It’s time for another Plugin of the Month and this time we are introducing an amazing plugin that has been creating waves among the eCommerce community. Meet ‘WordPress Ecommerce For Creating Fast Online Stores – By SureCart’ or simply SureCart as it is known amongst the WordPress crowd.
SureCart Plugin
WooCommerce rules the roost when it comes to the eCommerce market today. But it is more suitable to sell physical products rather than digital goods. Easy Digital Downloads is the preferred option for those selling digital goods and now we have one more option – SureCart.
There are two parts to SureCart, the platform, which is the eCommerce engine, and the plugin. The platform is built with the same technology that Shopify, Basecamp, GitHub, Twitter, Stripe and more use. Since SureCart is a headless eCommerce platform, you get all the advantages of headless solutions.
Who can use SureCart?
The present version of SureCart is a great option for those selling digital products like
- Freelancers
- Content/Course creators
- Entrepreneurs selling subscriptions
- Bloggers
- Charities accepting donations
In the future, more options are expected that will help sell physical products too.
How SureCart Works
You can download and install SureCart from the repository for free.
After activation, follow the instructions of the set up wizard. You need to sign up to create a free account.
Then select the payment processor (only Stripe and Paypal are available now but more are on the way)
Copy the unique API generated to connect your account to WordPress.
Then create your product and start selling.
Adding Products
To add a new product, go to SureCart>Products>Add New or choose ‘Create A Product’ from the Dashboard under Quick Actions.
As usual, give the product name, image, tax and pricing options. There are 3 payment options – One Time Payment, Subscription, and Payment Plan.
With One Time Payment option, you can also enable “allow customers to pay what they want” feature. This is useful for making donations.
The Subscription option helps you opt to give any number of free trial days, allows customers to pay what they want and set up recurring payment plans. You will get the details of the active/cancelled customers, their plans and remaining payment from the Subscriptions page.
With the Payment Plan, you can choose the number of payments and their frequency.
In short, you can create products with multiple prices and payment options.
Checkout Forms
A default checkout form is already available in SureCart > Forms. To create custom forms, starter templates are available and if you are familiar with Gutenberg, you can build a custom form in no time.
Customer Portal
A great option if you want to let customers handle their own accounts. It will sure make your life easier if your customers can change their payment methods, subscription plans, password or credit card on their own instead of contacting Support every single time.
You can manage what your customers are able to see and do from the Customer Portal in Settings.
Integrations
SureCart has 2 types of integrations. The first is available directly in the plugin and the second type of integration is done with SureTriggers.
Currently, you can add your users to LearnDash, TutorLMS course, MemberPress membership or assign them a WordPress user role.
You can add the SureTriggers plugin to your website to integrate with even more options like Elementor, Facebook, Google Sheets, GravityForms, PayPal, WhatsApp, Zoom etc
Why Choose SureCart?
Increased website loading speed
With SureCart you get a reduced load on your WordPress hosting server as the eCommerce engine that powers SureCare is hosted on their servers (not on your website hosting). The fact that it is headless also helps.
More control over your products
You can choose to sell your products at different pricing plans and payment options easily. No need to have any technical knowledge to tinker about. Everything is straightforward.
More options for your customers
You can give more options to your customers to upgrade/downgrade subscription plans, etc while deciding on options to give them access to. They also have more options when it comes to payments – like which plan to opt for, and even how much to pay.
Better security
SureCart does not store sensitive data in your WordPress database increasing the security of your website. Users are also spared the effort of installing extra plugins like with WooCommerce. You can create products and checkouts straight from the dashboard thus eliminating the risk of plugin vulnerabilities and compatibility issues. Website security is paramount when it comes to dealing with digital products.
Handles traffic overload
A sudden wave of traffic to your website due to a big sale or promotion may crash it if you are not adequately prepared with reliable hosting and such. But since SureCart is platform based, when you get an influx of potential buyers, you have nothing to worry about because they take care of the scaling for you.
Affordable
Currently, only the free version of the plugin is available helping you save a good amount of money. As pointed out earlier, you can save the cost of buying third-party plugins too. As it assures good loading speed, there is no need to get costly web hosting too.
User-friendly
Surecart is great for those who want to get things done without much technical knowledge. At the same time, it is scalable and customizable for those who want to do so. It has a clean, intuitive and futuristic interface.
SureCart Vs WooCommerce
Currently, SureCart is best suited for digital products and WooCommerce for physical products. The best point is that if you deal with both product types, you can use both plugins as there is no issue in using them together.
Also WooCommerce is better if you want to give your users the option to add multiple products to their cart or even an Add to Cart page. And there is no option to leave a product review now in SureCart. You’ll get more flexibility and customization options with SureCart that WooCommerce just simply can’t offer out of the box.
Final Verdict
SureCart may be a new entrant into the arena but it sure is powerful and I can confidently recommend it to digital product sellers. More features and a pro version are on the way and we can’t wait to check the new features. This no-bloat eCommerce solution is definitely a game changer now and is only likely to cement its position in the coming days.
Previous Plugins of the Month – Loops & Logic, Turbo Admin, Image Gallery Block, Super List Block