Struggling to create your own e-commerce website? You’re not alone. As the e-commerce industry experiences explosive growth, many entrepreneurs are looking to set up their own online stores. However, with so many options out there, it can be overwhelming to figure out where to start.
Most people get stuck choosing the right platform or understanding the technical steps to bring their store to life. You’re probably wondering, “How do I create a professional e-commerce website from scratch without the tech overwhelm?”
The solution is here. In this comprehensive guide, you’ll learn exactly how to build an e-commerce website with WordPress, step by step. From choosing the right themes to setting up payment systems, we’ve got you covered. Keep reading, and follow along with the process to bring your dream store to life!
Why do you need to build an e-commerce website?
There are many reasons motivating you to build an e-commerce website. As an entrepreneur, you can have more opportunities to offer your products to your targeted customers.
Unlike traditional marketing, you can do so without spending a high budget on marketing.
But that’s not the only reason! Many business owners have witnessed exhilarating growth after entering the world of e-commerce.
According to the Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce, the approximation for U.S. retail e-commerce sales in the fourth quarter of 2024 stood at $308.9 billion.
Below, you can glance through the image to know how U.S. retail e-commerce sales have skyrocketed over the years.
Image credit: U.S. Census Bureau News
So, why wouldn’t you take a small piece of the cake?
We believe that by now, you understand the importance of having an e-commerce website.
No more fusses! If you wonder how to create an e-commerce website with WordPress from scratch, read the following section.
8 Steps to create an e-commerce website with WordPress
Here are eight effective steps you need to follow to build your dream e-commerce website with WordPress.
Step 1: Register your domain
Registering your domain is the first step in building a website. For your information, the domain refers to your website’s name.
Precisely the web address (URL) before extensions such as ‘.com,’ ‘.org,’ etc., which your targeted customers will visit.
Therefore, you need to choose the domain name carefully, as it reflects your business. Also, be sure to select a catchy and easy-to-remember domain name.
Make sure the domain you select is available on the domain registrar platforms.
You can check the domain name and its availability on domain registrars such as Namecheap, GoDaddy or Google Domains.
After checking the domain availability and price, you can purchase the desired domain that meets your preferences and budget.
Step 2: Sign up for a hosting provider
Image source: Canva
Next, you need to register with a hosting provider where you’ll store your website’s data. These data may include articles, images, audio and videos.
You’ll have a diverse selection of hosting providers to choose from, such as xCloud, Hostinger, Bluehost, Dreamhost and IONOS.
All these hosting providers offer a similar yet slightly distinct feature set (e.g., bandwidth limits, speed, price, storage and so on).
No matter which hosting provider you choose, ensure it guarantees excellent services. Ensure that it provides features like free SSL certificates, one-click WordPress installation, free website migration and more at a low cost.
You may read our complete guide on how to purchase a new domain and host it with the help of the best hosting provider if you need more detailed instructions on purchasing a domain and hosting it.
Step 3: Install WordPress
Okay, we have our domain hosted. Now, it’s time to create an eCommerce website. Everything may seem a bit technical from here.
Fear not; we included the easiest steps to building an eCommerce website with WordPress in this article.
Hence, dive deep into these practical steps:
- First, log in to the cPanel and then hover over Home > Software.
- Afterwards, select Softaculous Apps Installer. At this stage, you’ll notice a bunch of tools. You need to find/search (depending on your hosting provider’s dashboard style) a WordPress icon and click on it.
- Now, you’ll see a menu for WordPress. Click Install. At this stage, you can select a quick install or a custom one. We recommend going with the quick installation.
- If you click the Quick Install button, you’ll see a form with pre-filled data that you can leave as it is. You just need to fill in WordPress login credentials, such as your username and password.
- Finally, select the language you want to install WordPress and click on install. Voila! You have just installed the most famous CMS.
Step 4: Install an attractive theme
After installing WordPress, log in to the WordPress Admin Dashboard. Navigate to Appearance > Themes.
