For anyone in the world of blogging or e-commerce, WordPress is a pretty much a household name. What started as a great blogging platform has evolved into a full Content Management System (CMS) that can be used for almost anything – including websites by clients like CNN, Time and UPS.
In our business of helping Specialty Retailers to bring their brick and mortar stores to the web, we love WordPress and we hear time and time again how much our retailers love working with WordPress too.

How Did WordPress Become so Popular?

WordPress started in 2003 as a simple blogging tool. Since then, it’s grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world. So what is it that makes WordPress so special?

• It’s Free - not only is it a great blogging and CMS tool, it’s the right price too!

• It’s Open Source – meaning that anyone can use, modify, copy, and improve it based on their needs.

• Easy to Get Started – just download and start typing!

• Hundreds of Themes & Frameworks – whether you’re creating a blog or an e-commerce site, there is so much to choose from.

Why We Love WordPress

Of course we love WordPress for all of the above reasons, but a few come to mind when it comes to our world of specialty retail e-commerce.

Intuitive

Whether we’re working on a client’s site or they are, anyone can easily enter content. If you’ve worked with MS Word then WordPress will be a snap. The menu is very intuitive and there’s even an option to copy and paste your text from Word. Users can easily upload photos, embed videos, or add links. Additionally, the templates for adding new posts or pages use the same format and are consistent throughout the site. Enter your first page/post and the rest just as easy.

Customer Control

Having worked with other content management systems, we know how frustrating it can be when you have to go back to the developer any time you want to make a change to the site. With WordPress, when our retailers want to add a product line or change a menu, with a little training, they can go in and make those same adjustments themselves. Changes are speedy because you don’t have to wait for people to get back to you – and they are less costly since you can do them yourself.

Adaptability

Our retailers sell anything from shoes, clothing, toys, wine, home goods – and even canoes! We know that every company is different and they each have varying e-commerce needs. With the great CMS of WordPress and the wide selection of plugins within the community, we can address all of their unique needs. As an added benefit, as their e-commerce business grows, the plugins allow the site to grow with the business!

Socially Acceptable

WordPress is fully integrated with popular social media sites like Twitter, FB, LinkedIn, etc. Not only can our retailers easily share information from their site to social networks, so can their clients. Numerous plugins make it effortless for site visitors to share a product or repost a blog with a click of an icon – without having to login directly to the social networking site first. Another great benefit is that when you share from the site, readers can immediately be directed back to the site from whatever social media page they’re on.

SEO Optimization

Search Engine Optimization can be intimidating to a lot of people. The good news is that WordPress can help. There are so many great plugins that you can activate which can help boost SEO. Even without the plugins, many say the general layout, permalinks and ease of linking help improve searchability.
It's easy to see why both bloggers and e-commerce businesses love WordPress. Essentially, WordPress makes everything e-commerce (and blogging) easy - and easy is good! Even though WordPress is already the leading CMS in the world, they’re continually working to upgrade and improve their product – as is the community that uses it. As they continue to evolve and their functionality grows, it is certain that we will have a long love affair with WordPress.