How to Build a Free Ecommerce Website on WordPress
Looking for an easy way to sell your products online? You can set up a free WordPress website, and in this article, we’ll tell you exactly how.
Why WordPress?
WordPress is the #1 content management system (CMS) in use today, and it’s powering thousands of websites around the world. It’s the perfect tool for building a free ecommerce store whether you’re familiar with coding or not. WordPress makes setting up a store simple and straightforward, and it offers a lot of functionality to power your online store. If you’re looking for a free WordPress website, then you’ve come to the right place!
Set Up A Free WordPress Website For Your E-Commerce Store
Go to https://wordpress.com to set up a free WordPress website. You’ll see a screen full of text. Above the fold, you’ll see a big button that says Get Started. Tap that button to continue to the next step.
You’ll see a short intro video (this is how WordPress introduces itself). At the top of the screen, you’ll see the heading 1. Select A Theme. The WordPress dashboard will drop down. You’ll see a preview of the theme you’ve selected. It’ll probably look something like this (we’re using a premium WordPress theme called Glorious):
- Free (10 total downloads)
- Sale (50 total downloads)
- Pro (59 total downloads)
- Business (99 total downloads)
Create A Product And Add It To Your Store
When you click on the Get Started button, you’ll be taken to the dashboard. On the far right side of the dashboard, you’ll see a button called Add Product. In the box below that, you’ll see a search box. Type in the name of any product you want to sell online, and you’ll see a list of matching products (below the search box). Click on the Add Product button for each item you want to sell.
For example, if you want to sell hammers, you’ll click on Hammers and then click on Add Product. You’ll see a screen with a form with the name Hammer as the main input. You’ll see additional options like Desk Hammer, Tool Hammer, etc. You can use the Filter Option to narrow down your choices. When you’re done adding products, you can click on Publish to make your new website live. Your products will be visible to other WordPress users in your site’s public area (this is the part of your website that anyone can access and read). To switch to the single-product view, you can click on the Products tab above the public area.
Make Sure You’ve Set Up The Right Domains
The next thing you’ll need to do is verify each domain name you’ve purchased to make sure it’s pointing to the right place. For example, if you’ve bought www.mystore.com, you’ll need to make sure someone can actually reach that website from the internet. To do this, click on the Networks tab on the WordPress dashboard. You’ll see various networks (this is what ISPs provide). Choose the Live network and then click on Create New Network. Enter a network name and click on Create New Network.
In the text field below, you’ll see http://www.example.com. Enter that into the A Record field. (In a nutshell, this is an IP address record.) The A Record should look like this:
- Type: A (alias)
- Value: www.example.com (or any other domain you’ve used)
- TTL(time to live): 86400 (this is the number of seconds WordPress will cache your site)
- Target: 0.0.0.0 (this is the IP address you’ll use to connect to the internet)
Now that you’ve got the A Record set up, you’re ready to begin building your site. Remember, you’re free to use any theme you like, but if you want your products to be visible on the internet, then you’ll need to use a Premium WordPress theme.