Click on the Add New Theme button.
Now, you can either upload your preferred theme or search for a suitable one from the Search themes box in the upper left corner.
We recommend searching for the best eCommerce themes for WordPress, such as OceanWP, Divi, Woostify and Astra.
For this tutorial, we’re going to use Astra.
To install Astra, search with the keyword ‘Astra.’
Once you’ve found the theme, click the Install button.
Then, hit the Activate button.
You have just installed the theme.
Step 5: Install an essential plugin
It’s time to install the essential plugin to make your eCommerce website fully functional. Hence, let’s begin with the installation.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is one of the best eCommerce plugins. It allows you to sell anything online hassle-free! Hence, eCommerce website owners prefer this plugin over others.
That being said, let’s see how to install WoCommerce on your website.
To install it, first, log into your WordPress Admin Dashboard. Then, head to the Plugins section on the right side of the dashboard.
Now, click on the Add New Plugin button.
Search with the keyword ‘WooCommerce’ on the search bar in the right corner of the page.
Hover the mouse pointer to the WooCommerce plugin section and hit the Install Now button.
Wait for a while until the plugin gets installed, and finally, click on the Activate button.
Afterward, you’ll see a setup page just like the one below. You may either skip the setup process or click on the Set up my store button to configure your online store.
Let’s select the Setup my store button to move forward.
At this point, you need to choose any radio button that suits your journey level in WooCommerce. Then, hit the Continue button.
Afterward, you need to provide your business details. Type in your store name in the first field.
Then, choose the industry you are in from the drop-down menu.
Now, select your location from the drop-down menu (although it remains pre-selected, you can change it as per your preferences).
After that, type your email address in the last field and then, hit the Continue button.
You’ll now visit the additional features page of WooCommere.
Here, you can keep all the features selected or uncheck boxes of features that you don’t need. Lastly, click on the Continue button.
That’s it. You’ve installed WooCommerce.
It’s time to customize WooCommerce. Let’s do it.
Step 6: Customize WooCommerce
After installing WooCommerce, it’s time to customize it. To do that, navigate to the WooCommerce section from your WordPress Admin Dashboard.
Then, click on Settings, as shown in the screenshot below.
Once you click Settings, you’ll see the customization section featuring eight setting tabs. We’ll first configure the General tab. Let’s begin.
Configure the General tab
On the General tab, you can see that this section contains a few forms that you need to fill out. You can also enter your store address from the Store Address section here.
Next, you need to set up General options. In this option, you can choose your selling location(s). You can either select Sell to all countries or Sell to specific countries from the dropdown menu.
If you select the Sell to specific countries option, you’ll see another box underneath the Selling location(s) option. Here, you can choose/type in your preferred country(s) name.
After that, in the same way, choose the shipping locations of your products from the Shipping location(s) dropdown menu.
Next, select/type your chosen shipping location name(s) from the dropdown menu of the Ship to specific countries option.
Finally, check the Enable taxes box.
Once you set up the General options section, you need to pay attention to the Currency options of this General tab. Here, you can choose your products’ currency from the Currency option’s dropdown menu.
After selecting your preferred currency, you can either click on the Save changes button or experiment with other settings, such as Currency position and thousand separator.
We’ll leave these options as they are and hit the Save changes button.
So, we have configured the General option. We’ll now move on to customizing Products tab.
Configuring the Products tab
To configure the Products tab, click on it, as shown in the screenshot below.
What you need to do is ensure you choose Shop in the Shop page dropdown menu.
Then, leave other options as they are. After that, come down to the Measurements section. Here, you can choose weight and dimension units according to your products.
For instance, if you sell bulky products such as the best backpacks for hikers, you can select kg in the Weight unit section.
Then, choose m (meter) in the Dimension unit option.
Finally, hit the Save changes button.
That’s it! You have customized the Products setting of WooCommerce.
Configuring Tax tab
At this point, you can customize the Tax tab. To do that, click the Tax option beside the Products tab.
