Getting Started with WooCommerce: Build Your Online Store in 2025

WooCommerce is the most popular ecommerce platform in the world — powering nearly 30% of all online stores. It’s free, built on WordPress, and infinitely customizable. This guide walks you through setting up your first WooCommerce store from scratch.

What Is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is a free, open-source WordPress plugin that transforms your WordPress site into a full-featured online store. It handles products, inventory, payments, shipping, taxes, and orders.

WooCommerce is free — you download and install it at no cost. You pay for:

• Your hosting (recommended: a WooCommerce-optimized host)
• Your domain name
• Any premium extensions you need
• Your payment gateway’s transaction fees (Stripe is 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction)

Step 1: Install WordPress and Set Up Hosting

WooCommerce requires WordPress, which requires hosting. For stores, we recommend a host optimized for WooCommerce:

• SiteGround — excellent WooCommerce-specific plans with one-click install
• Kinsta — high-performance managed hosting for growing stores
• WP Engine — premium managed WordPress/WooCommerce hosting

For a beginner’s setup guide, see getting started with WordPress.

Step 2: Install WooCommerce

1. Log into your WordPress dashboard
2. Go to Plugins > Add New
3. Search for “WooCommerce”
4. Click Install, then Activate
5. Run through the WooCommerce Setup Wizard

The setup wizard walks you through:

• Store location and currency
• Industry and product types
• Payment gateway selection
• Shipping configuration

Step 3: Choose and Install a Theme

Your theme determines how your store looks. For WooCommerce, choose a theme built with ecommerce in mind:

• Flatsome — bestselling WooCommerce theme on ThemeForest
• Astra — fast, flexible, excellent WooCommerce integration
• StoreFront — official WooCommerce theme, free, designed for maximum compatibility

See our guide to best WooCommerce themes.

Step 4: Configure Payments

WooCommerce supports dozens of payment gateways. The most important to set up:

WooCommerce Payments (built-in, powered by Stripe) — accepts cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay directly on your store. Simple setup, competitive rates.

Stripe (via Stripe for WooCommerce plugin) — the most developer-friendly payment gateway. Easy setup, works in 40+ countries.

PayPal — still important as many customers prefer to pay with PayPal rather than entering card details.

For the payment settings, go to WooCommerce > Settings > Payments.

Step 5: Configure Shipping

Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping to set up shipping zones and rates:

• Free shipping: Offer above a minimum order value to increase average order size
• Flat rate: A fixed fee per order or per item
• Real-time carrier rates: Connect FedEx, UPS, or USPS for accurate rates (requires the WooCommerce Shipping extension)

Step 6: Add Your First Products

Go to Products > Add New:

1. Product title — clear, descriptive, keyword-rich
2. Product description — detailed description with key selling points
3. Short description — appears near the Add to Cart button; brief and punchy
4. Product images — main image + gallery. Use high-quality photos from multiple angles.
5. Product data — price, SKU, stock, weight, dimensions
6. Product categories and tags — organize your catalog

Product types:

• Simple product — a single physical item
• Variable product — a product with variations (size, color)
• Digital/downloadable — ebooks, software, files
• External/Affiliate — links to products on another site

Step 7: Configure Tax Settings

Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Tax:

• Enable tax calculation
• Configure your tax rates based on your location and applicable regulations
• The TaxJar or WooCommerce Tax extensions automate this for US stores

Step 8: Set Up Your Key Pages

WooCommerce creates these pages automatically during setup:

• Shop — your main product listing page
• Cart — shopping cart
• Checkout — payment page
• My Account — customer login and order history

Make sure they’re set correctly under WooCommerce > Settings > Advanced > Page Setup.

Essential WooCommerce Plugins

Beyond the core WooCommerce install, these plugins are essential for most stores:

See our full best WooCommerce plugins guide.

SEO for Your Store

WooCommerce stores need dedicated SEO attention. See our WooCommerce SEO guide for keyword optimization, product schema, and category page optimization.

WooCommerce vs Shopify

Not sure if WooCommerce is right for you? See our detailed WooCommerce vs Shopify comparison.

Useful resources:

• WooCommerce official documentation
• WooCommerce extensions marketplace
• WordPress.org WooCommerce plugin
• Stripe payment gateway