Once you’ve made the decision to start your online store, you don’t want anything to slow you down.
But if your store isn’t built with longevity in mind, you could run into trouble. You could also see poor sales, unhappy customers, and a lack of long-term loyalty.
To help keep your WooCommerce-powered store profitable, you need to build it with long-term stability, security, and performance in mind. Here are a few tips to help you do just that.
Make Security a Priority
If you own an online store, you are a target. It doesn’t matter how small your business is. Taking payments and shipping products could potentially put you at risk for a hack.
Here are a few ways you can prioritize security and breathe a little easier:
- Use secure passwords and 2-factor authentication.
- Don’t use WordPress’s default “admin” login.
- Use the Jetpack plugin to block malicious login attempts.
- Use plugins and extensions from sources you know and trust.
- Accept payments with PayPal so customers can securely checkout without their full financial information being shared with you.
These are all one-time actions that will cost you nothing and help keep your customers’ financial information secure.
Back Up Your Store Regularly
Your store is full of important data, from customer information to products. What would you do if something happened to it?
In addition to its security features, the Jetpack plugin for WooCommerce allows you to automatically generate backups, restore data in the event of a loss, or create manual backups that you can restore at any time. Having backups will give you peace of mind, and will help ensure your store is never in a position where you can’t recover from an unexpected loss of data.
Choose Add-Ons From Reputable Sources
If you need your store to do something new, you only need to find the right WooCommerce extension.
But with great power comes great responsibility. If you don’t choose your extensions carefully, they could dramatically impact your performance.
When you’re choosing a plugin or extension to use with your WooCommerce store, look for the following qualities:
- Compatibility with the current version of WordPress and WooCommerce.
- Recent updates that add features, fix bugs, etc.
- Quality support.
Choosing extensions from reputable sources means that you’re less likely to see conflicts with other software and bugs. It also makes getting help -- if you need it -- a lot easier.
Make Maintenance a Priority
One final way to ensure that your store lasts a long time is to keep it maintained -- that is, keeping all of your software and extensions current and updated.
We suggest setting aside a dedicated amount of time to perform maintenance, whether that means taking care of extension updates every week or once per month.
It might even make sense to create a monthly appointment on your calendar for your maintenance and updates, just so you don’t forget.
Use These Tips to Help Keep Your Store Running Smoothly
If you take the time to prioritize security, stability, and maintenance, your online store can run more smoothly… and this will help keep your customers coming back again and again.
Keep these tips in mind as you grow your WooCommerce-powered store (and your business) and you’ll be in the clear for many years to come.
This article represents the thoughts of the author. You should always seek your own independent business and legal advice.