Go to the Additional tax classes section. You’ll see there are two additional tax classes titled Reduced rate and Zero rate already created for you.
You can add more tax classes depending on the country you want to sell your products.
As we’re going to sell products in the US, we’ve added two additional tax classes named ST 10% and ST 12%. Here, ST refers to Sales Tax.
As you know, different states in the USA have varied tax rates. We have created these two tax classes: ST 10% and ST 12%.
As a result, we can include all states with a 10% or less than 10% tax rate under the ST 10% tax category. We can also add states with more than a 10% tax rate to the ST 12% tax category.
After typing in additional tax classes, hit the Save changes button.
Now, you’ll notice two additional tax class rates beneath the Tax tab on the top section. Click on one additional tax class rate that you want to customize. We’ll click on the ST 10%rates.
At this point, you’ll see a window like this.
Click the Insert Row button.
Then, type in the Country code and State Code you want to include in the ST 10% tax rates category.
Also, ensure you uncheck the Shipping box in the right corner after inserting country and state codes in the row.
Lastly, hit the Save changes button.
Then, again, click on the Insert row button to add as many countries and states as you want.
Follow these exact steps to include all countries and states under the ST 12% rates category.
Lastly, click the Save changes button to proceed further to customize Shipping tab.
Configuring the Shipping tab
Now, we’ll head to the Shipping tab.
Remember, you can create several shipping zones depending on the countries and states you plan to sell your items.
For example, if you want to sell lightweight and small products, you can charge a specific amount per product for shipping purposes.
On the contrary, if you plan to sell bulky items, research the shipping cost first. Then, create shipping zones and set a shipping rate for each zone based on your requirements.
Let’s see how you can do this.
As you can see in the screenshot below, you need to first click on the Add zone button.
Now, type in a zone name in the Zone name section (we typed California for demo purposes).
Then, select your zone regions from the dropdown menu in the Zone regions section.
Afterward, hit the Add shipping method button.
Now, you’ll see a pop-up like the this.
As you can see, here, you have three options to select: Free shipping, Flat rate and Local pickup. You can consider any option that fits your business.
We’ll go with the Flat rate and show you how to edit this shipping rate. Hence, you may follow our path and select Flat rate and hit the Continue button.
You’ll now notice another pop-up. Here, you need to type in the shipping cost amount in the Cost box.
As you can see, we have typed 10.00 * [qty] in the cost box. It’s an advanced cost formula. By inserting this formula, we’re telling WooCommerce we’ll charge $10 for every product to be shipped to California.
So, if someone purchases one product, they’ll pay $10. They’ll spend $20 to buy two products. You can learn more about the advanced cost setting of WooCommerce from here.
Anyway, after typing the shipping fee, hit the Save button.
Now, let’s discuss what if you sell different products with varied shipping rates.
For instance, you aim to sell mountain bikes, camping gear, backpacks and other items. So, you have to charge different shipping fees for various products. How would you do that?
Don’t worry! Just create Shipping classes. To do that, navigate to the Classes option.
Hit the Add shipping class button to create a new shipping class.
You’ll now see a pop-up featuring three boxes: Shipping class, Slug, and Description. Give your Shipping class a name according to your product. Also, write a little bit about the product in the Description box.
After that, click the Create button.
To add another shipping class, you can follow the exact steps of creating a shipping class.
That means click on the Add shipping class button > Type shipping class name and description > hit the Create button.
Now, click the Shipping zones as shown in the screenshot below.
Afterward, hit the Edit option of the shipping zone you want to edit.
Again, click Edit on the Flat rate option.
You’ll now see the flat rate pop-up, but this time, it comes with additional shipping class cost boxes.
At this time, input diverse shipping fees along with the cost formula in every shipping class we created a while ago.
As you can see in the screenshot below, we have typed different amounts in varied shipping class cost boxes to charge diverse shipping fees for various items.
