How to Install WooCommerce plugin

How to Install WooCommerce plugin

Before we start with the process of installing WooCommerce plugin, make sure you have downloaded the plugin itself whether from WordPress.org or from http://www.woothemes.com/woocommerce/

Now when you have it downloaded on your computer you may start installation process. There are two ways for doing that: from WordPress admin panel and via FTP.

Let's see how it goes the easy way - from WordPress admin panel.

1. Install WooCommerce using WordPress admin panel

On your side menu, place your cursor on Plugins and then click on Add New.

On the Add Plugins page select Upload Plugin

Now select Choose File and browse to woocommerce.zip file on your computer, then click Open.

When done, hit Install Now button and the installation procedure will start. Wait until it is done and then click Activate Plugin, as in the picture below.

2. Install WooCommerce Using FTP Manager

This method is not very user friendly (although it is not at all complicated as it may seem at the beginning) but it offers complete overview of the stuff happening "behind the scene".

For this method, you will need an FTP manager such as Filezilla -All Platform, FireFTP -All Platform, Cyberduck -Mac Only, WinSCP -Windows Only, or any other for that matter.

With this installation method you will notice the difference in the very beginning as you will need to unpack downloaded woocommerce.zip on your hard drive. When finished unpacking, you will end up with a folder named "woocommerce".

Now, head to your FTP client of choice and connect to your FTP account. Usually, FTP managers have two "sides" where the one is your local drive and the other is your server. Browse to your WordPress installation folder on the server and head to wp-content/plugins folder. Next, browse to the woocommerce folder on your hard drive, select the whole folder and drag&drop it to wp-content/plugins folder on your server.

Wait until upload process finishes. Then log in to your WordPress admin panel and head to Plugins. Your WooCommerce plugin should be now listed with all of the other plugins (if not, you probably have uploaded it to the wrong folder). Now, go ahead and click Activate.

Quick Setup

Regardless of what method you decide to use, it comes down to the same result - successfully installed plugin. Now, when the plugin is installed, you will need to activate it and that's when the magic pops in. The good people who made the WooCommerce  plugin made pretty little quick setup guide which will guide you through the basic setup options. The options through this guide are well explained and easy to understand. However, if you set something wrong, it's really not a big deal as all of those settings can later be edited through standard WooCommerce Settings.

This is the welcome screen in which you may opt to run through quick setup or just quit and set up later through standard WooCommerce settings. We'll choose Let's Go and it will lead us to the next page of the quick setup.

This page informs us that it will create the pages that are necessary for WooCommerce to work properly. Just click Continue and let it do whatever it needs to do.

When WooCommerce pages are created, it will ask to setup your Store Locale. Here you can set up the location of your store, currency you would like to use and product weight and dimensions units. Again, you can set it up here or you may skip it and set it up later in WooCommerce settings. If you choose to set it up now, just click Continue when done.

This page allows you to set Shipping and Tax. If you are going to use WooCommerce just for selling tickets and nothing else, you may leave the Basic Shipping Setup checkbox unchecked and if you plan to charge tax on ticket sales, you may check the Basic Tax Setup checkbox. All of it is optional and can later be changed in WooCommerce settings.

If you plan to use PayPal Standard, you can enter your PayPal email address here where you want to accept payments. Also, if you want to allow Cheque Payments, Cash on Delivery and Bank Transfer, you may check the corresponding checkboxes. However, if you don't plan to use any of the methods offered here, just leave it all as it is and later choose the one you want from vast selection of  payment methods in WooCommerce add-ons.

This is the final stage that informs you that your store is now ready to be used and offers to create your first product right away. It also contains valuable links to WooCommerce setup and knowledge base. Right on the bottom is the link to return to the WordPress Dashboard.