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It began with a line of code:
add_action('wp', 'woocommerce_init', 0);At the moment, Monday 27 September, marks a really big day for us right here at WooCommerce, as we’re celebrating our tenth birthday! Woo!
Rather a lot has occurred over the previous 10 years, and we’ve come a good distance from our humble beginnings. Be part of us on a visit down reminiscence lane as we reminisce and discover the thrilling journey of WooCommerce.
eCommerce for WooThemes
In 2010, WooThemes began to look into the thought of introducing eCommerce performance to their assortment of fashionable themes.
After exploring a lot of other ways of doing this (together with one thought which might have concerned making eCommerce performance accessible as a part of every theme), it was introduced that WooThemes could be hiring two of the builders behind Jigoshop to create a devoted eCommerce plugin known as WooCommerce.
Say hiya to WooCommerce
On September 27, 2011, an inside group of simply 4 builders launched the primary iteration of the WooCommerce plugin. The hotly anticipated launch was effectively obtained throughout the WordPress group and past, with the information being picked up by main publications corresponding to TechCrunch.
WooCommerce 1.0 launched with 9 extensions and 6 themes accessible to be used, together with ‘Wootique’ – a free providing that had been particularly developed for the WooCommerce launch.
Right here’s how the primary WooCommerce product dashboard appeared:
And this was how gross sales stories appeared:
Issues progressed shortly and, in 2012, we put our cash the place our mouth was through the use of WooCommerce to energy WooThemes.com, demonstrating simply how scalable it had change into in such a brief time frame.
“Ten years?! We’ve been having enjoyable! It’s surreal to see our product actually altering lives; the ecosystem round WooCommerce has enabled the beginning and progress of a whole bunch of hundreds of companies with hundreds of thousands of comfortable clients. The event of our group has additionally been phenomenal; it’s been a privilege to observe people develop not simply their careers however their households too.”
– Warren Holmes, COO
The journey to 5 million
Simply 16 months after launch, the group celebrated reaching 500,000 downloads. And a mere 137 days after that, the confetti was introduced out once more as we hit the 1 million downloads milestone – demonstrating the large urge for food for eCommerce within the WordPress area, and a testomony to the standard of the plugin.
In 2014, we launched our first WooCommerce occasion – WooConf. Held in San Francisco, greater than 300 individuals attended the two-day convention which celebrated and educated on all issues WooCommerce and eCommerce.
And if placing in your first convention wasn’t thrilling sufficient, the evening earlier than the large day WooCommerce surpassed 5 million downloads.
Unbeknownst to the group on the time, it was at WooConf 2014 that the WooThemes co-founders began discussions with Matt Mullenweg a couple of potential acquisition by Automattic, however extra about that a bit of later!
Later that month, Storefront – WooCommerce’s first-ever eCommerce-focused official theme – was launched within the WordPress Theme Listing.
A brand new period at Automattic
4 years after launching WooCommerce, in 2015 WooThemes was acquired by Automattic. In a video asserting the acquisition, Matt Mullenweg gave perception into the choice:
“At a WordCamp a number of years in the past, somebody stood up and requested me once we had been going to make it as straightforward to create a web-based retailer as we’d made it to create a weblog. Everybody applauded; there’s lengthy been demand for higher eCommerce performance, nevertheless it’s been exterior the scope of what Automattic may do effectively.”
As well as, the WooThemes group shared a lot of similarities with that of Automattic – being totally distributed, having a ardour for open-source applied sciences, and a robust hyperlink to the present WordPress group to call only a few – it was an ideal match.
On the time, the group of 55 was the most important acquisition Automattic had ever made and signaled that the way forward for eCommerce and WordPress was one to be taken critically.
One yr after becoming a member of Automattic, the WooThemes model was retired in favor of 1 focusing solely on WooCommerce. WooThemes.com would now redirect to WooCommerce.com, and theme growth persevering with to be part of the enterprise – however below the WooCommerce model.
That very same yr, the second WooConf occasion was held in Austin, Texas, and attracted attendees from all around the world.
The group continued to develop, and we had been in a position to begin creating our personal suite of merchandise to additional assist our retailers. A couple of notable mentions being WooCommerce Subscriptions, WooCommerce Transport, and extra not too long ago, WooCommerce Funds.
As well as, initially of 2019, we launched our cellular app for iOS and Android – giving our customers the facility to handle their enterprise on the go.
Quick-forward to at this time; due to the dedication from our gifted group, key companions, and group of contributors, WooCommerce has reached an unbelievable milestone of 150 million+ downloads.
Our Market now has greater than 730 official extensions and themes, the group is over 300 individuals robust, and WooCommerce has additionally been translated for 66 completely different locales. One in 4 shops are powered by WooCommerce, together with Chaka Khan, AeroPress, and the New Zealand All Blacks Official Retailer.
10 years of WooCommerce
We wouldn’t have made it with out you. On this big day, we’d like to increase an enormous thanks to everybody who has been part of this journey – our retailers, builders, knowledgeable companies, companions, and group.
Right here’s to the following 10 years and past – there’s an thrilling future forward of us.
We’ve got formidable plans, and see these first unbelievable ten years as only the start of a protracted and profitable future. We’re dedicated to empowering anybody, anyplace, to promote something with actually limitless extensibility, flexibility, and management over how they construct and evolve their enterprise.
The subsequent 10 years are set to be even higher, and we’re on the lookout for formidable people to affix us throughout the enterprise. Now’s an particularly thrilling time to work on commerce – the business is experiencing astronomical progress, and evolving daily.
For those who’re concerned about a profession at WooCommerce, there’s no higher time to develop with us and form the way forward for commerce, than now.
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