Then, copy the shipping fee with the formula from the Cost box.
Paste it into the No shipping class cost box and delete everything in the Cost box. To simplify, cut the shipping fee from the Cost box and paste it into the No shipping class cost box.
Wait a second. Why are we doing this? Well, in the No shipping class cost box, we’ve input $10.00 * [qty] as the default shipping fee. Hence, we can charge $10 as a shipping fee for a product that doesn’t have a different shipping rate.
After pasting the no shipping class fee, hit the Save button to finish customizing shipping zones.
Remember, every time you add a new shipping zone, you have to follow the entire customization process.
We won’t create another new shipping zone; instead, we’ll end this tutorial here and move on to the Payment option.
Configuring the Payments tab
Configuring the Payments tab is essential. Thankfully, WooCommerce’s Payments tab will let you integrate popular payment options.
So that you can both automatically and manually collect payments from your customers.
Before beginning to set up the payment options, we want to inform you that you must research payment solutions available for your targeted customers. In this article, we’ll first enable the cash-on-delivery option.
After that, we’ll set up two most famous payment gateways: PayPal and Stripe. For your information, these two popular payment solutions remain available in many countries.
Hence, buckle up, and let’s set up the payment gateway. To do this, click on the Payments tab.
Then, toggle the Cash on delivery option.
After that, hit the Save changes button.
Now, we need to integrate the mainstream payment gateway. We’ll begin with PayPal.
Setting up payment gateways on your eCommerce store: PayPal
To enable the PayPal payment gateway on your eCommerce website, navigate to your WordPress Admin Dashboard and then head to Plugins > Add New Plugin.
Afterwards, search with the keyword, “WooCommerce Paypal Payments” in the plugin search box in the top right corner.
Then, navigate to the red-marked plugin below and click the Install Now button.
Finally, hit the Activate button.
You’ll see the Plugins page once you have installed and activated the plugin. You’ll notice a message in the top section telling you to connect your PayPal account.
You can click on anchor text: connect your account.
Then, you’ll automatically be redirected to the Payments tab of the WooCommerce setting. Your window will look like the screenshot below.
Here, you need to check the Securely accept all major credit & debit cards on the strength of the PayPal network box.
Then, you’ll notice that the Standard Card Processing option has already been selected.
As a beginner, since you are learning how to create an eCommerce website with WordPress, we recommend you adhere to the default setting instead of selecting the Advanced Card Processing option.
For now, scroll down to the bottom and hit the Activate PayPal button.
You’ll then see the PayPal login page. Input your login credentials and wait a while.
Boom! You’ve successfully connected your PayPal merchant account with WooCommerce. Let’s now integrate Stripe with WooCommerce.
Setting up payment gateways on your eCommerce store: Stripe
To connect your store with your Stripe merchant account, hover over Plugins > Add New Plugin.
Search with the keyword, “WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway” in the search box.
Then, click the Install Now button.
Lastly, hit the Activate button.
Then, go to WordPress Admin Dashboard and navigate to WooCommerce > Select Settings.
After that, click the Payments tab, as shown in the screenshot below. Then, scroll down, and you’ll notice several Stripe payment options are available.
The list includes many Stripe-based payment options. For now, we’ll use the Stripe—Credit Card (Stripe) payment gateway. To turn it on, click the toggle button.
Now, you’ll see the Stripe connecting page.
As the screenshot shows, you need to enter account keys to connect your Stripe account with WooCommerce.
To do this, first, log in to your Stripe account. Then click on the Developers tab in the top right corner. Afterwards, click the API keys tab.
You’ll now see the Publishable key and Secret key. You need to click the Reveal test key button to view the Secret key. Copy these keys.
Now, return to the Stripe connecting page of WooCommerce and click the Enter account keys button.
Then, paste the Publishable and Secret keys you copied from your Stripe account.
Scroll down, and you’ll notice you must enter a Webhook Secret key. You can find it in your Stripe account.
