Do you have products or services to sell? Do you want to, but don’t know where to start? Don’t worry, in this tutorial you will learn how to install WooCommerce to turn a regular WordPress site into an eCommerce store.
is an open source eCommerce plugin designed for WordPress. It is a platform for small and large online businesses. WooCommerce has a variety of features, such as different shipping and payment methods, variable products, and much more.
Read on to learn everything you need to install, activate, and configure WooCommerce on your WordPress website.
1. Install and activate WooCommerce
Before proceeding, first make sure you have a hosting plan and WordPress. For the easiest experience, we suggest you opt for , as it includes a one-click WordPress setup. Since WooCommerce is free, it can be installed from the official WordPress plugin directory. The first step is .
Then follow these steps to install the plugin:
- From the WordPress dashboard, go to plugins in the menu on the left side.
- press add new and writes WooCommerce in the search bar.
- Search WooCommerce in the results and touch Install Now.
- Once the installation is complete, click the button Activate.
If you need more detailed instructions, you can consult our article on .
2. Configure WooCommerce
After installing WooCommerce you will see a welcome message asking you to run the Setup Wizard. Press the purple button to start. Alternatively, you can also run the wizard from the section WooCommerce -> Help -> Setup Wizard.
Follow the WooCommerce tutorial below to set it up:
- Set the store details, including country, addressY zip code. Then click continue.
- Go to the Industry in which your WooCommerce store operates. Be sure to check all that apply.
- then in Types of products, select the type of products that will appear in the list. And again, be sure to check the ones that apply.
- includes more business details like, for example, how many products are you going to exhibit and if you sell anywhere else.
- For the next step, choose a Theme. It can be paid themes or free themes, but don’t worry, it can be changed later.
- You will then be prompted to upgrade your store with jet pack. It is required if you want to enable sales tax and automated payment gateways. Jetpack also offers additional benefits such as increased security, increased speed, store monitoring, product promotion, and managing your store from your phone. click on Yes please! to continue.
- Create a Jetpack account by entering your email address, username, and password. Or, you can avail of one-click registration through your Google or Facebook account. Creating a new account will take you to the Jetpack interface, while registration will take you to the final part of the setup process.
- The next step will redirect you to your WooCommerce dashboard. here you will see Finish setup, Statistics overview, Inbox and much more.
- In the area of Finish setupyou can click and complete the following: Add My Products, Customize My Store, Set Up Shipping, Set Up Taxes, and Set Up Payments.
- Choose add my products to add your first product. It will give you the option to Start with a template, add manually, to import larger CSV files or migrate your store from another location. Then follow the steps in the next section.
- Later, personalize your store creating a custom home page, uploading a logo, or changing the settings of a shop advertisement.
- Pass to Set up shipping. Here you can change the settings for how much customers pay for shipping to your country and the rest of the world.
- Next, set up taxeseither by connecting your store to WordPress for automatic sales tax calculation or by setting tax rates manually.
- Finally, set up payments. You will have the option to choose direct bank transfers, cash on delivery, PayPal or credit cards (by Stripe.)
3. Add new products
Once you are done with the setup, you can now start taking the first steps of customizing your WordPress WooCommerce website: adding and managing products in your eCommerce store. The process for adding WooCommerce products to your site is similar to uploading a new post to your WordPress blog. Follow the steps below to add a WooCommerce product to your WordPress ecommerce store:
- From your WordPress dashboard, go to Products click on add new.
- Write the name of your product, add a detailed description and make sure it includes relevant information about your product.
- Scroll down to the section Product dates and choose the type of product. Then, set additional information: price, inventory, shipping, related products, etc. Check the Virtual box if your products are non-physical goods and do not need shipping, and check Downloadable for products such as software or files.
- Go to the bottom of the page to include a short description that will be displayed below the product name.
- On the right side, add the product categories. Add a new category or file it under the parent category already created.
- The product labels They give you the option to label your products, making it easy for customers to locate them.
- the area of Product image allows you to upload or assign an image to your product.
- The product gallery This is where you can add more images to your product.
- Once you are satisfied with the settings, check the preview, save the draft or click Post. Here you can also choose the visibility of your product. The default value is public, while the other options are password protected and private. Consider the option of Catalog visibility which has the following settings:
- In the store and in search results. Your products will be visible everywhere: search results, category and shopping pages.
- Only in the store or Only in the results of search. Products will be displayed only on shop and category pages or only in search results.
- Hidden. The products will be visible only on the single product page, and not on any other page.
- Once you are satisfied with the settings, press Post and check the Preview. Here is an example:
add products
Learning the basics of WooCommerce and understanding what categories, attributes, and product types are is essential:
- Product category. This helps group your products. For example, if you sell clothing, then tops, bottoms, and nightwear could be your product categories. They allow the buyer to quickly locate products in the same category. You can create as many categories as you want and edit them at any time.
- attributes. They filter products by size, color, fabric, and what customers like to help them easily choose the products they want. You can independently assign attributes to each product or set a global attribute for the entire website.
- Types of products. WooCommerce saves customer time by having predefined product types:
- Simple – a stand-alone product that ships without any additional options. For example, a physical book.
- grouped – you can group related items together, like a dozen shot glasses.
- virtual – are products that do not require shipping, since they are not physical entities, such as services.
- downloadable – are digital products that you can download. For example, songs, images, videos, electronic books, etc.
- external – products that are advertised on your website, but are sold elsewhere.
- variables – These products have variable qualities such as sizes, colors, etc. For example, shoes and clothes.
product management
Let’s continue this WooCommerce tutorial by reviewing the Products. You can view and manage all your products: edit, delete, duplicate, show an item and apply mass actions by selecting multiple products.
This is what you can do with your products:
- Duplicate a product. find the button Double under each item. WooCommerce will automatically create a new product draft that you can edit. It is very useful to sell several similar products.
- Mark a product as Outstanding. Click on the icon Star on the products you prefer. Featured items can be displayed on your home page or included in posts by using shortcodes.
- Delete a product. Click the button bin that appears below the product name when you hover over it.
4. Manage WooCommerce
Now that you know how to install, activate and manage products in WooCommerce, in this part of the tutorial you will learn how to handle everything else: orders, coupons, reports and other online store settings.
Manage orders
A new order is created each time a customer completes the checkout process. You can see them by hovering over WooCommerce and clicking on orders in the menu on the left.
Each order has a unique ID and a range of details such as purchase date, order status and total price.
To edit or view an order you just have to click on its name. So you can easily update the status, modify the price, taxes, etc.
Manage coupons
Coupons are a great way to sell products. With WooCommerce, you can add some in the section of coupons and see the coupons already added. If you need to edit one, click on its name and make the necessary changes.
Creating a new coupon is similar to creating a new ticket or product. First, choose a name or generate a coupon code. Then decide the type of discount that can be fixed or a percentage. You can also choose free shipping. Next, select the expiration date and click Post.
If you need to edit a coupon, simply click on its name and make the necessary changes.
Customers
In the section of Customers, you can see all the information of your previous clients. This includes:
- Name
- Username
- last active
- Registration date
- Email address
- how many orders
- Total money spent
- Country/Region
You can also download this information in a PDF file.
Manage reports
In the section Reports, you can see the performance of your store. From the number of items purchased, gross sales, average daily sales, product data and more relevant statistics.
You can even generate statistics for separate products, categories or coupons. Select the appropriate period for which you want to create the…
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