WooCommerce is the most popular ecommerce solution for WordPress by some margin. It boasts over 4 1000000 agile installs, a iv.6 user rating on WordPress.org, and an regular army of happy, loyal digital shop owners.

What's more than, as of June 2019, WooCommerce powers around seven% of all online stores and 22% of the meridian ane million ecommerce sites. Ecommerce sales are booming, so if y'all're looking to open up shop on your WordPress-powered website, going with WooCommerce is one of the best decisions you could brand.

The only question left is: How tin can you get WooCommerce upward and running up your website? To answer this, we've put together an extensive WordPress WooCommerce tutorial.

And recall, your ultimate goal is to increase your store's revenue. And then exist sure to download our gratuitous ebook, 10 Means to Boost Your WooCommerce Product Page Conversions.

Let's jump right in!


How to Install and Prepare WooCommerce (In 7 Steps)

Naturally, you'll demand to begin by installing and activating the WooCommerce plugin. You tin can practise this either on a new or existing WordPress site. In the following steps, we'll walk you through the process of setting upwards the plugin and configuring its settings.

Pace 1: Install the Plugin

The first affair you'll need to practice is to install WooCommerce on your website. You can download it for free from the WordPress repository, then upload it to your site. Even easier, y'all can install information technology right through your WordPress dashboard.

The WooCommerce WordPress plugin
The WooCommerce WordPress plugin

To do this, access your WordPress site and navigate to Plugins > Add New. Utilize the search bar to locate "woocommerce", and click on Install Now when y'all notice the right plugin. The plugin writer should be listed as Automattic:

Installing WooCommerce
Installing WooCommerce

Give the plugin a moment to install. Then, click on the Actuate push:

Activating WooCommerce
Activating WooCommerce

At this bespeak, the plugin will be up and running on your website!

Step 2: Admission the Setup Wizard

Later on installing WooCommerce, you'll be prompted to walk through a setup wizard. It's optional, merely nosotros recommend going through it in lodge to configure some key settings.

The offset folio of the WooCommerce setup sorcerer should expect like this:

The WooCommerce Store setup page
The WooCommerce Store setup page

Here, WooCommerce is prompting you to enter some basic information about your store. This includes its address, what currency y'all'd like to use, and whether you plan to sell digital or physical products (or both).

Go on in heed that annihilation you prepare here (or throughout the rest of the setup wizard) can be changed afterwards in your WooCommerce settings if necessary. For at present, the side by side step in our WooCommerce tutorial 2019 is to select Let's Become.

Step 3: Cull Your Payment Processors

On the next folio, y'all tin can make up one's mind what payments you'll enable for your online store. By default, you tin employ Stripe and/or PayPal, forth with offline payments such as checks and cash:

The WooCommerce Payment page
The WooCommerce Payment page

Just select the options y'all'd similar to utilize, and WooCommerce will set up them up. Yous tin also utilise extensions to add more than payment processors to your store, which nosotros'll talk nearly later. At Kinsta, we're big fans of Stripe.

Recommended reading: How to Prevent and Reduce Credit Card Fraud by 98% Using Stripe Radar

Using Square instead? Check out our in-depth comparison web log mail: Stripe vs Square.

Step 4: Configure Your Shipping Options

Next, you'll notice the Aircraft screen:

The WooCommerce Shipping page
The WooCommerce Aircraft folio

Hither, you can decide how much customers will be charged for shipping. You can fix one rate for your preferred zone, and another for customers who are in other locations. If y'all like, you can as well offer complimentary shipping to one or both groups.

Step five: Review Optional Add-Ons

At this point, you've configured all the nuts for your online WooCommerce store. The next page of the setup magician presents you lot with a few optional add together-ons:

The WooCommerce Recommended page
The WooCommerce Recommended page

All of these tools can come in handy, although none of them are required to run your online shop. We do advise at least checking out Storefront. This is a WordPress theme designed specifically for WooCommerce and can make setting up your store quicker and easier.

