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How to set up an eCommerce website?

how to set up an ecommerce website

Ecommerce or electronic commerce is the use of the internet to buy and sell goods and services. If you own a business, irrespective of how big or small it is, you will have to own your own e-commerce website to survive in the current market. Customers are slowly moving towards online shopping and pandemics like the COVID-19 are contributing to the growth of the eCommerce market too.

Can you guess how many eCommerce websites get registered every day in India? An average of one lakh!

set up an ecommerce website

Statista mentions that in the year 2015, the eCommerce market size in India was $20 billion. In 2027, this is estimated to hit $200 billion! Are you one of those millions of entrepreneurs trying to ride this wave? You will have to invest in your eCommerce website then.

This article will take you through the detailed processes of how you should create your online website to offer your products and services effectively. This article focuses especially on WordPress and WooComerce and their contributions to creating a hassle-free, professional website. Read on.

What Do You Need to Start an Online Store?

There are so many processes involved between your decision of wanting an eCommerce website and cracking the first sale. You will need the right combination of smart strategies, great design, worthy UI and UX (User Interface and User Experience), and the right professional help to get this done.

Let’s assume you have already done the basics like naming your business, registering it, and creating brand identities like your own logo, tagline, and themes. The first step after these is to set up your online store platform.

Choose and Set up Your Online Store Platform

An eCommerce platform is a tool or a software application that you can use to create your website. Apart from creating a website, different platforms offer different other features that can include:

  • Managing orders
  • Managing shipping
  • Creating and implementing marketing strategies
  • Offering data for analytics
  • Handling day-to-day operations

Usually, there are four basic steps needed to create an online store.

  1. Getting your domain name
  2. Opting for hosting services
  3. Adding content to your website
  4. ‘Go Live’ of the website

The kind of eCommerce platform you choose determines how easy or how challenging these processes are going to be. Check out Netilly’s detailed comparison of Shopify and WooCommerce – two of the industry’s top eCommerce platforms. Do your research right before you pick the right platform. This creates a solid foundation for your eCommerce website to function out of.

Once you have chosen the right eCommerce platform for you, it takes just a few steps to register for the software and set your online store. These tools have great user instruction databases like videos, blogs, and support groups that you can refer to while signing up and using the platform.

 Consider using WordPress

WordPress is one of the most popular platforms you can use to create your website. WordPress was established in 2003 as an Open-Source Content Management System (CMS) and remains open-sourced to date. Among the top 10 million websites functioning in the world, about 40.9% of them use WordPress. WordPress also enjoys 64.7% of the market share in the industry.

If you have decided to use WordPress to create your website, here are the simple steps to follow.

Step 1: Choose between Premium, Small Business, or Dedicated E-commerce accounts.

ecommerce pricing

Step 2: Find your preferred domain name and buy the same.

ecommerce website

Step 3: Navigate through the WordPress dashboard and get familiar with it.

You can change the theme of your website, add posts, get an SSL certification, add images and videos, and respond to comments from the dashboard. It takes just a few minutes to put together an ecommerce website through WordPress.

set up ecommerce website

Integrate WooCommerce

WooCommerce is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms that helps people manage their own website and set up payments and processing, and shipping easily.

WooCommerce is a type of open-source software that runs on the WordPress platform. The best thing about WooCommerce is that it offers thousands of free and paid plug-ins for developers and business owners to easily customize their websites the way they want to.

WooCommerce is one of the top-opted plugins in WordPress. You can check this at the ‘Plugins tab’ in your dashboard.

woo-commerce website

You can install the plugin and set up the store offering basic details like where your store is set up, what is your mode of currency, and shipping and tax information. You can choose your preferred payment mode from here too. There are 100+ payment gateways available with WooCommerce. Some of the popular choices for the payment gateway are:

  • Stripe
  • PayPal
  • AmazonPay
  • WooCommerce Payments
  • Square
  • Braintree

Adding Pages and Products/Services

In your WordPress dashboard, there is an option to add new pages. Most websites have common pages like about us, contact, home page, blog, and press/media. You can add new pages here and enter relevant details. These will automatically reflect on your website.ecommerce service pageecommerce - product page

If you have already installed the WooCommerce Plugin, you will also be able to add products to the eCommerce website.

ecommerce website - woo-commerce plugin

(Image credits: WooCommerce)

In the ‘Add Products’ section, you can add the product name, description, category, price, inventory count, product images/videos, and other attributes easily.

