Smart Manager Plugin: A Game-Changer for WordPress E-commerce and Blog Content Management

This post is about the Smart Manager plugin, which has impressed both me and the clients who use it. I want to clarify that I have no affiliation with StoreApps, the developers behind the plugin, and I do not earn any revenue or compensation from them for this article. These are my honest opinions based on personal experiences and those communicated to me from Adeptive clients.

Introduction: Managing Content on WordPress can be SLOW and inefficient

Managing content on WordPress can be a daunting task, especially when dealing with large volumes of content. As a content administrator, the default WordPress UX (User Experience) forces users to update one post or product at a time, which can be annoyingly time-consuming and inefficient. From my own experience creating and uploading content into a fresh WordPress website, it’s such a mechanical and mind-numbing process of going from page to page, editing the same fields for every single post and, worst still, waiting for WordPress to save my changes before I could move on to the next post!

It’s a common practice for the savvy WordPress Developer to pre-format and prepare large amounts of content externally to the site, then use an importer to suck this content in and place it in the necessary fields, bulk-creating products and posts for a website. This, of course, is very useful, but it has many drawbacks. It also assumes the client has the budget to afford this option and provides content in a strict format (which most clients find impossible). Of course, importing data for the first time might be helpful, but this doesn’t solve the ongoing horribly slow experience of managing the content, making regular updates and changes and being able to quickly visualise your website’s posts and products in a flexible and efficient way – in bulk.

Enter Smart Manager, a plugin that transforms this workflow by providing a familiar Excel-like spreadsheet interface for seamless and efficient bulk content management. In this article, I’ll share how this plugin became a massive productivity booster for two of my clients—one running an e-commerce store and the other managing a content-rich blog.

Streamlining E-commerce Product Management

One of my clients operates a growing e-commerce website powered by WooCommerce, called Fibreglass Warehouse. Initially, updating product information was a laborious process. Each price change, SEO tweak, or category update required navigating through multiple pages—a method that was neither efficient nor user-friendly. The client was also tied to managing their products using a traditional spreadsheet, where hundreds of products and various fields could be scrolled through quickly and bulk updated efficiently.

Smart Manager revolutionised their workflow by offering a user-friendly spreadsheet-style interface that allowed for bulk edits from a single view via their WordPress Website. This empowered my client to use the website as the single source of truth for their product data. No more externally managed spreadsheets – their WordPress website was now a robust inventory management system linked to their customer database and sales front-end store. This was critical to my client, as it slashed away the admin overheads they would have endured without the Smart Manager plugin, making everyday tasks easier, like:

• Bulk Price Updates: Adjusting prices for multiple products became as simple as editing cells in a spreadsheet.
• SEO Metadata Management: Optimising products for search engines was streamlined by allowing direct edits to meta titles and descriptions.
• Category and Tag Assignments: Reassigning products to different categories or adding new tags was done in seconds.
• Stock Management and Order Processing: The plugin enabled total control over inventory and orders without switching screens.

The convenience of handling all these aspects from one screen not only saved time but also reduced the risk of errors when updating large numbers of products.

Blog Content Creation, the Fast and Easy Way

Another client faced challenges with managing a high-volume blog called Biz Nuggets. They would generate their blog posts in their specialised writing app and plan out schedules for when posts would be published in another app of choice. Typically, they would prepare 1-2 months’ worth of posts beforehand, ready for upload and final formatting on the website.

Creating and updating posts individually was not only time-consuming but also hindered the team’s ability to produce content in a timely manner.

Smart Manager proved to be an incredibly effective time saver for the client’s content management as they could now:

• Bulk Create Posts: Generate multiple draft posts simultaneously, laying the groundwork for upcoming content.
• Unified Editing: From the same screen, add blog content, set featured images, and update SEO metadata without jumping between different pages. This included using the TinyMCE WYSIWYG editor to properly format the article content to web standards – ie h1, h2, h3, etc, which is critical to the client’s SEO needs.
• Efficient Categorisation: Assign new content to their authors, categories, and tags in bulk, ensuring consistent organisation across the site. Being able to see 100s of posts at once with a simple scroll and being able to visually spot missing fields meant that the number of errors and missing fields was reduced!
• Popup Modals for Detailed Editing: Clicking on a field allowed for direct input and styling of complete page layouts using popup modals, bypassing the sometimes cumbersome WordPress block editor. Jumping from post to post was a faster experience by leaps and bounds for them to what they were used to with the default WordPress UX.

This holistic approach allowed the content team to focus more on writing and less on administrative tasks, significantly boosting productivity and ultimately allowing for more time fine-tuning content – leading to higher quality articles.

Why Smart Manager is More Than Just a Bulk Editor

While WordPress does offer some basic bulk editing features, they are limited in scope. Smart Manager goes beyond by providing advanced functionality wrapped up in an efficient and versatile UX that fundamentally changes the way we can manage content on WordPress:

• Comprehensive Editing Capabilities: Modify virtually every field for WooCommerce products, blog posts, categories and tags, and even custom post types created by web developers like me. That’s right, even custom fields I create specific to my client’s businesses will appear in Smart Manager and will be ready to be edited alongside all other fields for a post.
• Single-Screen Management: Eliminate the need to navigate through multiple pages with a centralised interface. It feels like editing a database table or spreadsheet, but it has modern web app functionality.
• Advanced Search and Filtering: Zero in on specific items in your catalogue, whether you’re looking for out-of-stock products, blog posts with missing metadata, or a particular category, etc.
• Inline Editing: Update information without reloading the screen, making it faster to apply changes. This benefit is undeniable when working with a slower/cheaper web hosting provider where the lag time is significant. Smart Manager itself is very quick at saving changes you make by comparison.
• Excel-like Experience: The familiar spreadsheet interface eases the learning curve for users who are comfortable with Excel, enhancing user experience.

By consolidating content management tasks into a single, user-friendly interface, Smart Manager reduces the time and effort required to manage WordPress content effectively.

Outstanding Developer Support for Smart Manager Plugin

One of the standout features of the Smart Manager plugin is the incredible developer support behind it. The team at StoreApps, especially Gomathi, who’s the developer I’ve dealt with over there the last few months, go above and beyond to ensure that users get the most out of the plugin. From answering questions promptly to accepting feature requests, their dedication to continuous improvement is clear.

As a developer myself, I’ve found their responsiveness invaluable. They take feedback seriously, which means that not only do they help troubleshoot issues, but they’re also willing to implement features that can benefit all users. I’ve seen at least 3 updated versions of the plugin as of this date get published that include enhancements I’ve requested/recommended already.

Their commitment to my needs, and that of my clients’ needs, gives me confidence that Smart Manager will continue to remain a versatile, user-friendly tool that hits the nail on the head. I’m excited to see what future updates bring. It’s refreshing to have a plugin backed by such a dedicated development team, making it even more powerful and reliable for WordPress site owners and web design/developers like myself.

Conclusion: A Better Approach at WordPress Content Management

The Smart Manager plugin has been instrumental in transforming how my clients manage their WordPress websites. I also use this plugin on my own website, as it is a far superior way to manage content, even on a smaller website like Adeptive.

Its advanced editing capabilities go far beyond the WordPress default features, making it an invaluable tool for anyone looking to reduce the time needed to manage content on their WordPress website. Whether you’re updating an extensive product catalogue or managing a prolific blog, the ability to handle everything from a single screen is a game-changer. It reduces the time spent on admin work, decreases errors, and makes large-scale updates manageable—all while offering a familiar and easy-to-use interface.

If you’re looking for a way to streamline your WordPress workflow and boost productivity, Smart Manager is definitely worth considering.