How to Create an Online Store With Wix

hello and welcome it’s Lia from build a site with Lia calm in under 30 minutes this tutorial will show you how to build and launch an online store using Wix Wix is a drag-and-drop editor that’s super easy to use even if you don’t have any technical skills you’ll be able to choose from hundreds of designer made templates for every business imaginable you can change anything you want and create your professional ecommerce website quickly and
easily from step one of my website which you’ll find on the right you’ll come to this page next you’ll click this link to open Wix in a new tab and then in the previous tab you can follow along with my video when you get to this page click start now go ahead and create your free account by signing up here you can also log in with Facebook or Google Plus once your details are entered click log in on this page it asks you what kind of website do
you want to create it helps Wix to narrow down some templates for you to give you a good start so simply choose online store and now you have two choices you can start with Wix Adi or artificial design intelligence or with the Wix editor Wix Adi is a really cool new feature from Wix where they ask you a bunch of questions and then make a site for you according to your needs right now it can only be used with a certain amount of apps and it has
its own editor so while it’s great I prefer to help you create your website with the Wix editor so that you have the maximum number of options to make the site your own so let’s click there start with the Wix editor and now you come to Wix is professionally designed templates where you get to Prowse and choose the online store website template that you love so go ahead and scroll down and browse the pages and pages of online store templates for a
variety of businesses on the left you also see two more options for narrowing down template you can use the category section here where the online store section is divided into clothing and accessories health and beauty home and electronics and once you click you’ll see even more specific categories underneath those main headings or you can go back up to the top here and use a search feature for example I can enter in t-shirt and now I have
templates that are more geared to clothing t-shirt and fashion if you see something that piques your interest go ahead and hover over the template and click view this is going to give you an idea of how the site will function in real time once it loads you’ll be able to click the different pages as any visitor would and see how the site behaves just keep in mind that anything that you see and that includes the colors the images the layout it can
all be customized but when you start with a professional template it really gives you direction and a lot of the work as far as how the site looks and functions is already done for you so it’s a great way for beginners to get that professional online presence and create their store without a lot of extra cost and hassle involved I do also want to mention that people ask me about changing templates once they choose one so what you need to know is
that once you start off with a template you need to stick with it or you need to start over with a fresh template there’s no way to just swap one out for the other when you’ve already done some work and it’s not really a problem because Wix allows you to create as many sites as you want so just keep that in mind when you’re choosing a template take your time so that you can start off with the one that you want to stick with so on this page if you
liked the template and how it functions then you would go ahead and click this button edit this site if not you would simply go back to the previous page and keep browsing templates so for this example let’s use this template so I’m going to go ahead and edit this site and now that it’s loaded you are in what’s called the Wix website editor so we’re going to take a brief tour to get comfortable with all the features and then we’re going to begin
to edit the site across the top of the Wix website editor you’ll find the main navigation bar the most important thing are the pages these are the different pages that are included with this template and if you want to work on a different page you simply click the page and they’ll take you there and you can carry on I’ll be explaining more about how to make changes with pages but that’s where you can find them site contains everything you need to
do with your site so saving it publishing it upgrading exiting the Wix website editor and so forth you can hide or show the toolbar here on the right by clicking this little box beside toolbar the gridlines is checked off and you’ll see them showing up here and across the top and the gridlines are important because they allow your site to be viewer friendly on any size device so while you’re working you want to keep the main elements inside those
lines and that is what people will see on tablets and phones and so forth next you’ll see the help so keep that handy because Wix has a really great support system with a written content videos screenshots so you can access it 24/7 from this section right here we’ll discuss be discussing how to upgrade and connect your store later on but for now I just want to show you where you can do that from the editor zoom out and reorder is a way to view
and organize all the sections on your page at once very easy to work with and in step 2 I actually have a video specific on using the zoom on reorder so have a look at that if you need to undo and redo our handy buttons to keep in mind if you want to switch to the mobile view of your site to work on that you simply click the mobile view and it’ll pop up and then you can make changes I have a video on that in step two and just keep in mind that
Wix includes the mobile view of your site for free and the Wix store is also optimized for that so that means if someone’s shopping from their phone they’re going to have a great experience save is very important you want to do that regularly preview means you’ll be able to have a look at your changes in real time so feel free to use that anytime and then of course publish makes your website live online for the world to see great so that’s the
navigation bar across the top over on the left you’ll see various buttons if I hover you’ll see what they’re for so background ad allows you to add various features to your site we’ll talk about more more about that in a minute here’s the app market where you can add features including the store but since you started with a store template they’ve actually already added that Wix stores here for you and that’s why you see this added button here’s
where anything that you upload to the site your images documents and so forth they’ll be found all here under my uploads if you want to add a blog you can start blogging right from this button so you’ll use the buttons to add elements now if you want to make changes or customize the elements that you’ve added then you go over here to the toolbar on the right so once you actually start working for example if I click to change text you’ll see that
