To a wide extent, WooCommerce is the most widely used e-commerce plugin for WordPress. It has amassed an army of content, devoted digital retailers, more than 5 million active sets, and a 4.5 rating from users on WordPress.org.
Furthermore, about 8.7% of the entire internet and 23% of the top one million online retailers are powered by WooCommerce as of May 2023. Choosing WooCommerce for your WordPress-powered site is one of the smartest moves you can make when you want to take advantage of the growing e-commerce market.
Is it free to use WooCommerce?
You may use WooCommerce, a freely available shopping cart plugin for secure WordPress websites , for free. But maintaining an online business isn't totally free because there are expenses for modifications, design, identity, promotion, and marketing, in addition to hosting and domain fees.
How to Install and Configure WooCommerce (in Just Seven Steps)
Installing and turning on the WooCommerce plugin is clearly the first thing you should do. This can be done on a brand-new or pre-existing WordPress website. We'll guide you through the procedure of installing the plugin and adjusting its preferences in the steps that follow.
Install and Activate Woocommerce Plugin:
Installing WooCommerce setup on wordpress page will be the initial step. It is available for download at no charge from the WordPress repository, after which you may upload it to your web page. You may install it even more simply by using your WordPress dashboard:
Go to Plugins > Add New on your WordPress website to do this. Find "woocommerce" using the search bar, then select Install Now when the appropriate plugin can be found. Automattic needs to be identified as the plugin author.
Allow the plugin to finish installing. Next, click the "Activate" button. Your website will now have the plugin active. Access the configuration wizard.
Following setup woocommerce on wordpress wizard will need to be completed. While going through everything is optional, we advise doing so to adjust a few important parameters. The setup woocommerce on wordpress wizard's initial page ought to resemble this:
General Settings Of WooCommerce:
This is the stage where WooCommerce asks you to provide basic details about your store, such as its address. Keep in mind that all the information you enter here, as well as during the rest of the installation process, can be modified later in your WooCommerce settings if needed. Once you’ve filled out these fields, click Continue. Next, you’ll be asked about the industry your shop belongs to, with relevant options highlighted via checkboxes. Select the ones that apply to your business and click Proceed.
WooCommerce will then request details about the types of products you plan to sell. Physical goods and digital downloads remain free to offer, but features like memberships, subscriptions, and bookings may require a small monthly fee.
In the final setup stage, you’ll confirm key information such as the number of products you plan to display and whether you’re already selling elsewhere. Use the dropdown menus to make your selections, then click Continue. You’ll arrive at the free features tab, where you can add useful extensions to your store. Options like Google Listings & Ads, WooCommerce Payments, or even the YITH WooCommerce Wishlist Plugin can enhance your store’s functionality and user experience.
You can review which features will be automatically applied after installation by expanding the dropdown arrow, and uncheck any you don’t want. Once satisfied, click Continue to complete the installation process.
Boost Sales in Your Online Store:
After completing the setup WooCommerce on wordpress wizard and pressing the final Continue button, the WordPress control panel will open. Your website's admin area will prompt you to enable Jetpack on your website when you decide to improve it. JetPack is a free plugin.
You can put this out until later, though. Rather, select the recently added WooCommerce tab from your dashboard. Despite having entered your company information in the installation wizard, this checklist will help you while you set up the store on the internet:
You might begin by adding merchandise to your website. You can click on Add items from the setup window to accomplish this.
But your WordPress dashboard's sidebar also has a separate Products tab. Thus, by selecting Products > Add New, users can easily add novel goods to your business. You'll receive questions about the kind of product you are interested in developing:
You can decide to include tangible goods, digital goods, variable goods, and more. Decide what to choose. You will then be directed to the Modify product page:
Creating a title and an overview for the product should be your first priority. Next, select Save Draft. A link to the preview of the product will then appear: A direct view of your freshly launched item is available here: Let's now examine a few of the extra-item features.
Including Important Details in Your Product:
Two new widgets that are not included on standard posts and pages can be seen when you scroll down to the content editor. The part on product data comes first:
You can include any kind of information about what you are selling here. You can choose at the top if the product is downloadable or virtual, which eliminates the Shipping tab. Next, you can enter the regular as well as sale pricing (which might run out quickly) in the General tab.
You must also upload the file that is to be bought, set the download expiration (leave it blank to make it available forever), and configure the downloading limit (leave it empty to indicate it as limitless) if you're selling digital goods.
Next, you may control the inventory by inputting the product's amount, its stock status (in or out of stock), and the question of whether you want to permit backorders in the Inventory tab.
You can also designate the product as separately sold, which limits the number of units that can be purchased in one purchase. When you have one, you may also enter the name of the item's SKU (identifying number) here.
This tab also has numerous additional helpful tabs. You can input the item's weight, measurements, and shipment class in the shipping details section.
Upsells and cross-sells can be added in the Linked Items tab, and you can specify the characteristics of the item in Attributes.
