How to set up sales and e-commerce with LearnDash on WordPress

One of the most recurring questions from my clients is how to set up e-commerce together with LearnDash, especially for the Brazilian market.

As LearnDash experts, we know that choosing the right platform can make all the difference to the success of your online business. Let's explore the specifics of e-commerce in Brazil, why we recommend WooCommerce over LearnDash's native features and how to set it all up the right way.

What makes the Brazilian market unique for WordPress

LearnDash was designed for the American market and doesn't have the features to support the information needed here. On top of that, LearnDash is extremely simplified when it comes to sales features: it doesn't record enough customer information, doesn't support different payment methods (Pix? forget it) or even accept payment in Brazilian reais, and its features are poor overall.

In addition, LearnDash has no official Portuguese translation, which can affect the coherence and consistency of its extra features a bit.

Finally, Brazil has strict data protection regulations, known as the LGPD (Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados, Brazil's General Data Protection Law). Making sure your platform complies with these laws is essential to avoid legal problems.

Why use WooCommerce instead of LearnDash's native features?

Although LearnDash offers built-in e-commerce features, we strongly recommend using WooCommerce for several reasons.

First, versatility. WooCommerce is one of the most versatile e-commerce platforms available, offering a wide range of features that can be easily expanded with plugins.

WooCommerce has plugins that support all the popular payment methods in Brazil, and it also lets you choose the gateway (PagSeguro, MercadoPago, Ebanx and others), allowing a more personalized and efficient checkout experience for your customers.

In addition, with WooCommerce you can customize practically every aspect of your checkout process and e-commerce features, such as triggered emails, the user account page and more. From the layout to payment and shipping options, everything can be adapted to the specific needs of your audience and your brand.

How to set up your payment ecosystem

Now that you understand the advantages of WooCommerce, let's go step by step on setting it up with LearnDash.

After installing LearnDash, the first step is to install the plugins needed to run WooCommerce. Here's the list:

• WooCommerce: the base plugin for running sales features on your WordPress site.
• Brazilian Market on WooCommerce: this plugin lets WooCommerce request and validate CPF and CNPJ (Brazilian individual and company tax IDs) at checkout, which is essential for purchases in Brazil.
• WooCommerce for LearnDash: it integrates courses into WooCommerce products. That way, when a user buys a product, they are added as a learner in the course. In theory this plugin is free, but it comes bundled with the paid LearnDash package.

Now you need to select your payment provider. The best known are PagSeguro, MercadoPago, EBANX and Iugu.

There is no single best one. It depends on the features you need, the fees you're willing to pay and each provider's requirements. Since this affects your business model the most, it's important to research each one's fees carefully. Next, you'll need to install the required plugin and consult the integration manual (it usually involves copying an API key from your payment gateway and pasting it into your plugin).

Extra plugins you might like

Beyond these basic plugins to start receiving payments, there are other plugins that can help improve your users' payment experience without any coding.

WooCommerce Google Analytics Integration: this plugin lets you track events more accurately in Google Analytics. It creates events automatically.

Product Import/Export for WooCommerce: this plugin is most useful if you have many courses to add. It lets you import your products from a spreadsheet, which makes the process much, much faster. You can skip it if you have around 10 courses. Beyond that, consider automating the product creation process.

Smart Coupons For WooCommerce: this plugin lets you add special coupons and automatic triggers. For example, when someone buys a course, you add another course to the cart for free. Or when the person pays by Pix, they get 10% off (you choose the amount). It's great for boosting sales and creating campaigns.

Fluid Checkout for WooCommerce: this plugin lets you customize the WooCommerce checkout a bit. The free version isn't as good as the paid one, but it does the job, especially to start. The Woo checkout is one of the few bad things about it, but luckily there are plenty of options.

Kadence WooCommerce Email Designer: last but not least, Email Designer lets you customize the emails sent to customers, giving them more of your own look.

I haven't included product-specific marketing plugins here, such as Facebook for WooCommerce or Mailchimp for WooCommerce, because that depends on how you use them and the tools in your repertoire. The tip is to always look primarily for official plugins from your partners. Plenty of people create plugins for marketing tools, but they end up adding too much to your site.

Setting up sales and e-commerce with LearnDash doesn't have to be complicated

Setting up your e-commerce platform for the Brazilian market can seem challenging with so many options, but I hope this post makes things clearer. At Poly, we believe that customization and adapting to each business's needs are essential to creating an engaging, effective buying and learning experience. We don't like it when sites use default settings, because you end up with a lifeless site with no personality.

If you have any questions or need extra help, feel free to contact us. We're here to help you and your e-learning deliver an amazing experience for your learners (and for your sales).