some of the tools the icons on the toolbar went dark so that means now they’re live and then I can use those to make adjustments and lastly I just want to mention this little up arrow at the top for hiding controls so let me click on that and you’ll see the buttons on the left and the toolbar disappear and that is really handy because sometimes these elements are blocking things that you want to work on so keep that in mind you can remove them
have a good look at the site work on things and put them back when you need to great so I hope you’re feeling a little bit more comfortable just remember as you get working on the site you’re going to see how easy it is to use Wix is drag-and-drop editor so let’s get working now start with the homepage and then we’ll go from there all right so to change anything in the menu you click on top of the menu and these buttons will pop out a pop up so
you can manage the menu from here but we’ll also show you how to do that from the pages section you can alter the layout change the design to have a different look and so forth so you’ve got a lot of options here if you click to the right where you don’t see anything then you can actually change the header so the background that you see here let me go ahead and click on design and I’m just going to scroll down and apply a different color to give
you the idea of how fast things can be adjusted here so it’s as simple as that so you can play well play around with that and find something that suits the look of your shop so what you’re doing here is really trying to give your brand that personalized look but the template is going to give you a boost a head start so we want to change our business name so we’re going to click on the text and click Edit text and then you simply add the name of
your shop great and the tech setting bop box pops-up allowing you to actually alter the font if you wanted so let me just highlight the font and then if I chose something else you’d see the different look that you can achieve depending on on your brand there’s a lot to choose from so scroll down and make your choice the font size can be changed two ways you have a slider bar and then a number that can be punched in here to give it a different
look larger or smaller if you wanted a different color click on the icon that has an A with a teardrop and then play around with the different color options to see what suits your brand okay you’ve got plenty of options to choose from and that’s all customized by the tech settings box that pops up when you edit your text great now use these little drag handles to move the element up or down the page but it keeps your page layout intact so notice
what happens here I can push this a little lower if I wanted I can go higher it’s going to adjust automatically so you do have a lot a lot of flexibility now these pictures are contained in a showcase strip and if I click preview you’re going to see that the images actually keep on revolving so let’s go back to the editor because now what you’re going to want to do is change these to the images of your own products so if you click on an item and
click change images you’re going to see the images that are already uploaded and then from here all you have to do is add an image and delete the images that are here and add your own so to add an image you’re going to click add images and of course you’re going to want to upload your own great product photos so I recommend that you do that and you click upload images click the file from your computer and then add it to the gallery it’s as simple
as that and then you’re going to have your own images instead of the stock ones that they started you off with and you’ll see when I hover over that the image you have a little delete icon which will just remove it as simple as that now because you started with an online store template Wix has already gone ahead and added from the app market this app or add-on feature called Wix stores and once it’s added the button appears here for you to
customize everything in your shop it adds the shop page including three hidden pages and one is a detailed product page a shopping cart page and a thank-you page so you’ll see a visitor will see those hidden pages as they work through the buying process now when you want to start customizing your shop you’re going to need to open up your store and click get started once I click get started I was given this pop-up box which encourages me to
upgrade to Wix stores so I’m going to mention here that you can add and set up Wix tours for free but for guests to make purchases and for you to be able to connect your own domain name your own store name and have more features you’re going to need to upgrade to one of Wix is ecommerce plans but if you consider everything that they include for you you’re really getting an awesome deal in able to have the full functionality of an online store
with a drag-and-drop editor I’m just going to click over to Wix this page to show you the features that are included when you upgrade to the e-commerce plan you’ll be able to connect again your personal domain name so your site will have its own name instead of the Wix branded name you can accept payments through a choice of payment methods track orders and receive order notices track store inventory offer shipping by weight and offer secure
purchasing with SSL encryption so everything to do with purchasing and so forth will be included in the premium plan with full functionality so to be taken seriously you’re going to need to upgrade to a premium plan I’m going to discuss your options at the end and you’ll see how reasonable the options are as far as cost goes so let’s click maybe later for now again you’re going to be able to customize and setup your store as you wish by clicking
on get started and then coming to this page where it says manage your store click on manage your store and now you have all the features ready at your fingertips to customize your store and add your products the pricing the descriptions and so forth once you upgrade you’ll be able to manage everything past the payment portion and that includes shipping and taxes and so forth which is really cool they’ve built in the features for you to offer a
coupon to promote sale items to send a shout out emails to let people know about things related to your store and set up your business so you’ll have everything you need here from the manage stores section and the question mark in the bottom right is going to give you any help that you need along the way so now we’re back to the first page which is our shop page and we’re going to carry on down the last section is the footer again this is shown
