Tips and Tricks WP eCommerce

eCommerce Solution for WordPress Blog

WordPress eStore Plugin Features

The main features of the WP eStore Plugin are listed below:

WP eStore will help you with the following:

  • Get rid of any ongoing subscriptions you may have with a 3rd party site for your eCommerce needs
  • We don’t charge you for future plugin updates. So you will be able to get newer versions of the plugin for free.
  • Get rid of any heavyweight, bloated and site performance impacting e-Commerce software from your site
  • Use a plugin that is always kept upto date to work with the current version of WordPress (this way you won’t get stuck with a plugin that stops working after a WordPress upgrade)
  • Get a response from professional developers if you face an issue with the plugin (we won’t sell you a product then disappear)

Digital Product Delivery

  • Automatic instant digital product delivery. Upon payment the buyer receives a product download link in the email and also on the post-payment return page (eg. a Thank You page)
  • Encrypted Product download link (The buyer always receives an encrypted product download link which means the actual link to the product always remains secret)
  • Automatic Link Expiration (The encrypted link the buyer receives also gets expired after a configurable amount of time (eg. 12 hours) so the link doesn’t get passed around)
  • Ability to limit the number of downloads per link. An encrypted download link will automatically expire after a specified number of downloads (eg. 3 times) if this option is used
  • Ability to offer multiple file downloads per product
  • Allow your customers to redownload the digital files that they purchased
  • Ability to dispatch a serial number or license key (from a pool of pre-configured keys/numbers) to your customer upon purchase of a product
  • Variation control for digital product (digital delivery of different files depending on the selection)
  • You can also host your digital files at a non-web-accessible URL of your server such as “/home/var/digital_products/myproduct.zip”. WP eStore will be able to feed this file to your customers via an encrypted download link
  • Ability to automatically shorten the encrypted download URL using Google’s free URL shortener (this makes a complex URL look nice and tidy)
  • You (the admin) can re-generate encrypted download links manually for a digital product and send it to the buyer (useful when a buyer misses a download link)
  • Product Specific Instructions for the buyer. This option is useful when you need to give your customer some specific instruction that applies only to that product
  • Ability to offer a “Squeeze Page” type form (This allows the site visitors to download a free digital product after they fill in their name and email address. This can be used for email list building). See example
  • Ability to create download now buttons to serve free downloads to your users using the encrypted download system
  • Option to create free encrypted download now buttons (for downloadable items) using a simple link
  • You can let your customers see their purchase history

Security

  • WP eStore is PCI compliant.
  • You don’t need to have a SSL certificate to use WP eStore plugin
  • WP eStore easily works with your secure SSL (https) pages if you want to use a SSL certificate on your website
  • Automatic Instant Payment Notification (IPN) validation (The IPN sent from PayPal is validated against your products database and with PayPal, before the product download link is sent to the buyer. This stops anyone trying to scam the system by sending a fake IPN)
  • Automatic post payment product details verification. This stops anyone from trying to scam you by changing the product price or currency on the webpage by injecting queries into the form (learn more)
  • Product downloads are always delivered via encrypted download links
  • Keeps the true location of your digital asset hidden. This ensures the security of your digital asset

Lots of Free Addons

Amazon S3 Integration

  • Can be integrated with Amazon S3 so that the downloadable files can be stored on your Amazon S3 account and served via secure encrypted download
  • This method can be used to protect the digital items that you are selling or to protect the downloadable files that you are offering to your members (if you have created a membership site)
  • This option can be really good if you have an overcrowded shared hosting and you have a limited memory allowance on your server

Pay Per View Content

  • Simple Pay Per View Content Protection. Instant delivery of pay per view content, the true URL of the page where the content is embedded (e.g. a steaming video) does not get revealed
  • The link can be configured so it redirects the buyer to a web page instead of giving them a download (useful when you want to redirect the buyer to a web page which contains streaming videos for example)

Support

  • Free lifetime plugin updates. Please see the following post on how updates are handled
  • Free technical support for our plugin. Please see our support site to find out the available support options
  • Use the plugin on all of your sites (the sites that you own and operate)

Payment Related

  • Ability to use “Add to Cart”, “Buy Now” or “Subscription” type buttons
  • Ability to setup PayPal Donate buttons to accept donation for a cause
  • Ability to setup Subscription/Recurring payment via PayPal. Configure a “Subscription” button for any type of subscription payment. (See demo)
  • Ability to setup “Buy Now” type buttons with different PayPal email addresses (per button basis). Useful on a multi-author blog where different authors can setup “Buy Now” buttons with their products and get the money directly into their PayPal account after a sale
  • Allow customers to specify a product price (learn more).
  • Option to specify a PayPal checkout page style
  • Multiple Payment Gateways. Customers can pay via PayPal, 2Checkout, Authorize.net or a manual/offline process (learn more)
  • Option to add more payment gateways if you need via a premium gateway bundle addon

Currency and Language

  • Accept money in your preferred currency (Can be configured to accept money in any currency that is supported by PayPal or the payment gateway in use)
  • Ability to configure a secondary currency that can be used to display the equivalent price of the products in that currency (this is for display purpose only, the transaction takes place in the primary currency of your store).
  • Any texts or messages that your visitors can see, can be customized through the language file
  • Some language files for the commonly used languages are already included but others can be added upon request
  • You can customize the price currency display format (useful for European users)

Shopping Cart Related

  • Ability to specify a minimum checkout amount (example: only allow customers to checkout if the cart sub total value is more than $50.00)
  • Ability to specify a maximum checkout amount limit (example: do not allow customers to checkout if the cart sub total value is more than $500.00)
  • Ability to specify a per customer item quantity limit (example: only allow a customer to purchase a maximum of one copy of an item)
  • Ability to allow your customers to save their shopping cart so that it can be retrieved at a later time
  • Set an automatic redirection to the checkout page once a customer adds an item to the shopping cart
  • Hide the quantity field in the shopping cart (can be useful when selling only digital items)
  • Optionally display a continue shopping link in the shopping cart
  • Ability to specify a custom image that is displayed when the shopping cart is empty
  • Ability to add a product to the shopping cart on your site via a simple text link (helpful when you want to place a buy link on facebook, twitter etc).