Step 6: Install the Jetpack Plugin (Optional)

The following screen also offers an optional add-on:

The WooCommerce Activate page
The WooCommerce Actuate page

Jetpack is a handy WordPress plugin that offers a wide range of features. This includes security functionality, various analytics, and more. It tin be a useful addition to your WooCommerce store, but isn't required – and then it'southward upward to you whether you'd like to install it or not.

Step 7: Complete the Setup Process

Your WooCommerce store is now fix to rock and roll:

The WooCommerce Ready page
The WooCommerce Set up page

Yous'll find a number of useful links here. You lot can import products to your shop, render to your WordPress dashboard, or edit the settings you lot merely configured.

Nigh probable, however, what you'll want to do now is offset adding products. To continue following our WordPress WooCommerce tutorial, go ahead and select Create a Product now.

Adding and Managing New Products in WooCommerce

After installing WooCommerce, you lot'll find two new tabs on your dashboard's side menu. These are called WooCommerce (your general settings area) and Products (your products settings area).

To outset setting up your online store, yous can either follow the link at the finish of the setup wizard or go to Products > Add together New. Either way, this volition enable you to add together your first product, using the familiar WordPress editor:

New WooCommerce product example
New WooCommerce product example

The get-go thing you'll want to practice is create a title and a short clarification of the product. Hither's what just a title and description looks like in a alive preview:

WooCommerce product title and description
WooCommerce production title and clarification

With this done, you'll besides want to add data about your new product to WordPress. In the adjacent few sections, nosotros'll look at how to do so.

Adding Cardinal Details to Your Product

If yous scroll down below the mail service editor, you'll meet two new widgets not constitute on regular posts or pages. The first is the Production data department:

WooCommerce Product data section
WooCommerce Product data department

Here, you can add together all kinds of details about your product. At the very summit, you can select whether or not the product is virtual (which removes the Shipping tab) and if it is downloadable. Then, in the General tab, you tin can enter in the regular and sale prices (sales can exist time-sensitive).

If you're selling digital products, you'll also have to upload the file to exist purchased, customize the download limit (get out it blank to marking information technology equally unlimited), and set the download death (leave it blank to keep it available permanently):

WooCommerce Downloadable product options
WooCommerce Downloadable production options

Next, in the Inventory tab, you can manage your stock by inbound in the quantity of the product, stock status (in/out of stock), and if you'd like to allow backorders:

WooCommerce Inventory tab
WooCommerce Inventory tab

Additionally, you can marker the product equally individually sold, pregnant only one can be bought in a single order. This is also where yous can enter the product's SKU (identification number) if you accept ane.

There are a number of other useful tabs hither as well. The Shipping section volition enable you to enter the item'due south weight, dimensions, and aircraft class. In the Linked Products tab, yous can add upsells and cantankerous-sells, while Attributes enables you to describe the product's characteristics.

Finally, in the Advanced tab, you tin can enter custom purchase notes, requite the production a set position in your menu, and enable or disable reviews. If you similar, you can also view recommended extensions under the Go more options screen.

Creating Attributes and Variable Products

As yous can run across, in that location are plenty of options for calculation details to your WooCommerce products and customizing them fully. Let'south take a closer look at two of the most useful options in the Product data section – attributes and variable products.

Attributes are key descriptors for your product, and they tell potential customers important information nearly information technology. This might include the item's color, the material it's made out of, its size or type, and more. If you lot add these details to your product in the Attributes tab, they'll appear on the product page:

WooCommerce product with attributes
WooCommerce product with attributes

No matter what type of products you're selling, attributes are useful for communicating vital characteristics in a curtailed manner. However, what if you likewise sell items that come in multiple options? For that, you can select the Variable product option:

The WooCommerce Variations tab
The WooCommerce Variations tab

This will give y'all access to a new Variations tab, where you can create multiple versions of your product using the attributes y'all already assigned. Then for example, let's say you offer a shirt in reddish, green, and majestic. Y'all tin add a variation for each color, then give each a unique description, cost, and and so on.

