How To Build A WordPress E-commerce Website With WooCommerce?

Websites have a lot of scope in today’s world. And having an online shop offers amazing benefits for your business to grow. You can sell your products or services to the entire world from the comfort of your home. It doesn’t matter, whatever your business, you can sell your products online through an e-commerce website.

The e-commerce website is excellent if you want to set up an online store and start selling your products online. Generally, people think that creating an e-commerce website is a very complex and time-consuming process. But it is not completely true; you can build an e-commerce website without having any technical knowledge, and that too in a very short period. Let’s understand how you can build your e-commerce store within a few minutes. 

First, understand the best platforms for building an e-commerce website. There are two main platforms you can use to build an e-commerce website, namely Shopify and WooCommerce. If you are a beginner and do not have any technical skills, you can use Shopify to build an e-commerce website. But it is costly compared to a WooCommerce website and doesn’t give full control to your e-store.

Let’s Understand What is Exactly WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a great plugin for WordPress that helps to build online shops without any hassle. It is an open-source eCommerce platform built on WordPress. This is easy to use and easy to customize, which helps any newbie build stunning e-stores.

Benefits of Building an E-Store in WordPress

  • Give full control
  • Offers amazing templates
  • Customize as per your needs
  • Cost-effective solution

All the above benefits make WordPress + WooCommerce the best platform to build an amazing e-commerce site in a hassle-free environment.

 

What Do You Need to Build an E-store in WordPress?

Apart from an internet connection and a laptop, you also need these important things to start your online journey.

  • Domain name
  • Hosting
  • Some creative skills

First, you need to decide what you want to name your online shop. Your domain name is your online address, where you will find your e-shop, and hosting is the location where your website will be hosted. Creative skills also matter in building an eye-catching e-commerce website.

Let’s start Building An E-commerce Website Step By Step with the help of the WooCommerce plugin.

Here is a process to build an e-shop in WordPress.

  1. Buy domain & hosting
  2. Install WordPress
  3. Create a WooCommerce store
  4. Choose the best theme
  5. Customize as per your needs
  6. Setting up essential settings
  7. Add products

     

Buy the Perfect Domain Name & Hosting Service

The domain and hosting are a necessary part of your online presence. Without domain and hosting you are unable to build an e-store. 

First, think about a perfect domain name. It will be your online address that speaks out about your brand and business. Just take care of these few expert tips before buying a domain name for your business.

  1. The domain name should be simple and easy to read
  2. Avoid using sign(#,@,&,%) and numeric in the domain
  3. Select a domain that suits your industry
  4. Choose professional domain extensions such as .com, .net, .org, or choose one based on the country you are targeting

Some of the famous domain name providers are GoDaddy and Namecheap, and now most of the hosting providers also offer domain-buying services. You can buy from them.

Here are a Few Famous Hosting Providers

  • Bluehost
  • GoDaddy
  • Hostinger
  • Bigrock
  • Hostgator
  • A2hosting  

You can select one that suits your requirements and is within your budget. You need to take care of these important points while selecting hosting for your e-commerce site.

  • Uptime
  • Storage
  • Monthly traffic handle
  • Loading speed
  • Customer support

If you have a domain name already or buy it from another service provider, you need to integrate it with the hosting service. Don’t worry; it is easy. All you need to do is log in to your domain provider dashboard and find the DNS or nameservers option, select it, edit it, and integrate it with your hosting.

Now, Install WordPress

It’s time to launch WordPress after obtaining a domain name & hosting. Your hosting company gives you the option to install WordPress.

  • Navigate to the hosting dashboard
  • Click on “My Sites”
  • Here you will see the “Create Site” option
  • You will get the option to build a website with WordPress or another website builder
  • Choose WordPress and install it
  • Create your username and password
  • That’s it; now log in to WordPress

     

Install WooCommerce Plugin

After installing WordPress, your simple website is ready. You will need the help of a well-known plugin (WooCommerce) to convert your website into an e-shop. Just follow these simple steps to install the WooCommerce plugin on your website.

  • First, navigate to your WordPress dashboard
  • Click on the plugin
  • Then click on “Add New”
  • In the right corner, you get a search bar
  • Type “WooCommerce” on it
  • Then select “Install Now”
  • After a second, you will see an option called “Activate”
  • Activate it

After activation of the plugin, a window of the setup wizard will be opened and sent to the rest of the setup process.

