WooCommerce Setup Guide for a New Online Store

WooCommerce powers millions of online stores, from small boutiques to large catalogues. Setting it up takes an afternoon; setting it up well means thinking through payments, shipping, tax and the checkout experience. Here’s a launch checklist for a new store, with notes for Indian businesses.

Before installing#

• Hosting suitable for e-commerce (PHP 8.2+, enough memory, object caching) — see hosting types.
• SSL active — see SSL & HTTPS.
• A WooCommerce-compatible, lightweight theme.
• Product data ready: titles, descriptions, prices, SKUs, images, weights and dimensions.

Setup steps#

1. Install WooCommerce and complete the setup wizard: store address, currency (INR), industry, product types.
2. Payments: add a gateway that suits your customers — Razorpay, PayU, Cashfree, PhonePe or Stripe; consider Cash on Delivery for Indian buyers. Test in sandbox mode first.
3. Shipping: create shipping zones (local, state, national, international), methods (flat rate, free over a threshold) and classes for heavy items. Integrations with Shiprocket, Delhivery or similar automate labels and tracking.
4. Tax: enable taxes, set prices inclusive or exclusive of tax, and configure GST rates per product category. Use a GST invoice plugin for compliant invoices. Get professional advice for your specific tax setup.
5. Products: add categories first, then products with good titles, descriptions, images, prices, stock and attributes for variations.
6. Pages and policies: shop, cart, checkout and account pages, plus refund/return, shipping, privacy and terms pages.
7. Emails: customise order email templates and set up SMTP so they reach inboxes — see email deliverability.
8. Test orders end to end on mobile: add to cart, coupon, checkout, payment, email, refund.

Checkout conversion tips#

• Allow guest checkout.
• Ask only for necessary fields; enable address autocomplete.
• Show shipping costs early — surprise costs are the top cause of abandoned carts.
• Offer UPI and popular wallets for Indian customers.
• Show trust signals: secure payment badges, return policy, contact options (WhatsApp works well).
• Use the block-based Cart and Checkout for a modern, faster checkout where your plugins support it.

Performance#

• Exclude cart, checkout and account pages from page caching (most caching plugins do this automatically).
• Use Redis object caching and enable High-Performance Order Storage when compatible.
• Optimise product images; lazy-load gallery images.
• Limit heavy add-ons — each extension adds queries and scripts.

SEO from day one#

Unique product descriptions, optimised category pages, product schema and clean URLs make a huge difference. See WooCommerce SEO and the e-commerce SEO guide.