The Mail merge add-on lets you send personalized emails to multiple recipients in one go. The emails are always sent via your Gmail account or your Google Workspace email address. Google also imposes a limit on the number of emails you can send per day.
Mail Merge with SMTP
Mail merge is convenient because you can put your contacts in a Google Sheet and the add-on will individually send the emails for you. However, if you aren’t using Gmail or have a large mailing list, an SMTP service like SendGrid or AWS may be more a suitable option for sending out personalized emails.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could enjoy the ease of the Mail Merge add-on while still utilizing an SMTP service to send personalized emails? That’s where the Document Studio add-on can help.
Generate SMTP Credentials
Google for SMTP settings for [your email provider] and you’ll find the SMTP server address, port number, and the authentication details like the username and password (or API key) for your email service.
For instance, if you plan to use Zoho Mail for mail merge, the SMTP settings would be as follows:
SMTP Server: smtp.zoho.com
Port: 465
Username: Your Zoho account email address
Password: Your zoho.com password
Prepare Mail Merge Data
Open the Google Sheet with your mail merge data and launch the Document Studio add-on. Create a new workflow and choose the Send Email task.
From the list of Email Service providers, choose SMTP Server and enter the SMTP server address, port number, and the authentication details that you found in the previous step.
Next, move to the Email Message section and configure your email template. You can use placeholders like {{First Name}} and {{Title}} in the message body and subject line to personalize the emails.
If you would like to attach files to the email, you can do that as well. You may attach the same file to all emails or use placeholders to attach different files to each email.
Click the Preview button and you should see a sample email sent to your own email address through the SMTP server. You can now click the Save and Run button to send personalized emails to all recipients in your Google Sheet.
Do you want to add a simple user ranking system for WordPress comments on your website?
A ranking system can gamify your comments section and motivate more users to leave their thoughts and questions on your website. This can boost engagement and build a sense of community around your brand.
In this article, we will show you how to easily add a simple user ranking system for WordPress comments.
Why Add a Ranking System for WordPress Comments?
Comments help improve user engagement on your WordPress website. By adding a ranking system for these comments, you can motivate users to leave informative and well-written discussion points on your blog.
For example, you can feature the comments you like at the top of the comment section or award badges to the comments of your choice.
Similarly, you can add an upvote/downvote system for users to control comment popularity or bury spam comments at the bottom of the discussion. This can create a sense of community around your WordPress blog and also help you moderate comments.
Having said that, let’s see how to easily add a ranking system for WordPress comments. In this tutorial, we will look at two methods, and you can use the links below to jump to the method of your choice:
Method 1: Add a User Ranking System in WordPress Comments
If you want to add a simple user ranking system to your comments section, then you can easily do this with Thrive Comments.
It is the best WordPress comments plugin on the market that helps you create an interactive comments section by featuring/burying comments, adding thumbs up/thumbs down, awarding badges, and more.
First, you must visit the Thrive Themes website and sign up for an account. Once you do that, head over to your member dashboard.
From here, click on the ‘Download and install the Thrive Product Manager plugin’ link.
Next, open up your WordPress dashboard to install and activate Thrive Product Manager. For detailed instructions, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you must visit the Product Manager tab from the WordPress admin sidebar and click on the ‘Log into my account’ button.
Once you have provided your login credentials, you will see your Product Manager dashboard.
From here, select the Thrive Comments plugin and click the ‘Install selected products’ button.
Next, you can visit the Comments » Thrive Comments Moderation page in the WordPress dashboard, where you will see a list of all the comments on your blog.
From here, you can approve, unapprove, edit, or flag the comments as spam. You can also feature a comment by opening the ‘More’ dropdown menu and selecting that option.
Once you do that, all the featured comments will be displayed at the top of the discussion section. These comments will also have a badge in the top left corner, which will signify their importance.
Afterward, you can visit the Thrive Dashboard » Thrive Comments page from the WordPress admin area and scroll down to the ‘Voting and Badges’ section.
From here, you can add like/dislike functionality to your comments to boost engagement. You can select the ‘Up and down’ option to add thumbs up/thumbs down icons with the comments.
You can also choose the ‘Up only’ option if you don’t want users to be able to dislike any comments on your website.
After that, you can toggle the ‘Users must be registered and logged in to vote’ switch to ‘On’ if you only want to provide this functionality to logged-in users.
Next, you can scroll down and toggle the ‘Award Badges’ switch to ‘On.’ Once you do that, just click the ‘Add New Badge’ Button.
This will open a prompt on the screen, where you can start by adding a name for the badge. After that, you can choose when to award it from the dropdown menu.
For example, if you want to award a badge to a user when they have at least 5 featured comments on your website, then you can select the ‘Featured’ option from the dropdown menu.
Then, add 5 as the value next to the ‘reaches’ option.
After that, you can choose a badge image or upload one from your computer.
Once you are done, simply click the ‘Save Badge’ button to store your settings.
You can then click the ‘Add New Badge’ button again to create a badge awarding system for your comments.
Your settings will be saved automatically.
Now, simply visit your WordPress site to view the badges in action.
In our example, you can see that the comment at the top is featured because it has an icon at the top left corner. You can also see the badge awarded to the users next to their names.
Method 2: Add a User Ranking System in WordPress Forums
If you want to create a ranking system for the discussion forums on your website, then this method is for you.
Upon activation, visit the Forums » Add New page from the WordPress admin sidebar. Here, you can add the name, description, visibility, status, and moderators for the forum you will create.
Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Publish’ button to store your settings. For detailed instructions, see our tutorial on how to add a forum in WordPress with bbPress.
This plugin will show each forum member’s total rankings, the number of topics they started, and replies.
Upon activation, visit the Settings » bbp user ranking page from the WordPress dashboard and scroll down to the ‘Ranking Calculations’ section.
Here, you will see that the plugin uses the number of topics and replies a user has created to calculate rankings. You can simply check these options to add them as ranking factors.
Now, by default, the plugin offers two ranking levels for comments. However, if you want to add another ranking level, then simply enter the number of levels you want into the ‘Number of levels’ field and click the ‘Save Changes’ button to refresh the page.
Once you have done that, it’s time to configure settings for different levels.
To do this, scroll down to the ‘Level 1’ section and type a name for it into the ‘Rank Name’ field. This will be the name that will appear on the user’s profile.
After that, you must add the number of posts that members must make to graduate from this level and move to the next level under the ‘Up to number’ option.
For instance, you may create a New Member level with an ‘Up to number’ value of 5. This means that anyone who posts 1-5 comments will be a New Member.
You can then also add the URL for the image that will displayed next to the name of all level 1 users. You can get the image’s URL from your media library.
After that, you can also configure the image size, font color, and font size from different settings.
You can then repeat the process to set up other levels on your website. Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.
After that, switch to the ‘Badges’ tab from the top. Here, you can select if you want to show multiple badges earned by the users in a row or column.
Next, scroll down to add the number of badges you want to create for your forum next to the ‘Number of Badges’ option. After that, click the ‘Save Changes’ button to refresh your page.
Then, you can add a badge name, paste the URL for the badge image, and choose a font color.
You can then also configure the image size according to your liking. If you don’t want to display an image with your badge, then you can select the ‘Click to display name’ option from the top.
However, you must select the ‘Click to display name on top of image’ option to show both the name and image for your badge.
You can now repeat this process to create as many badges as you want. Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.
Next, switch to the ‘Display’ tab from the top. Here, you can configure how the user ranking information will look on your forum.
You can now choose if you want to display the topic count, reply count, level symbols, or rank names. Simply check the box next to the information that you want to showcase.
After that, you can add an optional label to help people understand what the different numbers mean.
Next, you can also check the boxes to display level images and badges next to the user’s names.
After that, don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.
You have now successfully added a user ranking system. You can visit your website to view the users’ profiles in your forum.
Here, you will be able to see their ranking levels and calculations.
You can also award different badges that you created to users on your website. However, keep in mind that you will have to do this manually by visiting the Users menu tab.
Once you are there, click the ‘Edit’ link under any user profile of your liking.
This will take you to a new screen where you must scroll down to the ‘Badges’ section.
Here, check the ‘Click to add this badge’ option for any badge that you want to award the user. Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Update User’ button to store your settings.
You can now repeat the process for other users as well.
Bonus: Add a Points System in WordPress
Other than adding a ranking system for comments, you can also add a points system on your WordPress site to boost engagement.
For instance, you might reward your customers with points upon user registration, purchasing a product, or as part of a loyalty program. You can then award prizes or exclusive content to visitors with the most points.
If you have a membership site, then you can also offer a level upgrade to users with a certain number of points.
You can easily add a points system in WordPress with myCred. Upon activation, simply visit the Points » Settings page from the WordPress dashboard to start choosing a label and image for your points.
For example, you can call the points earned by the audience coins, brownies, jewels, tokens, or anything else that works.
After that, you will have to create user levels, set hooks for the points system, and integrate the plugin with different tools like MemberPress or LearnDash according to your liking.
Once you are done, you can use the different blocks provided by myCred to add a points system leaderboard on your website.
Staying on top of what people are saying or writing about you is about more than ego. It helps you amplify the positive and quickly resolve anything negative—before it blows up. Healthcare providers face a unique challenge when it comes to their reputations. How current and future patients view you […]
Instagram Direct Messaging (DM) is a convenient way to communicate with friends, family, and followers, allowing users to send and receive private messages, photos, videos, and more. However, encountering a blank DM screen can be...
Inspiration lies everywhere, and as a matter of fact, we discovered one of the best ways to spark new ideas: desktop wallpapers. Since more than 13 years already, we challenge you, our dear readers, to put your creative skills to the test and create wallpaper calendars for our monthly wallpapers posts. No matter if you’re into illustration, lettering, or photography, the wallpapers series is the perfect opportunity to get your ideas flowing and create a small artwork to share with people all around the world. Of course, it wasn’t any different this month.