To get the Webhook Secret key, you need to add the webhook endpoint to your Stripe account settings.
To do this, we’ll copy the URL – http://yourdomain.local/?wc-api=wc_stripe (your one will be different) and add it to our Stripe account.
Then, we’ll go to our Stripe account, click Webhooks and hit the Add an endpoint button.
Afterwards, paste the copied endpoint URL in the Endpoint URL box. Then, select events you want Stripe to perform, such as order confirmation, cancellation, etc. Lastly, click on the Add endpoint button.
At this stage, you’ll notice the Webhooks page. Now, click on Reveal from the Signing secret section.
Copy the secret key, return to the Stripe connecting page, and paste the key into the WEBHOOK SECRET box. Finally, click the Save live keys button.
There you have it! You just connected your Stripe merchant account with WooCommerce.
You can now go back to the Payments setting of WooCommerce and enable all the Stripe payment options you prefer. Also, perform one or multiple tests to check if everything is up and running.
Customizing the Accounts & Privacy tab
We’ll now customize the Accounts & Privacy tab of WooCommerce. To do this, we can navigate to the Accounts & Privacy tab.
We recommend keeping all the settings as they are. However, you may check or uncheck some setting boxes according to your preferences.
Finally, click on the Save changes button.
Hooray! We’ve just finished setting up all the basics.
We’ll now create our very first product.
Before creating our first product, we need to tweak the WordPress settings so that our website appears and functions properly.
To this end, navigate to Settings from your WordPress Admin Dashboard. Click on Reading.
Select the radio button A static page as your homepage display option. Then, choose Shop from the dropdown list of the Homepage section and click on the Save changes button.
After that, go to Permalinks under the Settings section.
Then, select the Post name radio button as the Permalink structure.
Now, click on the Save changes button.
Those are all the settings we need to tweak before heading to further steps.
Step 7: Creating products (or product posts) for your eCommerce store
Creating product posts on WooCommerce is literally an easy chore. We’ll create three varied types of product posts one by one.
Hence, let’s begin with the product posting!
Create a simple product
Navigate to the WordPress admin Dashboard and then go to Products > Add New.
Now, type your product’s name in the Add new product box. Then, write your product description in the Product description section.
After that, scroll down to the Product data section and ensure the Simple product is selected.
Then, type in your product’s regular and sale prices in the Regular price and Sale price (discounted price) boxes, respectively.
After that, select the Tax class from the dropdown menu per your preferences.
Then, navigate to the Inventory tab and write down your product’s SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) number in the SKU box.
Now, click the Shipping tab.
Then, fill in the Weight and Dimension boxes with information related to your product.
Finally, select the Shipping class from the dropdown menu based on the product.
Now, scroll down to the Product short description section and write your product’s short description in this box.
Pro tip: Write the product description keeping the best practices of on-page SEO. So that your products get a better position in the search engines like Google or Bing.
After that, scroll up to the Product image section on the right sidebar and click Set product image.
Then, upload the 1st/featured image of your product.
Now, go to the Product gallery section underneath the Product image section. Click Add product gallery images to include a few more pictures of your product.
Pro tip: Don’t forget to use alt texts for your images to make them more accessible via screenreaders.
We’ll now categorize our product.
To do this, we’ll go to the Product categories section. Then, click Add new category.
At this point, we’ll see two fields. One is to give our category a name, and the other is to select the category type.
We’ll type the category name of our product in the first field.
Then, keep the second field selected as “Parent category” as we are creating a category for the first time.
After that, click the Add new category button.
At this point, we’ll add some product tags for our product.
To do that, navigate to the Product tags section and type in product tags that match our niche/product in the Product tags field. Then, click on the Add button.
Finally, after rechecking all the sections of our simple product, we’ll hit the Publish button.
Voila! You’ve just created your first simple product post.
Create an affiliate and digital product
Here’s how you can accomplish this task in a snap!
To create an affiliate product post, you can follow the same steps as you did to make a simple product post.
