list because it is the oldest and most downloaded contact form plugin in the official WordPress plugin directory.

It is a WPForms alternative, but we don’t recommend that you use it. The only real benefit of using Contact Form 7 is that it’s free to use, and you can create simple forms. WPForms Lite does everything it can and more.

That said, Contact Form 7 is not user-friendly. There are no drag and drop builders or templates to use. Instead, you have to copy shortcodes to embed forms and toggle with dynamic merge tags to build the most basic contact forms. 

Additionally, all forms are styled plainly. You can’t customize the style of your forms, making it hard to match the form’s design to your WordPress theme. 

If you’re looking for a free WordPress contact form plugin, then WPForms Lite, Ninja Forms, and Formidable Forms Lite are all considerably better solutions than Contact Form 7. 

Pricing: It’s a free plugin. However, it lacks many basic features, no real customization is available, and you get limited support. 

What to Look for in an Online Form Builder 

When you’re on the hunt for an online form builder for your WordPress website, there are many features and factors to consider. 

Fortunately, WPForms offers all of these features and then some. This makes it the most comprehensive form builder plugin on the market.

Let’s look at a few of them. 

Pre-built Templates

The best online form builders have pre-built form templates, allowing you to set up the forms you need in minutes. You never have to start from scratch as you do with plugins like Contact Form 7. 

Instead, look for a form builder with a template gallery that includes the most popular forms needed for WordPress websites, like contact forms, newsletter signup forms, application forms, donation forms, order forms, and more. 

In fact, the WPForms Lite version alone has 900+ form templates, meaning there’s a form to fit almost anything you could need. 

Conditional Logic 

In some cases, you may want to show or hide specific fields to users based on their responses. 

That way, your visitors won’t see tons of empty fields that don’t apply to them. 

You can use conditional logic to create dynamic forms that adapt as your visitor fills out the form. For example, you may want to: 

• Filter your survey questions based on a demographic question
• Process payments only when certain conditions are met
• Provide customized support based on the type of issues your customers are experiencing  

Surveys & Polls 

A good form builder should also include the ability to create survey forms, polls, and quizzes. 

Unlike most professional survey tools, WPForms Pro lets you easily embed surveys and polls onto your site. This helps you share and distribute them to a wider audience. 

Everything is housed and stored within WordPress, meaning all your survey responses will be stored on your website, so you don’t have to log into different platforms and you can ensure your users’ data is secure.

Also, you’ll see survey charts to visually see how responses are segmented. You can also download MonsterInsights, the best Google Analytics plugin, to measure your form completion rates as well. 

Conversational Forms 

Static forms can feel plain, which increases the likelihood of form abandonment. Online form builders should be able to create conversational forms. 

This is a more interactive layout that only focuses on one question at a time rather than showing all of the questions at once. 

Also, conversational forms can be completed using a keyboard only, making them more suitable for mobile users.

Multi-Page Forms 

Long forms can be overwhelming, causing users to abandon the form altogether. However, creating multi-page forms splits your single-page form into smaller sections with a progress bar to help reduce fatigue. 

Respondents are more likely to finish the form when separated into pages rather than seeing one long form.  

Spam Protection 

Online forms are vulnerable to spam bots that crawl through websites to find ways to email you through a non-secure form. 

Since website owners often don’t give out their email addresses, forms are an easy way for hackers to add spam comments, send phishing links, and spread malware. 

That’s why you need built-in security features in your online form builder to prevent spam emails. 

WPForms features the latest spam defense methods. For example, you can add a CAPTCHA to bypass spambots so that only humans can submit your forms. 

Which WPForms Pro Alternative is the Best? 

In our experience, the best alternative to WPForms Pro is WPForms Lite. For many users, the options in the free version can get them started with their website or business.  

It is a powerful and easy-to-use plugin that lets you build just about any type of form. The Lite version can do all of the basic functions users need without any of the bloat other contact form plugins have. 

There simply is no other free forms plugin that has the same ease of use and number of features as WPForms Lite. 

However, if you need direct CRM integration, HubSpot Form Builder is the way to go.

For more complex forms or calculations, Formidable Forms is the clear winner.

If you want to be able to choose and pay for only the features you will use the most, then we think that Ninja Forms is your best option.

We hope this article helped you decide on the best WPForms alternative so you can create the forms you need on your WordPress site. While looking at these alternatives, you may want to check out our guide on the “must-have” WordPress Plugins & tools for business sites and the best WordPress popup plugins. 

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

A common misconception for consumer brands is that the marketing process ends at the point of purchase.

Instead, smart brands recognize that a customer’s lifetime value—or the net profit that you’ll take in over the course of your entire relationship with a customer—is far more important than any singular purchase in terms of revenue and influence over others.

But that customer lifetime value will continue to stay low if they only shop in your store once and never return. The subject of luring customers into your storefront over and over again has become a hot topic in recent years for several reasons.

What is retail customer lifetime value?

Customer lifetime value (CLV) is the total amount of money a customer is expected to spend in your business over the course of their relationship with you. The formula to calculate customer lifetime value is: CLV = (Average Value of a Sale) x (Number of Repeat Transactions) x (Average Retention Time in Months or Years for a Typical Customer).

On average, a good CLV is around three to five times your customer acquisition costs. So, if it costs you $100 to acquire a customer, aim for a CLV of at least $300.

Why retail customer lifetime value is so important

Intense competition for consumers’ disposable income

With direct-to-consumer brands popping up daily, and the side hustle economy enabled on platforms like Shopify, brands may only have one chance to capture the loyalty of customers before they move on to the next retailer.

Capturing a sizable portion of market share is more difficult these days, regardless of your product or service. With so many options available for consumers, stores and brands have to work hard to rise above the noise. 

Proliferation of social networks

Historically, a customer that had an issue with a brand’s product or service had very little external recourse. They could tell their families, friends, and colleagues, but their reach was limited. 

Today, they can share their frustration with millions of other potential customers, and negatively rate brands on third-party sites such as Amazon or Yelp, which can have an exceedingly detrimental impact on sales.

In fact, a 2022 eye-tracking study found that when consumers pay more attention to negative comments, they tend to give up on buying a product. When they pay more attention to positive comments, they choose to buy.

As such, brands have a powerful opportunity to engage consumers post purchase, improving not only the likelihood of return business, but the chance that they will share their positive experience with other potential customers.

Shifting consumer behaviors

Today’s consumers expect more from brands. It’s no longer enough to convey the function of a product or service in marketing efforts; instead, consumers want to feel as if they are part of something bigger.

Brands like Toms Shoes and Warby Parker have gained massive, loyal followings, at least in part because their products are closely aligned with philanthropic causes. Certainly, customers will still make impulse purchases, and will still consider price and convenience for specific buying decisions.

How to increase retail customer lifetime value

1. Create a community around your brand
2. Provide utility for customers beyond the purchase
3. Involve shoppers in your marketing efforts
4. Provide great customer service
5. Offer loyalty programs
6. Make it easy for customers to buy again
7. Follow up with email marketing campaigns or retargeting ads

1. Create a community around your brand

Modern consumers want to shop with brands that align with their values and lifestyle choices. They believe there is power in the insights of their peers, and are more comfortable gaining product inspiration from one another than from brand messaging. 

With the advent of ad-blocking, especially, there is a need for better marketing and ecommerce experiences. Instead of resisting this trend, brands can lean into it by helping enable these experiences through curated consumer communities.

Such communities can help forge an ongoing emotional connection with your customers. This is crucial, because feelings drive buying decisions. Research shows that emotions fuel customer choices before, during, and after purchases. Retail expert Georganne Bender of Kizer & Bender says, “People’s buying decisions are influenced daily, and emotions play a huge impact on these decisions.”

Your customers are included in that group that makes spending decisions based on their emotions, and they’d likely spend more with your brand if they felt emotionally charged to do so.

2. Provide utility to customers beyond the purchase

As we’ve established, the belief that the pursuit of a customer ends after the point of sale is largely outmoded. Brands that are only focused on a singular selling opportunity are missing the bigger picture and leaving a ton of revenue potential on the table. 

By engaging customers post-purchase with education, value-add services, and complementary product offerings, brands can re-engage customers and drive additional purchasing behavior.

Keep the conversation going with customers after they leave your store. Post-purchase communication is a vital step that keeps merchants and consumers connected.

Much of this effort is enabled through intelligent data collection and segmenting. If you can create personas and audiences based on demographic data and prior purchasing behavior, you can serve up relevant messaging to entice repeat business.

3. Involve shoppers in your marketing efforts

In the retail sector, specifically, many brands are turning to consumers’ own content as a way to better understand their target markets and provide them with incentives to repeat purchase behavior. 

With consumers sharing over 95 million photos per day on Instagram alone, many of which feature brands and products, there is an enormous amount of insight that can be gained by viewing how consumers are considering brands and utilizing products in their day-to-day lives.

Brands that re-share this content and encourage users to create using hashtags, through contests, or via other messaging, are seeing a wealth of high-quality visual content that helps to enhance the communal feel. 

Additionally, this content can be used to connect otherwise disparate marketing channels, such as display advertising, social media, and ecommerce, and even offline in print, direct mail, and outdoor activations.

4. Provide great customer service

An important part of customer service is helping customers get the value they paid for, and quickly. In a recent HubSpot report, 60% of respondents said they will be more loyal to a brand with a fast customer service response time.

Great customer service means exceeding expectations and making sure every interaction is positive. Retailers can mitigate negative experiences and build long-term relationships through trust.

If you’re a retailer selling online, you can have a live chat option on your website like Uoma Beauty. This provides immediate assistance and personalizes the shopping experience for browsers. Tools like Shopify Inbox and Gorgias are perfect for website live chat. 

In-store, you can provide great customer service by:

• Ensuring staff members are well-trained about products, store policies, and procedures
• Conducting regular training sessions on soft skills like communication, empathy, and active listening
• Making sure staff can make recommendations based on customer needs
• Offering an easy return and exchange policy
• Addressing issues right away 

At the core, great customer service is having empathy and genuine concern for customers’ needs. When your team cares and goes the extra mile to make customers feel valued, you’re on your way to providing exceptional support. 

5. Offer loyalty programs

Loyalty programs are a win-win. Customers get free stuff and fun rewards, and you get to sell more and understand what their customers like. The average American consumer belongs to 16.7 customer loyalty programs, according to a report by Bond Brand Loyalty.

With its loyalty program, Blumetopia, bodycare retailer Blume offers a points system called Blume Bucks. To earn Blume Bucks, customers follow Blume on Instagram, place orders, or refer friends. Customers can redeem their Blume Bucks for merch, free products, and other cool gifts from Blume. 

When a store knows what you love, it can offer you better deals and products, making you want to shop there even more. It’s like a circle of trust and rewards between the store and the customer.

There are plenty of apps available to run your loyalty program in-store and online. A few top options for Shopify merchants are Smile and Joy. 

6. Make it easy for customers to buy again

Retailers that prioritize customer experience stand out, whether online or in-store. Customers that have an easy time shopping with your brand over and over are more likely to return. 

One way to make it easy for customers to buy again is through simple returns. This makes customers feel secure in their purchase, and if the product doesn’t fit or work, it’ll be easy to swap or buy something else. 

Apps like AfterShip make it easy for customers to exchange items or get a refund. You can build branded returns pages that recapture revenue and provide a seamless experience online.

Another tactic is using Shop Pay. Once a customer makes a purchase, Shop Pay remembers their details. So the next time, instead of tediously typing out a shipping address and payment details, Shop Pay has it ready to go. It’s convenience at its best, guaranteeing faster and hassle-free checkouts. 

