When you first start building an eCommerce store, many options are available to you. WooCommerce is one of many options that you have probably seen.
WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that transforms any WordPress site into an eCommerce store. It is flexible, user-friendly, and widely available. However, it’s essential to use the right platform when creating an eCommerce store. We will discuss WooCommerce, its history, and why it has become so popular. Then we will show you how to use WooCommerce on your site.
What is WooCommerce?
WooCommerce, a WordPress plugin, is a WordPress plugin that can convert a WordPress website into an eCommerce store. It takes only a few clicks.
WooCommerce is essentially an extension of WordPress’s initial capabilities and adds eCommerce functionality.
WooCommerce lets you sell any product on your website. It is used primarily to sell physical items like jewelry, coffee, beard oils, and t-shirts as examples. WooCommerce can also be used to sell digital products such as ebooks and courses. People can even book appointments or make reservations. WooCommerce is an excellent tool for selling whatever you want through your website.
These are just a few of the reasons it is so popular:
• It is entirely free to install on your website, just like WordPress.
• You’ll also find tons of themes and add-ons for free, just like WordPress.
• It is easy to use and was designed for beginners.
• Through a complete library of WooCommerce themes, you have full control over the final design.
• Your store is mobile-friendly, so your customers can shop on any device.
• The plugin library allows you to add many different features, much like you can do with a regular WordPress site.
Overall, WooCommerce functions in a similar way to WordPress. This makes sense because Automattic runs it. Below, we dive into the history of WooCommerce.
WooCommerce: History
WooCommerce was founded in 2003 by Adii Pienaar, Magnus Jepson, and Mark Forrester working for another company. It was a premium WordPress theme provider. A handful of their premium themes helped them achieve success.
They were about to make a significant change when they hired two developers, Mike Jolley and James Koster. They had been working on Jigoshop, an earlier eCommerce software.
After the company was sold, they were able to get started on WooCommerce.
WooCommerce’s first version was released in 2011. It took only two years for it to reach 1,000,000 downloads. Automattic purchased WooCommerce in 2015 from the same team behind WordPress. The plugin was downloaded over 7,000,000 times and powered over 30% of online eCommerce stores.
WooCommerce is still one of the most widely used and flexible eCommerce tools around the globe.
WooCommerce: Why is it so widely used?
WooCommerce’s close ties with WordPress are a big reason it is so popular. WordPress powers over one-third of the internet. There’s only one solution if you want to sell products through your existing website:
There are serious advantages when compared to other eCommerce platforms.
• You can choose from thousands of paid and free themes, making it ideal for many websites.
• Over 500 extensions and thousands of plugins will allow you to add new features to your store.
It isn’t easy to find an eCommerce solution that offers more flexibility. You can do a lot with WooCommerce completely free.
WooCommerce: The Benefits
WooCommerce is an excellent eCommerce platform. These are the top WooCommerce benefits:
It’s easy to set up and install on your site
o WooCommerce can be installed and configured easily, and if you have ever installed a plugin to your WordPress site, it’s just as easy. WooCommerce can be downloaded and installed directly from your WordPress dashboard or via the plugin directory.
o After you have installed and activated the plugin, you will be presented with a wizard to help you set up your store. This wizard will guide you through the configuration of your store and answer a few questions about your website.
o Your theme will also take care of other things like the design and layout of your store. This process is similar to how you set up your WordPress theme.
It comes with almost all the features you need
o WooCommerce comes with everything you need to start a profitable store right out of the box. Here are just a few of the features that WooCommerce comes with.
Any product that you want, digital or physical, can be sold.
Each feature can be customized with multiple product attributes, tags, and categories.
Star ratings and product reviews can be added to your products
Your customers can filter your store by product type, popularity, star rating, and other criteria.
Integrating your store with multiple payment providers such as Stripe, PayPal, credit cards, and Stripe is possible.
With the almost limitless selection of themes, you can quickly modify the appearance of your storefront.