In this post, you’ll find desktop wallpapers created by artists and designers who took on the creativity challenge. They come in versions with and without a calendar for May 2024 and can be downloaded for free. As a little bonus goodie, we also compiled a selection of favorites from our wallpapers archives at the end of the post. Maybe you’ll spot one of your almost-forgotten favorites from the past in here, too? A big thank-you to everyone who shared their designs with us this month! Happy May!
You can click on every image to see a larger preview,
We respect and carefully consider the ideas and motivation behind each and every artist’s work. This is why we give all artists the full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience through their works. This is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us but rather designed from scratch by the artists themselves.
Submit a wallpaper! Did you know that you could get featured in our next wallpapers post, too? We are always looking for creative talent.
A Symphony Of Dedication On Labour Day
“On Labour Day, we celebrate the hard-working individuals who contribute to the growth of our communities. Whether in busy urban areas or peaceful rural settings, this day recognizes the unsung heroes driving our advancement. Let us pay tribute to the workers, craftsmen, and visionaries shaping our shared tomorrow.” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.
“Spring has sprung, and what better metaphor than toast popping up and out of a fun-colored toaster!” — Designed by Stephanie Klemick from Emmaus Pennsylvania, USA.
“When I think of spring, I think of finally being able to drive with the windows down and enjoying the fresh air!” — Designed by Vanessa Mancuso from the United States.
“May is a month where the weather starts to warm and reminds us summer is approaching, so I created a bright cocktail-themed wallpaper since sipping cocktails in the sun is a popular warm weather activity!” — Designed by Hannah Coates from Baltimore, MD.
“The longing for warmth, flowers in bloom, and new beginnings is finally over as we welcome the month of May. From celebrating nature on the days of turtles and birds to marking the days of our favorite wine and macarons, the historical celebrations of the International Workers’ Day, Cinco de Mayo, and Victory Day, to the unforgettable ‘May the Fourth be with you’. May is a time of celebration — so make every May day count!” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.
“Springtime, especially Maytime, is my favorite time of the year. And I like popsicles — so it’s obvious isn’t it?” — Designed by Steffen Weiß from Germany.
“Lixia is the 7th solar term according to the traditional East Asian calendars, which divide a year into 24 solar terms. It signifies the beginning of summer in East Asian cultures. Usually begins around May 5 and ends around May 21.” — Designed by Hong, Zi-Cing from Taiwan.
“The ‘lily of the valley’ came earlier this year. In France, we celebrate the month of May with this plant.” — Designed by Philippe Brouard from France.
“This month is dedicated to flowers, to join us and brighten our days giving a little more color to our daily life.” — Designed by Verónica Valenzuela from Spain.
“I wanted to create something fun and happy for the month of May. It’s a simple concept, but May is typically the time to adventure out into the world and enjoy the best of Spring.” — Designed by Alexander Jubinski from the United States.
“We don’t usually count the breaths we take, but observing nature in May, we can’t count our breaths being taken away.” — Designed by Ana Masnikosa from Belgrade, Serbia.
“Calling all space cadets, it’s time to celebrate National Astronaut Day! Today we honor the fearless explorers who venture beyond our planet and boldly go where no one has gone before.” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.
“Someone who wakes up early in the morning, cooks you healthy and tasty meals, does your dishes, washes your clothes, sends you off to school, sits by your side and cuddles you when you are down with fever and cold, and hugs you when you have lost all hopes to cheer you up. Have you ever asked your mother to promise you never to leave you? No. We never did that because we are never insecure and our relationship with our mothers is never uncertain. We have sketched out this beautiful design to cherish the awesomeness of motherhood. Wishing all a happy Mothers Day!” — Designed by Acodez IT Solutions from India.
“In my part of the world, May marks the start of seasonal produce, starting with asparagus. I know spring is finally here and summer is around the corner when locally-grown asparagus shows up at the grocery store.” — Designed by Elaine Chen from Toronto, Canada.
“Inspired by a little-known ‘holiday’ on May 4th known as ‘Bird Day’. It is the first holiday in the United States celebrating birds. Hurray for birds!” — Designed by Clarity Creative Group from Orlando, FL.
It took some time to find the right place for WPShout in our portfolio, but now we think we're there. We've merged the WPShout and CodeinWP websites together under WPShout's brand and name!
Say goodbye to time-consuming tasks and hello to streamlined workflows and enhanced efficiency with our time-saving Proactive Monitoring, Site Speed Optimization, and Malware Removal services … welcome to a new era of done-for-you WordPress site management!
Save time working with clients…let WPMU DEV Expert Services do the heavy lifting for you!
Would you like to focus more time attracting new clients, growing your agency, and running your business than juggling multiple tasks to keep existing client sites optimized, secure, and running smoothly?
How about effortlessly boosting the speed of your clients’ sites, fortifying their security against malicious threats, and enjoying proactive monitoring and unparalleled peace of mind … all hands-free?
What if you could offer all of the above to your clients whilst increasing your revenue? With WPMU Dev Expert Services, you can resell this enhanced management to your clients. Not only do we take care of these maintenance tasks for you but you can add your own markup with this white labeling feature bringing in some extra cash flow.
We’ve spent years helping web developers fix all types of issues on WordPress sites and so Expert Services was born!
While our support team is always happy to fix things wherever possible, often all they can do is advise and instruct members what to do, leaving you to implement these recommendations yourself.
This can be quite time-consuming.
So, as an extension to the unrivaled support we provide to members, we are thrilled to unveil three new premium support services designed to save you time optimizing website performance, enhancing security, and providing proactive monitoring for your hosted sites.
WPMU DEV offers done-for-you services with our dedicated expert teams.
Our dedicated expert teams are ready to tackle these challenges on your behalf so you can focus on what matters most – delivering exceptional content and services to your clients.
In this article, we unveil three powerhouse services that go beyond the ordinary, delivering outstanding results for your WordPress sites:
For sites hosted with WPMU DEV, our Proactive Monitoring service offers carefree site management.
Our dedicated team will monitor your site’s status every second, ensuring immediate fixes in case of downtime due to attacks, hacks, or any other issue.
Never lose sleep wondering if your client sites are down … we’ll watch them day and night and fix any issues before they affect business!
Priced at just $9 per month per site, this service provides peace of mind and swift resolution of any issues.
2) Site Speed Optimization
Is your website not performing as fast as you’d like? Our Site Speed Optimization service is the solution.
Our expert team will work on your site to achieve Google PageSpeed scores of 90+ on desktop and 75+ on mobile.
Use the combined power and experience of our team of technical experts to optimize all your client sites.
Simply add your site to the Speed Optimization list in the Hub, place your order, and let our experts handle the rest.
With a one-time fee of $399, you can ensure your site maintains optimal speed.
3) Malware Removal
Security is paramount, and our Malware Removal service provides expert assistance in cleaning your website and configuring optimal security settings.
Got a hacked client site on your hands? Hand the problem over to us and we’ll get it fixed and security hardened ASAP!
If your site falls victim to hacking or malware, our meticulous experts will clean it and set up optimal security hardening measures for a one-time fee of $250.
Make WordPress Site Management a Breeze
If you want to look after your clients’ sites yourself, our support team will help you with any issues as we have always done and provide you with expert advice, suggestions, and instructions for you to implement the fixes yourself.
If, however, you would rather outsource and have a completely “done for you” service, then let our experts take care of it.
Our services are reasonably priced, so if you are looking for a new way to increase your service offering and revenue streams then this is the solution for you. You can add your own markup and resell these expert services to benefit your clients and your profits.
Here’s how to enhance your clients’ website’s performance, security, and management with WPMU DEV’s premium services:
Go to your Hub and click on WPMU DEV Services,
Choose the service(s) you’d like to automate and select your site.
Make the payment to purchase the service,
We’ll create a dedicated forum ticket for ongoing updates and communication,
Our experts will commence work on the site immediately.
Elevate your WordPress site management game with WPMU DEV’s premium expert services!
Note: For added peace of mind, our speed optimization and malware services include a 7-day guarantee, so if any further problems should occur within 7 days of those services being completed, we will fix them entirely free of charge.
The WordPress Management Revolution Has Begun
WPMU DEV’s new premium services are ideal for agencies and under-resourced web developers looking to streamline and automate their WordPress management processes.
Proactive Monitoring, Site Speed Optimization, and Malware Removal services are just the beginning. Future services may include web design, custom WordPress development, and more.
If you are looking for a “hands-free” expertly-run WordPress site management solution, simply visit your Hub to get started.
Not a WPMU DEV member yet? Join risk-free and start growing your WordPress business today!
Questions? Check out the Expert Services section of our terms of services page, or contact our helpful support team.
I do realize that backlinks to URLs disallowed via robots.txt do still have whatever Google's modern version of pagerank is. Depending upon how many incoming backlinks there are, even if Google can't crawl a URL, it might use those external signals to still rank the URL in the search results (albeit with no page title or description).
My question, however, is whether the domain overall is helped? I suspect URLs that are unable to be crawled can't spread pagerank to other pages. By any chance does the domain root get a little lift up? Or does that pagerank completely evaporate at the URL level?
Are you looking for the best WordPress membership plugin to build a website?
Choosing the right plugin is very important for your membership business because a better platform means more growth opportunities.
Luckily, we have made this super easy for you by testing the most popular membership plugins and inspecting different factors like ease of use, features, customization options, and pricing.
In this article, we will compare the 14 best WordPress membership plugins to let you easily create paid membership websites.
Are you in a hurry? If so, then just take a quick look at our top picks to help you make a decision.
How We Tested And Reviewed WordPress Membership Plugins
There are plenty of WordPress membership plugins, but not all of them have the specific features that you may need for creating your membership site.
Some of them are good for selling subscriptions on a single level, while others offer more diverse membership levels and subscription management features.
To give you the best recommendations, we tested some popular membership plugins and paid attention to the following criteria:
Ease of Use: We have picked membership plugins that offer a beginner-friendly interface along with extensive documentation. We have also prioritized an easy onboarding process.
Different Use Cases: We have included plugins that can perform different functions on your site like selling digital products, creating members-only content, building courses, supporting payment gateways, creating an LMS, releasing drip content, and more.