7. Follow up with email marketing campaigns or retargeting ads

Reach out to customers after they’ve visited or shopped from your store. Using email or retargeting ads, you can remind them about the brand or show them things they liked. 

Say someone was viewing a popular moisturizer but didn’t buy it. You can use Facebook retargeting to send them a little reminder, like BOOM! By Cindy Joseph does below.

If you’re keen on email, there are plenty of campaigns you can send. For example, if you know a customer likes a particular product line, you can send them a reminder when a new product is about to drop. Melt Cosmetics does this with its Slick Waterline Pencil line announcement email.

Brands like BOOM! By Cindy Joseph and Melt Cosmetics use these tactics to keep their products front of mind. By reminding customers of the items they are interested in, they are more likely to follow through and make a purchase. 

Create more loyal customers for your business

Improving average customer lifespan is critical for retailers. It can lead to higher average order value, more profitability, and more loyal customers. Getting there involves more than just plugging numbers into the customer lifetime value formula. 

If a modern brand wants to engage and convert a potential customer, it needs to look at the relationship beyond the point of purchase and consider the deeper desires of the consumer. Doing so will help convert one-time shoppers into repeat customers.

Your inventory management is an integral part of your business and one of the processes you have the most control over. Lax inventory control can lead to stockouts, over-ordering and a dent in profits. Therefore, taking the time to optimise your current workflows will lead to increased efficiency and, in many cases, a boost in sales. 

Overhauling your inventory management can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. We’ve identified five easy-to-implement tips that you can use to optimise your current inventory management processes so you can save time, improve productivity and increase sales.

Let’s dive in.

1. Audit your inventory
2. Optimise your reporting
3. Sync product data directly from suppliers
4. Set reorder points for all your inventory
5. Use inventory management software

1. Audit your inventory 

If you’re serious about optimising your inventory management, starting with a clean slate is essential. While you might believe your inventory levels are correct on paper, it’s vital to sense-check your current stock numbers by conducting a physical stocktake. 

Orchestrating an inventory audit can be time-consuming, but ensuring your numbers are accurate is crucial and will provide a solid foundation to successfully optimise your inventory processes. 

Once you’ve conducted your inventory audit, you’ll be in the perfect position to optimise your inventory management – but this shouldn’t be the only physical stocktake you do. 

Setting time aside to conduct physical inventory counts throughout the year is crucial to ensure your data reflects what you have in stock. This reduces the likelihood of discrepancies, which can lead to overstocking or understocking, impacting customer satisfaction and profitability.

Regular physical inventory audits foster a culture of continuous improvement within your business. They provide an opportunity to identify areas for enhancement in inventory management processes, technology, training, and overall operations.

Aside from these benefits, how else will regular inventory audits help your business?

Validate your data

Regular physical audits help validate the accuracy of data recorded in your inventory management software. This ensures that decisions based on this data, such as reorder points, safety stock levels, and demand forecasting, are reliable and effective.

Uncover process inefficiencies

Physical audits can uncover process inefficiencies within the inventory management system. For example, if certain items are consistently misplaced or missing, it could indicate issues with inventory tracking, employee training, or stocking procedures. Identifying these inefficiencies will allow you to implement corrective measures.

Another example is identifying shrinkage. Shrinkage refers to losses in inventory due to theft, damage, or administrative errors. You can identify and quantify shrinkage accurately by conducting regular physical audits and then implementing strategies to minimise losses and improve profitability.

Optimise replenishment strategies and strategic decision-making

Accurate inventory audits will empower you to fine-tune your replenishment strategies. With exact numbers, it will be easier to avoid over-ordering, which ties up capital and storage space, or under-ordering, which leads to stockouts. This optimisation will improve your cash flow and enhance the customer experience by ensuring your products are available when customers want them.

Plus, accurate inventory data provides insights into product performance, demand trends, and seasonal fluctuations. This information is vital for making informed strategic decisions about product assortment, pricing, promotions, and discontinuations.

In a nutshell, a physical inventory audit is the first fundamental step for any retail store seeking to optimise its inventory management processes. Accurate inventory data serves as the cornerstone for efficient operations, better decision-making, improved financial management, and enhanced customer experiences.

2. Optimising reporting 

How well do you know your inventory?

While many retailers can give a ballpark estimate of their stock levels and what sells well, relying on educated guesses can lead to trouble down the track.

To really understand how your inventory is performing, you need analytics. Most POS systems contain a wealth of information on your products, so harnessing this data to optimise your inventory management is crucial.

Diving into your data can be overwhelming, but understanding your analytics often isn’t as difficult as you might think. Your POS is already tracking a lot of your inventory and sales data; you just need to ensure you’re capturing and utilising it in a meaningful way.

Must-have inventory reports

Inventory reports are crucial for retail businesses because they provide valuable insights into the status of their inventory, sales, and overall operations. These reports help retailers make informed decisions, optimise inventory management strategies, and enhance business performance. 

Here are ten inventory reports your retail businesses might find helpful:

1. Stock report: provides a snapshot of the current stock levels for each product, helping you understand what items are in stock, on order, and backorder.
2. Sales analysis report: analyses sales data alongside inventory levels to identify trends, fast-moving items, slow-moving items, and potential stockouts.
3. Stock turnover report: calculates the rate at which inventory is sold and replenished. It helps assess inventory management efficiency and identify which products contribute most to turnover.
4. ABC analysis report: categorises items into A, B, and C groups based on their contribution to revenue. It guides focus on high-value products and efficient management of lower-value items.
5. Reorder point report: determines the inventory level at which a new order should be placed to prevent stockouts before the next order arrives.
6. Safety stock report: calculates a buffer for unexpected demand fluctuations or supplier delays. This report estimates the ideal safety stock levels for different products.
7. Deadstock report: highlights items that have not sold within a specified period. It helps identify products that need to be marked down or removed from inventory.
8. Supplier performance report: evaluates the performance of suppliers based on factors like lead times, order accuracy, and product quality. 
9. Forecast accuracy report: if retailers use demand forecasting, this report assesses the accuracy of forecasts compared to actual sales. It helps refine forecasting methods and improve inventory planning.
10. Stock ageing report: useful for products with expiration dates; this report categorises inventory by age, helping manage items that need to be sold or disposed of soon.

By utilising these inventory reports, retailers can gain insights into their inventory processes that support informed decision-making, streamline operations, minimise costs, and enhance customer satisfaction.

Remember: your business may only need to use some of these reports. The exact reports your store might need will depend on the specific requirements of your business and the types of products you deal with.

Why are inventory reports important?

Inventory reports provide accurate and up-to-date information about stock levels, turnover rates, and demand patterns. In turn, this information empowers you to make data-driven decisions regarding purchasing, pricing, restocking, and inventory optimisation.

Inventory insights are also essential to identify potential risks, such as overstocking, understocking, or slow-moving items. By recognising these risks early on, you can take corrective actions to prevent financial losses and maintain healthy inventory levels in your store.

As well as ensuring a smoother inventory management workflow, inventory reports can help you pinpoint sales trends, seasonal variations, and customer preferences. This information will guide your inventory planning and help align your product offering with customer demands.

3. Sync product data directly from suppliers

One of the main benefits of optimising your inventory management is boosting efficiency so you can save time on menial tasks and reinvest these hours into your business.

A great way to do this is to sync your product data from your suppliers to your POS. This will make adding new inventory to your POS faster and ensure accuracy as you’re pulling information directly from a centralised supplier database. 

Lightspeed’s B2B Catalog makes updating product information quick and easy, allowing you to access thousands of brands across numerous categories to automate your product information.  

From apparel and footwear brands to bikes, sporting goods and toys, the B2B Catalog makes it simple to import product data supplied from the brand, including UPC, MSRP, description, image and name.

Thanks to the B2B Catalog, you’ll no longer have to type in product data for all your items manually. Instead, you can simply search for a product in the B2B Catalog and add it to your system.

Automatically syncing your product data makes your inventory management more efficient and has several other benefits for your business.

• Easy-to-use search tools built into your POS make it quick and easy to search products by names, keywords or UPC and add them to your system – saving you and your team time and effort.
• Digitally adding new products that automatically sync with your POS means you’ll never miss a sale, as you can quickly add new inventory to your system in just a few clicks.
• Syncing product data directly from your suppliers to your POS ensures accuracy, so you always have confidence in your product information.
• Eliminating the need to manually manage data or stock orders will boost your team’s efficiency, and they can reinvest their time focusing on your customers or other areas of your business.

4. Set reorder points for all your inventory

Setting reorder points for your inventory is a surefire way to make your life a whole lot easier. After all, optimising your inventory management is all about saving you and your team time by making your current processes more efficient.

With reorder points, you’ll assign every item in your store a minimum threshold. Once you’ve sold enough of a particular item and hit the minimum threshold, your POS will alert you that you’re running low, prompting you to place a purchase order.

How will implementing reorder points benefit your business?

Setting up reorder points for your products offers several benefits that contribute to efficient inventory management and smoother operations. Reorder points help ensure you have the right amount of inventory to meet customer demand while minimising stockouts and overstocking. 

But that’s not all; there are several other key benefits of using reorder points:

• Maintain optimal inventory levels: Reorder points are usually calculated based on factors like lead time and sales velocity to ensure you have enough inventory to cover the time it takes for a new order to arrive. This means you’ll avoid accumulating excess inventory by ensuring that new stock is ordered only when needed.
• Streamline purchasing: Reorder points provide a clear trigger for when to initiate a purchase order, reducing the need for manual intervention, as orders are automatically generated when inventory levels reach the reorder point.
• Reduce wasted space: By maintaining inventory levels based on reorder points, you can optimise your storage space and make better use of available resources.

Setting up reorder points for your inventory helps strike a balance between supply and demand. It allows you to optimise your inventory levels, reducing costs and improving overall operational efficiency in the process.

5. Use inventory management software

Choosing the right inventory management software is one of the most important things you can do to reduce the complexity of your inventory management. 

Inventory management software provides the tools to optimise your inventory processes, reduce costs, improve customer service, and make informed decisions that contribute to your business’s success.

Plus, having an all-in-one solution like Lightspeed means you can manage everything from your day-to-day sales to payment processing and inventory management from one centralised system. 

What are the benefits of using inventory management software?

There are several reasons why a retail store should use inventory management software, as it offers a range of benefits that significantly improve efficiency, accuracy, and overall operations. 

Accurate inventory tracking and in-depth analytics

Manual data entry isn’t foolproof. Even the most meticulous staff make mistakes and are prone to human error. Therefore, inventory management software eliminates the risk of data entry errors and ensures that information is recorded accurately.

As all of your inventory is logged in the system, you’ll also be able to track inventory levels in real-time, ensuring you know exactly how much stock your store has at any moment. This accuracy reduces the risk of overstocking, stockouts, and discrepancies between records and actual stock.

With all this information in one place, it’s easy to generate various reports that provide insights into sales trends, stock performance, supplier performance, and more to guide your strategic decision-making.

These insights also empower you to continually optimise your inventory management processes, as it’s easy to identify fast-moving items, slow-moving items, and those that require attention. 

Efficient order management

Inventory management software enables streamlined order processing, from order creation to fulfilment. It helps automate the order workflow, reducing manual errors and ensuring that orders are fulfilled accurately and on time.

As we touched on earlier, it’s also possible to set up and manage reorder points and automatically generate POs when inventory levels drop to a specified threshold – saving you time and minimising the risk of your products being out of stock.