You can add personalized purchase remarks, choose a specific location for the product in the list, and enable or remove reviews all inside the Advanced page. You can also see suggested extensions by going to the Get Additional Options screen.
The Pinterest tab is the last item you'll discover at the bottom of this section. Here, users can choose a Google category and assess whether your products are freshly developed or previously used.
Make Variable Products and Attributes:
As you observe, you have an abundance of options for completely personalizing and adding data to your WooCommerce setup on wordpress goods. Let's examine characteristics and changeable products, two of the many helpful choices in the product data area, in more detail.
Key identifiers for your goods and attributes provide essential information about them to prospective buyers. This could include the size and type of the thing, color, structure, and other features.
The following items will show up under Further Details on the product page when you add them to the product in the Attributes tab:
Whatever type of goods you're offering, characteristics are helpful for succinctly expressing important features. But what happens when you additionally provide products with several options? From the item's data dropdown menu, users may choose the variable item option for that:
You will then be able to create different versions of the product using the new Variations tab. You can either complete this task or utilize the attributes you have previously given your product. To keep on using the latter approach, choose Generate Variations:
For illustration, let's say you provide a hoodie in the colors blue, red, and green. Every hue can have a variation added to it, in addition to special pricing, descriptions, and other information. On the item's details page, your consumers are going to be enabled to view all available variations:
This makes it simple for guests to quickly view everything that you have to offer. It also saves you from having to make different product pages for tiny modifications to the same item.
You can streamline your store setup by using the WooCommerce product image import feature to quickly upload and assign images to your products in bulk.
Organizing Your WooCommerce Items:
Your WooCommerce store will most likely have a large number of products; therefore, you'll require a simple method to handle them. Thankfully, your dashboard's Products tab allows users to achieve this.
For example, if you'd like to view every item that has been set in your store, you can pick All Products. Here, you can change, add, and remove products as necessary:
You may view the groups, tags, qualities, and reviews of your products under the Products area on the other sites. These pages, which all resemble the WordPress Posts > Categories page, could help you maintain the layout of your complete stock.
Select your payment. The gateways:
You can return to your WooCommerce page at this point to continue working through a shop checklist. You've completed adding products to your website and finished your store details at this step. It's now up to you to choose which forms of payment to accept.
From the setup page, users may choose to proceed by clicking the Set up WooCommerce Payments link. You can simply go to your dashboard's Payments tab.
To enable payments with credit cards in your store, select Complete setup.
After that, you can choose which additional settings businesses want to employ, and WooCommerce will take care of the rest.
Select your shipping options and add tax rates:
You may also select Add Tax Rates from the WooCommerce setup page. Here, you have the option to get started with a Jetpack-powered WooCommerce tax partnership. This option is totally free.
Alternatively, users can compute their taxes by downloading Avalara. You may additionally utilize the relevant link to notify WooCommerce that your products do not charge sales tax, and you can choose the Set up tax manually option.
After choosing your option, go back to the settings page and select Add Shipping Fees. You can choose the amount that shipping will cost customers here. You have the option to set different rates for clients who are in different areas and for your favorite zone. You can additionally provide both groups with free delivery when you'd like.
After that, select Save Shipping Selections. To print the shipping labels, choose one of these three shipping solutions. Sendcloud and ShipStation are your options; both require activation. When you don't need shipping labels, you can also choose no thanks.
Examine the extra add-ons:
You've set up every vital component of your online WooCommerce store at this stage. You are presented with a few additional choices on the following page of the setup wizard. For instance, from the WooCommerce settings screen, users can click on Get More Sales:
While you are not required to operate your online store, each of these tools might be useful. For example, sending subsequent emails, newsletters, and advertising efforts to your consumers is a terrific way to use the MailPoet integration. Enabling Google Listing & Ads will allow you to list your products (as well as sponsored ad campaigns) on the search results page on Google in the interim.
You'll discover other helpful marketing expansions, such as Mailchimp and TikTok, further down: You may select the Get Started button to install and activate any of the programs mentioned above.
Customize your eCommerce website:
You're almost done setting up your WooCommerce store at this stage. But, when you return to the WooCommerce setup webpage and choose Personalize your store, you can alter your online store:
Some of you can get a better idea of how your website will look by clicking on Import Products when you haven't added numerous goods to your store.
By choosing the Generate homepage button, you are able to generate a unique homepage for your store. Next, you may add a store notice to appear on every page of your website and brand your WooCommerce store by downloading a logo from your PC. To complete the duty, select Complete.
You will now be required to verify your business data if you haven't already. You may then begin overseeing WooCommerce transactions. You may now launch your WooCommerce store with confidence.
How to Personalize Your WooCommerce Store:
After setting up your online store's basic settings, there are a ton of additional options to experiment with. All of these settings can be found under your newly setup woocommerce on WordPress tab.
