WooCommerce Essentials on WordPress: Store Setup and Key Concepts

How WooCommerce Fits Into a WordPress Site

WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that adds eCommerce features to an existing WordPress site. Because it is “just” a plugin, it follows WordPress conventions: it stores settings in the WordPress database, uses WordPress user accounts, and renders storefront pages through your active theme (plus WooCommerce templates).

The moving parts: theme, plugins, and templates

• Theme: Controls layout and styling. A WooCommerce-compatible theme includes template support for product archives, product pages, cart/checkout layouts, and responsive styling.
• WooCommerce plugin: Adds product management, cart/checkout, payments, shipping, taxes, and customer accounts.
• Extensions (optional plugins): Add features like subscriptions, bookings, advanced shipping rules, or additional payment gateways.
• Templates: WooCommerce provides default templates. Your theme can override them (for example, woocommerce/single-product.php). Overrides are powerful but can cause conflicts if outdated.

Database and content types (what WooCommerce adds)

WooCommerce uses WordPress content types and adds its own data structures:

• Products are stored as a custom post type: product.
• Product variations are stored as product_variation.
• Orders are stored as a custom post type (commonly shop_order). In newer WooCommerce versions, many sites can use High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS), which stores order data in dedicated tables for performance.
• Product categories/tags are taxonomies: product_cat and product_tag.
• Customer accounts are standard WordPress users, typically with the role customer.
• Settings are stored in WordPress options (for example, store address, currency, tax settings).

This matters because it explains why WooCommerce “feels” like WordPress: products behave like posts (with titles, content, featured images), and many site-wide behaviors (permalinks, user roles, caching) affect the store.

Core Pages WooCommerce Creates (and Why They Matter)

WooCommerce relies on a small set of essential pages. These pages are normal WordPress pages that contain special shortcodes or blocks, and WooCommerce routes key customer actions through them.

If any of these pages are missing or incorrectly assigned, customers may be unable to purchase, log in, or view their orders.

Continue in our app.

You can listen to the audiobook with the screen off, receive a free certificate for this course, and also have access to 5,000 other free online courses.

Or continue reading below...

Download the app

Prerequisites Before Running the Setup Wizard

Domain and hosting basics (what you need ready)

• Domain pointing to your hosting (DNS configured).
• Hosting that supports WordPress and can handle eCommerce traffic (PHP + MySQL/MariaDB). For best results, use a host that supports modern PHP versions and provides server-side caching controls.
• Access to your hosting control panel (for SSL, backups, and file/database access).

SSL (HTTPS) is not optional for stores

Checkout pages must be served over HTTPS to protect customer data and to satisfy payment gateway requirements. Ensure your SSL certificate is installed and that WordPress uses HTTPS URLs.

• In WordPress, confirm Settings → General uses https:// for both “WordPress Address” and “Site Address”.
• If your host provides a “Force HTTPS” toggle, enable it.

WordPress installation (baseline checks)

• Log in to /wp-admin as an administrator.
• Confirm you can install plugins and themes.
• Set your site title and tagline (these often appear in emails and browser titles).

Permalink settings (critical for product and checkout URLs)

WooCommerce relies on clean permalinks for product URLs and endpoint URLs (like /my-account/orders/). Set permalinks before configuring the store.

1. Go to Settings → Permalinks.
2. Select Post name (recommended for most stores).
3. Click Save Changes (even if it already looks selected—saving flushes rewrite rules).

User roles you’ll see in a WooCommerce store

WooCommerce adds roles that work with WordPress permissions:

• Administrator: Full control (site + store).
• Shop Manager: Manages products and orders without full site admin access.
• Customer: Standard purchasing account.
• Subscriber: WordPress role; may exist if you allow registrations without purchases.

Practical tip: create a Shop Manager account for day-to-day order handling instead of sharing an admin login.

Choosing a WooCommerce-compatible theme

A compatible theme should:

• Declare WooCommerce support (or be known to work well with WooCommerce).
• Render product grids and single product pages cleanly on mobile.
• Not heavily override WooCommerce templates unless maintained and updated.
• Support block-based editing if you plan to use WooCommerce blocks for catalog layouts.

Before committing, preview a demo product page and checkout styling. A theme that looks great on the homepage but breaks cart/checkout is a common early mistake.

Guided Setup Checklist Using the WooCommerce Setup Wizard

After installing and activating WooCommerce, the setup wizard helps you configure key store settings. Use it as a checklist, not a one-time “click through.”

Step 1: Install and activate WooCommerce

1. Go to Plugins → Add New.
2. Search for WooCommerce.
3. Click Install, then Activate.

On activation, WooCommerce typically prompts you to run the setup wizard and may create core pages automatically.

Step 2: Store details (identity and base location)

In the wizard, enter:

• Store address (base location): used for taxes, shipping origin, and some payment gateway requirements.
• Country/state, city, postcode.
• Industry and product types (helps WooCommerce suggest optional features).

Practical check: if you ship from a warehouse different from your office address, use the shipping origin address that matches your tax/shipping rules.

Step 3: Currency, units, and basic commerce settings

• Currency: choose the currency you will charge in (e.g., USD, EUR).
• Product measurement units: weight and dimensions (important for shipping calculations).

