Are you thinking of running many online shops? Then you need to look no further than this WooCommerce Multiple Store Location Guide.
Once you have reached a particular stage in your WooCommerce (WC) business, you may want to consider opening lots of retail outlets to grow your business even further.
However, you, like many other people, may find the thought of opening more than one retail location very intimidating. This is because it will likely involve a lot more challenges than running a single online store.
If you are a person who falls into the above category, then we have good news for you. In this article, we will explain why you should open additional WooCommerce shops. Furthermore, we will explain how you can easily manage all these outlets without getting overwhelmed.
So whether you are opening your first WC shop or if you are running a single WC outlet, continue reading. Because we are about to explain almost everything you need to know about opening multiple WooCommerce stores.
What is WooCommerce?
WooCommerce is an open-source, free WordPress plugin that turns your WordPress website into an online shop. This is done by adding various e-commerce features. These features include things such as creating products, setting prices, product shipping, payment methods, etc.
WC has the largest market share of any online store creator in the world. Furthermore, this popularity is due to 3 main reasons:
- It is free
- It is also used by the most popular platform to build a website, WordPress.
- It has a huge development community with third-party support
This software is not an independent e-commerce platform. You will need to have a designed, functioning, and hosted WordPress website to use WooCommerce. In addition, with this platform, you have much more control over almost every aspect of your online store, such as:
- Customizations
- Software Updates,
- Plugin Installation,
- and Website Security.
WC gives you the freedom to make your online outlet exactly as you want it without any restrictions. The only drawback in this arrangement is that you need to be fairly competent with technology and software.
Some key features of WC include:
- Integration with WordPress, which is where the majority of websites are built on
- With the freedom to micromanage all aspects of your online outlets, you are not restricted in any way
- Selling all kinds of products, such as simple, virtual, variable, etc.
- Extensions and plugins that will add more functionality to your e-commerce store
- An SEO-friendly environment since it is integrated with WordPress
- The open-source software that users can extensively customize and modify according to their need
How to Create Stock Locations on WooCommerce?
One question that is asked is how to create stock locations on WooCommerce.To create a stock location on WC, you can use the Multi Store Addons for WooCommerce plugin to do so.
To begin creating stock locations, you will first need to create a shop location and assign products to this location. Go to the Agile Store Locator plugin on your WordPress admin page, and select “Add New Store”. Fill in the shop details (title, description, country, etc.) and click on “Add Store” when you are done.
Once you have added a retail location, now you simply need to assign products to it to turn it into a stock location. To assign products to your newly created retail location, go to the “Products” tab on the WordPress admin page, and assign your desired products to the newly created retail outlet. Once you are done, you can set the stock level for a particular product at a stock location.
Multisite Support of WooCommerce
One of the first questions that might come to your mind is whether WooCommerce supports multisite stores.
The short answer is yes. WC fully supports multisite functions, and it is also compatible with many other multistore management plugins.
Once you create a WooCommerce multiple store location environment, you will gain access to a main admin panel through which you will be able to manage all of your outlets. Furthermore, from the admin panel, you will be able to manage orders, track inventory, ship products, etc.
What is WooCommerce Multistore?
A physical shop starts off with one branch. Moreover, if the branch has been doing great (sales-wise) more branches are opened to grow the shop even further. Furthermore, as an online business owner, you too can “open” a new shop so that you will be able to sell more products to a wider customer base.
Once you have a WC store up and running, you will finally be able to begin your e-commerce journey. As the days progress, no doubt your online outlets will continue to grow as you attract more customers, offer more products, and sell your products in different locations.
Once you have a few years of online trading under your belt, you might find the need to set up multiple selling locations to reach even more customers with specialized products and boost your sales. Moreover, these new shops will take the form of different websites that are independent of each other. Furthermore, you can manage each of your outlets similarly to how you used to manage a single outlet, the difference is that now you will have more retail locations to look after.
What is meant by Multistore Locations?
To avoid confusion, let’s define what is exactly meant by multistore locations. Multistore locations simply refer to different outlets that are independent of each other. This means that the sales, shipping, stock, products, orders, etc. of each shop are separate from the rest of the locations.
Benefits of Having WooCommerce Multiple Store Locations
While having many outlets is a good solution for most businesses, not everyone needs to or is well-equipped to open a WooCommerce multiple store location network. Therefore, it is better to reflect on whether opening more than one online retail outlet is a good idea for your business or not.
After all, you don’t want to get ahead of yourself and start something that you can’t handle. Furthermore, it is better to weigh your options first and decide if you are ready to open a WooCommerce multiple store location environment. If not, you can always try again after a few years.
But, if you feel you are ready to open additional outlets, then please keep on reading.
In case you have decided to open a WooCommerce multiple store location network, let’s take a look at some of the benefits you can get from having many shops.
- Region-Focused Stores – A different location in a specific region can help you sell certain products to a certain demographic. For example, you could open a shop in countries with cold climates, and dedicate it to selling winter wear.
