A Beginner-Friendly WordPress Guide (Astra Templates) : Lesson 5

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Beginner-friendly WordPress Guide by TachFocus

Previous Lesson's Recap:

In the first lesson, we learned the basics of WordPress, such as what it is, the different kinds it comes in (WordPress.com and WordPress.org), and how to set up either one. The second lesson introduced the fundamentals and lingo of the WordPress platform, including posts, pages, and media. Activating and installing themes to change the look of your WordPress site was covered in detail in Lesson 3, along with an explanation of the different kinds of themes available (blogging, e-commerce, and others). Best practices for installing and activating plugins, as well as the different kinds of plugins, were covered in Lesson 4. We also talked about how picking good plugins and keeping them updated can boost your site’s performance. 

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to quickly and easily build an e-commerce website with the highest potential from scratch using the Astra Starter Template Plugin.

Overview of Lesson 5:

  1. Ecommerce Website
  2. Astra Starter Template
  3. Plugin Installation Guide
  4. Exploring Astra Starter Template
    1. Importing Template
    2. Adjusting Template
    3. Template Customization
  5. Woo commerce Setup

1: E-commerce Website:

An e-commerce website is an online platform that allows businesses to sell products or services over the internet. E-commerce eliminates the limitations of physical storefronts, allowing businesses to reach a larger audience and increase sales potential. With e-commerce websites, businesses have the ability to track and analyze customer behaviour, enabling targeted marketing strategies and personalized shopping experiences.

WordPress enables users to easily create and manage online stores by leveraging the power of WooCommerce. It is a feature-rich and highly customizable plugin that seamlessly integrates with WordPress, transforming it into a full-fledged e-commerce platform. This plugin provides a range of essential features, including product management, inventory tracking, secure payment gateways, shipping options, and order management.

2: Astra Starter Template Plugin:

The Astra Starter Template Plugin is a powerful tool designed to simplify the process of creating a website using WordPress. It is specifically designed to work with the Astra theme, a lightweight and customizable WordPress theme known for its speed and flexibility.

  The plugin provides a collection of free and premium pre-designed templates that can be imported and customized to quickly build professional-looking websites. All These templates are fully responsive, ensuring that the website looks great on all devices. The plugin also includes a range of customization options, allowing users to easily modify the layout, colors, fonts, and other design elements.

3: Installation Guide:

To install the Astra Starter Template Plugin, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard.
  2. Navigate to the “Plugins” section in the left-hand menu.
  3. Click on “Add New” to go to the plugin installation page.
  4. In the search bar, type “Astra Starter Templates.”
  5. Once the plugin appears in the search results, click on the “Install Now” button next to it.
  6. Wait for the installation to complete, and then click on the “Activate” button.

Congratulations, you have successfully installed and activated the plugin. Now we will explore the predesign library of Astra Starter template Plugin.

4: Exploring Astra Starter Template:

The Astra Starter Template Plugin offers a wide variety of templates for different types of websites, including business websites, blogs, portfolios, and even ecommerce stores. These templates are professionally designed and cover various industries, allowing users to find a suitable starting point for their website. The previews for all of the pre-designed templates are available on the website wpastra.com.

With the Astra Starter Template Plugin, users gain access to a remarkable collection of over 240 pre-designed templates. Among these, there are specifically 33 templates tailored for ecommerce purposes of which 9 visually appealing template are free to use

Examine each of these free templates to determine which one, with or without some customization, will work best for your business.  Consider that we chose the brandstore template for our online store.

i- Importing Template:

  1. Click on the “Import” button for the chosen template. The import process may take a few moments to complete.
  2. After the import is finished, you will receive a notification confirming the successful import of the template.

ii- Theme Adjustment:

After importing the template, you may need to adjust certain settings to tailor it to your specific requirements. such as Logo, Brand Colors, Header and Footer Style etc. Follow these steps to make theme adjustments:

  1. Navigate to “Appearance” and click on “Customize” to access the WordPress Customizer.
  2. Within the Customizer, you will find various options to modify the template settings. These may include site identity (Logo, Favicon, etc) , header and footer settings, color schemes, typography, and more.
  3. Explore each setting and make the necessary adjustments to align the template with your brand identity and website goals.
  4. Save your changes to apply the modified settings.

iii- Template customization:

After the necessary adjustment of the overall theme and design of the ecommerce store you may need to customize and personalize the content and appearance of the imported template, follow these customization steps:

  1. Navigate to the “Pages” section in your WordPress dashboard.
  2. Locate and edit the pages that make up your website, such as the homepage, shop page, product pages, and any additional pages included with the template.
  3. Replace the placeholder content with your own text, images, and product information.
  4. Customize the layout, sections, and elements of each page using the WordPress block editor or a page builder plugin compatible with Astra, such as Elementor or Beaver Builder.
  5. Utilize the customization options available within the page builder or editor to fine-tune the appearance and functionality of the template, such as adjusting colours, fonts, backgrounds, and adding interactive elements.
  6. Preview and test your changes to ensure everything looks and functions as expected.
  7. Save and publish your customized pages to make them live on your website.

5: WooCommerce Setup:

With brandstore template WooCommerce plugin also been installed and activated as the requirement. now just have to configure it Follow these steps:

  1. From your WordPress dashboard, Click on  “WooCommerce”
  2. Now you will be guided through a setup wizard. Follow the on-screen instructions to set up essential details for your store, such as location, currency, and product types.
  3. Provide information about your business, including address, industry, and whether you plan to sell physical or digital products.
  4. Set up your payment methods by choosing from the available options or integrating with third-party payment gateways.
  5. Configure your shipping options, including regions you ship to, shipping methods, and associated costs.
  6. Customize your store’s appearance by selecting a WooCommerce-compatible theme or adjusting the existing theme settings.
  7. Review and finalize your settings before proceeding.

Choose a payment gateway and a shipping method from the WooCommerce plugin’s settings. The Products section allows you to add, remove, or change a product’s image, price, category, and description. 

Hurrah! You have now created a fully fledged personalized professional ecommerce website on your own.

Summary.

Lesson 5 of the WordPress Beginner Guide, provide a comprehensive understanding of creating an ecommerce website using WordPress and the Astra Starter Template Plugin. The Guide explains how to use the Astra Starter Template Plugin to import a template, customize its settings and appearance, and configure essential ecommerce functionalities With WooCommerce. 

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