Many software solutions also offer demand forecasting capabilities by analysing historical data and trends. This helps retailers make more accurate predictions about future demand, allowing for better inventory planning.

Features to look for

To ensure you’ll get the most from your inventory management software, ensure it has the following features.

• Real-time visibility of all inventory, so staff can accurately see your inventory on hand even through heavy sales days.
• Easy inventory transfers between locations (bonus points for tracking inventory in transit) so that you can easily move products between your stores. 
• Comprehensive stock reporting that can break down sales by location so you can make informed buying decisions.
• Alert notifications when an item is running low or if there is a much higher sell-through rate than usual, so you don’t need to monitor your inventory constantly.
• Reorder points and amounts for staple items when they hit a certain low point to save time and prevent those popular seasonless items from going out of stock.

These days, the right inventory management system can take on the brunt of your inventory-related tasks, no matter if you’re managing one store or many. With inventory monitoring and some re-ordering taken care of, what remains is for you to make merchandising decisions based on your inventory reports and manage your stock on the ground.

Understanding how your customers navigate their buying journey is not just a luxury – it’s a necessity. This is especially true for businesses using WooCommerce, a powerful, customizable platform built on WordPress. With its flexibility comes the need for targeted strategies to guide potential customers from mere awareness of your brand to making a purchase and, eventually, becoming brand advocates.

But before you can start fine-tuning your strategies, it’s crucial to have a foundational grasp of your sales funnel. This funnel is a visualization of the journey your customers take, starting from the point they become aware of your product or service, all the way to the post-purchase phase, where they become potential brand advocates.

In this article, we’ll walk you through the various stages of a WooCommerce sales funnel and provide you with a comprehensive view of how to optimize your WooCommerce sales funnel, enriching the customer experience while also boosting your sales.

Certainly! Here’s the next section, which focuses on defining and describing each stage of the WooCommerce sales funnel without getting into optimization tips:

The Stages of a WooCommerce Sales Funnel

Understanding the steps your customers take, from initial awareness to making a purchase and beyond, is crucial for any e-commerce business. Here, we break down these steps in the context of a WooCommerce store, so you can better understand the flow your customers are likely to follow.

Awareness

The starting point of any sales funnel, the Awareness stage, is where potential customers first come across your brand. This could happen through social media, online advertisements, word-of-mouth, or search engine results. At this stage, customers are generally looking to solve a problem or fulfill a need, and they’ve just discovered that you might offer a solution.

Interest

Once customers are aware of your brand, they move on to the Interest stage, where they start actively looking into your products. This may involve reading blog posts, browsing product categories, or signing up for newsletters. At this point, they’re not just seeking a solution; they’re identifying whether you are the right fit for them.

Consideration

This is a critical juncture where customers are weighing their options. They’re likely to look at multiple products, read reviews, and even compare prices or features. This is where tools like the WooCommerce product search come in handy, allowing customers to find exactly what they are looking for among your offerings.

Intent

In this stage, potential customers show a direct intention to buy. They may add items to their cart, check out product warranties, or review return policies. It’s not a guaranteed sale yet, but they’re on the cusp of making a decision.

Purchase

This is the moment of truth; the customer has decided to buy and is ready to complete the transaction. They’ll finalize their selection, enter payment information, and confirm the order.

Retention

Once the sale is made, the funnel isn’t over. Retention involves keeping the customer engaged post-purchase. They might create an account on your website, join a loyalty program, or follow you on social media for updates.

Advocacy

The final stage turns satisfied customers into brand advocates. If they’ve had a positive experience, they’re more likely to leave reviews, recommend your products to friends, and share your content, creating a cycle that drives more potential customers to the Awareness stage.

How to Optimize Each Stage

Knowing the different stages of your sales funnel is just the first step. The next crucial part is optimizing each stage to ensure not just a smooth customer experience but also to maximize conversion rates and boost your sales. Below, we offer actionable strategies to enhance each stage of your WooCommerce sales funnel.

Optimizing Awareness

To maximize your reach during the Awareness stage, employ an integrated SEO and Social Media strategy.

• SEO: Start by conducting keyword research to identify terms your target audience uses when looking for products or information. Incorporate these keywords into your website’s meta descriptions, product descriptions, and blog posts. Internal linking within your website can also improve SEO, guiding search engines and users to relevant content.
• Social media marketing: Social media platforms offer powerful tools for targeting specific demographics. Create content calendars for each platform and maintain a consistent posting schedule. Paid advertising, such as Facebook ads, can also be a strategic investment for driving initial traffic to your WooCommerce store.

Optimizing Interest

Once a potential customer is aware of your store, the next step is to pique their interest and guide them to explore further.

• Visuals: Invest in professional photography or even 3D imaging for your products. Consider A/B testing different images to find the most engaging visuals. Virtual tours or augmented reality experiences can also deepen engagement.
• Limited-time promotions: Use urgency tactics wisely. Incorporate countdown timers next to promotional offers and consider using push notifications or targeted emails to remind users about expiring deals.

Optimizing Consideration

At this stage, potential buyers are comparing, contrasting, and considering their options, so the goal here is to provide all the information a shopper might need to make an informed decision.

• Informative descriptions: Beyond listing features and specifications, explain how the product solves a problem or improves the customer’s life. FAQs can be a great way to address common questions directly on the product page.
• Comparison tools: Offer the ability to compare different products side-by-side. This not only aids the customer in their decision-making but also keeps them engaged within your store instead of going elsewhere for comparisons.

Optimizing Intent

Customers in the Intent stage are ready to make a purchase but might need a final nudge. Luckily, you can use a couple of techniques to smooth the transition from intent to purchase.

• Checkout simplification: Use a single-page checkout if possible and offer multiple payment gateways. Display a progress bar to show customers where they are in the checkout process and what’s left to complete.
• Guest options: For customers who prefer not to create an account, offer a guest checkout option and simplify the data you collect from them to only what’s necessary for the transaction.

Optimizing Purchase

This is the stage where a transaction happens, and it should be as seamless as possible. Security is a critical element here, as customers are sharing sensitive information like credit card details and addresses. Utilizing WordPress intrusion prevention methods can reassure customers that their data is safe, ultimately contributing to a smoother transaction process.

• Print order plugin: Integrate a print plugin that automatically generates invoices, packing slips, and even shipping labels. This speeds up your internal processes, making it possible to ship products quickly and keep customers informed about their order status.
• Notification plugin: Use a plugin to automatically keep customers in the loop about where their order is up to with order notifications, from being processed to being sent out for delivery. Notification plugins often allow you to communicate through different communication channels, including email, SMS, and WhatsApp.

Optimizing Retention

Retaining customers is key, as 70-90% of revenue comes from renewals and upsells. Post-purchase, your goal is to keep the customer engaged to convert one-time buyers into repeat customers.

• Algorithmic suggestions: Use machine learning algorithms to analyze buying habits and browsing history. Then, deliver personalized product suggestions through post-purchase emails or directly on your website.
• Multi-channel support: Utilize chatbots for immediate queries and offer in-depth support via email. A 24/7 support hotline can also be a valuable asset.

Optimizing Advocacy

Finally, you want your satisfied customers to become vocal advocates for your brand. This requires you to continually nurture customer relationships.

• Referral incentives: Develop a robust referral program that offers tangible rewards for both the referrer and the referred.
• User-generated content: Create a branded hashtag and encourage satisfied customers to share their own photos or videos of your product in use. Feature the best contributions on your own social media channels or even on your product pages.

How to Measure Success

Optimizing your WooCommerce sales funnel is a continual process that requires regular monitoring and adjustment. To truly understand if your strategies are effective, it’s important to measure their impact. 

Remember, In the quest to measure success, it’s important to balance quantitative data—numerical indicators like conversion rate or page views—with qualitative data. Qualitative data might include customer testimonials, reviews, or feedback received through surveys. While quantitative metrics offer measurable and actionable insights, qualitative data provides context that can help you understand customer sentiment and experience more deeply.

Be cautious, however, of “vanity metrics”, which are numbers that look good on paper but don’t necessarily translate to real business value. For example, having a large number of social media followers is nice, but if those followers aren’t engaging with your content or converting into customers, then the impressive numbers may not be contributing to your business goals. Always strive to focus on metrics that align with your specific objectives, and that can give you actionable insights for optimization.

Here are some ways to gauge the success of your WooCommerce sales funnel at each stage:

Awareness metrics

• Traffic volume: Keep an eye on the number of visitors coming to your site. A steady increase indicates growing brand awareness.
• Source of traffic: Analyze where your visitors are coming from — be it social media, search engines, or direct links — to understand which channels are most effective.

Interest metrics

• Page views per visit: If people are viewing multiple pages during a single visit, they are likely interested in your offerings.
• Time spent on site: The longer visitors stay on your website, the more engaged they are likely to be.

Consideration metrics

• Cart abandonment rate: If customers are adding products to their cart but not making a purchase, this could indicate friction at the Consideration stage.
• Conversion rate: This key metric indicates the percentage of visitors who have taken a desired action, such as signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase. Use a tool such as Conversios for even more granular data on your conversion data. 

Intent metrics

• Checkout abandonment rate: If customers reach the checkout page but don’t complete the purchase, investigate potential causes, such as a complicated checkout process or hidden fees.

Purchase metrics

• Average Order Value (AOV): A higher AOV often indicates that customers find enough value in your products to spend more.
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): This measures the total value a customer brings over their entire lifecycle and is a critical metric for long-term success.

Retention metrics

• Repeat purchase rate: The percentage of customers who return to make another purchase.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS): Measures customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Advocacy metrics

• Customer reviews and ratings: The number and quality of reviews can be a good indicator of brand advocacy.
• Social shares: How often your content or products are shared on social media can indicate customer engagement and advocacy.

By carefully analyzing these KPIs, you can refine your WooCommerce sales funnel to better meet the needs and expectations of your customers. This will lead to improved conversion rates and increased revenue.

Conclusion

Optimizing your WooCommerce sales funnel is not just a one-off effort; it’s an ongoing process that necessitates keen observation, adaptation, and strategic planning. From creating brand awareness to turning satisfied customers into vocal advocates, each stage of the funnel presents unique challenges and opportunities. 

Employ a blend of both quantitative and qualitative metrics to gauge the effectiveness of your strategies, but steer clear of vanity metrics that do not align with your business goals. Through meticulous planning, analysis, and optimization, you can refine your WooCommerce sales funnel for increased customer satisfaction and, ultimately, greater revenue growth.

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Ah, organization. 

Whether you love to check boxes and make lists, or organizing things is the bane of your existence, one thing is for certain: an unorganized inventory is like a lead weight on your retail business. Love it or hate it, you need to keep on top of your inventory management to run your business optimally and—crucially—to make more money.

We’re inventory management pros here at Lightspeed. It’s why we built our retail POS system with robust ordering and organizational tools you can take advantage of to make your inventory work for you. And it’s why we’re excited to share some of our knowledge with you so you can get your inventory in order without stress.

In this post, we’ll go over:

What is inventory management?

Inventory management is every step involved in ordering, organizing, storing and selling inventory. 

You know what your inventory is: it’s the products you stock to sell to your customers. And you know inventory management is keeping that stock in order.

But inventory management is much more than just good organization. It also helps you manage the ordering, storage and carrying costs of your inventory, so you get a better ROI from your stock.

Airtight inventory management gives you the information you need to:

• Increase your profit margins
• Decrease excess stock
• Cut down on your inventory costs
• Work in a better, more efficient way

Effective inventory management processes can also help you answer these questions: 

• How much of each item is in stock?
• What and when do you need to reorder?
• Are you ordering too much or too little inventory?
• What are your best and worst selling items?
• Should you stop selling something completely?
• Is your inventory storage sufficient?

