How to Start an Online Store (Step by Step)
A complete WooCommerce build: products, payments, tax, shipping, and the checkout tests to run before launch.
About this build
An online store is a website with money attached, which means the margin for error is smaller and the details matter more.
This is the full WooCommerce build: products, payments, tax, shipping, and the checkout testing that separates a store that works from one that quietly loses orders.
What you'll be able to do afterwards
- Set up WooCommerce properly from the start
- Add products, variations and stock control
- Take payments and get tax right for your country
- Configure shipping rules that don't lose you money
- Test a checkout end to end before launch
Before you start
- A WordPress site
- Something to sell, or a stand-in product to practise with
WordPressWooCommerceStripeElementor
Place a real order before you launch
Test mode catches most things but not all of them. Put a live product at the lowest amount your gateway allows, buy it yourself, and confirm the order, the email and the refund all work.
Chapters
- 0:00
What we're building
The finished store.
- 9:00
WooCommerce setup
The wizard, and what to change afterwards.
- 27:30
Products
Simple, variable, and stock.
- 58:00
Payments
Gateways, fees and testing.
- 1:22:40
Tax
Rates, rules and the sane defaults.
- 1:48:00
Shipping
Zones, classes and free-shipping thresholds.
- 2:20:15
Designing the store
Shop, product and cart pages.
- 2:58:00
Checkout testing
The full list before you take real money.
- 3:30:00
Launch
Going live with confidence.
Terms explained in the Knowledge Base
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