Once you enter all the details, you can publish the product and it will go live on your page.

 Select and Customize WordPress Theme

This is a really fun part of WordPress! Themes are graphical collections of files that determine how your website is going to look at the front end. Needless to say, the more beautiful and clear the theme is, the better are the chances that your customers like browsing through your site.

Themes have to be chosen depending on what kind of a business you own.

Let’s assume you own a designer clothing website and your friend owns a website that sells electronic gadgets. The color used throughout the website, the fonts, the size of product images, and the way pages are listed all have to be different for both these businesses. Your client base is, obviously, very different.

WordPress will recommend themes to you based on the business category you have chosen. Else, you can browse through the thousands of options available and pick one too.

set up ecommerce website

Visit Dashboard > Appearance > themes to check what your website’s default theme is. You can visit the WordPress themes directory to have a look at the available themes and choose from them. You can use the preview button to know how the theme will look.

Do note that while many themes are available for free, if you want premium graphics and design, you may have to pay and get the relevant theme for your eCommerce website.

You can also customize your own theme from the ‘Appearance’ tab. Here is the list of 2020’s best WordPress themes put together for you.

how to use wordpress for ecommerce

Elevate Your Website with Plugins

 Plugins are add-ons to your website that can be installed to add new dimensions or functionalities to your site. You can compare plugins with new gadgets installed in a kitchen. When you have a lot of right gadgets in the kitchen, you can cook elaborate meals and offer more options to people who eat. Plugins do the same.

With these plugins, you can do what a professional developer does using hundreds of codes with no basic knowledge of coding or development.

ecommerce in wordpress

As of now, WordPress offers up to 58,253 plugins! The number keeps increasing by the day. You can add plugins for marketing, shipping, payment processing, security and backup, and Search Engine Optimization and analytics. Here is a list of the best SEO plugins of WordPress that you have to check out.

Get familiar with WordPress and WooCommerce

WordPress and WooCommerce are both open-source tools and that means you can customize your eCommerce website the way you want without a lot of restrictions. For smart website creators, these are also great places to find amazing features for free or for meager prices.

However, it also means you need to constantly upgrade your knowledge on these platforms. You need to know what new themes and plugins are popular and if some developer has managed to offer a cutting-edge feature that can help your website.

You should also know the basics of identifying bugs and solving issues with your account to prevent stagnation. Make use of the immense support materials available both on WordPress and WooCommerce to learn more about these awesome platforms.

There are also support forums for both these websites where developers, fellow users, and tech experts come together and solve issues that people may have. It is a great idea to be an active participant in these forums.

WordPress – https://wordpress.com/forums/

WooCommerce – https://woocommerce.com/community/

how to use wordpress - ecommerce

ecommerce website

The more comfortable you get with these platforms, the better can you set up and build your eCommerce website.

Conclusion

Setting up your eCommerce website is such a challenging part of your business journey. Your website will be set up once and will support your business for a lifetime. It is hence vital you put the needed thought into this.

Not all business owners have the time and energy to waddle through thousands of themes and plugins and create and edit hundreds of product pages. That’s why we are here to help. Get in touch with us if you want to set up your eCommerce website with minimal fuss. Our expert team will start with gathering requirements and help you build your own website, the way you wanted and the way that produces instant results.

How to set up an eCommerce website? Read More »

Best WordPress Themes for Blogs in 2020

Did you know that WordPress stands to be the leading website creation tool among the top 1 Million websites? Undeniably, its flexibility, user-friendly interface, customizable themes, and the ability to provide a ready-made layout, design, and feel of the website are factors that make it the best tool for website creation. 