Reliability: For this showcase, we have only included the membership plugins that we have tested ourselves. We also went through some customer reviews to find popular options.
Why Trust WPBeginner?
WPBeginner is a team of experts with 16+ years of experience in WordPress, hosting, SEO, online marketing, and more.
We have thoroughly reviewed and tested each plugin in this list on real websites to give you the best recommendation for all kinds of membership site use cases. For more information, you can see our editorial process.
Having said that, let’s see what you will need to start a WordPress membership site.
Video Tutorial
If you’d prefer written instructions, then just keep reading.
What Do You Need to Run a WordPress Membership Site?
Membership websites are resource-intensive, and choosing the wrong host can hurt your overall performance. That’s why the first thing you need to do is choose the best WordPress hosting that you can afford.
If you are on a budget, then you can start with Bluehost. Their Business Pro plan comes with an SSL certificate, which you need to securely collect payments, a dedicated IP, and a dedicated support line.
If budget is not an issue, and you want the best performance, then we recommend using a managed WordPress hosting provider like WP Engine.
If you don’t already have one, then you will also need to choose a domain name for your website. Here is our guide on how to pick the right domain name for your membership site.
MemberPress is the best WordPress membership plugin on the market that allows you to sell unlimited membership levels and subscriptions.
It is super easy to set up and can automatically add pricing, login, account, and thank you pages for your users. The plugin also lets you add drip content to your site and create a client portal to manage client resources online.
Other than that, MemberPress comes with powerful access control, allowing you to restrict access to any content, including posts, pages, custom post types, categories, tags, files, and more.
MemberPress can also act as a WordPress subscription plugin because it supports both recurring and one-time payments and it can offer monthly, yearly, or even lifetime memberships to your users. This also makes it easy to sell courses online.
It is the best content protection plugin because it allows you to restrict content based on membership level or user role.
The plugin can integrate with AWeber, Mailchimp, Uncanny Automator, and Constant Contact. It also integrates with Amazon Web Services, Blubrry for podcast hosting, and BuddyPress for building an online community.
MemberPress comes with built-in support for PayPal and Stripe payment gateways. The developer plan also adds Authorize.net support.
Some of its other powerful features include a built-in membership management dashboard, customizable coupon codes, email notifications, user registration forms, custom widgets and shortcodes, Rest API for developers, and more.
Cons
MemberPress’s free plan has limited features, and you will need to upgrade to the pro version to unlock more options.
It only supports the three most popular payment gateways. This could be a deal breaker for site owners who live in countries not supported by these payment methods.
Why we recommend MemberPress: MemberPress is the best WordPress membership plugin on the market. It allows unlimited membership levels, comes with a user-friendly interface, integrates with popular gateways, and also offers content restriction, making it a great all-in-one choice.
Thrive Apprentice is a popular all-in-one membership and online course builder plugin for WordPress. It comes with advanced features and easy access control settings.
It offers a built membership management dashboard where you can easily grant or revoke access to courses, content, or membership products for specific subscribers.
The tool comes with a drag-and-drop builder, customizable certificates, and 55+ course templates that make it super easy to create, sell, and manage online courses.
When we were testing the plugin, we also found out that Thrive Apprentice can track student progress, offer one-time or recurring subscriptions, create landing pages, and build coupons and discount offers for different membership or subscription courses.
Pros
It has a school setup wizard that will guide you through the process of setting up the plugin.
It has powerful content-dripping features that let you unlock content at consistent intervals for students. You can also create multiple drip schedules for the same content.
You can show personalized content for different users to boost engagement and sales. For example, you can display a different course overview or login form for visitors and members.
Thrive Apprentice offers multiple language support, SEO optimization, email notification, and dynamic buttons.
Cons
The plugin does not have a free plan.
Thrive Apprentice only offers built-in support for Stripe payments.
Why we recommend Thrive Apprentice: Overall, Thrive Apprentice is a powerful WordPress subscription plugin that comes with a drag-and-drop builder and premade templates. We recommend it if you want to build and sell courses online.
It allows you to restrict downloads based on membership levels, offer discounts for different memberships, and send email notifications to inform members about important updates or renewals.
Easy Digital Downloads is easy to use and gives you the ability to accept recurring payments. You can use the plugin to sell any type of digital product in WordPress, including eBooks, PDFs, audio files, videos, and more.
Pros
It comes with a built-in shopping cart system that allows your customers to purchase multiple downloads at once.
You can accept one-time payments or easily set up automatic recurring payments on any product, including daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, and annually.
With Easy Digital Downloads, you can accept credit card payments from Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other popular payment gateways like Braintree, with no additional monthly fees.
You can use the EDD Subscription addon to create membership plans with different access levels and the EDD Member Downloads extension to grant access to specific downloads based on membership level.
The plugin also offers built-in reports and analytics to track membership sales and activity.
Cons
While Easy Digital Downloads connects with some popular tools like AffiliateWP to create an affiliate program for your products, it lacks integrations with other popular services.
It has a free plan, but you will need to upgrade to the pro version to use it as a WordPress subscription or membership plugin.
Why we recommend Easy Digital Downloads: It is the best plugin for creating a membership site that sells digital products. It comes with a built-in shopping cart system, recurring payments, and a library of addons to grow your business.
MemberMouse is another powerful, flexible, and scalable WordPress membership plugin. It has many advanced features for protecting your content, selling products, creating courses, and maximizing revenue.
We were impressed by the plugin’s SmartTags, which allow you to display personalized content based on member attributes without using any code. This gives you complete control over how you protect and display content on your site.
Additionally, MemberMouse keeps track of important business metrics like lifetime customer value, retention and churn rates, member engagement, and more.
Pros
With MemberMouse, you can create upsells and cross-sells that your members can purchase in one click without re-entering their credit card information.
The tool lets you offer both free and paid memberships.
It can automatically handle overdue payments so you don’t have to worry about missing out on revenue.
The plugin lets you create and send push notifications to members or specific WordPress user roles based on actions like new members added, memberships canceled, payment received, and more.
It lets you create a dedicated space on your website that is only accessible to members and offer drip content.
Cons
MemberMouse offers limited design options.
It does not have a free plan.
It has limited integration options for payment gateways compared to other plugins on this list.
Why we recommend MemberMouse: It is a powerful WordPress membership plugin for businesses that are serious about growth. If you have a coaching business or a growing membership site, then MemberMouse is the perfect choice.
WishList Member is another flexible WordPress subscription plugin that comes with powerful features to protect members-only content.
It allows you to create unlimited membership levels and offer free, premium, or pay-per-post content on your WordPress blog.
WishList Member even allows you to schedule and release drip content over time, set up recurring subscriptions, and connect with popular email marketing services to build an email list.
Pros
It offers one-click content protection where you can click the ‘Protect’ button right in the WordPress editor to quickly set your content to members-only. It also has a Private Tags feature, which you can use to protect specific sections within the post.
WishList Member has a built-in course builder called CourseCure. It lets you easily build lessons, quizzes, and certificates.
It allows you to show ‘sneak peek’ snippets of your content to non-members and invite them to sign up to see what they’re missing.
You can accept payments from over 20 of the most popular payment gateways, including Stripe, PayPal, WooCommerce, 2CheckOut, Authorize.net, and more.
Cons
The plugin has a lot of features that can feel overwhelming for beginners.
It has no free plan.
Why we recommend WishList Member: If you want to create members-only content with powerful restrictive features, then WishList Member is a great choice.
It offers drip scheduling, page locks, integrations with a lot of payment gateways, and many advanced features to take your membership site to the next level.
AccessAlly is an elegant and user-friendly membership plugin for creating and selling courses, group coaching, and memberships.
It allows you to create as many membership levels as you want and uses tag-based permission to control access. This makes it easy for members to upgrade or downgrade membership subscriptions on their own.
AccessAlly also comes with a user-friendly builder to create live or drip-fed online courses, detailed reporting and analytics, and a built-in affiliate program.
Pros
AccessAlly offers multiple content delivery options. You can choose from delayed, specific date and time, completion-based unlocking, cohort style, and all-access.
It comes with tons of conversion-focused features, including one-click upsells, order bumps, coupons, bulk course enrollment, abandoned cart follow-up, free trial offers, cross-selling members dashboard, and more.
You can boost engagement for your courses with gamification features like a flexible points system, badges, and leaderboards.
Seamlessly integrates with popular payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal to accept online payments.
Cons
It doesn’t offer many customization options to change the look of your membership site.
There’s no free plan.
Why we recommend AccessAlly: AccessAlly is a powerful plugin for building and scaling a coaching, teaching, or training membership website. It comes with all of the features you need to offer 1-1 or group coaching, including dripped content releases, live group cohorts, bulk course enrollment, and more.
LearnDash is a super flexible and extremely easy-to-use WordPress LMS plugin. It comes with advanced membership modules and tons of integrations to help you create members-only online courses.
LearnDash is quite easy to set up and adding content to it is even simpler. It also comes with advanced tools to easily organize your membership content into levels, groups, and more.
The tool also has a powerful drag-and-drop course builder, pre-designed templates, and completion certificates to help you build and sell courses online.
Pros
LearnDash allows you to easily hide any content and restrict it to different membership groups. It also lets you control when a student gets to access specific lessons.
It comes with a powerful drip content feature, allowing you to roll out content to users at regular intervals or upon completion of levels.
The plugin offers tools to create highly engaging membership sites with quizzes, user badges, course-specific forums, user profiles, and more.
It can track student progress, offer multiple pricing options, and optimize your courses for SEO.
LearnDash also has an amazing set of integrations and payment gateways. You can even connect it to MemberPress, WooCommerce, bbPress, Slack, and more.
Cons
If you are trying to build a membership website without selling courses, then some of LearnDash’s features may not be useful because it is not exclusively a WordPress membership plugin.
LearnDash has no free plan.
Why we recommend LearnDash: It is the perfect solution if you want to sell online courses on your paid membership website. Its extensive set of add-ons and integrations allows you to build a highly engaging platform. It’s also WordPress multisite compatible.