Setup and Design

  • Easy to use and the freedom of adding an “Add to Cart”, “Buy Now” or “Subscription” type button for a product or service anywhere on your blog (posts, pages, sidebars, header, footer)
  • Products can be configured with a thumbnail image and a description and can be displayed in a stylish way by using a shortcode. (See demo)
  • Shopping cart – session based (The shopping cart can be displayed anywhere on your blog posts, pages and sidebar)
  • All the buttons are customizable through the usage of button images and CSS
  • Easy Checkout. Simple one-click checkout through PayPal or 2Checkout or Manual Checkout
  • Sell both digital and non-digital products with this one WordPress plugin
  • WP eStore DOES NOT create any page or post automatically (I find it untidy when plugins automatically create pages). WP eStore gives you all the shortcodes that you can embed on posts or pages to get various functionality but you will have to create the pages yourself (in my opinion this gives the designer more design flexibility)
  • Products can be listed under product categories allowing for easy placement of multiple items (the items you specify for this category) on one product page. e.g. You can display all the eBooks you have for sale by placing a shortcode on the products page
  • Terms and Conditions – You have the ability to require your customers to agree to your “Terms and Conditions” before they can purchase any item
  • PayPal custom template checkout pages can be used with the eStore plugin to customize your checkout page on PayPal
  • Simple Up-selling feature (the admin can use this feature to put in some coupon codes which the customers only get after they have made a purchase)
  • Collect Customer Input. This will display a text box next to the Add to Cart button where the customer can enter special instruction for that product (eg. a Name if selling Engraving)
  • Capability to limit the quantity to be sold for a specific product (Useful when you only want to sell 50 copies of a product for example)
  • Coupon Code/Discounts Feature. Offer coupons and discounts to your customers
  • Ability to offer product specific affiliate commission when using with the WP Affiliate Program plugin
  • Can be used with PayPal’s profile based shipping for dynamic shipping calculation based on location or weight
  • Ability to use the simple shipping and tax calculation feature that comes with the plugin or use the shipping and tax settings specified in your PayPal profile
  • Option to add a shipping variation in the shopping cart
  • Ability to apply tax calculation on shipping amount
  • Option to allow customers to pickup the items from your store. The cart won’t charge shipping to customers who choose to pickup from your store

Integration Options

  • Can be integrated with the NextGen Gallery Plugin to create a Digital Photo Store from the NextGen Gallery (sell photos from your WordPress site):
  • Can be integrated with Google Analytics E-Commerce tracking (learn more)
  • Pre-integrated with the WP Affiliate Platform plugin (the affiliate plugin is not included with the eStore plugin). So, in the future if you want to use an affiliate program to boost your sales all you have to do is activate the other plugin
  • Pre-integrated with WP eMember Plugin (the eMember plugin is not included with the eStore plugin). WordPress eMember is a membership plugin that can turn your existing or new WordPress site into a membership site easily. You can also setup recurring payment via the eStore for membership payments
  • Pre-Integrated with the WP PDF Stamper: This plugin allows you to protect your eBook from being uploaded to file sharing sites. Automatically stamping the footer of your eBook with the customer’s personal details (e.g. name, email, address) upon purchase
  • Can be easily integrated with the WishList Members plugin (Create Membership a Site)
  • AWeber Integration option. customers are automatically signed up to your AWeber list for email marketing purpose
  • MailChimp Integration option. This allows your customers to be signed up automatically to MailChimp list for email marketing purpose
  • GetResponse Integration option. This allows your customers to be signed up automatically to GetResponse campaign for email marketing purpose
  • Can be integrated with iDev Affiliate software
  • Can be integrated with the Memberwing Membership plugin
  • Ability to use Google base feed for your eStore products

Miscellaneous

  • Earnings and sales charts for your products.
  • Export customers record to a CSV file.
  • Export serial keys issued to your customers to a CSV file.
  • MySQL Database driven.
  • Customer Database (When a Customer purchases an Item his/her details are stored in the database).
  • WP eStore works well with any properly coded (valid xHTML code) WordPress theme (example: Thesis Theme, Genesis Theme, Elegant Themes etc.)

Visit the WordPress eStore Plugin Page.

How to Configure a Bundled Product Using the Existing Products

Making a packaged/bundled product from a bunch of existing products is very easy.

Step 1: Create a new eStore product that will be your bundled product

Step 2: Write down the product IDs of the existing eStore products that you want to bundle. The product IDs should be separated by commas (,). Example: 1,2,3

Step 3: Enter the product ids from step 2 in the “Digital Product URL” field of the new product that you are creating.

