🌐 For the website
WordPress with Astra and Elementor (Phases One and Two). For a real store you also need hosting, a domain and SSL, the padlock from Phase One.
Let's open your first online shop with WooCommerce!
Part 1 of 3. What WooCommerce is, what you need before you start, and how to install it and set up the basic store.
What's inside 🛒
Tap any card to jump straight there.
🛒 Stop 1
What is WooCommerce, and how does an online shop work?
WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin that turns your website into an online store.
Until now, your site could only show information. Add WooCommerce and visitors can browse products, add them to a cart, pay, and place an order, while you manage everything from the same WordPress dashboard you already know.
Shop page→Product page→Cart→Checkout→Order placed
That path is the same on Flipkart, Myntra or a small local brand's website. Your job in this series is to build every step of it.
🧠 Think of it like...
Your WordPress site was a shop window where people could only look. WooCommerce adds the shelves, the trolley, and the billing counter, so people can actually buy.
🏆
Why WooCommerce? It's free, works with Astra and Elementor, and has plugins for almost anything, including Indian payment gateways like Razorpay. That's why it's one of the most popular choices for small online stores.
🧰 Stop 2
What you need before you start
Collect these first, and the setup goes much faster.
📦 For the shop
Product names, clear photos, prices, descriptions, and stock counts. Ten good products beat a hundred rushed ones.
🏦 For getting paid
A bank account, and usually KYC documents (PAN, address proof) to open a payment gateway account in Part 3.
📝 For trust
Business address, contact details, and text for your return, refund and privacy policies.
🎭
Practising on Local is fine. You can build and test the whole store on your Local site from Phase One. But real payments, emails and notifications only work properly once the site is live.
⬇️ Stop 3
Installing WooCommerce
It installs like any other plugin you've added so far.
1
Open Plugins → Add New
In your dashboard sidebar, hover "Plugins" and click "Add New Plugin."
2
Search "WooCommerce"
Pick the one made by Automattic (it has the purple logo).
3
Install, then Activate
Click "Install Now," wait a few seconds, then click "Activate."
4
Start the guided setup
After activating, WooCommerce takes you to its onboarding wizard. Click "Set up my store" to begin.
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Wizard didn't appear? Go to WooCommerce → Status → Tools, or open the Help menu inside WooCommerce, and look for "Setup wizard."
🧙 Stop 4
Walking through the setup wizard
The wizard asks about your store once, then uses your answers to suggest sensible settings.
1
Store details
Enter your store name, country, state and address. India is the country; pick your state. This decides your currency, tax and shipping options.
2
Industry
Choose the closest match, like "Fashion and apparel" or "Food and drink."
3
Product types
Pick "Physical products" if you ship things. Choose "Downloads" for digital items like PDFs.
4
Business details
Say roughly how many products you'll sell and whether you already sell elsewhere. Be honest, it only tunes suggestions.
5
Skip the extras for now
WooCommerce may recommend free add-ons for payments, marketing and security. You can skip them. Everything can be added later, and we'll set up payments properly in Part 3.
6
Land on the Home screen
You'll see a setup checklist: add products, set up payments, shipping, tax, and launch your store. It's your to-do list. We'll tick off each item across this series.
✏️
Nothing is permanent. If you pick the wrong industry or country by mistake, you can change it later in WooCommerce → Settings.
⚙️ Stop 5
Checking your store settings and currency
Take two minutes to confirm the basics, because wrong settings here cause strange problems later.
1
Open WooCommerce → Settings
The General tab opens first.
2
Confirm the store address
Check the address, city, state and PIN code. This is used for tax and shipping calculations.
3
Set where you sell and ship
Under "Selling location(s)" and "Shipping location(s)," start with "Sell to specific countries," then choose India. You can add more countries later.
4
Set the currency
In the Currency options, choose "Indian rupee (₹)." Leave other options as they are for now.
5
Save changes
Scroll to the bottom and click "Save changes."
📧
Peek at the Emails tab too. WooCommerce already sends order emails to customers and to you. In WooCommerce → Settings → Emails, you can change the sender name and address, and edit what each email says.
🧾 Stop 6
Tax and GST basics
If your client charges GST, WooCommerce can add it to prices automatically.
The most important question is whether your prices already include GST or GST is added on top. Decide this with your client before you enter a single price.
1
Switch on taxes
In WooCommerce → Settings → General, tick "Enable tax rates and calculations," then save. A new Tax tab appears.
2
Choose how prices are entered
In the Tax tab, set "Prices entered with tax" to "Yes, I will enter prices inclusive of tax" if the shown price is the final price. Most Indian retail shops use this.
3
Add a tax rate
Open "Standard rates," click "Insert row," set the country to IN, enter the percentage (for example 18), and name it "GST."
4
Save, then test a product
Click "Save changes." Later, when you add a product, check that the cart shows tax the way you expect.
👩💼
This is a learning guide, not tax advice. GST rates differ by product, and rules change. For a real client, confirm rates and invoice requirements with their accountant before going live.
📄 Stop 7
The pages WooCommerce creates, and adding them to your menu
WooCommerce quietly creates the pages every shop needs. Your job is to make them easy to reach.
🏬 Shop
Shows all your products in a grid.
🧺 Cart
Lists what the customer has chosen so far.
💳 Checkout
Where they enter address and pay.
👤 My account
Where customers log in, track orders and reset passwords.
1
See the pages
Go to Pages → All Pages. You'll find Shop, Cart, Checkout and My account.
2
Confirm they're assigned
Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Advanced → Page setup and check each page is selected.
3
Add them to your menu
Open Appearance → Menus (Phase Four). Tick Shop and My account, click "Add to Menu," then Save Menu.
4
Add a cart link
Cart is better as an icon. In Astra's Header Builder (Appearance → Customize → Header Builder), drag in the "Cart" element.
5
Keep the store hidden until ready
On the WooCommerce Home screen, choose "Launch your store" only when you've finished the series. Until then, you can keep the store in "coming soon" mode so visitors don't see a half-built shop.
🚫
Don't delete or rename these pages' purpose. You can edit how they look, but WooCommerce needs all four to exist.