Do you want to start your own online store? We know that building an online store can be a terrifying thought especially when you are not a techy. Well, you’re not alone. After helping hundreds of users start their online store, we have decided to create the most comprehensive guide on how to build your online store with WordPress (step by step)
What Do You Need to Start an Online Store?
There had never been a better time to start an online business than today.
Anyone with a computer can get started within a matter of minutes and without acquiring any special skills.
The three things you need to start an online store are:
- A domain name idea (this will be the name of your online store i.e wpbeginner.com)
- A web hosting account (this is where your website lives on the internet)
- Your undivided attention for 30 minutes.
Yep, it is really that simple.
You can setup your own online store with WordPress in less than 30 minutes and we’ll walk you through each step of the process.
In this tutorial, we will cover:
- How to Register a Domain Name for Free
- How to Choose the Best WooCommerce Hosting
- How to Get a SSL Certificate for Free (required for accepting payments)
- How to Install WordPress
- How to Create a WooCommerce store
- How to Add Products in your Online Store
- How to Select and Customize Your Theme
- How to Extend Your Online Store with Plugins
- Learning to Learn WordPress & Grow Your Business
Ready? Let’s get started.
Video Tutorial
If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.
Step 1: Setting up Your Online Store Platform
The biggest mistake most users make is not choosing the right platform for their online store.
Thankfully you’re here, so you won’t be making that mistake.
There are two popular eCommerce platforms that we recommend: Shopify or WordPress + WooCommerce.
Shopify is a fully hosted eCommerce solution that starts at $29 / month. It’s a hassle-free solution where you just login and start selling. The downside to Shopify is that it gets quite expensive, and your payment options are limited unless you pay additional fees.
This is why most users choose WordPress + WooCommerce because of the flexibility it offers. It does require some setup, but it’s worth doing it for the long run. WooCommerce is the world’s largest eCommerce platform (see: Shopify vs WooCommerce comparison).
In this tutorial, we will walk you through how to setup an online store in WordPress using WooCommerce.
To setup your store, you need to have a domain name, web hosting, and a SSL certificate.
A domain name is your website’s address on the internet. It is what users will type in their browsers to reach your website (for example: google.com or wpbeginner.com).
Web hosting is where your website lives on the internet. It’s your website’s house on the internet. Every website on the internet needs web hosting.
SSL certificate adds a special security layer on your website, so you can accept sensitive information such as credit card numbers and other personal information. This is required for you to accept credit card payments on your website.
Normally a domain name costs around $14.99 / year, web hosting costs around $7.99 / month, and SSL certificate costs around $69.99 / year.
That’s a lot of startup cost.
Thankfully, Bluehost, an official WordPress and WooCommerce recommended hosting provider, has agreed to offer our users a free domain name, free SSL certificate, and a discount on web hosting.
Basically, you can get started for $6.95 / month.
→ Click here to Claim this Exclusive Bluehost offer ←
Bluehost is one of the oldest web hosting companies, started in 1996 (that’s before Google). They are also the largest brand name when it comes to WordPress hosting because they host millions of websites including our own.
NOTE: At WPBeginner we believe in transparency. If you sign up with Bluehost using our referral link, we will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you (in fact, you will save money and get a free domain). We would get this commission for recommending just about any WordPress hosting company, but we only recommend products that we use personally use and believe will add value to our readers.
Let’s go ahead and purchase your domain + hosting + SSL.
Open up Bluehost in a new window using this link and follow along.
First thing you need to do is click on the green Get Started Now button to get started.
On the next screen, select the plan that you need (starter and plus are the most popular).
After that, you will be asked to enter the domain name for your website.
Lastly, you will need to add your account information and finalize the package info to complete the process. On this screen, you will see optional extras that you can purchase.
It’s entirely up to you whether or not you purchase these, but we generally don’t recommend purchasing these. You can always add them later on, if you decide that you need them.
Once completed, you will receive an email with details on how to login to your web hosting control panel (cPanel). This is where you manage everything from support, emails, among other things.
Go ahead and login to your cPanel. You will be greeted with a popup informing you that WordPress with WooCommerce is pre-installed on your website.