The screenshot below shows how the product ids are entered in the ‘Digital Product URL’ field to bundle multiple products together:

This new product will be a bundled product that includes product 1, product 2 and product 3. So when someone purchase this item he/she will receive three download links (one for product 1, one for product 2 and one for product 3).

Video Tutorial on How to Bundle Products

WP eStore Product Bundling

How to Customize the URL of the Download Validation Script

Check the eStore’s link shortener feature before going through the download validation script location customization instruction (a lot of users find that the link shortener feature is all that they need):

WP eStore’s Encrypted Link Shortener Feature

WP eStore has an automatic link shortener feature which can shorten all the encrypted download links before giving it to the customer. This will make the encrypted links look short and more manageable.

Go to WP eStore settings and check the “Shorten Encrypted Download Links” option to enable the auto encrypted link shortener feature.

Customize the Validation Script Location

This customization is NOT needed for any functionality. The instruction exists merely for anyone who is interested to do this. So I recommend that you use the default value.

This customization involves a little bit of code modification so before you attempt this you must test the plugin with the default settings and make sure everything is working as expected. It is also not a good idea to try this if you are not a developer.

Since this customization involves custom code modification, we have no way of troubleshooting any issue that may arise from this change. If encrypted download stops working after this customization then you need to undo your changes. The following instruction will help with that:

The download validation script validates a download request from a client and fetches the appropriate file for download after verification so the client never knows the real location of the file.

The Instructions

1) There is a file called “custom_download.php” in the “view” directory of the plugin. Copy this file to the target location.

2) Rename the “custom_download.php” file to “download.php”.

3) Now update the value of the “Download Validation Script Location” field from the settings menu to the target directory (include trailing slashes). For example,

http://www.your-domain.com/downloads/

If your WordPress is installed in the root of your site then you are done.

If you have installed WordPress in a sub-folder on your site (example: www.yoursite.com/blog) then you need to do one extra step.

4) Open the file your just copied and renamed and edit the value of the “$wp_home_dir” variable to the name of the subdirectory that contains WordPress.

In this example, the line should look like:

$wp_home_dir='blog';

A big thank you to The Assurer for getting this new method sorted out.

WordPress eStore Troubleshooting

The Email doesn’t Arrive after Purchase! What am I Doing Wrong?

Turn debug on by checking the ‘Enable Debug’ check box from the settings menu and then save the settings. Now perform a test transaction. The plugin will generate a file named ‘ipn_handle_debug.log’ logging every step of the validation, product verification, database update and email process. If you open the file in a text editor such as notepad you will be able to see what is going wrong. If you don’t understand the debug file then please share the content of the file on our support forum and we will be able to help you.

When an item is added to the shopping cart it sometimes shows up some times does not

Symptom – When an item is added to the shopping cart it sometimes shows up sometimes does not. Add/remove functions does not work all the time. When I turn off WP Super Cache plugin it works perfectly.

Cause – The WP super cache serves a static HTML version of your page so anyone adding items to the cart won’t show up as they are being served a cached version of the page.

Solution – Using the plugin with WP Super Cache plugin

W3 Total Cache Workaround

WP eStore is designed to work with the W3 Total Cache plugin. Simply do what the following post suggests:

The button Images appear too Big or Small on the Thesis Theme

The Thesis theme specifies the width of the input field in it’s CSS… you can override this CSS using the custom CSS file. Do what this post suggests:

Getting the “Requested File Could Not Be Found” Error when clicking on the Encrypted Link

Go through the following checklist to identify the issue and fix it:

No Image showing for the button (Buy Now or Subscription)

Put the button image URL (when using with customized button image) in the “Button Image URL” field of that product. There are some button images included in the images directory of the plugin that you can use. This is a shopping cart plugin so the “Add to Cart” buttons get the default settings options. You need to specify the button image for the “Buy Now” and “Subscription” buttons.

Variation Control Not Working

If the variation control works on the default WordPress Theme but not on your current theme then the problem is related to Javascript not loading on the page. Look in the theme files to confirm that your current theme has the following bif of code:

<?php wp_footer(); ?>

Some theme developers do not understand how wordpress works fully and develop themes that causes trouble. This plugin loads the javascript in the footer rather than in the header for site optimization purpose.

The workaround is to manually put the above bit of code in your “footer.php” file or include the java scripts in the header.

WordPress eStore Miscellaneous Tweaks

1. How to Show the Shopping Cart Widget Only When There are Items in the Cart

Add a standard WordPress text widget to the sidebar widget. Then use the following shortcode in that text widget:

[wp_eStore_cart_when_not_empty]

2. How to Change the Look and Feel of the Shopping Cart?

If you want to customize/change the way your shopping cart looks (for example you want to change the size of the ‘Your Shopping Cart’ title) then just introduce the following ‘div’ in your wordpress theme’s Stylesheet (style.css) file. Alternatively, you can just modify the ‘wp_eStore_style.css’ file that came with the plugin.

.shopping_cart{
font-size:12px;
color:#228CD2;
}
.shopping_cart h2{
font-size:14px;
}

Of course you will have to change the font size and color etc to your needs and maybe add more style to it. This is just a guideline.

3. How to Use a Custom Image as the button

Simply put the URL of the image that you want to use as the button (for customized button image) in the “Button Image URL” field of that product under the “Additional Product Details” section. There are some button images included in the “images” directory of the plugin that you can use freely.

