Growth, innovation and empowerment of online retailers

As WordPress celebrates its 20th anniversary, it’s important to reflect on its roots and explore how its history shaped e-commerce and what that means for your website.

WooCommerce CEO Paul Maiorana joined me in this special episode on the SEJ Show to reflect on how ecommerce made its way into the WordPress world and how WooCommerce was linked to WordPress values ​​and initiatives.

We talked about Paul’s 11+ year career at Automattic, his experience leading WordPress VIP and what made him want to lead WooCommerce.

You’ll also learn about the core community spirit at the heart of WordPress and how it has impacted WooCommerce’s mission to its users.

You won’t want to miss this critical review from someone who has taken countless steps to get there.

However, the difference in governance is what really matters, which is that no one owns WordPress. It is managed by the WordPress Foundation and a non-profit organization that owns the intellectual property and everything related to WordPress. Led by Matt Mullenweg, the founder, co-founder and still project lead. But the governance model is different. With WooCommerce, on the other hand, Automattic is the full owner of WooCommerce. It’s still an open source product using the GPL license, free software, just like WordPress. Nevertheless, we effectively fund the entire development of WooCommerce. –Paul Maiorana, 14:36

WooCommerce is a global platform for sure. That’s why we have customers in every country. There is so much support for localization. Translation and localization play a big role in this, not only in terms of the people who provide those translations, but also in terms of the other side. This allows merchants to offer their customers a localized experience. –Paul Maiorana, 20:57

That’s the beauty of open source, isn’t it? We’re able to get leaner and meaner than some of our competitors. We appropriately brought together this ecosystem of independent software developers, agencies, freelancers and web hosts. These people come together to build a WooCommerce site and quality product. Our interests are aligned, which ultimately leads to a better customer experience. –Paul Maiorana, 23:02

[00:00] – About Paul.
[03:28] – WooCommerce origin and automatic integration.
[07:01] – Purpose of WooCommerce development.
[09:38] – The market share of WooCommerce.
[13:27] – Developer engagement with WooCommerce.
[17:10] – Explore WooCommerce extensions/integrations.
[20:57] – WooCommerce and localization strategies, purchasing support, lean model and open source contributions.
[24:14] WooCommerce’s solution to ecommerce challenges.
[27:40] Future Retail Trends: Smartphone Preference.
[29:37] Potential for growth in the WooCommerce ecosystem.
[30:42] WooCommerce Success Stories.

Mentioned resources:

We believe that through WooCommerce we have a real advantage and a real opportunity to provide a solution that developers love, but also to provide a more idiosyncratic package of WooCommerce and extensions integrated with a hosting solution to provide something that does a lot is more turnkey and easier for a trader to become familiar with. –Paul Maiorana, 26:23

Being able to start with something simple like Woo Express or something similar immediately simplified the shopping environment. And then as the company grows and breaks down more and more avenues and tests more and more marketing channels, it’s easier to grow from a core than to throw everything at once and try to figure it out like a very logical solution. –Loren Baker, 30:09

We make some decisions and say this is the best way to do it. These are all separate. Each of these features represents a different addition to the WooCommerce ecosystem today. And we’re bringing it all together in one pre-built solution so it’s easy and people can start selling again without having to build anything. –Paul Maiorana, 27:40

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Connect with Paul Maiorana:

Paul Maiorana is CEO of WooCommerce, an open source e-commerce platform, where he brings his expertise in open source development, content management and WordPress, among others. His leadership has been instrumental in the growth and innovation of WooCommerce in the online retail sector.

Prior to WooCommerce, Paul built an impressive portfolio of professional experience focused on open source technology and software solutions. His understanding of the industry and technical expertise have made him an influential figure pushing the boundaries of e-commerce.

Connect with Paul on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pmaiorana/
Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/pmaiorana

Contact Loren Baker, Founder of Search Engine Journal:

Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/lorenbaker
Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenbaker