Or, you always wanted to create an eCommerce site like Amazon where you can sell products online but didn't start yet.
Well, I can guess why.
You thought creating an online store like Amazon or eBay is way too hard, you need a lot of money ($10,000- $50,000) for hiring web developers and designers or having full coding knowledge?
That's not the truth.
You can make an online store like Amazon under 30 minutes.
In this article, I will guide you through step by step processes on how to make a website like Amazon or eBay or Flipkart (from start to finish). Once done, you can sell your products online.
Before we begin, let's check a couple of things that you need to know.- Creating a website like Amazon takes around 25-30 minutes
- You don't need to hire any developers or designers
- You don't need to learn to code
- You don't need a lot of money
- You can start selling products once it's done
What do You Need to Start an Online Store?
The first thing you need to choose the right platform for your online store.
There are several eCommerce platforms available and it's quite hard to choose, especially for beginners.
But, you don't need to worry about it. We have tested all the eCommerce platforms and tell you the most convenient one.
The most popular eCommerce platform is WooCommerce.
Over millions of eCommerce sites are powered by WooCommerce and growing massively.
There are many benefits to using the WooCommerce platform.
To make a website like Amazon, you need:
In a nutshell, a domain name is your website's address on the internet.
Web hosting is where your website's files are stored on the online. You can say web hosting is your website's home. Without web hosting, you can't make your website.
An SSL certificate is a must-have if you run an online store where sensitive information is delivered such as email, password, credit card details.
Normally, a domain registration costs around $14 for 1 year, web hosting $14 per month and $60-$240 per year for an SSL certificate.
That's too much for those who are just getting started.
Luckily, Hostgator offers a FREE domain registration and FREE SSL certificate with its hosting plan which starts only at $5.95 per month.
HostGator is one of the oldest web hosting providers (founded in 2002) and they are now powering over millions of websites worldwide.
They offer various types of hosting such as shared, WordPress hosting, VPS, Cloud, Dedicated.
Click here to Register a Domain for Free
Let's get started!
1. Get Web Hosting and Register a Domain Name
Registering a free domain name with HostGator is very easy.
Follow the steps below.
Step 2. Choose the Starter plan. This includes 1GB of automatic daily backup, free SSL certificate, free domain registration, unlimited storage, automatic malware removal, etc.
First, enter your domain name, it will show you if the domain is available to register.
If the name you entered is unavailable to register, try with a different name. You can even enter your name.
I recommend choosing at least for 12 months. You can also choose for 36 months if you want an extra discount.
Then set a security PIN. It should contain only numbers and must be 4-8 characters long.
Step 4. Enter your billing info. Also, select which payment method you want to use. You can make the purchase using both Credit Card and PayPal.
Step 5. By default, you are getting Site Backup and SiteLock Essentials.
Your current plan also includes a free SSL certificate. This option is for upgrading the SSL, which is optional.
Step 6. Check the Terms of Service box and click on the Checkout Now! button.
Step 7. Once done, check your email.
You will receive HostGator cPanel login details (Login Name and Password).
Now let's install WordPress and WooCommerce.
2. Install WordPress and WooCommerce
First, log in to your hosting account using the login details that you received on your email.
In this step, we will install WordPress as well as WooCommerce.
As it's a WordPress managed hosting, you wouldn't see a regular cPanel. Although, you can do everything from your dashboard.
I am using it for a while and it's super user-friendly.
Once you logged in to your hosting dashboard, go to Step 1. Hosting > Manage and click on the WordPress Admin button to log in to your WordPress admin panel.
It may take a few seconds to redirect you to the WordPress dashboard.
Step 2. That's your WordPress dashboard. From there, you can customize your site.
Before we start installing WooCommerce, let's first uninstall the default plugins.
Go to Plugins > Installed Plugins. Select all the plugins > Deactivate and then Delete them.
Now let's install the WooCommerce plugin.
Once you installed and activated WooCommerce, it will ask you to set up your store.
In the next step, we will set up the WooCommerce Store.
3. Setting Up Your WooCommerce Store
Using these settings, you can set up your store's location, currency, payment mode, shipping method, and many more.
Enter your store's address and then click on the Step 1. Store setup: Let's go button.
Step 2. Payments: From here, you can set up both online and offline payments. Activate the payment methods that you want to use in your store.
However, if you want to use a different payment method, you can install that later.
Step 3. Shipping: Using this option, you can print shipping labels at home.
Select the preferred weight and length units for your products.
Step 4. Recommended: In this tab, you can install a WooCommerce theme, set automated taxes, WooCommerce admin, Mailchimp email newsletter.
We will install a WooCommerce theme later this step which will look like Amazon.
Step 5. Activate: It will ask you to install Jetpack. I recommend you to skip this step.
Step 6. Ready: You have successfully set up WooCommerce.
