Must have configuration steps for woocommerce shop
I see that many people do the same mistakes again and again, so, we decided to write common article about steps which you should do after Woocommerce installation to prevent various issues and incompatibilities.
Basic Woocommerce settings
Permalinks
First thing which you should do on new site is permalinks. Go to settings – permalinks and set them. We recommend to set them as postname. Also, you can change base for products and categories, brands, but we recommend them to leave as default, change only Post links
Account, memberships settings
When you install Woocommerce in first time, plugin will prompt you to run wizard. Don’t skip it, because it will setup important pages and settings.
What to do if you skipped? Ok, simple run page creation from Woocommerce – Status – Tool – Create default Woocommerce pages
Make sure that you have all selected pages in WooCommerce > Settings > Advanced
Next thing is account management. First of all, make sure that you have enabled registration on site in Settings – general.
For new user default role – use Customer
Now, find your My account page. You will need link on this page. Usually, it’s /my-account. You can find your My account page in Pages – All pages
Edit your My account page, checkout page, cart page. Make sure that you have chosen System page layout in page options for these pages. Of course, you can choose also Default page layout + Full width option if you want to keep header on my account pages
Copy link to your my account page. Maybe you will need it in future for theme’s settings.
My account is a page where users can login. It’s also a page where users can see their orders (if you have shop on site). We will use this page also for registration. For this, enable the next option in Woocommerce settings
Image setup and Shop Layout setup
If you use any of compatible Woocommere theme, like Rehub, you can edit some parameters for shop. Usually, it’s available from Customizer when you view your site and logged in as Admin.
Simply click on Customize icon and go to Woocommerce settings. Most common field which you should edit is Product Images. Usually, I prefer to disable cropping. Also, you can change ratio, for example, use 4:3 if you like vertical images in your Shop instead of horizontal.
In Woocommerce – Product Catalog, you can also enable or disable visibility of category blocks on Shop pages.
Woocommerce ratings
if you want to enable Woocommerce ratings – go to Woocommerce – settings – products – enable ratings. Usually, they are enabled by default. If you have some problems with ratings even if you have enabled ratings, check our article how to fix rating issues in woocommerce
Woocommerce emails
Woocomerce sends many different emails, for registration, for order, etc. If you want, you may change them in Woocommerce – settings – emails
Woocommerce guidelines
If you need help with other basic Woocommerce functions, like, adding products, tax setup, shipping setup, etc, please, check Woocommerce Guides
Theme’s Specific settings
The next section will describe specific settings for our themes, like Rehub. You can stop reading this if you don’t use Rehub (or buy theme and continue reading 🙂
User login setup
In previous step, we enabled My account page and copied it’s link. Now, it’s time to use this page as our registration page in theme. Go to Theme option – user option and enable login popup + add My account page link as your custom registration link
This option will enable login popup. But you must have also button for registration/login in header or link. For this, go to theme option – header option and enable one of available header layouts. We recommend to use Shop/Comparison Header layout OR Logo + menu in one row for e-commerce sites. Once you enable them, you can enable also Logic icon.
Once user click on icon, he will see login popup or will be redirected to registration page if he clicks on registration.
Header options, logo options, color options
Header options, color options are available also from Customizer. Check our video about frontend editing for Rehub
Configuration of attributes
Woocommerce has good attribute system. If you don’t know how to use attributes, here is some tutorials
Additionally, theme has some advanced functions for attributes. Those are: attribute group, attribute swatches (you can use color, text tags and images as values). Theme also has special areas to show Featured attributes inside Product page and inside product loop. Here is video tutorial how it works
Design of shop and Product pages
Theme has a lot of different styles for product pages and shop pages. Each design has own sides and can be useful for different type of sites. For example, we have some product layouts which are better for Electronic products, digital products, some of product layouts are better for Directory or Product catalogs, affiliate sites, price comparison sites.
You can set product layout for each product separately when you edit it. And choose default global layout in theme option – shop settings – product layout
Next thing which you can change is Shop style. The best way to do this is customizer. It has next section Theme option – Woocommerce Archive settings. In this place you can choose default product loop template, number of products, etc
You can change also general width of site in theme option – general – select width
Also, Category pages have some additional options which you can use. Here some video
Wishlist, Specification comparison setup
When you first install theme, you will quick setup wizard. Don’t skip it, because you can use it for fast installation of all logos, mobile panels, comparison and wishlist pages. if you skiped it, you can return to it in Rehub – registration
You can find also some advanced technics about specifications and how to use Attribute groups in our video
You can find also many interesting options for Product layouts and how to use them in next video