WordPress Shopping Cart Tutorial
Table of Contents
There are various contributions you can use to set up an online store for your existing WordPress website. One of the widely preferred plugins is WooCommerce, to which this tutorial is dedicated to.
How to install WooCommerce?
Log into the administrator area of your WordPress installation and go to Plugins > Add New.
In the search field choose Term from the drop-down menu, then enter “WooCommerce” in the text box. The WooCommerce plugin should appear as the first result. Click on Install Now for it.
The plugin will be automatically downloaded and installed for your WordPress. Once the installation is completed, click on Activate.
This will take you to the initial configuration wizard of the plugin. You will be presented with the Store Setup page where you can configure your store location, address and the currency it would use. Choose the appropriate options based on the desired target audience and click on Let’s Go to proceed to the next step.
The next step of the wizard is the Payment configuration. You can choose from the most popular payment methods and enable one or more of them for your WordPress. Once you have selected the desired payment methods, proceed to the next step by clicking on Continue.
On the next page, you can configure the Shipping options. Select the appropriate settings and press Continue again.
On the next step called Extras, you will be prompted to install and activate the Storefront theme. and enable Automated Taxes, Mailchimp and Facebook. The Storefront theme is specifically designed to be used with WooCommerce and is recommended for this plugin. If you want to use the theme, make sure to place a tick next to it. If you already have a theme that you want to use with your website, make to remove it.
The Activate step allows you to connect your store to Jetpack. Clicking the Connect with Jetpack button would take you to the Jetpack authentication page. If you do not want to connect your store to Jetpack, you may click on Skip this step at the bottom of the page.
That’s it! The WooCommerce plugin is installed and set up on your website. By using Create your first product! you can create brand new products or if you have a .csv file with product information from a previous website, you can use Import products from a CSV file to import them.
Adding new products in WooCommerce
To add new products to your store, go to your wp-admin Dashboard > Products > Add New.
On the page that opens you can give the new product a name using the Product name field at the top and a description of the product using the text field below it. Below that text field, you have several options to set for that product including its price, inventory availability, shipping information, etc. When ready, click on Publish to make the product available on your website.
That’s it. Your first product is now created and is available on your WordPress WooCommerce store.