Creating an online store on WordPress is available to everyone. WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world. It created hundreds of thousands of stores using WooCommerce ? the most powerful and efficient eCommerce plugin on the market and, moreover, free. Let?s take a step-by-step look at how to do this in practice.
You can get a WooCommerce Plugin from here: WOOCOMMERCE PLUGIN
WordPress ? proven by millions of CMS users with proven performance. The credibility and usefulness of the system are not in doubt. You can make almost any website thanks to a rich set of all kinds of plugins, most of which are also free, like the CMS itself. It is not surprising that over 15 years the engine has assembled a huge army of fans around the world and deservedly took first place in popularity. Creating stores on WordPress along with other types of sites is an extremely popular topic. The best CMS to start selling products online. Only at least some skill in working with it is required.
In addition to the engine, the store will also need hosting. The developers of WordPress.org and WooCommerce.com officially recommend using the hosting services of Bluehost ? one of the largest providers in the world with headquarters in the United States. The hoster has an array of more than 120 data centers around the world, provides unprecedented reliability, stability, as well as connection speed thanks to Cloudflare CDN technology. The cost of tariffs is ordinary, the conditions are generous. Bulletproof guaranteed. DDoS protection is reliable. All conceivable hosting technologies are supported. Bluehost.com ? the best hosting for hosting an online store based on WordPress, verified.
Here is an in-depth guide on how to choose the best hosting.
Creating an online store on WordPress and choosing an Optimized hosting for an online store on WooCommerce:
Get best discounts on BlueHost: HOSTING FOR WOOCOMMERCE
Let?s move on to the detailed instructions on creating a WordPress store using WooCommerce.
Install WooCommerce
Before installing the plugin, creating an online store on WordPress is the first step. On how to do this, we have a detailed guide. The only advice is to purchase high-quality hosting: WooCommerce creates a significant load, especially if you plan to add a large number of products. Otherwise, there are no special requirements ? this is the same site on WordPress, only with advanced functionality for organizing the work of the store.
WooCommerce?installs on WordPress just like any other plugin. You can get the latest version of the plugin for free from the?official website of the developers?(in your account, after registration):
You can add?additional extensions?to it to manage the online store to get new features that are not by default.
Here is an in-depth review of the WooCommerce plugin that you can go through.
There is an easier way to install the plugin for e-commerce ? use the built-in admin panel of the WordPress plugin directory. To do this, do the following:
- Open the ?Plugins? section in the admin panel.
- Click Add New.
- Find WooCommerce in the list. Install it and activate.
After activation, a suggestion will appear on configuring the basic parameters of the plugin. By default, four new sections will be created: a storefront, basket, checkout and personal account.
In the process of creating an online store on WordPress, you must specify the region and currency. Put a mark on the inclusion of taxes in the price ? this will allow visitors to immediately see the final cost. You can adjust tax deductions in the advanced settings.
Next, the ?Delivery? section will appear, in which you need to select the unit of measurement. The choice depends on the region and type of product: for example, if you sell apples in the UK, then the unit of measure for delivery will be kilograms.
The last tab is ?Payment.? By default, only cash payment upon delivery is suitable for the UK. You can immediately connect PayPal. To add payment systems, popular in the UK, you have to install plugins ? we will return to this issue a bit later. This completes the installation process.
Creating an online store on WordPress: How to Work with Website Design
For the store to work properly, a store template is required that is fully compatible with WooCommerce. There will definitely not be a problem with the standard plugin template called Storefront. Other website design options can be found in?the WordPress theme catalog for??WooCommerce?. Other sources of templates (such as?TemplateMonster?) are also available for use ? the main thing is that they are verified, after all, we are talking about a store through which payments and personal data of users pass.
Themes for WooCommerce offer roughly the same settings as standard WordPress templates. You can also change the logo, turn on/off the header, footer, and menu, choose which page will be displayed as the main page. Some topics immediately show a list of recommended plugins that are needed to reach their full potential. Nobody forces them to be installed ? you can use the standard features of the template or choose another option. If you have layout skills, you can change the appearance and functionality of the theme by editing its files.
If you planning to work on a customized design, I would highly suggest you work with the Elementor page builder. Here is a detailed review of the Elementor Page Builder.
Creating an online store on WordPress: How to Add Products?
Bulk adding products is the last step in setting up a store before being published in the public domain. But to make it convenient for you to monitor how the advanced WooCommerce settings and the installation of other extensions change the site?s functionality, it?s recommended to add several positions at once.
