Setting Up an eCommerce Site With WordPress

Setting Up an eCommerce Site With WordPress

by | Oct 18, 2023 | All Posts, Ecommerce

There’s never been a better time to open an online business, and WordPress makes it easy, with an array of tools and themes to help website owners set up a complete eCommerce store for selling physical and digital products of all kinds. Whether you’re an experienced web developer or a complete newcomer to the world of online selling, you can turn your WordPress website into an online storefront in just a few steps, with options to suit every budget.

Why Use WordPress?

WordPress powers nearly a third of the world’s websites, ranging from personal blogs and small businesses to many of the Internet’s top 100 websites. This free and open source site-building platform consists of a set of core code that defines the basic framework of a website, which can be developed in virtually limitless ways to create unique sites of all kinds with thousands of WordPress themes, plugins, and plugin extensions.

The “mix and match” versatility of WordPress makes it possible for users of all skill levels to build a fully functioning online storefront on an existing WordPress site in almost no time, and to customize it for selling all kinds of goods. Because WordPress is the world’s most popular site builder and content management system, users can also choose from a multitude of premium and free WordPress themes and plugins, as well as compatible eCommerce platforms to optimize any WordPress site for showcasing goods, services, and memberships.

Online Storefront Essentials

The configuration of your WordPress eCommerce site depends of course on the nature of your business, your goals, and the kinds of products and services you plan to sell. In general, though, a full-service e-commerce website needs a set of core functions that make it easy for site owners to manage the store, and for visitors to find and buy what they’re looking for. To do that, your WordPress eCommerce solution should offer:

  • Easy to manage product pages, with options for promoting featured products and special opportunities.
  • Shopping cart and checkout pages that include essentials like currency converters and shipping calculators for physical goods or download links for digital products.
  • Secure payment portals that protect buyers’ payment information.
    Full customization that reflects the business brand.
  • Contact features, such as contact forms, live chat, or a support number for handling customer issues and questions.
  • Mobile responsiveness to reach the growing number of users who shop for tablets and smartphones.

The best eCommerce setup for your WordPress site depends on your budget, technical skills, and the scope of your eCommerce venture, but whether you’re an absolute beginner with no web design skills who is preparing to launch a business or you’re a developer creating a storefront for an established retailer, WordPress hosting can turn your dreams into a reality.

WordPress eCommerce Themes

Themes are a core component of the WordPress system, and thousands of them are available in both free and premium versions from the WordPress theme directory, and from third-party developers all over the world. Themes define a site’s appearance and layout, and some themes are designed to support specific functions, including eCommerce.

eCommerce friendly free themes, like the mobile responsive Shop Isle and The Store, offer users different ways to showcase products, add landing pages and featured product images in galleries, and even run a blog. Premium versions of these and other themes include more features to round out the essentials of an online store, but users may still need to add some essential functions with plugins, such as shopping carts and payment portals. Some, such as the Storefront eCommerce theme, is directly compatible with WooCommerce, the most popular WordPress eCommerce plugin of them all.

eCommerce Plugins

Along with themes and the core code, eCommerce plugins for WordPress round out the list of essentials that make up a site. And like themes, there are countless plugins set to perform specific functions of all kinds on a basic WordPress site. eCommerce related plugins for WordPress range from full storefronts to dedicated plugins that allow you to set up individual features like shopping carts, payment portals, and more.

The most famous WordPress e-commerce plugin is WooCommerce, which powers over 40 percent of the web’s e-commerce community. WooCommerce can be installed on any compatible WordPress site and adds the full spectrum of research related features to a basic site and theme. The free version of WooCommerce offers all the essentials, and the premium version adds additional features, plus extended support.

WooCommerce may be the best known and most widely used WordPress e-commerce plugin, but it isn’t the only one. A large and growing number of other plugins such as WP eCommerce and EStore also add a fully functioning online store to WordPress sites of all kinds. Some, like Easy Digital Downloads, support a particular kind of product or service, while others are designed for building a membership or subscription site.

Integration With eCommerce Platforms

eCommerce themes and plugins work to turn a basic WordPress site into an online store, but it’s also possible to integrate a WordPress site with popular standalone eCommerce platforms, such as Shopify and Ecwid.

Sites like Shopify offer a full-service e-commerce solution that also includes managing all the associated store functions from a single dashboard. That makes these sites appealing to new users looking for a no-fuss way to run a store. But WordPress users can also add the platform’s plugin to an existing site, which adds e-store functionality. Although adding the functions of an e-commerce host to your own site can help to extend the reach of your brand, it can also add additional costs. Although Ecwid is free to set up, Shopify charges a monthly fee to host your shop.