However, with 10,000+ themes currently available online, choosing a good theme for your blog can confuse you. To help you choose the perfect theme for your blog, we have come up with the best WordPress blog themes in 2019.

The best part about using these themes is that you can pick them up even if you are on a shoe-string budget. 

Before we go ahead with the list of best WP themes for blogs, here is what you need to consider while choosing the right theme for your blog:

  • Simplistic: A WordPress theme that is loaded with numerous features will probably increase the downtime on your website. This can further lead to frustration for the readers and eventually to low traffic. Therefore, it’s best to pick a simple theme. 
  • Responsive: As per the statistics by Statista 2019, there are currently 813.2 million mobile users in India alone. This indicates how imperative it is that your blog’s theme is mobile friendly. Keeping this in mind, choose a WordPress theme that is responsive on mobile as well. 
  • Reviews: Skimming through user reviews is undoubtedly a great way to know if it’s a good theme or not. If you come across a WordPress theme that has a bunch of bad reviews, stay away from that WordPress theme.

Ready? Now that you know the basics for picking the most suitable theme for your blog, here are the best WordPress themes you can give a try.

1#Jevelin

If you are looking for a simple, user-friendly, yet creative and responsive WordPress theme, Jevelin can be a perfect choice. It is a multi-purpose theme and works for all types of blogs from a writing blog or a food blog, to a blog of a designer. One prominent feature that makes this WordPress theme likable is that most bloggers find a comfortable space that helps them effortlessly publish their content, photos, or anything in general.

image of jevelin theme for wordpress blog used in blog post Best WordPress Themes for Blogs in 2019 on netilly official blog

Key features: 

  • Single-click website installation
  • Drag and drop tool for page building
  • Convenient social sharing
  • SEO optimized
  • Coding knowledge not required
  • 40+ animation elements

Price: 59 $

2# Foodica

Quite evident from its name, Foodica is one of the specific WordPress blog themes for food-related sites or foodie blogs. The theme consists of beautiful and specialised content display, shortcodes that are custom-built to add features like “create recipes” for your website or blog audience. Further, its layout is specially built in a way that enables you to share food pictures or images with the content systematically.

image of foodica theme for wordpress blog used in blog post Best WordPress Themes for Blogs in 2019 on netilly official blog

Key features:

  • Easy on-click demo installation
  • 6 colour schemes
  • Visual customizer
  • Several Ad zones for uploading banners
  • Compatible with Gutenberg WordPress editor

Price: $ 69

3# TheBlogger

For those who are passionate about weaving words to create magical content pieces, be it in the form of storytelling, writing, or blogging,TheBlogger proves to be a perfect WordPress theme. This theme gives Ninja form compatibility and Lightbox integration for several aspects. It has launched 11 demos so far, which support all formats for postings. You can create an impressive website through this theme by choosing from more than 800 Post-sliders and Google fonts.

image of theblogger theme for wordpress blog used in blog post Best WordPress Themes for Blogs in 2019 on netilly official blog

Key features:  

  • Doesn’t require coding skills
  • Mobile-friendly and retina-ready
  • Easy sharing on social media
  • Drag and drop feature in link-box widgets and main slider

Price: $59

#4 Writee

This one is a great WordPress theme for a corporate, fashion, travel, food, or a personal blog. Its mobile-friendly, fully-responsive feature, pixel-perfect elements, and design layout make this WordPress theme a choice of many. In fact, its downloads have reached as high as 2,552 downloads in a single day.

image of writee theme for wordpress blog used in blog post Best WordPress Themes for Blogs in 2019 on netilly official blog

Key features:

  • Full-width picture slider
  • WooCommerce integration
  • Fully responsive design
  • 600+ Google fonts
  • Social media sharing widget

