Wondering how to create ecommerce website in WordPress?
Building an ecommerce website is not hard, but it can be time-consuming. It involves a number of steps and carrying them out can be overwhelming for a newbie. The good news is that, with the Elementor page builder and Neve theme, the process becomes significantly faster.
👉 Our goal with this article is to inspire confidence and offer the necessary information to help build a basic ecommerce website. We highly recommend that you set aside some time and follow this tutorial to the letter.
By the end of it, you will have a beautiful ecommerce site, all thanks to useful tools like Elementor and Neve.
Let’s get started. 🎬
How to create ecommerce website in WordPress
To build an ecommerce website, follow these steps:
- Set up a WordPress website
- Install a lightweight theme and page builder (Neve and Elementor)
- Install and set up the WooCommerce plugin
- Add products
- Use Elementor to create new pages
Let’s dive 🤿 into each of these steps one by one.
1. Set up a WordPress website ⚙️
Setting up a WordPress website involves four steps: purchasing a domain name, hosting server, SSL certificate, and installing WordPress. In this section, we will show you how to carry out each of these steps.
Purchase a domain name
A domain name is the name of a website (e.g., codeinwp.com) and it has to be purchased from a domain registrar (many hosting companies serve as domain name registrars, so you can often go through them). But before you make the purchase, you need to find the perfect domain name and then spend some time considering which TLD (top-level domain) is most suitable for your ecommerce site.
Afterward, use this guide to purchase a domain name.
Purchase a hosting server
Hosting companies provide server space. That’s where files and folders of a website are stored. The server spaces can be used only after you subscribe to a hosting plan.
Certain hosting plans (like VPS hosting and managed hosting) are expensive because they offer dedicated resources, advanced management, and technical support for optimal performance and reliability.
A brand new store doesn’t need expensive hosting, so we recommend choosing a more affordable plan from your preferred ecommerce hosting provider.
Install an SSL certificate
An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that encrypts data between a user’s browser and a website. It ensures secure communication between the browser and the website, which is particularly important for online transactions.
Popular browsers, like Chrome, Safari, and others, have made it mandatory for all websites to install an SSL certificate. Sites without it are marked as insecure to prevent visitors from browsing or trusting the website.
There are different types of SSL certificates to choose from. A new ecommerce website will need a basic SSL certificate which can be acquired from the hosting provider. Most hosting providers (like Bluehost, Namecheap, Hostinger, etc.,) offer a free SSL certificate for the first year.
As for the installation of the certificate, every hosting provider has a different process. Find the official help doc showing how to do that or reach out to the support team for assistance. Keep reading for our next step on how to create ecommerce website in WordPress.
Install and set up WordPress
WordPress is a popular content management system (CMS) that allows you to create and manage websites.
To get your ecommerce site up and running, you need to install WordPress with the help of your hosting provider.
In this article, we are going to show you how to install WordPress using the WordPress app, which can be accessed via the cPanel located in your hosting provider.
The cPanel is a popular hosting control panel that offers tools to help manage websites, domains, email accounts, databases, files, security settings, and other aspects of your hosting.
While many hosting providers use the cPanel, some don’t. For instance, Hostinger offers a custom dashboard called hPanel. And Kinsta, Flywheel, and WPEngine have their own dashboards that look very different from the cPanel.
In the following demonstration, we will use Namecheap’s cPanel to install and set up WordPress. If your hosting account does not offer cPanel, it’s best to seek a help document from your hosting provider that shows how to install WordPress and follow that. Alternatively, you can reach out to your hosting support and ask for help.
Now, let’s dive into the process of installing and setting up WordPress using the cPanel.
Log into your hosting account, and locate the cPanel.
Look for the WordPress app or script and click on that.
Then, under Software Setup, select the protocol as https, choose your domain, and hit the Quick Install button.
It will take a few minutes to install WordPress. When it’s done, the tool will give you a login URL along with a username and password.
Insert the login URL in your browser’s address bar and then enter the username and password to log into your website.
As soon as you log in, you will see the WordPress dashboard appear on the screen.
On the left-hand side of the dashboard, hover your cursor over the Settings option to reveal several choices.
These pages are the default WordPress setting pages. You will need to visit each page and modify them to ensure that your website is running just the way you want it to. The following help docs will help with the modifications:
2. Install a lightweight theme and page builder (Neve and Elementor) 🎨
The next step on how to create ecommerce website in WordPress involves modifying the design of the website.
Right now, your website looks very bland on the frontend. To convert it into a professional-looking ecommerce site, you need to install a WordPress theme.
There are plenty of themes to choose from, but many of the themes available online are unsuitable for an ecommerce site. We recommend using Neve, since it’s a fast, multi-purpose theme that supports WooCommerce.
Neve has a free and a premium version. You can start with the free version and upgrade to the premium one when needed. Here’s a deep dive into the free vs premium features.
