The global Ecommerce industry has gained a massive surge in recent times. Businesses are gradually switching to online presence to boost their sales and reach a bigger audience. This growing trend has led to an increased inclination towards creation of online stores.
Creating a website to sell products online often seems quite difficult. This particularly falls true for beginners in the ecommerce industry to start an ecommerce website.
Well, the ground reality however, is a lot different now. Today you can create a high converting online store in less than one hour.
It might sound ridiculous but we have got you covered. Throughout this article, we will be guiding you about how you can create an ecommerce website with WordPress within no time.
This article will be your guide to learn about installing WordPress, using WordPress themes and ecommerce plugins. You will learn about customizing your online store and promoting your ecommerce website to reach a bigger audience and generate more sales.
Table of Content
- Requirements to Create an Ecommerce Store
- Installing WordPress
- Installing Astra WordPress Theme
- Installing WooCommerce and Related Plugins
- Woo-commerce Setup for Store Creation
- Creating an Ecommerce store from Scratch
- How to Promote your online store
- Conclusion
1. Requirements to Create an Ecommerce Store
Creating an online store comes with a few prerequisites. Fulfilling these requirements is necessary to begin your journey of creating an ecommerce store.
Here is what you will need to create your online store with wordpress:
Domain and Hosting
Domain and hosting are the most basic requirements to create any kind of website. The same goes for building an online store.
Domain is basically the URL of your website or online store. It is the URL that anyone can enter in the address bar of their search engine to land at your website. Every website has a unique domain name given to it even before the website is developed and launched.
You can purchase a domain name from any of the online domain providers. You can choose the domain alphabets and extension as per your requirements depending upon the availability of the domain name.
Once you have purchased a domain name, the next step is to purchase a hosting plan. Hosting is basically a space on a server that you purchase so your website can be accessed across the internet.
Multiple hosting providers are providing hosting plans that vary in their features and budgets. Depending upon the expected load and traffic on your website, you can choose a plan most suitable for you.
Once you have purchased a hosting plan, the hosting provider will assign you a user name and password to install wordpress and start creating your online store by accessing database and cpanel.
WordPress and WordPress Themes
After purchasing a domain and hosting, you need to install WordPress to use it as a platform to create your Ecommerce store. You will also require WordPress theme that that gives a layout to build your website. A WordPress theme can be customised as per your requirements to give a catchy visual outlook to your store.
Multiple themes are available on WordPress. Some of these themes are totally free while many come with a limited free version and a paid premium version to access complete functionalities.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an open source platform built on WordPress. It is a customisable ecommerce plugin that help to create and manage online stores in a simple way. WooCommerce has all the necessary features that are required to operate a successful online store.
2. Installing WordPress
- In order to install WordPress, download and unzip the WordPress package from here.
- Depending upon your hosting provider, the WordPress database will automatically be set up on your hosting platform.
- As a computer or linux user, you can automatically install PhpMyAdmin.
- Run the install script by pointing to a web browser to begin installation.
A welcome screen will appear for you to enter some details. Here you can enter your site title, username, password and your email. Simply click on the Install WordPress button to begin installation.
A login prompt will be displayed as the wordpress gets successfully installed.
3. Installing Astra WordPress Theme
Once you have WordPress installation completed, you can actively start creating your online store. For this purpose you first need to install a theme that will subsequently be customized to get a graphical outlook of your online store.
WordPress themes directory has a great diversity of themes available for different website categories. You can choose a theme of your choice and install it.
For online stores, Astra theme is quite popular and is globally being used to create catchy online stores. The Astra theme comes with a layout, features and customizability that makes your store creation journey a lot easier.
Navigate to the themes section and type Astra Themes in the search bar. Click on Install button and the theme will get installed.
You can customize the overall outlook and features of the theme as per your requirements. For this reason, navigate to Appearance > Asra Options.
Here you will get a variety of options to set up Astra theme for your online store. You can customize Astra theme to give your online store the kind of outlook you want.
4. Installing WooCommerce and Related Plugins
Plugins are bits of softwares which add specific functionalities to your websites. WordPress comes with a massive directory of plugins that you can use to add your intended functionalities to your site.
For online stores, WooCommerce is an immensely popular plugin that adds Ecommerce functionalities to your site. This lets you conveniently create your online store through an easy plugin setup.
In order to install the WooCommerce plugin, you can move to the plugin directory and search with the keyword “WooCommerce”. The plugin will appear in the results from where you can install it by clicking the install button.
5. WooCommerce Setup for Store Creation
Once the installation is done, click on “Run the setup Wizard” to set up the WooCommerce plugin.
Click on “Yes Please” on the next screen and you will be directed to the screen to update Store details.
Enter complete details of the exact location of your store, the type of industry and product types. Also add any necessary business details and click continue.