You just need to click on ‘Login to your site’ button, and it will take you to your WordPress site’s dashboard.
Congrats, you have finished setting up hosting and domain part.
The next step is to setup your WordPress site and then your online store.
Step 2. Setting up WordPress
Bluehost has automatically installed WordPress and WooCommerce on your website.
When you first login to WordPress, you will see a welcome message. You will be asked what kind of website you want to set up.
Go ahead and click on ‘I don’t need help’ link. Don’t worry we will walk you through all the necessary steps.
Closing the setup wizard will show your WordPress admin dashboard which looks like this:
First, you need to visit Settings » General page to setup your WordPress site title and description.
Setting up HTTPS to Use SSL
Your WordPress hosting package came with a free SSL Certificate. This certificate is pre-installed for your domain name. However, your WordPress site needs to be configured, so it loads as https vs http.
On the Settings » General page, you need to change your WordPress Address and Site Address to use https instead of http.
Don’t forget to scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the save changes button to store your settings.
Your basic WordPress setup is complete. Now it is time to setup your online store.
Step 3. Setting up Your WooCommerce Store
Before you can start selling, there are a few things like currency, payments, and shipping information that you need to set up.
You will be seeing a ‘Welcome to WooCommerce’ notification on your WordPress admin pages. Go ahead and click on the ‘Run setup wizard’ button in the notification.
This will launch the WooCommerce setup wizard where you need to click on the ‘Let’s go’ button to get started.
WooCommerce needs few essential pages for cart, account, shop, and checkout. You can click on the continue button to automatically create these pages.
This will bring you to the next step.
Now you will need to tell WooCommerce where your store is located and which currency and unit measures to use.
After selecting your location and currency, click on the continue button to move on.
Next, you need to enter shipping and tax information.
WooCommerce can be used to sell both digital downloads and physical goods that need shipping.
You need to check the box if you will be shipping goods, or you can leave it unchecked if you will only be selling digital goods.
Next you need to answer the tax question. WooCommerce can help you automatically calculate and add taxes to your prices.
If you are not sure, then you can leave it unchecked. You can always add tax information later from WooCommerce settings.
Click on the continue button to move on.
Next, you will be asked to choose a payment method for your online store.
By default, WooCommerce comes with support for PayPal, PayPal Standard, and Stripe payment gateways. There are many other payment methods available for WooCommerce which you can install later if you need.
The easiest way to accept payment is using PayPal Standard.
Simply enter your PayPal email address and click on the continue button.
A lot of people including us, use both PayPal and Stripe. By using Stripe, you allow your users to enter their credit card information on the checkout page without having to leave your site and going to PayPal.
You can setup Stripe by following the instructions on the WooCommerce screen.
Once you’re done, your WooCommerce online store is all setup.
You need to click on the ‘Return to WordPress dashboard’ link to exit the setup wizard.
After finishing the WooCommerce setup, you are now ready to add products to your online store.
Step 4. Adding Products to Your Online Store
Let’s start with adding the first product to your online store.
You need to visit Products » Add New page to add a new product.
First, provide a title for your product and then some detailed description.
On the right hand column, you will see the ‘Product Categories’ box. Click on the ‘+Add New Product Category’ to create a category for this product. This allows you and your customers to sort and browse products easily.
Scroll down a little and you will notice the Product Data box. This is where you will provide product related information like pricing, inventory, shipping etc.
Below product data box, you will see a box to add product short description. This short description will be used when users are viewing multiple products on a page.
Lastly, on your right hand column you will see boxes to add a main product image and a product gallery.
Once you are satisfied with all the product information you have added, you can click on the Publish button to make it live on your website.
Repeat the process to add more products as needed.
Step 5. Select and Customize WordPress Theme
Themes control how your WordPress sites look to the users when they visit it. For a WooCommerce shop, they also control how your products are displayed.
There are thousands of paid and free WordPress themes available.
Your Bluehost hosting account, automatically installs the Storefront theme for your website. You will need to customize it to meet your needs.
Head over to Appearance » Customize page. This will launch theme customizer where you can change different theme settings.
If you don’t like the Storefront theme, then you can use another theme by visiting Appearance » Themes page.
