May 02, 2023
by David Goodale
Does WordPress include payment processing or e-commere capability?
(Slightly edited from video transcript for greater readability)
Key Takeaways
Hello, David here at Merchant-Accounts.ca. This is going to be a quick video. Today I'm talking about does WordPress include payment processing or e-commerce capability. Stay tuned. I'll answer it in one second.
No e-commerce by default
This is a short one. No, not by default, it doesn't because WordPress is a CMS or a content management system that allows you to easily build a website, however, you can add e-commerce to it.
WooCommerce
The most popular way to do that is something called WooCommerce. WooCommerce turns your WordPress website into an e-commerce-enabled website. There's no cost for it. You can add it on for free. I mean free and easy to use and easy to launch. There's a reason why WordPress and WooCommerce are one of the most popular combinations for building and launching an e-commerce website today on the web, it probably powers more of the e-commerce web than any other platform on Earth, and that should say something very positive about it. Now, the downside of WooCommerce and WordPress is that you're running it, you're maintaining it. More importantly, when it comes to e-commerce, you're dealing with security and PCI compliance issues.
PCI Compilance
Now, PCI compliance, I have other content on that, but if you're touching credit card numbers, you better do it securely. You are obligated to do so. Where hacks always matter, you never want your website to be hacked, but you do not want it hacked when there's sensitive card data for your customers that are being exposed. If you like the idea of being easy to launch WordPress is a good choice. If you're worried about security issues they are challenges that can come with WordPress and WooCommerce. An alternative is a technology that lets you utilize a headless e-commerce technology that lets you embed e-commerce into a website that's otherwise not capable of it.
Foxy Cart
A great example of that is something like Foxy Cart. Foxy Cart, the website's foxy.io, is a software platform that lets you take these snippets and whenever you drop the code, that's where the add to cart buttons pop up. If people click those add-to-cart buttons, it's all being driven from their server. If you do it that way, you don't have to worry about the security part of it. Now they're both good options. Foxy Cart is more flexible, but a little more work to set up. You kind of have to consider what's important to you.
Are you more worried about security and not outgrowing it? Do you want a quick and easy way that will get you launched today? Part of what you should consider is your expertise in internet marketing and the traffic and how likely it is to grow. I can't tell you the right way to do it, but I can guide you to the questions that can hopefully allow you to help yourself. Now the last thing that you need is a payment processor, a merchant account provider like us at Merchant-Accounts.ca.
Conclusion
Once you have your shopping cart working and you have e-commerce-enabled payments that need to be processed, you can use a payment aggregator like PayPal or Stripe. If you're likely to do more sales, you would do better to get your merchant account because what'll end up happening is you will get lower payment processing rates and you will likely get better support. It's better in the long term if you're likely to do more volume to get a merchant account. It might sound like a lot but if you break it into small steps, it's quite manageable. Figure out whether you want to use WooCommerce or something like Foxy Cart, so there are fewer security issues to deal with. Get a payment processor set up and start selling your products because you can ultimately do e-commerce with WordPress. Thanks for watching. Have a nice day there. Bye now.
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My name is David Goodale, CEO at Merchant Accounts.ca. I launched our business in 2001 and have over 20 years of expertise in the field of online payments. If you have a payments related question or project, and especially if it relates to multi-currency or international e-commerce don't hesitate to contact me. I'm always happy to help with an honest opinion, and enjoy chatting with folks from interesting businesses.
Toll free: 888-414-7111 ext. 5
Direct: (905) 901-2254
david.goodale@merchant-accounts.ca