You can look at reports, coupons, and orders here. Anyone can also change the settings and add additional extensions. Let's study each screen carefully.
Reports:
In addition, WooCommerce has robust built-in tracking features. You may see graphs and charts of your orders, sales, and shipping expenses across different periods of time under the Reports tab:
Every graph has the option to be restricted to the transactions of a specific item, group, or discount. You are able to observe your client acquisition during the same periods of time in the Clients sub-tab.
Not to mention, the Stock sub-tab will allow users to examine your items' low-, out-, and most-stocked inventory. When necessary, a CSV document with all of this information can be exported.
Taking care of accounts:
A number of factors that influence your customers' experience are controlled by the Accounts and Privacy page, making it quite significant. In addition to establishing a checkout policy and settings for privacy, you can also specify how client data is preserved, safe, and accessible.
You also have a number of choices regarding how consumer checkouts will be managed. You can choose whether or not guests (i.e., those who don't need to log into an account) can place orders under the Guest checking and account creation sections.
Headless Setup for WooCommerce
You can create a headless WooCommerce site if you wish to keep your website's front and back ends distinct. Through the use of the WooCommerce REST API, this structure links your website's WooCommerce back end to a unique front end.
If you wish to make a static website, you might like this alternative more. In addition, it could be an excellent method to enhance the functionality, security, and adaptability of your website. For instance, you could end up with a ton of capabilities that you do not require with the standard WooCommerce setup, which can cause your online store to load slower than usual.
It is appropriate to use a headless WooCommerce setup in the following scenarios: Setting up many WooCommerce sites with the same server-side is what you want to do. In addition to your online presence, you also want to link the back end to a mobile application.
Beyond a minimum amount of best elementor wordpress themes, plugins, and performance, you want to personalize your store. Your goal is to reduce the loading time.
You want to make it harder for attackers to get your admin panel so that you can increase security on your website.
In this manner, users can use your local machine to develop, manage, and launch websites. This program, which works with WordPress single or multisite, is completely free. You additionally have a ton of local data and email administration resources at your disposal as well. Even better, all it takes is one click to make the modifications live.
Modifying themes for WooCommerce
Some of you have a lot of control over how your online store operates thanks to the numerous extensions for setting up WooCommerce on WordPress, as well as the built-in options. But when you're a more experienced user and want to make your own adjustments, changing WooCommerce's templates is an excellent place to start.
This will let you adjust the significance of elements, which include customer carts and the method of payment. Please be aware that this is a dangerous process, especially since you have never worked directly with theme and plugin files before. Thus, in the event that you make any unintentional changes to your website, you should back it up before getting started.
After that, you'll want to use an SFTP (secure file transfer protocol) client, such as FileZilla, to access the files on your website. Find the root folder of your website (usually entitled public_html or after your domain):
Go to wp_content/plugins/woocommerce after that. You will discover a folder named Template in this directory. When you open it, an inventory of every template that is available for your store right now will appear.
This is where you can select any template and begin modifying it. For example, you can visit the checkout section and find the thankyou.php file if you want to change the "Thank You" page that shows up whenever a customer places an order.
High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS):
WooCommerce will be releasing a new version in the second half of 2023 that will transition to High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS). This will help your consumers check out more quickly and expedite the ordering process.
Thus, your WooCommerce store will begin functioning with HPOS if it is set up after August 2023. All current WooCommerce shops have the option of turning on HPOS until this functionality becomes required, but you can alternatively operate without it for the moment.
Orders placed in your store are currently stored using the same technology for databases as WordPress posts. Order data, however, will be transferred by HPOS to a fresh commerce-first system of storage. Your store will be upgraded to a current, scalable database as a result.
You are free to evaluate our HPOS at any time when you currently operate an online store with WooCommerce 7.1 or later. It's an optional feature that you can enable in your more advanced settings.
It's crucial to remember that not all extensions work with the recently released HPOS systems at this time. Therefore, before turning on the functionality in your store, ensure that you review all the pertinent documentation.
Conclusion:
WooCommerce is a well-liked WordPress e-commerce software with a rating of 4.5 and more than 5 million active users. 23% of the largest online merchants and 8.7% of the world's websites are run by it. Installing the plugin, opening the arrangement wizard, adding free features, and continuing are the steps to setup woocommerce on wordpress. Add products, edit product pages, including upsells and cross-sells, add customized buy remarks, and utilize Pinterest to monitor the development of products to increase sales.
WooCommerce is a well-liked WordPress online shopping plugin with a rating of 4.5 and more than 5 million active users. 23% of the largest online retailers and 8.7% of the worldwide web are run by it. Installing the plugin, opening the setup woocommerce on wordpress wizard, adding free features, and continuing are the steps to install and setup. Add products, edit product pages, including upsells and cross-sells, add customized buy remarks, and utilize Pinterest to monitor the development of products to increase sales.