WordPress Ecommerce: Using WooCommerce To Build Online Stores (Almost) Free

Want to build online stores (almost) free with WordPress eCommerce plugins? Learn how to add eCommerce to WordPress using WooCommerce, the best WordPress eCommerce plugin.

With the spurt of e-commerce and online shopping growth, more retailers are wondering how to create an online store with WordPress eCommerce plugins and themes.

As of April 2024, WordPress powers over 39.5% of the internet’s websites, and over 409 million people visit WordPress sites monthly. In this article, you’ll learn how to build an eCommerce website and free or low-cost WordPress e-commerce stores with WordPress eCommerce plugins.

You’ll learn how to build an eCommerce website and use WooCommerce and free WordPress eCommerce themes to build online storefronts.

Contents

7 Essentials For Your WordPress e-Commerce Website

Several plugins, themes, and tools are available to help you build a WordPress e-commerce store. Here are the 7 essential tools and resources to develop your WordPress eCommerce sites.

#1. Your Domain & Hosting

To set up your WordPress eCommerce store and start using WordPress for eCommerce, you must be running WordPress on a self-hosted site.

You’ll need a domain name and a reliable WordPress hosting provider, like Bluehost, that provides unmetered bandwidth so you can grow your traffic without being throttled.

With Bluehost WooCommerce Hosting, you’ll skip the hassle of installing and configuring WooCommerce yourself. They will install it to build your eCommerce website faster.

#2. Self-Hosted WordPress

WordPress is a free, open-source CMS software to build websites, blogs, online stores, and more. It offers a lot of flexibility and room to grow and, unlike eCommerce website builders that charge hefty monthly costs, it’s free forever.

Bluehost WooCommerce hosting offers pre-installs of WordPress and WooCommerce, a devoted IP, and free SSL certification, to keep your store safeguarded.

Bluehost’s WooCommerce solution offers online sellers the tools necessary to build a successful online store, including assistance with getting started, security, website promotion, and ongoing guidance for plugins and themes.

An excellent alternative is the Namecheap Business Hub which will help you launch an e-commerce business with the best offers on Domains, Stellar shared hosting, EasyWP managed WordPress, SSL certificates, and VPN.

#3. Free WordPress eCommerce Plugins

WooCommerce is a free online store builder plugin and the most popular, extendable, and adaptable open-source eCommerce platform for building online stores. The best part is that it’s all powered by WordPress so your data is all 100% owned by you.

You can get started with WooCommerce free and set up a new WordPress eCommerce website in minutes, get secure payments, configurable shipping options, and more, out of the box.

The WooCommerce Multistore or WooMultistore plugin makes it easier to run multiple online stores because it can help you manage features on unlimited WooCommerce stores from a single WordPress admin.

#4. Free WordPress eCommerce Themes

Customers like to shop on a website that is well-designed and fast-loading. You can install free eCommerce WordPress themes, like WooCommerce Storefront, the official WooCommerce theme.

This free eCommerce WordPress theme is intuitive, and flexible, and offers deep integration with WooCommerce. It will help you create eCommerce websites that look professional and organized.

#5. Delivery Service Provider

If you want to sell eBooks or digital downloads, you need a delivery service provider, like Samcart or Sellfy. It will help you build a shopping cart and other buying buttons so your customers can purchase and download your products.

You can use a tool like Zapier to integrate SamCart with WooCommerce in minutes and without a single line of code. Check out this SamCart Demo to learn more.

Sellfy is a WooCommerce alternative with built-in marketing tools like email marketing, discounts, upselling, and analytics. It has a WordPress plugin and allows you to sell digital products, physical goods, and subscriptions all from one place.

#6. Payment Processor

Many payment processing providers will help you process the payments from your website and transfer them to your bank or other online payment destinations.

PayPal is one of the most popular payment processing providers. In India, you can use Razorpay.

#7. E-commerce CRM Tools

There are several factors to consider when choosing eCommerce CRM tools for your online store. Some variables are price, formatting, scheduling, delivery, etc.

