8 Pro Tips for Building a Killer WooCommerce Store

Thinking about building a killer WooCommerce store? If so, you’ve come to the right place. 

WooCommerce is a powerful tool with tons of customization options, making it an excellent option for your eCommerce business.

In this post, we provide tips for building a killer WooCommerce store to help you get launched and start making money.

1. Pick the Right Hosting

You can set a physical store up for success or failure based on where you open your brick-and-mortar storefront. The same is true for your online store. Where you decide to host your site matters.

WooCommerce is excellent, but it can get resource intensive as your store grows and you get big waves of traffic. You can’t use the same type of hosting that you would for a basic blog to run a successful eCommerce business.

You need a robust hosting provider like Pressable to handle the resource demands. 

Picking a host is one of the most important decisions you’ll make for your WooCommerce store, so you want to choose wisely.

When picking a host, look for: 

• Uptime Guarantee and SLAs. You can’t make sales if your site is down. Choose a host that has a strong uptime guarantee. A 100% uptime guarantee means your hosting provider is confident about their platform and ability to keep your site up and running.
• Server Locations. Find a host that offers servers near your audience’s primary location for the best results. Trying to connect with a server that’s far away can slow down your site substantially, causing you to lose potential customers. 
• CDN Support. A content delivery network (CDN) is a great addition when you have a diverse demographic. CDNs store your website on servers closest to your audience and deliver your website to them in the least possible time. 
• Good Storage. Customers constantly engage with eCommerce websites — creating accounts, browsing pages, and comparing products. That means you need a hosting plan with plenty of room to deliver the data that comes with a store and storage that will respond quickly to your visitors’ needs. We recommend NVMe storage (which is what Pressable uses) for performance but plans that rely on standard SSDs can work as well. 
• Data Security. It’s not going to help your store’s reputation one bit if you have to inform customers that their data was compromised on your website. You can take measures to improve the security of your store, but your host must ensure the data is stored on encrypted storage with multiple backups. 

You want a service provider that understands WooCommerce. Managed WooCommerce hosting can save you time and effort if you want to focus on running your business and leave the performance and security of your website to someone else.

2. Get the Right Look

You don’t look through a store window, see a mess of what looks like junk, and decide to go inside to take a look. Your website makes an impression, just like brick-and-mortar stores make an immediate impact that entices you to shop or not. 

The way your virtual storefront looks matters. It’s the first thing your visitors see when they come to your site. It makes them decide whether they’re interested in taking a look around.  

WooCommerce offers complete flexibility in how your store looks and feels to your customers, with no-code, drag-and-drop page-building capabilities to help you get the look you want from your site.

Themes and Plugins

WordPress has thousands of free and paid themes, so there’s no need to design from scratch. Even if you do, the drag-and-drop design capabilities help you customize the site easily

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Since you’re building a professional store, you may want to start with a premium theme. They offer more flexibility and customization features, so your store can have a unique layout compared to those built with free themes. The developers of premium themes also optimize them for speed and compatibility for a better overall experience. 

Keep the Site Clean and Minimal

People are only willing to dig for the best deal from the bargain bin. No one wants to do that online, where shoppers expect products, deals, and options to be displayed for them. 
That’s why keeping the design elements to a bare minimum is essential. Think professional photos of your products on plain backgrounds with minimal text. Be sure to keep a consistent design language throughout your site.

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3. Master the WooCommerce Store Checkout

Checkout is the most vital part of any eCommerce store. If the checkout is slow or doesn’t work properly, customers will leave. Issues caused during checkout account for more than 50% of cart abandonment. 

The checkout flow starts from your product pages. Make it simple to add things to a cart, then allow multiple payment options to simplify the buying process. The idea is to make the checkout as effortless as possible. 

Building Trust

Have you ever gone to book a seemingly great deal on an Airbnb, only to find an astronomical cleaning fee attached that jacks up the cost of the stay? If you have, you’ve surely felt tricked by the experience and decided to stay elsewhere.

Don’t let your customers be shocked by their final price. Almost half of cart abandonment is due to unexpected costs at checkout. People don’t want to be surprised by additional costs when they’re on the payment page. It causes them to lose trust in your brand and buy from your competitors instead.

To avoid this frustration, show customers the full price, including taxes and shipping right away. Some stores even account for these costs within the product prices, so customers never see extra costs at checkout. Also, consider including trust badges near the total for extra proof of legitimacy. 

Adding a three-point bullet list about your delivery guarantee, refund policy, and support details also can be useful in building confidence at checkout.

4. Provide Excellent Customer Service

There are some inherent risks involved with shopping online. Will what arrives actually look, feel, and perform how you expect it to? People are willing to take that risk for the convenience of shopping from their sofas, but they don’t want to be stuck with a product they hate. That’s why customer service is critical throughout the buying process.

Respond to customer queries promptly, ask for feedback, and make the buying experience the best it can be for them. This approach improves how customers perceive your store and increases the likelihood that they’ll recommend it to others.

Service Systems

One way to stay on top of your customer service efforts is to integrate a customer relationship manager (CRM) into your WooCommerce strategy. Your CRM will keep records of all transactions, emails, and phone conversations. You can also integrate email communications and make calls from the system.

There are many options for CRMs that connect to WooCommerce, but if you’re not sure which one to use, we recommend checking out Jetpack CRM. It was built to work alongside WooCommerce and even offers support for multiple stores so it can grow alongside your business.

Be Easy to Talk To

You’ve probably had the experience of being forced to call an 800 number, only to be transferred from person to person, eventually ending the call with no resolution to your problem. Talk about frustrating!

WooCommerce websites give customers options on how they engage with your business. You can integrate Facebook messenger plugins, so any queries customers have will come straight to that platform communication system. Similar plugins are available for WhatsApp. 

Avoid customer service that sends people around in circles without giving them an actual solution. Make sure your customers go through a process, with the final step being a solution to their problem or the ability to speak to an actual person who can help.

5. Optimize for Search Rankings

Many eCommerce store owners ignore Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and jump straight into business. But how do you expect people to find your store? They can’t happen by it when meeting a friend for lunch. You need the assistance of search engines to send them there.

Identify Primary Keywords

Imagine you’re looking for fishing rods on Google. The terms you’d type, for example, 12 feet fishing rod, are called keywords. 

The stores and websites that show up on the first page of Google have optimized their product pages for SEO. 

Use Search Console to identify the primary keywords for your store.

Once you connect your site to Search Console, Google keeps track of and shows the keywords people type in to find your site. Based on this information, you can optimize your WooCommerce store for better rankings.

Earn Backlinks

Backlinks show that the person linking to your site trusts it as an authority. When it comes to your eCommerce store, backlinks are essentially endorsements for your products. In other words, you want them.

So, how do you earn backlinks? Sell great products that people love and want to share with others. It’s really that simple.

Also, don’t forget to talk about your products. If you aren’t willing to promote your brand, who will?

Optimize for Social Media

Social media engagement also impacts rankings. Take the time to discover which platform your audience uses most and start engaging there. Post links to your products, encourage users to generate content using your products and show behind-the-scenes that allows potential customers to see more about you, your team, and your brand. Show up and engage often to use social media to create relationships with customers. 

6. Use Email Marketing for WooCommerce

Email marketing lets you reach consumers who opted into your messages in their inboxes. It’s a direct line to people who have shown interest in your products. That means you want to use email marketing and work to build your list. It helps generate sales and grow relationships with customers.

Build an Email Subscriber List for Your Store

Start by encouraging your customers to subscribe to your email list. It also helps to create irresistible offers and optimize the call to action (CTA), helping you increase your email signup and conversion rates.

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Allbirds gives you updates about new product launches or limited edition products if you sign up for their emails. 

This approach may not work well when just beginning since you may not have people waiting for the latest launches. But you can do a special promo for email subscribers — give them a chance to be the first to grab discounts. 

Create Automated Email Campaigns for Customer Engagement

Collecting emails is just the first step. You also need to keep them engaged. Think of your email list as a group of people you’ve invited to a party. If the party is boring, they’ll leave. 

Use an email marketing tool like Mailchimp to run an email drip campaign. These campaigns help you keep engaging with your audience and lead them to a sale.

7. Monitor and Analyze Store Performance

Alright, your store is up and running. You have your checkout optimized, SEO and customer support handled, and are collecting emails. What’s next? Monitoring for success.

Use WooCommerce Analytics to Track Key Metrics

The truth is in the data. Your analytics tell you how your store is doing and help you identify areas for improvement. You want to know how many people are viewing your store, how many sign up for your list, how many complete their checkout, their demographics, and more. Most of this information can be found on your WooCommerce analytics dashboard.

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You’ll also need to use an analytics platform like Google Analytics for more detailed insights. This information includes your visitors’ time on page, how far they scroll before getting distracted (scroll depth), and many other pieces to create a full user journey. 

Optimize Store Performance

Once you have the data, use it to optimize your store, improving user experience and resulting in increased sales. 

Let’s consider the scroll depth is 50%, meaning your visitors scroll half of your page before switching to some other page or leaving your site. With this information, you can now add an interactive animation, a video, or some visual elements to keep the user hooked and scrolling further. Or, you could cut your page shorter to fit their natural scrolling pattern. Your approach will depend on the type of page and the content.

Regardless, pay attention to what the data tells you and make changes accordingly.

8. Secure Your WooCommerce Store

Don’t forget that you need to secure your WooCommerce store on your end. It’s not enough just to have a great website host. You have to do your part too. Let’s discuss this in two important steps. 

Step 1: Essential Security Measures for WooCommerce Stores

All ecommerce stores must have at least the following security measures:

• SSL Certificate. With Pressable, you get an SSL certificate for free with your hosting plan, so you don’t have to look elsewhere. This certificate keeps your site’s data safe and lets customers know they can comfortably share things like credit card info there.
• Two-Factor Authentication. It’s a good idea to have two-factor authentication that requires an OTP via SMS/Email or an authentication app. There are many 2FA plugins you can choose from.
• Daily Backups. You also need daily backups to easily roll back to a recent version of your website in case of failures. Pressable offers automated daily backups as part of hosting plans.

Step 2: Securing Payments and Data

Take special care when handling payments. That’s the type of data that hackers want, which is part of why every country has different data privacy laws. 

By default, WooCommerce retains information about what products a customer ordered and when, the name, e-mail address, and phone number provided by the customer, addresses entered by the customer, and a note about the payment method used by the customer.

When it comes to more specific payment data, we highly recommend letting the payment gateway manage this information for you. If you use Stripe, for example, you’ll store your customer’s payment data with them, and they will work with the processor on your behalf. 

Set the Stage for WooCommerce Success

It’s almost time! Your WooCommerce store is close to launch. With this information, you are fully prepared to launch, optimize, and secure your store. 

The first step of your journey begins with the right hosting. And what’s better than letting the professionals handle the technicalities for you? Managed WooCommerce Hosting offers a robust, secure, and scalable platform, so you can focus on growing your business while Pressable takes care of the rest. Start your WooCommerce success story with Pressable today!