Starting a WooCommerce Store: 4 WordPress Tools to Set Up

If you're putting a new shop on WordPress, these are the four tools to start with: WooCommerce itself, with the settings to get right before launch, and three add-ons for specific jobs (photo galleries, event tickets and social sharing). Once the store is taking orders, our WooCommerce plugin shortlist for growing stores covers what to add next.

Many shops start as blogs, so every tool here works on an existing WordPress site and has a free version. Start free and pay only when you hit a limit.

1. WooCommerce: the store itself

Image: woocommerce.com

WooCommerce is the free eCommerce plugin from Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, with more than 7 million active installs. It handles physical and digital goods, products with variations, instant downloads and affiliate products, and the store runs on your own hosting, so you control the data and the design.

Work through these settings before you launch. All of them are under WooCommerce > Settings.

1. General. Enter the store address, choose which countries you sell and ship to, and set the currency. Tick Enable tax rates and calculations here if you need to charge tax.
2. Products. When you add a product, pick its type in the Product data box. Use Simple for a single item, Variable for one product in several sizes or colours (a shop selling plumbing fittings in five diameters, say), Grouped for a set sold together and External/Affiliate for items sold on another site. Tick Virtual or Downloadable for digital goods so WooCommerce skips shipping.
3. Shipping. Create a shipping zone for each region you serve, then add Flat rate, Free shipping or Local pickup to it. Live carrier rates need an extension, such as WooCommerce Shipping in the US or a plugin from your carrier.
4. Payments. Out of the box you get direct bank transfer, cheque payments and cash on delivery. For cards, add a gateway such as Stripe or PayPal; the payment section of our WooCommerce plugin shortlist compares the official ones.
5. Tax. If you turned taxes on, enter your rates on the Tax tab, or use an automated tax service if you sell into many regions.
6. Emails. Set the "From" name and address so order emails come from your shop, not "WordPress".

Then place a test order with every payment method you've enabled, and check that the confirmation email arrives.

2. Envira Gallery: lookbooks and photo galleries

Image: enviragallery.com

For the product photos themselves, you don't need a gallery plugin. Each product has a Product image and a Product gallery box on its edit screen, and most WooCommerce themes display them with zoom and a lightbox.

Envira Gallery is for everything else: lookbooks, outfit or room photos, behind-the-scenes shots and galleries on pages that aren't products. Clothing and footwear shops get the most from it, because customers can't try anything on and want to see it in use. The free version has a drag-and-drop gallery builder, a block and shortcode, a responsive lightbox, several layouts, lazy loading, and alt text and captions for each image. Albums, social sharing, WooCommerce integration (linking gallery images to products) and client proofing are in the paid version.

Galleries add weight to a page, so check your speed afterwards. Our guide to front-end WordPress performance shows how to size images so a gallery doesn't slow the page.

3. Tickera: if you sell event tickets

Image: tickera.com

If your business runs workshops, exhibitions, charity balls or fundraisers, Tickera sells the tickets from your own site. No ticketing platform takes a cut of each ticket; you only pay your payment processor's fees.

What to know before you choose it:

• The free plugin has its own checkout with a small set of built-in gateways, including offline payments and free orders. Check that your preferred card gateway is supported before you build the event.
• To sell tickets through the WooCommerce cart and payment gateways, alongside your products, you need the paid Bridge for WooCommerce add-on.
• Check-in on the day uses the Checkinera apps for iOS and Android, plus a browser version. They're paid, and the mobile apps keep scanning offline after their first sync.
• Tickera says it works with any well-coded theme, and it lists themes designed for events.

If you're collecting gifts rather than selling tickets, a donation plugin fits better; see our comparison of WordPress donation plugins.

4. Revive Social: share posts to social media automatically

Image: WordPress.org

Revive Social, formerly Revive Old Post, shares your new and older posts to social media on a schedule, with hashtags and a link back to your site. The free version posts to Facebook Pages and X (Twitter). Sharing WooCommerce products, and networks such as Instagram, LinkedIn and Bluesky, need the Pro version.

It's most useful if you publish a blog alongside the shop: older guides and buying advice keep getting shared without you scheduling each one. If you only want to promote products, you'll need Pro, or you can share the few that matter by hand.

What to do next

Get WooCommerce's settings right and run a test order before you install anything else. Add the gallery, ticketing or sharing tool only when you have the content or events to use it. When you're ready to bring in shoppers, read 9 ways to generate leads for your WooCommerce store.