WooCommerce installation and configuration

Level: Beginner | Reading time: 8 minutes

Install WooCommerce and configure your store in 30 minutes with this guided wizard.

In this chapter :

WooCommerce Guide - WooCommerce installation

Prerequisites - If you're installing on online hosting, you must have WordPress installed. Your hosting provider usually offers a 1-click installation from your customer area. You can also start locally on your own computer (see next section).

Install WooCommerce locally for practice

Before you commit to paid hosting, you can install WordPress and WooCommerce directly on your computer. This approach lets you explore the tool without risk, make any possible mistakes and start from scratch if necessary.

Why start local?

A local site runs solely on your machine, with no Internet connection required. No one else has access to it. This total freedom offers several advantages:

No initial costs - No need to buy a domain name or pay for hosting. You test for free for as long as you like.

Freedom to experiment - You can break the site, delete elements, test extreme configurations. A simple click restores everything to its original state (provided you've taken the precaution of making backups).

No-pressure learning - Take the time to understand every feature, without fear of a customer stumbling across a broken page or the wrong price.

Development before going live - Build your complete catalog, fine-tune the design and test the buying tunnel before exposing your store to the public.

**Payment validation To test the end-to-end purchasing process, I advise you to activate a simple payment method (payment by check, bank transfer or cash on delivery), as it will not be possible to activate payment by credit card in this environment.

Install Local by Flywheel

Local (formerly Local by Flywheel) is free software that turns your computer into a web server. In just a few clicks, you'll have a working WordPress with an address like maboutique.local.

Installation:

Download Local from](https://localwp.com/) (Windows, Mac, Linux)
Install the software as you would any other application
On first launch, click on Create a new site.
Give your site a name (example: "My Test Shop")
Keep the default options (Preferred) and click Continue.
Create your WordPress login (username and password)
Click Add Site and wait 2 minutes

Your local WordPress site is ready. Click on Open Site to see the frontend or WP Admin to access the administration. You can now install WooCommerce by following the instructions in the next section.

Migrate to real hosting

Once your store is ready, Local offers an export function. You can also use extensions such as Duplicator or All-in-One WP Migration to transfer your Local site to online hosting.

This migration preserves all your products, settings, pages and configurations. All you need to do is adjust the domain name and payment settings (test gateways do not work in production).

Install the WooCommerce extension 🔺

WooCommerce is installed directly from your WordPress dashboard. The process is simple and takes just 2 minutes.

Installation steps:

Log in to your WordPress administration (yoursite.com/wp-admin)
In the left-hand menu, click on Extensions then Add.
In the search bar, type WooCommerce.
Click Install on the first extension (by Automattic)
Once installed, click on Activate.

WooCommerce automatically launches a configuration wizard on first startup. Don't close this window, we'll fill it in together.

Check compatibility:

Before continuing, WooCommerce checks that your hosting meets the minimum requirements: PHP 7.4+, WordPress 5.8+, MySQL 5.6+. If an error message appears, contact your hosting provider to update these elements.

Most popular WordPress hosts like Bluehost, SiteGround, Cloudways, or WP Engine already meet these requirements by default.

Configuration wizard 🔺

The WooCommerce wizard guides you through 5 essential screens. Take the time to fill in each section, as you'll be able to modify these settings later.

Shop information

Store address:

Country - Select your country (determines currency, taxes, shipping zones)
Full address - Street, postal code, city (appears on invoices and emails)
Industry - Select the category corresponding to your products
Product type - Select physical, digital or both

This information is used to pre-configure taxes (appropriate tax rates for your region), delivery zones and payment methods available in your country.

Business sector and product types

Business sector:

Select the sector closest to your activity from 20 categories: Fashion, Electronics, Food, Crafts, Services, etc. This choice activates specific functionalities (sizes for clothing, weights for physical products).

Types of products sold:

Physical products** - Items requiring shipment (clothing, electronics, furniture)
Downloads** - Digital files (ebooks, software, music, training)
Subscriptions** - Self-renewing products (requires paid extension)

Check all the boxes corresponding to your catalog. You can mix several product types in the same store.