4. How to Use the ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Subscribe’ button on a Standalone HTML page

If you want to use the ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Subscribe’ button on a standalone HTML page (eg. landing page) on a domain where you have the WP eStore plugin installed then you can use the following option to achieve this:

Alternatively, you can use the following method:

  • Configure a product with ‘Subscription’ or ‘Buy Now’ button using the WP eStore.
  • Put this product on a WordPress post or page then preview the page or publish it so you can view the page from the front end.
  • Now, select view source in the browser so you can view the HTML code of this page. Find the HTML code generated for the button.
  • Then copy and paste the HTML code for this button in the standalone HTML page.

The plugin will handle the post payment processing when someone makes a purchase using this button.

5. How to make the “instruction” input box bigger

Search for the following line in the “eStore_button_display_helper.php” file:

<input type="text" name="custom_input" value="" class="eStore_text_input" />

Once you find it replace it with the following (there will be 2 occurrences so change them both):

<textarea name="custom_input" cols="20" rows="3" /></textarea>

Please note that you shouldn’t use the Instruction input box to collect long instructions as that field has a limit of 256 characters. If you need to collect long instructions from the customer during checkout then you should use PayPal’s special instruction input section explained here.

6. How to Customize the Checkout Page on PayPal

7. How to Hide a Page (eg. Thank You page) from the WordPress Menu

The pages in the menu are displayed using the following code in your template file (it may have some additional parameters):

<?php wp_list_pages(); ?>

You just have to change that to use the following:

<? php wp_list_pages('exclude=5,8'); ?>

This way WordPress will exlcude pages with the id 5 and 8 from displaying on the navigation. You will have to replace these number with the page id of the pages that you want to hide from displaying.

If you don’t want to do it manually then you can use a plugin eg. the Page Exclude Plugin that helps you exclude pages from displaying.

8. How to Display Button(s) on the Sidebar

In order to add button(s) to the sidebar you will need to use one of the PHP function calls. Please refer to the WP eStore Shortcodes for a list of available functions.

Now if you are calling the function from the theme’s template file (sidebar.php, header.php, footer.php etc) then you are fine but there is another way to do this using the widgets which could be more practical in some cases.

1. Download and activate the Executable PHP code plugin if you don’t have it already. This plugin lets you call php functions from the widgets (it’s similar to the Text widget but it lets you execute PHP code too).

2. Go to the widgets menu and add a ‘PHP Code’ widget to the sidebar (where you want to display the ‘Add to Cart’ buttons). Now you can enter PHP code here to display the buttons.

<?php echo print_eStore_buy_now_button(1); ?>

This will display a ‘Buy Now’ type button for the product with product id 1.

9. How to Display the Shopping Cart Using a PHP Function Call

If you ever want to show the shopping cart by calling a php function for whatever reason then the following bit of code should do the trick:

<?php echo eStore_cart_when_not_empty(); ?>

10. How to Display a Simple List of all the Products with ‘Add to Cart’ Buttons

WP eStore allows the listing of all the products configured in the database with a simple trigger text or by calling a function. To show the listing of all the products in a post or page use the following trigger text in HTML view.

show_products_table_tag

You can also call the following function from any template file of your theme to display the products list.

show_products_table_function

Credit: This feature was suggested and implement by Cornel Ivanescu

11. How to Display the MP3 Tracks as Preview

Step1: Download the WordPress audio player plugin

Step2: Create your preview/demo mp3 file (eg. first 10 seconds of your real mp3 music).

Step3: Embed this demo mp3 using the Audio player

Step4: Configure a product using the eStore’s Add/Edit Products menu (specify the URL of the real mp3 file as the downloadable file)

Step5: Put the “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” button next to the embedded demo that you created in step 3 so customers can purchase it.

When anyone makes a purchase using that “Add to Cart” button they will get the full version mp3 as the download.

12. How to Create Buttons to Accept Payment in Multiple Currencies

You can create “Buy Now” type buttons in any currency you like. For example, you can have two buttons for the same product (one in USD and the other in EUR).

To create “Buy Now” type buttons in different currencies simply specify it in the “Buy Now Type Button Specific Settings” section of the product (enter it in the “Currency Code” field).

This does not work for “Add to Cart” type buttons though. Here is the reason if you are asking why:

What happens when the customer adds multiple products to the shopping cart that are in different currencies? How do you calculate the total? Not to mention that PayPal won’t process a payment if a checkout has items in different currencies.

13. Making Credit Card the Default PayPal Checkout Option

Use this addon plugin to force PayPal to show the credit card as the default option on the checkout page.

WordPress eStore Plugin Demo

See the power and flexibility of the WP eStore plugin by checking out the demos below.

Stylish Product Display Templates

Cool Test Product
Cool Test Product
This is a test description for this dummy product. This description is here to show how the description of this product looks like. You can insert plain HTML in this field too. Some more example text to fill the shopping cart product description.
Available Qty: 200
Price: $15.99

Your products can be displayed like the one above or the ones below by using a simple shortcode anywhere on your site (all the available stylish product display templates are listed here).

Demo Engraving
Demo Engraving
A product that requires instructions from customer. The customer can add text in the "Instruction" text box below
Price: $10.00
Instructions:
Demo Photo
Demo Photo
A product with variation control. Variation control allows the customer to choose the variation that they want to purchase.
Price: $50.00
Size :
Resolution :

Feel free to hit the Add to Cart buttons to see how the shopping cart looks and works.

Fancy Display Test
Some test description of the product to show how this description field looks like. You can insert plain HTML in this field too. Some more description of the product goes here. Damn! This product display looks good.
Price: $29.95
Details

Collect Subscription/Recurring Payments

You can create subscription type buttons with eStore to collect recurring payments from your customers.