Teachable is an all-inclusive online course builder. It packs a membership website, LMS (learning management system), discussion forum, email marketing, and analytics all into one dashboard.
The tool offers a drag-and-drop builder, course templates, and certificates, and also lets you build quizzes and assessments for students. The students can then submit their work and receive feedback on the same platform.
During our testing, we were very impressed by the flexible drip content feature, which allows you to grant access to content based on a user’s progress or subscription level.
Pros
It is easy to set up and does not require any technical skills.
The software includes built-in tools to quickly create and upload videos, text, PDFs, and more.
It comes with detailed analytics and reports, offers fraud protection, and integrates with flexible payment types like Affirm and Klarna.
Teachable offers discussion forums, quizzes, contact forms, and other features to boost user engagement and build powerful online communities.
Cons
Teachable is not available as a WordPress plugin. Instead, you must integrate it into your WordPress site by adding links or a subdomain.
It includes everything, which makes it more expensive than other WordPress membership plugins.
Why we recommend Teachable: If you want to create a membership site that sells online courses and also has an LMS system, then you can opt for Teachable.
Restrict Content Pro is a robust WordPress membership plugin that helps you build a membership site and restrict content based on different criteria.
You can use the plugin to restrict content to registered users, membership levels, and access levels, as well as target individual pages, posts, custom post types, tags, or categories for restriction.
The plugin allows you to build unlimited membership stages, offer recurring subscriptions, add discount coupons, and create dedicated registration and login forms.
Pros
It lets you create drip content to be released over time.
Restrict Content Pro allows members to manage their subscription and access levels in the dashboard.
It lets you control content access based on individual progress and actions.
It offers reports and analytics, lets you build a referral program, and integrates with email marketing services.
Cons
Restrict Content Pro’s marketing features are not as strong as other tools on this list.
It has a free plan, but most of the features are locked in it. Plus, the free version also has the plugin branding, which can only be removed by upgrading to the pro plan.
Why we recommend Restrict Content Pro: The plugin is a great choice for building a membership website due to its amazing content restriction features, great access control, and seamless integration with WordPress.
SureMembers is another beginner-friendly plugin that can help you build a membership website.
It is easy to set up and can be used to create simple subscriptions or complex membership levels with access rules. You can use it to restrict any content on your website including pages, posts, categories, and tags.
SureMembers also allows drip scheduling and can integrate with email marketing services to help you build an email list.
Pros
It provides detailed analytics so you can track how your membership site is performing.
SureMembers lets you add a paywall, configure menu item visibility, and integrates with a lot of third-party tools like Beaver Builder, Twitter/X, Slack, and YouTube.
It offers amazing customer support and a knowledge base to you help build a website.
Cons
SureMembers does not offer a course builder or community forum features.
Its content dripping feature is not as complex as some of the other tools mentioned in the list.
This WordPress membership plugin does not have a free plan.
Why we recommend SureMembers: If you are just starting to build your membership site, then SureMembers is a great choice because it is super beginner-friendly.
aMember Pro is membership software that helps you create and manage subscription-based websites.
It supports recurring and one-time payments, lets you create multiple membership levels, and can integrate with over 200 third-party apps like affiliate programs, email marketing services, and payment processors.
Additionally, aMember Pro can protect your content, including blog posts, videos, and courses, by only making them available to subscribers.
Pros
It supports about 100 payment systems, including Stripe, PayPal, CoinBase, ccBill, and more.
It is not a WordPress plugin but provides seamless integration with the platform.
aMember Pro is open source and has a user-friendly interface.
It lets you create a members-only area, manage your email list, and provide advanced reporting.
Cons
aMember Pro does not have great customer support and provides limited documentation for the software.
Installing, configuring, and maintaining aMember Pro requires some technical knowledge.
Why we recommend aMember Pro: If you have a small business site and are planning to sell subscriptions, then aMember Pro can be a great choice.
WooCommerce Memberships is another WordPress subscription plugin that is specifically designed to integrate with your WooCommerce store.
It lets you convert your online store into a membership site and create exclusive content that is only accessible to paying members.
You can also show different content to various members based on their membership levels using this plugin. For details, you can see our tutorial on how to create a members-only WooCommerce store.
Pros
Upon integrating the plugin with WooCommerce, you can sell memberships as products.
You can offer free trials and manage user accounts from the dashboard.
WooCommerce Memberships allow you to create exclusive products that are visible and purchasable by members only.
The plugin allows you to give discounted pricing to members and create drip-specific products.
Cons
The plugin is not an ideal choice if you are not already using WooCommerce.
It does not offer a free plan.
It has integrations with a limited number of tools.
Why we recommend WooCommerce Memberships: If you already have a WooCommerce store and are planning to sell courses, subscriptions, or memberships, then this is the best plugin for you.
Paid Memberships Pro is a popular WordPress subscription plugin that lets you create a membership and subscription-based website easily.
It lets you restrict default content and sets a message for users who attempt to access it. It even restricts custom post types and single pages to paying members only.
Paid Memberships Pro allows you to create personalized content and add drip content. While testing the plugin, we were also impressed that it lets you create a dictionary and profile for all the members on your website.
Pros
The plugin lets you build multi-tiered membership levels, set up offline communities, and connect with your subscribers over emails.
It can integrate with payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and Braintree. You can also set up one-time or recurring payments.
Paid Memberships Pro lets you create discount offers, view sales and revenue, build landing pages, and manage affiliate programs.
Cons
It has a free plan, but most features are locked in it.
The user interface and setup can be a bit overwhelming for beginners.
Unlike some other plugins on the list, it does not offer advanced reporting and analytics.
Why we recommend Paid Memberships Pro: Overall, the plugin has the basic features you need to build a membership or subscription-based site in just a few minutes.
Ultimate Member is a free WordPress plugin that lets you build online communities, sell subscriptions, and create membership programs.
It also lets you create visually appealing user profiles and enables you to add customer registration and login forms on the website front.
Plus, Ultimate Member has an account management feature where users can see their profile details, update account information, and change passwords directly.
Pros
You can use the plugin to create public or private directories with user listings based on specific criteria.
The plugin allows users to leave reviews and ratings for other members and track social activity on your website.
Ultimate Member can also integrate with WooCommerce, BuddyPress, and Mailchimp.
Cons
Integrating the plugin with other tools can sometimes lead to conflicts.
It lacks an advanced reporting feature.
The plugin does not have any customization options.
Why we recommend Ultimate Member: If you are on a budget and looking for a free solution, then Ultimate Member can be a great WordPress membership plugin for you.
Although we don’t recommend S2Member, we’re including it in this list because it’s a popular WordPress membership plugin with over 1.59 million downloads.
It lets you create multiple membership levels with different access controls. You can also customize the registration and login forms, add drip content, and password-protect various pages on your website.
The plugin provides a dedicated dashboard for members to manage their accounts, and also sends email notifications to inform them about any updates.
Pros
S2Member comes with customizable email templates, file download restrictions, protected audio/video streams, and multisite network support.
The plugin integrates with popular payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, ClickBank, and Authorize.net.
Cons
It’s very difficult for beginners to set up S2Member, especially advanced features like content dripping.
The plugin interface is not user-friendly and front-end elements like login and registration pages look outdated.
It has a free plan but most of the features are locked.
Why we don’t recommend S2Member: S2Member is outdated and not intuitive when compared to other membership plugins. We recommend using another membership plugin from this list because you’ll get a better user experience and more modern membership features.
However, if you run a video membership site and don’t care about a user-friendly interface, then S2Member could be a good option. It lets you restrict audio and video content based on membership levels.
Which Is the Best WordPress Membership Plugin?
In our expert opinion, MemberPress is the best WordPress membership plugin on the market. It has all the features that you need to create a membership site and sell online courses, along with great documentation and support to help you learn the membership software.
If you want a MemberPress alternative, then Thrive Apprentice is a great option. It’s a powerful and easy-to-use membership and online course builder plugin.
Alternatively, if you want to sell digital products on your membership website, then we recommend using Easy Digital Downloads. It comes with powerful features to create and sell digital downloads.
Similarly, if you want to sell subscriptions in your online WooCommerce store, then you can use WooCommerce Memberships.
Frequently Asked Questions About WordPress Membership Plugins
Having helped over 2 million WordPress users start their websites, we’ve answered a ton of questions over the years. Below are some of the answers to the most frequently asked questions about membership plugins.
What is the best membership plugin?
Our top 5 choices for the best membership plugin are:
MemberPress – Best WordPress membership plugin (overall).
Thrive Apprentice – Best membership plugin for selling online courses.
MemberMouse – Best membership plugin for creating a coaching membership site.
WooCommerce Memberships – Best membership plugin to sell subscriptions on your WooCommerce store.
No, this question is not a joke. We seriously get this question even after referring people to this guide.
What is the best free membership plugin for WordPress?
While there are free membership plugins available, such as Paid Memberships Pro and WP-Members, they often come with limited features and additional transaction fees.
But, with a premium WordPress membership plugin like MemberPress, you get all of the features you need to build a successful membership site. Plus, there are no hidden fees.
MemberPress also offers a 14-day free trial period so that you can test it out first.
Y’all use Figma for design work? I’d be willing to bet a lot of you do at your organization. I’m still wrapping my brain around the fact that Adobe has to write a billion dollar check to not acquire it. It’s no wonder why they wanted it — there is a new household name in design software after Adobe had that on lock for(counts fingers)ever.
I have no particular allegiances, except to the web, so I’m pleased that Figma is very web native. I’m also impressed that Photoshop is a website now, too, but Figma entirely embraces webness. Figma has been doing lots of releases focused on web developers. Variables seems big. Cool to see CodePen alum Jake talk Code Connect, a way to wire up your real componentry with Figma (!!).
Not to mention their whole Dev Mode thing, a way of using Figma that’s more like a developer consuming what’s there rather than a designer building what’s there.
