In this article we explore the development of Green Water Sports. Green Water Sports is an online only retailer for the paddle boarding industry’s best SUP products, especially the inflatable paddle boards by Red Paddle Co.
To the nuts and bolts of it. We naturally chose WordPress for this project and the best e-commerce plugin available is Woocommerce. WordPress has hundreds of awesome plugins and Woocommerce has hundreds of awesome extensions.
Some of these extensions are premium, meaning they cost anywhere from $29-$199 each, but the functionality and ease of use coupled with awesome WordPress designs, make Woocommerce a much better option than many other shopping cart platforms.
We are using the latest version of each plugin, extension, Woocommerce and WordPress. It works seamlessly and effortlessly. As with any e-commerce store, it takes time to list products but once they are up, you make sales and the time gets paid off. The key to e-commerce is the sales funnel and the user’s trust and experience on your site. You could have the best products at the best prices but if your site looks average, tricky to navigate or looks like a scam, you won’t make the sale. Whereas a well built, streamlined site will sell ice to polar bears!
So we looked very closely at the add to cart, view cart and checkout process and tried to streamline it as much a s possible. We opted for Extended Validation (EV) SSL connection security – the green URL bar with the business name up top. This verifies the business address, contact info and owner. Woocommerce has a 1 page checkout and you can checkout as a guest, see shipping costs and payment options up front. A common gripe amongst online shopped is having to register, not knowing how they can pay or how much shipping is until they’ve filled out almost every box. My personal pet peeve too!
So, as Green Water Sports enters their second year of business, we are in constant contact and continue developing, streamlining and ensuring the best possible experience for all users on their site.
