By Kirby Prickett
Using WooCommerce to Build a SaaS in 3 Days
Bryce Adams is a WooThemes ninja who—in his spare time—built a handy little SaaS (Software as a Service) business called Nomad SMS.
Nomad SMS allows you to easily create a local phone number in over 15 countries and receive SMS messages to that number in your inbox and online. Anybody who’s had the frustrating experience of being locked out of their bank account while traveling or overseas will see the benefit of this simple idea.
Bryce got some love from WooThemes and others on Twitter for Nomad SMS, but when it was featured on the hot product aggregation site Product Hunt, traffic to Bryce’s little side project really took off.
Bryce was kind enough to talk to me about the whirlwind experience of building Nomad SMS in three days—using WooCommerce and Subscriptions—and releasing it to the world.
Flexing eCommerce Muscles with Flex Foods
Flex Foods prepares restaurant-quality, healthy meals to be delivered to their customers’ homes in Tallahassee and Jacksonville on a daily basis.
Last week I had an interesting conversation with Stacey Reinstein, one of the co-owners of Flex Foods.
I learned all about what it’s like to run a local food delivery business using a subscriptions-based online store.
Refresh Your Health. Drink Tea With WooCommerce.
One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to cut back to one coffee per day.
I’ll be honest with you, so far it sucks.
If you’re trying to do something similar, perhaps a switch to tea might ease the transition? (I sure hope so).
Luckily, a bunch of savvy entrepreneurs are using WooCommerce to sell tea online and spread the word about the health benefits of tea.
Building Momentum: WooCommerce Bitcoin Business
Although the price of bitcoin might be tanking (today it fell below the $200 mark for the first time since October 2013), there is still plenty of momentum building in Bitcoin, as both a technology and a movement.
Another technology that has momentum of its own? WooCommerce, of course.
So to reflect the nexus of these two growing movements, we thought we’d bring you five WooCommerce stores that are offering Bitcoin-related products.
Get Fit this New Year with WooCommerce
If, as you watched the fireworks during the final minutes of 2014, you resolved that 2015 will be the year you finally get in shape, stick around.
We’ve scoured the internet to find a collection of kickass online businesses that can help you get fit in 2015. And guess what? They’re all powered by WooCommerce.
The Psychology Behind Luxury and eCommerce
Luxury and eCommerce, do they go hand in hand?
After all, luxury is about exclusivity, being part of a story, feeling special. eCommerce, like other internet-based trends, is often about democratisation.
Yet, eCommerce companies like Yoox Group, Net-a-Porter and Gilt have all shown that there are eCommerce models for luxury fashion. And as Federico Marchetti, the founder and CEO of Yoox Group, told John Seabrook of The New Yorker, there are those people that want to link the seemingly divergent planets of luxury and eCommerce:
“I loved the fact that they were so different, and I could bring them together. Fashion was all about exclusivity, and Internet was all about democracy; fashion was for the élite, Internet for the masses—someone had to link the two planets.”
But is luxury the exclusive purview of traditional luxury powerhouses, the kinds of brands Marchetti works with at Yoox, like Dolce & Gabbana, Armani and Diesel?
Or can small and medium sized eCommerce businesses, such as many of those using WooCommerce, get in on the act?
The eCommerce Delivery Wars: Who Will Win?
A recent report by Cindy Waxer at Gigaom Research asks who will win the brewing battle over the fastest, most efficient way to get goods and services to consumers.
Waxer identified three different factions in the delivery wars:
– The Old Guard (USPS, UPS and FedEx).
– The eCommerce Giants (Amazon and Google).
– The Groundbreakers (Uber and Matternet).
The Batman of WooCommerce: Interview with Ben Jenkins
Ben Jenkins is a busy man.
By day he works as a designer at Infusionsoft. By night, he delves deeper and deeper into the world of WooCommerce, through his eCommerce education and hosting service Wodobo, as well as client work, and a digital & print magazine he part owns.
“I joke around sometimes that I’m kind of like Batman—during the day I work as a designer at Infusionsoft—and then at night I do all my training and prep work for the Saturday classes.”
Holiday Gift Shopping, WooCommerce Style
Unless you are an exceptionally organised person, and did all of your holiday shopping between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, chances are you’ll be hitting the shops (whether physically or virtually) over the next few weeks.
Sound familiar? Well don’t worry, we’ve scoured the web to find a great selection of WooCommerce gift ideas.
Learn from the Experts: 2 Must-Listen Podcasts on Holiday eCommerce
Podcasts seem to be having a moment, and I, for one, am jumping on board with the cultural mania.
But while I would love to dedicate this post to discussing Serial or Startup, I’ve actually found a couple of recent podcast episodes that are more relevant to the topic at hand—holiday eCommerce.