If you need help selecting a theme, then please refer to our guide on 9 things you should consider when selecting a perfect WordPress theme.
Step 6. Extend Your Online Store With Plugins
Now that you have your online store ready, you probably want to get started with adding other usual elements on your website such as a contact form, about page, and more.
To further customize WordPress and add features like contact forms, galleries, sliders, etc, you need to use WordPress plugins.
WordPress plugins are apps that allow you to add new features to your website.
There are over 46,000 WordPress plugins available. At WPBeginner, we feature the best WordPress plugins to help you add the functionality that you need.
We have a step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Here’s a list of 24 must have WordPress plugins for business websites and another one with 20+ best free WooCommerce plugins.
Often readers ask us which plugins do you use on your website. You can check out our Blueprint to see the list of plugins and tools that we use.
Learning WordPress to Grow Your Online Business
WordPress is incredibly powerful and WPBeginner is the largest free WordPress resource site for beginners.
At WPBeginner, our main goal is to provide cutting-edge helpful WordPress tutorials that are easy to understand even for non-techy WordPress website owners (see more about us).
- WPBeginner Dictionary – Your one stop to learn the commonly used WordPress terms and lingo.
- WPBeginner Videos – New to WordPress? Watch these 23 videos to master WordPress.
- WPBeginner Blog – The central place for all our WordPress tutorials.
You can also subscribe to WPBeginner’s YouTube Channel where we regularly share video tutorials to help you learn WordPress.
We also have a guide to show users how to make the most out of WPBeginner’s free resources.
Many of our users type their question in Google and just add wpbeginner at the end of it. This shows them related article from WPBeginner.
We hope that this tutorial helped you learn how to build an online store. You may also want to see these 19 actionable tips to drive traffic to your new WordPress site.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
-Is this the same if I use Siteground instead of Bluehost?
-Can I manage my website/online shop with a mobile device or only a desktop computer?
Thank you!
The installation steps for WordPress would be different but you could do the other steps the same. Yes you should be able to edit the site from mobile or computer as you would with any WordPress site
Hello,
When I reached step 3, I changed the URLs as shown but no I cant access WordPress Admin page! Please, help!
The error is:
“Not Found
The requested URL /404.html was not found on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
You may not have an SSL certificate active at the moment if you tried to change to https and can no longer reach your admin area. You would want to start by reaching out to your hosting provider to have them ensure your SSL certificate is active for your site.
Can I follow this guide if I want a blog and and online store to be on the same site?
You certainly can
Wow! That’s awsome!
I’m setting my Etsy shop, but it is not ready yet.
I just want to maie sure that I understand the cost of having a website vias WordPress+Woocommerce = 6.95$/month?
Or does Woocommerce has other fees? I can’t see if they are on their website.
Because if this is less expensive than Etsy, I would switch right away.
Thank you
Unless you want to purchase one of their paid addons, WooCommerce does not have any extra fees to be used.
Nice post! I learned something new today.
Glad our content could be helpful
This is a wonderful post that taught a lot on WooCommerce.
nice post
Thank you
Hi WPBeginner,
May I ask a question.
I have a site using WordPress – barely used in five years because I detest it.
Domain is hosted on Siteground.
I would like to do a clean set up of a new site using same domain name.
Is this possible?
Where do I start?
Regards Cheryl
You would want to take a look at the first two steps in our article here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-permanently-delete-a-wordpress-site-from-internet/
Dear Wpbeginner team,
Thank you so much for such wonderful material, I cannot wait to start my ecommerce website.
Unfortunately, I did not find/read Wpbeginners before buying the domain, web hosting and SSL certificate, otherwise I would have done it thorugh Bluehost since it seems pretty userfriendly.
I have one question, do you have a tuttorial that I can follow (something just like this) when my website works with print on demand? becuase I do not have to deal myself with shipments or inventory, etc. Or which would be the right process to follow?
Thank you so much in advance!!
Best Regards,
Vanessa
We do not have a tutorial at the moment for that purpose.
Good and well-researched blog.
Thank you
How is your WPB discount better than the current discount prices? Seem like the month to month with the same comparison is cheaper straight from bluehost. right now $4.45 a month gets me more for the money. unlimited sites and unlimited storage which is not included in 6.95. just one site and 100G. — is there somethings I am missing?
