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We all know that the most popular ecommerce platforms are Shopify and WordPress + WooCommerce. Now, most newcomers choose WooCommerce as this is a free WordPress plugin that was specifically built for the ones that want to transform their WordPress website into an online store.
As an open-source Content Management System (CMS), anyone can install a WooCommerce plugin for free to their WordPress and have ecommerce functions and features to their existing website.
Starting a WooCommerce store in 2024 is a relatively simple process, and that’s because WordPress and WooCommerce ecosystems give you access to all sorts of guides and videos you can follow.
Now, this article will take you through the steps you need to open a WooCommerce store and at the end we will also cover everything you need to know about WooCommerce hosting, from why is this essential to what factors to consider when choosing a hosting provider.
So, whether you own a small business or are a web developer, this guide will help make informed decisions about what can enhance your online store’s performance.
Let’s start with the steps you need to follow to set up your WooCommerce store.
The steps to follow to start a WooCommerce store in 2024
Choose a domain name and hosting provider
As for any website or other WordPress blog, before you can start building your WooCommerce store, you need to choose a domain name and a hosting provider.
The domain name is actually your online address (e.g., examplestore.com), and the hosting provider is the company that will store your website files and makes them accessible on the internet.
Domain name
Choose a domain name that is short, easy to remember, and relevant to your business.
You can register a domain name through a domain registrar. Or you can choose a hosting provider that also offers a domain name registrar with their hosting plan (like we do).
Hosting provider
Choose a hosting provider that offers good performance, reliability, and customer support. Also, it can be very helpful to have a hosting provider that offers a one-click WordPress installation. But, more about this step later on.
Install WordPress
Once you have a domain name and hosting provider, you need to install WordPress, the content management system (CMS) that is behind any WooCommerce store. Of course, if you already have this installed already, then you can just skip this step.
These are the steps to install WordPress:
- Log in to your hosting account’s control panel.
- Look for a one-click WordPress installation feature and follow the instructions to complete the installation.
- After installation, you will receive your WordPress login credentials.
Install the WooCommerce plugin
Now, it’s time to install the WooCommerce plugin, which adds ecommerce functionality to any WordPress site. Here’s how to do this.
- Log in to your WordPress dashboard (usually at yourdomain.com/wp-admin).
- Navigate to Plugins > Add New.
- Search for “WooCommerce” and click Install Now.
- Activate the plugin after installation.
Configure WooCommerce
After you install WooCommerce, you just need to follow the setup wizard and configure your store’s basic settings.
- Choose your store’s location, currency, and measurement units.
- Configure your shipping and tax settings.
- Set up payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe.
- Create your first product.
Choose a theme and customize your store’s design
The appearance and layout of your WooCommerce store are very important for the success of your store. So, make sure you take your time and go through the many free and premium themes before you make your choice.
Once you know which theme you want for your store, you need to start customizing it and making it your own by adding your brand’s (or store’s) colors, fonts, logo and images.
Here are the steps to follow for setting up your theme and customizing it:
- Navigate to Appearance > Themes in your WordPress dashboard.
- Click Add New and browse or search for a theme that suits your needs.
- Install and activate your chosen theme.
- Customize your theme by going to Appearance > Customize.
Install additional plugins
After you have made all the customizations to your online store, you should add other important functionalities and pages to your website, for example, a contact page, SEO, email, and social media sharing options.
For all of these extra functionalities, you need to install additional plugins to your WooCommerce store. Some popular plugins include:
- Yoast SEO: Helps optimize your store for search engines.
- Akismet: Protects your store from spam.
- Mailchimp: Integrates email marketing with your store.
Optimize your store for performance and security
The last step is to optimize your store for performance and security, protecting your customers’ data and making sure your customers have a smooth user experience, at the same time.
To do all these, you need to:
- Regularly update WordPress, your theme, and plugins.
- Use a caching plugin.
- Implement an SSL certificate to secure your store.