That means you can navigate to Products > Add New.
Then, type in the product title and description.
Then, scroll down to the Product data section and select the External/Affiliate product from the dropdown menu.
Now, go to the General tab and then input the affiliate URL of your product in the Product URL field.
Write down your preferred purchasing text in the Button Text box.
In the same way, type in regular and sale prices of your product in the Regular price and Sale price fields.
Pro tip: The Sale price will always be lower than the Regular price.
Now, you can select None from the Tax class dropdown menu.
Also, choose Standard from the Tax class dropdown menu.
Afterward, go to the Inventory tab and type in the SKU of your product in the SKU box.
From now on, follow the exact steps of creating a simple product. That means you can
- write a short description of your affiliate product in the Product short description area.
- Then, upload product images to the product image and product gallery sections on the right sidebar.
- After that, add a category and some product tags relevant to your product.
- Finally, recheck the entire post and hit the Publish button.
That’s it.
Creating a digital product
Now, let’s move on to creating a digital product post. To make such a product post, you can follow the exact steps of creating a simple product post.
From writing the product title and descriptions to adding images and tags and creating categories, you’ll follow all the steps you applied to create a simple product post.
In essence, you’ll keep the Simple product selected.
But in this section, you’ll follow slightly different steps.
That said, you need to check the Virtual checkbox beside the Simple product option.
You can check the Downloadable checkbox as well if your product is downloadable.
Then, put regular and sale prices in the Regular prices and Sale prices fields.
Afterwards, click the Add File button to upload your downloadable digital product.
Lastly, you can select the Tax status None and Tax class Standard.
Now, head to the Inventory section and type your digital product’s SKU number in the SKU box.
After that, check the Sold individually box; otherwise, if someone places a bulk order, they’ll pay the price of a single product instead of multiple ones.
Then, fill in other sections, recheck your entire post, and then hit the Publish button. That’s how you create a digital product post with WooCommerce.
Pro tip: Since WooCommerce is designed to let you sell physical products, We recommend you utilize EDD (Easy Digital Downloads) plugin. This plugin will help you build a complete eCommerce store to sell all kinds of digital products hassle-free.
Congrats! You’ve just completed your journey to create an eCommerce website with WordPress.
Let’s now move a little forward and dive into making the variable product post.
Variable Product
Before creating a variable product post, we want to clarify that variable products refer to those items featuring multiple colors, sizes, and other attributes.
When you want to add and display different product features on your eCommerce store, you need to first create product attributes in WooCommerce.
So, to do this, head to the WordPress Admin Dashboard. Then, navigate to Products > Attributes.
Now, create an attribute based on your product. For instance, you can make a color attribute.
So, type in ‘Color’ in the Name box.
Then, select Color from the dropdown menu of the Type section.
Finally, click the Add attribute button.
In the same way, create the size attribute and others according to your preferences.
Once you’ve built attributes, it’s time to customize them.
To do this, you can click on Configure terms of any attribute you want to edit.
For example, we want to customize the color attribute. So we click on its Configure terms option.
Afterward, we’ll type the color attribute name (e.g., Black, White, Green, etc.) in the Name box.
Then, choose the color that goes along with the color name from the Color box.
Finally, hit the Add new color button.
Then, again, navigate to the WordPress Admin Dashboard. After that, go to Products > Attributes. Now, give your attribute a name, such as Size.
At this point, choose the attribute type from the Type’s dropdown menu.
Then, hit the Add attribute button.
You can now customize this attribute. To do this, follow the exact steps to customizing an attribute that we did with the Color attribute.
That means you can click the Configure terms option.
Then, edit the attribute as per your requirement.
After creating and editing attributes, head to WordPress Admin Dashboard.
Then, go to Products > Add New to create a variable product.
Note that you need to follow all the steps associated with creating a simple product post.
So, once you’ve typed in your product’s name and description, uploaded images and added product tags and categories, pay close attention to the Product data- section.