This information can help you with everything from your next stock order to planning your spring promotional campaign.

Efficient inventory management is a cornerstone of any successful wholesale and retail relationship. Inventory Management Systems (IMS) are vital, monitoring inventory quantity, location and status, as well as associated shipping details. These systems automate and streamline inventory processes, reducing human error and enhancing efficiency.

Warehouse management vs. inventory management: what’s the difference?

If you’re a retailer who operates a warehouse, you’re going to need to approach your warehouse inventory differently than you do your in-store inventory. 

Your in-store inventory exists to be sold. When you’re managing it, you’re looking to set it up in such a way that you can examine sales data and see what your customers are responding to and what they aren’t. 

Warehouse management is about tracking and controlling the storage of inventory in a warehouse, and while there are some overlapping functions with inventory management, they’re just different enough to require separate systems. Your warehouse inventory exists to be sent to stores (or to be mailed to eCom customers)and must be set up and managed in a way where you can track exactly where it is at all times.

If you’re operating a warehouse, you can make your life easier and use a warehouse management system to integrate your warehouse with your POS. While you’ll still need to keep the different needs of each kind of inventory in mind, integration means less potential for human error in the numbers and details.  

What are the four common types of retail inventory?

Not all inventory is the same. Inventory can be classified as raw materials, work in progress, finished goods and maintenance and repairs. Depending on if you primarily resell products, produce your own or offer customers a mix of both, you might have a mix of the following inventory types you’ll need to account for. 

Raw materials

Raw materials are just that: raw materials. If you’re at all involved in the production of your inventory, you’ll likely have some of this on hand. Not all retailers will deal with raw materials, however.

If you have raw materials in your inventory, you’ll want to keep them separate from your finished goods’ inventory hierarchy. Goods that might be considered raw materials—lumber, for example—that you have in stock because you intend to sell them to customers are technically finished goods. 

Work in progress

Like raw materials, you might have work in progress inventory on hand if you’re involved in the production of the goods you sell. If you do deal with work in progress inventory, your goal should be to ensure items don’t stay at this stage for long.

These items should also be kept separate from your finished goods’ inventory hierarchy. They’re not for sale to customers. If you have inventory in your store that you’re working to update, repair or tune up for customers, that should be classified separately from work in progress goods. 

Finished goods

Finished goods are anything you have for sale in your brick and mortar store or on your eCom site. These may be goods you’ve been involved in the production for or goods you’ve ordered from a vendor. 

This is the inventory that you’ll be focusing on for your retail inventory management plan. 

Maintenance and repair

Say you’re a bike retailer. In addition to selling bikes and bicycle parts, you repair and upgrade bikes for your customers.

The inventory involved here isn’t the bikes themselves, though you will need a clearly defined workflow for handling and storing them to keep your customers’ goods from being damaged. It’s the tools and labor needed to work on the bikes your customers bring you. 

Why is inventory management important?

Good inventory management helps you…

Maximize profits

Let’s cut to the chase: better inventory management means more money in your pocket. That’s because using inventory management techniques to increase your ROI means you always have an eye on what is going on with your inventory performance. You end up stuck with less dead stock and you can lean into what products are resonating with your customers, so you purchase more inventory that you know will return a profit. 

Inventory management also helps maximize your profits by giving you the information you need to manage your expenses. Knowing your sell-through rate means you can cut down on purchasing costs, for example. 

The economic order quantity formula

By taking what you learn from tracking your inventory and applying it to the economic order quantity (EOQ) formula, you can determine exactly how large an order should be to minimize storage and ordering costs. 

Q=√[(2DS)/H]

• Q stands for quantity. This is your EOQ-optimized order size 
• D is the annual demand for the product you’re measuring. You can check this data by running a report in your point of sale system
• H is your yearly holding costs per unit√

You might not evaluate your optimal EOQ for every single order, but having the data you need to calculate it on hand is important for doing spot checks on your expenses. 

Avoid excess stock

Dead and slow-moving stock are both a drain on your resources. 

Dead stock doesn’t bring in a profit, which means you can’t replace it. It just stuffs your shelves and storage full of what your customers don’t want.

Slow-moving stock still brings in a profit, but slowly. You can replace it with new stock because it’s still bringing in cash flow, but it’s more akin to a trickle than a steady stream, and it’s in danger of becoming dead stock if customers stop resonating with it altogether.

With an optimized inventory management system, you can catch slow-moving stock before it becomes dead stock. That means you can switch promotional strategies to move that stock before it becomes a problem for your business. 

Just-in-time stock management

Just-in-time (JIT) stock management is a method by which businesses time their orders so they always have just enough stock on hand to meet demand without excess or empty shelves.

You need a robust inventory management system to make a JIT method work. Without access to integrated tools and data, you could easily end up ordering too much or too little, defeating the purpose. 

How does just in time inventory management improve business?

Avoiding excess stock helps your finances in two ways—you’re not tying up your cash flow in unsold stock, and you can cut down on inventory storage costs. When a significant portion of businesses are all using the method, JIT management can also have a positive environmental impact by reducing waste, as the manufacturing demand can shift at least in part to only filling what’s needed. 

However, JIT inventory management can prove a liability during unexpected events. If you suddenly experience a slowdown in deliveries due to shut-downs, JIT stock management can leave you with bare shelves. If you decide to work with JIT stock management, research local suppliers you can switch to, either in a pinch or permanently. 

Save time

An ideal inventory management system makes use of technology. No more pen and paper guesswork. That means you save time on your stock management tasks.

Saving time on your regular inventory management tasks means you’ve got room to launch an eCom store. And with an integrated system, you won’t even add a lot of extra inventory management work to your plate.

What are some inventory management techniques retailers should know?

Inventory management is more than just setting your categories and letting things run. There are a number of tools in your toolbox to keep things as efficient as possible.

Inventory valuation

Inventory management is also inventory costing. Knowing how much your inventory is costing you is crucial to making the right purchasing decisions. Attentive inventory management doesn’t leave this unchecked.

Here are a few inventory costing methods you can consider using. 

The retail method

The retail method was designed for retailers, exactly as you’d expect. It’s the least accurate individual costing method you’re likely to use, but has value in measuring your cost to retail price ratio. It provides an approximation of your ending inventory balance by comparing the cost and price of your stock. 

Because the retail method assumes all of your inventory has a consistent markup, it’s easy to calculate. You just take the total value of what you have for sale and subtract the markup: that’s the approximate cost of your inventory.

You can probably see the downsides to this method, though. If you have products with different markups (and you most certainly do) you won’t get an accurate picture of your inventory’s cost. 

Weighted average method

The weighted average method is useful when the prices of the products you buy don’t change often or that much. To calculate it, you use a pool of costs for all units of a particular product. When you make a purchase, it’s added to the pool of cost and then divided by all units you have on hand. 

• Let’s say, for example, you bought two batches of a product in a given period. One batch cost $50.00 per unit, and the other cost $53.00 
• You purchase 10 of the product in each batch, so in total, you spent $1030.00 on this product’s inventory levels 
• In the weighted average method, you’d divide the total cost by the number of units, so you’d have purchased 20 units worth, on average, $51.50 
• If you sold three units, regardless of which batch they came from, you’d assume you sold three units that cost you $51.50 each to acquire 

This method’s simplicity is both its greatest strength and weakness. It makes costing easy to track, because you don’t need to pay attention to which batch a unit was sold from. 

But it can be less accurate than other more specific costing methods, such as FIFO and LIFO, because of the assumptions you make using it while blending your costs together.

FIFO and LIFO

FIFO stands for first in, first out. If you have a batch of sweaters, and you sell one, FIFO assumes you sold the oldest sweater from that batch you had in stock.

• Let’s say you bought two batches of product in a given period. Again, one batch cost $50.00 per unit, and the other cost $53.00. You bought 10 units in each batch, so you spent $1030.00
• You sell 11 units. In FIFO, you assume you sold these units from the older batch first, the one that cost you $50.00 per unit 
• 10 of the units sold cost you $50.00 each. One cost you $53.00. In total, you sold inventory that cost you $553.00 to acquire

LIFO, on the other hand, stands for last in, first out. It’s the opposite of FIFO—for costing purposes, it assumes that the last stock you purchased is the first you’ll sell. LIFO is rarely used in retail as it doesn’t present as accurate valuations as FIFO for most retailers. In fact, the LIFO method is banned in most of the world under the International Financial Reporting Standards.

What are the advantages of FIFO?

For most retailers, FIFO offers the most accurate representation of your inventory. While you might not be selling the oldest item in a batch every single sale, you are likely to be moving older inventory before newer inventory. 

Regular reconciliation

Regular inventory reconciliation means you’re always on top of what’s going on with your stock. You can catch shrinkage before it gets out of hand, giving you the chance to better pinpoint the cause before it gets out of hand. 

Physical inventory counts

A full physical inventory count means counting every single unit you have on hand. While this gives you the most accurate possible picture of your inventory levels, full counts take a prohibitive amount of time to complete to do that often.

You should perform a full count at least once a year. It’s best to do them when your SKU levels are lowest, typically during the last weekend in January or the end of July. 

The main problem with physical inventory counts is how long they take. That means you need to close the store or keep employees after hours, and long, boring counts can lead to errors as people (understandably) start to drift off. To speed up how long full counts take, have multiple employees counting at once using an app like Lightspeed Scanner, which automatically updates quantities in your POS to reduce errors.

Cycle counts

You can bridge the gap between your full inventory counts by cycle counting, wherein you count a smaller amount of inventory more frequently. That way, you still have an eye on your inventory levels without needing to go through your entire stock, something that’d be prohibitively time consuming to do often.

To effectively cycle count, pick a section or two of your inventory to focus on. A bookstore, for example, might decide to count all of their children’s books for a count, but leave the non-fiction books for a different cycle count. 

Spot checking

When you spot check, you count the same portion of your inventory for multiple weeks in a row. This helps you find patterns—are any inventory levels experiencing more or less movement than you’d expect? Is there any unexplained shrinkage in a particular kind of product?

You might want to consider doing regular spot checks on your high-risk inventory, such as low-cost accessories that aren’t locked behind a case.

ABC analysis

ABC inventory classification—the ABC stands for activity based costing—is based on the idea that 80% of your revenue will come from the top 20% of your products. 

If you were using ABC analysis, you’d sort your inventory into three buckets:

• Group A: the 20% of SKUs that generate 80% of revenue

• Group B: the 30% of SKUs that generate 15% of revenue

• Group C: the 50% of SKUs that generate 5% of revenue

These three categories shouldn’t be customer-facing—they’re for your backend management purposes. 

How is ABC analysis useful in inventory management?

ABC inventory classification can help you take more efficient inventory counts.

If you’re employing cycle counting to keep an eye on your inventory, you can use your ABC categories to ensure you’re monitoring the inventory levels of your top performers closely. While your B and C inventory is still generating revenue, they’re not your superstars. These products will need to be counted less often, though they’ll still need counting.

When selecting the products for your inventory counts, you’ll want to focus on frequently counting your group A inventory, and semi-frequently counting your B and C inventory.  

Tips for an optimized POS inventory system setup

As a retailer, inventory management is the core of your business. Your POS’ inventory system should be set up in such a way that you can get information from it, not just move products. It should work for you and make your life easier instead of being an extra complication in running your business. 

Here are some inventory management best practices you can follow.