Your customers will be able to run across all available variations on the product page:

WooCommerce product with variations
WooCommerce product with variations

This makes it like shooting fish in a barrel for visitors to view everything you have to offer at a glance. Plus, it ways you don't have to create separate product pages for slight variations on the aforementioned item.

Customizing Your Product Short Clarification

Underneath the Product data widget, yous'll also detect a department labeled Product curt description:

The WooCommerce product short description widget
The WooCommerce product brusque description widget

Here, you can create a concise tagline that will appear underneath the product's title. You tin utilize this description to highlight the item'due south primary benefits and comprise one or more keywords to help customers locate it in searches.

Afterwards customizing your product's information and description, don't forget to check out the other options on the product page also. You tin add tags to your product, identify information technology in a category, and include a featured prototype or even an unabridged paradigm gallery.

Here's what your last product might wait like on the forepart stop:

A sample product in WooCommerce
A sample product in WooCommerce

One time your product is set, striking Publish to make information technology live on your site. Then, you can repeat this process to create additional products as needed.

Managing Your WooCommerce Products

Y'all'll probably include a number of items in your WooCommerce store, which means y'all'll need an easy fashion to manage them. Fortunately, you can do this through the Products tab in your dashboard.

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For example, you tin can select All Products to come across every item currently listed in your store. You can add, edit, and delete products here every bit needed:

WooCommerce products
WooCommerce products

In the other pages under the Products section, you tin view your production categories, tags, and attributes. Each of these pages looks like the standard WordPress Posts > Categories page and can help you go on your unabridged inventory organized.

How to Customize Your WooCommerce Store

Earlier in our WooCommerce tutorial, you configured a few basic settings for your online store. In that location are a lot more than options to play with, however, which you lot can find in the new WooCommerce tab.

Information technology's here you lot can view orders, coupons, and reports, besides equally customize settings and add new extensions. Let's walk through each screen ane by one.

Orders

First up, the Orders page displays a list of contempo purchases on your shop:

The WooCommerce Orders page
The WooCommerce Orders page

If yous sell digital products, in that location's not much to do hither other than view what has been bought lately. However, if you sell physical goods, this is where y'all can find out what products you lot demand to ship and the status of your orders.

Coupons

WooCommerce has several useful options for adding new coupons to your ecommerce store. In the Coupon tab, you can select Create your start coupon to admission the editing screen:

Creating a WooCommerce coupon
Creating a WooCommerce coupon

You can add a coupon code and clarification here. Then, the General tab enables y'all to edit its basic data: the type of coupon (percentage disbelieve, fixed cart discount, or stock-still product discount), its value, free shipping options, and its expiry engagement:

The Usage restriction screen
The Usage restriction screen

Under Usage Restrictions, yous can set a minimum spend the client has to make in club to validate the coupon. You tin can also cheque the box for Private employ only if you don't desire customers to use the coupon in conjunction with other offers.

Yous can set if the coupon should utilize only to non-sale items hither, and also select the products and product categories the coupon is applicable to. Finally, you tin can even ban sure email addresses from coupon usage.

The concluding tab, Usage Limits, enables you to make up one's mind how many times the coupon can be used, both overall and per customer. And then, just publish your coupon to make it active, and let your customers know about the code they'll need.

Reports

WooCommerce also offers powerful built-in tracking functionality. In the Reports tab, you lot can view charts and graphs of your sales, orders, and shipping costs over unlike time periods:

The WooCommerce Reports tab
The WooCommerce Reports tab

Each graph can be limited to the sales of a particular product, category, or coupon. In the Customers sub-tab, you can also view your customer acquisition over the aforementioned fourth dimension periods.

Last just non least, you lot'll be able to review your low in stock, out of stock, and near stocked products in the Stock sub-tab. All of this data can be exported every bit a CSV sheet if needed.

Settings

This is where WooCommerce gets really impressive. In the Settings screen, you can customize just about every aspect of your ecommerce shop. Elements such as the placement of your 'thousands' separator, the entire checkout process, email options, and much more can exist tailored to see your needs.