You even build in Figma with components, which obviously jives with most modern day web development. But there is some buy-in cost to building a component. I think of this banger intro paragraph from Blair Culbreth:
When to make components in Figma? Start too soon in your design process and you feel too locked in when you’re still experimenting. Too late and suddenly going back and componentizing is huge undertaking.
I don’t have any great advice beyond what Blair says. I really like her advice on making a Header and Footer component right away. At least you’ll have that going for you. Then make more as soon as its… fairly obvious you should.
Speaking of componentry, the one everyone always thinks of first is the Button. Of course, all websites are littered in the things. The variations can be absolutely endless. Sizes, colors, groups, icons, full width, toggles. Then of course all the different states. Do you consider the links inside menus buttons? Sometimes? Phew. I likely can’t write anything you haven’t heard before, but I do like reading what other companies actually do. For example, Domas Markevičius’ Designing the perfect button for Wix. It sounds like they had some success with thinking about buttons from fairly first principles, so, hey, nice. I particularly like the focus on clarity:
A button must clearly communicate what it does, with zero space for interpretation. Text is the primary element that explains intention.
Speaking of what companies actually do, I appreciated Design Engineering at Vercel. Watch all the little 8 second videos in the post! They offer a pretty decent definition even:
Design Engineers care about delivering exceptional user experiences that resonate with the viewer. For the web, this means:
Delightful user interactions and affordances
Building reusable components/primitives
Page speed
Cross-browser support
Support for inclusive input modes (touch, pointers, etc.)
Respecting user preferences
Accessible to users of assistive technology
There is a lot of work behind the pretty pixels. Design Engineers must go beyond visual appeal and ensure the other pieces that make an exceptional user experience are taken care of.
Even the job title Design Engineering feels relatively new, almost being retroactively applied to people doing that style of work. Maybe Design Engineering is a way for the less-JavaScript-focused side of The Divide coming back into good graces. I love writeups of specific examples, like Jim there writing about the intricate details of how a resizer bar works (don’t we know it). Certainly feels good to see the work being appreciated instead of this gaslighting situation mired in the opposite.
Selfishly, I think of Design Engineering partially as “the kind of cool stuff you see on CodePen a lot, but you do it for a job.”
August 2021 marks a milestone for me. That’s when we signed an acquisition agreement to sell Chatra, a profitable live chat platform. I co-founded it after shutting down my first startup after a six-year struggle. Chatra took me and the team six years to finish — that’s six years of learning, experimenting, sometimes failing, and ultimately winning big.
Acquisitions happen all the time. But what does it look like to go through one, putting the thing you built and nurtured up for sale and ceding control to someone else to take over? Sometimes, these things are complicated and contain clauses about what you can and can’t say after the transaction is completed.
So, I’ve curated a handful of the most valuable takeaways from starting, growing, and selling the company. It took me some time to process everything; some lessons were learned immediately, while others took time to sink in. Ultimately, though, it’s a recollection of my personal journey. I hope sharing it can help you in the event you ever find yourself in a similar pair of shoes.
Keeping The Band Together
Rewind six years before the Chatra acquisition. My first startup, Getwear, ran out of steam, and I — along with everyone else — was ready to jump ship.
But we weren’t ready to part ways. My co-founder-partner was a close childhood friend with whom I would sell pirated CDs in the late 90s. Now, I don’t think it’s the most honest way to make a living, but it didn’t bother us much in high school. It also contributed to a strong bond between us, one that led to the launch of Getwear and, later, Chatra.
That partnership and collaboration were too precious to let go; we knew that our work wasn’t supposed to end at Getwear and that we’d have at least one more try together. The fact that we struggled together before is what allowed us to pull through difficult times later. Our friendship allowed us to work through stress, difficulties, and the unavoidable disagreements that always come up.
That was a big lesson for me: It’s good to have a partner you trust along for the ride. We were together before Chatra, and we saw it all the way through to the end. I can’t imagine how things would have been different had I partnered with someone new and unfamiliar, or worse, on my own.
Building Business Foundations
We believed Getwear would make us millionaires. So when it failed, that motivation effectively evaporated. We were no longer inspired to take on ambitious plans, but we still had enough steam to start a digital analog of a döner kebab shop — a simple, sought-after tech product just to pay our bills.
This business wasn’t to be built on the back of investment capital; no, it was bootstrapped. That means we made do with a small, independent, fully-remote team. Remember, this is in 2015. The global pandemic had yet to happen, and a fully remote team was still a novelty. And it was quite a change from how we ran Getwear, which was stocked with an R&D department, a production office, and even a factory in Mumbai. A small distributed team seemed the right approach to keep us nimble as we set about defining our path forward as a company.
Finding our purpose required us to look at the intersection of what the market needs and what we know and can do well. Building a customer support product was an obvious choice: at Getwear, we heavily relied on live chat to help users take their body measurements and place their orders.
We were familiar with existing products on the market. Besides, we already had experience building a conversational support product: we had built an internal tool to facilitate communication between our Mumbai-based factory and an overseas customer-facing team. The best thing about that was that it was built on a relatively obscure framework offering real-time messaging out of the box.
There were maybe 20 established competitors in the space back in 2015, but that didn’t dissuade us. If there was enough room for 20 products to do business, there must be enough for 21. I assumed we should treat competition as a market validation rather than an obstacle.
Looking back, I can confidently say that it’s totally possible to compete (and succeed) in a crowded market.
Product-wise, Getwear was very innovative; no one had ever built an online jeans customizer as powerful as ours. We designed the UX from scratch without relying much on the best practices.
With Chatra, we went down a completely different route: We had improved the established live chat product category via features that were, at that time, commonly found in other types of software but hadn’t made their way to our field. That was the opportunity we seized.
The existing live chat platforms felt archaic in that the interfaces were clunky and reminiscent of Windows 95, the user flows were poorly thought out, and the dated user experience resulted in lost conversation histories.
Slack was a new product at this time and was all the rage with its fresh approach to user interfaces and conversational onboarding. Products like Facebook Messenger and Telegram (which is popular in Eastern Europe and the Middle East) were already standard bearers and formed user expectations for how a messaging experience should work on mobile. We learned a lot from these products and found in them the blueprint to design a modern chat widget and dashboard for agents.
We certainly stood on the shoulders of giants, and there’s nothing wrong with stealing like an artist: in fact, both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates did it.
The takeaway?
A product does not have to be new to redefine and disrupt a market. It’s possible to lead by introducing modern standards and designs rather than coming up with something radically different.
Making A Go-To-Market Strategy
Once we were clear about what we were building and how to build it, the time came to figure out a strategy for bringing our product to market.
Two things were very clear and true to us up front:
We needed to launch and start earning immediately — in months rather than years — being a bootstrapped company and all.
We didn’t have money for things like paid acquisition, brand awareness, or outbound sales representatives to serve as the front line for customer engagement.
Both conclusions, taken together, helped us decide to focus our efforts on small businesses that need fewer features in a product and onboard by self-service. Marketing-wise, that meant we’d need to find a way around prohibitively expensive ads.
Enter growth hacking! The term doesn’t resonate now the way it did in 2015: fresh, aggressive, and effective. As a user-facing website widget, we had a built-in acquisition channel by way of a “powered by Chatra” link. For it to be an effective marketing tool, we had to accumulate a certain number of customers. Otherwise, who’s going to see the link in the first place?
We combined unorthodox techniques to acquire new customers, like web-scraping and email address discovery with cold outreach.
Initially, we decided to go after our competitors’ customers. But the only thing we got out of targeting them with emails was their rightful anger.
In fact, a number of customers complained directly to the competitors, and the CEO of a prominent live chat company demanded we cease communicating with their users.
More than that, he actually requested that we donate to a well-known civil liberty NGO, something we wholeheartedly agreed to, considering it was indeed the right thing to do.
So, we decided to forget about competition and target potential customers (who owned e-commerce websites) using automation for lead research, email sending, and reply processing. We managed to do it on a massive scale with very few resources. By and large, cold outreach has been the single most effective marketing tool we have ever used. And contrary to common assumption, it is not a practice reserved purely for enterprise products.
Once we acquired a significant user mass, the widget link became our Number One acquisition channel. In lean startup terminology, a viral engine of growth is a situation when existing customers start generating leads and filling the marketing funnel for you. It’s where we all want to be, but the way to get there is often murky and unreliable. But my experience tells me that it is possible and can be planned.
For this strategy to work, it has to be based on natural user interactions. With widgets, the mechanic is quite apparent, but not so much with other products. Still, you can do well with serious planning and running experiments to help make informed decisions that achieve the best possible results.
For example, we were surprised that the widget link performed way better in tests when we changed it from “Powered by Chatra” to “Get Chatra!”. We’re talking big increases with minor tweaks. The small details really do matter!
Content marketing was another avenue we explored for generating leads. We had already done the cold outreach and had a good viral engine going with the widget link. Content marketing, in contrast, was an attempt to generate leads at the “top” of the funnel, independent of any outbound marketing or our customers’ websites. We produced books and guides that were well-researched, written, and designed to bring in potential customers while supporting existing ones with resources to get the most out of Chatra.
Sadly, these efforts failed to attract many new leads. I don’t want to say not to invest in quality content; it’s just that this is not a viable short-term growth strategy.
Increasing Lifetime Customer Value
It took six months of development to launch and another year to finally break even. By then, we had achieved a product-market fit with consistent organic growth; it was time to focus on metrics and unit economics. Our challenge was to limit customer churn and find ways to increase the lifetime value of existing customers.
If there’s an arch-enemy to SaaS, it’s churn. Mitigating churn is crucial to any subscription business, as longer subscriptions generate more revenue. Plus, it’s easier to prevent churn than it is to acquire new customers.
We found it helpful to distinguish between avoidable churn and unavoidable (i.e., “natural”) churn. The latter concerns customer behavior beyond our control: if an e-commerce store shuts down, they won’t pay for services. And we had nothing to do with them shutting down — it’s just the reality of life that most small businesses fail. No quick-fix strategy could ever change that; we just had to deal with it.