All products are divided into categories. You can view existing ones or create new ones in the section of the same name in the ?Products? menu. When creating a new category, you indicate its name and description, add a thumbnail. Optional ? label assignment and parent category assignment. By default, the section will have several categories created, so you can simply edit them.
To upload a new position to the site in the ?Products? section there is an ?Add? button. After clicking on it, the standard WordPress editor appears ? in the fifth version of the engine, this is the block, Gutenberg. You need:
- Indicate the name of the product and its permalink (automatically generated, can be fixed).
- Add description.
- Choose a category.
- Fill in the product data: base price, value at the sale, duration of the action (if any), tax status, tax class.
- Enable automatic display of residues.
- Choose shipping methods.
- Adjust the list of related products.
- Indicate additional information: color, size, other features in the ?Attributes? tab.
After adding all the information, you need to download a thumbnail and indicate a brief description ? they will be shown in a showcase on the main page and in the section with the category. You can also add a gallery to allow visitors to view the product from all sides. This completes the addition ? you can publish and check how the position is displayed on the storefront.
For bulk loading of goods, you can use the built-in export/import tools, but it is much more efficient to install the WP All Import plugin with the add-on for WooCommerce. If there are a few positions, then you can do with manual addition.
Plugin Configuration
We installed the plugin, made sure that the site template is compatible with it, added several test products. Now let?s get to work with advanced settings. In them you can:
- set up a tax system;
- specify delivery parameters;
- add a payment system suitable for users in the UK.
The tax settings depend on what form of taxation you use. In the parameters, you can specify the rates, classes, address of the store that will be used for calculation. In order not to make a mistake, consult with tax specialists who will tell you which system is better to choose and what data should be presented so that there are no problems.
To configure the delivery parameters, you can do without the help of specialists ? you yourself perfectly know what market the store is aimed at. Each delivery method is configured separately. For example, you can indicate that in some cities there is pickup and indicate its cost ? $0. For other settlements, delivery by mail, courier service and any other methods that you are ready to offer will be available.
Another important point is the addition of convenient payment methods. WooCommerce is aimed at the western market, so among standard systems, there are no offers adapted for the UK. To add them, you need to connect a suitable service ? for example, Paypal, Cash On Delivery. After connecting them, you must install and activate the ?Single Cashier? extension.
After connecting the ?One cash desk? in the WooCommerce parameters, you must specify the identifier of the payment system, the method of creating an electronic digital signature, and a unique store key. If necessary, you can change the display order of payment gateways.
Store Optimization and Promotion
There are few opportunities for SEO optimization in the standard version of WordPress and WooCommerce, so you need to install the plugin. The most common option is All In One SEO Pack with an add-on for WooCommerce, which adds a metadata block to the product pages. They must be filled in the name and description ? this information will be taken into account by search engines.
The basic WordPress setup involves turning on the CNC. However, in the WooCommerce store, the prefix product will be added to the URL. The easiest way to remove it is to use the paid Perfect SEO URL extension for $119 or the free Permalink Manager Lite. But its minus is that the changes will be applied only to those products that are added after setting uplinks. Previously loaded positions will have to be edited manually, so we advise you not to rush into filling the store.
After activating Permalink, a link to its parameters will be displayed in the ?Tools? section. On the Permastructures tab, you need to find the ?Products? field and insert the appropriate address structure -% product_cat% into it.
The next important element of optimization and promotion is setting up metadata for publishing links on social networks. When using All In One SEO Pack, for this it is enough to include the Social Meta add-on in the plugin settings. In the addon parameters, you can also adjust snippets for individual social networks.
These are just the basic parameters of website optimization. To improve positions in search results and increase traffic, you must use other plugins ? for example, to manage markup or create accelerated versions of important store pages.
Here is a complete guide on how you can speed up your online store.
Conclusion
WooCommerce is the most popular online store plugin that can be installed for free on WordPress. The basic functionality of WooCommerce allows you to create a store in a few hours, but for normal operation, additional configuration and other plugins are required.
WooCommerce is good when you need to launch a large online store with hundreds or thousands of products in stock. But, for large trading floors, it is best to use specialized in-store CMS like Shopify. For small projects, working with this service may be too confused and even ineffective. Despite the simplicity of the engine and plug-in for e-commerce, bringing the store to the working conditions will require a lot of effort and time to study which settings you need to select and add-ons to install.
The solution to the problem for owners of small and medium-sized businesses can be the designers of online stores. They offer ?out of the box? the same opportunities as WooCommerce, so the administrator can only add products and configure payment and delivery methods.
