Friday 15 May 2020, by Alice Jones
The Internet is undermining brick and mortar stores and threatening to turn eCommerce into the dominant force of the retail realm. As more customers are going online to explore and purchase products, you could seize the opportunity to launch your own e-shop. The only thing you need is a reliable tool that can help you get your feet off the ground quickly and effortlessly.
WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin built for eCommerce purposes and it’s definitely the most popular online retail platform because it hosts nearly four million e-shops. In other words, WooCommerce powers over 28% of all online stores on the Internet. Users love WooCommerce because it’s:
- Free of charge
- Highly intuitive and user-friendly
- Easy to customize
- Flexible and versatile portfolio-wise
But how exactly do you build an eCommerce store on WordPress using the WooCommerce plugin? It’s a step-by-step process, so keep reading to learn all of its six stages.
1. Choose a Domain Name and Hosting
The first phase is choosing a domain name and a web hosting company. Your domain is simply the name of your eCommerce website such as shopify.com. If you are focusing on a specific niche or portfolio of products, try to find a name that includes relevant keywords and instantly reveals the nature of your e-shop.
On the other hand, web hosting is a provider that keeps your website running. You can choose between hundreds of hosting companies, but our suggestion is to opt for trustworthy providers like Bluehost. The best web hosting solutions come with incredibly simple functions, one-click installations, and 24/7 customer support.
2. Install WordPress
Now that you’ve chosen the domain name and web hosting, it is time to install WordPress. In case you don’t know it already, WordPress is the largest content management system in the world that makes it easy to build almost all types of websites, e-shops included.
All it takes is to start the installation process and follow instructions as shown by WordPress itself. It’s a simple procedure that takes no more than a few minutes, so you don’t have to worry about making any mistakes along the way.
3. Install the WooCommerce Plugin
When you install WordPress, your website is officially alive and kicking. But there is still a lot of work to be done if you want to launch an eCommerce store and make it look credible and professional. In other words, you need to install WooCommerce.
As soon as you activate the WooCommerce plugin, you can start adding the basic online retail features to your website. Some of the essential pages include:
- Shop: It’s a page that contains the list of all products on your e-shop.
- Cart: This is where customers make and adjust orders.
- Checkout: It’s a final step prior to the purchase since customers need to choose the payment and shipping options.
- My Account: Each customer can visit this page to see his/her history of activities on your site.
4. Add Products to the WooCommerce Storen
The time has come to add products to your newly-established WooCommerce store. Once again, the process is fairly simple. Just go to the WooCommerce dashboard and choose Products → Add Products.
This is where the real fun begins as you need to enter the right product names and provide potential customers with all the key information about each item on the list. That includes the following details:
- Product name
- Product description:Try to use keywords to help prospects find your product easily.
- Short description: It’s a lighter version of the description that shows below the name of the product.
- Central product data section: Add information such as the price, taxes, number of SKUs on stock, dimensions, linked products, and other advanced characteristics.
- Images: It’s always good to upload professional product images and let the audience see what it really looks like.
- Additional details: That includes product categories, tags, galleries, and similar
5. Set the Right eCommerce Theme
Another important characteristic of WooCommerce is that it works well with every WordPress theme. It’s a very useful feature since you can just go to the theme directory and choose one of nearly 7.5 thousand WordPress themes currently available in the database. Two details are fundamental here:
- Choose a theme that suits the branding strategy of your eCommerce business. That way, you can build a stronger and more appealing brand in the long run.
- Customize a theme in a way that guarantees flawless customer experience. Your site should be easy to navigate, mobile responsive, and visually appealing in order to drive conversions.
6. Enhance Your E-Shop with Plugins and Extensions
The last thing you want to do is to enhance your e-shop with plugins and extensions. Such tools can make the website safer, faster, prettier, user-friendlier, and many more.
WooCommerce itself offers you a wide range of extensions that enable simpler bookings, membership plans, subscriptions, etc. At the same time, you can go back to the WordPress plugin directory to install platforms built for security purposes, search engine optimization, contact forms, and similar.
The Bottom Line
WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce plugin because it’s user-friendly, flexible, and affordable. We showed you how to build an e-shop on WordPress using this platform, but now it’s up to you to take advantage of WooCommerce and design a successful online store. Good luck!