A form will appear, and you must fill in all the details about your business, such as store setup details, payment information, shipping details, recommendations, activate, and get started!

To set up your E-store, follow these 5 WooCommerce steps

  1. Store Setup Details
    First of all, you need to fill out your business details: where your store is based, the address of the shop, what currency you accept, and what type of products you plan to sell, digital or physical.
  2. Choose Payment Options
    The most important step is to configure your payment information on the e-store. You need to give all the popular payment options to your clients so they can easily purchase from your e-store. Stripe and Paypal are popular payment options, you can also integrate offline and payment options according to your target audience.
  3. Setup Shipping Options
    If you are dealing with physical products, then setting up shipping options is very important. WooCommerce will ask about shipping zones and shipping methods; you can set free shipping to a specific area and add specific shipping rates as per your preferences. You can also integrate with specific carriers, such as UPS, to get live shipping rates on your products.
  4. Setup Recommendation Options
    Here, you will get some recommended plugins or theme options from WooCommerce. You can select them as per your preference or skip them to add a special feature later.
  5. Activate Jetpack
    In the final setup, you need to activate the jetpack. This will enable all the great features of your e-shop. Just hit “continue with Jetpack” and complete your e-commerce setup. Now you need to add products to your e-store but before that, you should add a perfect Theme that matches your brand.

The basic setup is now complete; all that remains is to select a suitable theme, add products and descriptions, and set prices to give your e-store a stunning appearance. 

 

Choose an Eye-Catching Theme

In WordPress, themes play a major role in shaping your website. You can choose from free WordPress themes or purchase premium WordPress themes. Choose your theme wisely and analyze how you want to show your products to your clients. WordPress gives you the option to customize your theme according to your wishes. Just follow these simple steps to install the perfect theme on your e-store. 

  • First, log in to your WordPress dashboard
  • Find “Appearance” on the left side of the screen
  • After clicking on “Appearance,” you will see an option for “Themes”
  • Here you will see the themes you have added to your WordPress site
  • Click on “Add New”
  • Browse themes by popularity or search for a specific theme by typing its name into the search bar
  • You can preview or demo the theme before installing it
  •  Hit the “Install” button and download your favorite theme
  • After installation, click on ‘Activate’

Some of the best ecommerce themes are

  • Astra
  • Botiga
  • SparkleStore
  • Shops
  • OceanWP

You can choose the one that suits your needs and demands. Adjust it to reflect your priorities. Now your eCommerce store is ready to add products.

 

Add Products in Your E-store

Now it’s time to add products on your e-store. It is a simple and easy process. Follow the simple procedure to add products in your WordPress e-commerce website.

  • Go to the WordPress dashboard
  • On the right-hand side you will get the ‘Products’ button
  • Click on it and ‘Add New’
  • Fill out the form such as product name, price, add product images, product description and select product category

     

     

It is as simple as managing your posts in WordPress. WooCommerce provides a separate add-product form as per the type of product. The above ones we have mentioned are for simple products, and WooCommerce gives multiple features to add various kinds of products to your store. You can add six main types of products to your WooCommerce store: simple, grouped, external, affiliate, variable, downloaded, and virtual.

WooCommerce is an excellent plugin that always guides and explains how to perfectly add products to your e-store. You can also manage your inventory and track orders without any hassle on a WordPress e-commerce website.

 

Publish Your E-store

Before publishing your products, you need to check the title, long description, pictures, and specific categories to avoid any mishaps. You can see your published or unpublished products by going to “All products” in the menu. Here, you can modify, publish, or delete products as per your preference.

Now your e-commerce website is ready to grab sales. Just take care to add eye-catching content to your specific pages, and don’t miss the Call to Action feature on your e-store that makes your e-commerce website more user-friendly and improves your sales & leads.

Final Thought

Creating a WordPress e-commerce website is easy and simple, but you need to adapt some technical skills and creativity to make your e-store more appealing and user-friendly. About 4 million websites on the internet use WooCommerce to run their online stores. It is inexpensive, simple to customize, and gives you complete control over your online store. You can manage it as you want. So it is the perfect choice for those who need a stable and affordable platform to build their e-commerce website. The above simple guide will surely help you build a WordPress E-store without any hassle.