The Jetpack CRM has all the tools you need to grow your eCommerce business. It’s also modular, so you can customize it to suit your needs.

How To Build Online Stores With WordPress & WooCommerce

In this section, you’ll learn how to build an eCommerce website using WordPress, WooCommerce, and free eCommerce WordPress themes:

#1. Set Up WordPress & WooCommerce

This WordPress tutorial for beginners includes WordPress setup videos that will show you how to set up your WordPress website, create pages and posts, install plugins for SEO, security, and more.

Bluehost WooCommerce hosting makes it easy to get started with WooCommerce. They will automatically install WooCommerce for you and provide a free WooCommerce SSL to keep your site and transactions secure.

Setup takes only a few minutes and then you can select aWooCommerce theme for your online store. Then you can start adding your products and payment information.

The best eCommerce WordPress theme, free to install, is the WooCommerce Storefront theme because the Storefront child theme is constructed and enhanced for WooCommerce. To add more capability, purchase Storefront extensions as your store grows.

#2. Activate WooCommerce

Once WordPress is up and running, start building your online shop with WooCommerce, the best free WordPress eCommerce plugin. If your WordPress hosting service doesn’t have this eCommerce plugin pre-installed, download it and activate it.

If you’re using Bluehost WooCommerce hosting, you can skip the installing and configuring part of WooCommerce yourself because they will install it for you so you can start building your eCommerce site faster.

#3. Expand WooCommerce

Once you make an online store with WooCommerce, you can expand it by including functionality with extensions for features like Subscriptions, Bookings, Subscriptions, repayment portals, shipping, and more.

With WooCommerce and WordPress, you can create online shops free of cost and scale up as your customers and profits expand. For the cash-strapped entrepreneur, WooCommerce is the best free eCommerce website builder to build online stores.

For those who want a WooCommerce alternative, Sellfy is a simple, yet powerful e-commerce platform that allows you to sell digital products, physical goods, and subscriptions all from one place.

Shopify is another top e-commerce platform and these free Shopify courses and training guides will show you how to start a Shopify store, make your first sale, and scale your eCommerce business.

#4. E-commerce Cyber Security

Before selling products in your eCommerce store, ensure your online eCommerce transactions are safe and secure. Many online payment providers provide software for safe transactions.

To prevent unwanted intrusions on your WordPress store install a plugin like Jetpack that provides effective brute force attack protection, malware scanning, spam filtering, and site backups.

Cyber-attacks are on the rise across almost every industry and country and regulatory penalties have been getting stricter for businesses experiencing data breaches that compromise customer data.

While there are low-cost ways to improve cybersecurity, improve information security, and prevent cyber-attacks, small businesses don’t have the budget for downtime or legal costs.

If you need protection from cyber threats, get comprehensive cyber liability protection for your business against technology-based threats — IT infrastructure risks, systems failure, cyber attacks, data breaches, liability, legal costs, and more.

Comprehensive cyber liability insurance coverage can protect your business from fraudulent transactions, data breaches, and cybercrimes.

#5. E-commerce SEO Campaign

Once you have your WordPress eCommerce website up and running, and all your products on display, you need to create an eCommerce SEO campaign to promote your eCommerce store.

WooCommerce SEO is easy with the Rank Math SEO plugin for WordPress. Combine WooCommerce’s selling powers with Rank Math’s SEO powers to create an e-commerce powerhouse.

Learn how to technically optimize your WooCommerce store for search and a better user experience – and answer the most common questions about the optimal WooCommerce SEO setup.

These eCommerce SEO best practices will help you improve SEO for eCommerce sites and boost your eCommerce website rankings.

Now that you know how to create an eCommerce website with WordPress, you can join the eCommerce revolution and start making money online with your WordPress e-commerce store.

If you’ve built your own WordPress eCommerce store with WooCommerce, share your experience in the comments below.

Ecommerce Guides & Tutorials

Priya Florence Shah

Priya Florence Shah is a bestselling author and an award-winning blogger. Check out her book on emotional self-care for women. Priya writes short stories and poetry and chills with her two-legged and four-legged kids in her spare time.

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