Issue #178 Loop WP

Hi, {{first_name|friend}}. 👋

Welcome to Issue #178 of Loop WP!

Last week was about that ChatGPT announcement and what it means for WooCommerce. There are also some clarification points on the Native Woo POS.

This week, it’s about an exciting update to an old landing page, as the marketing battle between WooCommerce and Shopify gets a shiny upgrade.

Let’s go! 👇

If you read last week’s issue, then you’ll want to know these updates from Woo on Agentic Commerce:

WooCommerce might not be leading the pack (for now), but they are certainly not going to be left behind.

Now, on with this week’s topic. 👇

Earlier this week, Rodolfo Melogli shared on X a seemingly new landing page from WooCommerce in response to last week’s announcements from Agentic Commerce, OpenAI, and Shopify.

In fact, this is not a new page, but rather a massive redesign and content update. If you check out the Wayback Machine, you’ll see previous versions of the page.

😍 The page is quite performant, and I don’t think it has looked any better; the design team has done a superb job!

I spoke to a few Automatticans about the page, and the page redesign seemed to have taken them by surprise, as well as Rodolfo (and me).

✅ There are several positives about the page, including some excellent data/copy, which make it compelling. So well done, Woo, but…

🚨 Full disclosure: I am a Shopify Partner and use WooCommerce daily for clients (I was rejected from the WooCommerce Partner Program🤣). I know both platforms extensively.

With that context in mind, I (and others in the community) have some questions and comments on the new landing page, which, like other pages (all companies do), will feature some carefully worded “spin”.

❓ Maarten Belmans asked: “Why would they say there are 4M+ sites running Woo when WP itself shows 7M+ active installs?”

❓ I wonder why Bluehost, SiteGround and Pressable are listed as the chosen host in the pricing table, which will inevitably lead to conversations and comparisons on the controversial WordPress recommended hosts page.

I can understand why Pressable would be recommended as it’s part of Automattic (but it wasn’t always).

🤔 It's a tough one, as Shopify is a hosted platform, and WooCommerce is not; therefore, I understand why a host is needed, but there are other hosts WooCommerce also recommends.

I think other hosts would have been better placed to recommend (this is just my opinion, and there will be others):

💡 Another solution to the potential “recommended host” issue would have been the retired WooExpress.

To directly compete with Shopify on a like-for-like basis, Woo needs a hosted option, and I think WooExpress was retired before it had a chance.

As well as questions, I would say there are some points to be aware of:

🧠 As I mentioned, the WooCommerce vs Shopify page has never looked so good and never had better content, but if Woo is going to compete, it needs:

Rightly or wrongly, most businesses (especially small to medium-sized ones) don’t care about Open Source; they want an easy solution and are willing to pay a little more to have everything in one place and to have initial complexity removed.

James Kemp, Core Product Manager at WooCommerce, asked the question:

“Why do you use WooCommerce?“

My answer was:

(Some other platforms have the last two points.)

💡 If you would like to see other people’s responses, check out the LinkedIn and X posts.

That’s it for this week. 👋

This week's excellent and insightful WordPress News & Tips:

If you have a question about this email or WordPress, please reply, and I will respond as soon as possible.

👋 Until next time,