How to start an Online Store in less than 1 Hour [Ultimate Guide]

Do you also want to create your E-commerce website? If yes, welcome to this step-by-step guide on how to start an online store in less than an hour.

If you were struggling in creating an online store, you don't have to worry anymore.

After reading this guide, I guarantee you, you'll able to build your very own ecommerce website easily.

Are you guys ready?

Well, without any further ado, let's start this step-by-step ecommerce guide.

Before you start building your online store, you'll need some basic things which includes the following :

DOMAIN & HOSTING

A domain is basically a name, a unique name of your website which help users to recognize your brand/blog/site.

On the other hand, hosting is the storage of what you show on your site.

Now, it's time for you to buy your domain name & hosting to start creating your online store.

You should definitely consider these important tips before you buy your domain name :

If you want to know more in detail about these points then do check that article by clicking here.

For web hosting, consider using GreenGeeks which is quite fast and green web hosting provider.

WORDPRESS & THEME

WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS) which helps you to manage your website content in just a click.

After you purchase your web hosting, you can simply install WordPress using Softaculous Apps Installer which we'll cover shortly.

WordPress provides you a lot of free themes but if you wanna go professional having better speed, features then you should definitely go with Astra Pro.

WOOCOMMERCE & PLUGINS

WooCommerce is basically a plugin built for WordPress which adds eCommerce functionalities like shipping, pricing etc. to your WordPress website.

Even though WooCommerce is free to download plugin, it provides you a lot of features which can be customized easily.

So, in order to create your online store with WordPress, you'll need to install WooCommerce and some other necessary plugins which we'll discuss shortly.

After you purchased your domain and hosting, it's time to install the WordPress on your site.

Well, there are multiple ways which you can use to install WordPress like you can go with Softaculous Apps Installer or do it manually using File Manager.

Also, some web hosting providers provide one-click install for WordPress from its dashboard.

Anyways, you can install WordPress using any method you want but I prefer to use Softaculous Apps Installer.

Here are the steps :

After you click on the install button, you'll have to provide some details under Software Setup, Site Settings & Account Setup.

Don't worry, it's not difficult.

You need to choose the WordPress version & the installation URL under Software Setup.

Note:- Leave the directory section blank.

Do these under Site Settings :

• Provide your website name under “Site Name”.
• Write something about your website under “Site Description”.
• (WPMU) optional – not that important.

Now, you just need to create an Admin username & password which is required in order to login your WordPress Admin Panel.

After the installation of WordPress on your site, you now need to login into your WordPress dashboard. 

You can login into it by adding /wp-admin at the end of your site URL. For e.g. - https://example.com/wp-admin

Once you logged into it, simple go to Appearance & click on Themes.

After this, click on the "Add New" button then upload the theme file also install its pro addon plugin which you'll get after you purchased the Astra Pro.

Astra is one of my favorite theme & I'm using it some of my micro niche website and so I can assure you, Astra Pro is really worth it.

Check Astra Pro, Now!

After you install this theme & its addon plugin, you can customize your site accordingly.

Just play with its features.

You can also use page builders like Elementor or Thrive Architect in order to build stunning landing pages.

WooCommerce plugin adds eCommerce functionalities to your WordPress website as already mentioned at the start of this article.

In short, WooCommerce converts your WordPress website into a full-fledged online store.

Now, let's see how to install the WooCommerce plugin and some other recommended plugins on your site.

So, you need to navigate to Plugins > Add New from your WordPress Admin Dashboard. 

After this, search for WooCommerce in the search field then click on Install Now button and activate the plugin.

There are some important plugins which you should install on your website like RankMath for SEO, WP Rocket for speed optimization etc.

Here are some recommended plugins which you can use:

★ Jetpack
★ CartFlows
★ WP Rocket
★ UpdraftPlus
★ Contact Form 7
★ Rank Math SEO
★ Table of Contents
★ Wordfence Security
★ Any Social Share Plugin
★ Page Builder Plugin (Thrive)

Note:- These are not mandatory to install but some of these are very important like SEO plugin.

It totally depends upon your website needs and requirements so whenever you need some sort of plugin, you can find & install then.

Well, after you install WooCommerce plugin, you'll be directed to a Setup Wizard by WooCommerce.

You just need to click on "Yes Please" button to get started.

Then, you have to fill up your store details, industry, product types, business details, theme etc.

You can also run this wizard later on or you can fill these details at the same time.

You can not only sell physical goods but also you can sell digital stuffs with WooCommerce.

