An Alternative to WooCommerce: Interview with Kelley Muro of North Commerce

North Commerce is a new ecommerce solution built specifically for WordPress. I recently had the chance to speak with Kelley, founder of North Commerce, to learn more about his motivation for building the platform and how he aims to position it in the WordPress ecosystem.

Kelley started developing North Commerce at the end of 2021 after recognizing limitations with existing ecommerce options like WooCommerce and Shopify. He was particularly inspired by the potential of the WordPress block editor and Gutenberg to enable fast, flexible ecommerce experiences.

Over the past year, North Commerce has steadily built up a community of users and refined the platform based on their feedback. They now aim to be a premium all-in-one ecommerce solution for WordPress, with a pricing model starting at $99 per year. This recurring revenue will support continued development and help them deliver dedicated support and community for merchants at higher revenue tiers.

Going forward, Kelley wants to optimize North Commerce as a block editor-first platform that takes full advantage of forthcoming advances like full site editing. He believes this approach will make it the fastest, easiest ecommerce solution available. At the same time, he wants to maintain simplicity and prevent “feature bloat”. Add-ons and extensions will be made available but not activated by default.

Key Takeaways

1. North Commerce aims to be a simplified alternative, not a replacement, for WooCommerce. It wants to provide another competitive ecommerce option tailored for WordPress.
2. The platform is built natively for WordPress, using PHP, JavaScript and WordPress best practices like a custom ORM system. This is to maximize flexibility, integration and avoid the limitations of off-the-shelf SaaS platforms.
3. They chose a paid model starting at $99/year to support an all-in-one feature set and higher-touch support at higher revenue tiers. This contrasts with most free/open source WordPress plugins.
4. North Commerce wants to be the fastest ecommerce platform by using the block editor, full site editing and modern WordPress capabilities. Simplicity is also a key goal.

Links Mentioned:

• North Commerce site: https://northcommerce.com
• North Commerce pricing: https://northcommerce.com/pricing/
• North Commerce free demo: https://instawp.io/northcommerce