Can Service-Based Businesses Use Woocommerce? How to Set It Up
Are you in the service business? You can save time, money, and efforts by selling your services online. Selling your services online is also convenient for clients who want to save time by booking for an appointment online, conducting business online, and making online payments at the time and location they choose. However, unlike selling products, selling services online can be challenging. The challenge comes in how to list your offerings, how to market to your prospects, and how to integrate your services in existing e-commerce tools.
Woocommerce has solutions for product as well as service-based businesses all on one platform. You can use the platform to sell services, book appointments, and rental accommodations. Below are the benefits of Woocommerce to service-based businesses and how to set up the business.
Why Use Woocommerce to Sell Services?
Woocommerce is one of the most customizable e-commerce solutions online. The platform allows you to create any design for your services. It also offers endless functionality thanks to its extensive library and the database of experts working to better the platform each day. Granted, you can create the perfect customized e-commerce site for your customers.
- Besides the customizations, Woocommerce makes it easy for you to keep everything in one place. Instead of using different tools and different platforms to manage an online business, Woocommerce does it all. From the WordPress dashboard, you can edit content, add posts, handle payments, add services, and track sales from the same window. This way, there are fewer mistakes and less time spent selling your services.
- woocommerce displays services effectively in an appealing manner. You can list services the same way your products are registered, and clients can search and filter through the services to get what they are looking for. It is also easy to collect payments. Woocommerce allows you to send a link to the service that your clients are buying. The client can then open the link and check out the service from any device.
- You can up-sell and cross-sell without the need to download an extension. The platform lets you make suggestions to your clients for related services. You can also suggest upgraded services to your clients during checkout.
- You can charge recurring payments with Woocommerce. If you offer subscription services, monthly services, or clients on a payment plan, you can quickly charge them on Woocomerce without the need for a subscription extension. This makes it easier for you as you do not have to chase clients to collect payment.
- Woocommerce integrates easily with your existing tools. Some of the tools it integrates with include payment processing tools, client management, accounting, and email marketing tools.
Setting Up Services on Woocommerce
It is easy to set up services using WordPress Woocommerce. Install Woocommerce and navigate to the Setup Wizard. With the Setup Wizard, you will find it easy to walk through the customization process. Here, you will select a payment gateway, set up taxes, and any other preliminary business setup stages.
After setup, start adding your services. You can add the services through the WordPress Dashboard. Navigate to Products >> Add New. Instead of the “Product Name” in the product name field, add the name of your service. Add descriptions in the respective fields, add an image, and then add service category and tags to make the services more discoverable. For instance, if you offer salon services, you can categorize them as hair cutting, massage, hair coloring, braiding, nail treatments, tannings, and many more.
After adding product details, navigate to Product Data and check the Virtual box. If there are many options that your customers can choose for the same service, choose Variable Product from the dropdown menu. If you only offer a single product and a single version of it, leave the choice to Simple Product as auto-filled. It is advisable to use product variations to give your clients a choice between term length, type of rental, duration of subscription, and type of service, among other service options.
Scroll to the box ‘Regular Price’ and add the price of your service. If you selected Variable Product earlier, follow the Woocommerce guide on adding variable service prices. Click Publish, and you will be done. For basic service offerings, you are already set up and ready to run.
Selling blocks of hours on Woocommerce. If you sell hourly services, you can use the platform to sell blocks of hours and allow your customers to buy as many or as few hours as they need. In such a case, you need to create a product titled “Hours” and then set up your price. During checkout, your customers can select the number of hours they need through the quantity selector.
How to Display Your Services
You can display your services the way you want. Whether you want a list or a grid, Woocommerce offers endless functionalities to help you appealingly display your services. The layouts are easy to use with settings that let you customize your store. There are also many WordPress themes to choose from; some themes are specific to certain businesses, and some are generals. For instance, the Storefront theme is specifically for hotels and accommodation.
If you do not like the themes available, you can use WooCommerce shortcodes to add your services listings to any page on your website without the need to handle a forest of codes. Lastly, if images are not important for your services, you can use WooCommerce Product Table plugin to set up easy to consume tables of the services you offer and allow one-page ordering.
Collecting Payments for Services Offered
Collecting payment is an essential part of every business. With Woocommerce, you have access to built-in functionality for one-time service payments. For recurring charges, you can expand your invoicing and payment functionality to meet your needs.
Here, you can use a payment extension to collect payment. Name Your Price extension lets your client pay any amount they prefer for your services. You need to send a digital invoice to your clients with a link to a “name your price” service page. The client can then enter the amount of the invoice they want to pay and later pay right on your website.
You can also use PDF Invoices where you automate the payment process with branded email invoices. The client can then log into your website and access all the invoices.
Another payment option is the WooCommerce Deposits, which allows clients to pay a deposit in advance or to follow a subscription plan. If your clients pay overtime or require a deposit before you can deliver services, this might be a great payment plan.
Woocommerce Subscriptions is a good option for businesses that offer service subscriptions. You can automatically charge the clients weekly, monthly, bi-annually, or annually based on the nature of services. By so doing, you reduce the hassle of billing weekly or monthly. From the platform, the users can upgrade or downgrade their plans without your involvement.
You can use third party accounting services such as Quickbooks or Xero as they seamlessly integrate with Woocommerce.
Booking Appointments and Accommodations
If your clients need to book appointments or accommodation, there are several extensions on Woocommerce to let your clients do that. These include:
This extension displays a simple calendar that allows your customers to book for appointments or accommodations and pay directly on your website. From the schedule, you can block off dates and times already booked, offer discounts, and even set the number of participants who can book for a service on a given day. The system allows you to send reminders to your customers to reduce no-shows. If your customers want to cancel, the system gives them a chance to do so. Better yet, Woocommerce syncs with Google Calendar so you can keep everything in one place.
WooCommerce Accommodation Bookings
The WooCommerce Accommodation Bookings is a free e-commerce add-on for hotels and other businesses that offer accommodation services. The system allows your guests to book overnight stays by selecting their check-in and checkout times.
Marketing Your Service-Based Business
Not only does Woocommerce allow you to sell services on the platform, but it also gives you full control over how you market the services. You can reach out to your customers before buying a service, during the purchase process, and after buying.
To market, you can use Follow-Ups to send emails to customers, Social Media Extensions to integrate the store with social sites, WooCommerce Drip to allow customers to subscribe, and Mailchimp for WooCommerce to continue the conversation with your email subscribers.
There are so many add-ons, forms, extensions, and services that integrate with Woocommerce. It is, therefore, easy to market your services. Such extensions include Gravity Forms plugin, which allows you to create custom forms. Another add-on is WooCommerce Product Add-Ons, which lets you add extra fields with checkboxes, images, and dropdowns.
Conclusion
Regardless of the service business model you choose, Woocommerce is easy to set up, highly customizable, lets you appealingly display products, and it integrates well with other services. Because Woocommerce is part of WordPress, you can expect a wide range of plugins and extensions now and in the future. There are so many WordPress experts, and that makes the development of products more accessible.
Woocommerce is a safe platform for you and your customers. This makes it ideal for service businesses that store, process, and even transmit customers’ credit card information. The system makes it easy for you to send invoices and for your clients to pay. This works past the limitations of most invoicing services that may not work for all businesses or in some regions.