Create an optimal hierarchy for your categories

Your categories should follow a consistent internal logic that doesn’t change much over time so you can get the most actionable data possible. This means you shouldn’t be overly specific with your categories—if they’ll only work for very specific products, they’re not the optimal hierarchy. 

For example, let’s take an apparel retailer who sells sweaters, both turtleneck and v-neck, from three different brands.

• Your top-level category should be sweaters
• Your sub-categories should be turtleneck and v-neck
• You do not need to make brands a category. Your POS software should track the brands for you

As a rule of thumb, never put more than 10 sub-categories under a single top-level category.

Keep your top-level categories consistent. If one category is sweaters, another could be t-shirts or skirts.

Having an optimal hierarchy for your categories means you can better compare patterns in your sales data going forward, so spend the time to set up a system you could use for years. 

Count your inventory

We’ve mentioned the importance of counting inventory a few times in this guide—and that’s because we can’t emphasize it enough. Do cycle counts consistently and often. Keep an eye on your shrinkage.

Set reorder points for all your inventory 

A POS like Lightspeed will store reorder points so you only need to run a report to see what products are below their desired inventory level. 

Setting your reorder points means you need to spend less time trying to manually monitor what needs to be reordered for every purchase period.

Manage your purchasing from your POS system

When you use inventory management software to manage purchase orders instead of relying on pen and paper or spreadsheets, you’re less likely to make human entry errors, and you save valuable time. 

Built-in purchase ordering means your inventory data is easily accessible, which means when it comes time to order you can track important information at a glance, such as:

• Current inventory levels 
• Cost per unit
• Open orders and inventory on order
• Inventory in transit to your store  

A platform like Lightspeed can go even further by dynamically recommending what products you need to reorder based on reorder points and historical sales volume. 

In other words, it can do the forecasting for you. 

Inventory management examples

Not all verticals have the same needs. Here are some examples of how different kinds of retail stores might start thinking about their most pressing inventory management needs.

Inventory management for a golf pro shop

Golf pro shop inventory management means keeping an eye on what is, ultimately, ultra-specialized sporting goods store stock. 

A pro shop owner might prioritize classifying their inventory with the ABC method. Pro shop customers rarely visit the shop for the shop’s sake alone—they’re around because they’re here to play golf on the course. The pro shop needs to have their top performers on hand at all times, because if they’re sold out of something, it’s much easier for the customer to stop at a different store on their way home than to come back to the course solely to shop.

Once the inventory is classified into groups, the pro shop owner will know to keep a close eye on the reorder points of their A group inventory to prevent stockouts.  

Inventory management for a fashion retailer

Stockouts are bad for any kind of retail—but a fashion retailer might approach the problem differently than a pro shop. They could use fashion retail inventory management software to monitor their turns and sell-through so they know how often to make purchases to avoid empty shelves.

Speed is also important in fashion inventory management. The quicker you can get new pieces onto the sales floor, the more you differentiate yourself from your competitors. Fashion giant Zara, for example, uses just-in-time stock management to get new pieces out fast without gambling on excess inventory. 

Putting it into practice: buying inventory

So what happens once you’ve got an optimized inventory management setup?

Well, for one, buying inventory is simpler and more streamlined. You’ll have clean, actionable data on hand to make more informed decisions.

Step 1: plan

With an optimized inventory management system, inventory forecasting is easier. 

You’ll be able to check what categories and products are performing well—and which aren’t—at a glance.

Take Art for the People, an art gallery powered by Lightspeed in Austin, Texas. Art for the People showcases 100+ artists at any given time, which means they have a complex inventory that requires careful planning. 

Thankfully, they have an automated inventory management system on hand, letting them know what commission details they need to watch out for and how different artists and categories of art–and more–are performing. “We can also see if there’s a certain color, fabric or style that sells better and adjust things accordingly,” says Hallie Rae Ward, Art Business Director for Art for the People.

Like with Art for the People, setting up and maintaining your inventory through technology means having a better picture of your inventory sell-through rate. Your sell-through rate helps you predict demand; measuring it means you can build an effective ordering plan. 

• A high sell-through rate means your inventory is selling quickly, so you should keep an eye on products with a high rate when it comes time to put in your next order 
• Products with a low sell-through rate, however, need new promotional plans, be that through a focus on upselling, discounts, product bundles or otherwise

With inventory performance data on hand, you can set a budget that makes sense. You can more accurately predict demand, so you have a better picture of the ROI of your inventory. 

Step 2: buy

Once you’ve planned your budget and taken a look at what inventory is performing well, it’s time to purchase stock. 

Look to your point of sale system for help. A POS like Lightspeed has built-in purchase orders so you can manage this step from the same place you manage your inventory. When your stock arrives, you just need to scan it to add it to your management system. 

Be sure you create any new categories you might need for your stock under the same optimal hierarchy that you established earlier!

Step 3: manage

Now that you’ve planned, purchased and received your inventory, it’s time to manage it.

Here’s how:

• Set time once a week to check your inventory performance and sell-through rate. Using retail analytics software will help you out here
• Make adjustments to your selling strategy as needed if your sell-through rate isn’t where you want it to be
• Adjust your reorder points as needed based on how quickly or slowly your inventory is selling 
• Perform regular cycle counts and spot checks on your inventory to monitor levels and shrinkage

Ideally, you don’t need to be in the store to make quick adjustments. Imagine Exhibitions, a traveling exhibit company whose gift shops are powered by Lightspeed, has managing their inventory from anywhere down to a science. “If we notice a trend or something happens the day before and we’re like, ‘what happened on that?’ We can find out quickly with the system, ” says Michael Slagle, Vice President of Retail Operations at Imagine Exhibitions.

He adds, “We can get that data fast without having to go into a broader, bigger analysis. That’s one of the things that we all like about Lightspeed. That, in my opinion, is better than any of the other POS that we’re using right now. I can go on my phone and get what I need to do. I can be in an airport or something and I can just get onto my phone and see things immediately. And that’s pretty cool.”

What is the future of inventory management?

Inventory management technology looks set to evolve to be more automated and more connected. 

Sales associates selling stock and managers ordering inventory will be able to do their jobs more efficiently thanks to wider adoption of tools and technologies like RFID, IOT and automation. 

RFID and the Internet of Things for inventory management

RFID, or Radio Frequency Identification, is a way of locating objects (or people or animals) through radio waves. BLE, or Bluetooth Low Energy, works similarly to RFID, but is powered by a low-energy form of Bluetooth. BLE is also called active RFID, because RFID doesn’t use as much energy.

These sorts of technologies power the Internet of Things (IOT), where devices can communicate with each other through networks (either local or connected to the wider internet).

So what do these concepts have to do with the future of inventory management?

RFID and BLE already have their place in warehouses for retailers around the world. They help speed up packing and shipping by helping employees find products quicker. Some retailers are even experimenting with robotics and fully automated warehouses using RFID and similar technology.

In the near future, expect to see:

• Wider adoption of RFID technology in warehouses, even for smaller businesses
• The use of RFID to manage stock in stores, free up space on the sales floor for more experiential retail without sacrificing time at checkout

Automation for inventory forecasting

Many businesses already rely on some form of automation, but expect automated forecasting based on bespoke data to become more commonplace very quickly. 

Demand forecasting based on seasonal fluctuations and average vendor lead times helps retailers strike a balance between lean shelves and too much stock. Expect more and more businesses to automate this forecasting to gain an edge without sacrificing time that could be spent elsewhere. 

Planning for the future: creating a business continuity plan

Robust inventory management means you’re less likely to be surprised—you have a better handle on your expenses and costs, can keep an eye on your shrinkage and optimize the inventory you have on hand. You know what sells and what doesn’t, so you’re always prepared to serve your customers.

Carry that preparation forward by using what you’ve learned to start your business continuity plan. While you can’t account for everything in your forecasting, you can get yourself ready for the unexpected. 

If you’re interested in learning how Lightspeed can help you manage your inventory better, let’s talk.

All new Safe Repair feature makes repairing and quarantining malicious files with Defender Pro smoother and safer than ever before for WordPress users!

Defender, WPMU DEV’s powerful WordPress security plugin, recently launched its all new version 4.1, which ensures maximum compatibility with the latest version of WordPress, and — more importantly for Pro users — is designed to streamline the process of repairing and quarantining modified files, suspicious files, and offer users a safer alternative to deleting files.

In this post, we’ll focus on this new feature and cover the following areas:

Let’s jump right in…

What is Defender’s Safe Repair Feature?

As a user-driven company, we listen to what our members and users want. Especially when it comes to addressing issues, as outlined in the comments below from our Defender plugin users:

• “I was running a malware scan with Defender Pro, and I think I accidentally deleted a file which I shouldn’t have. Now the website is down with a critical error.”
• “Our website is currently down after removing two attached files that Defender Pro recommended removing.”
• “It would be wonderful if Defender Pro allowed us to quarantine a file in addition to the options of deleting a file or ignoring it.
  That way if the suspicious file breaks the site, it can be restored easily instead of having to restore the entire site from a backup.”

Using the above feedback, our developers decided to improve our security plugin and add the following options to avoid serious issues and errors on users’ WordPress sites:

1. Repair and Quarantine/backup suspicious files so these can be restored if necessary.
2. Repair and Quarantine/backup modified files so these can be restored if necessary.

Defender Malware Scanning scans your entire site for suspicious code or modified files and published vulnerabilities in plugins, themes, and WordPress core.

The new Safe Repair feature applies to reported suspicious and modified files, allowing these to be quarantined, deleted, or replaced with the latest file copies from their official plugin repository.

How Does Safe Repair Work?

As explained earlier, Defender Pro’s Safe Repair feature within the Malware scanning section is designed to streamline the process of quarantining files before repairing or deleting them, offering a safer alternative to outright suspicious or modified file deletion.

Here’s how Defender Pro handles these requests from version 4.1 onward:

Suspicious Files

Defender flags PHP functions, code, and files when they vary from what is expected or when they match known issues.

Once a flagged function or suspicious code has been verified as suspicious, Defender presents you with three actions: Ignore, Delete, or Safe Repair (note: you may need to deactivate the plugin for the ‘Delete’ option to become active).

Prior to v4.0, deleting suspicious files would occasionally cause a plugin, theme, or even the entire website to break. Often, this is caused by code from the plugin or theme itself being flagged by Defender as being suspicious.

The problem, however, appears when it’s a false positive, meaning that the flagged file isn’t malicious per se, but part of the plugin’s (or theme’s) core files and contains risky code added by the theme or plugin developer. Hence, deleting this file could cause errors on the site, break functionality, or even break the entire site.

From Defender Pro v4.1 onward, users can now opt to repair and quarantine/back up suspicious files for 30 days or more, instead of deleting the file right away. Files are stored under the new quarantine tab, allowing you to restore these if needed, including restoring files manually. This provides a fail-safe method to handle suspicious files and offers a restoration option if things go wrong or return false-positives.

Note: The Safe Repair option becomes available only if the suspicious code found differs from the plugin’s original code. Also, Safe Repair only works with WordPress.org plugins currently.

Modified Files

If code in a plugin, theme, or WordPress core file doesn’t match what is found in the official WordPress repository. Defender will flag the file as a Modified file. Restoring the original file fixes this issue.

Earlier versions of Defender (and Defender Free plugin) feature a “Restore” button in the plugin’s Malware Scanning section, which fetches a fresh file from the WordPress repository and replaces the existing file in the server directory.

However, when a file has been modified by an admin or site developer (e.g. by adding a custom code for a certain functionality), deleting or replacing the file with its original can result in the loss of custom code or functionality, and in some cases, lead to sites breaking.

