How-to › Start here
How to Build Your First Store with WP EasyCart
Go from a fresh WordPress site to a store that is ready to take orders. You install, run the wizard, add a product, get paid and launch. 11 parts.
Quick links
Where to find it:WP Admin › EasyCart › Settings › Setup wizard
Before you start
What you need
What is free, what is not, and how to install the plugin.
What you need
The free plugin is enough to open a store
What you need. A WordPress site on PHP 7.3 or newer, and admin access. The free WP EasyCart plugin includes unlimited products, orders and customer accounts, so you can build and launch a complete store without paying for anything.
Payments. Bill later, where the customer orders now and pays you offline and which shoppers see as Pay by bank transfer, is free. Stripe, Square and PayPal connect in a few clicks through EasyCart Connect, with a 2% EasyCart fee on each sale on the free edition. A PRO or Premium license removes that fee and adds more gateways. There is a 14-day free trial if you want to try it first.
The whole job takes eight steps: install, run the setup wizard, check your three store pages, add a product, connect a way to get paid, set shipping and tax, place a test order, then work through the launch checklist.
Step 1. Install and register
Plugins, Add New, then a trial or key only if you want PRO
In WordPress go to Plugins › Add New Plugin, search for WP EasyCart, press Install Now and then Activate. A new EasyCart menu appears in the admin sidebar.
The free plugin needs no key. Skip registration if you are staying on the free edition.
To add PRO or Premium, open EasyCart › Registration. The page called Registration & activation offers three routes: the 14-day trial, which installs and activates the PRO plugin in one click with no card required, entering a key you already have, or choosing a PRO or Premium plan (billed yearly or monthly with AutoPay). A license covers one site, and entering the key on a new site moves it there.
💡 Note: Registration and license keys are covered in Registration. Adding extensions later is covered in Installing Extensions.
Set it up
Eight steps to a working store
The wizard, your three pages, a product, payment, shipping, tax and a test order.
Step 2. Run the setup wizard
Four short steps that set up location, payments, shipping and the basics
Until your store is set up, opening EasyCart › Settings starts the Setup wizard. You can leave with Save & exit at any step: Settings › All settings then leads with a Set up your store card that shows the steps done and continues with the next one.
Location & currency. Where is your store based? Choose your Country ( and your state or province in the US and Canada ). The country sets your Currency, how prices are written, such as $1,234.56 or 1 234,56 €, and whether you weigh in pounds or kilograms and measure in inches or centimetres. Then the tax your country expects: sales tax, VAT or GST, with today’s rates, which you refine later in Settings › Payments & Taxes › Taxes. On a site still on WordPress’s UTC clock, your country and state also set the time zone.
Payments & checkout. Who takes your card payments? Connect Stripe or Square, or, with PRO, another gateway; then PayPal’s checkout buttons, and Bill later for no fees. Only the gateways that take payments in your country are shown. On the free edition you first agree to the EasyCart Connect terms. This step also has the Allow guest checkout switch, which lets customers buy without creating an account. It is on the recommended side, because forcing an account loses sales.
Shipping. How do shoppers pay for shipping? Under My own rates, pick a starting point: Flat rates, By cart total or By weight, and the wizard adds starter rates in your currency and weight unit. Live rates from your carrier accounts ( PRO ), Shippo and ShipStation ( Premium ) are offered where they work, and I don’t charge for shipping suits downloads, services or collection only. Then say where you ship: only within your country, across your region or worldwide. You refine the rates later in Settings › Shipping › Rates.
Go back to any step and it shows the answers you gave. Save & exit saves the step you are on before it leaves.
Finish up. This step shows your store pages, terms and privacy policy pages, and order email settings. It comes back in the launch checklist below.
Step 3. Check your three store pages
Store, Cart and Account, each one holds a shortcode
A WP EasyCart store is three ordinary WordPress pages. Open EasyCart › Settings › Store › Store details and find the Store pages card. Each page shows Live when it works:
Store page: your catalog. It must contain the [ec_store] shortcode. Product, category and manufacturer links are built under this page’s address, so changing its slug later changes those links.
Cart and checkout page: where shoppers review their cart and pay. It must contain the [ec_cart] shortcode.
Account page: where shoppers sign in, register and see their orders. It must contain the [ec_account] shortcode.
If a page is missing, unpublished or lost its shortcode, its tile says so and offers the fix. Change… uses another page, adding the shortcode for you, or Create a new page publishes a fresh one. Then add Store, Cart and My Account to your site menu so shoppers can find them. The wizard’s Finish up step has an Add all three to your menu button that does it for you.
💡 Note: Every page setting lives in Settings › Store › Store details.
Step 4. Add your first product
A name, a price and a photo is all it needs
Go to EasyCart › Products and press Add product. Under What are you selling? say it your way, such as a T-shirt, an eBook or a monthly coffee box, or pick one of the Popular kinds. Not sure? Answer a few questions: do you ship it, is there a file to download, does it open members-only pages, do they book it, do they pay every month or year.
The page then asks only what that product needs, with its product page drawn beside it. A name, a price and a photo are enough to start. Nothing is made until you press Create product, or Create & add another, or Create and open the full editor to keep going. Subscriptions, downloads and memberships are PRO product types.
Once you have products, Quick start makes a new one like one you already sell, so you only add the name, price and photos. Set a weight in the editor if you charge shipping by weight or use live carrier rates. Open the Store page on your site and the product is there.