Chatra’s subscription pricing was fairly inexpensive, yet we enjoyed a relatively high customer lifetime value (cLTV). Many customers tended to stay for a long time — some, for years. Our high cLTV helped us justify higher customer acquisition costs (CAC) for paid ads in the Shopify app store once we decided to run them. Running the ads allowed us to improve our Shopify app store search position. And because of that, we improved and kept our position as a top app within our category. That, I believe, was one of the factors that the company Brevo considered when they later decided to acquire our business.
We tried improving the free-to-paid subscription conversion rate by targeting those who actively used the product but remained on a free plan for an extended period. We offered them an upgraded plan subscription for just one dollar per year. And to our surprise, that failed to convince many people to upgrade. We were forced to conclude that there are two types of customers: those who pay and those who do not (and will not).
From that point forward, things got even weirder. For example, we ran several experiments with subscription pricing and found that we could increase subscription prices from $11 per seat to $19 without adversely affecting either the visitor-to-user or the free-to-paid conversion rates! Apparently, price doesn’t matter as much as you might think. It’s possible to raise prices without adversely affecting conversions, at least in our experience with a freemium pricing model.
We also released additional products we could cross-sell to existing customers. One was Livebar, an app for in-browser notifications on recent online shopping purchases. Another was Yeps, a simple announcement bar that sticks to the top of a webpage. Product-wise, both were good. But despite our efforts to bring awareness to them in all our communications with Chatra customers, they never really took off. We’ve closed the first and sold the second for a price that barely justified the development and ongoing support we were putting into it. We were wrong to assume that if we have a loyal audience, we could automatically sell them another product.
Contemplating An Exit
Chatra was a lean company. As a SaaS business, we had a perfect cost-revenue ratio and gained new customers mainly through viral dynamics and self-onboarding. These didn’t increase our costs much but did indeed bring in extra subscription dollars. The engine worked almost without any effort on our side.
After a few years, the company could mostly function on auto-pilot, giving us — the founders — time and resources to pay our bills and run business experiments. We were enjoying a good life. Our work was a success!
We gave up on an exit strategy even before starting, so we didn’t pay much attention to the acquisition offers we routinely received; most weren’t enticing enough to pull us away. Even those sent by people known in the industry were way too small: the best offer we got was a valuation of 2.5 times our Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), which was a non-starter for us.
Then, we received an email with another offer. The details were slim, but we decided to at least entertain the idea and schedule a time to chat. I replied that we wouldn’t consider anything lower than an industry-standard venture-backed SaaS valuation (which was about eight times ARR at the time). The response, surprisingly, read: “Let’s talk. Are you ready to sign a non-disclosure agreement?”
My biggest concern was that transferring ownership might lead to the Chatra team being laid off and the product termination. I didn’t want to let down our existing customers! The buyer understood the situation and assured us that Chatra would remain a separate line of business, at least for an extended period. No one on the team would lose their job. The buyer also planned to fork Chatra rather than close it, at least initially.
Still, letting go of it was difficult, and at times, I even felt the urge to blow up the negotiations.
So, why sell at all? We did it for three reasons:
First, we felt stuck in the mature stage of the business lifecycle and missed the feeling of creating new things.
Second, we (rightfully) knew that the good times could not last forever; we would be wise to avoid putting all our eggs in one basket.
Third was a bit of pride. I genuinely wanted to go through the acquisition process, which has always seemed like a rite of passage for entrepreneurs.
Chatra was growing, cash-flow positive, and economic tailwinds seemed to blow our way. On the flip side, however, we had little left to do as founders. We didn’t want to go upmarket and compete with massive players like Intercom and Drift. We were happy in our niche, but it didn’t offer enough growth or expansion opportunities. We felt near the end of the line.
Looking back, I see how fortunate we were. The market took a huge hit soon after the acquisition, to the extent that I’m sure we would not have been able to fetch equally enticing offers within the next two years.
I want to stress that the offer we got was very, very generous. Still I often kick myself for not asking for more, as a deep-pocketed buyer is unlikely to turn away simply because we were trying to increase the company’s valuation. The additional ask would have been negligible to the buyer, but it could have been very meaningful for us.
Different acquisitions wind up looking different in the end. If you’re curious what a transaction looks like, ours was split into three payouts:
An initial, fixed payment on the closing date;
Several flexible payouts based on reaching post-acquisition milestones;
An escrow amount deposited with an escrow agent for the possibility of something going wrong, like legal claims.
We assumed this structure was non-negotiable and didn’t try to agree on a different distribution that would move more money to the initial payment. Why? We were too shy to ask and were sure we’d complete all requirements on time. Accepting a significant payment delay essentially credited the buyer for the amount of the payouts while leaving me and my co-founder vulnerable to uncertainty.
We should’ve been bold and negotiated more favorable terms. After all, it represented the last time we’d have to battle for Chatra. I consider that a lesson learned for next time.
Conclusion
Parting ways with Chatra wasn’t easy. The team became my second family, and every product pixel and bit of code was dear to my heart. And yes, I do still feel nostalgia for it from time to time. But I certainly enjoy the freedom that comes with the financial gains.
One thing I absolutely want to mention before closing this out is that
Having an “exit” under my belt actually did very little to change my personal well-being or sense of self-worth. The biggest lesson I took away from the acquisition is that success is the process of doing things, not the point you can arrive at.
I don’t yet know where the journey will take me from here, but I’m confident that there will be both a business challenge and a way of helping others on their own founder journey. That said, I sincerely hope that my experience gives you a good deal of insight into the process of selling a company. It’s one of those things that often happens behind closed doors. But by shedding a little light on it — at least this one reflection — perhaps you will be more prepared than I was and know what to look for.
The problem with trying to find the fastest WordPress hosting available is that you can’t really do it overnight. You certainly don’t just want to believe the hosts’ own marketing materials (since I have yet to come across a host that doesn’t say they’re the fastest around), and doing any performance tests of your own will take time.
Are you ready to see some eCommerce statistics that will help you take your online business to the next level?
It’s safe to say that in the last 20 years, eCommerce has grown beyond our wildest expectations. And it’s still evolving faster than ever. If you want to keep your customers happy and build a relationship with new prospects, you need to stay current on the latest stats and insights.
In this post, we will share some of the best and most relevant eCommerce statistics of 2024. Our goal is to help you stay informed and make meaningful, data-driven decisions the next time you work on your website or marketing strategy.
Ultimate List of eCommerce Statistics
Before we get started, here’s a list of all the topics we will be discussing today. Feel free to jump to the part that catches your attention or read the whole thing from top to bottom!
First, let’s start with some statistics about the general state of eCommerce and online stores.
1. Globally, there are over 12 million eCommerce websites.
Over 12 million eCommerce websites might sound like a saturated market at first glance. But you will be happy to know the answer is a little more complex than that.
While competition is fierce for online stores, this statistic also shows that this is a growing market and there’s room for new business owners across all industries. The keys to success are to choose your target audience, cater to their goals, needs, and pain points, and create a website that separates you from everyone else.
By catering to a specific audience and offering a unique, memorable customer experience, you can carve out your own spot in the eCommerce world. Remember, even giants like Amazon started small, so there’s room for you to succeed, too.
2. More than 80% of US shoppers say they occasionally buy from eCommerce stores.
If your goal is to get more customers, then this statistic is very exciting. Business owners across all industries can be sure that their audience is out there and interested in their products and services. All they have to do is reach them.
If you’re in this position, make sure you start an online store with a blog and write plenty of great content so people have a reason to stay once they discover your site.
Think about it this way: four out of every five in a population of 331.1 million is about 265 million people! And that’s just in the United States.
3. It’s estimated that the eCommerce market will be worth $6.8 trillion by the end of this year, an almost 10% increase year over year.
The eCommerce market share is currently projected to hit a whopping $6.8 trillion by year’s end – that’s a 10% leap from last year!
This huge growth is fantastic news for both established businesses and those just starting out.
For veterans, it means a bigger customer pool to tap into. With more consumers shopping online, there’s a chance to expand your reach and grow your brand in new and exciting ways.
New businesses can also benefit from this boom. As more people shop online, they are more open to discovering new brands. This presents a golden opportunity to get your foot in the door and establish yourself in the market.
4. Amazon made close to $575 billion in net sales revenue in 2023, making it the biggest eCommerce seller in the world.
There’s no question that Amazon’s success shows the potential of online sales. We were shocked to find that 44% of shoppers check Amazon for products before they turn to Google.
But here’s the thing – they aren’t the only ones profiting. The entire eCommerce market is thriving and ready for smart, dedicated people who want to build customer-centric products and services. This means there’s space for you to win, too.
5. When it comes to eCommerce platforms, WooCommerce leads the pack, with over 6.6 million active users.
WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce platform, with an eCommerce market share of 37.7% and 6.6 million users.
For context, Squarespace Online Stores takes second at 14.67%, and WooThemes takes third at 14.95%. The runner-ups are popular enough, but they don’t compare to WooCommerce.
People prefer to use WooCommerce to start a store because it’s user-friendly, flexible, and comes with tons of great features and integrations. Plus, it’s customizable so you can use it to create an online store that matches your vision.
More General eCommerce Statistics
Across all industries, the average conversion rate on an eCommerce website is 2.86%.
The top four drivers of online purchases are free shipping (49.4%), discounts (37.9%), customer reviews (31.6%), and an easy return policy (30.4%)
The largest group of online shoppers are people between the ages of 25 and 34.
Nearly 55% of people prefer shopping online over traditional brick-and-mortar stores.
China contributes the most to the eCommerce market share, as it is responsible for 52.1% of all eCommerce sales.
But India is the fastest growing market, with a projected growth of 14.11% between 2023 and 2027.
There are 604 eCommerce platforms to choose from.
eCommerce Marketing Statistics
Marketing is key to an online store’s success. Let’s now take a look at some eCommerce marketing statistics.
6. eCommerce businesses with three or more marketing channels see 251% more engagement than those that stick to a single marketing channel.
Standing out online requires reaching your target audience, and this stat makes it clear: using just one marketing channel limits your reach. And if you can’t connect with your audience, then it’s hard to grow your eCommerce business.