Practical check: confirm your currency symbol and decimal formatting match your region expectations (for example, $1,234.56 vs 1.234,56 €).

Step 4: Payments (start simple, verify later)

Select at least one payment method so you can test checkout end-to-end. Many stores begin with:

• Card payments via a supported gateway (requires account setup and verification).
• Cash on delivery (useful for testing checkout flow without a live gateway).

Practical tip: even if you plan to use a live gateway, enable a test method temporarily so you can validate pages, taxes, and shipping without waiting on approvals.

Step 5: Shipping (define a basic structure)

Shipping in WooCommerce is typically configured using Shipping zones (regions) and methods (flat rate, free shipping, local pickup, carrier integrations).

• Create at least one zone (e.g., “Domestic”).
• Add a method (e.g., Flat rate).
• Set a simple cost (you can refine later).

Practical check: if you don’t configure shipping and you sell physical products, checkout may block customers with “No shipping options were found.”

Step 6: Taxes (basic decision)

Decide whether you will enable automated taxes or configure rates manually later. The key is to ensure your store behavior matches your legal obligations.

• If you’re not ready, you can leave taxes off temporarily while building, but turn them on before launch if required.
• Confirm whether prices are entered inclusive or exclusive of tax (this affects display and calculations).

Step 7: Recommended extras (be selective)

The wizard may suggest optional plugins (marketing, analytics, etc.). Install only what you need right now. Too many add-ons early can complicate troubleshooting.

Verify Storefront Output After Setup

Once the wizard is complete, verify that the store renders correctly and that key settings match your intent. Use this quick verification sequence.

1) Confirm currency and base location

1. Go to WooCommerce → Settings → General.
2. Check Store Address and Base location.
3. Check Currency options (currency, position, thousand/decimal separators, number of decimals).

What to look for: the currency symbol appears correctly on product prices and in the cart totals.

2) Confirm core pages exist and are assigned

1. Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Advanced.
2. Verify page assignments for Cart, Checkout, and My account.
3. Go to Pages → All Pages and confirm Shop exists (Shop is often configured under WooCommerce → Settings → Products depending on version).

What to look for: each page loads without errors and displays the expected cart/checkout/account interface (not a blank page).

3) Confirm your store identity basics

• Site title and tagline: Settings → General.
• Logo and colors: Appearance → Customize (or Site Editor for block themes).
• Store email sender: check WooCommerce email settings so order emails don’t look suspicious to customers.

4) Create a test product and validate the flow

1. Create a simple product: Products → Add New.
2. Set a price and publish.
3. Visit the Shop page and confirm the product appears.
4. Add to cart → open Cart → proceed to Checkout.

What to look for: add-to-cart works, totals calculate, checkout fields load, and there are no redirect loops.

Troubleshooting Common Setup Issues

Issue: Core pages are missing (Shop/Cart/Checkout/My Account)

Symptoms: 404 errors on cart/checkout, “page not found,” or checkout redirects to homepage.

Fix steps:

1. Go to Pages → All Pages and confirm the pages exist.
2. If missing, recreate them using WooCommerce’s built-in tools (often available under WooCommerce → Status → Tools as “Create default WooCommerce pages”).
3. Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Advanced and reassign the correct pages.
4. Open each page and ensure it contains the correct WooCommerce block/shortcode (avoid manually deleting cart/checkout blocks).

Issue: Permalinks not updating (products or endpoints 404)

Symptoms: product pages return 404, My Account endpoints (orders, downloads) don’t work, category pages break.

Fix steps:

1. Go to Settings → Permalinks.
2. Without changing anything, click Save Changes to flush rewrite rules.
3. If still broken, temporarily switch to another permalink structure, save, then switch back and save again.
4. Check for caching layers (plugin/server/CDN) and purge caches.

Issue: Theme conflicts (layout broken, buttons missing, checkout fields misaligned)

Symptoms: cart/checkout looks unstyled, product grid is broken, add-to-cart button missing, checkout fields overlap.

Fix steps:

1. Temporarily switch to a known WooCommerce-friendly theme to isolate the issue (Appearance → Themes).
2. Disable non-essential plugins one by one to identify conflicts (especially optimization, minification, and page builder add-ons).
3. Check whether your theme includes WooCommerce template overrides; outdated overrides can break new WooCommerce versions.
4. Update theme and WooCommerce to compatible versions and retest.

Issue: Cart not updating or checkout stuck loading

Symptoms: quantity changes don’t apply, spinning loader on checkout, totals not recalculating.

Fix steps:

1. Clear browser cache and test in a private/incognito window.
2. Disable caching/minification for cart and checkout pages (these pages should generally not be cached).
3. Check that HTTPS is consistent (no mixed http/https URLs).
4. Review browser console errors (often caused by script optimization plugins).

“Ready to Proceed” Criteria (Setup Validation)

• HTTPS works site-wide, especially on Cart and Checkout (no browser security warnings).
• Permalinks are set (Post name recommended) and product URLs load without 404 errors.
• Core pages exist and are assigned: Shop, Cart, Checkout, My Account load correctly.
• Currency and base location are correct and display properly in product and cart totals.
• A test product can be added to cart and the checkout page loads with payment/shipping options appropriate to your configuration.
• No obvious theme/plugin conflicts: cart/checkout are usable on mobile and desktop, and buttons/fields render correctly.