Ecommerce is a booming industry and a trend that isn’t slowing down soon. With more and more brick-and-mortar stores going online, customers can order online from the comfort of their homes.
Do you want to create an online store? Want to take your existing offline store online? Want to create a WooCommerce store in a day?
Creating an online store is easier than you might think. Follow this guide and you’ll be up and running in no time!
Ready to create a WooCommerce store within a day?
Set your timer and let’s begin!
What is WooCommerce? And Why WooCommerce?What is WooCommerce? And Why WooCommerce?
WooCommerce is a very popular open-source solution used to create online stores in WordPress. Using the WooCommerce plugin, you can convert a simple WordPress website into a full-fledged online store in minutes.
WooCommerce allows you to sell both physical and digital products, manage inventory, track orders, set up payments and shipping, and a whole lot more.
The best part is that WooCommerce is beginner-friendly, and you can get started with your online store for free. Well, your only investment is for the domain and hosting and some premium plugins if needed. Aside from that, it’s all free!
Here are a few stats that’ll underline the popularity of WooCommerce:
- There are 4,414,537 websites currently using WooCommerce
- Nearly 7.5% of all websites use WooCommerce
- WooCommerce powers 28.19% of all online stores
- With 68% usage, WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce plugin
- The WordPress ecosystem has over 1,400 WooCommerce plugins
(Source: Hosting Tribunal)
The bottom line is that WooCommerce is the most popular option for creating an online store.
What Do You Need To Start an Online Store?What Do You Need To Start an Online Store?
Here is a list of steps required to start an online store using WordPress and WooCommerce:
- Set up domain and hosting
- Install WordPress
- Install WooCommerce
- Install a theme and the essential plugins
- Set up tax and payments
- Set up shipping
- Add products
- Secure your store
- Track your sales
- Promote your online store
That’s it!
How to Create a WooCommerce Store?How to Create a WooCommerce Store?
Now let’s cut to the chase and walk you through creating your WooCommerce store.
Step 1: Set Up Domain and HostingStep 1: Set Up Domain and Hosting
Step one is to register a domain and hosting. There are several hosting options available. Some of the popular ones are Bluehost, HostGator, SiteGround and GreenGeeks.
Check out our list of the 8 best WordPress hosting providers for more options.
While narrowing down on your hosting options, look for one that is reliable, offers at least 99.9% uptime, is secure, loads fast, offers CDN, and most importantly, supports WordPress and WooCommerce.
Step 2: Install WordPressStep 2: Install WordPress
Once you’ve purchased your WordPress hosting, you’ll be walked through some easy-to-follow steps to create your website.
We’ll use Bluehost for our example as it’s one of the hosts we recommend.
Log into your Bluehost account, answer a few simple questions related to your website, and before you know it, you’ll be on your Bluehost dashboard.
From your Bluehost dashboard, you’ll find an option to log into your WordPress dashboard.
Click on the button and jump on to your WordPress dashboard.
And that’s how easy it is to install WordPress!
Step 3: Install WooCommerceStep 3: Install WooCommerce
Now that we have WordPress installed, we need to convert our website into an online store. For this, we need to install WooCommerce.
From the left-hand side menu of your WordPress dashboard, select Plugins > Add New.
Then search for WooCommerce.
Click on Install Now and Activate.
Once the plugin is activated, you’ll be prompted to fill in some basic details. Details such as your store address, the kind of products you’re selling, location and so on.
Once you’ve completed all the steps, you’ll be taken to the WooCommerce dashboard.
Your WooCommerce dashboard is pretty intuitive, with several metrics all in one place. From traffic insights to the total sales and orders, there’s a lot of helpful information on there.
You’ll also notice a bunch of new links on the left-hand side of your WordPress dashboard. Links such as Marketing, Products and Analytics are all part of WooCommerce.
Step 4: Install a Theme and Essential PluginsStep 4: Install a Theme and Essential Plugins
We’ve got ourselves a store address, a hosting service that supports WordPress, and then installed WordPress and WooCommerce.