- Use a security plugin like Cloudflare.
Of course, if you choose a managed hosting plan, then all of these technical parts will be taken care of by your hosting provider. So, make sure your provider has these functionalities included in their plans.
That’s it, now you should have a fully functional WooCommerce store up and running. To start selling, focus on adding high-quality products, creating engaging content, and promoting your store through the right channels to attract customers and drive sales.
Now, why do you need WooCommerce hosting?
If having an engaging website design, premium products and creative content can help you get online sales, well, fast and secure hosting is actually crucial for the success of your online store.
WooCommerce hosting is that type of web hosting specifically optimized for the WooCommerce ecommerce platform. This type of hosting has additional features, such as performance optimizations and additional server resources.
Here are a few key reasons WooCommerce hosting is the preferred choice over generic shared hosting.
PHP 7.2+ and MySQL 5.6+ support
Your WooCommerce store requires these versions to run efficiently. Well, if you choose WooCommerce hosting, the server environment will be optimized specifically for this platform.
That means it will include MySQL and PHP configurations tailored for WooCommerce performance.
Performance optimization & additional resources
As you can imagine, a WooCommerce store requires more resources than a basic WordPress website. With WooCommerce hosting you will get extra RAM, CPU, and storage to handle the additional needs of an ecommerce store.
WooCommerce hosting will be fine-tuned right from the start to boost your WooCommerce performance. This can include features like page caching, opcode caching, image optimization, and more.
All of these translate into faster page loads, smoother navigation and a better customer experience.
Built-in caching and CDN
Caching helps speed up your WooCommerce store. If you choose a WooCommerce hosting plan, you will have tools like Redis, Memcached, OPcache and CDN built-in and pre-configured for WooCommerce.
These tools can significantly boost both your online store performance and sales. Now, if you go for another type of hosting, you would need to configure these tools by yourself, and for that you need to have technical expertise.
Developer features
WooCommerce hosting can provide extra features useful for developers and store owners, like Git support, SSH access, staging sites, one-click testing environments and WooCommerce tool automation.
Scalability
As your store grows, the demands on your server also increase. WooCommerce hosting makes it easy for you to scale up resources when you need to handle more orders, products, traffic and customers, for example.
There are also hosting providers that even offer auto-scaling.
Security
Your WooCommerce store will contain sensitive customer and payment data. Well, a WooCommerce hosting plan will have strong security protections in place to help safeguard your ecommerce stores and customer data.
This includes security features like DDoS protection, malware scanning, regularly scheduled backups, PCI compliance and secure server management protocol.
Support & expertize
WooCommerce hosting providers have specialized WooCommerce knowledge and experience. Their support teams can help troubleshoot any WooCommerce issues and their infrastructure is optimized specifically for WooCommerce.
Reliability
If your store is slow or down, you will lose revenue. When choosing a WooCommerce hosting, your store benefits from high uptime and reliability with features like premium hardware, 24/7 monitoring, RAID storage and automatic failover.
Automatic updates
A WooCommerce hosting provider offers auto updates too. This way you can be sure that your WooCommerce plugins and server software have the latest security patches and features. In other words, there is no need for manual updating.
So overall, WooCommerce hosting provides a robust, optimized and secure solution for running scalable high-performance WooCommerce stores, having by your side expert support. For most stores, the benefits far outweigh the cost.
Ready to build your WooCommerce store?
Choosing the right WooCommerce hosting solution can be a complex process, as this affects everything, from your online store to your customer’s experience. In other words, your profits depend on how great your hosting provider is, so make sure you take your time and choose the right hosting partner.
Now, if you want to build a high-performance, fully managed, optimized and SEO-ready WooCommerce store, take a look at one of our WooCommerce hosting plans.
For a limited time only, we also have a special discount if you choose one of our General Hosting Plans. Just use the promotion code 50-DISCOUNT at the checkout and you get 50% OFF.