on every page of your website and right now it’s made up of the social bar and also this little copyright message so let’s start with the social bar you can click on it and then click set social links and very simply you’ll be able to add and remove any icons to match the social media sites that you have off and if you want to add more icons for example say you have Instagram which is very popular for fashion sites you can click on Instagram on
the left and you’ll have your options and then you can simply click one to add it to your gallery there at the bottom alright it should have added the one that actually matches so let’s just go back down Instagram and I’m going to add this one here great and then now when I click on an item it’s here and then I’m going to type in my link so that it actually goes to my specific site so here’s where you type in the link so adjust that as needed and
everything is it is connected and applied right away the entire social bar can be moved just by clicking on it and then just dragging it wherever you would like it to be you’ll notice that purple lines pop up when you’re moving things around and that’s to help you with alignment next we have the copyright message so if you click on it as you would on any text the edit text button pops up you simply click on that and then change the text the font
the size and even the color if you have a lot of options to play with there and lastly if you want a different background click off the social bar or text and then you’ll see the buttons pop up for that and click design and then you have strips that you can use to get a different look and that’s it it’s applied right away and you’ve got a different feel for your site already excellent so now we’re ready to move on to the next page which is called
the about page the about page is very important because it gives people an idea of the story behind your shop who you are and what they can expect so it’s about you but it’s also about your customers as well and I’ll be having tips in my newsletter and on my site to help you with that page again you’re going to change the three main elements here which is the text in the title again click on it click Edit text and you’re good to go the paragraph
areas as well they’re going to adjust as you add or remove text so for example if I wanted to edit the text and then I removed a bunch of text that section adjusts to fit the actual text I have there to change the image click on the image itself and you’ll see change image you can also apply different design elements crop filters and so forth let’s go ahead and change the image of course you’re going to want to upload your own but I’m just going
to pull up a free image of a t-shirt and then I’m just going to click on it choose image just so you can see how it changes right away use the drag handle to move the whole image anywhere you like and lastly I want to show you a cool feature you can use and that is to have somebody be able to click on the image and then it takes them to your product page where they can make a purchase so to do that you simply select the image and then select this
little link icon and then it’s asking you where do you want to link it to so here’s my shop page and then I can choose from that shop page my product page and click done and now it’s going to allow a person to click that image and be taken to the product page let me show you how that’s done when I preview the website so here we are on the page I’m going to click the image and now up pops my product page cool of course I’d have to change that in
my store to match the product so we’re back in the editor and now we’re going to move on to the next page which is called store locator so if you ever want to change the name of one of your menu items simply click on the circle and click rename and you’ll be able to type it in right there on the page itself you can click on the title to change the text as needed play with the fonts and colors and then all of this is simply text except for this
line here which you can move around it’s pretty much straightforward on that page next frequently asked questions important for an online store go ahead and customize it’s basically made up of text you can add your personalized message also add a bit of personality here so people know that you know you’re friendly and that they’ll have no problem shopping with you and lastly the contact page very important for people to be able to ask questions
and get in touch so right now we have got a contact form that’s already been added for you and you’ll want to make sure that that contact form is going to reach you so you’ll need to click on it and then set your email to the address that applies if you didn’t want some of these elements for example you didn’t really need someone to type in the subject you would scroll down to the bottom here and uncheck the box beside any of the elements that
you didn’t want so when I click to remove that checkmark you’ll see that subject was now removed for my form if you want to play with the layout or design you can use the icons a paintbrush and then a layout button here at the top here’s some text that needs to be edited your social bar again you’re going to set your social links it’s just another place to make it easy for people to share your website page and then the last thing that I want to
show you is adding a Google map because it’s pretty easy to do that and adds that professional element again another way to make it easy for people to find you so first what I’m going to do is make some room for the map I’m going to use the drag handle and just pull down this page to make some room next I’m going to use the add button on the right and I’m going to go down to contact and on the contact tab you’re going to see both forms and maps
so you can add a form or map to any template sometimes you’re starting from scratch so you’re going to need to add your own of course in this case they gave you the form and now we’re going to take this map here and we’re simply going to just drag it onto the site close the box and now simply a matter of putting it into place and resizing it you can use those little dots to do that remember I want everything to stay inside those dotted lines so
that on any device it’s going to look right now once that is getting looking how you want it to look what you can do is set the map address and the marker to match your shop so you’re going to click on the map and click Change address and go ahead and type in your address the map will change and what do you want to show on this marker so right here you can add the name of your store and it changes right away so it looks really professional and
again you can move any of these elements around you can make the map smaller you can just customize this page to get it looking exactly how you like any of the pages on your pages menu can actually just be reordered using that drag-and-drop feature so you just simply click on it and then move it to the location that you want and it will automatically be changed in your header area as well to add a page go to add page you can add it right here