Price: Free

5# Flat

A two-column design layout with a modern appearance, this WordPress theme is sure to entice you with its minimalistic look, great features, and its suitability for all types of blogs. The theme comes with header support, custom background, custom logo, large featured pictures, and images. It comes with a live-theme customizer using which, one can set options for flexible customization.  

image of flat theme for wordpress blog used in blog post Best WordPress Themes for Blogs in 2019 on netilly official blog

 Key features:

  • Convenient-to-use theme option panel
  • Customizable sidebar panel for navigation
  • Animated timeline with ‘drop-in’ effect
  • Drag-and-drop builder

Price: $59

6# PhotoBlogster

This free blog theme is a blessing for authors, writers, and photographers. With a homepage that has featured posts in a grid-type layout, this theme never fails to keep visitors hooked to the website created with this theme.

image of photoblogster theme for wordpress blog used in blog post Best WordPress Themes for Blogs in 2019 on netilly official blog

Key features:

  • 350 milliseconds load time
  • Follows Google’s guidelines for On-page SEO
  • Clean code
  • Fully responsive design

Price: $32

7# Revive

Another free theme blog for WordPress, Revive has a layout style suited to magazines that have large header images and features write-up for display in the form of posts grid. Also, it lets you have access to the “Font awesome icons” and effectively supports blogs with multiple layouts.

image of revive theme for wordpress blog used in blog post Best WordPress Themes for Blogs in 2019 on netilly official blog

Key features:

  • Responsive design that is compatible with multiple screens like desktop, tablet, mobile, etc
  • Font awesome icons for an interactive experience
  • SEO and speed optimized
  • Social media icons
  • Custom widget and side-bar options
  • Can turn into an e-commerce store with WooCommerce plugin

Price: Free

 8# Hemingway

Hemingway  is a simplistic theme for WordPress blogging, with a two-column layout that makes your published content easy-to-read. It is an idle theme for beginners who don’t want to get overwhelmed by a complicated set-up or too many alternatives to choose from. Its parallax scrolling feature that gives a faux-3D effect is quite a cool feature. 

image of hemingway theme for wordpress blog used in blog post Best WordPress Themes for Blogs in 2019 on netilly official blog

Key features:

  • Auto-translate into a bunch of other languages
  • Video-type scrolling feature in 3D
  • Retina-ready and responsive
  • Simplistic two-column theme
  • Custom widgets for Dribble, Flickr and video

Price: Free

 9# The Reader

If you want to build some spectacular web pages with eye-catching sidebars and great features, look no further as The Reader is a fantastic option for you. This WP theme for blogs caters to almost every type of audience, with its six-colour palettes, responsive design, and easy to install set-up that requires no coding skills.

image of thereader theme for wordpress blog used in blog post Best WordPress Themes for Blogs in 2019 on netilly official blog

Key features:

  • Search engine optimization ready
  • Speed optimized
  • Advanced typography alternatives
  • AdSense optimized
  • Comes with an in-built schema feature

 Price: $29

10# June

June is another coding-free theme, with enormous scope for customization and a rich layout. You get to easily add sliders and elements on sections and pages with just a few clicks. The WordPress theme comes with a bunch of premium and cool plugins like iLightbox, Apple Live Photo, LayerSlider, Slider Revolution, etc. that make the theme a must-have for your blog, regardless of the type it is.

image of june theme for wordpress blog used in blog post Best WordPress Themes for Blogs in 2019 on netilly official blog

Key features:

  • Wide range of templates and demo that are easy-to-install
  • Clutter-free layout
  • SEO optimized
  • Beginner-friendly
  • Doesn’t require coding skills

Price: $59

To Wrap Up

 

These are the best WordPress themes for blogs in 2019 that you should try out for your blog. A good website theme is one of the significant factors for attracting traffic to the website and keeping the audience hooked. Look no further and pick the right WordPress theme that suits your blog.

If you need assistance for picking the right themes which best suits your business, please drop us an email or leave your contact details. We will be happy to schedule a free consultation with one of our web design experts.

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