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Confused about which WooCommerce developer to pick? Each agency and developer’s website looks the same as the previous one? Worried about how to gauge their competency and skill?
Picking the right development partner can make or break your business. Succeeding with a WooCommerce business requires an expert tech team handling your website infrastructure and development. A great development team that understands e-commerce and WooCommerce is the one of the major differentiators behind how top eCommerce business owners grow and scale their businesses to great heights.
If you take the information in this article to heart, you will understand how to pick a great tech team to work with you. You will be able to find and assess trustworthy WooCommerce developers who will assist you in building and maintaining your eStore. Many people falsely represent themselves as professional WooCommerce developers online, and many startups fall into this trap, which you can easily avoid by doing a little research.
Before proceeding further, let’s take a quick look at the basics:
What is WooCommerce?
WooCommerce is a plugin built to transform your WordPress website into a fully kitted eCommerce store. All WooCommerce plugins and themes run on the WordPress platform, which means that every valid WordPress plugin or theme should also work with WooCommerce.
Ok, now that you know what WooCommerce is, let us see who is a WooCommerce Expert.
Who is a WooExpert?
The term WooExpert means “WooCommerce Expert”. A WooExpert is a WooCommerce developer or company vetted and verified by the WooCommerce team and a part of the WooExpert Program.
The WooExpert Program consists of trusted agencies with a proven track record of building highly functional, scalable online stores. Membership is limited to a special few and is the only agency program vetted by WooCommerce.
By choosing an official WooExpert, you can be sure that you’ll receive the highest level of expertise and service to help set your business up for success.
WooExperts offer end-to-end services and specialize in all things WooCommerce, from large-scale site builds and custom development to complex integrations and store optimization.
A professional WooExpert is categorized into four tiers which include Verified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum, with different criteria and benefits for each.
WisdmLabs is one of only a few WooCommerce Development Companies in the world to be certified as a Platinum WooExpert. And that is why WisdmLabs’ WooCommerce development services are highly recommended.
For a company or individual to be a Platinum WooExpert means that they have been certified and endorsed by WooCommerce to assist businesses in creating the online store of their dreams. It means they’ve been vetted to ensure that they have the right level of expertise and have a direct line of communication with the WooCommerce team.
What can a WooExpert do for you?
- Set-up your WooCommerce store
- Integrate your WooCommerce store with your business ecosystem
- Scale your existing eCommerce store for better performance
- Add new functionalities or features to the store
- Develop high-quality custom WooCommerce plugins and themes for the store
- Do general maintenance and optimization on your store
You can quickly check out a list of all the WooCommerce Experts here.
In this article, you will learn about everything you need to know for hiring the best WooCommerce developer for your store.
Qualities to look for in a WooCommerce developer
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When looking for a WooCommerce developer, keep the following in mind:
You will need a development team with a solid and well-tested service infrastructure to ensure they deliver exactly what you require. To understand if a WooCommerce agency is good, look out for the following:
- How many projects have they completed?
- What kind of reviews have their clients left?
- Do they come recommended by others in the WooCommerce ecosystem?
- Are they a WooCommerce expert?
- What kind of projects have they done?
- What is their expertise?
- Do they understand your business problem statement as well as you do?
You should be able to find the answer to these questions on their website, which should help you understand their credibility and expertise. Never take the risk of hiring someone who seems untrustworthy or does not understand what you require. This bargain often doesn’t end up right.
Hiring a WooCommerce expert is a safe and well-placed bet. Their understanding of WooCommerce is extensive and they will be on hand to help you with anything related to your website. WooCommerce experts are also typically agencies. This is another important factor to consider since teams are better than individuals. Teams provide stability and structure to the services and offer. Deliverability and completion rates are also very high with agencies compared to freelancers.
Teams can also handle a variety of requirements and handle big projects with ease; compared to a freelancer who is more suitable to take up quick fix projects specializing in one or two things only.
To cap it all, always look out for WooCommerce service providers that are focused on developing solutions that meet YOUR needs. They need to be knowledgeable and dependable, while also keeping up with the latest industry trends. One that will make your WooCommerce journey smooth sailing.
Also Check out the 101 Questions To Help You Hire the Right WooCommerce Developer.
Now that we have touched upon working with a freelance developer v/s a WooCommerce expert agency, let us look at its pros and cons in more detail.
