How to add E-commerce to your WordPress website ?

If you are willing to get onto the bandwagon of the eCommerce craze, then it is high time to do the needful. As per the research by Statista, there is an expected global escalation in the figures of online shoppers by 2021. It is forecasted to be 2.14 billion people that will be buying goods and services online.

So if I have to put in straight, there is a lot of online business opportunity in the coming years and this is the reason this post is for you! Businesses are trying hard to gain some attention and eCommerce is where you can stand out in this pool of competition and attract customers with the right strategy in place even during the over-saturation period. 

Putting it in short, you will require a reliable platform that will be able to handle the heavy flow of traffic to your website, guarantees security, and optimizes well with mobile devices and here WordPress comes to your rescue!

The four key points as to why WordPress is always a smart pick are:

1.  A reservoir of themes and plugins.

2.  Cost-effective platform and minimal investment.

3.  Search Engine Optimized

4.  Easy Installation and Upgrades

5.  Simplicity and Flexibility

So if you are convinced as to why WordPress is the best choice for eCommerce, let me take you through steps of how you can add eCommerce to your WordPress Website.

This blog will address three steps involved in the procedure in detail. At the end of the blog, you will have a deep insight into how you can add an eCommerce store in WordPress with WooCommerce.

Step 1: Install WooCommerce

Log into your WordPress website

After logging in to your WordPress website, you can see ‘Plugins’ on the dashboard. Go to Plugins and then select Add New. 

In the search Plugin field, enter WooCommerce. The WooCommerce Plugin will appear on the top as shown below. You can see the Install Now button. Click on it to Install WooCommerce Plugin

Once the WooCommerce plugin is installed, you can click on ‘Activate’ and get ready for the WooCommerce Set up Wizard. 

Step 2: WooCommerce Onboarding Wizard

In this step, you will learn how you can add e-commerce to your WordPress website. After clicking on ‘Let’s Go,’ you will go through five different phases. Let us dive into the details.

Phase 1: Store Setup. 

Note: Whatever settings you configure currently can easily be changed later. 

With the name ‘Store Setup’ you definitely got an idea of what this page deals with. You need to fill the basic information about your store like the location of the store, Address, city, and so on. Even if your store is solely online, you will need to enter at least the country you belong to. 

The other fields that you need to enter as shown in the screenshot below are the currency and the type of products. Your store can use only a single currency at once. Currency Converter Widget will help you to display the prices of the products in multiple currencies. 

The ‘Type of Product’ field is basically asking you to provide a plan of what kind of products you wish to sell. The options given are physical, digital, and both. Select as per the suitability of your business.

The last option is a checkbox. This box will be ticked only if you wish to sell your products in person. 

Once you have entered all the details, click on ‘Let’s go!’ to proceed further.

Phase 2: Payment

The next phase is the Payment option on your store. In this phase, you can select the various methods of payment you can accept for your store.

Some important facts about the options with various payment methods:

1. Availability of Square POS is possible if you select the option for selling your products in person provided your store is located in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, or Japan.

2. Stripe and PayPal’s availability is witnessed always.

3. The availability of the Klarna payment method depends on the location of your store. Klarna is available for locations like the U.K., Norway, Finland, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, and Netherland. 

Note: The necessary extensions will be installed once you select the payment option to use. You can always add and remove the payment methods later. 

The last option in this phase is whether you wish to choose offline payment or not? 

If you desire to accept offline payment, then you will have multiple options again where you can choose all the different types of payments you want to use.

Phase 3: Shipping

The third phase is all about configuring your shipping settings. 

Note:

The options to configure the shipping settings will differ on the basis of the store’s location. For instance, if your store is located in the U.S. and Canada, the settings you can see will be related to USPS and Canada Post. 

Stores located other than these locations will see options where they need to specify the units for the dimensions and weight they wish to use in their store. All you have to do is simply choose the appropriate units and then select Continue to progress.  

Phase 4: Extras

This phase comes with two options:

1. Installation of the Storefront theme- The storefront theme is the official WooCommerce theme. This theme is highly recommended as it is developed specifically for supporting the websites powered by WooCommerce. 

2. Automated calculation of Tax rates depending on your location and business.

Phase 5: Activate 

The last step is to connect your store to Jetpack. Jetpack helps in activating numerous additional services like live rates and automatic taxes. You can skip this step as well and complete the installation process. 

Finally, your store is ready!

Step 3: How to add the first product in WooCommerce?

To create a product, go to WooCommerce>Products>Add New

 

Add New will open an interface as shown below.

As you can see, this section consists of:

1 – Product data- This is where you need to select the type of product.

2 – There are two checkboxes named virtual and downloadable. Select the appropriate option as it will decide whether the product is virtual i.e.,a digital good like e-books, videos, music, etc., or downloadable.

3 – Multiple Sections:

1. General- In this section, you can set the product pricing and product stock keeping unit.
2. Inventory- To manage the stock levels of the product.
3. Shipping- This section helps in specifying the dimensions and weight of the product.
4. Linked Products- If you want to create product groups or cross-promote similar products then the section of Linked Products is for you.
5. Attributes- This section is for assigning attributes to the product. Assigning attributes will help you to establish a connection with items with similar features.
6. Advanced- This section accords the user with advanced options like creating a purchase note.

You are not limited to these handfuls of options. There are many more to explore like adding product images, creating a variable product, different product types, and so on. Once your online store is launched you will be contented to see your hard-work reaping benefits in the long run in the form of filling your wallet.

Conclusion

WordPress’s flexibility allows it to accommodate almost any kind of website or niche. To leverage this advantage of WordPress, you can accord yourself with the knowledge of easy-to-use solutions offered by WordPress. In this blog, you have learned about how you can add eCommerce to your WordPress using WooCommerce. It is expected that you will try your hands and test yourself.

Guest article written by: Jeevan Kumar is a technology enthusiast and strong believer in agile product development. He is a Senior Content Strategist of Fortunesoft IT Innovations – WooCommerce development company.A Computer Engineer by education and a technology adherent by passion. His interest in computers & the internet has made him a self-proclaimed geek.