The following demo subscription product charges the customer $29.95 USD for the first 7 days Then $49.95 USD for each month, for 6 installments

The WP eStore plugin can be used to create any type of Subscription payment.

Test Subscription Product Two
Test Subscription Product Two
A test subscription product that charges the customer $49.95 USD each month.
Price: $49.95

Create Simple Add to Cart Buttons

You can create a simple buy button to sell your products using a shortcode for maximum design flexibility. A basic button shortcode just places the button like the one below so you can design/display the product details around it (however you want it). You can also customize the look of this button by using any custom button image (Very useful when creating a landing/sales page).

For example, I placed this basic button inside a table with some image and text to create the following display:

product image ebook selling
Demo eBook
Price: $19.50
 product image audio selling
Demo mp3 song
Price: $5.00

Create Buy Now Type Buttons

WP eStore lets you create “Buy Now” type buttons (one item quick checkout via PayPal or any other supported payment gateway). You can use these buttons anywhere on your site (very useful for landing pages).

product-image-red-cake
Demo Buy Now Button
Price: $20.00

The above ‘Buy Now’ button takes the customer directly to PayPal for Payment (Useful when you want to avoid the shopping cart system and want to provide the customer an one item, one click checkout process).

Does the buy button below look familiar to you (as seen on many sales pages)? 🙂 You can create it easily with WP eStore!

You can also use the stylish product display templates to show a nice Buy Now button on your landing page for your product. See example below:

Fancy Display Test Product Four
Fancy Display Test Product Four
$49.95$39.95

Create PayPal Donation Buttons

WP eStore plugin lets you create “PayPal Donation” buttons that you can use anywhere on your site to collect donations. Click on the following donation button (created with WP eStore) to see how it works:

Create Secure Download Buttons

You can use eStore to create secure download now buttons even for free products. This keeps the true location of the digital asset hidden.

Why do you want to hide the URL of a free product?

Sometimes you don’t want people to be able to share the URL of the item in an online forum or a webpage. This forces them to come to your site to download the item.

Build Email List On Autopilot

WP eStore can be used to build an email list by giving some product for free using a squeeze page type form. This page explains how to take advantage of this feature.

Squeeze Form Example

stylish squeeze form

Allow Your Customers to Specify a Price

You can use WP eStore to sell items where the customer can specify the price of an item/product. For example, you can specify a price for the following demo item then hit the add to cart button to see how it works:

Customer Specifies a Price Demo
Customer Specifies a Price Demo
This is a test description. This description is here to show how the description of this product looks like.
Price: $2.00
Your Price: $ 

There is a minimum amount limit of $2.00 specified for this product (this amount is customizable). So you cannot enter an amount lower than $2.00 in the above example.

Setup a Simple Pay Per View System

The following demo product demonstrates how you can setup a simple pay per view system using the WP eStore plugin.

Demo VOD content
Price: $1.00

Once the buyer clicks on the encrypted link that he receives after the payment, he will be redirected to a web page allowing the customer to watch the streaming video(s).

The true URL of the page where the content is embedded does not get revealed. So, if you try to copy and paste this URL then it will not work unless you actually make a purchase and click on the encrypted link.

Sell MP3 Music/Podcast/Audio

You can sell music/podcast/audio files with this plugin also.

Demo MP3 Audio
$5.00

Sell Photos/Images

You can use the eStore plugin to sell photos from your WordPress site. There are a few ways you can sell photos using eStore. Checkout the details of a photo selling example from this page.

Use Coupon Codes in Your Shopping Cart

WP eStore lets you create coupon/discount codes that your customers can use in the shopping cart when they purchase items on your site.

After you add some products to the shopping cart use coupon code “DEMOCOUP1” (gives a 20% discount on all items) to see how it works.

Visit the Coupon codes feature page to see more.

Shopping Cart Display Options

Unlike other shopping cart plugins, WP eStore doesn’t require you to have a specific checkout page unless you want to. The standard shopping cart is capable of letting your customers checkout from where it is being displayed (for example: the sidebar, header, footer, any post, any page etc.). This in turn help you minimize cart abandonment rate (the less hoops a customer has to jump through to do a checkout, the less the cart abandonment rate).

Customers only have to click one button to do the checkout (there is no need to fill up any forms).

The following section shows all the different types of shopping cart display options that are available for you to use on your site when using the WP eStore plugin.

1. Shopping Cart Display: Classic Option

When you add items to the cart, the following section will show the shopping cart using the classic display:

Your Shopping Cart

Shopping Cart Empty
Shopping Cart is Empty
Visit The Shop

2. Shopping Cart Display: Fancy1 Option

When you add items to the cart, the following section will show the shopping cart using the fancy1 display:

Shopping Cart Empty
Shopping Cart is Empty
Visit The Shop

3. Shopping Cart Display: Fancy2 Option

When you add items to the cart, the following section will show the shopping cart using the fancy2 display:

Shopping Cart Empty
Shopping Cart is Empty
Visit The Shop

4. Shopping Cart Display: With Product Thumbnail Option

When you add items to the cart, the following section will show the shopping cart with the product thumbnails for each item:

Shopping Cart Empty
Shopping Cart is Empty
Visit The Shop

5. Shopping Cart Display: Only When There are Items in The Cart

The shopping cart in this section is only visible if there is an item in the cart. If the cart is empty nothing will be visible in this section:

Compact Shopping Cart Display Options

WP eStore comes with a few compact shopping cart display templates. You can use these to show a compact version of the shopping cart on your sidebar.