Working with a WooExpert vs Freelance Developer: Pros and Cons
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There are significant differences between working with a WooExpert and a regular freelance developer. Here are some distinctions:
WooExpert
As previously stated, a WooExpert is an accredited professional who is well-versed in all aspects of developing WooCommerce solutions. A WooExpert can be a team or a certified individual who provides WooCommerce development services.
Pros of hiring a WooExpert:
- Comes with a stamp of approval from WooCommerce: They are vetted by WooCommerce and deemed more trustworthy and knowledgeable.
- Well-versed with WooCommerce: They have worked on the WooCommerce space for a while and understand the Woo code very well. Therefore, customizing and working on top of that code to create custom solutions is very easy for them.
- Provide a wide range of services: They can be your tech partner and handle everything from quick fixes and audits to bigger and more complex requirements like migration and store overhaul. You don’t have to keep switching developers as the needs of your store evolve.
- Customer-Centered: A WooExpert understands your WooCommerce problems holistically and collaborates with you to deliver a long-term business solution.
- Deeper Expertise: They have a team of relationship managers, developers, and testers that works day in and day out on WooCommerce projects only. You get an entire team working diligently on your website to deliver the best quality custom solutions.
- Post Project Support: A WooCommerce Expert typically provides support on their build and is available to fix anything for free post project completion.
- Frequent Update and Access: A WooExpert working as part of a team provides regular and timely project updates. Some companies such as Wisdmlabs also provide you with access to the development environment for monitoring real-time progress.
- Exclusive WooCommerce discounts: Consulting with a WooExpert often gets you more benefits than you can bargain for. For example, our clients get the benefit of receiving discounts and premium offers on extensions, themes, and packages at a much-reduced rate compared to the others.
Cons of hiring a WooExpert:
- Billing rates: The expertise and knowledge of a WooCommerce expert comes with a premium tag. Their billing rates start from a minimum of $50 an hour and can go up based on complexity of the requirement.
- Turn around time: Depending on the agency you partner with, it may take a week or two to get the ball rolling on your project. But once started, it will be delivered within the agreed upon time frame.
See the Free Cheat Sheet of 23 Tips & Tricks to manage large orders on WooCommerce.
Regular Developer
A regular freelance developer has years of experience and a proven track record of completing the same type of projects. They know what they’re doing and are capable of handling small tasks effectively and in a quick time-frame. It’s also acceptable to need a regular developer for your projects.
Pros of hiring a Regular Developer:
- They charge significantly less than a WooExpert: One of the main reasons why people prefer to hire a regular developer to create a WooCommerce solution is that they are frequently less expensive than WooExperts. You can easily find a developer to fix your store at a low cost on a freelancing website like Upwork.
- No paperwork is required: Often, you will be required to sign an official contract with a WooExpert team, and some of the terms may not be to your liking. However, with a developer, you only need a few pieces of paperwork or none at all, especially if you have previously done business with him.
- Faster turnaround times: If you need a quick fix for a bug, a freelance developer is your best bet. They will be able to take on the project almost immediately and finish it in a quick time frame.
Cons of hiring a Regular Developer
- Trust and reliability: A developer frequently falls short of the trust and reliability that are required for a long-term business relationship. If they get a bigger project, they may prioritize that project over yours. There is also no backup if they have a personal emergency and your deadlines can be pushed.
- They frequently push deadlines: Once a project begins, a freelance developer working on a WooCommerce project will frequently take longer to complete than a WooExpert team. This is because two heads are frequently superior to one. A WooExpert specializes in this area, whereas a regular developer does not, and is frequently a freelancer.
- No post-project service support: A regular developer cannot afford to provide support on a completed project. However, this is not the case with a WooExpert team. WooExpert deals frequently include post-service support. This post-support period will allow you to test the system for any flaws.
That concludes the essential information you require to make an informed decision concerning hiring a WooCommerce developer for your project.
Conclusion
It’s been a pleasure discussing with you the information you need to hire expert WooCommerce development personnel.
So, which one will you pick? A WooExpert or a regular developer? Please share your thoughts below in the comments section.
If you are ready to hire a WooCommerce Expert, contact us today. If you are not ready to contact us yet and wish to know more about the type of services we offer, check out our services.
Best wishes until next time!
