If you haven\u2019t got your online store set up yet, let\u2019s show you how to get one up and running using WordPress.<\/p>\n The checklist below covers everything you need to know to get your eCommerce\u00a0 set up on the WordPress platform:<\/p>\n eCommerce Business Planning<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Your eCommerce Customer Experience<\/a> WordPress eCommerce Plugins<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n eCommerce Plugin Features<\/a><\/p>\n WordPress eCommerce Themes<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n eCommerce Theme Features<\/a><\/p>\n Additional eCommerce Planning Considerations<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Sell Online Through Membership Sites<\/a> You’ve probably heard the old adage… “if you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.”<\/p>\n Everything in your eCommerce business requires planning… from web design, page layout, site navigation, and web content, to how you will source, sell, and ship products, collect and process payments, engage, interact and follow up with customers, and more.<\/p>\n Regardless of whether you are a website owner trying to figure out how to accept payments online for your services or a web developer who builds sites for clients on a regular basis, planning the following aspects of your eCommerce business is essential:<\/p>\n Let’s start the eCommerce business planning process with the end in mind by thinking about the people who will buy your products and services, and imagine the customer\u00a0experience\u00a0<\/em>you would like to create for them.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n If you have done your market research, you should have a clearer idea of your target audience. Imagine, then, an ideal prospect landing on your site and try to visualize their experience:<\/p>\n Your customers’ eCommerce experience<\/em> doesn’t just happen online.\u00a0 All areas of your business affect their experience. For example, if you sell physical products or services, operational processes like manufacturing, ordering,\u00a0 supply, inventory management, pricing, packing, and fulfillment will also have an impact. It’s important, then, to start with the “big picture” and try to imagine things from your customer’s perspective and how they will feel doing business with you.<\/p>\n For more help with this stage of the eCommerce business planning process, see our\u00a0guide on selling products online<\/a>.<\/p>\n An eCommerce store needs these essential elements to run effectively:<\/p>\n The eCommerce platform<\/a> you choose will impact many of your future decisions and influence other choices, like selecting eCommerce plugins<\/a> and an eCommerce theme<\/a> for your online store.<\/p>\n WordPress offers a number of different platforms. WooCommerce, for example, has the market share of WordPress-powered eCommerce platforms.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n In addition to adding web pages like an ‘About Us<\/a>‘ or ‘Contact Us<\/a>‘ page, your eCommerce store needs special pages, like:<\/p>\n Many eCommerce themes for WordPress include page templates for the above, and some themes allow you to customize options in these pages.<\/p>\n Integrating a marketing blog with your eCommerce store lets you and your team\/staff:<\/p>\n <\/div>\n One of the main benefits of using a blog is to help drive more sales ahead of big events like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Cyber November<\/a>, and many other opportunities.<\/p>\n You can easily write content ahead of time and schedule posts to automatically publish on specific days, so as the sales day approaches, your business is ramping up its promotions and getting customers excited for the big day. Posts can direct customers to your store, to specific product pages, to a signup page where they can receive email or text notifications, or direct pre-sale or event questions to FAQ pages or your customer service team.<\/p>\n WordPress lets you seamlessly integrate your marketing blog with your online store. Depending on your choice of platform and theme, you can have your store and a blog run from the same WordPress installation, or install the blog separately in a subdirectory folder of your domain.<\/p>\n To create a successful eCommerce site that helps your business generate more sales, your site’s design needs to take customers through an optimized conversion and sales experience.<\/p>\n We have created a separate post on how to design an eCommerce site to increase conversions and boost sales<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you plan to accept payments online, your site will need eCommerce features like ‘add to cart’ buttons, shopping cart, payment processing facilities, shipping options, currency conversion, and more.