Getting Started with WooCommerce
Starting an eCommerce is not easy. Shifting from a physical store to an online store takes a lot of preparation and research before launching it. Many times, people will be overwhelmed causing them to have a hard time navigating the website or familiarizing how it works. Not only that, but sometimes it is also pricey especially if your chosen e-commerce site needs a subscription. And if you are still confused, I will walk you through with this WooCommerce tutorial to get your very first WooCommerce website ready to collect orders. So stay put and keep on reading.
What is WooCommerce?
WooCommerce was developed by WooThemes who then sold their company to WordPress in 2015, one of the popular platforms that are already used by millions of people. WooCommerce is a free and open-source eCommerce platform that makes it easy for you to create an eCommerce website or app that sells products online. They target small to medium enterprises and give them a chance to reach a wider audience from different parts of the world. It allows you to easily manage your inventory, secure payments or shipping options, customize your sales pages, and track your sales data.
Why Should You Use WooCommerce?
If you are a small-medium enterprise, have a physical store and now, want to create an eCommerce store. Well, WooCommerce is what you are looking for and one of the best eCommerce store platforms for a WordPress website that will surely help your business to prosper more. If you are still hesitating to utilize this plugin to setup your eCommerce store, then consider these four things that might enlighten your mind.
Free
WooCommerce is a free and open-source plugin of WordPress. It is one of the most popular WordPress plugin. Anyone who is starting their business on the internet can use WooCommerce easily. And since it is open-source, you don’t need to pay subscription fees to use it for your online business. WordPress also offers WordPress themes such as the WooCommerce theme, Storefront, for free. However, certain addons such as an affiliate program or WooCommerce Product Table WooCommerce extension will cost money.
Ability To Control Data
Third-party eCommerce sites have a risk of losing your data once the platform is hacked or closed down. And being approved as a seller or buyer depends on the platform’s privacy policy. With WooCommerce, you have sole control of your data. If you already established an online shop via Amazon, Shopee, or Lazada. You may also want to consider WooCommerce both as your backup and main website in case issues arise with third-party platforms.
Flexible
Woocommerce is flexible in a way that allows you to customize the way your site looks and functions. You can choose between different themes and add or remove features easily. You can also add new product and product category, change the layout, setup different WooCommerce shipping options, WooCommerce payments and more. In WooCommerce, you do not need to be professional in coding, instead you can just use the extensions and plugins offered by WooCommerce.
Interactive
A big part of what makes WooCommerce so popular is the fact that it is interactive. You can add WooCommerce product and product image, customize your shop page look and function, and more all without ever having to touch a line of code. This means that you can easily manage your online shop without having to learn complicated coding languages or spend loads of time on behind-the-scenes work.
Available Features
WooCommerce is a very robust eCommerce platform that comes with an extensive range of features that are necessary to manage an online store such as having a shop page, cart page, checkout and thank you page. Some of the other features include the ability to add product, manage your WooCommerce order and customers, customize the look and function of your website, and more.
In addition to these core features, WooCommerce also offers a range of extensions and plugins that can be used to complement its functionality. Plus, it is easy to set up, you can finish doing your e-commerce site in just a few hours or one day.
How Can You Make Money in WooCommerce?
There are a number of ways that you can make money with WooCommerce. One way is to sell products online. You can add products to your store and then sell them through your site. You can also sell subscriptions, advertising space, or other services that you offer through your WooCommerce site. You can also earn money by providing support for WooCommerce users. You can provide detailed help guides and tutorials, answer customer questions, and sign up for a support plan.
What Can You Sell in WooCommerce?
WooCommerce is a very versatile platform that can be used to sell a wide variety of products, including items like clothes, furniture, and food. You can sell products from your own inventory, or you can source products from third-party vendors. You can also sell digital files, such as music and e-books. WooCommerce also permits you to sell through affiliate networks, which means that you can earn a commission on sales that your affiliates generate.
Complete WooCommerce Tutorial
If you are planning to transform your physical business into an online store and you want to use WooCommerce as your platform. Well, you are on the right site. Just keep on reading and we will guide you.
How to Get WooCommerce Hosting & Install WordPress
As the WooCommerce store plugin is a WordPress plugin, you will need to have WordPress hosting, install WordPress and setup a WordPress website.
Go to Racknerd and sign up for one of their WordPress Hosting plans and domain name. Once you have done so, you should be able to access your cPanel, with your WordPress website already setup.
Before you continue, you will want to choose a WordPress theme suitable for WooCommerce like Storefront or my personal favourite, Kadence, as well as installing Google Analytics and an SEO plugin with WooCommerce SEO features such as SquirrlySEO.
