Do you have some products for sale that you want to sell online??

Getting a website up and running can be expensive and an E-commerce website design can run into $2000- $3000. If you don’t have that type of money, then using this ‘Do it yourself’ guide to setup your E-commerce website free is the way to go.

You need a wordpress website already set up. WordPress itself was developed in 2003. It’s a software script that you install onto your website hosting and then from there, you can create a completely customized website without knowing website code.

The first step is to login to your wordpress dashboard backend, then go to plugin, type in Woocommerce, install and activate.

Feel free to check out my WordPress support and training membership for more help.

Once Woocommerce is activated you will see two new headings on the left hand sidebar of your wordpress dashboard. These are Woocommerce and Products. Before you see these you will get a welcome notification from Woocommerce that looks like this.

I recommence you follow these steps now, so click lets go and make sure you have the following information on hand.

• Shipping postage costs if you are sending out physical products.
• If you are going to charge tax or not.
• The way you’re going to accept payments.
• Product information, images, how many in stock etc.

Shipping/ postage costs

Working out how to send your products to your customers at a cost effective rate often takes abit of testing. You don’t want to charge someone $15 for postage if it only actually costs $8 as this is unfair to have the customer pay $7 for handling. However only charging $8 to the customer where a parcel might cost you $15 to post is not fair for you as you lose $7 in profits. The best thing to do is actually go down to your local Australia post and talk to one of the staff, if you’re able, take a product or two down with you. They will give you some advice about the best way to send your items. If you have standard size items then I find using the pre-paid satchel the way to go.

These are the prices for pre-paid satchels.

up to 500 grams $8.50

Up to 3kg $13.80

Up to 5kg $17.60

These are great but for smaller items. However if you have larger or heavier items you will have to go with other options of boxes, larger satchels etc

Depending on where you are located, in my experience from living in Goulburn NSW. WA, NT, SA are the most expensive states to post products to. I would have allot at the pricing options of similar businesses to yourself.

Tax? Yes or No

Within Australia this tax relates to the Goods and service tax. If you’re gross income is less than $75,000 then it’s optional to register for GST. As a small business owner myself I don’t make this much, however I do plan to in the near future. At the moment I chose not to register for GST, however as soon as I get closer to this gross income I will register.

Accepting payments

There are a few different ways that you can accept payments from customers. You can collect cash on delivery if you are local and have the option to deliver products or you can accept payment on pick up. You might accept a cheque or payment via direct transfer which goes straight into your bank account. You can also accept credit card payment. To however accept credit card payment you need a credit card merchant provider. There are many options available. You can chat with your bank about a credit card machine or you can use an online payment gateway like PayPal or stripe.

Product information, images, how many in stock etc.

Once you have set up your online shop you need to add your products. This includes some information about the product, a photo of it, and the price, how many of each item you actually have in stock.

Woocommerce will allow you to add drop downs so your customer can pick a certain product colour, size, etc as well. So have a look around.

Feel free to check out my free WordPress support and training group.

Have a great day.

Cheers

Jacinta