So, you want to launch an online optical store and start selling eyewear products. Great! But do you know what steps you need to follow? What about the e-commerce platform you are going to use? And how would you ensure that you are on the right track? If these are the questions bothering you right now, then you have come to the right place.
In this blog post, we are going to take you on an e-commerce journey to build your own optical store from scratch. For this, we are going to focuson WooCommerce, which is the #1 platform in the e-commerce usage distribution in the top 1 million websites. Let’s get it started!
To start an online optical store or any other website, you will need two key things. First, a domain name, which is your store’s unique address on the web (e.g. myeyewearstore.com). Second, your store will require web hosting, which is basically a remote computer that stores your website and serves it to shoppers who want to visit it.
Please note that your domain name should be unique, easy to remember, and catchy. If you already have an online business entity for your store, choose that as your domain name. Once you have your domain name, pay the initial hosting fee to set up a hosting plan you like.
The next step is installing WordPress and WooCommerce on your hosting account. Visit the Bluehost user panel and scroll down until you see the icon “Install WordPress.” Click on it, and you will have a blank WordPress website. Go to your main domain name and turn that blank website into a fully functional e-commerce store using the WooCommerce plugin. All you have to do is to activate the plugin.
It’s time to integrate your optical store with payment gateways, so you can accept online payments. WooCommerce offers an array of payment options, including PayPal and Stripe. You can also choose other payment methods that suit your online business. Find these options in your WooCommerce settings panel.
Upon the completion of the WooCommerce setup process and the integration of payment gateways, you are ready to add your eyewear products to your online store. It is quite easy to add products to your WooCommerce store as there are titles and descriptions provided for every product you want to add.
Configure the setting for the products you want to add after you are done adding the product content. Add regular and sale prices of these products and setup inventory. Don’t forget to add an image of every eyewear product that you want to sell online.
By customizing the WooCommerce theme, you can make your eyewear store stand out and create a unique appeal. Here, you will need to choose a specialized ecommerce-oriented WordPress theme, which is compatible with your WooCommerce store. Opting for any random theme won’t be a great idea to improve the look of your store. Instead of stuffing too many things, use a simple yet intuitive layout that complements your online store.
Now that your eyewear store is almost ready, you may want to integrate more features. For example, you may want to sell contact lenses or prescription eyeglasses. This is when you will need additional plugins like the WooCommerce eyeglasses lenses prescription plugin.
WooCommerce allows you to add new features to your eyewear website by using powerful extensions, such as the eyeglasses plugin in WordPress. There are thousands of them out there, both free and premium. Make sure you know which plugin to choose.
So, you are done setting up and optimizing your eyewear store, but that’s not it! You will also need to monitor how your business is performing in the digital space. Gaining insights would help you improve sales and shopping experience. This means tracking your highest-selling products, conversion rate, total monthly revenue, bounce rate, etc. This will also give you an in-depth look at your consumers’ demographics and shopping behaviors.
Your online optical store is ready to BOOM. You won’t have to look back anymore if you follow these steps carefully. However, if you need more help, feel free to reach out to us. We will help you integrate your store with powerful WooCommerce plugins like the WordPress contact lens prescription plugin.