Setting up your own e-commerce site can be pretty fun. You’re a 21st-century shopkeeper! You’re hawking your wares, running promos and putting up a powerful social media game. It can all be pretty flashy on the frontend. But what about behind the scenes? Is your WooCommerce backend up to the challenge?
Because all the pretty products, beautiful design and irresistible promotions are for nothing if your backend brings your WooCommerce store to a screeching halt.
It may not be as flashy and fun, but you need to put some time and energy into the behind-the-scenes systems of your WordPress WooCommerce site.
Five of those big WooCommerce backend issues include:
- Backup
- Security
- Hosting
- Mobile
- Stats
Let’s dive in.
1. WooCommerce Backup
If you’re not backing up your e-commerce site, you’re asking for trouble. A major way to protect your WooCommerce backend is to backup your WordPress site. You never know what can happen to your site—user error, hackers, acts of God—and the only way to be prepared is to prepare for the worst.
You’ve got money on the line and the faster you can restore your site or fix a problem, the better.
2. WooCommerce Security
Another crucial piece of your WooCommerce backend is security. You’ve got to protect your site.
Digital security is a hot topic these days, but we don’t always translate headlines about hackers into taking action in our own businesses.It’s even more important with e-commerce. You’re handling credit card info and your credibility is on the line. You have a responsibility to safeguard your customers’ personal information, so don’t neglect to take active security measures to protect your WooCommerce store. It’s all about trust.
3. WooCommerce Hosting
One of the biggest pieces of your WooCommerce backend is hosting. This is where your website physically resides.
The limits of your host are ultimately the limits of your website: You can only go as fast as your hosting will allow.
That means choosing the right WooCommerce host is incredibly important.
4. WooCommerce Mobile
More and more online purchases are happening on mobile devices. Does your WooCommerce store work on mobile? If you don’t have an immediate answer, you better figure it out.
Mobile might seem like a front-end issue, but it’s a major component of your WooCommerce backend. How you set up your store, the themes and plugins you use will determine how well it works on mobile devices. Don’t leave your WooCommerce backend up to chance and risk losing those mobile shoppers.
5. WooCommerce Stats
A final piece of the WooCommerce backend that’s often overlooked is stats. You need good data to make good decisions. Unfortunately, the default WooCommerce reports are fairly limited. They give you some basic data, but you’ll want more.
WooCommerce store owners often forget about stats because they’re too busy opening the store and then putting out fires. Everything is moving quickly. By the time you think about stats you’ve lost precious data because you didn’t set it up in the first place.
Learn more about better WooCommerce reporting with iThemes Sales Accelerator.
Don’t Forget Your WooCommerce BackEnd
Running a WooCommerce site can be a wild ride. There’s a lot to keep track of and a lot of money to be made. But if you overlook some of the WooCommerce backend basics, you could be crippling your store and limiting your success.
