Overview of the WooCommerce Integration with Zoho Inventory

This integration was discussed on our Zoho Inventory Full Product Tutorial. Here are some key highlights from this segment:

1. WooCommerce Set Up
   • WooCommerce is a plugin that needs to be installed to your WordPress website.
   • Recommended plugins include WooCommerce Payments for credit card payments, and WooCommerce Shipping and Tax for automated tax calculation based on location.
   • There’s an integration plugin for WooCommerce and Zoho which is provided by CRM perks.
2. WordPress and WooCommerce
   • WooCommerce is a part of a bigger website and not the whole website, unlike Shopify.
   • WooCommerce is developer-friendly and offers more flexibility as it’s managed through WordPress.
   • It’s possible to add multiple Zoho applications through the Zoho WooCommerce plugin.
3. Zoho Feeds
   • The Zoho feeds feature allows the user to integrate entities from Zoho applications.
   • Entities to be integrated need separate feeds, for example, invoices, sales orders, items, and customer payments.
   • The pro feature, which requires purchase, allows the user to sync sales orders, items, and invoices.
4. Payment, Shipping, and Order Processing
   • WooCommerce has a shipping plugin that enables shipping directly from the platform.
   • The platform allows managing shipping from within the shopping cart.
   • The order process in WooCommerce is similar to Shopify’s, with customers making their orders on the front end of the website.
   • WooCommerce Payments allows the acceptance of payments via Visa, Mastercard, Express, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and third-party bank accounts.
5. Integration with Zoho Inventory
   • After setting up integration with Zoho Inventory, orders from WooCommerce will create sales orders inside Zoho Inventory.
   • The Zoho log shows all the API pushes and data syncs between the WordPress site and inventory, which can be useful for troubleshooting.
6. Pricing
   • WooCommerce does not have flat rate fees like Shopify but charges per transaction (2.9% plus 30 cents for every transaction) through WooCommerce Payments.
   • Other payment providers such as PayPal or Stripe can also be integrated to possibly reduce fees.
7. Developer-Intensiveness
   • Although WooCommerce is developer-friendly, it requires more setup for a functional site compared to Shopify.
   • WooCommerce and WordPress communities can provide support for customization and development.