How to set up an e-shop – simple instructions

Would you like to start an e-shop but don’t know how? Read my detailed guide on setting up an online store on the Webnode platform.

E-shops are currently a common practice of every online entrepreneur – setting them up does not take much time and really only costs a few euros.

On the other hand, it must be said that even in today’s Internet era, few people have enough experience to dare to create an e-shop on their own for the first time.

However, setting up an online store is not rocket science – as long as you already have your own hosting and domain , or have at least a few euros saved up, you just need to choose one of the popular e-commerce solutions and you can get started.

In this article, I have prepared a detailed guide for you on how to set up an e-shop in the Webnode platform – one of the most popular e-commerce platforms in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

So let’s start creating your first e-shop!

How to set up an e-shop in Webnode

Creating a website for an e-shop is very easy in Webnode. First of all, go to the home page of webnode.com and click the “ Create a free website ” button:

After clicking the button, a window will pop up in which you just enter the usual registration data (website name, e-mail address and password):

After filling in the data, you can choose between two types of website that you can create – classic ” Website ” and ” Online store “. In this case, click on the second option:

You will then be taken to a page where you can choose your basic šablón for your website. If you have decided which šablón you want, click on the “ Select ” button for the given šablón :

The choice of šablón is really wide in Webnode – if you are still not sure what look you want, you can browse šablóny from different categories, or choose one that you can easily change later if you are not satisfied.

After selecting the šablóny , you will have to fill in basic contact information about your online store (address, phone number, currency, etc.):

After a few seconds, Webnode will take you to your new website, respectively to the editor in which you can work on your pages.

Depending on the šablóny you have chosen, you will be able to modify individual elements and appearance on your page (page titles and sub-titles, location of individual elements, text size, etc.):

If you are satisfied with the basic look, you can click the ” Publish ” button in the upper right corner of the editor and your page will be published:

So far, we have only gone through a simple registration with 1 page (and no products), let’s now look at the more detailed specifications about the pages and settings that you simply need when setting up an e-shop.

Basic overview of the Webnode editor

Working in the editor on the Webnode platform is very simple and practically anyone can handle it – even a complete beginner.

Webnode editor consists of several parts – the most basic of them is the top bar:

There are several items available in this bar:

• ” Products ” – here you can manage, create and edit individual products for your e-shop.
• ” Pages “ – in this section you can add, edit and delete individual pages on your website.
• ” Settings “ – these are the main settings of your website as well as your e-shop.
• Buttons ” Back ” and ” Refresh “ – this is a simple return or renewal of the steps when editing your page.
• ” Publish ” – publication of the page also for your visitors.
• User icon – in this section you will have the settings for your Webnode account available.

Each page or product page consists of several parts and blocks. You can edit, delete or add these parts individually as you see fit .

You can make adjustments by clicking on the gear wheel in the right part of each block, header, footer or other part of the page:

When editing the page header, you have the option to change the amount of content that should be displayed in the header, the background of the header as well as adding and editing an image in the header . You can change the text itself by simply clicking on the given part in the header.

For the main content, or in the main section of the page, you can add a new section by clicking on the ” + ” sign that always appears above/below the given section:

Subsequently, you will see options with the types of different sections that you can add to the page (e.g. a section with text, text and image, services, different columns, etc.):

Similar to the page header, you can edit or delete the given section by clicking on the gear wheel that appears after moving the mouse over the given section.

In each section, you can also add subsections – new content that will be displayed in the main section. You can add this content by clicking on the ” + ” sign in the left part of the given section:

At this point, you should have a basic overview of creating and editing pages for your e-shop.

Let’s now take a look at some fundamental settings that you simply cannot do without when setting up an e-shop.

Setting up payment methods

Payment methods in e-shops may not need to be justified too much – if you don’t have them set up from the beginning, how could your customers make purchases of products and services?

On the Webnode platform, setting up payment methods is relatively straightforward:

1. Within your website, click on the user icon in the upper right corner and click on the item ” My projects ” – a window with your website will open (in this case, with only your one project):

2. Move the mouse over the given project and click on the “ Project detail ” button:

3. You will have various reports and settings available in your project. To set up payments, click on the ” E-shop settings ” bar and then click on the item ” Payment methods “:

4. Several types of payment methods are available in the Webnode online store – cash on delivery, PayPal and bank transfer. You can customize each payment method using the ” Edit ” button located next to each payment method:

5. In addition to the mentioned payment methods, you can, of course, add another payment method – by clicking on the ” Add payment method ” button. As part of other payment methods, you have a choice of various options such as cash payment, card payment, etc. :

Webnode supports 2 popular payment gateways for card payments, namely the Stripe gateway and the GPWebPay gateway.