Installing Neve WordPress Theme
To start using the Neve free version, open your WordPress dashboard and go to Appearance → Themes → Add New, and insert “Neve” in the search bar.
Next, hit the install and activate buttons to activate the theme on your site.
Once active, go to Appearance → Themes → Neve Options and select Go to Starter Sites.
You will be prompted to install a Cloud Templates and Patterns Collection plugin. Do that, and then proceed to choose a starter site.
Starter sites are prebuilt websites that can be previewed and installed within a few clicks. The main advantage of using a starter site is that you don’t need to build a website from scratch.
We recommend selecting a WooCommerce starter site as it will install the ecommerce plugin for you. All you will need to do is set up the plugin. If you don’t like the WooCommerce site designs, choose any other starter site and we will show you how to install the WooCommerce plugin in the next section.
You can also select a starter site that comes equipped with the popular page builder – Elementor. Select Elementor from the dropdown menu and then import your preferred Elementor-equipped starter site. And please note: All Elementor-equipped starter sites are a part of Neve’s premium package.
To install a starter site of your choice, select the Import button and hit the Import Entire Site button from the pop-up window.
It’ll take a few minutes for the installation to complete. Move forward to our next step on how to create ecommerce website in WordPress.
3. Install and set up the WooCommerce plugin 🔌
WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress that adds ecommerce functionality to a website, which is perfect when learning how to create ecommerce website in WordPress.
In this section, we will show you how to install and set up the WooCommerce plugin.
Open your WordPress dashboard and go to Plugins → Add New. Insert “WooCommerce” into the search bar. Hit the Install Now and Activate buttons to activate the plugin on your website.
As soon as you activate the plugin, a setup wizard appears.
Side note: If you added a WooCommerce starter site while installing the Neve theme in the previous section, then you won’t see the Setup Wizard. Don’t worry! It’s not a mandatory requirement. The data you have to enter in the setup wizard can be filled in the WooCommerce Settings pages (more on that later).
Set up WooCommerce
The setup wizard will open asking you to enter some details like business address, type of shop, and number of products you are going to sell in the shop, among other things. Fill in these details properly as it will help WooCommerce configure your currency, shipping, and taxes.
At the end of the setup wizard, there will be a prompt to install add-on plugins. We strongly recommend that you learn about the plugins before installing them. You can also deselect all the plugins and install them later as and when you need them. Cluttering your website with too many plugins is a bad idea because it will overwhelm the dashboard and slow your website down.
When the setup wizard closes, you will be taken to your WordPress dashboard. From the dashboard, go to WooCommerce → Settings and proceed to configure all the settings pages according to your needs. Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to configure WooCommerce settings.
This will take a while but it’s an important part of how to create ecommerce website in WordPress.
4. Add products 🛍️
For our final step on how to create ecommerce website in WordPress, you will learn how to add products to your store.
To add products to your ecommerce site, go to Products → Add New. A new page will appear where you need to fill in the following sections:
- Title
- Product description
- Product short description
- Product image
- Product category
- Product data
To add more than one image to the same product, use the Product Gallery option.
You can add Tags to categorize the products in any way you want. Just make sure to understand the difference between categories and tags.
It’s worth mentioning that the Product Data section is a very important part of the product page and you need to modify it carefully. Read this help doc to understand how to set up your product data.
Once the page is ready, you can hit the Publish button or the Draft button if you don’t want to publish it immediately.
You can add more items to your store by following the same methods, i.e., go to Products → Add New and add details about another product.
5. Use Elementor to create new pages 🏗️
Since Neve and WooCommerce automatically create essential pages for an ecommerce website (like the home page, shop, cart, checkout, etc.,) you don’t need to create these pages from scratch. However, if you wish to change them, Elementor can help you do just that.
All you need to do is open the page and choose the Edit with Elementor option. The Elementor editing panel will open on the side of the screen, consisting of numerous tools that can be used to improve the design of the page.
You can use the page builder to create new pages, or choose an Elementor page template.
Using the Elementor templates is easy. Here’s how:
Open a new page, select Edit with Elementor option, and then click on the Add Template button (it looks like a folder).
Next, insert any one of the free templates and start modifying the design as per your needs.
And that’s how to create ecommerce website in WordPress!
To create a page from scratch using Elementor, follow this guide: Build a page with Elementor. This particular tutorial is made for launching a product page, but it should give you an idea of how to use Elementor to create a professional-looking page on your ecommerce website.
Our conclusion on how to create ecommerce website in WordPress 🧐
As you can see, building an ecommerce website is not difficult when you incorporate tools like Neve and Elementor. For newbies, there’s an enormous learning curve involved and it can take a couple of hours to get a website up and running.
But once your site is ready, share it with your friends, family, colleagues, and anyone interested in your work. This will help you draw some initial traffic. Afterward, you can strategize a plan for growing your website and taking your business to the next level.
If you have any questions about how to create ecommerce website in WordPress, please let us know in the comments below.
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