Now click on the Visit Dashboard option to go to your WordPress admin panel.
4. Change Your WordPress Admin Password
The next thing you need to change your WordPress admin password.
From the WordPress dashboard, go to Users > Your Profile and you can find the option "Account Management".
There you need to click on the "Generate Password" button and it will automatically generate a new password.
Once done, click on the Update Profile at the button and you are done.
I highly recommend you to save your admin login URL, username as well as password on your computer.
Now we will install the SSL and force your site to redirect HTTPS (SSL).
5. Installing SSL and Force Your Site to Redirect HTTPS
As stated above that SSL is a must-have if you run an online store.
By default, you already have an SSL certificate installed. We just need to force your site to redirect HTTPS (SSL).
Now, if you open your site on the Google Chrome browser, you may see " your connection to this is not secure " message and might not able to login to your site.
This can be easily fixed by forcing your site to load only with HTTPS.
Step 1. For that, you need to log in to your hosting dashboard.
Step 2. Create an FTP account and save the password in a notepad file.
Step 3. Download and install the Filezilla client. Enter your FTP details into the Filezilla client and connect it with your server.
Step 5. At the end of the file add the piece of code.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
Step 6. Now, save the file and reupload to your server.
Step 7. Refresh your website and you will notice a lock sign that is appearing before your website's URL. That means your website will open only with SSL.
Change the Step 9. HTTP protocol with HTTPS. You can also add "www" before your website's URL but it's totally optional.
Step 10. Click on the Save Changes at the bottom. Once done, you will be automatically logged out.
That's it. Now your website will open only with HTTPS.
5. Installing WooCommerce Theme
Now, we will install a WooCommerce theme.
There are tons of WooCommerce themes available in the market and it's hard to find the best one.
But, you don't need to worry about it. I have searched and tested several WooCommerce themes and will suggest you the best one.
- It is one of the highest-selling multivendor WooCommerce themes.
- It is the highest-rated WooCommerce theme.
- It's always up to date
- It comes with several premium plugins
- Mobile and SEO friendly
- Well speed optimized
- It comes with 7 different homepage layouts
- Easy installation and setup
- Free lifetime updates and 24×7 support
- Comes with importable dummy data
- 6 Pre-defined header styles
- 9 Pre-defined color scheme
- 7 Different types of homepage layouts
- Responsive Megamenu
- 11 Pre-built Pages
- Includes 17 widgets
- WPML Compatible
Buy Electro WooCommerce Theme
However, if you would like to use a different type of WooCommerce theme, you can find more themes here.
In that file, you will have the theme files, dummy data, plugins as well as a license key to activate your product.
Now, we need to upload the theme files that are inside the theme-files folder.
Step 3. From your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance > Themes.
As we are installing a theme manually, you need to click on Add New > Upload Theme and then upload theme files (ZIP) including the child theme.
Upon activation, it will ask you to activate the theme using its license key.
Now, you can visit your store's homepage, but you wouldn't see any products.
It's because we haven't imported the dummy data yet.
In the next step, I will show you how to import dummy data.
Import Theme's Dummy-data
To import the theme's dummy-data, go to Appearance > Import Demo data.
There are two ways you can import the demo data.
You can check your website's homepage to check how it looks like. But, don't worry. You can change anything you want such as color, background image, font, layouts, widgets, etc.
Now let's start adding products to your online store.
6. Adding Products to Your Online Store
Adding products to your WooCommerce store is very easy.
To add a new product, visit Products > Add New.
There enter your product name as well as add the product's description.
Scroll below to add a product's data.
From this section, you can add a product's general information such as price, tax information, inventory, product availability, and many more things.
Now, move to the right side of the page. From there, you can set the product's category, set the product's featured image, add product gallery images, etc.
Once done, click on the Publish button to publish the product. After that, the product will be visible in your store.
7. Customizing Your WooCommerrce Store
The best thing about WooCommerce is that it allows you to change every part of your store.
To customize your WooCommerce theme, go to Appearance > Customize.
From the customize option, you can change your store's layout, change header and footer, add favicon, add store's logo, background color, and many more.
Once you make the changes, don't forget to click on the Publish button.
That's it. This is how you can make a website like Amazon or eBay or Flipkart.
What's Next?
Now you are ready to sell products on your WooCoomerce store.
Before you start selling products on your site, there are many things you need to modify, for example, your site's logo and favicon, permalink, product images, adding payment gateway, etc.
Here's a guide on Most Important Things to Do After Installing WordPress.
Next, you need to install plugins for your WooCommerce site so that you can extend your store's functionality.
But, most importantly, you need to use a backup plugin for your WooCommerce site. Because if you face any issue with your site or broken, you can store your site from the backup. It's highly recommended.
Last but not the least, you need to go through all the options and learn what thing goes what. You can also visit the Amazon or eBay site to get some idea and implement on your site.
