10 Simple Steps to Set Up an E-Commerce Store on WordPress

Generally, WordPress is assumed as a full-fledged content management system by all those new to the internet marketing business. Now, this amazing CMS is being used to create e-commerce stores for start-up companies and business organizations with a restricted budget. Online stores based on WordPress CMS are technically less complicated, easy to operate and demands minimal investment and gives a substantial ROI in the short and long term. But, how do you set up an e-commerce store on WordPress? Let’s discuss now.

 

1. Create a Website Development Plan in Advance

Creating an online store with WordPress is a serious undertaking. You can’t start creating the site without having a well-planned strategy and site creation plan in place. First of all, you need to conduct market research & find out more on the level of competition put forward by your competitors in the market, main keywords that have the ability to represent your business to the targeted audience, latest trends in the e-commerce business, etc. All these will help you draw up an effective plan for website creation.

 

2. Perform the Grassroot Work Systematically

In order to create an e-commerce website with WordPress CMS, you need to select the necessary items in advance and perform some preliminary work systematically. Let’s see some important tasks that should be done before the commencement of website creation work:

Preliminary Task Before Website Creation	Brief Explanation
Selection of Necessary WordPress Plugins	It is essential for website creation. You should choose some basic plugins for website creation: WooCommerce, All in One SEO Pack, Wordfence Security, Akismet and Social Share WordPress Plugin.
Keyword Research and Content Arrangement	Research and find perfect keywords for your e-commerce website. You also need to arrange error-free and unique content for e-commerce website creation & optimization.
Selection of a Perfect WordPress Theme	Research and find a perfect theme for the e-commerce website. WordPress themes are available in both free and premium versions. You can choose any one of them as per your needs.
The Selection of Website Building tools	Research and find good website building tools to speed up the site creation work.
The selection of a Hosting Server	Research and find a perfect hosting server to keep your site live 24*7.

3. Domain Registration

It is one of the most important steps in e-commerce website creation. In simple words, a domain is the address of your site on the website. People search your brand with the site name. So, you must register a domain name with care and caution. Your domain name should be short, simple, and easily understandable. Try to book a good domain name with .com extension as it is the most popular domain extension among website creators and internet users easily find .com websites on the WWW. If your domain name is unavailable with .com extension, try your luck with other domain extensions.

 

4. WordPress Installation

Now, it’s time to download the WordPress CMS on your system. Go to WordPress.org to start the WordPress installation process. It takes some time. Once the installation process is done, store the installed files in a separate folder.

 

5. Upload the Installed File to the Server

If you are creating an online store from scratch, choose good hosting. To work with a bunch of WordPress and WooCommerce comfortably, choose a hosting service that supports MySQL and PHP. It must also include a free SSL certificate, access to the server’s control panel and FTP. Upload the downloaded file to the website server either manually or using an FTP. You also need to create the website database as it is required to display results to visitors and help them find the desired information. Download and install the WooCommerce plugin on the site.

 

6. Theme Uploading & Website Customization

Almost all WordPress Website Development companies unanimously agree to only attractive, responsive, and professional online stores, as they are liked by regular online shoppers. So, you need to take care of the website design very seriously. Just upload the chosen theme to the site and customize it as per your needs. Choose a perfect font to present the website content in a proper manner.

Take care of color pattern, CTA buttons, sign-up forms, email subscription forms, popups, site loading speed, the performance of the site on different mobile devices, cross-browser compatibility, payment gateways, shopping basket, site navigation, links to social media pages, etc. All of these are important components of an e-commerce website.

Maintain a uniform color scheme across the website. The loading speed of your site should be awesome. Visitors must be able to access the site in a few seconds on all internet-enabled devices. Avoid too many redirects and third-party links on your site. Use only those elements on the e-commerce website which helps users to find the desired stuff easily and make transactions.

 

7. Create Necessary Pages

Now, you need to create the necessary pages on your website. E-commerce websites have many pages which depend on the total number of products you want to sell. There are some basic pages every E-commerce website should have without any fail:

Important Pages on an E-commerce Website	Brief Explanation
Friendly & informative homepage	Always keep in mind that not all buyers enter the site through the home page. But, for those who do, the main page of the site should be simple and easy to use. You must explain what your site sells and how it differs from its competitors. Your homepage should tell who you are and what your business is all about. Avoid clutters as far as possible.
About us	An Introduction to your company, its core business activities, mission, and goals.
Terms of Use	Mention all terms and conditions you want to be followed by the site visitors.
Privacy policy	Mention how you collect, store, use and protect customer data on site.
Product Replacement and Fund Repayment Policy	These two are essential in e-commerce business. Based on this policy, visitors will deal with you & buy your products. Keep everything transparent to all.

 

8. Implement Important SEO Elements on the Site

It is often said that website design and SEO often go hand to hand. There are many WordPress developers who ignore the SEO aspects of websites and end up developing non-SEO friendly websites. So, implement SEO elements to the site to make it SEO-friendly and help digital marketing professionals in promotional campaigns.

Important SEO tasks	Brief Explanation
Content Modification	Unique content is one of the main important components of a healthy and high performing website. Search engines will rank your page higher if it contains unique, valuable content that effectively addresses customer needs and helps them find the desired products and services. Many e-commerce site owners use the product description used by the product descriptions provided by manufacturers. They must keep in mind that this same content is used by any other e-commerce site that sells the same product. When you sell a product online, its description plays a huge role. Simply copying and pasting the manufacturer’s description on your page can cause the content duplication issue for which search engines can punish your website sooner or later. So, write and use unique product descriptions for all pages. Add metadata for all important pages on your site.
Smart Placement of Keywords on the Site	Always keep in mind that keywords are directly related to SEO. When a person searches on the internet, he/she uses fairly specific keywords to find the desired products and services. Distribute keywords appropriately on your website to help it rank in the SERPs of different search engines.
Make URLs More Readable	Always keep in mind that Search Engine Optimization and customer-friendly URLs are a very important part of the online store promotion process. Many potential customers hesitate to click a link that has a suspicious URL. Website address may not look suspicious for everyone in any way. Average users love to visit websites with friendly URLs. So, edit default URLs and make them more user-friendly.
Image Optimization	Images are abundantly used in e-commerce business as users view product images carefully before purchasing. So, click images and add ALT Attributes (helping text) to images while uploading them on the site.

9. Check Your Site for Technical Errors

Technical errors are possible when websites are created. Individuals love to browse ready-to-use websites. Different types of technical errors on your site not only affect its performance on the web but also displeases others. So, it’s your responsibility to check your website from A to Z, unearth all possible technical errors and fix them immediately. Ask for help from professional WordPress developers in this assignment as they can easily explore all possible website errors and fix the problem sooner rather than later.

 

10. Launch Your WordPress E-commerce Website Now

By now, the WordPress-based e-commerce site is ready. Just launch it for users and start selling your products to customers. Its ranking on the web depends on SEO campaigns performed by digital marketing professionals.

 

Final Words

Despite the availability of many e-commerce CMS, WordPress is a favorite to all those companies that want to kick-start their e-commerce business with low investment & make big returns as soon as possible. Use the above-mentioned tips to create an e-commerce website with the WordPress CMS in an easy way. Best of luck!