it’s going to pop up type in your title and you’re done to remove it you can just delete the page and you can even create subpages very easily from the circle icon at the bottom at the end another great thing you can do is go to the Wix app market and browse some other apps that you can add to bring on specific features to your online store you can add a search bar a Facebook like pop-up a live chat and more search the apps here hover over the
apps and you’ll get more details as well as whether they’re free or involve a cost and the last thing we want to do is walk you through the saving publishing and upgrading process so to save your site you can go to the top right corner and you’ll see this box pop up this is the name that Wix will give you for your domain name if you stick with a free version it’s made up of three components user name dot Wix site com slash the name of your store
so in my case I edited it and I put T world in here so this is the only part that you can customize with a free domain name now as I mentioned you will want to upgrade to have a professional online store you want to unlock those features in the Wix stores app to allow people to pay online take care of shipping taxes and so forth you also want to be able to connect your own branded domain the free one includes his name so it’s putting attention on
wicks instead of your own store so it’s going to look professional it’s going to be easier for people to remember and you’re going to have a bunch of other features that come with the upgraded plans so let’s click upgrade now and then we can discuss discuss your options great so here we are on the premium plan upgrade page and right off the bat you’ll notice you have a 14 day money-back guarantee on all wigs premium plans so you can go ahead and
test drive the plan for two full weeks and if you change your mind that guarantee is there to back you up so now as you scroll you’ll see you have four options for upgrading and adding the WIC store features I recommend the most popular plan called the unlimited store because it’s generally the best bang for your buck let’s go over the features that are included so right off the top you’ll see you can accept online payments for the WIC store
you’ll have unlimited bandwidth so even if you’re uploading you know high-quality images for your products and so forth your site is going to load smoothly and your visitors will have a great experience 35 gigabytes of storage allows you to upload lots of space to upload all your images and videos without running out of room normally the cost of your domain renewal is extra but here in this plan wix’s including a voucher so that you can get one
year free with the free plan you will have Wix ads on your site but when you upgrade they remove all the Wix ads as mentioned here so all the focus stays on your brand now for there’s $108 value included in the form of two premium apps one is called site booster which helps you drive more traffic to your site and be found on search engines which is obviously very important for a professional site and then form builder is great for collecting
contact information generating leads customer support so you’ll be able to create any type of form that you need for your site as far as your emails you’ll have twenty email campaigns that you can put out and you can send out 50,000 individual emails per month so you can keep your customers in formed what’s going on with your store so a great value there and once you make your selection you just have to click select and then you’ll be on to the
next screen where you can select your unlimited store plan subscription now it’s tempting to go with the monthly subscription but I just want to point out that it does not include a free domain voucher and premium apps you remember those apps itself were about 108 dollars of value so by the time you add those things on top and pay for your domain you’re boosting your costs a lot so personally I prefer to save the 35% and go with the yearly
subscription and that includes the domain voucher and those two free premium apps click select when you’re done so here’s the page where you’re going to be entering your payment information they accept a variety of cards and at the bottom give you a summary of the amount that’s going to be charged and once again remember you have that 14 day money back guarantee so once you enter everything in go ahead and click Submit purchase excellent and now
you get to use that free domain voucher to secure your unique domain name when you see this screen you’ll see a search bar and all you have to do is enter the name that you want for your site so I’m entered T Worldcom and I’m going to click search and it will tell me whether that name is free for me to use so I’ve got a red error message telling me it’s not available and then they give me other suggestions you don’t have to take them but you can
use them for reference I’m going to try T world online.com and see if that is accepted great it is available so I’m going to double check the spelling t world online.com perfect and then I can click get it now I’ve secured that domain name for my premium site excellent now we’re on the page where you choose a registration period for your domain name you remember that I told you you get a free domain voucher and it’s mentioned right here so I get
one year free and in view of that I’m going to click the 1 year option and then I actually get that applied for free but you can go ahead and you know sign up for two or three years if you prefer to just get that payment done at once so once that is selected you’ll click continue go over all your contact information to make sure that everything is correct and once you’re done just click continue at the bottom so we’re almost there t world online
will soon be yours it mentions and I can choose whether to have that domain name made with a private registration so that actually protects my identity from being found out it prevents domain related spam and domain hijacking and these days you can’t be too careful adding another layer of protection is always a great idea I always add this to all my websites and it’s only another 990 per year so make your choice and then click continue now you
need to submit the purchase for the domain privacy so just review this page click Submit purchase and on this last screen you have the option to purchase a personalized mailbox so that means you’ll get an email address that matches your domain it’s around another fifty dollars so it’s up to you whether you want to buy it now or just use a free email address that you already have and connect that to your website make your choice and then you are
done congratulations you’re now the owner of a premium Wix website with all the e-commerce features that you need to run a professional online store I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial please contact me if you have any questions about anything to do with your online store and also keep working through my guide because you’re going to find a host of other information to take your site to the next level thanks so much and I’ll see you again take
care