With GoDaddy Pro launching The Hub earlier this month, it looks like a full court press from GoDaddy on other aspects of the ecosystem. Over at TechRadar, GoDaddy and WordPress want to supercharge your ecommerce site: “Following its acquisition of SkyVerge last year, GoDaddy has announced that it will make the company’s WooCommerce extensions available for free for its managed WordPress ecommerce customers.”

I was able to connect with Adam Warner, GoDaddy Global Field Marketing Sr. Manager, to get an additional details on this announcement.

Robert Jacobi: was this always the plan or how did this come to be?

Adam Warner: GoDaddy has been investing in developing ecommerce and specifically WordPress + WooCommerce capabilities since the partnership with Automattic was announced in late 2018. The acquisition of SkyVerge in September 2020 was a strategic step forward in enhancing those abilities – not just for garnering a compelling new library of extensions, but also for bringing to GoDaddy talented development, marketing and support teams with a proven track record in the WooCommerce space.

RJ: How do you think this improves GoDaddy’s ecommerce offering versus the competition?

AW: The additional extensions provide both new and complementary capabilities to our Managed WordPress Ecommerce product. WooCommerce store builders can now access 32 additional premium WooCommerce extensions and 76 overall. Since they are included as part of the plan, developers can build powerful, customized eCommerce stores for hundreds or even thousands of dollars less every year than the same store would cost from the competition. Imagine a barber shop that books appointments online, sells subscriptions for products shipped to customers and has a loyalty program. The extensions needed to build those capabilities would cost hundreds per year to provide while GoDaddy includes them all for free. Additionally, the in-dash assistance and specifically trained care agents provide developers with expert WooCommerce support – something that WooCommerce developers tell us is a powerful advantage.

RJ: Are there plans to add more functionality in the short term?

AW: Consistent with the strategy we have executed to date, we certainly intend to continue to enhance and improve the Managed WordPress Ecommerce platform – both in the short and long term. While we don’t have specific additional features to discuss today, we look forward to launching exciting new features in the future.

RJ: How does this work with The Hub from GoDaddy Pro?

AW: Building and managing any WordPress site, including ecommerce sites, is more efficient than ever when you use the Hub by GoDaddy Pro. You can manage and monitor all your client sites from a single place, no matter where they’re hosted. GoDaddy Pro users report saving over 3 hours per month, per site by automating routine maintenance tasks like backups, security and running bulk updates on WordPress core and plugins.