BlueHost has multiple types of hosting, you may be looking at the standard shared hosting with that pricing.
Hi
I would lige to know if there is a standard setup for taxes and transport in all counties , so the customer will be able to calculate the actual price for buying the goods ?
Best regards
Christian
There are a few different methods to set this up, if you reach out to WooCommerce with how you would like it specifically they should be able to let you know which method would work best for you.
thanks,I need to read it again to understand
Glad our guide could be helpful
Hi
Great tutorials. Do some of the theme templates allow for pages of informational content plus a eCommerce store? Any advice on setting up a dropshipping site. Thanks for your time
Yes, most themes are able to accommodate pages as well as a store. For dropshipping you may want to take a look at WooCommerce and their dropshipping addon: https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/make-money-online/#create-a-dropshipping-store
Hi,
your bluehost link doesn’t work. I clicked on it to get your discount pricing but there’s nothing on the landing page. Help!
Thank you for your awesome tutorials!
Monica
At the moment, there should be a large green button on the left-hand side once your browser finishes loading the BlueHost site. If you mean you can’t get to the BlueHost site you may want to try a private/incognito browser to see if the issue could be caused by a browser addon
I would like to start my blog with my online store… Is this possible?
You certainly could, you would normally want to set a posts page under Settings>Reading to specify what page your blog will be on
its so good i like the way you give so nice tutorials
Hey Dhairya,
Thanks. We are glad you found these tutorials helpful.
I have looked online and on WordPress, but I can’t find anything that gives me good info on the differences between WordPress Premium and Business. I just posted a previous question, which may help inform this one.
On my site, I want to provide lots of information (health-related) as well as the products. There will be about 20 products. Most people will be interested in about 4 or 5 of them. There is a huge price jump between Premium and Business. Thank you again for your help.
Hi Linda,
You are probably comparing WordPress.com packages. Please see our guide on the difference between self hosted WordPress.org vs free WordPress.com blog.
How much does it cost per month for the ecommerce store? I am confused about the pricing you listed.
Hello, I am from Nigeria. I will like to know if I can choose Nigeria as my store location.
Hi Silver,
Yes you can.
I want to start a blog and an e commerce store which should l start first. I was thinking the blog first.
Hi David,
You can do that, or you can start both of them together.
Hello,
First of all, I would like to thank the entire team for helping us out with such insightful information about each and everything related to WordPress.
Now having said that, I have few queries and I request you to please guide me through.
I am from India and I already have a Personal Blog and it’s on WordPress platform (hosted by Bluehost)
Now I am willing to start a small business and it comprises of services related to Digital Marketing and also that of a Clothing brand.
<< I wish to know if I need to get a new website for the same or I can convert my personal blog into the Online Store.
<<Does all these features hold good in India and How to connect it to amazon.in
<<Also, can I add "Call to action" button and "payment option" in my personal blog.
<< How much I will be charged yearly and whats the validity period.
Please let me know, Thank you.
Hi Preety,
Your business website and online store can be on your personal domain name if you are using your personal brand as your business identity. However, many businesses choose a suitable business name and then build it as a separate brand. In that case, you will need a new domain name and website.
Most of the tutorial would work fine for Indian users.
Yes you can add call to action buttons and payment options in your personal blog as well.
Is it possible to create an online shop on the free wordpress.com website?
I just need it for a short time to know that it works, and then create my own website.
Hi Roman, no it’s not possible to create an online shop on the free wordpress.com site.
I followed your tutorial, and when I changed the http:// to https:// I now can’t log into word press, it says my connection isn’t secure, and I can’t even get back in to change it back to what it was previously……..
changed my settings to https:// and now locked out of my dashboard which is locally hosted aka on my iMac
Safari error page says that it can not establish a secure connection with the localhost
newbie to wordpress.org and now end of day of learning getting a bit freaked out so any suggestions to get it back to http i.e I can get back in?