Visit the compact cart display templates page to see more.

Other Demos

What Our Customers Have to Say About Our Products

Here are some good things that the users have been saying about our WordPress plugins. Feel free to send us your feedback via email or leave it in the comment section below.

wp-estore-testimonial-icon

Pamela Preslar

OMG! Your WordPress plugins work beautifully!

You are amazing. I’m having so much fun designing my site with your tools. My hair wants cutting and my nails need filing but I spend every moment I can working on my site. I’m going to have to get a video camera just so I have an excuse to buy Lightbox Ultimate. Actually, I’m going to just buy it as a tangible thank you.

Personalbrandingforprofit.com

If you are looking for a way to sell products or services on your blog, out of all the plugins I checked out, and believe me I checked out many; eStore, eMember and affiliate platform bundle is the simplest most user friendly easy to install plugins I’ve found for what I want to do.

Greg Salisbury

If you are seriously considering making money online but you have the following mentality then don’t bother reading the rest of my entry

I will never spend a cent in order to set up a proper business model and structure but I EXPECT everyone else in the world to somehow pay me money.

For the rest of you who have the correct mind set here is what I got to say…

If you are selling digital products and you have never tried WP eStore then you have got to give this product a go! It is simply amazing how easy it is to sell digital products with this plugin!

Oxenmine.com

Let me just say – eStore is definitely the best-est shopping cart plugin and eMember is the best-est membership plugin I found. I checked nearly EVERY SINGLE ONE.  And support – probably defines the concept of offering support to customers.

Ive been kind of blessed both with my theme seller and my plugin sellers – you are definitely the most awesomest 🙂 wordpress-angel around – Ivy.

Just trying to say thanks 🙂

People if you have detailed questions on how good the service here is – just ask at http://oxenmine.com 🙂

Ill provide the tutorial for free.

Workingartistsonline.com

Love your software for WordPress – in large part because not only do they work well, you also have accurate and easy to implement instructions. Glad I found your stuff.

Obi

I want to emphasize again that this is hands down the best shopping cart solution and one of the better combination of plugins that I have seen yet for WordPress. Worth every penny.

Ray

Wonderful, I can’t believe how well this works, simple, elegant and what a price! Works better than carts costing hundreds more. An honest man, a rarity these days. thank you

Angelo

Wow! Thank you so much. I think I have to adjust something, but the code you gave me works. The plugin is just unbelievable, and your support is great. your plugin = the best 49 dollars I’ve spent in my life!

Exceltrader

I purchased the wp estore plugin a few weeks ago I just wanted to come back here and say thanks. I have had some sales and no one has had any problems checking out and/or downloading their digital files! I use wordpress on a non apache server so I was worried that there would be issues with “url rewriting” (like I have had with other plugins that do anything with urls). There were actually no problems at all it just works perfectly for me.

The Local Landing

We found this plugin right after we commented on the Shopping Cart plugin yesterday, and it’s exactly what we needed. So you’re awesome.

Douglas Essery

Brilliant. A nice easy simple solution that works and performs as it should. Thank you for the personal !prompt! support helping getting the plug-in working.

Frosty

Really liking the plugin so far.

Rado

I am very happy with the WP eStore, WP eMember and WP Affiliate Platform already as is!

Superfish Funk

I have been away for a while and need to catch up, looks like you have been busy cooking up some amazing plugins for word press. I shall say it; www.tipsandtricks-hq.com is THE place – right now.
You are amongst the very best – if not the VERY best!

Cameron

Congratulations on a great set of plug-ins, it’s worth every penny, well done!

David

Thanks for the support! Truly the best WordPress product and Support out there!

Pete

I just wanted to say that your plugin rocks. I had spent money on the wp-ecommerce when it came out,wasted money on Gold Cart and grid, drag and drop plugins and have never, in 2 years been able to get it to function properly. For that matter, ever had a product listed.

Ive had yours for 5 days and I have had instant success…
Just goes to show that if you spend too much effort trying to add so much crap, it never runs smoothly..

Your plugin suits me. I adapt the K.I.S.S policy with it….    Keep It Simple Stupid!
Love your work.

Anthony

I just wanted to put in an unsolicited plug for this product and Amin. As a former programmer myself I know how much work went into this eStore – and it does work right out of the box, including the PayPal IPN interface which I remember took me forever to get right in perl years ago. Furthermore, when I contacted Amin about a couple of required tweaks that I noticed, he immediately fixed them and sent updates which had loads more features installed. The affiliate program works well too and also by the way makes a fantastic keyword tracker, hidden benefit. Anyway, I promise I do not know Amin from Adam but I am please to put in a good word.

Mark

I just downloaded this and within 5 minutes, I was up and running. I had been using Quick Shop in a site with about 4,000 hard-goods products. But when I switched to WP 2.91, it didn’t work anymore and the developer’s web page says that they will get around to updating when they get time!??! Reviewed eight other shopping cart apps before I found this one.

I’ve looked at all of your product pages and reviewed the requests for support comments. You are amazingly supportive. In all cases you answer quickly and in easy to understand language.

I also purchased the WP e-store app because I have another site I am developing with digital products. I have no doubt that will be just as easy.

Thank you but I have to go. I need to change the trigger text to wp_store in another 3,999 products.

