How to Build an Online Store with Woocomerce in 2024 ( Step by Step )

Building an online store for your shop or Launching your Digital Store is one of the best ways to increase your sales. If you are searching for How to build an online store for your business this blog post helps you with that.

Having an online store is very necessary for you if you have a product or have an idea to launch a new product or even resell any product.

a lot of people want to create their own websites and stores. if you are one of them and want to Build an online store without any hustle or hiring someone for it, maybe this article helps you with that.

in this detailed guided article, you’ll learn to launch your online store in easy steps. We are going to build an online store with WordPress and the most famous WordPress theme Astra.

How to Build an Online Store

1. Necessary Things To build an Online Store
2. Step #1 Installing WordPress
3. Step #2 Installing WordPress Theme
4. Step #3 Installing WooCommerce
5. Step #4 Build an Online Store
6. Step #5 Setting up Online Store
7. Step#6 Promote your online store
8. Conclusion

How to Build an Online Store on Woocommerce?

Before starting a guide you should know that for building an online store you must have a domain name and Web hosting. Other important tools are WordPress, WordPress Theme, and Woocommerce Plugin for building an online store.

The first step is purchasing a Domain Name and Web hosting and after that, we come to WordPress and WooCommerce. Firstly we will get some small information about Domain and Webhosting, WordPress, and Woocommerce.

Domain and hosting

A domain name is the name of your website or online stores like https://vexelartist.com and web hosting is necessary to launch your website on the internet.

Web hosting provides a Specific space and Speed to your website, having a fast website is a good sign of a good User experience.

You can buy Domain names and Web hosting with Hostinger. They are trusted and the best in the industry. You can simply visit Hostinger.com and choose a plan for your website.

I’ll suggest going with the Premium or above plan so You will get a Free Domain name And Lifetime SSL for your website ( SSL secures your website from Hackers).

Purchase a Plan with the free domain name and after that, you get redirected to your Hosting panel. once you get your Hosting panel and domain name you can Install WordPress to launch your website.

WordPress and WordPress theme

WordPress is the most popular to launch an online store on any type of website. A lot of store owners or most popular bloggers like Pat Flynn, Ryan Robinson, and Harsh Agarwal and 455 million website owners have their websites on WordPress.

The most advantage of using WordPress is you will get a lot of free themes to launch your website.
we gonna build our online store on woocommerce with a WordPress theme Astra.

WooCommerce

Woocommerce is a WordPress plugin for building an online store. Woocommerce is free to use so anyone can use it for their website.

woocommerce has over 3,876,748 active users who use it to build a successful online store.

Step #1: Installing WordPress

Once you purchase a domain name and Web Hosting our next step is installing WordPress. For installing WordPress you have to visit your Hosting Panel.

After that check the “Launch your website” section. You will get a lot of platforms like WordPress, Joomla, and Squarespace but We use WordPress for our Store.

Click on the WordPress icon and click again on Install WordPress. After that WordPress will install on your Hosting automatically.

In installing Process it will ask you for your Email Address, Username for WordPress, and a Strong Password, Provide all necessary information, and your WordPress Installation gets started.

After a successful WordPress installation, you get your website with WordPress.

After a WordPress Installation, you have to make some changes like naming your website, creating an about us, contact us, and Privacy policy page, and adding your website to the Google search console and google analytics.

also in the setting option make sure to on “anyone can register” So your customer or visitor can create an account on your website or Online store.

I mentioned all the important steps after installing WordPress, you can read our detailed guide on how to launch your First website for it.

The next step is Installing an attractive theme for your online store, there are a lot of free themes on WordPress but we are going to use Astra Theme.

Step #2: Installing a WordPress theme (Astra)

To install a theme you can Visit wpastra.com there is an official website for its theme. Astra Provides a Free and Paid theme ( with some Pro features ).

You can compare a free and paid plan and choose any you want. get a theme on your computer, You will get a ZIP file with the Theme and necessary documents like the license.

The second way is Installing a theme with WordPress, You have to click Customize and Then click on Themes. You will get a search bar and some featured themes on WordPress, simply search for Astra.

Once you get the theme click on theme and Install it after installing a theme must check to activate it by clicking on activate theme.

after installing a theme next step is installing the woocommerce plugin which helps you to build an online store.

Step #3: Installing WooCommerce and necessary plugins

For Installing woocommerce you can Visit their official website woocommerce.com and get it. Woocommerce also provides free and Paid plans ( with some Pro features ).

