Introduction
Before you install WooCommerce you must have a functional WordPress installation. If you haven't completed this step you must visit our full WordPress installation guide.
Installation of WooCommerce consists of two parts. The first part is necessary, the second part is optional but recommended.
- Installing the WooCommerce plugin
- Running the Setup Wizard
Both of these steps will be explained in more detail below.
Installing the WooCommerce plugin
Log into WordPress Dashboard
Click Plugins > Add New
Search WooCommerce
Choose Install
Now you may begin working with WooCommerce immediately, or you can go through the optional Setup Wizard.
The WooCommerce Setup Wizard
The setup is a guided question and answer walk-through that will gather some information about your store and set up some default pages.
If you would like to go through the Setup Wizard click Let's go. If you would like to go through the Setup Wizard later you can click Not right now.
Page Setup
The first stage of the Setup Wizard is the Page Setup option. WooCommerce will check your WordPress installation for certain pages: Shop, Cart, Checkout, and My Account. If WooCommerce cannot find these pages it will create them automatically.
These pages will be used for exactly what they say. Shop will be used to display your products, Cart is where your customer can view items they have selected, Checkout is where your customer will finalize their purchase, and, finally, My Account is where your customer can access their account information.
You have the option to keep these pages set to their default configuration (as WooCommerce set them up), or you can make them specific to your needs.
Store Locale
The Store Local section gathers some important information about your store. This information includes the geographical location of your store, which currency your store will use, and units of weight and physical dimensions for your products.
Shipping & Tax Setup
This screen will gather some information about shipping and taxes if you're going to be shipping physical goods to customers or charging sales tax.
If you are going to be shipping physical goods to customers you can configure domestic and international shipping costs right here. Likewise, if you plan on charging sales tax you can pre-configure some options from here or Import starter tax rates based on your location. (Bear in mind these can be updated or changed later.)
Payments
This is important because you'll want to make sure you get paid for you products and/or labor. WooCommerce offers a variety of payment methods. You can start with accepting PayPal payments by simply putting in your PayPal Email Address. You can also choose to enable offline payments or configure them later.
Your Store is Ready!
The last screen of the Setup Wizard gives you the option of sending diagnostic data to WooThemes in exchange for a 20% discount toward the purchase of a premium them. Choose Allow if you're interested, other choose No thanks.
Including on this screen is a direct link to creating your first product and some help resources. You can also send a Tweet to let your followers know you just set up your store.