Online shopping is the fastest growing retail sector worldwide, and many users of online retail outlets say they’d never shop any other way. Now, anyone with products to sell can set up an online store – and WordPress makes it easy, with eCommerce options to suit every budget and level of expertise.

To learn more about our web hosting packages, check out our extensive resources on Allinwebit.com.

5 Winning Ways to Optimize Your Online Store

5 Winning Ways to Optimize Your Online Store

by | Oct 17, 2023 | All Posts, Winning Ways

Business is booming in the world of eCommerce and just about anyone can set up an online storefront – even on the slimmest of shoestring budgets. Success depends on making sure potential customers can find your store and receive the best possible shopping experience when they visit. Paid publicity can help, but there are a number of things you can do to optimize your store for maximum visibility right on your website without spending a dime. Here’s a look at five low-cost ways to increase traffic to your website and boost customer engagement.

Optimize Your Store for Organic Search

Paid advertising and other kinds of marketing strategies can play an important part in promoting your new online shop, but it’s also essential to make a plan to rank high in organic searches by practicing search engine optimization – the natural way that people search for information or products online. These searches respond to keywords or questions submitted to search engines like Google or Bing and deliver the best matches to the searcher. Ranking high – on the first page of search results – is the goal of just about every online business, since nearly two-thirds of searchers never click to the second page of their search results.

Long-tail keywords aren’t the only criteria for ranking high or improving your online presence through search engine optimization. Google and other search engines operate on a mysterious algorithm system that also factors in many other features of a website when assigning rankings. These can include a site’s authority, which can be established by quality backlinks, or links back to the site by other reputable websites, and the quality of the user experience it offers visitors. That’s why Google’s recent algorithm changes heavily penalized spammy, keyword stuffed sites with low value to visitors.

Learning how to optimize your website for easy searching and engaging user experience can not only boost your search engine rankings but also establish your site as an authority in your niche and enhance your brand’s visibility. Additionally, you don’t need to be an expert in web design and development to make small but significant changes that will make your site more search friendly.

Include Quality Content – Everywhere

If you visited a brick and mortar store and found empty shelves, a vacant front window and no one available to serve you, you would probably turn around and leave. The same is true for your online store. Make sure that your product pages include a range of products, not just one or two, and that they’re packed with keyword rich descriptions of your products and organized in intuitive ways. Add featured content, testimonials, or reviews to a visually appealing homepage. Add a blog to your site and keep it updated with a mix of topical and evergreen content that is relevant to your customers’ interests and needs.

Since search engine crawlers regularly search sites for new, relevant content, having an active, interactive site that is updated on a regular basis shows visitors and search engines that your store is a thriving online concern.

Make Your Store Interactive

Search engines also consider factors such as “dwell time,” – the amount of time a visitor spends on your site and what they do there – in search rankings. Making sure your site is attractive and easy to navigate can encourage visitors to stick around, but you can also engage visitors by encouraging them to interact with your store and your brand. Adding features such as comments and live chat can encourage them to ask questions and express opinions. Consider showcasing customer content, such as sharing product photos, or running contests for things like naming new products. Beyond selling products, these kinds of strategies can build brand awareness and create a loyal tribe of supporters willing to share your content with others.

Make Your Site Mobile Friendly

More than half of all online shopping now takes place from mobile devices, rather than desktop or laptop computers. For that reason, Google and other search engines now consider mobile responsiveness a key factor in higher search rankings. Consider installing a mobile-responsive theme for your WordPress site, or add a plugin to make an existing theme more mobile friendly. To improve the mobile experience, even more, eliminate intrusive “interstitial,” content such as large popups or overlays that block a user’s view of your pages.

Use Keywords Where It Counts

Although Google penalizes poor quality and keyword stuffed sites, it rewards sites that use keywords smartly. Incorporate keywords, especially “long tail,” keywords of four or more words, into key areas of your site, including page and post titles, headers, subheaders, and product descriptions. Don’t forget to add them to image alt text and site metadata, and set custom URLs for all pages, so that they include keywords rather than default strings of numbers.

Include Navigation Tools and Site Maps

Make sure navigation and user tools, such as your site’s menus, are up to date and point clearly to the relevant content – a key feature for making your site easier for visitors to navigate. Make sure that contact information and other essentials about your store and your products are easily visible. Submit a site map to Google, as well. A site map includes all the pages on your site, with their relevant keywords, and helps to ensure that all the pages on your site will be crawled for indexing. If you change or update content on the site, be sure to update your site map too, so that it stays current.

It’s never been easier to open your own online store, thanks to an array of free and paid tools for building your dream website and reaching potential customers from around the world. You can optimize your new storefront for maximum search visibility and user-friendliness from within your website using resources you already have – all for free, no development experience or digital marketing budget required.

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