eCommerce Site using WooCommerce and WordPress

This post will cover how to make an eCommerce site using WooCommerce and WordPress.  WooCommerce is a comprehensive open source eCommerce platform for WordPress.  The plugin has many features which aren’t covered here; this is just that bare bones setup to take you from installing WooCommerce to having a product for sale and PayPal as a payment gateway.

Here is the best order I’ve found to attack this:

• Install a WooCommerce-compatible theme
• Install the WooCommerce plugin
• Configure the WooCommerce plugin
• Add Products

Let’s get started!

Installing a WooCommerce Compatible Theme

1. Go to your WordPress Dashboard, then click on “Appearance” on the left sidebar.
2. Then click on the “Add New” button
3. On the “Add Themes” page, type the search term “woocommerce” in the search box.  This will (hopefully) only return only the themes that are WooCommerce-ready, meaning that they are developed in a special way so that your WooCommerce product pages will look fantastic.
4. Note:  If you install a non-WooCommerce-ready theme, you’re likely to see this indication when you’re on your Dashboard

   

5. Click “Install” on the theme you’d like to use, then click “Activate” on the next page to activate the theme.
6. Warning: Activating a new WordPress theme may cause loss of some content from your current theme.  Particularly vulnerable are widgets and any theme-specific settings, such as those set from a theme-specific options page.  Talk to someone knowledgeable about WordPress if you have a lot at stake here…it is very frustrating to lose data!
7. Now that you have a WooCommerce theme installed, you’re ready to install the WooCommerce plugin.

Installing WooCommerce Plugin

1. Go to your WordPress Dashboard, then click on “Plugins” on the left sidebar.
2. Type the search term “woocommerce” in the search box and press enter on your keyboard
3. You should see the below result.  Click on “Install Now”

   

    

4. If prompted, click “OK” to verify that you’d like to install WooCommerce
5. Next you should see a plugin install screen like the one below.  If the screen says “Successfully installed…”, you’re in business!  Click on “Activate Plugin” to continue.

   

6. After you activate WooCommerce, you’ll need to install pages.  Click on “Install WooCommerce Pages” to do this.

   

7. You should be taken the to “Welcome to WooCommerce…” screen.  Congrats!

Quick Configuration

1. Click on WooCommerce on the Dashboard, and then click on “Settings” (under WooCommerce)
2. Under “General Options,” update your “Base Location” and check your “Selling Location(s)” based on your intended customer base
3. Under “Currency Options,” select the proper currency from the dropdown menu.
4. Note the “Frontend Styles” area in case you’d like to come back and change them later.  It’s best to see how everything looks and then change them based on that (as opposed to making guesses at this point).

   

5. Click “Save Changes”
6. Take a look at Products and Tax tabs, although we won’t covering these in this tutorial.
7. On the Checkout tab, you should enable “Force secure checkout” note that this requires SSL.
8. Under the Payment Gateways section, we’re going to set up PayPal and disable all others.  Click on the Settings button for Direct Bank Transfer

   

9. Uncheck the box that says “Enable Bank Transfer”
10. Click “Save Changes”
11. “Your settings have been saved.” at the top of the screen lets you know that it has worked.
12. Repeat the previous 4 steps to disable “Cheque Payment”
13. PayPal is my preferred payment gateway for a quick WooCommerce installation on a site, click on its Settings button to begin setting it up.
14. All you need to do is enter your PayPal account email into the “PayPal Email” box. Wonderful!
15. Remember to click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the PayPal page in order to save your email.
16. Make note of the Shipping, Accounts, and Emails tabs. They’re important, but the defaults work very well for our purposes today. If you’re selling physical products that require shipping, contact me if you’re interested in learning how to set up this section.

Now we’re ready to move on to the next step 🙂

Creating a Product to Sell

Now that WooCommerce is installed, let’s make some Products!  In WooCommerce, the things you sell are referred to as Products.  To start creating your first Product, go to the Dashboard and click on Products.

1. From the Products page, click on the “Add Product” button.
2. Name your product by filling in the “Product name” field.  Then add a nice long description of it in the big box below.
3. Fill in the “Regular Price” field under “Product” data at a minimum.
4. Add a Product Short Description
5. Add at least a Featured Image…even better is to also add a Product Gallery
6. Add a Product Category by clicking “Add New Product Category” or selecting an existing category.
7. Click “Publish”

   

8. Click “View Product” to see your masterpiece!
9. Repeat for other products