Step 5. Connect a way to get paid
Stripe, Square, PayPal or Bill later
Open EasyCart › Settings › Payments & Taxes › Payments. How do you take payments? Connect Stripe or Square for cards, and PayPal on its own or beside them, each in a minute, with a test account to try your checkout first. What shoppers can pay with lists every way to pay. Shoppers see Bill later as Pay by bank transfer, and its wording and bank details take your account in your country’s format, so they print on the order confirmation and invoice. Until a live card gateway is connected, shoppers cannot pay by card on your site.
The full walk-through, with test cards and the switch to live, is in How to Take Your First Payment.
Step 6. Set up shipping and tax
Starter rates from the wizard, then tune them
The wizard gave you a starting point. Before you sell, tune both so you do not lose money on shipping or charge the wrong tax.
Shipping: see Set Up Shipping That Does Not Lose Money.
Tax: see Set Up Sales Tax and VAT.
Step 7. Place a test order
Buy from your own store as a customer would
Open your store in a private window, so you are not logged in as an admin, and buy the product you made. Go through the cart, checkout and payment exactly as a customer would.
No gateway yet? Turn on Bill later in Settings › Payments and choose Pay by bank transfer at checkout. The order goes through without a card.
Using Stripe, Square or PayPal? Connect the sandbox, described in the payment guide, so no real money moves.
Then open EasyCart › Orders › Orders. Your test order should be there, with the right total, shipping and tax. Check that the receipt email arrived in your inbox, and your spam folder.
💡 Note: Order emails are set up in Settings › Emails & Documents › Email, and the readiness checks are explained in Store Status.
Go live
Launch and troubleshoot
The checks to pass before you announce the store, and what to do when something is off.
Step 8. Work through the launch checklist
Five checks before you tell anyone
The wizard’s last step, and Settings home, show a launch checklist that ticks items off as you finish them. These are the ones that matter:
Turn off test mode. In Settings › Payments, a gateway still in test mode says so under Worth a look and in its steps, such as Stripe is in test mode, with Live and Test beside it. No real payments are taken in test mode.
Publish your legal pages. In the wizard’s Finish up step, pick or create your Terms & conditions and Privacy policy pages. The terms link from checkout, and you can require customers to accept them before they place an order.
Check email deliverability. Open Settings › Emails & Documents › Email. The Email health card shows how many emails were delivered or failed in the last seven days, and Deliverability lists what to look at in your sender setup. Send a test receipt and confirm it arrives.
Check Store Status. EasyCart › Store Status runs four readiness checks: Products, Taxes, Shipping and Payment. A failing Payment check means nobody can check out. A failing Taxes or Shipping check means the store is taking orders and not charging for something.
Review the recommended settings. Cache compatibility, secure checkout (SSL) and SEO-friendly product links are set for you. Confirm they show as on.
⚠️ Careful: A store left in test mode takes no money. Check Settings › Payments & Taxes › Payments shows nothing in test mode before you announce the store, and place one real order to confirm.
Find your way around the admin
One search for everything, and your store on the WordPress Dashboard
One admin search. Press Ctrl K ( ⌘K on a Mac ) on any WP EasyCart screen, or click the search box at the top of the page, or press / when you are not typing in a field. One window finds orders, customers, products, subscriptions, categories, brands and option sets, every setting with its current value, the admin pages and the help articles on this site. Type # and a number for an order, or paste an email, SKU or code. Before you type, it offers quick actions such as Add product, Add category, Import products and Add customer. Use the arrow keys and Enter to open a result, Ctrl and Enter to open it in a new tab, and Tab to jump to the next group.
With PRO, the same search also finds offers and their codes, classic coupons, gift cards with their balance, and invoice, credit note and PO numbers, each leading to its order, and adds the quick actions New order, Create an offer and Add a gift card.
Your store on the WordPress Dashboard. Administrators and store managers get a WP EasyCart widget on the WordPress Dashboard: Sales today with the number of orders, and Orders to ship with how long the oldest has waited, or All caught up. Its links open Ship orders ( the orders waiting to ship ), All orders and Reports. Hide it from the Dashboard’s Screen Options like any other widget.
If it does not work
The usual first-store problems
Shoppers cannot pay by card. No live card gateway is connected. Open Settings › Payments and connect Stripe or Square, or turn on Bill later so shoppers can pay by bank transfer.
Product links show ?model_number= instead of a clean address. WordPress permalinks are set to Plain. Change them to Post name under Settings › Permalinks, and EasyCart turns on SEO-friendly links by itself.
The Store, Cart or Account page is blank. The page is missing its shortcode. The Store pages card in Settings › Store › Store details says which page and offers the fix.
Checkout is not secure. Your site is running on http. Ask your host for a certificate, and EasyCart forces secure checkout once https works.
No order emails. Order emails go through WordPress mail, which many hosts handle poorly. Use Email health and Deliverability in Settings › Emails & Documents › Email to test, and consider an SMTP plugin.
Still stuck? Open a ticket at wpeasycart.com/my-account.
Keep going
Related panels
The Store, Cart and Account page settings and currency.
Every payment gateway and the test mode switch.
The rate tables behind your shipping method.
Sales tax, VAT, GST, duty and tax services.
Sender addresses, deliverability and the email log.
Licence state and the four readiness checks.
Ready to run your store on WP EasyCart?
Everything in this guide works with the free plugin. PRO and Premium add subscriptions, memberships, wholesale pricing and more. Try every PRO feature free for 14 days.
