When we talk about the most important free WordPress plugins, we cannot forget WooCommerce, the most used plugin to create stores in WordPress, to sell products, both digital and physical. We are gonna install WooCommerce.
WooCommerce is undoubtedly the most complete, powerful and used solution to create web stores.
WooCommerce Pros
The main advantage of using WooCommerce is that with this WordPress plugin we will have control of absolutely everything that happens in our online store.
Other systems allow us to have an online store, but we don’t know exactly what is happening behind. We depend on a third-party software, which is not installed on our own server, so we cannot modify it to our liking.
The main advantages are:
- Free: You can start selling online with your website created with WordPress and WooCommerce without having to invest money in software. Both tools are totally free without any limitation of use.
- Power And Flexibility: Due to its level of customization and countless features.
- Documentation: The amount of documentation and tutorials you can find about WooCommerce is immense.
- Security: Like WordPress, WooCommerce has a huge community behind that detects and fixes bugs and often implements improvements to keep your online store safe.
WooCommerce Cons
The only disadvantage is that you should not forget that WooCommerce is not an e-commerce platform as such, but rather a plugin that extends the features that WordPress brings by default.
Other possible cons are:
- Free, but…: Although you can totally free WordPress CMS and WooCommerce plugin, in order to use both you need a domain and hosting, which in most cases costs money. In addition, some plugins or addons to extend the functionalities, as well as some premium themes, are also sold separately. Even so, the cost is still more than competitive compared to other platforms.
- Configuración: La configuración es complicada si no tienes conocimientos.
Installing WooCommerce
We are going to assume that by now you know how to install a WordPress plugin. Anyway, we will remind you.
Go to WordPress Dashboard → Plugins → Add New, and search WooCommerce. Install and activate.
Step 1 – Store Setup
In this first section to install WooCommerce we must indicate the physical location of the store at geographical level, along with other data that are quite intuitive, easy to fill:
- Where is your store based? (Country)
- Address.
- City.
- Postcode / ZIP.
- What Currency do you accept payments in?: The currency you will use in your store.
- What type of products do you plan to sell?: If in your store you are going to sell digital products, physical products or both.
Step 2 – Payment
The next configuration module is the payment one. In it we must select the payment methods that we want to accept in our online store with WooCommerce.
In the past it was necessary to look for additional plugins or modules to accept payments by credit or debit card, but with the latest versions of WooCommerce we can accept this type of payment through the Stripe payment platform.
If you want to add PayPal, we must include the email address to which each of these services accounts is linked so that WooCommerce takes care of the initial configuration.
If both payment services are selected, as indicated below, some plugins will be automatically included to integrate both platforms.
- WooCommerce Stripe Gateway.
- WooCommerce Services.
- Jetpack.
- PayPal payment gateway for WooCommerce.
By clicking on the drop-down menu, you can add the following payment options:
- Check payments: A simple offline gateway that lets you accept a check as method of payment.
- Bank transfer (BACS) payments: A simple offline gateway that lets you accept BACS payment.
- Cash on delivery: A simple offline gateway that lets you accept cash on delivery.
Step 3 – Recommended
This step is a series of recommendations if you want to add some features to your store. You can skip this step.
Recommended free features:
- Storefront Theme.
- Automated Taxes.
- WooCommerce Admin.
- Mailchimp.
- Facebook.
Step 4 – Activate
In this step WooCommerce asks you if you want to install the Jetpack plugin. As in the previous step, you can also skip this one. You can install it later.
Jetpack will provide your ecommerce with an extra layer of security, a statistics system and will help you with the promotion of social media products.
Step 5 – Ready!
Congratulations, you just finished configuring WooCommerce.
Before finalizing, review this last tab. You have some options that can be very interesting.
The first point is a field where you can enter your email to subscribe to a series of emails with tricks and tips to optimize WooCommerce.
The following are a couple of fields with which you can create a new product or import your list of products if you have a file in CSV format.
Finally to finish with this tab, you have three options:
- Visit Dashboard: Go directly to the administration panel of your WordPress.
- Review Settings: Configure other WooCommerce settings.
- View & Customize: Go directly to design the online store with the settings that our theme or template allows us to modify.
Now you know how to install WooCommerce, and configure it, you have your store open to the world, good luck.
If you want you can also improve your WooCommerce experience with these plugins designed to add to your store. You can find them in Best WooCommerce Plugins For Your Shop.
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