As a WooCommerce Happiness Engineer, I’ve worked with WooCommerce stores for over two years. However, only in October of this year did I create a live WooCommerce store with physical products for the first time. In this talk, I’ll focus on the challenges in setting up a WooCommerce store in Africa, but also on its potential and quick wins. I’ll share my experiences with handing over the project to the store owner and give some tips on setting boundaries. By the end of the talk, you should have a good overview of the considerations when starting a WooCommerce project, especially in making sure that you can hand over to your client smoothly.

1. WooCommerce in Real “Live”
Job Thomas | @jobtex

2. CHAPTER I
The Challenge

3. • store.dev
• woocommerce.dev
• wc.dev
• localhost.dev
Daily

4. Test sites ⚡ The reality

5. • Find an NGO with sales
• Set up WooCommerce store
- Design
- Products
- Payments
- Shipping
• Hand over
Project

6. CHAPTER II
The Preparation

7. Give Her Hope
giveherhope.co.za
" #
design
products
(descriptions, prices, images)
hosting & security taxes
payments configuration payment options
shipping configuration shipping costs, provider
review & feedback order management
make suggestions

8. CHAPTER III
The Setup

9. • Cost ( # > 💸 > " )
• SSL certificate?
• Speed
• Traffic
• Management
• Sponsoring WC Harare?
Hosting

10. • Jetpack
- Security scanning ($)
- Protect
- Downtime monitoring
- Akismet
- Site backups ($)
- Single Sign On
• Password hygiene
• 2FA
Security

11. • Vital
- Description
- Price
- Product image
• Recommended
- Category
- Attributes
- Shipping dimensions/class
Products

12. Product Attributes

13. • What’s available?
- Cash
- Credit card (PayFast)
- EFT (PayFast)
• Set up PayFast account: #
Payments

14. • Cash
• “Bank Transfers”
• DIY: skyverge.com/blog/how-to-create-a-
simple-woocommerce-payment-gateway/
Payments: Zimbabwe

15. “Bank Transfers”

16. Shipping
Where to? Options
Local (Cape Town) Local pickup, SAPO, Courier
Domestic (South Africa) Local pickup, SAPO
International (Rest of world) SAPO International

17. • Where to?
- Domestic (Zimbabwe)
- International (Rest of the World)
• What’s available?
- Local pickup
- Free shipping
- Flat rates
- Table rates ($)
Shipping: Zimbabwe

18. Flat rate

19. • Whose account?
• Theirs: complete handover
- 😄 finished project + credit card
- 😱 management
• Yours: customer contract
- 😄 easy access
- 😱 “can you do this?” + cost/time
Extras (A.K.A. Extensions)

20. • Akismet
• Jetpack by WordPress.com
• Storefront
- Powerpack ($)
- Product Hero ($)
- Product Sharing
- Sticky Add to Basket
• VaultPress ($)
• WooCommerce
- Currency converter ($)
- Helper
- PayFast Gateway
- Product Add-ons ($)
- SAPO Domestic ($)
- SAPO International ($)
• Yoast SEO
Used for Give Her Hope

21. CHAPTER IV
The Hand-Over

22. • Jetpack them
• Teach them
- Creating products
- Creating coupons
- Managing orders
• Charge them
Hand over

23. Jetpack them

24. Jetpack them

25. • “Help” tab
• Dev environment
- DesktopServer
- Test site
• “You do it”
- Give feedback
- Limited engagement
Teach them

26. Teach them: Help tab

27. Charge them

28. CHAPTER V
The Result

31. Thanks
Job Thomas
@jobtex