Over the next few weeks, I am going to be building my own WooCommerce shop.
While I have no immediate plans to close my shop on Etsy, I’ve decided it’s time to create my own self-hosted retail space. So I’m going to go for it!
Why I Want My Own Shop
Having my own WooCommerce shop means that I’m no longer completely dependent on Etsy (or Amazon or any other third party) for sales. It also means that I’m consolidating my web presence.
I recently consolidated things on Facebook by retiring my Facebook shop page in favor of sharing shop content on my author page (facebook.com/BarbaraGraver) or occasionally on my blog / podcast page, Facebook.com/NewAgeToCatholic. Since there’s a lot of overlap between my writing and media and the things I sell (and very little time for social media), I thought one page made sense.
And I think the same principle applies with the websites. Though I will still be keeping New Age To Catholic for my podcast and related blog posts!
Building My WooCommerce Shop
So where am I at in this process?
I put my Etsy shop on vacation mode so I could concentrate on getting the new shop up and running. I learned a bit about WooCommerce and added the free plugin. Last night, I started looking into ways of creating ePubs that can be read on Kindle (because I want to sell my ebooks in my shop!)
I know that a lot people are interested in hosting their own shop. So I’m going to be doing a short series on the process (possibly after the holidays). All that you really need to get started is a WordPress site and template. I use NameCheap (affiliate link) for WordPress hosting and Studio Saroya for my templates.
I am really excited about my new WooCommerce shop! I will be uploading my prayer cards, prayer pamphlets, bookmarks, coffee mug (singular for now) and eventually my ebooks. I will also be added new content, including more prayer items, more mugs and possibly a few t-shirts and a bit of wall art.
I will be sharing more about the process as I go along!
UPDATE: I was getting emails from customers, so I took a few items off vacation mode on Etsy. Shop is still not up and running here but I am working on it!
If you’re looking to design a shop website, I highly recommend Eve – the creator of the template used here on my WordPress site and on my Blogger site (New Age To Catholic). You can learn more at StudioSaroya.com.
Please note. This post contains a Namecheap affiliate link. This means that if you get hosting through Namecheap, I’ll get a small percentage of the sale at no cost to you. I have no monetary arrangement with Studio Saroya.
