1. E-COMMERCE IN WORDPRESS
Or lessons I’ve learned about making a shopping cart
with WordPress
Becky Davis - @beckyddesign

2. SO, YOU WANT TO BUILD AN ECOMMERCE SITE
 Charge double your normal
asking price
 Getting information
 Guiding client
 Reformatting images
 Setting up products
 And all their variations
 And their shipping options
 Testing cart
 Factor in all the extra time
T
Is
M
MonEy

3. INTERVIEW TWICE, CODE ONCE
Before even doing plugin research: find out from the
client
 Shipping
 Digital downloads? Congrats, click next
 One or multiple methods? UPS, USPS, FedEx etc.
 Handling charge?
 Flat rate or based on weight?
 Do they even know the weights of the products?
 Size of the box?
 Special rates for a certain price point?
 Distribution center or kitchen?
 Who gets notified? Who packs the box?
 Does the client understand that this does not happen on the
web automagically?

4. INTERVIEW TWICE, CODE ONCE
 Payment
 Using PayPal? – congrats,
click next
 Do they have the merchant
account setup?
 Already have a payment
gateway, or can you help them
choose?
 Different plugins take different
ones
 All you need is the API#
 Does the client understand
that this does not happen
automagically?
http://blog.arvixe.com/opencart-
payment-gateways/

5. INTERVIEW TWICE, CODE ONCE
 Sales
 Taxes being charged?
Where, how much?
 Coupon codes or special
sales needed?
 Special prices on grouped
sales?
 Walk the client through the
sales process several
times, to find out about
special use cases.

6. SECURITY
 PayPal? Click next
 SSL certificate
 Necessary to encrypt credit
card numbers
 Client has to buy
 Every host does it
differently
 Affects the domain name,
better to get into place
before WP install

7. PRODUCT INFORMATION
 How many?
 Need to CSV import?
 On the Spreadsheet:
 SKU
 Name
 Weight, dimensions
 Description
 Variations*
 Find out as much as possible on this,
will the plugin handle this?
 Price

8. IMAGES
 Design dictates the largest size
 All product images need to be consistently the
same size
 Upload large, generate thumbnails

9. WOOCOMMERCE
 Comes with a pre-baked layout
 Image grid on main shop page
 Large image left, description/buy button right for
single products
 Can be completely customized through
template (child) files and/or hooks & filters
 Pre-designed themes available as well
 Product information in one place
 Cart & shipping settings in another
 Core is free
 Shipping, gateway etc. extensions = $$

10. COMPARISONS
 Just downloads?
 Easy Digital Downloads
https://easydigitaldownloads.com/
 Free, many paid for extensions available
 Need more complexity?
 WooCommerce
http://www.woothemes.com/woocommerce/
 Free, many paid for extensions available
 Cart66 http://cart66.com/

11. CONTACT INFO
 Beckydavisdesign.com
 @beckyddesign
 Slides on slideshare.net/bdgardengirl