Thanks
The article is good and detailed. However it would help in creating a website for international customers. How to create a website which is focused on pakistani customers only and in which payment methods are in place that are practical in pakistan. pay pal and others cannot be used for pakistani customers. Moreover kindly tell us whats the benefit of having an affiliate business like being Ali Express Plugin affiliate?
Hi Zahid,
Once you have your store setup, you can go about adding different payment methods available to your customers.
For affiliate business, please take a look at our affiliate marketing guide.
I have approximately 100 products in a category. I would like to provide price breaks at every 5. For example
1 to 5 = $25 each
5 to 10 = $20 each
Etc.
Is it possible to do in Woocommerce
Hi there!
This article is very helpful. However, I’m wondering: After you set up the plugin and online store, what are options for delivery methods? I’m specifically wondering about paid PDF downloads. Are there companies that will automatically deliver the digital download? Or is this done by yourself?
Thanks!
Hi Camy,
You can upload the digital download and your users will be able to download it after making the payment.
Hi ! I would like to ask you! I have already installed the woocommerce and I am seeing that needs update. Should I update it to 4.9.8? also, how we can build the communication with the customer? welcome email, confirmation email etc?
Hi Efi,
Yes, you need to update. There are different ways to communicate with customers. You can ask customers to make an account before they checkout. You can also start an email list and ask your customers to subscribe your newsletter.
Hi there,
I already have a website (webhost and domain) running that was built and wrote by our partner. I think he uses joomla, sorry i am a newbie. Somehow we had issues, and he left.
I plan to rebuild the website using wordpress after reading all your helpful articles.
My question: can I install wordpress in my webhosting but still leave the old website running while I am working on the wordpress one?
Your help would be much appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
Hi Henni,
Yes, you can do that.
Excellent post. Which themes do you recommend for an online marketplace with blog? Thank you!
Hello sir,How are you?
I want to open an online shopping store in which other sellers sell their products on my store and some of them are commission mine, how it is possible.
Hi Shoaib,
Please see our article on how to create an online marketplace using WordPress.
Hi WP Beginner,
Thank for the clear and concise tutorial.
I was able to complete the set up for my existing WP site but ever since I changed the address of my site (as per your tutorial) I can’t login in.
When I log in to blue host everything is fine. I then click on the “Log in to WordPress” button on the home page I get a “Not Found” page:
Not Found
The requested URL /~flaregea/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php was not found on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Apache Server at Port 443
I can still access my site if I just enter the URL into a browser and I can still access the wp-admin “back end” of my site but nothing to do with Blue Host.
Any thoughts on how I should proceed?
Hi Nick,
Try backing up and then deleting your website’s .htaccess file using FTP.
Hello,
Thank you for the video it was super helpful and informative. My question is that:
I already have wordpress.org installed, will I be installing wordpress again by using blue host? Also does blue host install wordpress.org or .com ? thanks again!
Hello,
If you already have a WordPress.org website, then you can move it to Bluehost. See our guide on how to move WordPress to new host.
Bluehost installs self-hosted WordPress.org.
Hi there!!! Thank you so much for such an amazing page! You have boosted my motivation to learn to use WordPress after some people told me to forget the idea because it is “too complicated”, so thank you!
I have just one question before I embarked on this experience. I would like check with you if the propose I am looking to have is possible with WordPress. I would like to create an online store to promote the products I sell on amazon. Can I have an plug in “buy with amazon” instead of the common purchasing/delivery options?
Any information about this I would highly appreciate it!
Cheers,
Vanessa
Hi Vanessa,
Please see our article on how to build an amazon affiliate store using WordPress.
You guys are awesome! Thanks for the wonderful information and tips <3 <3
The scope of my business licence is Canada-wide.
1) Can I still sell products, both digital ebooks(my major business items) and physical goods(my minor and potential business items) to non-Canada regions, e.g. USA, UK, China, etc.?
2) My bank account that is to be linked to Woocommerce is in Canada Dollar. If my ebooks and goods are purchased by non-Canada region customers, can Woocommerce convert the C$ product amount to the customer region’s currency, and show it on the client webpage ahead before the customer make the transaction? Also can Woocommerce do the opposite when processing returns and refunds?
Thank you very much.