Chack

I recently purchased and installed EStore. The purchase process was smooth and I got to see the plugin in action as I was buying!

As with nost WordPress plugins, installation is super simple, and after watching the videos on the support site, I was able to setup and test my first downloadable product without any hitches (after removing Bad Behavior Plugin). Worked like a charm!

This plugin is a no-brainer if you have digital products to sell. Easily beats the typical (expensive) e-commerce alternatives and from what I’ve seen of the EStore forum, the support is very good.

Great value for money!! Highly recommended!

Don’t forget to checkout some of the comments below too.

WP eStore Reviews

Checkout the following link for a list of eStore reviews.

WordPress eStore WishList (Feature Suggestions)

Tell us what you want to see in future versions of the WordPress eStore Plugin by leaving a comment in this post.

wordpress-estore-wish-list

When we look for features/functionality to implement in a future release of the WP eStore plugin we go through this page and pick the ones that we think adds more value, doesn’t make the plugin heavy and are most in need.

Features that will be Considered in a Future Release

Read the WP eStore change log to see which features have been added already.

  • Adwords conversion tracking
  • Google Analytics e-commerce tracking
  • Bitcoin payment gateway
  • Add a Link that says “Visit the shop” if the shopping cart is empty (configurable option).
  • Introduce Product Category and the option to display all products in that category.
  • Variation Control.
  • Add 2Checkout
  • Add Authorize.net gateway
  • allow manual checkout/off-line payment option
  • Ability to track coupon per transaction
  • downloadable goods can be delivered on the “Thank You” page after payment
  • Ability to take customer input for special instructions
  • Be able to automatically redirect to Checkout page after add cart
  • Add coupon code or discount feature
  • Black list email filtering option
  • Ability to sell serial keys
  • Create a Non-WordPress version
  • Add some basic sales stats
  • Add separate international Shipping Cost functionality
  • More fancy product display templates
  • Ability to offer product specific affiliate commission
  • Add an empty Cart button in the shopping cart
  • Display the product name of each product next to the encrypted link in the email
  • Implement Google Checkout option (can now be added to eStore via the payment gateway bundle)
  • Implement an optional checkbox for terms and conditions before checking out
  • Add TinyMCE buttons to the wordpress editor for plugins
  • Ability to use an image to display the empty shopping cart
  • Ability to configure a “Subscription” button for any type of subscription payment
  • Variation control for digital product (digital delivery of different files depending on the selection)
  • LightBox effect on product display images
  • Ability to insert HTML (eg. URL of a page) in the product description field
  • Ability to make a coupon code for a specific product
  • Ability to configure one time use coupons
  • Product Follow-up Messages. The plug-in automatically sends an optional second delivery message a certain number of minutes (or hours) after ordering.
  • AWeber auto responder integration
  • Infusionsoft auto responder integration
  • MailChimp auto responder integration
  • Integrates with OSI iDev Affiliate
  • Ability to link the thumbnail image to any URL
  • The upselling feature where the shopping cart shows related products below the cart
  • Add a third variation
  • Ability to POST PayPal IPN data to a external script (Can be used to integrate with the other plugins)
  • Limit download by number of download count
  • Change the look and feel of the checkout redirection page.
  • Add GetResponse inegration
  • PayPal Payment Pro Integration (can now be added to eStore via the payment gateway bundle)
  • Option to remove the Qty field from the cart
  • Investigate eWay Payment gateway (can now be added to eStore via the payment gateway bundle)
  • Ability to automatically shorten the encrypted download link using a link shortener service
  • Show a list of top/popular/best selling products (popular products widget)
  • Show a list of random products
  • Ability to specify a minimum and maximum cart amount checkout limitation value
  • Email settings for squeeze form submission emails
  • Add products via checkbox (The bulk item purchase addon can handle it)
  • Text link option for PayPal subscription product
  • Add an option to enable tax calculation on shipping amount
  • Option to show the currency symbol after the amount (for European users)
  • Add an option to create buy now text link for any gateway available in the plugin (very useful for adding a direct buy now link on the landing page of a product)

WordPress eStore Plugin Details

WordPress eStore is not a heavyweight online store/e-Commerce system. It is a simple and easy-to-use WordPress plugin that allows you to sell any kind of products (tangible and non-tangible) or services directly from your own site, with payment via PayPal, 2Checkout or Manual payment. It has the design flexibility to blend into your site’s look and feel, it has a shopping cart facility to handle sales of multiple products, and it provides purchasers with a customized time-limited encrypted download link to maintain the security of your digital assets. Best of all, it can be set up in less than five minutes.

The WP eStore plugin allows you to add “Add to Cart”, “Buy Now” or “Subscription” buttons anywhere on your wordpress blog (eg. posts, pages, sidebars) easily. It allows you to add the shopping cart anywhere on your blog too (eg. posts, pages, sidebars). The shopping cart shows the user what they currently have in the cart and allows them to remove the items.

After the buyer makes a payment, a pre-configured email is automatically sent to the buyer with an encrypted product download link (multiple links if the buyer purchased multiple products). The link automatically expires after a configured time.  The seller also gets a product sale notification email. This is why the WP eStore plugin is great for selling digital products (ebook, mp3, photos etc) directly from your wordpress blog.

The encrypted link can be configured so it redirects the buyer to a web page when clicked. This is particularly useful when you want to set up a video on demand (V.O.D) system for example. You can also use this plugin to send membership info (login and password) to the buyer after he/she has paid for it.