In Defender Pro, Restore is now Safe Repair. This new feature not only replaces the modified file with the original file from the WordPress repository, it also adds an option to quarantine the modified file before replacing it, allowing users to restore the file if required.

Repairing Files

Repair is a handy feature to have when a file in the server directory gets modified for any reason. It smartly fetches a fresh file from the WordPress repository and swaps it with the current file in the server directory. (See below for more details on how to use this feature.)

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Quarantined Files

Modified and/or suspicious files on your server are quarantined and moved to a remote directory (/wp-content/.defender-security-quarantine), allowing you to restore the files if needed (explained in more detail further below).

How to Use Defender’s Safe Repair Feature

To use the new Safe Repair feature, make sure you have installed Defender Pro and that the plugin is running the latest version. If you are currently using our free Defender WordPress Security plugin, consider upgrading to Pro by becoming a WPMU DEV member.

Also, make sure that you have enabled the plugin’s settings as shown below for the Safe Repair feature to work.

With Defender Pro v4.1 (minimum) installed and the above settings configured, run a fresh Malware Scan by going to Defender > Malware Scanning > New Scan…

Once the scan is completed, check for modified or suspicious files.

Next, click on the Malware Scanning > Issues tab.

Select a file and click on the Safe Repair button.

You will be given the option to repair and/or quarantine the selected file.

Note that by default, quarantined files will remain isolated for 30 days before being automatically deleted. You can configure quarantine duration in the Malware scanning settings if you want to change this default period.

Restoring Quarantined Files

You can restore quarantined files in one of two ways:

1. Via WordPress Admin: Go to Defender > Malware scanning > Quarantined section.
2. Via The Hub: Use the Quarantined Hub widget under the Security tab.

Restoring Quarantined Files Via The WordPress Admin

Quarantined files are listed under the new quarantine tab.

To restore quarantined files from your WordPress admin, log into your WordPress site, and go to Defender Pro > Malware Scanning > Quarantined.

This section lets you go through your quarantined files and choose to either restore or permanently delete these.

Files can also be restored manually by downloading them from /wp-content/.defender-security-quarantine.

Restoring Quarantined Files Via The Hub

The Hub’s Security tab lists your most recent quarantined files (up to a maximum of 5 files) and provides the following options, depending on whether the website is running or not.

• If the website is up – files can be restored from the Hub.
• If the website is down – instructions will display on how to restore the quarantined file(s) manually using FTP/SSH

Repair Files Safely Using Defender

Defender 4.1 now lets you apply a powerful combination of quarantining and repairing modified or suspicious file threats and isolating files instead of deleting these entirely, lessening the risk of breaking your site, as quarantined files can be restored if required.

For full details on using the new Safe Repair feature and all of its options, see the Defender plugin documentation section.

Have you ever wondered how to turn more visitors into loyal customers for your Shopify store? You’re not alone! In the bustling world of eCommerce, every store owner strives to increase conversion rates and boost sales. The key lies in understanding what drives visitors to complete their purchase journey and how to optimise your Shopify store to cater to their needs. 

This blog will unlock the secrets to skyrocketing your conversion rates with Shopify. From creating an irresistible shopping experience to leveraging cutting-edge tools, we’ll explore ten tactics to transform your online store into a conversion powerhouse. So, if you’re ready to take your eCommerce game to the next level, let’s dive in!

Understanding Shopify: The All-in-One Ecommerce Solution

What Is Shopify?

Shopify is a leading cloud-based eCommerce platform that empowers entrepreneurs and businesses to build, customise, and manage online stores. With its user-friendly templates and themes, Shopify simplifies the process of creating visually captivating storefronts, even for those without extensive coding knowledge.

The platform offers a comprehensive suite of features that cover every aspect of running a successful online business. From streamlined product management to ensuring secure checkout processes, mobile responsiveness, and efficient order and shipping management, Shopify provides the tools to optimise the eCommerce experience. Additionally, its integrated marketing and SEO tools, complemented by an extensive app store, open doors to further customisation, allowing businesses of all sizes to thrive in the highly competitive digital landscape.

Why Should You Use Shopify?

Choosing Shopify as your eCommerce platform has many benefits tailored to your business needs. The intuitive interface guarantees a smooth and hassle-free setup process, while Shopify’s emphasis on security and reliability ensures a safe and stable shopping environment for your customers. By offering a wide range of professionally designed templates, Shopify enables you to create visually stunning storefronts that captivate your target audience, setting your brand apart from the competition.

Moreover, Shopify’s scalable infrastructure accommodates businesses at any growth stage, allowing you to expand as your online presence flourishes seamlessly. With built-in marketing and SEO tools, you can optimise your store’s visibility, reach a broader audience, and foster brand awareness. The platform’s 24/7 customer support ensures you receive timely assistance whenever needed, making Shopify a trusted and dependable partner in all your online business endeavours.

Optimise Website Speed for Seamless Shopping

Website speed not only affects user experience but also impacts search engine rankings. Google considers page load times a ranking factor and faster sites rank higher in search results. To improve website speed, you can:

• Optimise images: Use image compression tools or plugins to reduce file sizes without sacrificing quality. Smaller image files load faster, leading to quicker page loading times.
• Enable caching: Utilise browser caching to store static resources like images, CSS, and JavaScript on users’ devices. When visitors return to your site, these resources are retrieved locally, reducing the need for repeated downloads and improving load times.
• Content Delivery Network (CDN): A CDN consists of servers distributed across different locations worldwide. When a user accesses your website, the CDN serves content from the server nearest to their site, reducing latency and improving load times.

Mobile Responsiveness for On-the-Go Shopping

Mobile commerce is rising, and more customers are shopping on smartphones and tablets. To cater to this growing segment, ensure your Shopify store is fully responsive:

• Responsive design: Use a responsive theme or template that automatically adjusts the layout and design based on the user’s screen size. This ensures a consistent and user-friendly experience across various devices.
• Mobile-friendly navigation: Simplify navigation menus and buttons for easy tapping on touchscreens. Avoid pop-ups or elements that may obstruct the view on smaller screens.

Craft Compelling Product Descriptions for SEO and Sales

Product descriptions serve as a sales pitch to potential customers and play a role in search engine optimisation:

• Unique and detailed: Write original product descriptions highlighting each item’s special features and benefits. Avoid using generic manufacturer descriptions. Message mining can be a powerful technique to enhance product descriptions and boost conversion rates on Shopify. Message mining involves analysing customer feedback, comments, and reviews to extract valuable insights about preferences, pain points, and desires. 
• Keyword research: Conduct keyword research to identify relevant search terms. Incorporate these keywords naturally into your product descriptions to improve SEO and increase the chances of your products ranking higher in search results.

Implement Customer Reviews and Testimonials for Trust

Social proof is a powerful tool for building trust and credibility:

• Display reviews prominently: Showcase customer reviews and testimonials on product pages where potential buyers can easily see them.
• Encourage reviews: Send follow-up emails to customers after purchasing, requesting them to leave a review. Offer incentives, such as discount codes or loyalty points, to encourage more feedback.

Streamline Checkout Process for Higher Conversions

The checkout process is a critical stage where cart abandonment often occurs. To streamline the process and boost conversions:

• Guest checkout option: Provide a guest checkout option so customers can purchase without creating an account. Requiring registration may deter some users from completing their purchases.
• Progress indicators: Display a progress indicator or steps in the checkout process, showing customers how many steps are left before completing the order.
• Autofill and autocomplete: Implement autofill for shipping and billing addresses to save users time and reduce friction during checkout.

Utilise Abandoned Cart Recovery for Recapturing Sales

Cart abandonment is a common occurrence, but you can recover some of those lost sales by implementing an abandoned cart recovery strategy:

• Automated email reminders: Set up automated email sequences to remind customers about their abandoned carts. To entice them back, personalise these emails and consider offering incentives, such as discounts or free shipping.
• Exit-intent pop-ups: Use exit-intent pop-ups to capture visitors’ email addresses before they leave the site. This way, you can follow up with personalised cart recovery emails.

Create Urgency with Limited-Time Promotions and Discounts

Limited-time promotions and discounts can create a sense of urgency and encourage immediate action from potential buyers:

• Flash sales: Offer time-sensitive discounts for a few hours or a day to create a sense of urgency and drive quick purchases.
• Countdown timers: Use countdown timers to display the time left for a special offer or promotion. This can motivate customers to act before the deal expires.

Display Trust Signals for Enhanced Credibility

Trust signals reassure customers that your store is safe and trustworthy:

• SSL certificates: Secure your website with an SSL certificate to encrypt data and provide a secure connection between your server and customers’ browsers. This is particularly important for protecting sensitive information during the checkout process.
• Security badges: Display security badges from reputable providers, such as Norton Secured or McAfee Secure, to convey that your site is regularly scanned for malware and is safe to use.
• Accepted payment logos: Show logos of well-known and trusted payment methods to instil confidence in customers during checkout.

Personalisation and Targeted Recommendations for Tailored Shopping

Personalisation enhances the shopping experience and increases the likelihood of conversions:

• Personalised product recommendations: Use data on customers’ past purchases and browsing behaviour to offer tailored product recommendations. These recommendations can be showcased on the homepage, product pages, or email marketing.
• Dynamic content: Utilise dynamic range that changes based on the user’s preferences and behaviour. For example, you can display different homepage banners or offers depending on the customer segment they belong to.

A/B Testing and Continuous Optimisation for Ongoing Success

A/B testing is a data-driven approach to optimise your website for higher conversions:

• A/B testing elements: Experiment with different variations of components such as headlines, button colours, and call-to-action text to see which version performs better.
• Analyse results: Monitor the results of A/B tests and use analytics tools to understand how changes impact user behaviour and conversion rates.
• Continuous optimisation: Implement the findings from A/B tests and refine your website regularly. eCommerce is a dynamic environment; ongoing optimisation is vital to staying competitive.

Elevate Your Shopify Store and Convert Visitors into Loyal Customers!

Unlock the secrets to skyrocketing your Shopify store’s conversion rates with these ten tips. As the all-in-one eCommerce solution, Shopify empowers you to build visually captivating storefronts. At the same time, its integrated marketing tools and extensive app store enable you to customise and optimise your online business. From optimising website speed and mobile responsiveness to utilising customer reviews, implementing abandoned cart recovery, and creating urgency with limited-time promotions, these strategies will turn more visitors into loyal customers.

Ready to take your eCommerce game to the next level? Implement these tactics and watch your sales soar! If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to contact us here at Blend.

Do you want to host multiple WordPress websites on a single server?

You can easily manage multiple domains from a single place by hosting them on one server. Plus, it helps save costs as you won’t need to purchase separate servers for each website.

In this article, we will show you how to host multiple websites on one server.

Why Host Multiple Websites on One Server?

If you’re planning on expanding your business from one website to more, then it’s a feasible option to host them on a single server.

That’s because it is easier to manage them from a single place. It can be time-consuming and inconvenient to log in and out of multiple WordPress websites on different servers. If all your websites are on one server, then you can simply switch between them from the same dashboard.

Hosting multiple sites on a single server will also help save and be more economical for your business.

Many hosting providers offer dedicated hosting where you have full control over the server and allow you to set up more than 1 website.

Instead of purchasing individual hosting plans for each site, you can choose a plan that allows multiple WordPress sites on one server. This will also allow you to fully utilize your server resources.

That said, let’s see how you can host multiple websites on one server.