Select the product type as a Variable product.
Then, set the Tax status and Tax class. If your product is taxable, set the Tax status to Taxable. Also, set the Tax class to your preferred class.
Now, go to the Inventory section and write down your product’s SKU number in the SKU box.
Then, click the Shipping tab and type information about your product’s weight and dimensions.
Now, choose the matchable Shipping class.
Next, click the Attributes tab.
Then, click the down arrow in the Add new field and choose each of the attributes you created earlier.
For example, we’ve created the Color and Size attributes. Hence, we’ve selected the Color from the ADD new field.
We’ll now choose a color from the Value box.
Then, we’ll click the Save attributes button.
In the same way, we’ll edit the Size attribute. That means we’ll choose the Size from the ADD new field. Then, we’ll select one or more sizes from the Value box.
Lastly, we’ll hit the Save attributes button.
Once you follow these steps, navigate to the Variations tab > Click on the Generate variations button.
You’ll now notice a pop-up asking whether you want to generate variations. Click OK.
At this stage, you’ll see all the attributes with different variations.
You can also edit them individually by clicking on Edit for each variation.
You can upload pictures for each variation. Also, you can increase or decrease each variation’s regular and sale prices. You can edit each variation’s weight, dimension, tax class, shipping status and more.
After editing all variations, you need to click the Save changes button.
We recommend you double-check the entire product post and hit the Publish button.
There you go. You’ve successfully created a variable product post. And with that, our product creation with WooCommerce ends here.
Congratulations! You’ve built an eCommerce website with WordPress. But our journey doesn’t end here.
You can feel free to explore the bonus tips to add more advanced features to your eCommerce website.
Bonus tips:
This is a basic eCommerce website you can create with WordPress. To create a more advanced eCommerce website, you can follow these tips:
- To create a multivendor website where you will let multiple people create their individual stores and sell their products, you can use plugins like Dokan, WC Vendor, WC Vendors, MultiVendorX, etc.
- You can also create a learning management system or membership Website. Where instructors and students can interact seamlessly. To build such a website, you can use LearnDash and TutorLMS
- Alongside all these websites, you can run one or more eCommerce stores to sell digital licenses, software, plugins and other digital products. You can use EDD or SureCart to develop such websites.
That’s all with bonus tips to create different types of eCommerce stores. We’ll now head toward furnishing our basic eCommerce store.
To do that, we’ll add a few more features to our store to collect customers’ data and give them a remarkable user experience. To do that, we’ll install a few plugins. Hence, let’s begin!
Install additional plugins to run your store like a pro!
This section will walk you through installing additional plugins for WooCommerce. So, grab a cup of coffee and start reading this entire section.
TI WooCommerce Wishlist
First, we’ll install a useful plugin called TI WooCommerce Wishlist. It enables your targeted customers to wishlist (or mark as favorite) their preferred products.
So, to install this plugin, you need to follow the exact first step of plugin installation. Which we conducted during the WooCommerce installation.
That means you need to head to the WordPress Admin Dashboard and then go to Plugins > Add new > Search with the keyword, “TI WooCommerce Wishlist” > Click Install Now > Hit Activate.
At this point, the plugin will redirect you to the following setup page. Hit the LET’s GO button.
Then, you’ll get a settings page. Where you can give the TI WoCommerce Wishlist a name (we’ll keep it Default wishlist).
Now, you can configure the My Wishlist section of the TI WooCommerce Wishlist. You may either choose the Create Automatically option from the dropdown menu or select any of the other options (For now, we’ll choose the automatic option).
After choosing the Create Automatically option, hit the CONTINUE button.
Thereafter, you’ll get a Button configuration page. Where you need to specify the button position.
Here, you can choose an option such as:
- ‘After “Add to Cart” button’
- ‘Before “Add to Cart” button’ or
- Use the Custom position with code option that will lead you to inject some code to determine the TI WooCommerce Wishlist’s button position.