With this plugin you can design the way you want to display the product listing (You use the WordPress editor to design the way you want the product listing to appear with images, inside a table  etc, then just add an ‘add to cart’ button next/below the product with the trigger text which allows the buyer to purchase the product). You also have the flexibility of showing the shopping cart anywhere (posts, pages, sidebar) on your blog.

WordPress eStore Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

faq-icon_128

  • Is WP eStore compatible with the latest version of WordPress?

Yes, all of our plugins are kept upto date to work with the latest version of WordPress. We use our plugins on our own site, so it is in our best interest to keep the plugins upto date.

  • Are there any ongoing fees for WP eStore plugin?

No, the WP eStore plugin is a one time purchase software.

  • Why buy a premium WordPress plugin?

See the why buy a premium WordPress plugin page.

  • Is there a limit to the number of products I can have with WP eStore plugin?

No, the WP eStore plugin has no restrictions on the number of products you can have.

  • What payment gateways are available?

At the moment the WP eStore plugin has 7 payment gateways that comes with the plugin for FREE (PayPal, 2Checkout, Authorize.net, Manual, BitPay, Google Wallet, eWay Rapid 3.0).

We also have a premium addon that can be used to add a lot more payment gateways to eStore if you need. See the Payment Gateway Details page to learn more.

  • Is the eStore plugin PCI compliant?

Yes the eStore plugin is PCI Compliant.

  • What autoresponders can be integrated with WP eStore?

WP eStore currently integrates with AWeber, MailChimp, GetResponse.

  • What themes work with your plugins?

You can use any properly coded theme with our plugins. See this article for more information on what a properly coded theme is. Many of our customers use the following themes with our WordPress plugins.

    • WordPress Default Themes
    • Themes from WordPress.org Theme Repository
    • Thesis
    • Genesis
    • Headway
    • Child Themes
  • I want to sell a downloadable PDF (eBook), does your software cover PDF download and is this fully automatic? I want to leave this site on autopilot and start on a new site.

Yes, the WP eStore plugin is specifically designed to sell digital products securely on Auto-Pilot

  • Can I sell services and subscriptions with the eStore?

Yes you can sell services and subscriptions (recurring and non-recurring) with the eStore.

  • Does the WordPress eStore plugin work on a WordPress MS (Multi-Site) installation?

Yes

  • Can the plugin’s language be translated or customized?

Yes, Any of the customer visible text/messages displayed by the plugin can be translated for localization purpose.

  • Which languages are already included in the plugin?

The following languages are already included in the plugin:

  • English
  • Spanish
  • German
  • Italian
  • Dutch
  • French
  • Hebrew
  • Swedish
  • Polish
  • Serbian
  • Portuguese
  • Russian
  • Bulgarian
  • Catalan
  • Chinese
  • Norwegian
  • Czech
  • Can this plugin be used to accept paypal payment for a digital product?

Yes

  • Can the PayPal secure merchant ID be used instead of the email to receive payment?

Yes

  • Does this plugin have shopping cart functionality?

Yes

  • Can the shopping cart be added to any post, page and sidebar?

Yes

  • Does this plugin have multiple currency support?

Yes, it can be configured to accept all the currencies that are supported by the Payment Gateway that you are using.

  • Is the ‘Buy  button customizable?

Yes, you can customize the “buy” button. You can use any button image or customize the text of the default button. This can be done on a global or per product basis.

  • Does this plugin use a return URL to redirect customers to a specified page after Paypal has processed the payment?

Yes, typically you will make a ‘Thank You’ page where your customers will be redirected to after payment.

  • Can this plugin be used to automatically email the digital product to the buyer after purchase?

Yes

  • How does this plugin deliver the digital product to the buyer?

The plugin will send an email to the buyer which will contain an encrypted download link that is valid for a configurable amount of time. The buyer will also be able to download the digital products from the “Thank You” page instantly after payment.

  • Can I put the downloadable files on a storage site and serve it from there?

Yes, the downloadable files can be stored anywhere on the web (eg. your domain, a storage site, amazon S3) as long as it’s accessible. Customers always receive a link that allows them to download the file but they never know where it’s actually coming from.

  • Can I sell large digital files with WP eStore plugin?

The short answer is yes. However, if you plan to sell large files then you must read the document on Selling Large Files with eStore.

  • Can I have multiple files per product?

Yes, you can break a large file into smaller files and deliver all the parts upon purchase of the product.

  • Can I sell both digital and physical products with the plugin?

Yes (How to sell digital and no-digital products with WP eStore plugin)

  • Can I charge sales tax (regional and international) to my customers?

Yes (How to use sales tax)

  • What license or licenses are you using for the WP eStore plugin?

Read the WP eStore license details

  • Is a special PayPal account needed for the WP eStore to work?

No, you don’t need any specif PayPal account to use the WP eStore plugin but I think PayPal requires you to have a premium or business account if you want your customers be able to pay you using their credit card. Upgrading to PayPal Premium or Business account is free.

  • Does my site need to have an SSL certificate?

No, your site does not need an SSL certificate. The credit cards are accepted on the payment gateway’s site and uses their SSL. However, if you want to use a payment gateway that does on-site checkout (example: Stripe) then you will need an SSL certificate.

  • Do I need to buy the product right now?

No, there is no rush or limited sale for this product. However, over time as we add more features to the product the price is increased to match the development effort. Existing customers get free future updates. The only reason for you to buy right now would be to lock in the current price.