Select a Hosting Service and Buy Domains

Before you can add any website to a server, the first step is to purchase a hosting service and domain names for your websites.

Choosing a WordPress Hosting Provider

There are many services to choose from, but we recommend Hostinger. It is a fast-growing web hosting provider that offers different types of hosting options.

For instance, you can get premium shared hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, cloud hosting, managed hosting, and more.

In the Hostinger WordPress Starter plan, you can add up to 100 websites, get free email, an SSL certificate, unlimited bandwidth, managed WordPress, and more. You also get 1 free domain name, but you’ll need to purchase other domains.

The best part is that WPBeginner users can get up to 81% OFF on WordPress hosting plans. Simply click the link below to claim the offer.

Another advantage of using Hostinger WordPress plans is that WordPress comes pre-installed. You don’t have to manually install WordPress for your websites.

If you’re looking for alternatives, then you can also use Bluehost or SiteGround to add multiple sites to one server.

Purchasing Domain Names for Your Website

After choosing a web hosting platform, the next step is to purchase domain names that you’ll need to host on a server.

Hostinger lets you buy a new domain or transfer an existing domain. To purchase a domain, simply go to the ‘Domains’ tab from your Hostinger dashboard.

From here, simply select the ‘Get a new domain’ option.

Next, you can search for a domain name.

Go ahead and enter a keyword or brand name in the search bar.

From here, you’ll see a list of URL options along with different domain extensions and prices.

Simply select an option you want and click the ‘Buy domain’ button.

Next, a popup will open with different billing periods for your domain name.

Go ahead and choose a billing period.

After that, you can complete the checkout process by choosing a payment method and purchasing the domain name.

You can repeat this process to purchase as many additional domains as you’d like.

Alternative Method: If you don’t want to buy a domain from Hostinger, then there are many domain registrars that allow you to register a domain name with ease. For instance, you can use Domain.com as it offers top-level extensions, an easy domain registration process, and a bunch of features.

Adding Multiple WordPress Sites to One Server

After selecting a hosting provider and buying domain names, you can add multiple sites to one server.

From your Hostinger dashboard, you can go to the ‘Websites’ tab and click on the + Create or migrate a website option.

Next, Hostinger will walk you through the process of creating a new website on the same server.

For instance, you can select a website type. This includes an online store, blog, business, portfolio, and other types.

After that, you’ll need to select whether you’d like to create or migrate a website.

If you already have a website on another hosting platform, then you can transfer it to Hostinger. Simply select the ‘Migrate my website’ option and follow the steps.

For this tutorial, we will select the ‘Create a new website’ option.

Next, you can select a platform to build a new website. Hostinger will offer 2 methods, where you can use WordPress with artificial intelligence (AI) or use Hostinger’s website builder with AI to create a site.

Go ahead and choose the ‘WordPress with AI’ option.

From here, you’ll need to enter login details for your account.

Simply choose a language, select an administrator email, enter a password, and click the ‘Continue’ button.

In the next step, Hositnger will ask you to add WordPress plugins to your site.

You can simply select the plugins you want to install and click the ‘Continue’ button.

After that, you will need to select a website design.

Hostinger will load the default theme, but you can click the ‘Browse more templates’ option to view more designs.

From here, you can choose a different theme for your website.

You can also click the ‘Show More’ button at the bottom to load more templates.

Once you’re done, simply choose a design and click the ‘Select’ button.

Next, Hostinger will ask you to enter a brand name and a description of your business.

It uses ChatGPT to generate a few pieces of content for your website. Once you are done, simply click the ‘Continue’ button.

You can also skip this step by entering a name and brief description and then clicking the ‘Skip, I will write content later’ option at the bottom.

After that, you’ll need to enter a name for your website. Hostinger will show 2 options, you can either select the ‘buy a domain or ‘use an existing domain’ option.

If you haven’t purchased a domain name yet, then you can select the ‘Buy a Domain’ option and get one with Hostinger.

However, if you already have multiple domains on another provider, then you can select the ‘Use an Existing Domain’ option.

For this tutorial, let’s choose the ‘Use an Existing Domain’ option.

Next, you will need to enter the domain name and click the ‘Continue’ button.

A popup window will now open with details for pointing the domain to Hostinger nameservers.

You can see your domain’s existing nameservers and the required nameservers you’d need to change in the domain registration service. The instructions will vary depending on the domain registrar you’re using.

If you need help with domain transfer, then Hostinger offers step-by-step guides and documentation. You can also reach out to their support for further assistance.

After noting down the nameservers, you can click the ‘Continue’ button.

Hostinger will then start to set up your website. It will take a few minutes for the setup to complete.

The final step is to click the ‘Connect’ button under the Connect Your Domain option after you’ve set nameservers in your domain registrar.

Once connected, you can view your website from the Hostinger dashboard.

Simply visit the ‘Websites’ tab to see your newly added site.

You can now repeat these steps and click the ‘+ Create or migrate a website’ option to add as many websites as you want to a single server.

Bonus: How to Create More Sites Using WordPress Multisite

A WordPress multisite allows you to run and manage multiple websites from a single WordPress installation. You’ll see multisite networks used by large corporations that need separate domains for each department, universities and schools, news outlets, online businesses, and more.

There is a slight difference between hosting multiple sites on a single server and a WordPress multisite.

In a multisite, you have the same parent domain (example.com), and the new sites are subdomains (blog.example.com). They can share plugins, users, and other elements based on your settings.

On the other hand, hosting multiple sites on a single server means you have different domain names for each website. They’re all completely separate from one another.

You can easily set up a WordPress multisite using any web hosting service, including Hostinger. Once it’s set up, you’ll be able to add multiple sites to the network and manage them from the same dashboard on one server.

To learn more, please see our guide on how to install and setup a WordPress multisite network.

We hope this article helped you learn how to host multiple websites on one server. You may also want to see our guide on how much does it cost to build a WordPress website and the best GoDaddy alternatives.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

Planning is an essential part of any successful web design project. By outlining the scope of your project at its onset, you will be better equipped to identify and avoid roadblocks that would otherwise steer your progress off track.

One of the most effective tools for planning your project is the schedule. A project schedule allows you to outline, assess, and communicate the essentials of a job, and includes its deliverables, timeframe, and the resources allotted to individual tasks.

While several automated project planning tools exist, they often have expensive monthly fees. If you don’t want to spend your hard-earned revenue on automated software, you can easily create project schedules with any basic worksheet software you may already have access to.

This article will walk you through the importance of project scheduling, offer you a few tips for creating your own schedule, and share some scheduling templates that you can start using in your web design or development projects today.

The importance of project schedules

Before we dive into the how-tos of scheduling, I want to stress the influential role that scheduling plays in the success of your web design projects.

Scheduling is all about keeping your workflow as organized as possible. At its core, it allows you to define your project’s final deadline and determine the individual milestones that must be met in order to hit that deadline. Identifying these key dates from the start will help keep you and your team accountable for the delivery of all project components. As you progress through these milestones, you’re able to track, evaluate, and reforecast the timeline and budget associated with your project.

Schedules aren’t only valuable for internal usage either — they also play an important role in client management. These planning documents help you establish clear expectations with your clients about the anticipated milestones and workflow of their project. Plus, getting client buy-in on your schedule means you can more easily anticipate overrun costs or scope creep.

Now that we’ve covered why schedules should become a critical part of your team’s project management workflow, let’s dive into some tips for creating your own project schedule.

Want to spruce up your mockups? Check out our list of funny lorem ipsum generators.

How to create a project schedule

Regardless of how excited you are to jump right in, you should always start your new projects by creating a comprehensive schedule. Not sure where to start? I’ve outlined a seven-step framework for creating your project schedules below:

1. Identify individual deliverables — Begin by writing down your final deliverable (i.e. a website or app) then work your way down and create a list of all sub-deliverables that need to be built to complete the final deliverable. For example, if your final deliverable is a website, your sub-deliverables could include wireframes, high-fidelity prototypes, copy, mobile designs, and more. Listing out your individual project components will help you get a better sense of the scope of your project.
2. Define the sequence of activities — For all the deliverables you listed, identify their immediate predecessors and successors. Using the same example as above, we know that before we can start development, we need approved high-fidelity prototypes and before we can prototype, we need approved wireframes. This sequential organization will help you define the flow of the project and give you an idea of when you need to loop in certain members of your team.
3. Determine the resources required — Now that you have listed out the flow of your project, it’s time to forecast the amount of resources you need to accomplish the project. This includes the time needed to complete each deliverable of the project, as well as the individual contributors or teams you’ll need to complete specific elements of the project.
4. Identify external factors that could influence your project — While you are outlining your resources, you should try to identify any external factors that could influence the flow of your project. These factors will range from client to client but could include other projects you or your team members are working on, or upcoming vacations.
5. Establish key milestones and final deadlines — After compiling your deliverables and resources, it’s time to start scheduling the activities of your project. Using the sequence of activities and the timeframes previously defined, you should try to identify key milestones for your project. These milestones should range from the dates you intend to complete specific deliverables, to the periods when you check in with your client and your own team to solicit feedback.
6. Create your schedule — Once you’ve mapped out all of the above, you should have enough information and details to create your schedule(s). In the following section, I’ll go over how you can use this information to create your work breakdown schedule and your Gantt chart.
7. Monitor and reforecast —  Creating your schedule is just the first step of project planning. You should be consistently monitoring the progress of your project and assessing that progress against what you have in your schedule. Doing this will allow you to stay on top of your workflow and reforecast your deadlines if needed.

3 web design project schedule formats

There are a few different templates you can use when scheduling your web design projects. Below, I’ve included three schedule formats and explained when it’s best to use each.

1. Work breakdown schedule

A work breakdown schedule (WBS) is an outcome-oriented planning tool that can be used to visually organize the scope of a project into manageable chunks. That means rather than focusing on the actions needed to be taken, this scheduling tool focuses on the end deliverables. The layout of a WBS is very similar to your standard wireframe, but rather than the pages and folders of a website, you will map out the project by its individual components.

A typical WBS starts at the top-level deliverable (a finalized website in our example above) and is broken down into individual sub-deliverables. Sub-deliverables should be organized into what are called “work groups,” which can be defined categorically by discipline (if you work solo) or department (if you work in a team environment). As you can see above, one of the project’s work groups is “design assets,” and sub-deliverables include product page layout, collections page layout, and homepage layout.

The structure of a WBS relies on something called the 100% rule. Under this rule, the final deliverable represents 100% of your work and costs. For each subsequent sub-deliverable, you should apply a percentage value associated with the total amount of work and the budget. The value of all sub-deliverables within a work group should add up to the total percentage of that work group, while all work groups combined should add up to 100% together.

The WBS is largely used for internal purposes and is great for strategically defining and organizing your project from a high-level. It provides a detailed overview that can help you identify risks in your workflow before they happen. For example, if a sub-deliverable is running behind schedule, you just need to look at your WBS to identify what other components of the project will be impacted by that delay. Since the WBS allows you to categorically estimate the cost and effort associated with all facets of your project, it should only be used internally (unless you want your client to be privy to your margins).

The insight you get from mapping out your entire project with a WBS will put you in a better position to accurately build out your project timeline in a Gantt chart.

You might also like: 3 Organizational Strategies to Prevent Scope Creep

2. Gantt chart

The Gantt chart is one of the most popular scheduling documents for managing projects in the creative industry. If you’ve never used one before, a Gantt chart is a simple two-dimensional schedule that outlines the anticipated timeline of your client’s project. They are most suitable for jobs spanning a few months.