Within this department, the General tab covers your shop's basic data, including its currency, selling locations, and display options:

WooCommerce General settings
WooCommerce General settings

Some other notable selection here is Enable tax rates and calculations. If you check this box, y'all'll gain access to a previously subconscious Taxation tab:

WooCommerce Tax settings
WooCommerce Taxation settings

Here, you can let the platform know if the prices y'all enter for your products will include taxes or not. In the latter case, you tin can have WooCommerce calculate tax rates for you lot, based on your store'due south accost, the customer's shipping accost, or the customer's billing address.

Yous'll also be able to configure how taxes will utilize to shipping costs, and even determine whether they'll be rounded. Then you can customize the way prices and taxes are displayed on the front end and during the checkout process.

Your production information, including measurements, reviews, stock details, download methods, and even add together-to-cart buttons can be customized in the Products tab:

WooCommerce Products settings
WooCommerce Products settings

Shipping is where you can configure your shipping zones and pricing:

WooCommerce Shipping settings
WooCommerce Shipping settings

You tin can as well customize how aircraft is calculated, and choose what the default shipping destination will be. Restricting your shop availability but to specific countries is also possible.

The Payments tab shows y'all what payment processors are bachelor and active on your store:

WooCommerce Payments settings
WooCommerce Payments settings

Here you tin enable and disable whatsoever payment options y'all similar. Plus, you'll detect handy links for customizing the settings for specific processors.

Next up, Accounts & Privacy controls various aspects of your customers' feel:

WooCommerce Accounts & Privacy settings
WooCommerce Accounts & Privacy settings

You tin set a privacy and checkout policy, configure how customer data will be stored and retained, and more.

In addition, you accept various options for how customer checkouts will be handled. Under the Guest checkout and Account creation sections, you can decide whether visitors will be able to place orders every bit guests (i.e., without logging into an account).

So, you lot can make up one's mind if they'll accept the option to log into and/or create a new account during the checkout process. You're even able to provide them with automatically-generated usernames and passwords, in society to speed upward the registration process.

In the Emails tab, y'all can customize all things customer support:

WooCommerce Emails settings
WooCommerce Emails settings

At the superlative of this screen, you lot'll observe a listing of electronic mail notifications that are sent through WooCommerce in response to specific triggers (such as an social club being placed or canceled). You can click on any of these emails to enable/disable them, as well equally to customize their contents:

Customizing WooCommerce emails
Customizing WooCommerce emails

You'll even find instructions here for editing the email templates, if you're comfy using HTML. You tin re-create the email's file to your theme folder, and then brand whatever changes you like. Alternatively, y'all tin can create your own custom email templates.

Below that, you can configure a few global settings for all the emails sent from your WooCommerce store. This includes the 'from' name and address, footer text, and even colors and backgrounds.

Finally, in the Advanced tab you can enable the Balance API, configure keys, apps, and webhooks, and perform other lower-level tasks:

WooCommerce Advanced settings
WooCommerce Advanced settings

All of these settings can be customized and inverse whenever you lot like, and your store will be updated automatically.

Status

Next, let's briefly check out the Condition tab:

The WooCommerce Status tab
The WooCommerce Status tab

All of your dorsum-end information tin can be establish here, such as your WooCommerce/PHP/MySQL/etc. version, size limits, logging, and more.

In the Tools sub-tab on the aforementioned folio, you can clear your website'due south caches for multiple variables, clear out onetime data, and even revert your store'southward settings to their defaults.

Extensions

Ane of the attributes that brand WordPress the virtually popular Content Management Organization (CMS) on the planet is the community behind it. There are thousands of themes and tens of thousands of plugins yous can use to customize your website. What's more, about 100% of them are user-contributed.