If you decide on one of the mentioned payment methods, you will have to contact the method provider to agree on the practical use of the given payment method.

💡 Tip: If you would like to get a better overview of different payment gateways, read our list of payment gateways for WooCommerce .

6. After adding or editing any of the payment methods, the status ” Active ” will light up in its row, or in case of missing data ” Inactive “:

Setting the transport method

Setting up shipping on your e-shop is one of the other important steps you must take when creating an e-shop.

Depending on the sales method you will provide, you can choose from several types of transport on the platform.

The setup itself is a fairly simple process:

1. Click on the user icon in the upper right corner and then on the item ” My projects ” to return to the details about your website.

2. Then click again on the ” E-shop settings ” bar and click on the item ” Transportation methods ” – a window with options will open.

3. Within the Webnode e-shop, you have already prepared some types of transport (such as transport by Slovak Post, PPL or personal collection).

You can easily customize each of these transport methods by clicking the button “More ” at one of them and click on the item “Edit method ” (or you can simply click directly on the given type of transport) – then a small window will appear with the settings of the given transport (such as the price for transport, VAT, etc.):

4. After setting and editing the shipping method, just click on the ” Save ” button.

If you decide on a different type of transport, you can add it for your e-shop by clicking on the ” Add transport method ” button – after clicking, you will see a window with the transport options supported by the Webnode platform for online shops:

If you decide on one of them, click on the given type of transport and then on the ” Choose method ” button. You will then be able to set the parameters of this transport method (price, VAT, URL for package tracking, etc.).

If, on the other hand, you decide not to offer one of the transport methods, you can remove it by simply clicking on the ” More ” button and then on the ” Delete method ” item:

Adding products for your e-shop

At this point, we can get down to the fun part, which is adding and editing the products themselves.

If you have already chosen an e-shop šablón , you will probably already have sample products ready – of course, you don’t have to worry about anything, you can simply remove these products later .

Adding products is (similar to other mentioned settings) very simple – in Webnode, click on the item ” Products ” in the upper bar of the editor:

A window with “template products” will open – ignore them for now. You can add new products by clicking the ” Add product ” button in the upper right corner of the window.

Here you can fill in the basic information about the product, such as the name, price with VAT, product description, as well as adding product images :

By clicking on ” Upload images ” you will be given the option to add images to the product directly from your computer.

💡 Tip: When describing the product, try to add as short a description as possible – this is just common information that will be displayed for product items. You can add a broader description of the product itself on the page of the product itself.

In addition to the basic product settings, you also have other options available.

By clicking on the ” Stock ” bar, you will get to the product management, where you can mark the given product for logistical purposes (such as product number, availability in pieces, weight and dimensions, etc.):

In the ” Variants ” and ” Advanced ” bars, you can expand your products by different types (such as color variants or different sizes of the given product), as well as set basic data for SEO and the Google web search engine (such as Title, URL, Meta-tags etc.):

💡 Tip: If you do not have much experience with SEO optimization (or you are a complete beginner in the field of online marketing), be sure to read my detailed article: What is SEO optimization and how it works , where you will learn a lot of useful information about optimizing pages for Google.

Once you have all the product data ready and filled in, simply click on the ” Create ” button – thanks to this, the product will be saved in your e-shop.

However, the product is not yet directly visible to customers. In order for customers to see it, select one of the (already created products), click on the 3 dots in the left part of the given product and click on the item ” Go to the product page “:

You will see a product page that you can (similarly to your home page) edit to your liking, but mainly you can publish the given page – by clicking the ” Publish ” button in the upper right corner of the screen:

At this point, your product will be visible to customers.

As part of adding products for your e-shop, be sure not to forget several other important types of content that every e-shop simply must have on its pages:

• Business conditions – customers should be familiar with the conditions when purchasing products from your e-shop.
• Contact page – to increase credibility (as well as for practical reasons such as complaints and support) you should have a contact page prepared and created.
• Blog – although the creation of educational content is not a condition for running an e-shop, from a marketing point of view you can gain plus points and attract a larger number of potential customers.
• GDPR – according to the EU regulation, every owner of an internet e-shop is obliged to inform visitors about the scope of collected data, the purpose of collection, etc.

💡 Tip: If you are also interested in other e-commerce platforms such as Webnode for creating and managing online stores, be sure to read my article Eshops for rent – which are the best? (list)

Was this article helpful for you? Support me by sharing, please. 👍