Unlike the WBS, Gantt charts are generally used for client-facing situations as they only showcase project deliverables and timeframes for completion, with no mention of cost information. The structure of a Gantt chart is relatively simple: deliverables are organized across the left-most column of the chart, while the top row is used to illustrate the timeframe of the project across those deliverables. The timeframe is organized by deliverable, using the sequential order we defined above. This will help you organize the flow of the project and give you an idea of when you need to loop in certain members of your team.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the components that should always be included in your Gantt chart:

• Individual deliverables, their progress, and their corresponding deadlines
• Owners/contributors of those deliverables
• Timeframes for individual deliverables
• Key milestones like deadlines, approval dates, and feedback period
• Progress note and updates section

Once you and your team feel comfortable with the schedule, you should send it over to your client for final approval before starting any work. They will review it and let you know if any problems exist. Once they’ve signed off on the schedule, keep their approval email in your records to safeguard you from any clients demanding additional work not included in the schedule.

While Gantt charts can be your go-to schedule for client-facing emails, they also play an important role internally for tracking the progress of sub-deliverables and anticipating cost overruns. To make your Gantt chart more useful for cost-tracking, add an additional column beside your sub-deliverables to show the total amount of billable hours used thus far by you or your individual contributors. From there you can simply compare the total billable hours column against the forecasted schedule and budget to identify any risk of cost overrun.

3. Simple update schedule

Clients are busy people and they don’t want to spend their time digging through an email chain to find the schedule that you attached twelve emails ago — and, as their consultant, you shouldn’t force them to. That’s why it’s your job to proactively update them regarding the progress of their project on a regular basis.

When giving these updates, whether to show headway or reflect scheduling changes, you might feel required to provide them with a new version of the Gantt chart you created at the project’s onset. While updating the Gantt chart is vital for your internal records, it isn’t necessary to share that document for simple scheduling updates or check-ins.

Instead of sending them your revised Gantt chart every time it is updated (which can lead to version control issues), it’s good practice to simply include a barebones version of your schedule within the email itself. That way your client can easily review your schedule updates and reply to your message, regardless of where they are or what device they are using.

Here’s an example of a simple email you could send your client when you’ve updated your project schedule:

Take your website project plans to the next level

Now that you’ve seen the value that a comprehensive schedule can bring your web design and development projects, you’re free to take your project planning to the next level.

We’ve put together a project planning toolkit that includes templates of the schedule styles covered above. Feel free to download and use our project planning templates to help you create project schedules of your own. And as always, let us know what you think in the comments below!

Discover the top managed WordPress hosting solution for your website. This comprehensive WP Engine review provides insights into the features of this renowned managed WordPress host.

WP Engine is one of the longest-running WordPress hosts in the game. Although not the first, they are one of the first names that comes to mind when you think of managed WordPress hosting.

WP Engine is dedicated to providing fast speeds, tough security, and helpful support. We take a detailed look at these offerings to see how they stack up.

Keep reading our in-depth WP Engine review to learn more about what this host offers, see its dashboard in action, and look at some real-time performance data.

Let’s dive in!

WP Engine Review: What Does This Managed WordPress Host Offer?

WP Engine is exclusively a WordPress hosting provider. This means they only offer hosting services to WordPress sites, including eCommerce sites that use WooCommerce.

Not only is there a team of WordPress experts that always have your back, but the hosting is fine-tuned to help you get the best performance and security out of your site.

Before we dive deep into our hands-on look at WP Engine’s managed WordPress hosting, let’s do a quick overview of some of the most important features this host offers.

• 24/7 customer support from WordPress experts
• An extensive WordPress knowledge-base
• Free SSL, firewall, and global CDN
• Staging and development environments (including local development)
• Automated website backups
• Beginner-friendly website migrations
• Free StudioPress WordPress themes

It’s also worth mentioning how easy it is to grow your site with WP Engine. Since they offer WooCommerce and dedicated WordPress hosting, you can grow with them as your website evolves without having to go through the hassle of a migration.

WP Engine: The Core Features

Now that you know a little bit about what WP Engine offers, let’s explore some of their main offerings in depth.

24/7/365 Customer Support

Every WP Engine plan comes with 24/7 support from their team of WordPress experts.

The support channels you get access to depend on the plan you choose. With the lowest tier, you only get chat support, while every other pricing tier gets you live chat and phone support. Enterprise-level users get access to priority support and typically have a dedicated support agent.

If you’re the kind of person who prefers to do things on your own, then you can take advantage of the extensive support resources available on the site. There’s a searchable database of articles to help you do everything from setting up your site to troubleshooting common issues.

Overall, their support team was fast, helpful, and provided in-depth responses to the variety of questions I asked. I also pinged the support team at different times of the day and night, and they were always ready with a response.

You can access support directly from your hosting dashboard. Live chat is available through the support chatbot, or you can opt to chat directly with an agent by typing support.

Proactive and Enhanced Security Measures

WP Engine offers a robust set of security features on all plans, from continuous monitoring, to threat detection, and automated updates. Their goal is to make sure an attack never reaches your site in the first place.

Here are some of the security features across all plans:

• Automated PHP and WordPress core and theme updates
• Free SSL certificates
• Multi-factor authentication for users
• Real-time security threat monitoring
• WP Engine custom firewall to automatically direct traffic (good and bad)
• Disallowed plugins that open your site to vulnerabilities

Beyond the standard WordPress security best practices, WP Engine includes a premium add-on called Global Edge Security. Think of this like standard WordPress security on steroids.

Here’s what it includes:

• WordPress-specific Web Application Firewall (WAF): A firewall completely tailored to the needs of WordPress, while keeping you safe from new security risks.
• DDoS attack mitigation: Uses Cloudflare’s Global Anycast network absorbs any attacks to keep your site online.
• Cloudflare CDN integration: This premium version of Cloudflare’s CDN caches your content across their entire global network for improved performance and security.
• Argo Smart Routing: Real-time detection of network congestion, so your traffic is always routed through the most efficient network path.

There’s an overlap with both speed and security with Global Edge Security active, which can be a nice benefit.

Automated WordPress Website Backups

WP Engine also includes daily automated website backups. You can find all of your backups within your hosting control panel, so you can easily restore your site to a previous version.

There’s also the option to back up your site manually. If you want to use a third-party WordPress backup tool to have even more control over your backups.

Site Staging and Local Development Tools

WP Engine offers a variety of tools and features that make site building fast and efficient. Whether you’re launching a new WordPress site, or migrating a site over, there are a ton of tools to help manage your workflows.

You’ll find support for staging sites, even on the cheapest plan. You can test new site changes with the staging environments before pushing them to your live site.

Another development option available is independent environments. Here, you can copy a version of your live site (or create a new site from scratch), to make changes. Since this isn’t connected to your live site, it offers a creative playground for development and testing.

The only thing you can’t do with staging is upload a non-WordPress site.

Another unique tool offered by WP Engine is their local WordPress development tool. You install it locally on your computer and can create and build staging sites online or off. It also lets you deploy your new changes in a single click without having to install WordPress again.

Beginner-Friendly Website Migrations

If you’re bringing an existing WordPress site over to the platform, then there’s a free WordPress plugin you can use to automate the migration.

Once installed, this plugin will do all of the technical migration work for you so that you can focus on other more fun parts of the migration. This tool even supports multiple migrations.

Free WordPress Themes

One unique feature that WP Engine offers is free WordPress themes with every plan. When you sign up, you’ll get access to 10 free WordPress StudioPress themes powered by the Genesis framework.

These themes are already optimized for high performance and SEO the moment you install them. Plus, the designs are modern and can be customized to suit almost any site you can think of. StudioPress was already one of the top WordPress theme shops out there until they were acquired by WP Engine.

If you want access to even more site-building features, you can opt for the Genesis Pro add-on during sign-up. This gives you access to Genesis blocks and even more premium themes.

WP Engine Speed and Performance Stack

WP Engine is known for its high speeds and website performance. Their goal is to help your site run at peak performance; nothing less will do.

A lot of this starts at the foundation. They partner with both Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services for web servers. Plus, every server utilizes their use proprietary caching technology called EverCache.

On top of that, every plan gets access to a global CDN, along with a network of data centers around the world.

Real-World Performance Metrics

All of that is great, but how does WP Engine perform in real time?

To see how WP Engine performs, I used the Astra theme with an image-heavy demo site imported.

I used GTMetrix with the server location in Vancouver, CA to test. Then, I ran five separate tests and averaged the results.

Based on the average, the test site had a Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) time of 364 ms, which is very fast.

WP Engine Pricing and Plans: Choosing the Right WordPress Hosting Package

WP Engine has five different pricing tiers for its WordPress hosting.

Each plan offers similar features but caters to different website owner needs, so you’ll want to make sure you’re choosing the right plan for your website or websites.

Every plan includes must-have features like 24/7 customer support, auto-renewed SSL, automatic backups, a global CDN, and caching. Plus, you get access to 10 premium WordPress themes and one-click staging environments.

Essentially, you get everything you need for a fast and secure WordPress site, no matter which hosting plan you choose.

The main differences between the plans are the number of sites and visitors supported, and the amount of storage and bandwidth you get.

There’s really no “right” plan for everyone, but instead, the best plan is based on how many sites you manage and your traffic needs.

For most users the Professional plan will probably be the best option, since it supports more traffic and offers higher levels of bandwidth. Note there is an additional $1-2 cost for every 1,000 visits over your plan.

Full WP Engine Pricing Breakdown

Keep in mind that for our WP Engine hosting review, we’ve been using the Startup plan, which starts at $20 per month when paid yearly.

When you sign up for a plan, there are also additional add-ons you can purchase for your hosting plan. These costs can add up quickly, so make sure you’re aware when completing your purchase.

A lot of these add-ons pack some great features, so we’ll highlight each one.

First, you have the site monitoring add-on. This gives you real-time updates on your site’s performance and will give you alerts if any errors are detected on your site. Without this add-on, you still have standard monitoring features that monitor for things like security threats.

Next, you can choose to add plugin management. Automated core and theme updates are already included without this add-on.

After that, you can add Global Edge Security. Essentially, this makes your site impenetrable. You get additional DDoS protection, app-layer protection, and a performance booster through the CloudFlare CDN. Without this, your site is still very secure with the included WordPress-specific security measures.

You can also add additional sites to your plan and add even more site-building features with the Genesis Pro add-on. This gives you access to Genesis Blocks Pro, the Genesis Framework, and a larger collection of StudioPress themes. If you’re going to be building multiple sites from scratch, then this can be very useful.

Getting Started with WP Engine: Step-by-Step Guide

Even with the extensive feature set that WP Engine offers, getting started with WP Engine is quite easy. After you’ve selected a plan and have an active account, you can create your new WordPress site directly from the hosting dashboard.

1. Click Add now under the Add New Site section
2. Click Get Started in the Build a new site section
3. Choose a blank install or a Genesis starter site
4. Name your site and click Add site

If you’re building a site using a temporary domain name, you can start building your new site immediately. Once it’s finished, all you need to do is add the domain to your site and point it at your registrar to your server.

Migrating an existing WordPress site will follow a similar process as above. But, you’ll also be using the free WP Engine migration plugin on your existing website. The entire process is fairly straightforward and you’ll be guided through every step.

Navigating the WP Engine Dashboard: An In-Depth Look

When you log in to your hosting dashboard, you’ll see a quick overview of the sites you manage and general site information like the bandwidth consumed, the number of visits, and the WordPress and PHP versions you’re running. If any updates are needed, you can click over to the Needs updates tab to quickly update your site, themes, or plugins.