This also applies to WooCommerce, although on a smaller scale. You can find lots of tools for expanding your store, calculation new options and features, and customizing its look in the Extensions tab and elsewhere:

The WooCommerce Extensions tab
The WooCommerce Extensions tab

For instance, while y'all can use WooCommerce with whatsoever theme, it can assistance to choice one that's designed for the plugin. Storefront is a great place to start, only in that location are plenty of other options in directories such as ThemeForest:

A selection of WooCommerce themes
A selection of WooCommerce themes

You can likewise bank check out the WooCommerce extension store, which includes both developer-created and tertiary-political party options:

The WooCommerce extension store
The WooCommerce extension store

There are extensions for calculation new aircraft options to your store, enabling subscriptions, customizing the checkout procedure, integrating email and social media marketing, and much more than. You can also find free and paid extensions that allow you offering boosted payment processors to your customers, such as Square and Amazon Pay.

Finally, you'll also detect plenty of plugins designed to extend Woocommerce in a variety of ways. Merely to give one example, the Braintree For WooCommerce plugin enables you to accept all kinds of payments on your store:

Braintree For WooCommerce plugin
Braintree For WooCommerce plugin

In other words, if you desire to tweak something about the mode your WooCommerce store works, chances are you lot can do so by simply finding the correct tool.

Editing WooCommerce Templates

Between WooCommerce' built-in settings and the many extensions and plugins available for it, you have a lot of flexibility over how your shop works. However, if y'all're a more advanced user and want to perform your own customizations, a proficient identify to start is by editing WooCommerce's template files.

This will enable you to tweak the fashion central features work, such as the client carts and checkout process. Please annotation that this is a risky procedure, especially if yous're new to working with theme and plugin files directly. Before getting started, you'll desire to support your site but in case of any accidental changes. Here'due south how to safely delete a theme.

Then, you'll demand to access your site using a Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) client such as FileZilla. Locate your site's root folder (oft either chosen public_html or named subsequently your domain), and navigate to wp_content/plugins/woocommerce:

The WooCommerce folder in FileZilla
The WooCommerce folder in FileZilla

In this directory, yous'll notice a folder called templates. Open it up, and you'll see a list of all the templates that are currently active for your store:

WooCommerce templates in FileZilla
WooCommerce templates in FileZilla

At this point, y'all can open any template you like and start making changes. For instance, if you want to make alterations to the 'Cheers' page that appears later a customer has placed an order, you tin can open up up the checkout folder and locate the thankyou.php file. Then you can download it, edit or add together elements every bit yous come across fit, and reupload it to your server.

WooCommerce Hosting

When yous run an online store, time is literally coin. This is why it's important to have a fast and reliable WordPress host, in order to ensure longer uptime, higher conversion rates, and a better Return on Investment (ROI).

WooCommerce has been known to dull down WordPress sites, especially for large stores with lots of products. Fortunately, with Kinsta as your hosting provider, you won't demand to worry nearly this. We provide managed hosting services, along with highly-optimized WooCommerce hosting designed specifically with performance in mind:

WooCommerce hosting plans at Kinsta
WooCommerce hosting plans at Kinsta

Thanks to our scalable infrastructure on the Google Cloud Platform, as well as the latest engineering science such as PHP 7, Nginx, and MariaDB, we can ensure a move to Kinsta will aid to increase your sales!

"The COO contacted me with an actual solution instead of lot of "trust us" fluff I was getting elsewhere. He was honest and straightforward, which was very refreshing. After migration, support was handled past the CEO, who made some excellent suggestions and tweaks which dramatically improved performance."

– Caleb Worm, Swagway.com

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Summary

WooCommerce is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the best free ecommerce solution for WordPress. On the outside, the plugin has phenomenal stats. However, information technology's simply when yous dig deeper into the plugin'southward many options that its true power is revealed.

Nosotros also have something awesome for you! We spent months putting together this eighteen-chapter WooCommerce optimization guide. It includes a ton of lessons and costless tools for optimizing and growing your million dollar company with the aid of WooCommerce.

Is at that place anything important nosotros've missed in our WooCommerce tutorial? If then, let us know in the comments section below!


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