<\/p>\n For help with eCommerce features, see the following guides:<\/p>\n Additional (and optional) elements that can help to improve your online store include:<\/p>\n We also recommend installing these free tools:<\/p>\n Rules and regulations apply for all kinds of businesses, including selling products and services online. Some of the legalities you need to take into account when planning your online store include:<\/p>\n Product Licensing<\/strong><\/p>\n If you plan to sell or distribute products online from other vendors, make sure to have all the necessary licenses to promote, distribute, or sell someone else’s goods. Even if you plan to set up an affiliate store or build a business dropshipping product<\/a>, there are terms and conditions you must adhere to. Many companies take breaches of their vendor agreements seriously and may cancel your license or terminate your account or distribution agreement for failure to comply with their T&Cs.<\/p>\n Content Copyright<\/strong><\/p>\n If your site uses stock images or other forms of outsourced content creation, make sure that you have a license to use this content on your site and understand how the content is to be used or attributed in your content.<\/p>\n Check out our guide on the best places to find free stock images for your website<\/a>.<\/p>\n Legal Pages<\/strong><\/p>\n There are a number of legal pages eCommerce sites require to remain compliant with federal, state, or regional business laws and regulations.\u00a0Key legal pages you should add to your eCommerce store’s legal section include Terms of Use<\/a>, Privacy Policy and GDPR<\/a>, information on ordering, shipping, returns and refunds, FTC compliance, and disclaimers to minimize any liability or risk.<\/p>\n In addition to adding legal documentation to your website, make sure that you understand all legal requirements and obligations, including copyright<\/a>, trademarks, and consumer law as it applies to all the countries or regions you plan to sell to and operate in.<\/p>\n Security is vital to an eCommerce site. If customers don’t feel safe being on your site, they won’t transact and one security breach can bring your entire business down. There are many security aspects to consider when setting up an eCommerce site, from SSL and secure payment processing to the way you handle customer data.<\/p>\n Learn more about\u00a0 WordPress safety for eCommerce sites<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n As mentioned earlier, the easiest way to build an eCommerce store with WordPress is to start with an eCommerce plugin<\/a>. After installing and activating the plugin, all that’s typically left to do is configure your store settings, add product information and pricing details and you are ready to start selling online<\/p>\n WordPress offers a number of eCommerce plugins. Here are some of the main WordPress plugins you can use to build your online store:<\/p>\n WooCommerce<\/a> is the most downloaded eCommerce plugin for WordPress (and owned by the same company that owns WordPress). It includes many features that will instantly turn any WordPress site into a professional online store. The plugin is free and comes with store management tools, reports, security features, marketing, promotions, coupons, tax options, shipping options, and SEO.<\/p>\n If you’re willing to shell out a few bucks, there are many extensions available<\/a>\u00a0that you can use to expand your store’s capabilities with a broad range of features including subscriptions, table rate shipping, payment gateway fees, product documentation, returns, warranties, product add-ons, PDF invoices, and products of the day, to name just a few. These extensions range in price from about $29 all the way up to $299 per year.<\/p>\n<\/section>![\"Online](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/ecommerce-graphic1.png\")
WordPress And eCommerce Planning Checklist<\/h2>\n
\neCommerce Site Elements<\/a>
\neCommerce Platform<\/a>
\neCommerce Legalities<\/a>
\neCommerce Security<\/a><\/p>\n
\nSet Up A Network Of Stores Using Multisite<\/a>
\nSell Other People’s Products Online<\/a>
\nMultilingual eCommerce<\/a><\/p>\n![\"eCommerce](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/ecommerce-graphic.png\")
eCommerce Business Planning<\/h2>\n
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Planning Your eCommerce Customer Experience<\/h3>\n
![\"Laptop](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/customer-experience.jpg\")
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eCommerce Site Elements<\/h3>\n
Your eCommerce Platform<\/h4>\n
![\"WooCommerce](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/woocommerce-stats.png\")
eCommerce Pages<\/h4>\n
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Marketing Blog<\/h4>\n
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![\"Flowchart](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/blog-ecommerce.png\")
Web Design<\/h4>\n
eCommerce Features<\/h4>\n
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Additional Elements<\/h4>\n
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eCommerce Legalities<\/h4>\n
eCommerce Security<\/h4>\n
![\"Senior](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/online-shopping-with-a-credit-card.jpg\")
WordPress eCommerce Plugins<\/h2>\n
WooCommerce<\/h3><\/header>
![\"WooCommerce](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/woocommerce-1-600x193.png\")
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