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title, description, section, order
| title | description | section | order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setting Up WooCommerce on Arcline | Install and configure WooCommerce on your Arcline VPS or shared hosting plan. | wordpress | 5 |
Setting Up WooCommerce on Arcline
WooCommerce is the most popular e-commerce platform for WordPress. This guide covers installing it on Arcline shared hosting or a VPS and optimizing it for performance without a CDN.
Prerequisites
- WordPress installed and running (see Install WordPress for shared hosting or Install WordPress on a VPS for VPS)
- A domain pointed to your Arcline server
- SSL certificate installed (Let's Encrypt via cPanel or Certbot)
- PHP memory limit of at least 256 MB (512 MB recommended for VPS)
Step 1 — Install WooCommerce
Via the WordPress admin
- Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard at
https://yourdomain.com/wp-admin - Go to Plugins → Add New
- Search for "WooCommerce"
- Click Install Now → Activate
WooCommerce will launch the setup wizard on activation.
Via WP-CLI (faster, especially on a VPS)
# Install and activate WooCommerce
wp plugin install woocommerce --activate
# Install a recommended theme (e.g., Storefront)
# wp theme install storefront --activate
Step 2 — Run the setup wizard
The WooCommerce setup wizard will walk you through:
- Store location: Set your business address, currency (USD), and selling location
- Industry: What types of products you sell (physical, digital, membership, etc.)
- Product types: Simple products, variable products, external/affiliate products
- Business details: Whether you're already selling elsewhere
- Payment methods: WooPayments, PayPal, Stripe, or offline payments
- Shipping: Set up shipping zones and rates
- Tax: Configure basic tax settings
- Personalize: Choose a theme and install free extensions
You can skip any step and configure it later.
Step 3 — Choose payment methods
WooPayments (built-in, recommended)
WooPayments is Stripe-based and included with WooCommerce. It accepts credit cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. No additional plugin is needed.
To set it up:
- Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Payments
- Click Set up next to WooPayments
- Follow the prompts to connect your Stripe account
PayPal
- Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Payments
- Toggle PayPal on
- Click Set up and enter your PayPal email address
Stripe (standalone plugin)
If you prefer the standalone Stripe plugin instead of WooPayments:
wp plugin install woocommerce-gateway-stripe --activate
Then configure it in WooCommerce → Settings → Payments → Stripe.
Step 4 — Configure shipping
- Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Shipping
- Click Add shipping zone
- Name the zone (e.g., "United States")
- Select the zone regions (countries, states, or postcode ranges)
- Click Add shipping method:
- Flat rate — Single rate per order (e.g., $5.99)
- Free shipping — Free shipping with a minimum order amount
- Local pickup — Customer picks up at your location
Step 5 — Performance optimization for WooCommerce
WooCommerce adds database queries and page weight. Optimize it carefully:
Essential caching
- Install a caching plugin. See W3 Total Cache Configuration for detailed setup.
- Important: In W3 Total Cache, do NOT enable page caching for the cart, checkout, and my-account pages. Add these to the Never cache the following pages list:
/cart/*,/checkout/*,/my-account/*,/wc-api/*
Disable unused features
Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Advanced → Features and disable:
- Coupons (if you don't use them)
- If digital only, disable shipping and tax
Enable native cart fragments (if needed)
Cart fragments (the little cart icon that updates via AJAX) are expensive on shared hosting. If your theme doesn't need real-time cart updates, disable it:
wp option set woocommerce_cart_fragments_enabled no
Customers will see a non-JS fallback link to the cart page.
Image optimization
- Product images should be no larger than 1200px on the longest side
- Use WebP format for product images (convert with
cwebp) - Install a plugin like Smush or Imagify for automatic compression
- Set WooCommerce image sizes appropriately: WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Display
Step 6 — Essential WooCommerce plugins
| Plugin | Purpose |
|---|---|
| WooCommerce | Core e-commerce platform |
| Akismet Anti-Spam | Block spam product reviews |
| W3 Total Cache | Page cache, DB cache, object cache |
| UpdraftPlus | Scheduled backups of your store |
| WooCommerce Stripe | Stripe credit card payments |
Step 7 — SSL and security
- WooCommerce forces SSL on checkout automatically. Ensure your SSL certificate is valid.
- Force HTTPS for the entire site in W3 Total Cache → General Settings → Page Cache → Enable HTTP(S) support
- Disable file editing in WordPress admin by adding to
wp-config.php:define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true); - Set up fail2ban: See Set Up Fail2ban for SSH brute-force protection
- Regular backups: Use UpdraftPlus or Automated Backups with Restic to back up your database and uploads
Troubleshooting
Cart and checkout pages not working with caching: Make sure cart, checkout, and my-account URLs are excluded from the page cache.
500 error after installing WooCommerce: Increase PHP memory limit to 512 MB. WooCommerce is memory-intensive.
SSL not working on checkout: Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Advanced → Pages and verify all pages are set. Then Settings → General → WordPress Address URL and Site Address URL must start with https://.
PayPal IPN not working: In PayPal, set the IPN URL to https://yourdomain.com/wc-api/ipn-handler/.