In the next step you will be required to add shipping details and tax information. You can update and change these settings later too.
Once you are done with the shipping and tax details, you will be required to choose a payment method.
By default, Woocommerce supports paypal, paypal standard and stripe payment gateways. You can use other payment gateways through third party plugins too.
Once you have completed the woocommerce setup, you are ready to start uploading your products.
6. Adding Products to your Store
Once you are done with the woocommerce setup, it is time to add products to your store. On the Dashboard menu, click on Products > Add New.
In the editor, add necessary details about the product. Add name of the product in title section and product features in description of the product.
Once you are done with the product title and description, choose the type of product from available options. Also check the virtual or downloadable options depending upon the type of your product.
Now it’s time to add other details of the product.
Enter the regular and discounted price of the product in the “General” tab.
In the inventory tab, enter stock details about the product. Here you can enter product SKU, stock quantity and allow or block back orders. You can also set a threshold for low stock options and check sold individually box if the product can be purchased as an individual order.
In the Shipping tab, enter weight and dimensions of the product. You can also select the shipping class of the product depending upon the product.
Similarly you can enter data in linked products, attributes, and advanced tabs.
After entering the product data, you can enter product description in the description editor. Make sure to keep your description concise and well explained for the potential customers.
Lastly you can use the sidebar to add other details about the product. Here you can categorize your product, add product tags, product image and product gallery to optimally showcase your products.
Complete all of your product details and upload your products to your website.
Congratulations! Your online store is ready for its launch.
7. Creating Ecommerce Store from Scratch
If you are an absolute beginner in the field of Ecommerce, you will need to learn the creation of an online store from scratch.
Don’t worry, we have got you covered.
You can follow our detailed step by step guide to create your first online store. Click here to open our detailed guide and make your store creation journey a piece of cake.
8. How to Promote your online store
Creating an online store is the first phase of your Ecommerce journey. So far, you have learnt to create a captivating online store using the WordPress platform.
The next phase of your journey comprises promotion of your online store.
Sales and marketing are the core elements of any ecommerce initiative. Hence, to market your business and generate sales, promotion of your online store is crucial.
Here we will briefly discuss a few techniques you can use to promote your online store. This will help you reach a bigger audience and generate more sales.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization refers to optimizing your website and content to make it search engine friendly. This way, search engines categorize your content, website and web pages as audience oriented resulting in higher ranking.
You can rank your online store by implementing smart SEO strategies. Perform on page SEO thorough keyword research to select high volume keywords with lesser competition. Make a balanced usage of these keywords in your content.
You can implement Off-Page SEO strategies too, to enhance your store ranking. You can optimize your website speed and content volume. You can also optimize the size of product images and other media to make your site load faster and retain more visitors.
Local SEO is another way to boost your content outreach. You can target specific regions and nationalities to rank your store. This gives you an edge to rank higher in your target locations and drive more business.
WordPress offers you multiple SEO plugins like Yoast SEO, RankMath, All in one SEO and many others to smartly rank your content. Effective usage of these plugins lets you rank higher with ease.
Content Marketing
Another effective way to promote your online store is content marketing. You can promote your store and products through marketing channels. You can do it through online as well as offline marketing.
You must have come across loads of ads everyday whenever you open a website, youtube video or scroll through your facebook newsfeed. The same channels can be your key to unlocking higher sales and revenue growth.
You can utilize search engines or social media platforms to market your products. Through effective marketing strategies and targeting the right audience, you can boost your sales and make your store a high converting one.
WordPress offers you marketing based plugins too, that make it easier for you to share your content and increase your potential audience.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is an immensely popular strategy to promote your online store. Email marketing works by sending personalized emails to your visitors to convert them into your customers.
All you need to do is to generate leads and build email lists by making your visitors subscribe. Through personalized emails and cold emailing, you can make your visitors purchase your products by sending offers.
WordPress eases email marketing through its email marketing plugins. These plugins make it easier for you to design persuading subscription popups and let you send automated emails on intervals.
Social Media Marketing
You can utilize social media platforms to promote your online store too. Social media community is getting more and more bigger and every platform provides you an opportunity to target a bigger audience.
Using social media platforms like facebook, instagram, pinterest, tiktok, whatsapp and snapchat, you can create official pages of your brands. This way you can actively interact with your potential customers.
Moreover, you can create targeted ads on these social media platforms too. Influencer marketing is another way to promote your business through social media channels.
How To Create Online Store In Less Than One Hour – Conclusion
The global ecommerce industry has gained a massive surge in recent times. This has led to an increased inclination towards creation of online stores. WordPress provides a robust platform to create catchy online stores within no time.
This guide will help you create a high converting online store in less than one hour using wordpress. Using the strategies discussed in the article, you will not only build a great online store but market it effectively too.
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