WooThemes launches retail WordPress plugin

WordPress theme provider WooThemes has launched a new plugin application and library of integrated themes. The company claims that the product, called WooCommerce, will help “individuals and businesses turn WordPress sites into simple, elegant and fully-customisable eCommerce offerings”.

The South African-based company aims to replace traditional eCommerce CMS platforms and hosted services that require outside expertise to implement. It hopes that companies will instead use WooCommerce to build WordPress-powered shopping sites without the headache and hassle that such projects typically entail.

WooThemes says that “carefully integrating successful themes means WooCommerce can have a huge impact on any businesses looking to improve their ability to grow sales on the Web”.

In light of this the company is working on one-click integrations between the new plugin and existing themes.

Statua, one of the themes already included, allows photographers to sell their prints online. Similarly, the Diner theme will soon be integrated with WooCommerce, allowing restaurants to accept take-away orders via their website. The SupportPress theme will be integrated to allow anyone to sell premium support of any kind.

In a profile of the company on TechCrunch, it was also revealed that it was planning to launch themes that would offer the same functionality of wikis, as well as ones which resemble popular web apps like Quora, UserVoice and Basecamp.

“This is a big day for the whole team”, said Magnus Jepson, co-founder of Woo Themes. “We’ve built a fast-growing business. Now, we want to turn great themes into great applications. If your business wants to sell more products or services online, WooCommerce is your first stop.”

“This has been in the works for quite a while and now we’re proud to officially launch WooCommerce,” said Adii Pienaar, co-founder and CEO of WooThemes. “We’ve spent the last 4 years building and selling themes. We’re one of the top theme providers and a trusted partner for millions. We have a lot to be thankful for. But we’re not resting. We’re taking everything we’ve learned along to the way, and are doubling down on WordPress, with a new application layer that tightly integrates with our themes and gives customers precisely the kind of end-to-end, holistic solution that they’ve been asking us for.”

WooThemes claims that WooCommerce is the first in a long line of forthcoming products. It is also the first product from a new division at the company, called WooLabs.

The idea behind WooLabs, it says, is to “innovate new products and extend WooThemes as a platform”.

The four-year old company claims to have amassed 50 000 paying customers and that its free WordPress themes have been downloaded some 800 000 times.

WooCommerce is an open source plugin and available for download.