Hi Edward,
1. Yes.
2. WooCommerce itself does not process payments. It depends on the payment method you choose (Stripe or PayPal), and your bank. For example, Stripe allows Canada based users to receive payouts in Canadian or US dollars. If you have a local currency account, then you can select your local currency as your settlement currency.
I purchased a theme with WP+WooCommerce on Envato Market. They say the theme is only good to use with WP.org and not compatible with WP.com Is it anyway I can still install it on WP.com host or I just wasted my money? What should I do now? Look for another theme which is compatible with commercial host? If I switch to BlueHost from my current host, can they make use of this theme so I don’t loose money? My current host does not help beginners like BlueHost does. In fact, I have no help at all, unless I always pay them for every little thing. If I transfer my existing domain to Bluehost, will it be free of charge? Thanks a lot for your quick reply.
Hi Natasha,
Yes, if you switch to Bluehost then you can use the theme you have purchased. To learn more, see our guide on the difference between self hosted WordPress.org vs free WordPress.com blog.
Hello. Please, is it compulsory to do the plan for 36 months or we can pay per month?
Kindly respond because I was about to start the process but noticed that it only had the $6.95 for 36 months which defeats the affordability, to be honest.
Kindly respond. Thank you.
Hi Bolaji,
Yes, this gives you the maximum discount on the offer.
When I put my payment info, will I get charged per month ( $14.95) or per year ($ 179.40)?
Hi Remi,
You will be charged anually and you will be able to select the duration during the sign up. It will also show you the total amount you will be charged when you are entering your payment info.
Hi!!!
Thank you so much for the information! I took the leap of faith and got the hosting through your affiliate link (to make sure you get the referral fees because you’re worth it!)
Yay to you! LOL
Hey Fanya,
Thank you, we are glad you found this information helpful.
How do i create and connect database/database table in wordpress(form)
1.Is it a Multi Address extension to collect shipping addresses for each basket purchases?
2. How can i use my own graphics for the site?
Hello,
Thanks for the useful information though I have a question as a future online seller. I’m an artist currently working on my website and I’ll be selling my artworks on it through Woocommerce using Paypal. When selling do I need to be a registered business in the country I’m residing and pay taxes, or everything is handled by Paypal tax invoice system?
Thank you in advance!
Can you please explain. How to ship products?
Hi Suraj,
It depends on your location, size of products, and delivery methods available. Many small businesses process their orders by getting them picked up by a delivery service.
Can you explain… What is shipping? And how to ship.
I have two questions
1) I am wanting to set up an online store that includes my blog. Is this possible using wordpress and/or Woocommerce?
2) I already have a domain that is not through WordPress. Can I use this domain still, or do I have to get one through WordPress in order to use your services?
Thank you!
Hey Liberty,
1. Yes, you can create a WordPress website and run a WooCommerce store and a blog on it.
2. There are two types of WordPress websites. WordPress.com which is a hosted solution. You will need at least business plan to install WooCommerce on WordPress.com.
Then there is WordPress.org, which is a self-hosted solution. You will need a domain name and hosting for that. In both cases, you can use the domain name you already have.
Please see our guide on the difference between self hosted WordPress.org vs free WordPress.com blog.
Hi,
I got a theme with built in WOO Commerce.
I wanna sell my EBook through my BLOG.
Pls tell me a way by which it will be delivered to the user automatically who buys it.
MK
So glad to come across your website, thank you. I have two questions.
1- How do I prevent a person I add to wordpress to see information on my woocommerce with client and sales?
2-I set up the store but cannot seem to sort products in the order I want. How do I do that?
Hi Rana,
Make sure that the person you add has appropriate user role and permissions.
You can sort products by visiting WooCommerce > Settings page. Under the Products tab you will see the default product sorting option.
Someone asked this question in an earlier post and I don’t see a reply for it. I also want to know your reply to this question:
“How do I get manufacturers and suppliers to sell products on my store? Basically I don’t wanna sell my products. I want to open a store like Amazon which sells other’s products”
Hi Alisha,
Please see our article on how to create an online marketplace using WordPress.
thank you for the tutorial. I want to ask is it work for Morroco
Hi ElMokhtar,
Yes, it would. All you need is a credit card to purchase your hosting.