The second way is from your WordPress dashboard. For Installing from the WordPress dashboard you have to visit the Plugins section and search for woocommerce. Install a Woocommerce Plugin and also activate it.

When you are Installing woocommerce make sure to check all fields woocommerce asks you. It will automatically create some necessary pages for your Online shops like Shop Page, Cart Page, and My Account Page.

You have to Install some other plugins like Yoast or Rankmath for SEO, Jetpack for website insights, and some Payment gateway plugins like Stripe and Paypal for Payment integration.

Step #4: Build an Online store

After installing some necessary plugins and our Astra theme the main step is starting to build an online Store.

For building an online store there are two steps, one with the Help of startup templates which you get with the Astra theme and the Second is building a store from scratch.

Using Astra Starter Templates

For building an online store You can Use any templates provided by Astra theme.

For importing starter templates you have to install a starter templates plugin and after that, You can visit a Starter template section in Astra theme options.

Check if there is an option for Starter Templates you can check all templates provided by Astra and also check a demo version of them so you can get a look at a store.

There are some free and Premium Templates, if you Purchased Astra Pro from the Website you could use all premium templates and if you have a free plan you can use only free templates.

Later You can choose any Templates you want and click on import this template, and your template will automatically get Imported.

You Have to only Customize a template by replacing your Products with Dummy Products and adding your Logo, brand color, and some other information about your products.

in our case, we gonna use the Plant Shop starter Template. For Importing a template select a template and click on Import. You can Import the whole website or if you want you can install only a Home page or any page you want.

After it is imported you have to customize it according to your needs, you can also add your Logo While importing it. Later, you can see the complete website with dummy content.

For editing Pages and Dummy content, you have to choose Elementor Page Builder. By using Elementor you can easily customize your website with the drag-and-drop method.

Replace your Images and text with dummy content, and add your information on the about us and contact us Pages.

We created our website with Astra Starter Template you Can check it out Here.

Build an Online Store From Scratch

If you don’t want to use Templates you can choose the second option is Build an online store from Scratch.

For building from scratch, you have to create an attractive homepage for your Store, add your Products one by one and make some designs for your Store.

You can Design an attractive Homepage with the Help of Elementor which is a WordPress page Builder. You can Install Elementor From Plugins Section.

You can Follow This Guide For Building an Online Store from Scratch.

Step #5: Setting up your online store

After Building your store from scratch or with the Help of Astra templates next step is setting up your online store adding shipping charges, tax information, Payment methods, adding Your Products, and More.

for all these processes you have to open your woocommerce by clicking on the woocommerce option.

Shipping

Setting up shipping is important for your online store if you are selling Physical Products.

For Setting up shipping you have to click on woocommerce and then to set. Then click on shipping, after that you have to create a shipping zone.

It means which country or states you have to plan to ship your products like the United States, India, Canada, and More.

add Country or state one by one and add your shipping charges for that, you can search on Google for how much costs you to ship products in a different country.

if you don’t want to use Woocommerce shipping methods, You can use different types of methods or services for that like Ekart, Delhivery, DHL, and More.

Visit their websites check their rates and choose one of them as your Delivery Partner.
After that, you can add your shipping charges. Also, you can provide free shipping in your country or your state.

Taxes

The Next step is setting up taxes, you can set up tax information according to your customer’s shipping address or billing address.

In a shipping tax class select the shipping tax class and Select the Exulding tax option in the displayed price in the shop and during cart and checkout.

The next step is setting up taxes for different countries. Each country has different Tax rules and Percentages. For that click on standard options in the Tax option.

You will get a table for adding country code, state code city, Rate, and more. To add this click on the insert row and type your country code like the US for the United States, the UK for the United Kingdom, and IN for India.

The next step is to add the Percentage of tax, different countries have different tax rates for products.

Check your Country’s tax rate for Your Products if you are selling clothes your country has a Specified Tax rate for clothes. Check on Google and add Your Country’s tax rate in the field.

You can also add tax rates by country and state it depends on you.

Payments

After Setting up Shipping and Tax information next is the Setting up a Payment method. There are two main types of payment Cash on delivery and Prepaid Method.

You can offer both types on your product. There is no extra setting for cash on the delivery method you have to choose only it in the payment Method.

For Setting up the Prepaid method woocommerce provides a lot of payment gateway including Paypal ( Business account ), Stripe, Razorpay, Cashfree, and More.