It is flexible and scalable.
o WooCommerce can be used as a plugin by itself. However, many extensions and plugins are available that will improve the functionality.
o This allows you to create an online shop that works exactly how you want it to.
o All kinds of official WooCommerce extensions are available on the WooCommerce website. They are both free and paid.
o You will have access to better marketing tools, store management, payment options, and shipping options.
o Another option is to search the WordPress plugin market. Even a simple search for “WooCommerce” will return numerous results.
The Shopping Cart has a lot of features
o A successful online shop will have a smooth checkout process. Many of your customers will abandon their carts at checkout, so make sure you do everything to make it as smooth as possible.
o Amazon makes it so easy to purchase products. It takes just a few clicks to get the product delivered right to your doorstep.
o WooCommerce offers a variety of options for customizing your shopping cart.
o You can add a variety of payment gateways such as Stripe, PayPal, credit cards, and cash.
o Geolocation can automatically calculate taxes based on the visitor’s location
o You can customize your shop by choosing which countries you will sell to, allowing guests to check out without creating an account, forcing secure checkouts, and many other options.
o Once a product has been added, redirect your customers to their cart.
You Get Tons of Product Options
o Selling products online can be a more enjoyable experience than selling them in person. People can see the product in person when they visit a store to buy it. Your images, description, product video, and descriptions are all that your customers need to see when you’re online. You’ll need the ability to customize each product listing so that your customers can make informed purchases. These are the product features you will have access to straight out of the box.
o Your existing hosting account is your limit. You can add as many products to your store as you like.
o You can add as many product types and packages as you like, digital or physical.
o Almost unlimited product options include sizes, colors, and images. You can also choose from discount pricing or other variations.
o WooCommerce makes it easy for you to manage your product inventory. Email notifications will be sent to you when stock is low or a product is on backorder.
Multiple shipping options are available.
o An eCommerce tool is a tool that allows you to sell products and ship them. It not only makes customers happy but also makes your life easier.
o WooCommerce offers many shipping options. You can allow your customers to choose from flat rate, international shipping, local delivery, or local pickup. If that makes financial sense, you can use the built-in shipping calculator or offer free shipping to your customers.
o You can even hide the shipping cost until the customer enters their address.
o You can also add more options to your shopping cart, such as automated tracking and upsells.
WooCommerce: Setup
Installing and setting up WooCommerce will be easy if you have used WordPress before.
This is all you need to get started using WooCommerce.
1. You will need a domain name and a hosting account to host your store.
2. WordPress installed on your site
3. WooCommerce compatible WordPress theme
4. The WooCommerce plugin
Get Hosting and a domain
A domain name and a hosting account are the first things you need. HostGator can help you get both a domain name and a hosting account if you are starting.
Go to our WordPress Hosting Page to choose your plan.
You can add a domain name to your order on the next screen. Continue searching until you find the perfect domain. It’s time for the next step after you have placed your order.
Install WordPress
It takes only a few clicks to install WordPress on your new website. Navigate to your hosting control panels and click on “Build a new WordPress site.”
After the installer finishes, you will need to provide information about your site. Click ‘Install’ to fill out the information similar to the one in the image.
Select Your WordPress Theme
Now that WordPress is installed, it’s time for you to install a WooCommerce theme. Storefront is a great place to start if you aren’t sure which theme you should install. This theme is free and was designed by the WooCommerce team.
Log in to your WordPress dashboard to install the theme. Navigate to appearance>Themes and then search for the storefront.
You’ll see a WooCommerce-ready theme for your site. Click Install and then Activate.
Install WooCommerce
It’s finally time to install WooCommerce. This is easy because it’s a free plugin.
Navigate to plugins>Add New and then search for “WooCommerce.”
Click ‘Install Now’ and then ‘Activate’ for WooCommerce to be enabled on your website.After the plugin has been activated and installed, you will see a new “WooCommerce” tab on the left-hand corner of your site.
Here you can manage your orders, modify your store settings, browse our extension library, etc. WooCommerce will automatically create new pages for your site, such as your Cart page, Checkout page, and others, once it is installed. These pages can be edited by going to the ‘Pages” link in your left-hand sidebar.
Ready?
You should now have a better understanding of WooCommerce. This includes how WooCommerce came to be and why it is an excellent platform for your new store. Finally, you will know how to get started using WooCommerce today.