Sales information

Company details:

Number of products** - Estimate to size the interface (1-10, 11-100, 100+)
Sales already started** - Yes if you already sell elsewhere (marketplace, social networks)
Annual sales** - Estimate for anonymous statistics
Marketplace planned - If you also sell on Amazon, Etsy, etc.

This data remains confidential and helps WooCommerce to suggest relevant extensions. Answer honestly to get the right recommendations.

Theme and appearance

Theme selection:

WooCommerce offers Storefront, its official free theme, optimized for e-commerce. It's an excellent choice for a quick start. But it's also a bit generic, lacking in originality. I advise you to leave it as a backup on your site, as the WooCommerce developers use it to test platform evolutions. In the event of a bug, if it occurs on your theme but not on StoreFront, it's clearly a theme problem.

Alternatives:

Astra - Fast, lightweight theme, very complete free version.
OceanWP - Very powerful, with excellent support, premaid templates and comprehensive documentation.
Neve - Modern, mobile-first, Elementor compatible.
Keep your current theme - If you already have a WooCommerce-compatible WordPress theme.

Our advice : We may be biased as OceanWP Partner agency, but it is our weapon of choice.

Recommended extensions

During installation, WooCommerce suggests free and paid extensions according to your profile. For the time being, I'd advise you not to download anything, to keep the configuration relatively simple, and not spread ourselves too thin.

Navigating the WooCommerce interface 🔺

Before diving into the settings, take a few minutes to understand how WooCommerce organizes its interface. This knowledge will save you precious time on a daily basis.

Once WooCommerce has been activated, a new menu appears in the left sidebar of WordPress. This "WooCommerce" menu gives you access to all the tools you need to manage your store:

Home** - Dashboard with quick statistics and to-dos
Orders** - List and manage all customer orders
Customers** - Database of your buyers
Coupons** - Create and manage promotional codes
Reports** - Statistics on sales, products and customers
Settings** - Complete store configuration
Status** - Technical diagnostics and maintenance tools
Extensions** - Manage installed WooCommerce plugins

WooCommerce settings tabs

The WooCommerce > Settings page is the nerve center of your store. It is organized into 8 horizontal tabs, each grouping a family of settings:

General - Basic information: store address, sales and delivery country, currency and display format. This is where you define the geographical scope of your business.

Products - Catalog-related parameters: units of measure (weight, dimensions), "Add to cart" button behavior, global inventory management, and downloadable file parameters.

Shipping - Configuration of delivery zones and shipping methods. Each geographic zone can have its own carriers and rates. An essential tab for physical e-commerce.

Payments - List of all available payment methods (PayPal, Stripe, bank transfer, check). Activate, deactivate and configure each payment gateway from this tab.

Accounts and privacy - Customer account settings: automatic creation on order, login required or not, privacy policy, and GDPR/privacy data retention.

Emails - Configure automatic notifications: confirmation emails, shipping, refunds. Customize the sender, colors and content of each type of email.

Integrations - Connections with third-party services: MaxMind for geolocation, and other services depending on installed extensions.

Advanced - Technical settings: WooCommerce page assignments (Shopping Cart, Order, My Account), URL endpoints, and REST API options for developers.

Some tabs have sub-tabs. For example, Products is divided into "General", "Inventory" and "Downloadable Products". Explore each section to discover all the options available.

Product editing tabs

When you create or modify a product, the Product data area displays vertical tabs on the left. These tabs change according to the type of product selected (simple, variable, grouped, etc.):

General - Regular and promotional prices. For downloadable products, you can also upload the files here.

Inventory - SKU reference, stock management (quantity available, alert threshold), whether or not to authorize backorders, and individual sales (limit to 1 per order).

Shipping - Product weight and dimensions for automatic calculation of shipping costs. You can also assign a specific shipping class.

Linked products - Configure upsells and cross-sells. Suggest complementary or higher-end products.

Attributes - Technical product characteristics (color, material, size). These attributes can be displayed on the product sheet or used to create variations.

Advanced - Purchase note sent to the customer, order of display in the catalog, and activation/deactivation of customer reviews for this specific product.

For variable products, an additional Variations tab appears. This is where you create the different variations (size S, M, L in blue, red, green, for example) with their respective prices and stocks.

