By Kirby Prickett

The Mr Collection Pile of Clothes on Railing
The Mr Collection Pile of Clothes on Railing

Renting Out Clothes With WooCommerce

Clothing rental subscriptions make a lot of sense. Customers are happy, because they receive regular deliveries of new items to wear. They also get to benefit from the expertise of professional stylists.

When a customer gets tired of a particular item, they can easily send it back for somebody else to enjoy. That means less waste and fewer items sitting forgotten in the back of cupboards.

I recently spoke to one such business owner, Vladimir Paniouchkine, the CEO and Co-Founder of The Mr Collection, a clothing rental subscription business for men.

Vladimir gave me some great insights into the origins and experience of running The Mr Collection and its sister business The Ms Collection.

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WooCommerce and the Chocolate Factory

With WooCommerce businesses scattered all over the world, it’s not often I get to do an interview in person. But this is an entrepreneur story that could only come from San Francisco.

Last week I spoke Dandelion Chocolate founder Todd Masonis, at their factory location in San Francisco’s Mission District.

After selling their consumer internet business to Comcast in 2008, Todd and business partner Cameron went down a path of experimentation and discovery that eventually led them into the business of fine, small batch chocolate making.

Read on to learn more of Dandelion Chocolate’s unique story.

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Bride and groom from behind at sunset
Bride and groom from behind at sunset

Wedding Season with WooCommerce

Spring is upon us in the Northern Hemisphere (or almost upon us if you follow the astronomical season) and you know what that means… It’s almost wedding season!

WooCommerce provides an excellent platform for wedding businesses—from the edible to the aesthetic, from the conventional to the quirky—to sell their products and services online.

Let’s check out a small collection of wedding website examples built with WordPress and WooCommerce.

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Dog eating food from bowl
Dog eating food from bowl

WooCommerce, Subscriptions and Good Karma: the Story of Alpha Dog Food

Royce Reed has taken his passion for healthy pets and harnessed the power of WooCommerce to build his pet food subscription business, Alpha Dog Food.

I had the pleasure of chatting to Royce last week about his experience starting and running Alpha Dog Food. Some of the highlights include: how they’ve implemented their Ambassador (affiliate) program, which benefits Alpha Dog Food and many of their clients, including great animal charities like the Humane Society of Atlantic City;
 Royce’s seven favourite things about WooCommerce (we agree Royce, it’s so hard to choose!); and
 how Alpha Dog Food wound up accepting Bitcoin payments, and Royce’s experience with that so far. 


I hope you enjoy reading this interview as much as I enjoyed doing it!

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Old-fashioned film rolls
Old-fashioned film rolls

WooCommerce: A Platform for Independent Film Websites

Sunday night’s 2015 Oscars drew our attention to the great movies of the past year. But films aren’t just for giant Hollywood studios and celebrities.

There are a surprising number of independent businesses, festivals, and organisations that are doing film-related work, and are using WooCommerce and WordPress to underpin their web presence.

From dedicated film sites to independent studios, from fantasy film festivals to sites dedicated to the business of film, WooCommerce provides the ideal platform for scrappy film entrepreneurs to take their ideas to the world.

Let’s check them out.

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WooCommerce Art Businesses
WooCommerce Art Businesses

From the Artist to the Businessperson: WooCommerce for Artists

If you are an artist, one thing you might want to think about is setting up a website to showcase—and potentially sell—your work.

You could also consider using your expertise to offer online art courses and/or creative mentorship, or booking out your available time for in-person lessons.

If all of this sounds good to you—and you’re looking for a bit of inspiration—below are four examples of art websites using WooCommerce to power their online businesses.

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Photo of man driving car taken from back seat
Photo of man driving car taken from back seat

Why Same-Day Shipping Is Closer Than You Think

One of the most persistent challenges for eCommerce store owners is shipping.

In an instant gratification era—when Amazon has the scale to offer customers free two-day shipping for $99 per year—smaller eCommerce sellers are constantly challenged by how to get their goods into customers’ hands as quickly and cheaply as possible.

We’ve previously written that there are three main participants in the eCommerce delivery wars: the Old Guard (USPS, UPS, FedEx); the eCommerce Giants (Amazon, Google); and the Groundbreakers (Uber, Matternet).

Sidecar, a ridesharing service from San Francisco, has identified itself as another potential Groundbreaker this week. While it’s not as big, recognisable or as well funded as competitors Lyft or Uber, Sidecar is the first rideshare service to focus its package delivery efforts on eCommerce merchants.

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