All these Payment gateways Provide all types of international Cards so your customers easily pay you through their credit card or debit card.

Firstly you have to create an account on your Preferred payment gateways like Stripe or Paypal. After Creating an account in Paypal or Stripe you will get an API from your dashboard. Copy The API and Secret Key and Come to the Woocommerce Payment Option.

Enable Payment Methods Like Stripe or Paypal and Install Their Plugins. When You Enable the Payment Method you Get a setting for managing it.

Click on Manage and you get the option To Add an API key and Secret Key, Paste your copied API and Secret Key and Save it.

Now you can accept payment for Credit and Debit cards. All payments accepted by this payment method go to your Payment gateway and You can withdraw them whenever you want.

Adding products

After adding the Payment method next step is adding your Products. There are Four types of products You can add To your online shop, Simple products, affiliate products, virtual Products, and Digital products.

Before adding a product You must have Images of the product and a small description of your Product.
You can add your Product by simply clicking on add new product in the woocommerce dashboard.

Follow these simple steps:

1. Select your Product Type ( ie. simple, digital )
2. add the Name of your Product
3. Set the price what you want and add SKU ( for warehouse Purposes ),
4. Add a Short Description and a Long Description
5. In the Right sidebar, you get an option for Product Gallary, Upload your Product images
6. Publish a Product.

And now your product is Online you can see it live on the internet.

Testing your store

After Setting up your online store, Shipping, Tax, and Payment method, and adding your Product to your online store the last step is testing your store.

it is necessary to test your store. For testing your store visit your website and Visit the shop, select any product you want, and Place an order for it.

Choose Both payment options. Once your order is placed Come to your woocommerce dashboard and under the Order section, You can see you get a notification doe a new order.

Also, check your Stripe or Paypal dashboard if you made a payment through a credit or debit card. If payment shows in your account you are Done.

Your Online Shop is Live on the internet.

How to Pomote an online store?

Once you Set up your online store you can start working on its marketing. If you want more customers for your product you should have more Visitors to your Online Store.

For getting more customers to your online store there are some of the best ways you can follow.

1. SEO

Search Engine Optimization ( SEO ) is an Organic way to get more visitors to your online store. Also for getting a higher ranking on Google, you need to do SEO on your Website or Your Online store.

There are three types of SEO, On-Page SEO, Off-Page SEO, and Technical SEO.

On-Page SEO

For doing On-Page SEO you can write articles on your website. These articles should Have Highly searched but low competition tail Keywords.

Also, you should Check Grammar and Punctuation, write short paragraphs, and write an article as long as you can.

There are Some Plugins and websites that help you to Do on-page SEO and Write Engaging Articles for your Website.

You Can use Yoast or Rankmath for On-page SEO and Grammarly for writing Engaging Articles.

Of-Page SEO

Off-page SEO means Creating your website’s Social Media Accounts, Getting backlinks from some high authority backlinks, and more. For getting High authority backlinks you can write a guest post on your preferred website.

Technical SEO

For technical SEO you can Optimize your website or Online store, Create XML Sitemap, and robot.txt, increase your website speed, and create a mobile-friendly website.

2. Content marketing

Content marketing is another best way to get more visitors to your online store. In Content marketing, you promote your content or Products on the Internet.

You can use different types of social media platforms and influencers and Create your Product videos on YouTube and TikTok.

3. Email marketing

Email Marketing is a great way to reach the targeted audience. In Email Marketing, you have a List of targeted Customers and you send them Emails with your Content updates, Product Offers, and New Product launches.

For creating a targeted Email list you can create an Email subscription form on your website or Provide some free stuff like an E-book to your audience.

So People can Submit their names and Emails Get a Free Ebook and get their Email addresses. For Sending Emails to your customers you can use Email automation tools that help you to send Emails in a bulk list.

You Can use Moosend, Convertkit, or Mailchimp as your Email automation tool.

4. PPC advertising

PPC ( Pay per Click ) advertising is a paid way to get a more targeted visitor to your Online store. In this Module, you pay some ad networks for advertising your Product and you have to pay them only if a visitor clicks on your ad.

5. Social media marketing

Social Media Marketing is a great way to Promote your Product and online store. You can run Social Media ads, Hire influencers for your Product, and More.

You can use the most famous Social Media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest.

Conclusion

Building an online store is an Easy Process, but getting more sales depends on your Products, website Experience, and marketing.

by following our Simple steps to build an online store, setting up and Promoting it you can start your online journey and get more Sales and trust from more people.