Online store with WordPress
Creating a ‘fast loading’ eCommerce website is important to retaining visitors and returning customers, hence selling more products. Loading time is an important factor that many visitors take into account before deciding where to shop online.
A slow loading ecommerce website can affect conversion rates and the number of people who visit your online shop again in the future. If you are looking to create a fast loading website with WordPress, there are certain things you need to consider from the very start.
Although WordPress has lots of pre-built themes and plugins for eCommerce sites, not all of them speed up the process of getting your store up and running. There are some key things you should be aware of when and how to getting started with creating your new store.
With this article, you’re going to understand those key things to make your online store fast and clean which leads to a successful ecommerce.
Here’s what you’ll need
• Domain & Hosting
• WordPress Installation
• WordPress Theme
• Woocommerce Plugin
For creating a fresh ecommerce website, you’ll need to do some basics such as domain, hosting, wordpress, etc..
Here we are creating the online store with WordPress, which is very easy and homely for anyone who is familiar with any content management system and no need of coding knowledge.
Domain & Hosting
Domain and hosting are few of the mandatory things for making a website even if it is eCommerce or blog.
Domain name should be purchased from name service providers such as Namcheap, GoDaddy, Google domains, etc.
I recommend Namecheap or Google domains for registering your domain with. They are the few domain service providers you can trust and rely on for features like free privacy protection, where others charge for this feature which seems unfair.
Also Web hosting, which is also very important and should choose one of the finest hosting available according to your needs and budget.
• Top 5 Fastest Webhosting for Beginners to tryout
• How to find the perfect web hosting for your website?
If you chose some low end hosting service, neither your website nor your business is going to be a success.
So I suggest you consider looking for a good and trust worthy hosting provider.
WordPress Installation
If your domain and Web hosting is ready, it’s time to install WordPress. WordPress can be installed with single click nowadays with good hosting services who provides wordpress installation so easily.
Or you can Install WordPress by following the instructions on the wordpress website or by downloading the file from their FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server and uploading it to your computer.
WordPress Theme
The first step towards creating a fast loading eCommerce site with WordPress is to choose a good fast loading theme. As mentioned before, the pre-built themes that come with WordPress are great for setting up a site. But Ecommerce themes have been designed to handle a large number of visitors, products, and orders. They are known to speed up the process of setting up your online store with wordpress and help to keep your site running smoothly.
To make a fast loading online store with WordPress, you need one of the fastest loading wordpress themes available in the market. There are some lightweight themes such as Astra, Generatepress, Neve, etc..
For Fast loading and clean interface, I recommend Astra wordpress theme which is completely in support and can easily be integrated with online store modules such as WooCommerce.
ASTRA WordPress Theme
Astra Is 100% compatible with making any type of website, especially for making online store with WordPress and WooCommerce. The new update of Astra brings added support to the store function which will make them the favourites of e-commerce websites.
• It’s Faster and modern
• Secure, clean and classy
• Compatible with store functions
• Free starter Templates for WooCommerce
Here are some of the starter templates demo:
• Plant shop [Free]
• Electric scooter
• Inessa Perfume
• Egrow Plants
Look how fast these websites are loading with Astra starter templates suitable for online store and with shopping elements.
There are many other factors for choosing Astra over any themes strolling around the advertisement spaces of our devices. Why Astra for WooCommerce: Read More
WooCommerce plugin
While a fast loading theme is very important, you should also choose a clean and pro plugin to go with it. This is something that many people miss when creating an online store with WordPress. When you choose a plugin that is known for being fast, clean and secure you are indirectly increasing your sales, For that I recommend WooCommerce.
WooCommerce is a powerful eCommerce plugin that helps you sell anything. It’s free to download and use, so it’s worth checking out if you want to get started with online store management on your WordPress site.
WooCommerce is easy to install, set up and configure. You can find any kind of product or service in its catalogue as well as manage orders and create new ones easily through their intuitive interface. The plugin has a large number of extensions available to extend its functionality further even further than what it already offers by default!
To Install WooCommerce plugin, go to the plugins section from WordPress menu and search for WooCommerce or Download the file from WordPress directory and upload it manually.
Setting up your store
If you have completed the frontend setup for a ecommerce, then it’s time for setting up the whole backend activities such as Adding products, Payments, Taxes calculation and Shipping.
WooCommerce itself can help you with any of these setups and automations.
Physical, digital, or both: Sell physical products that will ship to a customer, digital products they can download or any combination of the two.
Built-in payment processing: Take payments via Stripe and PayPal. Accept credit cards, Direct Bank Transfer, checks or Cash on Delivery.
Tax options: Show taxes based on your customer’s shipping address, billing address or your store’s base address. Automatically calculate major country and state tax rates.
Shipping options: Give customers the option of pickup, local delivery or shipping. Restrict options available based on customer location.
For knowing further about the setting of WooCommerce: Read this tutorial.
Conclusion
Creating a fast loading eCommerce online store with WordPress is important for the success of your business. It is important to keep in mind the things that can slow down your site and how you can prevent them from happening.
When it comes to eCommerce themes and plugins, it is important to choose ones that are known for being fast. You can also keep your site running smoothly by keeping your content sweet, keeping the amount of imagery on your site in check and hosting your media compressed.
WordPress In-built comes with many of the unwanted css which we may never use such as wordpress block library and emoji files. There are many ways to prevent those unwanted files to not load and can make your store even faster.