How to Install WooCommerce in WordPress?
In the following steps, I will teach you the process of installing WooCommerce in WordPress in these WooCommerce tutorials.
- The first thing you need to do is to install WooCommerce plugin. You can find the Plugin on the left side.
2. Type the word “WooCommerce” in the search box to find the official WooCommerce plugin.
3. Click the button Install Now and it will start to install WooCommerce in your WordPress site.
4. After installing WooCommerce plugin, you may now click the Activate button.
5. The plugin will now be active on your WordPress site.
WooCommerce Tutorial – WooCommerce Setup
WooCommerce setup starts with the setup wizard wherein you will have to fill out some forms in order for you to successfully live your WooCommerce store. You can find the WooCommerce wizard in the WooCommerce Menu. Once you complete the WooCommerce setup wizard, most of the WooCommerce settings would have been completed for your store to be ready to accept orders. As you can see in the picture below, there are 5 different sections you need to follow and fill out. Here is the step-by-step tutorial on how to do it.
- Store Details. You will be asked to input the following:
- Address
- Country/Region
- City
- Postal code
- Email Address
Click the Continue button once done.
2. You will now be redirected to the Industry wherein you will be asked which industry your business belongs. In case your industry did not show up in the suggested list, you can just click the Other and fill it out. Then, click the button to Continue.
3. Then after that, proceed to the Product Type. Identify which product types you plan to sell in your store. You can just choose from the illustrated list below. Then, click the button to Continue
4. For the Business Details section, you will be asked to provide more information about your business. Then, click the button to Continue.
5. Lastly, choose your preferred Theme. It is either you can proceed with your current theme if you have one or choose among the suggested free and paid themes..
6. Once you are done filling up all the details required, the WooCommerce pages such as WooCommerce Shop page and Cart page and Checkout page active and ready for business.
How to Add Products & Setup WooCommerce Product Page?
Before you start adding products, you may wish to setup your product categories first by going into the Product Category page. This will make it more organized and easier when adding products.
Click on WooCommerce > Add Product when you’re ready to start adding products into your WooCommerce store.
Fill in the product title, long description, short description, product category, tags(if any), set the product thumbnail and upload any other gallery images.
For the product options, you can choose between simple product, variable products, downloadable product and affiliate product/external link. Affiliate product is great if you run an Amazon affiliate store or just want to add some products from Amazon into your store. Variable products are WooCommerce variations of the same product, such as different colours, patterns or sizes.
You can then set the price and inventory. Lastly, you can also setup upsells and cross-sells which will appear at the bottom of the WooCommerce Product page, as related products.
How to Secure Your Payment in WooCommerce?
After successfully filling out the required information at the store setup area, you will be redirected to the payment. There are choices you can consider for your payment options such as PayPal and Stripe as well as offline payments such as checks and cash.You can just simply click which payment option you prefer and WooCommerce will set it up for you. You may also use extensions to search other payment platforms you want. Click the button to continue.
How to Manage Your Orders in WooCommerce?
After installing your WooCommerce, two new tabs will appear in your WordPress dashboard side’s menu. The 2 new tabs are identified as WooCommerce and Products.
The Orders management will begin to fill up if your shop is already accepting orders. Below is a sample illustration where you can see 5 different raws namely Order, Date, Status, Billing, Total, and Actions.
How to Ship Your Products in WooCommerce?
If your store is selling a tangible product, setting the shipping configuration upon registration of your shop is a must.
1. To start, go to the WooCommerce button found in the left side dashboard and click the Settings.
2. After you open Settings, you will be redirected to several tabs such as General, Products, Shipping, Payments Accounts & Privacy, Emails, Integration and Advanced. Then click the Shipping Tab.
In this area, you will be asked to fill up the Zone Name and Zone Region. Also, click the Add Shipping Method to choose how you will charge your customers. You can set a Flat Rate, Free Shipping or Local Pickup. Then click Save Changes.
3. Proceed to the Shipping options and click the box whether or not to activate settings for shipping calculations or destinations. Click Save Changes.
4. When you click the Shipping Classes, the picture below is what will appear then just click Add Shipping Classes.
5. Then you will be asked to fill up the Shipping Class, Slug and Description, and after that click Save Shipping Classes.
Final Thought
WordPress is indeed one of the most popular sites to boost your business especially if you plan to enter the e-commerce world. Through WooCommerce, small to medium enterprises were given a chance to compete in the international market. Even if you are from the Philippines, you can easily order an item from the other side of the world, all thanks to WooCommerce. So if you are planning to level up your business, then WooCommerce is what you are looking for.
