Customize your online store the best way (Part 5)

Part 5: Customize your online store

In the last post, Part 4: Use the best ecommerce plugin for WordPress online store, we’ve talked about the best ecommerce plugin and how to choose one. This time, we’re getting a bit deeper into customization of an online store. Before all, I’d like to stress out how important it is for you to customize your online store.

In ecommerce, design of your website is very important, because people like to shop in nice places. So take time to chose the right theme for your needs and customize your online store to your liking. Picking the theme you like will give your store a professional design, allow you to display your products the way you want, and give site visitors the best first impression.

There are countless templates to choose from but make sure you pick one that’s responsive, compatible with different browsers, is SEO and mobile-friendly, and has good customer support. Look for the number of reviews and ratings to pick the right theme. Consider what others are saying about it to avoid disappointments.

Chossing the best theme

Some of the best templates to consider are OceanWP, Astra, Storefront, Themify, and Neve. If you want to have total freedom at designing your store, use a theme like Divi – included theme builder will enable you to style everything, plus you can use it for any other website. On the other hand, since it’s a general theme, it might request a little more work to be perfect fit. You can also purchase a premium child theme, which is another subject. Getting a premium child theme will shorten your design process greatly, and there are many available online.Let me just say that this is a perfect way if you’re not planning on doing everything yourself.

Choose your theme, install and activate it. Add new pages such as the ‘Product’ page and ‘Blog’ page that you will use to publish promotional content and share interesting updates or product launches. Don’t forget the ‘Privacy’ and ‘Terms of service’ pages, as these are very important for your position in the search engines.

Next, go to ‘Appearance’, then ‘Customize’ to customize your theme. You can move and edit different elements on each page, change background or font colors, change homepage settings, add your logo, customize your footer, add social media buttons, add widgets, and more.

Design an attractive ‘Product’ page to convert visitors into customers. Use the right layout, font type, font size, and colors.

Remember: try to get customers back to your store, because they will spend much more on returning visits..

Add your products

To add products to your WooCommerce store simply go to ‘Products’, then ‘Add new.’ Add your product name and description. Navigate to ‘Product descriptions’ on your right. Specify your product category by clicking on ‘+Add New Product Category.’

Scroll down to ‘Product Data’ and add important information such as pricing, shipping, and so on. Navigate to ‘Product Short Description’ and add a short description to describe your product. Go to ‘Product image’ and add the product image. Use ‘Product gallery’ to add multiple images. Go through all the information you’ve entered to ensure everything is correct and hit the ‘Publish’ button to add the product to your store. Go through the same process with every product and add as many products as you want.

If you’re planning on selling customizable goods, such as handbags, clothing or similar, there’s another resource I’d like to mention.

It is a plugin called Custom Products For WooCommerce. You’ll have to take a look to see everything it makes possible, let’s just say you’ll be able to let your customers customize almost anything about their chosen product. You can define extra colors, belt lengths, number of buttons or button/zip variations, and so on. Speaking of course of handbags, but you can set up just about any product, as long as you can provide variations.

This may look far-fetched but imagine that as a visitor you’re able to customize your order and make sure you’re buying a unique and extra item that no one else will match. This can send your conversions sky-high. And since you’re able to set a price for the customization, also your revenue will be higher.

Abandoned shopping cart

One of the main reasons why people abandon shopping carts and leave your store without ever purchasing anything is that the checkout process is too complicated or requires too many steps. Therefore, one of the most important things when customizing your store is to simplify the checkout process, make it easy for people to buy your product, and increase sales automatically with it.

Always ask for important information only. For example, the billing information, shipping information, and payment confirmation. Don’t force prospects to sign up for your newsletter or try to convince them to buy more from you because this is a sure way to lose them. There’s nothing wrong with including an opt-in link on the checkout page, as long as it’s not mandatory.
Offer different payment methods to market to different people and make it easy for prospects to buy despite their geographical location. Accept the most popular payment methods such as PayPal, Stripe, Google Pay, Apple Pay, Payoneer, Checks, Bank transfers, and Cash on delivery where applicable locally.

To set up payments on WooCommerce, you need to go to ‘WooCommerce’, ‘Settings’, ‘Payments’ and choose your preferred payment methods.

Scroll down for more options or to add additional payment methods you would like to use. Click on ‘Set up’ or ‘Get started’ to add the required information. Don’t forget to save changes when you are done to update your payment options.

Summary: Customize your online store

When all these steps are done, you are almost ready to start selling.

For sure, there’s work involved when you need to customize your online store. Like always, you have two basic choices: either you do it yourself and pay it with your time, or get someone and pay it in dollars. Whichever way you choose, you have to do it to make the best possible impression on the potential customer and spread your branding. Remember, a store being too general will not call the customers back for another visit. And it’s a shame, because you’re simply leaving a lot of money on the table, so taking some time to customize your online store will pay back fast.

Full report (FREE)

You can download the full report about how to start an online store by clicking the image below. It will let you download a full PDF doc that you can read at your own pace and on any device.

Posts in this series:

• #1: How to start an online store and start an ecommerce business
• #2: Choosing the perfect domain name for an online store
• #3: How to find the best WordPress hosting for your online store
• #4: Use the best ecommerce plugin for WordPress online store
• #5: Customize your online store (this post)

You may also like

• Easy Page Buildr – Building websites in minutes

How to start an online store

• How to start an online store – Best ways to start an ecommerce business in 7 steps
• Choosing the perfect domain name for an online store (Part 2)
• How to find the best WordPress hosting for an online store (Part 3)
• Use the best ecommerce plugin for WordPress online store (Part 4)
• Customize your online store the best way (Part 5)