Finally, hit the CONTINUE button at the bottom-right corner to proceed to the next page.
As you can see, you’ll now be on this PROCESSING page. Here, you can select how your displayed products should be removed from the TI WooCommerce Wishlist.
We recommend keeping this setting Automatically, as shown in the screenshot.
Now, click the CONTINUE button to proceed further.
Next, you can set up the SHARE page of the TI WooCommerce Wishlist. All the share buttons of this plugin will remain turned on. But you can toggle off any share buttons you don’t want to show on the TI WoCommerce Wishlist page.
Once you are happy with the share settings, click the CONTINUE button to go to the next setting.
Right now, you’ll see the SUPPORT page. You can enable the support chat option to benefit from the customer support of TI WooCommerce Wishlist. Lastly, smash that CONTINUE button.
Congratulations! You’ve just completed installing and setting up the TI WooCommerce Wishlist plugin.
At this point, you can click on the RETURN TO THE WORDPRESS DASHBOARD button to get back to your WordPress Admin Dashboard.
Contact Form 7
Next, we‘ll install the Contact Form 7 plugin to create a form on our About Us or Contact US pages. This plugin will benefit you if you want to collect your customers’ data.
To install this plugin, follow the exact steps for plugin installation. That means heading to the WordPress Admin Dashboard.
Then go to Plugins > Add New Plugin.
Search with the keyword, ‘Contact Form 7’ > Click Install Now.
Hit the Activate button.
You can now create basic contact forms on your website. Nonetheless, you may install Ultimate Addons for Contact Form 7 plugin to enhance the functionality of Contact Form 7.
This additional plugin will help you create visually appealing forms. Thanks to its advanced features.
Variation Swatches for WooCommerce
If you want to build an eCommerce website that features variable products, you’ll need this Variation Swatches for WooCommerce plugin.
Installing this popular plugin is quite simple. Follow the exact steps of plugin installation we have shown you a couple of times.
That means you need to head to the WordPress Admin Dashboard and then go to Plugins > Add New Plugin.
Now, search with the keyword, “Variation Swatches for WooCommerce” > Click Install Now.
After that, hit the Activate button.
That’s it. You’ve installed all additional plugins to help you operate your eCommerce store like a pro!
So, you’ve done it. See! How easy it was to create an eCommerce website with WordPress. We believe that next time you can easily create a professional eCommerce website with WordPress without any help.
Give yourself a pat on your back, and check out the embedded video to see how our eCommerce website looks.
N:B: To keep the article compact and engaging, we didn’t include website design and optimize sections.
Nonetheless, you can read our other blog posts to know how to design your eCommerce website with WordPress or how to make your eCommerce website SEO-optimized.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Is WordPress good for eCommerce site?
Indeed, WordPress is the best option for eCommerce business. Many people nowadays prefer WordPress to build and run their eCommerce business. This popular CMS allows them to operate their websites hassle-free without mastering many technical skills!
How long does it take to build an eCommerce website with WordPress?
It entirely depends on your ability and how well you know about WordPress. As a beginner, you may need to spend anywhere from 7 days to 30 days to build your first eCommerce website.
With time, you’ll become a professional and won’t take that much time to build an eCommerce website.
What Is the most profitable eCommerce product?
It will be challenging to declare one product as the most profitable one since several products can help you make a huge profit. For example, beauty and health products,
second-hand products, smartwatches, smart home products, and online educational courses are some profitable products, to name a few.
Wrapping up
Before concluding this article, we would like to thank you for reading this guide on how to create an eCommerce website with WordPress. We believe by now, you have a thorough understanding of how you can make your preferred eCommerce store with this popular CMS.
Remember that we’ve just scratched the surface of making an eCommerce website with WordPress for free. This guide will help you with the beginning of your journey.
But you need to constantly learn and stay updated with the latest tactics related to eCommerce stores and businesses to thrive and excel in this arena. We wish you good luck on your journey. Au re-voir!