The solution is actually quite simple – add more ways to get your message out, and you’ll unlock more opportunities to reach potential customers.
We suggest investing heavily in email marketing, social media outreach, and search engine optimization (SEO) since these are three of the best ways to generate traffic and conversions.
7. Content marketing helps brands generate 3x more leads than their non-blogging counterparts.
Imagine getting 3x more leads just by writing informative blog posts! That’s the advantage that content marketing offers.
Businesses that blog regularly see a huge jump in leads. Here’s why it works: blogs attract potential customers looking for answers.
By consistently creating helpful content related to users’ goals and interests, you can build trust and become an expert in their eyes. This makes them more likely to choose you when they are ready to buy. It’s like giving away valuable advice to build relationships—and ultimately, sales.
Our advice is to spend plenty of time doing keyword research so that you know what matters to your target audience. It’s much easier to create eye-catching content if you know what matters to your audience.
8. 71% of shoppers expect businesses to use personalization in their marketing and 76% get frustrated when that doesn’t happen.
Forget one-size-fits-all marketing. Today’s shoppers crave personalization, and the numbers back this up. A vast majority of shoppers want businesses to use macro and micro-personalization in their marketing, and people get annoyed when that doesn’t happen.
Including things like an email subscriber’s first name or referencing a product they purchased in the past shows that you are paying attention and want to build rapport to help them reach their goals.
If you don’t personalize at least a few parts of your marketing campaigns, then you may struggle to generate leads and connect with your prospects.
Similarly, if someone buys from your site and doesn’t see personalized messages or offers based on their interaction, they may choose another business that offers these experiences the next time they need to make a purchase.
For example, if someone is looking at a specific product page, you can use OptinMonster to create a popup that only shows up on that page with a unique offer. This is a great way to drive sales and grow your email list.
9. SEO marketing matters, because search engines are the number one way people discover new products (30.6%).
SEO is more important now than ever before. Most people discover products through search engines, with TV and word-of-mouth coming in second and third place respectively.
If your site does not appear on search engine results pages (SERPs), you are missing out on a massive chunk of potential customers. The good news is that there are plenty of ways to optimize your site for search engines.
All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is the best WordPress plugin you can use for the job. Currently, over 3 million people use it to check their on-page SEO, optimize their websites, and so much more. It’s a great tool for beginners and experts alike because it manages to be both user-friendly and has plenty of advanced features.
Video is a powerful marketing tool, with 73% of people saying they’d be more likely to buy a product if they could watch a video about it first.
75% of shoppers say they need to see photos of a product before they buy it.
eCommerce advertising influences over 56% of in-store purchases.
Ad spending for eCommerce is worth $38.4 billion, which is 3x what it was in 2019.
75% of shoppers say they’ve used a paid search ad on Google to find a new product.
Nearly three-fourths (73%) of people shop across multiple marketing channels.
Mobile eCommerce Statistics
Mobile browsing is more popular than ever, and the same goes for mobile shopping. Here are some key eCommerce statistics for mobile shoppers.
10. 71% of U.S. shoppers say they’ve made a purchase from their mobile phone.
This stat is a wake-up call for all eCommerce business owners: having a mobile-friendly website is no longer optional. It’s necessary.
If your website isn’t easy to navigate and use on a smartphone, then you are missing out on a ton of traffic and potentially losing a huge chunk of sales.
Mobile optimization includes things like a smooth user experience, clickable calls-to-action, fast loading times, and a layout that adapts to different screen sizes. By prioritizing mobile users, you will be meeting your customers where they are and making the buying process as convenient as possible.
11. During Q3 of 2023, 74% of all eCommerce visits happened via mobile.
Based on this statistic, it’s clear how people prefer to browse websites and shop online. This means you need to go beyond a responsive design and instead focus on creating a mobile-first experience.
Imagine what would happen if 3 out of 4 people who visited your site had trouble browsing your product landing page, contacting your customer support, or reading your blog. Odds are, you’d see a significant dip in engagement.
If you follow mobile-first practices, then you’ll be in a much better position to capture your audience’s attention and turn them into customers.
12. 40% of shoppers say they are likely to leave an online store if it isn’t optimized for their device.
At a glance, it’s concerning to see that almost half of shoppers say they’ll leave a site if it’s not optimized for mobile. This could lead to a significant portion of potential customers bouncing off your website, simply because it isn’t user-friendly.
The good news is there’s a solution: SeedProd. It is one of the best page builders on the market and features a responsive option that allows you to fine-tune how your website displays on desktops, tablets, and mobiles. This ensures a smooth user experience for all visitors, regardless of their device.
Expert Tip: If you are looking for a different option for building a mobile-friendly website, Thrive Architect is another great choice!
More Mobile eCommerce Statistics
The average mobile order is between $90 and $110, which is less than the average desktop purchase.
However, mobile eCommerce is growing faster at 29%, which is better than the 22% growth rate of desktop eCommerce.
In the United States, there are 187 million active smartphone shoppers.
Mobile apps convert 3x more customers than mobile websites.
49% of smartphone shoppers use their devices to compare prices of different products when shopping online.
38% of shoppers say they’ve never used a mobile device to shop, while 7% report never using desktop computers to make a purchase.
eCommerce Payment Statistics
Next, let’s see some impressive eCommerce statistics for online payments.
13. When it comes to paying for online orders, credit cards are still the most popular payment method, making up 53% of transactions.
Credit cards might reign supreme for now, but the future of eCommerce payments is digital. While a solid 53% of customers still prefer credit cards, this statistic shouldn’t overshadow the rise of digital wallets and debit cards, which follow closely behind at 43% and 38%.
There’s no question that digital payment methods, like Apple Pay and PayPal, offer a faster, more convenient experience for shoppers, so integrating them into your website can dramatically boost conversions.
The bottom line is every step a customer has to take to complete a purchase adds friction to the process. Digital wallets eliminate the need to manually enter card details, which will streamline your checkout process and result in more happy customers.
14. In one survey, half of eCommerce business owners say they lose about 10% of their international revenue because their payment vendors do not have flexible payment options.
Not having the right payment gateway on your site will result in people leaving without taking action. You don’t want to put your visitors in this position because not only are you leaving money on the table, but there’s a good chance they will not come back even if you add their preferred payment method later.
The solution is to offer a wide range of payment methods as soon as possible. When customers have options they trust and use regularly, they are more likely to complete their purchases.
Here’s where a plugin like WP Simple Pay can be a game-changer. This Stripe payment plugin allows you to easily integrate over 10 different payment methods into your website. This ensures a smooth checkout experience for customers, regardless of how they want to pay.
15. Optimizing your checkout page can improve conversions by 35%.
Optimizing your checkout process will have a noticeable impact on sales. When customers can quickly place an order with little to no friction, they’ll take action.
You’ll be happy to know that getting your checkout page in good shape is easier than you might think. The key is to simplify as much as possible by offering a guest checkout option, limiting forms, and providing a progress bar so that customers can see how close they are to the end of the process.
Be transparent, too. Don’t surprise customers with hidden fees. Clearly show taxes, shipping costs, and anything else upfront so they don’t get frustrated and leave. Building trust leads to happy customers, and happy customers mean more sales!
Over 65% of shoppers look up price comparisons in physical stores before they pay.
Venmo is growing at an impressive pace, with a 9% year-on-year increase, bringing its revenue to $6.7 million.
However, their totals don’t come close to touching PayPal, which handles countless eCommerce transactions every day. They made $7.4 billion in revenue in 2023.
Experts predict that the total number of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) customers will increase by 400% between 2021 and 2026.
Social Media eCommerce Statistics
Social media is one of the best ways to reach new customers and promote your online store. Here are some important social media eCommerce statistics you need to know.
16. Businesses that use social media generate an average of 32% more revenue than ones without it.
Social media platforms aren’t just for entertainment anymore – they are a direct line to your target audience. So, don’t underestimate the value of social media marketing. We are confident that all eCommerce business owners would love to see a 32% boost in revenue!
Beyond direct sales, you also get plenty of opportunities to engage with your audience. Think about it: you can showcase your products, highlight special offers, and build brand awareness – all without spending a dime on traditional advertising.
You can use a plugin like Smash Balloon to share your social media on your website. This can have a dramatic impact on engagement and help you get more followers. Plus, adding a social feed to your site is fast and easy.
17. 74% of shoppers turn to social media when they are thinking about buying a product.
It turns out that social media is also one of the most widely used research tools for online shoppers. This statistic highlights that about 3/4s of people turn to their favorite social sites when they want to learn more about a product or discover something new.
For you, this means social sites are the perfect place to introduce yourself to prospects, show off your products, and get to know your existing customers.
It’s a good idea to spend some time on social media every day so you can connect with your audience and build a community. Then, once your page gets to a certain point, the algorithm will begin recommending your channel or profile to people who don’t follow you. This is an easy way to build your social audience and customer base.
18. 67% of affiliates and virtually all influencers use social media sites to boost their sales.
There’s no question that affiliates and influencers have a strong relationship with eCommerce business owners.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise when you consider these groups often partner together on social media because it’s a win-win-win situation. The brand sells more products, the affiliate makes a commission on their sales, and the customers get great products.
The increase in profits and ease of access is probably why 68% of marketers say they plan on investing in an affiliate program this year.
We suggest using AffiliateWP to create and manage your affiliate program. This easy-to-use WordPress plugin allows you to set commissions, issue one-click payouts, and collaborate with your affiliates in new and exciting ways.
19. 80% of marketers who sell products on social media say consumers have made a purchase through these platforms.
Some business leaders think that social media is just for window shopping. However, many people are turning to social media to make purchases, and that isn’t going to change anytime soon.
This can seem intimidating if you are currently not using social sites like Facebook and Instagram to sell your products. But there’s still plenty of time for you to get involved.
By integrating social commerce features, you can streamline the buying journey for customers. They can discover your products, learn about them, and complete their purchase – all within the familiar social media interface.
34% of marketers say Facebook generates the most sales, which makes sense when you consider that over 53.5 million people have bought something from the site.
