When WooCommerce launched in 2011, we set out with a clear purpose: to democratize commerce on WordPress, making the power of ecommerce accessible to everyone. Today, WooCommerce is the engine behind 35% of all online stores and 9.2% of the entire internet, and the clear choice when adding commerce functionality to any WordPress website. The growth we’ve seen — from a modest plugin to a platform powering millions of diverse, high-scale businesses worldwide — is both humbling and inspiring.
Along the way we’ve learned a thing or two about what modern commerce demands. Now, as we look to the future, we’re committed to evolving WooCommerce to meet the increasingly sophisticated needs of merchants and developers, delivering a platform that’s robust, flexible, and built to scale.
Evolving ecommerce needs
WooCommerce’s evolution is a community-driven journey — one where developer feedback continuously shapes how we meet the increasing needs of modern merchants. Stores built on WooCommerce today handle complex operations, serve global audiences, and process hundreds of thousands of orders across thousands of products.
Universal Yums is a great example. They’ve shipped over 10 million subscription snack boxes through their WooCommerce store. Experiences like these highlight the real-world requirements of large-scale merchants and drive us to build a more capable, future-proof platform.
As we head into 2025, our platform priorities and roadmap are taking shape with the ultimate goal of being the most popular commerce platform for builder-supported stores operating at scale.
A strong foundation for high-volume stores
We’re focusing on three key areas that merchants and developers have consistently told us matter most:
- Performance at scale — Our new High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS) system demonstrates what’s possible when we rethink core functionality. Early tests show 5x faster order processing and 1.5x faster checkouts. For developers, this shift means less time spent optimizing custom database solutions, with WooCommerce handling larger data volumes out of the box. HPOS also opens up new possibilities for integrations by providing a more streamlined and scalable data structure.
- Modern commerce experiences — The new block-based checkout isn’t just a new interface—it’s a complete rethinking of the purchase experience. We’re leaning into WordPress’ efforts to modernize, and taking the opportunity to make the WooCommerce experience truly commerce-centric.
- Essential commerce features — We’re bringing critical commerce capabilities directly into core. The recent addition of built-in brand management functionality shows our approach to providing powerful features out of the box. These updates are designed to streamline setup and simplify customization. By moving essential functionality—like brand management—into core, we’re reducing the need for custom solutions, speeding up launch times, and freeing up developers to work on more unique store experiences.
Building essential commerce features into our core platform
Over recent years, we’ve heard consistent feedback from merchants and developers on the complexity of managing numerous extensions — each with its own updates, dependencies, and potential conflicts. Balancing flexibility with ease of use has become a growing challenge as WooCommerce merchants expect more foundational commerce features directly within the core platform, not in separate add-ons.
We’re now expanding WooCommerce core to include essential features that previously required extensions, ultimately creating a more integrated, user-friendly foundation. You may have heard us refer to this as “more in core”. This shift aligns WooCommerce more closely with industry expectations and simplifies the experience for everyone involved. It allows developers to focus on building custom experiences rather than reimplementing and managing common functionality, and it gives merchants a fully-integrated set of functionality out of the box. Here’s how we’re approaching this shift:
- Addressing customer pain points: Many merchants feel overwhelmed by extension management. By bringing high-demand features like brand management, unique product identifiers, and more robust inventory tools into core, we reduce the need for add-ons, which simplifies setup and ongoing maintenance.
- Prioritizing performance and interoperability: Adding additional functionality into core requires us to deepen our focus on interoperability and stability, reducing the risk of conflicts and delivering a smoother experience.
- Streamlining decision-making: As WooCommerce moves towards a more integrated experience, the initial setup process becomes less overwhelming. Merchants can get started with essential features available out of the box, while developers enjoy a cohesive framework that grows with the needs of high-volume stores.
This approach also includes plans for making the experience of our payment, shipping, and tax services more native to WooCommerce core. While alternative solutions will remain available, this default integration ensures merchants have access to robust, reliable tools immediately upon installation. Our “more in core” approach means carefully choosing which features add value and are required for the majority of modern ecommerce stores. Not all functionality makes sense for core, and we will retain a focus on quality and coherence, ensuring that what we bring in complements and supports the rest of the platform naturally.
We’re already making significant progress on this initiative. Brands functionality has been successfully added to core, and we’re actively developing an MVP for Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), with designs finalized and implementation in progress. Looking ahead to next year, we’ll begin development on Back in Stock Notifications, which is currently undergoing performance optimization work. We’re also excited about Shipment Tracking – the design phase is nearly complete, and we’ll share more details about this feature in an upcoming dev blog post before development begins in 2025. We’ll continue to shape our roadmap and keep you updated as we thoughtfully expand WooCommerce core’s capabilities.
Investing in a shared vision
Driving this evolution forward is a team-wide effort, and our recent appointment of James Kemp as Core Product Manager reflects our deepening investment in core development. James is now helping shape WooCommerce’s core vision, working closely with our teams to make WooCommerce a powerful, user-friendly platform for everyone. From streamlining the mobile app for shop managers to delivering efficient tools for developers, this expanded role helps us stay aligned with a clear vision for WooCommerce’s future.
Join us in shaping the future
With dedicated leadership, and insights from our community, we’re focused on making WooCommerce the go-to platform for builder-supported stores at scale. Every step of the way, feedback from developers like you has shaped these decisions. To influence which capabilities are added to WooCommerce core, join the discussion on GitHub and share your insights with us. Together, let’s shape the future of WooCommerce.
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