In short, we’ve got our platform all ready.
Next step is to make our store look great. We’ve got to install a theme!
Select a theme that takes time to load, and you’ll negatively impact your website performance.
We recommend the Astra theme. Astra is a hugely popular WordPress theme that is lightweight and has been used on more than 1.6 million websites. Websites built using Astra load in under 0.5 seconds and are already optimized for conversions.
To install the Astra theme, head over to Appearance > Themes > Add New and search for Astra.
Once installed, it’s time to have a professional-looking website ready. And that’s what we love about the Astra theme. It’s pre-built Starter Templates.
Using the Starter Templates, you can import a completely complete website in just a couple of clicks.
Navigate to Appearance > Astra Options and click on Install Importer Plugin.
Select a page builder from the options provided to proceed.
A page builder is like an editor. It helps you create, edit and manage your pages and posts. Some of the popular ones are Elementor, Beaver Builder, and Brizy. Gutenberg is the default block editor that comes when you install WordPress.
You’ll now be presented with a range of website templates for your preferred page builder.
Look for an online store theme in the search field.
You can filter the options based on free and premium themes. We’ll stick to the free ones for now.
The premium themes come with the Astra Agency bundle.
Select a template and complete the import process.
For instance, we’ve selected the Organic Store.
You have the option to preview the site, import the complete site, or import any one of the templates.
We’ll go with Import Complete Site.
Once the import has been completed successfully, you’ll have a professional-looking online store site up and running!
Didn’t we say this was easy?
All you have to do now is complete a few WooCommerce settings, add your products, set up payments and shipping.
Head over to WooCommerce > Dashboard.
The Get ready to start selling section indicates a bunch of to-dos that you’ve got to complete.
This includes your store details, adding products, setting up payments, and a lot more.
It’s all pretty straightforward. It even indicates how long each of the steps would take you.
For instance, click on Set up payments which should take you about 2 minutes to complete.
Click on Get started and complete the relatively straightforward steps to set up your payment methods. Want more payment options? Select from the additional payment gateway options.
These settings can also be accessed via WooCommerce > Settings.
Once you are done with all the above settings, let’s move on to a few additional specifics.
Step 5: Set up Payments and TaxesStep 5: Set up Payments and Taxes
Any online store needs to accept payments. And if you’ve completed the above setup process, you’d have found that WooCommerce makes this relatively simple.
Some of the default payment options that WooCommerce offers are direct bank transfer, check payment, and cash on delivery.
You can also install the WooCommerce Payments plugin to accept payments via credit cards and other popular payment methods.
Want to include additional payment options such as PayPal and Stripe? No problem!
Follow the easy setup process and add your favorite payment gateway.
You may also want to add taxes. In some cases, taxes are disabled by default.
To enable taxes, head over to WooCommerce > Settings > General.
And then ensure the ‘Enable tax rates and calculations’ box is checked. Click Save changes when you are done.
You’ll then find the Tax tab under WooCommerce settings.
Now you can include the appropriate tax components for your region.
Step 6: Set up ShippingStep 6: Set up Shipping
WooCommerce provides you with several options when it comes to adding shipping. If the default options aren’t enough, you can always integrate with third-party services that manage shipping and delivery.
The default options WooCommerce provides are flat rate, free shipping, and local pickup.
To set these up, head over to WooCommerce > Settings and then click on the Shipping tab.
Then click on Add shipping zone.
You can opt for one of the default shipping methods.
If you want to add alternative shipping methods, there are always WooCommerce shipping extensions that you can use.
Using these extensions, you can add shipping methods such as table rate shipping, third-party carrier rates in real-time, and more.
Once you’ve added a zone and the shipping method, you can assign the shipping cost and the associated taxes.
For that, hover over the shipping method you just created and click Edit. You’ll be presented with a popup with some options based on your shipping method.
Check with your shipping partners and add the cost accordingly.