Contextual order tabs

The order edit page also displays specific meta-boxes and sections:

Order details - Status, dates, customer, billing and delivery addresses
Ordered items** - List of products with quantities and prices
Order actions - Resend emails, regenerate download rights
Order notes** - History of actions and communications (visible or private)

These different zones allow you to manage each order efficiently without having to navigate between several pages.

Essential parameters 🔺

Once you've completed the wizard, you can manually configure a few important parameters not covered by the wizard.

General settings

Go to WooCommerce > Settings > General :

Location:

Store address - Check the address entered in the wizard
Sell to - Choose "All countries" or limit to your target markets
Deliver to - Same or more restrictive
Currency position - According to local conventions
Decimal separator - Comma , or period . (according to your region)
Thousands separator - Space or comma , (according to conventions)

Save your changes before moving on to the next tab.

Product parameters

In WooCommerce > Settings > Products :

Units of measure:

Weight unit - kg or lb (depending on your region)
Unit of dimensions - cm or in (depending on your region)

Stock management:

Activate inventory management** - Check if you manage a physical inventory
Hold stock (minutes)** - 60 minutes (basket temporarily holds stock)
Low stock notifications** - Threshold at 2 units (receive an email alert)
Out-of-stock notifications** - Activated, you are alerted when stock = 0

Leave the other options as default for now. After a few weeks of sales, you'll be able to fine-tune them according to your real needs.

VAT settings

In WooCommerce > Settings > Taxes :

Activate taxes:

Activate taxes - Enable if you need to charge sales tax/VAT
Prices entered include VAT - Check if you enter prices including tax
Calculate taxes according to - Customer delivery address
Shipping tax class - Based on basket items

Standard tax rate:

Set your standard tax rate. Add reduced rates as required by your tax jurisdiction.

WooCommerce automatically calculates tax according to the customer's address. For cross-border sales, check EU VAT OSS rules or your local tax authority for cross-border sales thresholds.

Create mandatory pages 🔺

WooCommerce normally creates 4 essential pages automatically. Check their existence and customize them.

Automatically generated pages

Go to Pages to see these pages:

Store :

Home page of your catalog, displays all products. You can customize the appearance via Appearance > Customize > WooCommerce.

Cart:

Summary of items before ordering. Do not modify content (shortcode [woocommerce_cart] handled automatically).

Checkout :

Payment and delivery form. Contains the shortcode [woocommerce_checkout]. Never delete this page.

My Account :

Customer area to view orders, modify addresses, change passwords. Shortcode [woocommerce_my_account].

Check page allocation

In WooCommerce > Settings > Advanced > Pages :

Check that each drop-down list displays the correct page. If a page is missing:

Create a new page with the appropriate title
Insert the corresponding shortcode (see above)
Publish the page
Select it in WooCommerce settings

These 4 pages are mandatory for the purchase tunnel to function correctly. Never delete them.

Additional legal pages

Also, create these pages to comply with GDPR and applicable privacy laws:

Terms and Conditions:

Create a "Terms and Conditions" page with your conditions: price, delivery, returns and guarantees. Link it to the order page via WooCommerce > Settings > Advanced > Terms and Conditions.

Privacy policy:

WordPress offers a template in Settings > Privacy. Adapt it to WooCommerce (data collected: name, email, address, order history).

Legal Notice:

Create a page with your legal information: business registration details, address, hosting information (check your local legal requirements).

Add links to these 3 pages in your site's footer menu.

In a nutshell

WooCommerce installation takes 30 minutes via the integrated guided wizard. Configure the essential basic information (country, currency, business sector), choose a suitable e-commerce theme (Storefront or Astra recommended for beginners) and install the essential free extensions right from the start. Then check the critical tax settings, the units of measure and the existence of the 4 mandatory pages for proper operation (Shop, Cart, Order, My Account). Add your essential legal pages (Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, Legal Notice) to comply with applicable laws right from the start.

Next steps 🔺

Continue your configuration:

First Steps - Create your first product and configure payments
Launch Checklist - Check all points before launching
Back to Guide - Overview of the entire process

Navigation: ← Getting Started Guide | Installation and Setup | Next: First Steps →