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Table of Contents
PAGE 3 Decided to launch an online store?
PAGE 3 Things you need to start your store
PAGE 3 What will this ebook cover?
PAGE 3 First things first - you need your online store platform set up
PAGE 4 So what do you do to get the hosting and everything else with it?
PAGE 4 Let’s set up your WordPress
PAGE 6 Install your Woostroid theme
PAGE 6 Install TM Wizard plugin
PAGE 6 Install all the recommended plugins
PAGE 7 Install all the recommended plugins
PAGE 7 Customize your Woostroid
PAGE 8 Add products to your store
PAGE 11 Extend your store’s functionality with plugins
PAGE 11 Cherry Sidebars
PAGE 11 TM Mega Menu
PAGE 12 TM WooCommerce Quick View
PAGE 12 What you need to check prior to launching
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Decided to launch an online store?
Well, good for you! It’s never been a better time to start a journey of an online store owner.
Literally anyone with a computer and enough motivation can start an online store within mere minutes and with no special skills whatsoever. This is the beauty of modern technology for you.
As with any other major endeavour, starting an online store seems quite overwhelming from afar, but when you actually accept the challenge and start doing it, you realise there’s nothing simpler. Don’t believe me? I’m going to prove it to you in this ebook!
Yes, there are loads and loads of things that need to be done and items that need to be cross-checked. Well, I’m here to make it all easy-peasy for you, below is the fullest and the most comprehensive guide on how to build an online store from scratch with Woostroid.
Things you need to start your store
• A web hosting account. This is where your website will “live” on the internet, so it is important. It is crucial to make sure the hosting of your choosing is compatible
with WordPress hosting requirements and that’s pretty much it. Hosting does not have to be an over complicated matter.
• A domain name. Since this is going to be the name of your online store you might want to spend some time on brainstorming. Remember - you want people to remember it easily and you might also want it to be easily pronounceable, so your customers could tell their friends where they got your awesome product.
• An hour of your time. Including breaks for coffee and that funny kitten on youtube.
Is this all you need? Well, yes, this is all you need to set up an online store. Haven’t I told you from the very beginning that it is very easy?
What will this ebook cover?
• How to register a free domain name
• How to get web hosting
• How to get a free SSl certificate (you need this one to accept payments)
• How to get WordPress installed
• How to create a store with Woostroid
• How to customize Woostroid
• How to add products
• How to extend your store’s functionality with plugins
• What you need to check prior to launching (you’ll get a comprehensive checklist) So, let’s get the party started!
First things first - you need your online store platform set up
Let’s clarify this from the start - we are going to build an online store with WordPress and WooCommerce, particularly with Woostroid theme. Why did we choose this way instead of any other available eCommerce solution? Well, because WordPress+WooCommerce is the easiest and cheapest, this combination provides you with a perfectly functional online store with intuitive admin panel and very simple customization.
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To set up your store you need to have a domain name ready, web hosting paid for and a SSl certificate in place. So let’s look into each of these crucial things.
A domain name is the address your website has on the internet, like google.com, this is what your customers type in the browser to reach your store.
Web hosting is where your web store lives on the internet, where all your files are stored at.
SSL certificate allows you to securely accept sensitive information, like your customers’ credit card info. Nowadays, SSL is a requirement you must comply to, to be able to accept payments on your store.
To make this chapter short and to the point we are going to offer you one hosting option, but of course you can choose any hosting provider you deem suitable for your store. Just make sure it’s compatible with the WP requirements, as mentioned above.
So, the hosting option we chose is Bluehost. Why did we make this particular choice? There’s a number of reasons. First of, Bluehost is officially recommended by WordPress and WooCommerce.
The second reason is - they have a tailor-made WordPress+WooCommerce hosting package
which includes SSL certificate and one free domain (and you need just one, don’t you?). The third reason - it’s affordable, the price starts at $6.95 per month.
So what do you do to get the hosting and everything else with it?
It’s all pretty straightforward - follow the link, choose whichever package looks better to you (The Plus package is recommended for a reason). After you’ve chosen your prefered hosting plan you will be asked to enter your website’s domain name. And after that you will be asced to finalize the purchase by adding required account info. Here you will be offered some extra features to add to your account, it’s totally up to you to add them or not. Do keep in mind that you can add these later, when you know if you actually need any of these extras.
Once you complete the process, you will get an email with all the details you need to login to your hosting control panel (cPanel). You will get a message here informing you that WordPress and WooCommerce are pre-installed. If you click “Login to your site” you will get to your WordPress dashboard. That’s it, you have your eCommerce platform all set up! The whole process takes less time than you read about it here.
In case anything went wrong, there’s a guide to manual WordPress installation for Bluehost to
help you out.
Let’s set up your WordPress
Let’s assume nothing went wrong and your WordPress was automatically installed by Bluehost.
Now you need to get some basic settings tuned for your website.
Go to your WordPress dashboard, it looks pretty much like this: