WooCommerce: the complete store guide
Everything you need to manage your WooCommerce online store — from adding products and processing orders to setting up shipping, taxes, and payments.
- Difficulty
- Beginner
WooCommerce is an add-on for WordPress — a plugin that turns the website you already have into an online shop. Your products, orders, and customers all live inside the same WordPress dashboard, so everything in the WordPress guides still applies: you log in to WordPress first, then work in the WooCommerce menu. If you're not sure what your site is built on, see Which platform is your website built on?
Who this section is for: business owners and their teams who need to run the shop day to day — add a product, ship an order, issue a refund. No technical knowledge required; each guide covers one task and tells you exactly what to click.
Quick summary
Installing WooCommerce adds four menus to the left-hand WordPress menu: WooCommerce, Products, Analytics, and Marketing. Orders arrive under WooCommerce → Orders, products are added under Products → Add New, sales figures are under Analytics, coupons are under Marketing → Coupons, and settings such as shipping, tax, and payments live under WooCommerce → Settings.
If you only read three things
- A tour of your dashboard — orient yourself before everything else.
- How to process & fulfill an order — the most common task once orders start coming in.
- Setting prices & sale prices — the second-most-common change you'll make.
Something not working?
Start with Troubleshooting order problems or Troubleshooting payment problems. If you need us to look, we'll need a login — see Give us WooCommerce store access.
Getting started
What is WooCommerce?
A plain-English introduction to the platform.
A tour of your WooCommerce dashboard
Find your way around from day one.
Products in WooCommerce explained
Understand the different product types before you build.
General store settings
Currency, address, and other core settings.
WooCommerce terms, explained simply
Plain-English definitions for every WooCommerce term.
Products
How to add a simple product
Create your first product step by step.
How to add a variable product (sizes, colors)
Sell items that come in different sizes or colors.
Product images & galleries
Add and arrange images for each product.
Writing product descriptions that sell
Turn browsers into buyers with better copy.
Organizing products with categories & tags
Keep your catalog tidy and searchable.
Managing stock & inventory
Track stock levels and avoid overselling.
Setting prices & sale prices
Regular prices, sales, and scheduled discounts.
Selling digital & downloadable products
Deliver files automatically after purchase.
Managing product reviews
Moderate and respond to customer reviews.
Orders & customers
Understanding orders
What an order record contains and what it means.
How to process & fulfill an order
Step-by-step order fulfillment.
Order statuses explained
What Pending payment, Processing, Completed, and more mean.
How to refund an order
Issue full or partial refunds.
How to cancel an order
Cancel and restore stock safely.
Managing customers
View customer accounts and purchase history.
Creating coupons & discounts
Create discount codes for your customers.
Shipping & taxes
How WooCommerce shipping works
The basics of zones, methods, and rates.
Setting up shipping zones & rates
Configure where you ship and what you charge.
Setting up free shipping
Offer free shipping with or without a minimum order.
How taxes work in WooCommerce
Tax classes, rates, and how to configure them.
Payments & checkout
Payment methods explained
An overview of how customers pay.
Accepting credit cards (Stripe & more)
Set up Stripe and other card processors.
Accepting PayPal
Connect PayPal to your store.
Understanding the checkout experience
What your customers see when they buy.
Cart & checkout pages
The pages WooCommerce uses for shopping.
Your store's key pages
Cart, checkout, account — the pages WooCommerce needs.
Store emails
Store emails to customers explained
Every automated email your store sends.
Customizing your store emails
Update the look and wording of automated emails.
Understanding abandoned carts
What they are and what you can do about them.
Reports & growing the store
Reading your store reports
Sales, orders, and product performance at a glance.
WooCommerce extensions explained
Add functionality to your store with extensions.
Selling subscriptions (overview)
Recurring billing with WooCommerce Subscriptions.
Selling bookings & appointments (overview)
Take time-slot bookings from your store.
Security & backups
Keeping your store secure
Practical steps to protect your store.
PCI compliance, in plain English
What PCI compliance means for your business.
Backing up your store
Why and how to back up your WooCommerce store.
Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting order problems
Fix missing, stuck, or incorrect orders.
Troubleshooting payment problems
Diagnose and fix failed or declined payments.
Payments aren't working on my store
The wider checklist when customers can't pay.
Troubleshooting — start here
Problems that aren't specific to your store start here.
The WordPress side of things
WordPress — the complete client guide
Logging in, users, plugins, media — the site underneath your store.
How to log in to WordPress
Step one, every time: get into WordPress.
Give us WooCommerce store access
Let us into the store so we can help or fix things.
Giving us access, explained
Every account we might need, and how to share it safely.
Need a hand?
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