Websites stopped being just for entertainment and news a long time ago. Today a large share of them exist to sell things. That has pushed business owners to keep up and get their own shop online. If you do not know how to build a website, do not worry. Here is how to do it with WordPress.
What an online store actually is
An online store is one of the ways to sell over the internet. It serves as a channel for information about your business and your products or services, and it carries the features customers need to pick products and pay for them: a cart, a checkout, online payment.
Beyond that, a store site connects to other platforms like Facebook, YouTube or forums, which gives people a way to research you, check that you are legitimate, and then buy.
Why WordPress
To answer that, you first need to know what WordPress is.
WordPress is open source software written in PHP that uses MySQL to manage its database. It is the most widely used platform for building websites and blogs in the world.
It gives you everything you need to build a complete site for whatever purpose you have: a personal blog, an online store, a news site, a company profile.
Over the years WordPress has accumulated a huge library of plugins, free themes and specialised features. And it is free, so you can build a complete shop without knowing how to code or design.
The five steps
1. Pick a domain name
Your domain is your street address. A short, simple, memorable name helps you build a brand and gives you credibility.
Free WordPress subdomains attach “wordpress” to your brand name, which is why almost everyone buys a domain instead. A domain typically costs somewhere between a few dollars and a few tens of dollars a year, depending on the extension and where you buy it.
2. Choose good hosting
Hosting is where your site lives on a server, the land your site is built on. It stores your site files, database, articles, products and applications, and it also plays a role in protecting the site from attackers and malicious files.
Because it matters this much, take time before you buy to pick the right provider and to read carefully what support you get while the site is running.
3. Install a theme
At this point you have a working site, but a very plain one. A theme is what gives it a look that appeals to buyers. Choose colours that match the spirit of your brand.
For example, if you sell tech products, blue and white or dark blue and white works well. Food usually goes with yellow or orange. Natural or organic products go with green.
4. Choose your plugins
Plugins are a library of functionality. The right ones make a real difference to how well the site performs.
The most obvious things plugins do for you:
- Speed the site up so pages load faster
- Block comment spam
- Add proper security
- Help build a friendlier interface
- Handle payments and add-to-cart functionality
For an actual shop, WooCommerce is the one that matters most. It adds products, cart, checkout, orders, shipping and payment gateways to a standard WordPress install.
5. Install them carefully
One thing to watch when installing plugins: keep an eye on the weight of your site. Plugins are often heavy, and if you keep adding them the site gets slow. Use a caching plugin, and pay attention to the other things that add weight, like images and video.
That is the shape of it. Get the domain and hosting right, keep the theme aligned with your brand, and install only the plugins you actually need. The sites that stay fast are the ones where someone said no a few times during step 4.
