A professional web shop has many advantages. Therefore, would you also like to have your own professional webshop, or would you like to create your own WordPress webshop? Then the webshop plugin for WordPress from WooCommerce is a great system for this!
WooCommerce once started as a simple plugin, but now, with millions of downloads worldwide, it is the most popular plug-in for building an online store. Thanks to its user-friendliness, many additional plugins and modular structure, WooCommerce forms the basis for millions of web shops around the world.
But, what exactly is WordPress WooCommerce? How to create an online store with WordPress and WooCommerce, and what are useful plugins for WooCommerce to use? You’ll read about it in this blog.
What is WordPress WooCommerce?
To create an online store on WordPress, you can install WooCommerce. WooCommerce is a free WordPress plug-in and is specifically designed for selling your physical or digital products. You can sell a simple product, or you can sell a variable product with different colors and sizes. With WooCommerce you build your own webshop very easily. In fact, it’s just an extension on your WordPress website. Through the WordPress dashboard, you can easily manage everything within your shop with WooCommerce. Mind you, this does not mean that with WooCommerce you turn a website into an online store in one go.
WordPress WooCommerce, as a plug-in, is the foundation of your webshop. From this plugin you can add the assortment and manage all the products. For this, you do need to use other plug-ins and possibly free or premium themes. Not to worry, the selection of WooCommerce plugins and themes is huge and provides additional functionality to WooCommerce. So a professional-looking and well-functioning webshop is easily arranged with WooCommerce.
How to create an online store with WordPress WooCommerce?
To get started, you obviously need to install the WordPress plugin WooCommerce. The plugin itself is completely free and you can download and install it from the backend.
Build your webshop yourself or use a WooCommerce Template
After you install WooCommerce, you can choose to build the shop yourself or use an existing WooCommerce theme for this. As a start-up webshop, choosing an existing theme is a great option. In fact, the template can be customized to the desired corporate identity to create the right look.
If you choose a theme, there are several free and paid options, depending on what your plans are for your new webshop. Think carefully about this, though, because there is more to every theme than just a nice design. The template that you choose will form the basis of your webshop for a long time. So keep in mind flexibility, speed and the possibility of expansion. The design of a template should not be leading. After all, this is easier to customize than the built-in features.
Important: Choose a fast and reliable hosting for your WooCommerce webshop!
The WordPress WooCommerce plugin can demand quite a lot from your hosting server. So keep this in mind and choose fast and reliable WooCommerce hosting. Otherwise, a slow website will cause a visitor to leave the site more quickly. In addition, it is important to have the ability to expand. After all, a successful web shop can grow faster than expected, and it is an absolute waste not to be able to keep up with this growth.
Supplement your WordPress webshop with WooCommerce plugins
Indeed, WooCommerce by itself is already a plugin. Yet you also have plugins that make your webshop even better for the visitor. There are many free and paid plugins for WooCommerce that you can install to make your shop more advanced and user-friendly. In the case of paid plug-ins, this can be a one-time payment or a monthly subscription, depending on the plugin.
Below we have listed some useful and commonly used plug-ins for WooCommerce.
1. Mollie Payments
With iDeal being the most widely used payment method in the Netherlands, it is important that you also offer this on your webshop. With Mollie Payments’ plugin, you can easily offer all the different payment methods in your shop. In this process, a small percentage of the amount always goes to Mollie Payments Foundation. For an iDeal transaction, for example, this is 0.29 cents.
2. All import pro plugin (paid plugin)
With the WP All Import plugin for WooCommerce, you can easily import datafeeds of your physical products into your webshop. With a csv file or spreadsheet, you can easily add a dataset with a large number of products. In addition, WP All Import allows you to specify very precisely what exactly should happen to the data you transfer. It is also possible to transfer content into multiple languages.
3. WPML link (paid plugin)
With the WPML Plugin you can easily and quickly translate your webshop. So it’s ideal if you also want to reach customers from abroad. With WPML it is possible to translate pages, blogs and posts, menu items and even texts of the themes. This plugin is also paid, but in return there is continuous development of the plugin and support from the team if needed.
4. WooCommerce Brands (paid plugin).
With the WooCommerce Brands plugin, you can easily and quickly create brands and brand categories for your webshop. This makes it possible to arrange brands conveniently, add them to a widget and link them to your products. This way, it’s easy for your customers to find and filter brands accordingly. So ideal if you want your WooCommerce Webshop to look sleek and professional.
5. WooCommerce EU VAT Number (paid plugin).
Another plugin from within WooCommerce is the
EU Vat Number
plugin. With this plugin it is possible to charge your customers with a foreign company, if they have a valid VAT number, no VAT. This plugin automatically validates the VAT number so there are no extra charges when they place orders with your webshop.
6. Discount Rules for WooCommerce
With the Discount Rules plugin for WooCommerce, you can easily set up discounts and promotions for your shop. This free plugin has several options which does allow any type of discount promotion. Among other things, you can set bulk discounts, percentage price discounts or discounts from a certain purchase price. The paid Pro version of this plugin also offers additional options such as viewing purchase history and discounts across certain product categories and for different variations within a product.
Your own customized web shop
Would you like your own custom-made webshop? Brthrs is happy to help you with this! As a WordPress VIP partner, we are happy to help with your personal and professional WordPress web store. Are you curious about what is possible? If so, please feel free to contact us without obligation!
