Amazon Webstore Alternatives on WordPress

Updated November 19, 2021

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Platform Migration by July 2016

The Amazon Webstore, a product that enables small to mid-sized e-tailers to build and operate their own eCommerce standalone website, will officially shut down July of next year. For those businesses who use this ecosystem for inventory and order management, their Amazon days are numbered. We’ll share our thoughts on Amazon Webstore alternatives within WordPress.

The Difference between Hosted or Self-Hosted Options

Last Fall Forbes released an article that nicely summarized a variety of hosted and non-hosted e-Commerce platform options. With a hosted version, you have dedicated support through a monthly service fee. With self-hosting, you manage your own website but it can take a little more technical care-and-feeding. So first you must determine which option is best for your business as you research Amazon Webstore alternatives and convert your online sales platform.

Amazon Webstore Alternatives on WordPress

WordPress provides a healthy and robust platform to build a website with eCommerce abilities. There are four major WordPress eCommerce plugins:

• WP e-Commerce – the most popular if you consider the number of downloads
• WooCommerce – strong activity and support especially since it has a large number of plugins and themes available
• Jigoshop – a predecessor to WooCommerce and it has one of the best ratings on WordPress.org
• Cart66 Lite – only available on WordPress.org

If you want a self-hosted Amazon Webstore alternative, WooCommerce definitely gets high marks. We’ve found that it has a stable infrastructure while offering customization.

If your website isn’t on WordPress, consider making the switch. You’ll find it very easy to generate new product pages and blog posts that show your products in action. We’ve found that WordPress websites have a slight SEO advantage, as it search engine bots can find meta information quickly.

Are you surprised at the Amazon Webstore news?

photo credit – top: Kool Cats Photography
photo credit –  body: R Nial Bradshaw