We'll cover different sort of products shortly when adding products to the store.

Also check another method to start an online store by clicking here.

Now, it's time to setup up the online store in order to start selling your products.

You need to setup some important things like payment gateways, currency, shipping information, and taxes etc.

Let's start setting up our store!

SHIPPING

Navigate to WooCommerce > Settings then click on the Shipping tab where you'll get 3 sub-options:

• Shipping Zones
• Shipping Options
• Shipping Classes

Following the first sub-option, Shipping Zones helps you to add different zones where certain shipping options apply.

You can add many zones according to your need by clicking on "Add Shipping Zone" button.

Following the second sub-option, Shipping Options help you to set calculations and selecting shipping destination.

Lastly, Shipping Classes helps you to group together products with the same attributes.

You can also add as many Shipping Class as you want by clicking on the "Add Shipping Class" button.

TAXES

If you want to enable tax rates & calculations, go to "General" tab of WooCommerce settings.

Then click on the checkbox and hit save settings button.

Now you'll see a tab named "Tax" just before the Shipping tab.

You can setup standard tax rates from this tab.

PAYMENTS

It's time to setup payment methods for your online store.

Navigate to WooCommerce > Settings and click on the "Payments" tab.

Here, you'll get many payment methods which you can enable on your eCommerce store.

Simply click on the "Enabled" switch next to any payment method you prefer to use on your site and then hit the Set up button on the right of your preferred methods.

ADDING PRODUCTS

Once you are done with all the above settings, you just need now to add some products to your WordPress Store so that customers can buy from your eCommerce store.

In order to add new product to your store, navigate to Products then click on Add New button.

Here comes the editor through which you can add your products to the store.

Start with Product Name then write some features and descriptions about your product in the visual editor.

After this, scroll down a bit, you'll see some additional section just after the WordPress Editor.

Using the "Product Data" section, you can provide some additional information of your product like product type, pricing, inventory, shipping, and attributes etc.

Now, let's discuss about the Product Types.

• SIMPLE PRODUCT -
  It is a default product type of WooCommerce which doesn't have any variation.
• GROUPED PRODUCT - 
  It is a set of multiple products or you can say group of simple products.
• EXTERNAL/AFFILIATE PRODUCT -
  As the name suggest, this product type is for affiliate marketers & drop shippers as this product type allows you to redirect your customers to external pages by linking your store "Add to Cart" button.
• VARIABLE PRODUCT -
  This product type is used when your product have many different variations available like colors, sizes etc.

If you are using any subscription plugin like WooCommerce Subscription then you'll get two more product types like Simple subscription and Variable subscription.

You can use these product type if you want to sell subscriptions of your site for some perks & extra benefits.

Also, there are two additional options which you can use to modify your core product types, i.e. Virtual & Downloadable.

• VIRTUAL - This option is used to sell digital products which doesn't require any sort of shipment.
• DOWNLOADABLE - It is used when you are selling some sort of pdf, software etc. whose downloadable file is associated with the product.

Anyways, let's go with the simple product which is default for every WooCommerce products.

So now, you need fill up the regular price and sales prices under the "General" tab. 

Also make sure to go through every single tab of this section and fill up all the required information.

On the right sidebar, you'll see some areas which you can use to manage your Product Categories, Tags, Image & Gallery etc.

It's time to publish your first product but before that please go over all the information you've just added and make sure everything is alright.

If you are sure with all, you can click on the Publish button available at the top right corner under Publish section.

Congrats, your first product is now live on your store.

TESTING YOUR STORE

After you setup your store, you need to test it to know if everything is working fine or not.

For this, you need to self purchase from your store.

Just visit your store, select any product you want to buy for testing purpose and then order it.

When ordering the test product, make sure you are getting all the payment methods you have enabled before.

After the order completion with no issue, go to your site dashboard then navigate to WooCommerce > Orders, here all your orders will be recorded.

You can check everything about your order like order date, shipping address, customer details etc.

That's it, wait for the delivery of your product to your location from your own eCommerce store 😛

I hope, you're now able to start an online store using WooCommerce.

It may feels little confusing for the first time but believe me when you start learning & playing with every options, it'll become more easier for you to setup your store in just few minutes not even an hour.

WooCommerce is used by many websites as it provide you tools, functions and everything which an online store needs.

The best part of WooCommerce is that you can customize your store from the very beginning & can change the complete looks & feels of your store accordingly.

If you are still facing any issues creating your store or have any suggestions or doubts, just let me know in the comments section.