Come join me for the second part of a three part tutorial all about creating an online Artists shop in WordPress.  This article is for Artists, Bloggers and Entrepreneurs who wish to sell a physical product online via WordPress.   In the first post I covered the initial set up of my online shop.  In this instalment I will be taking you through the process of adding your first product.

Although I’m selling Fine Art Prints, the same principles will apply to any physical product listing.  You can catch the first post here by the way, but for the purpose of today I will do a quick round up!

How to Create an Artists Shop in WordPress: Quick Recap

Last week I configured the WooCommerce plugin on my WordPress website.  I also covered the following:

• Why I chose not to sell with Etsy
• What I’m using to host my online shop through WordPress
• Instructions for the initial set up of an online shop

For a more in depth look at the initial set up of an online shop through WordPress, check out my previous post.  As for today I’m going to talk you through the process, as I add a new product listing to my online shop.  The below tutorial is on the basis that you have already read last weeks post and set up WooCommerce through WordPress.

How to Create an Artists Shop in WordPress: Adding a Product

Head to your WordPress dashboard.  Scroll down to the WooCommerce plugin and select ‘Add New’ in both the side bar and the top of the ‘Products’ screen as highlighted below.

Title and Main Product Description

The next screen looks a lot like writing a new blog post.  I don’t know about you, but as a WordPress user I find this quite reassuring?  The side bar to the right is very similar to that of a new blog post in WordPress.  It’s nice to know that you have the same ‘Save Draft’ option!

As a first port of call, I recommend adding the title and the main description for your product listing.

Configuring your Product Data

Once you have set a title and product description you can configure your product data.  I’m uploading a product listing for a physical product aka a ‘Simple product.’  I love that you can sell ‘Virtual’ or ‘Downloadable’ products through WooCommerce also.  This would be the correct option for printable products and digital downloads.

The next step is to work your way through the subheadings (on the left) found within ‘Product data.’  I have set the regular price for my A3 Fine Art Print and set both zero options for the tax criteria.  You will have to look into the different tax regulations as relevant to your part of the world, and that of the places you’re selling to.  However, I’m UK based and currently only selling within the UK.  I definitely don’t meet the threshold* to charge sales tax (VAT) in the UK!!

*VAT registration threshold (£85,000 for a 12 month period in 2018/19)

For more information about UK taxes and expenses for bloggers and freelancers check out my previous post.

In the Inventory section you can manage your stock.  I currently have one original print per listing, so the stock quantity is set to one and I’m not allowing back orders at this present moment.  Get em whilst they’re hot guys cuz once they’re gone they’re gone! I have ticked that they are ‘Sold individually‘ so that customers can’t add more than one of each listing to their carts.  This would remain unticked if you had say, five products in stock within the same listing.

I already pre configured my shipping settings in the initial set up to remain the same per product.  This is because I’m currently selling Fine Art Prints and the differences in weight are negligible.  If you are selling products that vary in weight and size, you may want to set shipping prices individually.

I’ve not added anything to my Up sells or Cross-sells yet.  However, I’m considering adding the A3 prints as Up-sells to my A4 print listings.  Go big or go home!

Here you can add custom product attributes. This is an area I need to investigate further!

Finally it’s time to configure your purchase note.  I have used this as an opportunity to thank those that make a purchase from my online shop!  I have also enabled product reviews to be displayed publicly. Be gentle with me.

The menu order can be fine tuned once all products are listed in your online shop.

Setting a Short Product Description and Product Images

Now you need to set a short description for your product listing.  I have used this section to specify the product dimensions, cardstock and write a little more about the materials I used to create the print.  You could also specify the unique selling points or unique features of your product.

Once you are happy with your short product description, head to the side bar, on the bottom right and you will see the option to set your main product image.  As a brief side note you can also add product tags in a similar way to adding tags to a blog post.

You can also add further images to your product gallery.  All my product photos are unfiltered and taken using natural light. I have also included a close up picture of my product, so that people can see the intricacies of the artwork.  I created my main product image using Canva to the dimensions of a Pinterest pin.  This means that once the product is live I can market it via Pinterest.

There is also the option to add individual product categories.  For now I am sticking to ‘A3 Fine Art Print‘ and ‘A4 Fine Art Print.‘

Previewing your First WooCommerce Product 

If you have filled in all the product sections as laid out above, your preview should look like this.  On the left you will see the main product image, and your gallery images will scroll through automatically.  To the right of your product images you will see the price, short product description, stock, category and tags.  Under the images, is the full product description and option to display product reviews.

Here is a close up of my gallery images.  As you can see, the arrows can be used to scroll through the product image gallery.

FIN

I’m taking this process quite slowly, partly because I’m enjoying the journey so much, but mostly because I want to make sure my online shop is the best it can be.  The next task is to link my Artists shop correctly to the front end of my website.  Also I will need to make sure the shop cart and check out is configured correctly.  Eek, i’m super excited to finally go ‘live’ and I hope to see you for the next instalment!

What did you think to the tutorial?  Was it helpful?  I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!