How to Configure a New WooCommerce Store
My name is Samuel Cohen and this is how I single-handedly designed, developed, and launched a website where you can customize a die and have it 3D printed in 30 days. Below is a business update post. If you wish to read more about the project, the landing page is here.
When creating an e-commerce website with WordPress, the most popular plugin is WooCommerce. WooCommerce is an all-encompassing store plugin that includes all of the necessary components for you to start your business. I chose to create my store with WooCommerce because of the WordPress integration and the ability to change store function through code.
Below is a video showcasing my rationale for using WooCommerce and highlight some basic features. If you want a more in-depth look into setting up a store, continue reading.
WooCommerce Overview Video
WooCommerce Setup
Pre-Installation Items
SSL Certificate
Before you even begin the work on a store, you have to acquire an SSL certificate. An SSL certificate is a confirmation of website ownership and business legitimacy. Having this certificate allows you to use https, which allows encrypted website traffic. If your website traffic is not encrypted, bad actors can steal important information like credit card numbers from other users.
Adding the SSL certificate to your website can be difficult unless you have a plugin that converts your whole site. I used Really Easy SSL for this step. You might still run into issues when your references to files or certain pages no longer work because the domain changed. I had this issue and had to reset several of my pages and change links around.
Optimally, this should be done before you develop your website.
Website Themes
Depending on your website provider, you might have already installed a compatible theme. WooCommerce themes are separate from traditional WordPress themes because they include commerce features built-in. When I downloaded WooCommerce it told me that I would have to change my theme.
The good news is that WooCommerce themes are excellent and it is easy to transfer your design work over.
Setup
After installing the WooCommerce plugin and creating an account, the first thing that it asks is the store location.
WooCommerce uses the store location to set up taxes later in the setup process.
Next, WooCommerce asks what industry the store operates in.
WooCommerce uses this to create recommendations for potential themes and store formats.
Next, it asks which types of products the store sells.
This choice determines how many options you have when designing products. Some like “bookings” are more complicated and receive extra features. Therefore, they are more expensive. For most products, free services will be fine
Next, it asks if you plan on using additional services alongside WooCommerce such as Mailchimp.
This page is effectively a referral to add-on services that WooCommerce provides. If you would like to use any of these options, feel free to select them. They will most likely have a cost though.
Next, it gives you a list of compatible themes.
You most likely are going to have to change your theme from the one you are currently using unless you checked compatibility beforehand. All themes on this list are directly integrated with WooCommerce.
Adding Products
The first thing you see when adding a product is the name and basic description. The name will be how it appears on the store and the description will show below.
Below the description is the product data box.
The product data box is the most important area because it includes everything your website will use to display and sell your items.
The first screen is price, with the option of adding a sale. Sales can be set to activate on a certain day if you wish. You can also edit the tax options for this product here. These are usually left alone unless there is a special case.
The next box is inventory.
Inventory manages SKUs, or product identification numbers, and stock status. You might need to manage the number of products in stock if you only have a limited number of options. If you enable stock management, you are able to handle backorders and other edge cases.
The next box is shipping.
Shipping allows you to manage the dimensions and shipping options for your product. If you don’t set a flat rate for shipping, WooCommerce can estimate shipping costs based on buyer location and the dimension listed here.
The next box is linked Products.
The linked product page is mainly used for upsells. If a customer is looking at a basic product, you can link a more premium product that will be advertised on that page. This is the basic method for encouraging customers to buy more expensive items.
The next box is attributes.
The attributes section is used for variations of a product. For example, you might have a shirt that comes in blue, red, and green. These would be added as one attribute, and size might be another. Attributes are added by writing a word surrounded by || symbols. Attributes can be used in creating variations below.
If you change the product type from simple to variable, you can use the variations tab.
The variations tab takes the individual product attributes and combines them into unique products. You can use the variations tab to create variations from all attributes.
Here I added two types of attributes, both colors, and auto-generated variations. From here you can customize the data on each of the attributes whether it be price or shipping size. I used this method to create individual products for each of my dice.
When you are done editing a product, make sure to hit the publish button on the top of the page. Otherwise, your work will be lost.
Taxes
Once you add all of your products and have your EIN, you can add your tax information to WooCommerce. WooCommerce will take your store location and tax information to automatically calculate tax for each order. Once this is set up, it will put aside estimated money for tax payments.
Payments
The last bit of store setup if setting up options for sending and receiving payment. This allows money from purchases to be transferred to an account. This also allows you to activate automatic shipping label generation.
Conclusion
If you completed all of these steps your WooCommerce store should be ready to start selling. In the next post, I move on to my rationale for choosing colors and pricing.
Check Out the Website at www.dicedesigner.com.
