Creating an e-commerce site is one of the best ways to grow your brand and solidify its presence across different geographies. If you are already using WordPress, adding an e-commerce plugging to the site will completely transform it into an e-commerce website. WordPress is especially helpful when creating an e-commerce site because it has many pre-made themes ideal for online storefronts. WordPress also has unique plugins that add e-commerce functionalities like checkout, shopping cart and product display to a site. On top of that it gives site owners total control over their sites and how it looks. You can add a forum, a blog or any other page that you want. If you are planning to build a storefront with WordPress, this article presents a comprehensive guide on how to make an eCommerce website in WordPress:’
1. Choose your domain The first step in creating your e-commerce site in WordPress is to choose and register your domain name. This is basically the address of your site. You will need to buy the domain and some good domain registers include: Namecheap, Godaddy, Hostgator and Dreamhost.
2. Choose a reliable web host The second step is to choose your host. This is basically a service that will host the site on the internet. A dedicated host will ensure that your site loads quickly, and it will not suffer from long downtime periods. Some good hosting providers include: Bluehost, Ehost, Siteground and Hostgator Cloud.
3. Select an eCommerce plugin and install it. This is what will differentiate your e-commerce site from a standard WordPress site. It will allow you to sell your products or services directly from the site. Your WordPress doesn’t have e-commerce features, so you will need to add them using an e-commerce plugin. Good examples of e-commerce plugins include; WooCommerce, Shopify and Ecwid. As an example in this guide, let’s use WooCommerce. It is a flexible platform that gives users complete control over their storefronts. It features a backend that helps you create and organize pages and provides a shopping cart. It is also free to use its basic features, but if you want more features you can extend its functionality with paid extensions.
To launch your site using the plugin; Go to your WordPress dashboard – Head to the plugins and click add new’
Type WooCommerce’ on the side bar and click enter. Then hit “install now” on WooCommerce.
5. Add products After setting up the plugin, it is time to add products and their pages. Every e-commerce plugin is different and does things differently, but at the very basic level, every product that you add usually has the following features:
- Product name –
- Price -Image
- Brief description You can add products with WooCommerce by entering your WordPress admin panel and then on the side bar select “products.”
- Next, select “add products,” and then choose the products that you want to add. The platform allows users to add both virtual and physical products to their store.
6. Payment
This is the last step in this guide on how to make an eCommerce website in WordPress’. Your site needs a way of receiving and making payments. WooCommerce supports various payment gateways and adding them is easy. Just head to the extensions store and then add a gateway of your choice. PayPal is a good example of a reliable payment gateway. It is also good to have an SSL certificate when using these gateways as it ensures that all the transaction information between you and your clients is safe from hackers. Hopefully you will find this guide on “How to make an ecommerce website in WordPress” helpful.
Good luck!