- Expand Your Business – Opening more shops will allow your business to grow and flourish further. At one point, having a single outlet may not be enough to keep up with the demand of your customers. Therefore, in this case, you will need more locations to be able to sell your products to more people
- Native Language Stores – To better connect with customers in a certain region or country, you can open a new shop in that region or country’s native language
- Specialized Product Stores – By opening additional locations, you will be able to assign specific products to specific branches, thus having a specialized shop for selling a specific type of product. For example, you can have an outlet that is entirely dedicated to selling electronic items.
- Unique Store Designs – Opening more stores will also enable you to customize them with unique appearances that are consistent with what type of product is being sold. In addition, each shop’s SEO can be improved by using different keywords.
- Wholesale and Retail Stores – By opening multiple outlets, you will be able to differentiate stores that deal with retail products and wholesale products. Therefore, you will be able to direct your target customers to specific locations, depending on whether they want to purchase wholesale or retail.
How To Manage Multiple Stores on WooCommerce?
As you can see, the challenge of multiple WC store locations (or multistore locations) is that you will need to manage all of the following aspects for each of your outlets:
- Orders
- Shipping
- Sales and Discounts
- Overheads
- Customer and Product Data
- Outlet Appearance
This leads us to the question of why anyone would want to open many retail branches if the task of managing them seems overwhelming.
Well, the answer is very simple.
You will easily be able to manage lots of outlets using the right tools. That’s right, with the correct WooCommerce multiple-store management plugin, the task of managing a huge number of shops will be almost as easy as managing a single shop.
To manage additional retail locations, you will need to use proper plugins that are compatible with WooCommerce. Moreover, these plugins should help you manage extra branches by providing you with the following features:
1. A Centralized “Command Center” from where you can control almost all aspects of your online locations such as order processing, inventory management, shipment tracking, etc.
2. Product/ stock updates
3. A detailed report or summary of what is going on in all of your locations
4. Allow you to make changes such as branch appearance, price, discount, product description, etc. without needing to go to each outlet page
A multiple-store manager plugin that allows you to perform various operations from one dashboard is the most ideal plugin to manage many online shops.
All in all, here is a quick summary of what you need to do to create and manage many online retail outlets:
- Activate the Multisite Feature on WordPress to create a network of site
- Setup domains, subdomains, folders, etc. depending on how many new outlets you want to open, and in what fashion you want them to operate
- Activate the WooCommerce plugin
- Create a location on WooCommerce and add some products to it
- Install a WooCommerce multiple store manager plugin, this plugin will help you manage many outlets at once
- Create additional WooCommerce outlets and add some products to them
- Use the WooCommerce store manager plugins to manage orders, track inventory, accept payments, etc.
WooCommerce Multistore Manager Plugins
Now that you know how lots of locations are managed (see the above section), it’s time to find out which plugins you can use to manage all those locations on WooCommerce.
Here is a list of WooCommerce multistore management plugins that are compatible with WooCommerce and will make managing many outlets a breeze.
1- Veeqo
The first WooCommerce multistore manager plugin on our list is Veeqo.
Veeqo is described as an inventory management software that is well-equipped to be your solution for managing WooCommerce’s multiple reail locations. This is because, Veeqo can be used for inventory management, order management, shipping, and reporting forecasts.
One of the most notable things about Veeqo is that it directly integrates with other e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, Magento, Amazon, etc. All in all, according to Veeqo’s website, the Veeqo platform integrates with 21+ e-commerce platforms, marketplaces, shipping carriers, third-party logistics platforms, POS platforms, and accounting software.
Veeqo is able to manage the orders from all your WooCommerce multiple-store locations because it can sync with the inventory of your retail branches. Moreover, you can fulfill orders and ship products all from one place. In addition, all order statuses are updated automatically once you complete an action.
Veeqo also has other useful features that will make managing many retail locations much easier, such as:
- Automating repetitive shipping
- Digital picking scanners
- Shipping bulk orders
- Live search for locating orders
- Advanced filter options
As you can tell, Veeqo clearly has all the right things going for it when it comes to efficiently managing many WooCommerce outlets. Moreover, it has all the features you need for a smooth experience in managing numerous store locations.
You try Veeqo for free for 30 days without providing any credit card information. Once the free trial ends, you will need to sign up for a monthly package that ranges from £120 – £200.
Multi Store Addons for WooCommerce
Multi Store Addons for WooCommerce is a comprehensive plugin that helps you manage inventory, product pricing, product shipping, and payment methods for all of your retail locations. As a result, this plugin is the perfect solution to manage your multiple store locations.
Multi Store Addons for WooCommerce is divided into 8 sections, with each section controlling a certain aspect of your retail outlet, the sections are:
- Global Tab
- Products Tab
- Notifications Tab
- Labels Tab
- Shipping Zones tab
- Payment Method Tab
- Import/Export Tab
- Shipping Cost tab
Each of the above sections helps you manage a certain area of your entire multistore network such as product stock, discount prices, shipping regions, email notifications, shop frontend features, etc.
