ReviewHostingASP.NET – You might think on starting an online store either for selling clothes, computers, furniture, books or any other products. An online store built with WordPress and WooCommerce can also be used for service providers, especially for those who offer a high number of services online. In this tutorial, we will tell you how to build an online store using WordPress and WooCommerce. Just follow this following simple steps.
How To Build an Online Store Using WordPress and WooCommerce?
Step 1 – Choose The Right Hosting Provider
A reliable web hosting service is crucial for every website, especially for websites that sell online. An e-commerce website will quickly loose its visitors and customers if your website which is hosted in one hosting provider can’t keep up with the users demand. So, the first thing that you can do before build an online store using WordPress and Woocommerce is choosing the right hosting provider.
Maybe you will want to have a fast loading online shop, so your potential customers can quickly browse through your products and make a purchase. Not only that, you will also want to ensure that your website will always be online, accessible anytime a user want to buy something. If you choose a hosting provider that can’t guarantee its reliability and performance, you will quickly lose business and it can lead to major consequences. So it is important to pick the right web hosting plan before you build an online store.
You need to find a proper web hosting company with enough space for all your products, enough bandwidth for your customers and a lot of speed where you can install WordPress. Also you need a proper domain name, something customized and unique indicating that your website is an online shop and eventually what you sell. The domain name can include a original name, maybe yours or a new brand you just created. We highly recommend you to get a WordPress hosting from HostForLIFE.eu. Whether you are a starting a small or big store, they have the right WordPress hosting plan for you. They also offer you 1-click installation for WordPress, unlimited domain, unlimited bandwidth and disk space, even in their basic WordPress hosting.
Step 2 – Installing & Setting Up WordPress
After choosing the right hosting provider, you need to download and install WordPress using the auto-installer script from your web hosting control panel. Don’t forget to write the correct and required information in order to install. These are the following: database name, database username and database password. After installation you need to enter the administrator’s e-mail address and password.
Both the installation and the setting take a couple of minutes, but your attention is necessary, especially if you aren’t used to make them. However you don’t need to panic or to rush things. All the settings are located at your WordPress Dashboard and you can access it if you just add /wp-admin at your website’s link, for example http://example.com/wp-admin.
Step 3 – Installing WooCommerce
Even if WordPress comes with 3-4 themes and 2-3 plugins, you will need to install WooCommerce. You can either install the plugin WooCommerce or a theme that has WooCommerce integrated. We recommend you the second option for a professional online store, you can find the WooCommerce plugin at the developer’s official website. With almost 10.620.000 downloads, WooCommerce powers over than a third of all online stores and is now the most popular e-commerce platform on the web.
With WooCommerce you can easily make shipping calculations, cart calculations, tax calculations, select customer address, control taxes, see all shipping prices, restrict sales and use multiple shipping methods. The platform is even SEO friendly, has discount coupons and codes and simple visitors can review your products and even choose to verify or not every review. Other features are the improved experience for store owners, integration with WordPress content, theme extensions, 300+ plugin extensions and child themes support.
Step 4 – Installing Additional Plugins
Both WordPress and WooCommerce are very useful platforms, one for content management and the other for online shop, you still need to install some additional plugins that will optimize at maximum your online shop’s performance. These are Akismet – for antispam, Breadcrumb NavXT – for breadcrumb navigation, Contact Form 7 – for contact forms, Floating Social Media Icon – to show floating media icons, Jetpack – for visitors and articles stats, Newsletter – for updating your visitors. If you already purchased a theme with integrated WooCommerce, there is a chance to have some of this plugins already installed. Else you just need to install them going t the Plugins tab from your Dashboard and to choose them and use the install button. At the end, you need to activate them and look around their options.
Step 5 – Adding Your Products
The fourth and last step, as important as the other, is adding your products on the online shop. You need to try to add a fixed number of products each week, even if at beginning you have a high number of products. You try to use unique descriptions, photos and videos for each product.
When you write the description of a product use as much details as possible, starting with a real story that contains keywords about your website and product, including what is your product and what it makes. After that, you should write the technical details. At the end of the page of a product you should put a slideshow with compatible products and another slideshow with related products. Every new added product means a new article on your shop, so a new chance for you regarding a new visitor to come or an old one to return. Google Bot doesn’t forget to return to your website if you have new content and it will help you at indexing and especially at raising your website’s position in different search terms.
What’s more, you need to share each product to your social media pages from Twitter, Facebook and so on. If you do this, there will be at least 3 websites, including your online shop, with your products. Please be patient because income and traffic will increase in time and not from beginning. At the end, we can tell you that starting an online shop takes a lot of time and you also need to have patience, especially at adding products. Imagination is another element you need when you make decisions regarding the layout of the entire website. So if you are planning to build an online store, start your project in time. Good luck!