WordPress Shopping Cart Tutorial

WooCommerce is one of the most widely used plugins for turning a WordPress site into an online store. This tutorial covers how to install WooCommerce, work through its onboarding wizard, complete the setup checklist, and add your first product.

How to install WooCommerce

Log into your WordPress admin area and go to Plugins > Add Plugin.

In the search field at the top right, type WooCommerce. The plugin by Automattic should appear as the first result. Click Install Now next to it.

Once the installation completes, the button changes to Activate. Click it to enable WooCommerce on your site.

Completing the WooCommerce onboarding wizard

After activation, WooCommerce automatically launches its onboarding wizard. This guided flow collects the core details Woo needs to configure your store. 

Welcome screen

The wizard opens with a welcome screen. Click Set up my store to begin.

Tell Woo about your commerce journey

WooCommerce asks where you are in your commerce journey: just starting out, already selling online, selling offline, both, or setting up a store for a client.

Select the option that best matches your situation. Your answer tailors the rest of the setup experience and the feature recommendations later in the wizard.

Tell Woo about your store

On this screen, enter the core details for your store:

• Store name
• Country/region
• Address, city, and postcode

These details drive currency, tax calculations, and shipping zones, so use the real location of the business. If the location does not match your current geolocation, WooCommerce may show a warning. You can safely ignore it if you are setting up the store from a different country, for example when configuring a store for a client.

WooCommerce may also prompt for an email address with an opt-in for tips and discounts from the Woo team. This step is optional. Click Continue to proceed.

Choose the free features to install

Based on your previous answers, WooCommerce recommends a set of free business features. Each option includes a short description.

You can deselect anything you do not want installed, and you can remove any feature later from Plugins > Installed Plugins.

Click Continue to finalize the setup. WooCommerce completes the configuration and redirects you to the WooCommerce home screen, where you will see the setup checklist with the remaining tasks needed to launch your store.

Working through the setup checklist

The setup checklist on the WooCommerce Home page lists the tasks you still need to complete before your store is ready to take orders. 

The initial checklist typically includes:

• Customize your store: Pick an existing theme or build a design with the Pattern Assembler. The Pattern Assembler runs on block themes and will prompt you to switch to a compatible theme, such as Twenty Twenty-Four, if your active theme is not already a block theme.
• Add your first product: Add a product manually, start from a pre-filled template (physical, digital, or variable), import from a CSV file, migrate from another platform, or load sample data.
• Get paid: Activate one or more payment methods, including WooPayments, Stripe, PayPal, and offline options such as Cash on Delivery and Direct Bank Transfer. Available providers depend on your store location.
• Collect sales tax: Use WooCommerce Tax, Avalara, set tax rates manually, or skip if you are not charging tax.
• Set up shipping: Define shipping zones, methods, and rates for the regions where you ship.

You can dismiss the checklist and reopen it later from WooCommerce > Settings, opening the Help tab, and choosing Setup wizard.

Adding new products in WooCommerce

To add a product outside of the checklist, go to Products > Add New in the WordPress admin sidebar.

The Add New Product screen opens in the classic WooCommerce product editor by default. Fill in the following:

• Product name: The title shown on your storefront.
• Permalink: Auto-generated from the name; edit it if needed.
• Long description: The main description block on the product page.
• Product data: A panel with tabs for General (price), Inventory (SKU, stock status), Shipping (weight, dimensions, shipping class), Linked Products (upsells, cross-sells), Attributes, and Advanced.
• Short description: A summary that appears next to the add-to-cart button on the product page.
• Product categories and tags: Used for storefront filtering and navigation.
• Product image and product gallery: A featured image plus additional gallery images.

When the product details are ready, click Publish in the top-right corner. The product is now live in your store.

That’s it. WooCommerce is installed, your store is configured, and you can start adding products.

A note on WordPress 7.0 compatibility

WooCommerce maintains active compatibility with the current and upcoming WordPress major releases. WooCommerce 10.6.2 introduced admin styling updates in preparation for WordPress 7.0, and WooCommerce 10.7.0 (released April 14, 2026) continues that work. 

If you are already running WordPress 7.0 or planning to update, stay on a recent WooCommerce release (10.7+ recommended) and test your active theme and key extensions on a staging copy of your site before updating a live store.