This plugin, created by the makers of Agile Store Locator, comes with many useful and powerful features that will make managing additional retail locations very convenient. Some of these features include:
- Inventory Management Across Many Shops
- Location Picker at Checkout
- Distance Rate Shipping Calculator
- Location-Wise Shipping Methods
- Location-Wise Payment Methods
For a more detailed guide on how and what Multi Store Addons for WooCommerce does, please refer to the following guide: Multi Store Addons for WooCommerce: An Ultimate Guide for Beginners
3- WooCommerce Global Cart
The next WooCommerce multiple store location managing plugin on our list is the WooCommerce Global cart.
WooCommerce Global Cart is described as a plugin that unifies all online outlets in a WordPress multisite into a single unified marketplace with a single global cart, one login, and a single user list across all shops.
As a WooCommerce multiple-outlet location management plugin, this plugin seems to have all the tools and features needed for the smooth management of extra retail locations.
Some of the standout features of the WooCommerce Global Chart include the following:
A- WooCommerce Order Management Through One Dashboard
A WordPress Multisite network that supports multiple stores makes order management next to impossible. Furthermore, switching from each store’s dashboard to the other is very tedious and not a productive or compelling way to run multiple stores.
WooCommerce Global Cart solves this issue by having a single super-admin dashboard or interface that lists all the orders from all the store locations in the network. As a result, this makes order processing much easier and more manageable, as admins will be able to manage orders from a single interface and not constantly jump back and forth between multiple stores to complete orders.
The super-admin dashboard features:
- Order display from all stores,
- A familiar design similar to the “orders” section in WC
- Filtering buttons
- Action buttons
B- Flexible Cart Checkout
The checkout process can either be done from a single store location or any WooCommerce multiple-store location in the network.
The checkout can also be done in two forms:
- Single Checkout
- Many Outlet Checkout
C- WooCommerce Global Reports
WooCommerce Global Chart provides you with reports that will tell you the performance of all the stores in your network.
The report is presented using graphs and statistics, and it is divided into 3 sections: Stock, Orders, and Customers.
D- Global Search Across All Shops
A global search function across all outlets means that when a customer searches for a product in a certain outlet, the search will check all the branches in the multisite network to bring all possible products for the search query.
E- Easy to Set Up
Installing WooCommerce Global Cart is very simple, and it can be used for a newly created multisite or for existing WooCommerce multiple-store locations.
This plugin is priced at $120 for a single network license and $230 for unlimited usage.
4- WooMultistore
WooMultistore is a WooCommerce-compatible plugin that comes with a bunch of useful features designed to make managing multiple retail locations easy and efficient.
WooMultistore comes with a single centralized inventory from which you can distribute products to any of your outlets. Moreover, any modifications to your inventory are automatically recorded once you make a change. As a result, you won’t need to constantly edit your inventory manually.
WooMultistore’s dedicated single dashboard ensures you have everything you need to manage your additional WooCommerce retail locations from one screen. In addition, from this admin panel, you will be able to do the following:
- Process orders across multiple outlets
- Access your inventory for products, and place these products in whichever shop you choose
- Design and customize your WooCommerce multiple store location pages according to what you think best suits each individual branch
- Set up different settings for each of your outlets such as payment method, currency, language, etc.
- Provide a different description for the same product across multiple stores
All these features combine to make WooMultistores one of the best multiple-outlet inventory management plugins on the market.
WooMultistore is priced at $199 for a single-site license and $299 for a 5-site license
5- WooCommerce API Product Sync
As the name of the plugin suggests, WooCommerce API Product Sync is a WooCommerce multiple store location plugin that syncs a product’s data into multiple branches and allows these products to be managed from one location.
WooCommerce API Product Sync plugin is primarily used to sync the product data (media, price, tags, description, etc.) in one retail location with all your other locations.
Not only can you sync single product or multiple product data, but you are also able to bulk sync multiple product data into lots of shops, this includes products, tags, categories, etc. As a result, when you make changes to one product in one outlet, it will automatically make the same change for other outlets, i.e. the products will sync.
WooCommerce API Product Sync is available for $30 for a regular license.
The main features of this plugin include:
- Synchronize your inventory – Changes to the product in one branch will be displayed in other branches as well
- Price Adjustment – Adjust product prices in all of your locations from one admin panel
- Supports all kinds of Products – software, physical, virtual, variable, etc
Conclusion
Running and managing a WooCommerce multiple store location network may seem like an overwhelming task. Moreover, this may discourage many people from opening more branches.
However, with the right tools (WooCommerce multiple store manager plugins), you will find the task of running and managing multiple WooCommerce retail locations will be as easy as running a single location.
By using the multiple WooCommerce plugins mentioned in this article, you too will be able to reap the benefits of running multiple WooCommerce outlets without the fear of missing out on a great opportunity that every e-commerce shop owner should endeavor to pursue.