Installing WooCommerce takes about five minutes through your WordPress dashboard, followed by a guided setup process that configures your store’s essential pages and settings. The plugin is free, and you don’t need any coding knowledge to get it running.
Check Your Hosting Requirements First
Before installing, make sure your web hosting meets the technical requirements. WooCommerce recommends PHP 8.3 or greater, MySQL 8.0 or greater (or MariaDB 10.6+), and the latest version of WordPress. The plugin can technically run on older versions like PHP 7.4 and MySQL 5.67, but those have reached their official end of life and may leave your site exposed to security vulnerabilities.
Most modern hosting providers already meet these specs, especially if you’re on a plan marketed for WordPress. If you’re unsure, check your hosting control panel or ask your provider. You can also see your current PHP and MySQL versions inside WordPress by going to Tools > Site Health > Info > Server.
Install and Activate the Plugin
Log in to your WordPress admin area and follow this path: Dashboard > Plugins > Add New. In the search bar at the top right, type “WooCommerce.” The official plugin by Automattic should appear as the first result. Click “Install Now,” wait a few seconds for the download to finish, then click “Activate.”
That’s the entire installation. WooCommerce is now running on your site. But a fresh install doesn’t do much on its own. The real configuration happens in the onboarding wizard that launches immediately after activation.
Walk Through the Onboarding Wizard
Once you activate the plugin, WooCommerce opens a setup wizard that walks you through the basics of your store. It asks for several pieces of information across a few screens:
- Store location: Where your business is based, which determines default currency and tax settings.
- Industry: The general category your store falls into.
- Product types: Whether you sell physical goods, digital downloads, or variable products (items with options like size or color).
- Commerce experience: Whether you’re just starting out, already selling online or offline, or setting up a store for a client.
- Contact information: Your email address, with an option to receive tips and recommendations from the WooCommerce team.
None of these choices are permanent. You can change every one of them later in your WooCommerce settings. The wizard is simply a faster way to get the basics configured so your store is functional right away.
Understand the Pages WooCommerce Creates
During the setup wizard, WooCommerce automatically generates four essential store pages in your WordPress Pages menu:
- Shop: Your main product catalog page. It doesn’t need any manual content because WooCommerce populates it with your products automatically.
- Cart: Displays the items a customer has added before checkout, using WooCommerce’s built-in Cart block.
- Checkout: Shows shipping options, payment fields, and order summary using the Checkout block.
- My Account: A customer-facing dashboard where shoppers can view their orders, manage their address, and update account details.
If you skipped the setup wizard or notice that any of these pages are missing, go to WooCommerce > Status > Tools and look for the page installer tool. Click “Create Pages” and it will generate any missing defaults.
Configure Tax Settings
WooCommerce can handle tax calculations automatically, but the feature isn’t turned on by default. You need to flip two switches. First, go to WooCommerce > Settings > General and check the box labeled “Enable taxes and tax calculations.” Save your changes. Then navigate to WooCommerce > Settings > Tax, select “Enable automated taxes,” and save again.
With automated taxes active, WooCommerce calculates the correct tax rates based on your store location and your customer’s shipping address. If you sell to customers in multiple regions, this saves you from manually entering tax rates for every jurisdiction.
Set Up Shipping
If you sell physical products, you’ll need at least one shipping zone. Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping and click “Add shipping zone.” A shipping zone is simply a geographic area you ship to, paired with the methods and rates available for that area. You might create one zone for domestic orders with a flat rate and another for international orders with a different price.
For each zone, you can add shipping methods like flat rate, free shipping, or local pickup. Flat rate lets you set a fixed dollar amount. Free shipping can be configured to kick in only when an order exceeds a minimum total, which is a common strategy for increasing average order value. You can always add more zones and methods later as your shipping needs evolve.
Add Your First Product
Go to Products > Add New in your dashboard. WooCommerce lets you start with a pre-filled template for different product types: physical, digital, or variable. Choose whichever matches what you’re selling, and the editor will pre-populate the relevant fields.
At minimum, every product needs a name, a price, and a description. For physical products, you’ll also want to fill in the shipping weight and dimensions so your shipping calculations are accurate. Add a product image by clicking “Set product image” in the right sidebar, and consider adding a few gallery images if you have them. When everything looks right, hit “Publish” and your product will appear on your Shop page.
Choose a Payment Method
Your store needs a way to accept money. Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Payments to see the available options. WooCommerce includes built-in support for its own WooPayments gateway as well as PayPal. You can also install extensions for Stripe, Square, and dozens of other processors.
Each payment gateway has its own setup process, but generally you’ll need to create an account with the provider, connect it to WooCommerce using API keys or an authorization flow, and then toggle it to “Enabled.” Most gateways charge a per-transaction fee, typically a percentage of the sale plus a small fixed amount, so compare rates before committing.
Test Before You Launch
Before sending real customers to your store, place a test order yourself. Most payment gateways offer a sandbox or test mode that lets you simulate a purchase without actually charging a card. Enable test mode in your payment gateway settings, add a product to your cart, go through checkout, and confirm that the order appears in WooCommerce > Orders.
While testing, check that your tax calculations look correct, that shipping rates display properly, and that the order confirmation email arrives in your inbox. If anything is off, it’s far easier to fix now than after a customer runs into the problem. Once everything checks out, switch your payment gateway from test mode to live mode, and your store is ready for business.