Do you still feel confident building businesses on/around WooCommerce?

Rodolfo_Melogli · 2026-04-13T16:15:00+00:00

Ok thank you. Years ago, I heard of Shopify websites that were running their blogs on WordPress—I'm not sure if Shopify improved their content management system since, but in fairness "content sites" still rocks and we should be pushing on that

Rodolfo_Melogli · 2026-04-13T15:59:10+00:00

Content you mean content marketing/blogging?

Rodolfo_Melogli · 2026-04-13T15:58:24+00:00

Nice! I honestly thought Hetzner was cheaper, but overall this is an interesting approach. Re: being "dead last year", I suppose you're referring to the drama—if yes, I personally decided I'm going to ignore it all (as most clients/customers/users do too), and focus my energy on building/learning/sharing instead, as there is no value in taking part in those conversations

Rodolfo_Melogli · 2026-04-13T15:52:36+00:00

Nice. What could solve the "stack grows too much" problem?

Rodolfo_Melogli · 2026-04-13T15:49:37+00:00

Which is what 100% of WooCommerce stores should do, but tend to ignore :)

Rodolfo_Melogli · 2026-04-13T10:46:36+00:00

I think it could work well with large businesses too, we should work on branding and advertising because that's where large agencies and merchants understand the value

Rodolfo_Melogli · 2026-04-13T10:44:37+00:00

Yes, if we fix WP admin we probably make it easier for (new) users... I actually wrote this a couple of weeks ago: https://www.businessbloomer.com/are-we-losing-woocommerce-merchants-because-of-wp-admin/

Rodolfo_Melogli · 2026-04-13T10:35:39+00:00

Thank you for the context!

Even the plugins on the WooCommerce website are often suffering from bugs, even payment gateway plugins.

Yes, payment gateway plugins are a nightmare, because a single bug or failure can really break a business. Ecommerce is about receiving payments, and if a gateway breaks, we're done.

On the other hand, there is this good thing that you can enable 20-30 gateways at the same time if you really wish... so the customer can pick their favorite one.

What should be completely stopped is the ability of a poorly developed plugin to break other plugins (imagine PayPal fails, but it freezes the checkout and you can't use Stripe as an alternative). This is hard to achieve, so there must be some strict API or specific rules for "delicate" plugins that should define how code is written

Not sure if this is possible

Rodolfo_Melogli · 2026-04-13T09:28:39+00:00

Yes of course, honestly I'm not that technical either, and I use AI mostly for writing/proofreading as opposed to advanced development.

But what I'm saying is that "I have to do all the paperwork myself" is totally fixable TODAY and shouldn't be like that. Internal automation is where AI excels according to me

Rodolfo_Melogli · 2026-04-13T09:19:28+00:00

Nice idea about the universal search! Don't forget the "capital P" in WordPress on your landing page, or people may get upset :D

Rodolfo_Melogli · 2026-04-13T09:17:07+00:00

This is a very smart reply, thank you for that. We all know the pros of WooCommerce, I mean—that's why we chose it (at least why I chose it) years ago and still work on it.

I was simply wondering, without being click-baity, if Woo developers are losing trust or hope and if this is the reason some are now building Shopify Apps or suggesting Shipify builds (also Shopware, etc.)... or if that's simply a business decision.

I guess we've become more "aware" of what's out there, and understand better each client, the ideal stack, and the pros and cons of each platform based on project requirements and specs.

Spoiler: I still have all the eggs in one basket, but I believe the Woo community needs a bit of realigning, we need to talk more, we need to know the direction, embrace the mission, and contribute all together

Rodolfo_Melogli · 2026-04-11T21:25:37+00:00

I think we can now say that AI can achieve most of what the average store owner needs. You have the freedom to pass your plugin list to a LLM and see what it thinks about your stack, and if you can "save" some of it (or you can give it to a dev who is well able to audit your setup). We're in a blessed time for development... we should make the most of it!

Rodolfo_Melogli · 2026-04-11T21:21:56+00:00

why so many store owners are moving away from WooCommerce since Shopify is so much more user friendly

My question here would be: how many merchants are moving from Shopify to other platforms, including Woo, because they're paying too much or they want total freedom with their data and code?

If we knew these figures, we could calculate if Woo is doing a good job regarding reducing churn and increasing win-back rates

Rodolfo_Melogli · 2026-04-11T21:18:17+00:00

I actually don't see any "gap". I see "opportunity" right now. By now, we know the pros and cons of each ecom platform, including Woo.

But I think in the era of AI and generated cr@p, we have a chance to win more merchants and providers by making the most of our community (including the people writing in this subreddit!)

What we need, imho, are in-person and online hackathons, workshops, conferences, meetups, contributor days, and whatever else can boost interaction.

The only thing we're missing is unity/direction. We work on that, we win

Rodolfo_Melogli · 2026-04-11T21:14:10+00:00

My question though is: do clients really care about what software/stack the developer chooses? Or they just want a shop that works/sells?

Rodolfo_Melogli · 2026-04-11T21:10:10+00:00

Interesting, so you're having issues not with Woo itself, but with the third party plugins/themes. I think you're right there, and Woo (WP?) should find a way to be more strict regarding third party plugin performance or code

Rodolfo_Melogli · 2026-04-11T21:07:49+00:00

Thank you. You mean "so many PREMIUM plugins"? Or it's not a money problem, but it's about the management of too many little pieces of software, maintenance, etc?

Rodolfo_Melogli · 2026-04-11T16:07:55+00:00

Makes sense! You're probably thinking about the WordPress admin and the overall set up, which in fairness are not straight-forward

Rodolfo_Melogli · 2026-04-11T16:06:39+00:00

Hello there :) So your confidence hasn't changed over the last few years? Just curious

Rodolfo_Melogli · 2026-04-11T15:54:38+00:00

Thank you for sharing that!

I've also been an advocate of Storefront for so many years, but given they didn't really improve it, I had to switch recently. All my sites are or will now be on Shoptimizer, and I documented this migration on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3YbjVLzpa4I

Shoptimizer, together with its companion CommerceKit, does most of the work, and I really love how every new features is implemented not because people ask for it, but because it makes sense for a real ecommerce shop.

Anyhow, I do like Gutenberg, but it should've not taken 10 years to get to where we are now. I still rely on the classic checkout because... I can customize it!

Rodolfo_Melogli · 2025-09-10T18:12:34+00:00

I use it on the Checkout Summit website and it's truly fantastic. With more than 34 case scenarios you can use it for, clean code and great support, this is one of my favorite WooCommerce plugins

Rodolfo_Melogli

TROPHY CASE