Step 7: Add ProductsStep 7: Add Products
Now that we have all the settings in place, it’s time to add some products to the store.
While adding products is relatively simple, we must plan our store structure and add relevant product categories.
If your store deals in only one product, you needn’t add any categories. However, if you’ve got several products, it makes sense to have them in relevant categories.
For instance, if you’re running an online clothing store, you could have categories like kids, women, and men.
You could further classify them, such as everyday wear, sportswear, formal, and so on.
Not only do categories make navigating through your online store easier for customers, it also helps when you want to run offers for a particular product category.
E.g., if you’d like to run a promotion for sportswear, you could direct your ads to a URL such as https://onlinestore.com/sportswear.
To add categories, head over to Products > Categories.
Enter your category name and click on Add new category.
You can repeat this process for all the categories you’d like to create.
Once you are done, head over to Products > Add New.
You can now add all the product details, such as product name, description, and everything else you want to display.
As you scroll down, you’ll notice the product data section.
We recommend you play around and explore the various options available in this section.
Once you have included all the required details, click Publish.
Your products will appear on the store page of your website.
Step 8: Track Your SalesStep 8: Track Your Sales
Now that your online store is up and running with all the products included, we’ll want to track the sales and traffic. This way, we know what’s working and what’s not.
WooCommerce makes this easy with in-built analytics.
Navigate to Analytics > Overview.
You’ve got a whole range of metrics to help understand how well your store is performing.
Which are the most popular products, total sales and revenue, coupons used, stock inventory, and much more.
Step 9. Extend Your Online Store Step 9. Extend Your Online Store
Another significant advantage of using WooCommerce to create an online store is the number of free and paid WooCommerce extensions you can use.
As we’ve seen, you can run a full-fledged online store without investing in anything else apart from the domain and hosting.
That being said, you aren’t limited when it comes to extending your store’s functionality.
Some of those functions are available right within your WordPress dashboard.
Head over to Marketing > Overview.
You can use some of the recommended extensions such as Mailchimp to build your email list or even Facebook for WooCommerce to showcase your store products on your Facebook shop page.
Want to display Google ads? No problem! Use the Google Listings and Ads extension for advertising your products on the Google platform.
Another method to bring in more traffic to your store and generate sales is by using coupons. You know those buy one get one offers, discount coupons, and more.
WooCommerce makes this easy too!
Navigate to Coupons and create your first coupon.
Additionally, some plugins that you can consider installing are:
- UpdraftPlus: Helps backup your entire site
- Wordfence Security: Add a layer of security for your online store
- W3 Total Cache: Speeds up your website and enhance user experience
- Yoast SEO: Rank higher on search engines by working on your site SEO
- WP Schema Pro: Add schema markup to your website and boost traffic by displaying rich snippets on search engines
- WPForms: Allow your site visitors to contact you
- Social Media Share Buttons: Let your customers spread the word by sharing your store and products on social media
- Cartflows: Sales Funnel Builder to Increase Conversions & Maximize Profits.
- Convert Pro: Email Opt-In & Lead Generation Plugin to Increase in Subscribers & Conversions.
Bonus: Join the WooCommerce CommunityBonus: Join the WooCommerce Community
Both WordPress and WooCommerce have a vast community that’s always there to assist you.
While there may not be a dedicated support team, you will always find answers to your queries from the WooCommerce Community.
You can also refer WooCommerce documentation for any additional support.
ConclusionConclusion
Online sales are skyrocketing, and this is a trend that’s not slowing down in the near future. From your local mom-and-pop stores to larger brick-and-mortar stores, everyone is going online.
Fortunately, creating an online store with WooCommerce is relatively easy and doesn’t cost much. You should be able to create one relatively quickly just by following this guide.
Over to you. Were you able to create a WooCommerce store using the steps mentioned above? And if you still have your timer running, let us know how long it took you to create one!
Note: This tutorial to create a WooCommerce store was contributed by Sujay Pawar. If you have a detailed tutorial to contribute, please check our guest post guidelines.
