Are you planning to build an e-commerce store with WordPress? If yes, it is time to hire a professional WordPress developer. They will assist you effectively in launching your store by providing you with the best guidance from the start to the end.
WordPress is a popular beginner-friendly platform. Around 810 million sites are built on this platform, including blogs, e-commerce, community and portfolio websites. It allows you to develop efficient websites in almost any niche, even if you lack advanced coding skills.
Although WordPress has gotten a lot of recognition as a blogging platform, after the introduction of WooCommerce in 2011, many people have started to use it for building an online store.
WooCommerce is known to be an all-in-one solution that flawlessly integrates with WordPress. The integration of WooCommerce and WordPress is incredibly powerful. From the capabilities to features to payment methods, WooCommerce is scalable and flexible.
This comprehensive blog post will guide you through the step-by-step process of starting an e-commerce store with WordPress. So, let’s begin:
Key Steps to Follow to Start an Online Store Using WordPress
Step 1: Discover the Right Niche
The first and most important step involves finding out the niche. You must have a clear understanding of what you are planning to sell and what is the niche market for that particular product. A thorough research will help you to get a better idea of this. An ideal niche involves your target audience, passion and competition.
Here are a few valuable tips that will help you to come across the best niche:
- Be clear on what you want
- Carry out detailed research using online tools like Google Trends, SEMRush, etc.
- Conduct competitor analysis
Choosing WordPress web design services will assist you in successfully navigating this step.
Step 2: Settle on the E-commerce Platform
Now is the time to select the e-commerce platform. Here, we are making use of WordPress. However, you must be well informed about the other available options in the market. Other than WordPress, some of the most popular e-commerce content management systems include Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace, and Wix.
Here, our main point of discussion is WooCommerce and WordPress, so let’s find out its top benefits.
It is evident from the official website of WooCommerce that it performs amazingly with high-volume stores. Throughout the years, WordPress has created a lot of authenticity and credibility among its global users. So, WooCommerce is presently reaping that advantage.
The best part about WooCommerce is that it helps you select from highly tailored homepage designs and menus to shipping and payment options.
Step 3: Choose a Unique Store Name
The next step of custom WordPress development is the most exciting yet daunting one. You need to establish a robust identity. So, to achieve this objective, you should choose an easy-to-remember and unique store name for your brand. By doing so, you can stand out from your competitors. It also impacts the perception of your customers towards you.
The store name here indicates the domain name. It is recommended to brainstorm many ideas to come up with a unique name. You can explore the internet and list all the keywords you can think of for your store. After that, you can incorporate those keywords into your store name.
Although WordPress SEO would help boost your business, it is also important to select a brand-specific and unique name that will effectively help drive the best SEO outcomes.
To get an idea about what kind of name to choose, you can comprehensively research your competitors. You can rely on business name generators if you struggle with name ideas. However, it is important to use a reliable one.
A good domain name must possess a proper structure. If you need any sort of related assistance, you can get in touch with a professional WordPress ecommerce development company.
Step 4: Obtain Hosting and Install WordPress
No website could exist without hosting. The hosting of a website impacts its functionality. So, you should be careful while choosing a hosting service provider. As a part of it, you should explore different hosting services to find quality hosting.
Here are the features that a quality e-commerce host should necessarily possess:
- PCI Compliance
- Firewalls and Security Features
- Backups
- SSL Certificate
- The Clock Customer Support
After you have obtained hosting, you need to set up WordPress and WooCommerce. You can install it on your own or approach an experienced WordPress web development company that will handle everything.
Step 5: Get a Streamlined and Optimised Design
Nowadays, getting a design can be a little costly, especially if you outsource it. However, WordPress offers you affordable alternatives. You may not have to incur any costs for some designs.
In this platform, you will find a section attributed to the “WordPress themes” designs. It decides the look of your site and features the specific elements you can display on your site’s pages. These themes come with a distinct look, feel, and purpose to perfectly fit your niche.
Below are the things that you should look at while selecting an appropriate theme for your WooCommerce:
- SEO-friendly
- Customisation Options
- Outstanding Performance
- Complement the Native WooCommerce Features
Step 6: Add the Products to Catalog
The next step involves the addition of the missed-out products to the database. WordPress possesses a focused section for adding products. All you need to do is hover your cursor over the left menu on the page. Now, choose “Products” and “Add New”.
You will get to see the following with each product:
- A description
- A title
- Parameters
- Individual details
Adding to its vast functionality, it allows you to add the following:
- Single Products
- Grouped Products
- Variable Products
It is important to note that WooCommerce also lets you add digital and physical products. An expert WordPress developer will help you successfully carry out this step.
Step 7: Integrate Plugins to Access Additional Features
WordPress plugins lets you extend the core and native features of WordPress. You can incorporate the desired functionality into your online store by integrating plugins. Ultimately, you would be able to make your store brand specific. Now, you may have a question about which plugin to choose.
Below, we are going to list some of the popular options that are worth installing:
- Optimole
- WooCommerce Side Cart
- Stripe
- All-in-One SEO
- Booster for WooCommerce
These plugins have almost everything you might need as an online store owner.
In a Nutshell
WooCommerce comes with several beginner-friendly options, which makes it one of the most sought-after options chosen by millions of individuals across the globe. After learning about the above-discussed steps, we are sure you can now launch a functional and efficient e-commerce store using WordPress.
If you are facing any sort of difficulties in this, you can get in touch with a reliable WordPress developer.