16% of social media managers use automation to communicate with prospects.
When it comes to Gen-Z and millennial shoppers, 28% have bought something directly from social media in the last 3 months.
The top categories for social media shopping in order are apparel, beauty, and home products.
70% of people say they are far more likely to buy a product from a brand if they have a positive experience with them on social media.
Almost one-third of shoppers say they turn to social media to learn about new brands or products.
Email eCommerce Statistics
Email is an important tool for any online business. Here are some of the most important email eCommerce statistics.
20. A vast majority (86%) of eCommerce marketers use email to build rapport with their audience and improve brand awareness.
There’s a reason why email marketing remains a favorite among eCommerce marketers: it’s a direct line of communication to prospects and existing customers. When you can have a one-on-one conversation with people, there’s a better chance you can learn about their goals and pain points while overcoming their objections.
With what you learn from these encounters, you can share relevant content, advertise exclusive promotions, showcase new products, and ask for feedback, among other things.
If you are looking for a good email marketing service, then Constant Contact is our number one choice. It’s extremely easy to use and allows you to do everything you’d expect, like create templates, design a calendar, and more.
21. 52% of people say they’ve made a purchase as the result of a marketing email.
This statistic highlights the value of email marketing for eCommerce businesses. There’s no doubt that it’s a cost-effective, powerful way to reach your audience and directly influence their buying decisions.
If you want to create emails that capture the attention of your subscribers and boost sales, then make sure you focus on personalization. About 80% of people say they are more likely to engage with a business if it personalizes content and offers to match their needs.
For instance, we suggest using information subscribers have sent you, as well as their purchase history, to curate an email campaign that aligns with their interests.
22. 14% of marketing emails never reach their destination.
It’s shocking to think that so many emails never reach their destination. For business owners who use email marketing to engage with their customers, these deliverability issues could result in missed opportunities to build rapport and lost sales.
Luckily, tools like WP Mail SMTP can help with this problem. This powerful WordPress plugin tackles deliverability issues head-on and makes sure that your emails will end up in your users’ inboxes.
72% of email marketers struggle with low open rates.
Personalized subject lines can get between 10-14% more people to read your email.
Emails letting customers on a waitlist know a product is back in stock convert a staggering 8695% better than a traditional, generic email.
78% of people say they don’t mind getting emails once a week from brands they love.
57% of marketers have between 1,000 and 10,000 email subscribers.
Mobile-responsive emails are essential because 70% of people will delete an email if it looks bad on their phone.
eCommerce Shopping Cart Statistics
Next, let’s take a look at some eCommerce shopping cart statistics.
23. Across all industries, the average shopping cart abandonment rate is 70.19%.
Shopping cart abandonment occurs when someone adds an item to their cart but leaves your website before checking out. And it’s way more common than you might think.
It doesn’t matter what industry you are in. You will see this happen more often than you’d like. Instead of letting it bother you, you can find ways to reduce abandonment, such as by creating a cart recovery email series.
Sending 3 emails to people who joined your list after they abandoned your cart can help you recover around 60% of lost sales. Generally, it’s a good idea to send one email after they leave, another 24 hours later, and the last one about a week after they leave with items still in their cart.
24. The number one reason shoppers abandon their shopping carts is unexpected costs.
Most people have decided to abandon a shopping cart without taking action because of unexpected costs. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t.
That’s because shoppers expect the price at the end to be close to what they were shown when they added the items to their cart. Imagine thinking a new shirt will cost $25, only to see $60 after shipping and taxes.
You can reduce this type of abandonment by embracing an “always-on” shopping cart that shows visitors their total regardless of where they are on your site. Then, you can offer free shipping on orders over a specific amount.
25. 26% of people who leave items in their cart will go on to buy a similar item from a different store.
You may be shocked to learn that people will buy the same type of product from a different eCommerce website after they first view it on another site. This means you need to do everything you can to capture visitors’ attention so you don’t lose sales and opportunities to engage with your customers.
To win people over, there are two key areas you need to focus on: product information and enticing offers.
Additionally, strategic discounts are a game-changer. Consider offering targeted promotions or deals specifically for recovering abandoned carts. This sweetens the deal and incentivizes customers to complete their purchase at your store instead of heading to a competitor.
26. Exit-intent popups can help you connect with 53% of visitors before they leave.
This is why you shouldn’t underestimate the power of a well-timed popup. This statistic reveals that exit-intent popups, which appear when a visitor shows signs of leaving your site, can help you reconnect with a whopping 53% of departing customers.
With a tool like OptinMonster, you can streamline this process and turn more visitors into subscribers, which can later be converted into customers.
With its drag-and-drop builder, you can design beautiful, high-converting popups – even if you don’t know how to code. OptinMonster offers customizable campaigns, from exit-intent popups to lightbox forms, which lets you reach visitors at various touchpoints in their journey.
92% of visitors don’t intend to buy something the first time they land on your site.
54% of shoppers say they are more likely to revisit a website and complete their order if they are offered a discount.
Despite this, only 38% of marketers say they use email to reduce abandonment.
Organic search traffic is less likely to abandon their cart (76%) than visitors who find your site through social media (91%).
A little less than half (46%) of shoppers have left items in their cart because a discount code they received didn’t work.
Using predictive AI to personalize product and content recommendations can reduce abandonment by up to 18%.
While it’s hard to pin down an exact number, experts estimate over $4 trillion worth of products are left in abandoned shopping carts each year.
Customer Experience and eCommerce Statistics
Providing a good customer experience is important if you want your eCommerce business to succeed. Here are some statistics to keep in mind.
27. 76% of people say they are more likely to buy from an online store if they personalize their shopping experience.
This stat highlights a crucial factor for eCommerce business owners: creating unique shopping journeys that resonate with each customer.
Think about it: People who see generic offers that don’t resonate with their needs will likely ignore them in favor of ultra-personalized, relevant promotions. Personalized content and product suggestions will make customers feel like you are there with them, understand their needs, and are committed to their success.
Interestingly, 85% of leaders believe they are already doing a good job personalizing content and offers, but only 60% of shoppers agree. In other words, there’s a gap that you need to be mindful of when designing your personalization strategy.
28. 95% of shoppers look for reviews and other forms of social proof before making a purchase.
It’s impossible to deny the power of social proof in eCommerce. We bet that you look at reviews every time you buy something new online – after all, most people do.
When potential customers see positive reviews, testimonials, or user-generated content, it builds trust and validates your brand’s credibility. Imagine walking into a store and seeing it packed with happy customers – that feeling of social validation translates to the online world as well.
It’s a good idea to display reviews and testimonials on key parts of your website. The social wall plugin Smash Balloon can help with this because it lets you embed a reviews feed and show website visitors what people are saying about you on social media and other websites.
Plus consider using the social proof plugin TrustPulse to add engaging real-time live sales notifications to your site.
29. If your customer service team is unresponsive and a user has a question, 79% will leave and may never return.
You probably know that customer support is essential to your business, but did you know that 4 out of 5 people who don’t get their questions answered will leave for good? This startling statistic highlights why it’s so important to have a well-rounded customer support plan in place.
The consequences of having an unresponsive customer service team are quite severe. You’ll miss opportunities to connect with potential customers, people will think poorly of your brand, and existing customers may churn in favor of a company that offers 24/7 support.
Our advice is to use a mix of live support agents and chatbots to help your customers quickly and easily find what they are looking for.
Groove is a great help desk option that can make life easier for your support team. It allows you to quickly and easily respond to customers, track user history, create tasks, monitor feedback, and much more.
More Customer Experience Statistics
78% of people are more likely to place an order if there’s a fast and affordable shipping option.
Around 35% of shoppers say they would shop online more if they could virtually try a product before they buy it.
48% of internet users say if a site has a bad web design, it instantly loses credibility.
Less than 20% of people say customer service interactions with retailers exceeded their expectations.
Solving a customer’s problem could result in them telling 4 to 6 other people about their experience.
Globally, poor customer experiences cost businesses $75 million a year.
82% of people claim they are willing to spend more money on a product if they consistently receive excellent service.
The Future of eCommerce
We already know that online shopping has been growing over the years. So, let’s take a look at the future of eCommerce.
30. By the end of 2024, global eCommerce sales are projected to grow by 10% from the same time last year. Meanwhile, in-store sales are expected to see a 2% boost.
The future is bright for eCommerce businesses! This statistic paints a clear picture: online shopping is on a steady upward trajectory, while traditional brick-and-mortar stores see a more modest increase.
Plus, we expect this trend to continue in the years to come.
31. Experts predict the eCommerce market share to be worth over $8.1 trillion by 2026.
This is a very exciting prediction for eCommerce business owners across all industries. This means there’s a booming marketplace on the horizon, which translates to a wider audience for your products and more sales.
If you want to take advantage of this surge of new eCommerce traffic, make sure you are doing everything you can to align with your customers’ needs. This will give you the knowledge and experience you need to scale your business.
We recommend using a plugin like MonsterInsights to learn more about your eCommerce visitors. You can see at a glance who is visiting your site, how they found you, and more. Combine all of this data and you can learn so much about your target audience, like their needs, interests, and goals.
32. About 20% of all retail sales occur online. It’s estimated that this number will reach 25% by the end of 2025.
This statistic aligns with the others we have already listed – eCommerce is on the rise.
Over the course of the next year, we will see retail sales jump to 25%. This is partially due to new businesses opening up, and existing brands building a website and taking their products online.
More eCommerce Predictions
By the end of 2025, it’s estimated that PayPal, Venmo, and other digital wallets will make up over 52% of payments.
Most professional marketers agree that mobile eCommerce sales will reach $710 billion by 2025.
Mobile eCommerce sales are expected to bring in $729 billion in revenue by the start of 2026.
By the same time, subscription eCommerce will be worth an estimated $904.2 billion.
In 2027, eCommerce revenue in the United States alone is estimated to hit $6.43 billion.
There you have it! We hope this extensive list of eCommerce statistics helps you on your journey. If you are looking for more interesting statistics, check out some of our other posts below!
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