E-Commerce Knowledgebase
Here you’ll find information based on Forward Multimedia’s E-commerce services. You can browse by category or search to quickly find answers relevant to your website.
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Globally, WooCommerce is the most popular E-Commerce shopping cart worldwide, It was acquired by Automattic, the parent company of WordPress, and provides a seamless integration with the WordPress platform. It is the most popular shopping cart in T&T, and generally easy to use by non-techs. Many plug-ins exist, both free and paid to extend functionality, so it is very versatile.
Yes Shopify is an option and powers many stores in Trinidad & Tobago as a user friendly alternative to Woo Commerce. It’s a hosted solution requiring a monthly subscription, and is generally suited to the non-techs and DIY’ers. See our full article on Shopify on our blog: Does Shopify work in Trinidad & Tobago.
Generally yes, but no local payment gateways can be integrated, so will have to use only offline payment like bank transfer.
Only if your point of sale software is compatible with WooCommerce or Shopify (like Lightspeed does), do we do such syncs. A few POS systems promoted in T&T have third party WordPress plug-ins, like Odoo and Loyverse, but have many key limitations. We prefer native (built-in) compatibility over use of third party plug-ins.
There are 5 bona fide payment gateways available in Trinidad & Tobago:
- First Atlantic Commerce (FAC)
- Scotiabank eCom+
- Fygaro
- WiPay
- PayWise
No. Linx cards that only have the Linx logo cannot be used for online payment as they use a payment system (known as ACH) that is not supported by online shopping carts. If your card has both Linx and Visa/Mastercard logo, then the card can technically be used through the credit card system.
Yes and no. In theory, any local debit card with the Visa/Mastercard logo can be used. However, some banks place restrictions for online payment; some may work and others may not.
In terms of a seamless payment process, both options are around the same.
A PayPal account linked to a locally issued credit card does not work to receive payments, often citing transactions cannot be processed due to regulations.
A PayPal account linked to a US debit/credit card and bank account will work as it’s US based.
Stripe accounts need a US or international bank to connect to and will work.
Tthe five (5) local payment gateways generally do not allow for keeping USD earned from non TT issued credit cards, i.e. international cards. In the case of FAC and Scotiabank eCom+, it is theoretically possible to negotiate with the bank directly.
Delivery
There are many local couriers that deliver packages from online purchases. However the most popular are:
- CSF Domestic Delivery
- Odeliver
- TTPost
If you are a merchant, CSF and Odeliver will pick-up your packages.
None of the local couriers have a readily available WordPress plug-in to integrate with your account. CSF has a public available API called CSF Connect that would allow for a developer to either write a plug-in or do a custom integration.
No local courier can be integrated with Shopify at this time. Shopify has its own development rules, being a proprietary platform, and is not open-source like WordPress/WooCommerce.
None are necessarily better, both have their pros and cons.
Yes, international carriers can be integrated with WooCommerce. However, their rates are fetched in USD which means the shopping cart’s base currency must also be USD.