After Installation of WooCommerce shouldn't you start with products and orders right away? First, you should check your shop's basic settings. They determine, for example, where your shop is located, which countries you want to sell and ship to, which currency is used, and whether WooCommerce should include taxes and coupons.
If it is not yet clear to you what tasks WordPress and WooCommerce handle respectively, you can find the basics in the article What is WooCommerce and how does a WooCommerce store work?.
You can find the most important basic settings in the WordPress backend under:
WooCommerce
→ Settings
→ General
Briefly explained: The general settings form part of your store's foundation. Here you define, among other things, the store address, selling and shipping regions, default customer location, tax function, coupons, and the base currency.
Before you change settings #
WooCommerce is very flexible. That is why there is no single correct configuration for every online store.
A Swiss shop that sells exclusively within Switzerland requires different settings than a shop that supplies customers in multiple countries. A shop with physical products, in turn, requires different settings than a shop that offers only virtual or downloadable products.
Therefore, before you begin, you should at least be able to answer these questions:
- Where is your company or shop located?
- In which countries do you want to sell?
- To which countries would you like to ship physical products?
- What currency should your shop use?
- Would you like to offer promo codes?
- Should WooCommerce calculate taxes?
Important: This article explains the technical configuration of WooCommerce. Which tax or legal requirements apply to your business cannot be determined by WooCommerce and is not part of this guide.
Open general WooCommerce settings #
- Log in to the WordPress backend.
- Click in the left menu on WooCommerce.
- Open Settings.
- Open the tab General, if it is not already displayed.
The page is divided into several sections. We will now go through them step by step.
1. Enter the shop address correctly #
At the top you will find your shop's address. Here you enter the actual address of your company or business location.
These include:
- Address Line 1: usually street and house number
- Address Line 2: additional address information, if needed
- City: Location of your company
- Country / Region: Country and, if applicable, the corresponding region
- Postal code: Location postal code
You should enter this address carefully. WooCommerce can use the shop address, among other things, as a basis for certain shipping and tax calculations.
Example: If your company is located in Chur, you enter your actual business address in Chur here. Do not use a customer's address or any example address.
2. Define sales regions #
Next, you determine in which countries or regions you generally want to sell.
At Sales region(s) can you determine whether you:
- want to sell in all countries,
- want to sell in all countries except certain countries or
- want to sell only to certain countries.
Which setting is correct depends on where you actually want to offer your products.
Example: Sale only to Switzerland and Liechtenstein #
If you want to sell exclusively to customers in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, you can restrict sales to these countries.
Sales region(s):
→ Sell only in specific countries
Countries:
→ Switzerland
→ Liechtenstein
This allows you to define at the basic shop level which countries are permitted as sales regions.
Tip: Don't activate the whole world as a precaution if you actually only want to sell to a few countries. The more clearly your sales territory is defined, the easier it is later to control shipping and other country-specific settings.
3. Distinguish between sales region and shipping region #
Sales region and Shipping region sound similar, but do not have the same task.
The sales region determines the countries in which you generally want to sell.
The shipping region determines the countries to which physical goods are to be shipped.
Both can be identical, but they do not have to be.
A simplified example:
Sales:
├── Switzerland
├── Liechtenstein
└── Germany
Shipping of physical goods:
├── Switzerland
└── Liechtenstein
Such a difference can occur, for example, when certain products do not require physical shipping.
4. Define shipping regions #
At Shipping region(s) you determine to which regions your shop is allowed to ship goods.
WooCommerce offers various options for this. For example, you can ship to all countries you sell to, restrict shipping to specific countries, or disable shipping functions entirely.
If you sell exclusively products that do not require shipping, deactivating the shipping features can make sense.
For physical products, on the other hand, you should precisely define which countries you can actually deliver to.
Important: With the shipping region, you are not yet setting shipping prices. We will set up the actual shipping zones, shipping methods, and shipping costs later in the article. Set up shipping zones, shipping methods, and shipping costs in WooCommerce one.
5. Set standard customer location #
For certain calculations, WooCommerce requires a customer location. However, before a new visitor has entered their address, WooCommerce does not yet know this location.
With Default customer location you determine how WooCommerce should proceed in this situation.
WooCommerce provides several options for this.
Country of Shop / Region of Shop #
WooCommerce initially assumes that the customer is located in the same country or region as your shop.
In a shop located in Switzerland, a still unknown visitor is initially treated like a customer from Switzerland.
No default location #
WooCommerce initially does not accept a customer location.
Tax and shipping information that depends on the customer's address can only be correctly calculated after the customer has provided the required address.
This can make sense if your shop sells to multiple countries and you do not want to make any assumptions about the customer's location before they enter their address.
Geolocate #
During geolocation, WooCommerce attempts to determine the visitor's approximate location based on their IP address.
WooCommerce uses MaxMind geolocation data for this. For this feature to work correctly, geolocation must be set up accordingly.
Such a location determination is not the same as a billing or shipping address entered by the customer themselves. Instead, it initially helps WooCommerce display location-based information as appropriately as possible.
Geolocation with page cache support #
WooCommerce also offers a geolocation option for websites with page caching.
WooCommerce can append additional characters to a URL in the process. This is not an error, but part of the technology used to prevent cached content from being incorrectly delivered with location-based prices or calculations.
For beginners: Do not simply activate geolocation just because the feature sounds technically interesting. If your shop only has a clearly limited sales area, a simpler setting may be sufficient. The deciding factor is how your shop should calculate prices, taxes, and shipping.
6. Enable tax calculation #
In the field of Taxes and vouchers Can you enable WooCommerce tax calculation.
Are you activating Enable tax rates and calculations, the section also appears after saving in the WooCommerce settings Taxes.
The actual tax options and tax rates will be configured there later.
This includes, for example:
- whether product prices are entered with or without tax,
- which customer address WooCommerce uses for the calculation,
- how taxes are displayed in the shop,
- which tax brackets are used and
- what tax rates are stored.
Important: WooCommerce provides the technical tax calculation. The system does not decide whether your business is liable for tax, in which country you must collect taxes, or which tax rate is legally correct.
We will explain the complete setup step by step later in the article Properly setting up taxes and VAT in WooCommerce.
7. Activate voucher codes #
WooCommerce has a built-in coupon feature. If you want to offer discount or coupon codes, you enable the use of coupon codes in this section.
After activation, you can create vouchers and define the conditions under which they may be used.
If you do not want to use coupon codes, you do not need to activate this feature.
How to create coupons and, for example, set up a fixed discount or a percentage discount is covered in detail in the article Creating coupons and discount codes in WooCommerce.
Calculate coupon discounts sequentially #
WooCommerce also offers the option to calculate coupon discounts consecutively.
This setting becomes relevant when multiple vouchers can be applied to the same order.
When sequential calculation is enabled, another percentage coupon is applied to the amount already reduced by previous coupons. Without this option, percentage coupon discounts are calculated based on the original product price.
If you haven't defined a discount strategy yet, you shouldn't just change this setting. First, decide how multiple coupons can be combined in your shop.
8. Set the base currency of the shop #
Further down the page you will find the Currency options.
Here you set the base currency of your WooCommerce store.
For a Swiss shop, this can be, for example:
Currency:
→ Swiss Franc (CHF)
WooCommerce Core uses a base currency for the shop. This currency is used for the shop's prices and orders.
If you want to run a true multi-currency shop where customers can pay in different currencies, you need additional features or a suitable extension for this purpose. Simply changing the currency display is not the same as a complete multi-currency solution.
9. Determine position of currency symbol #
With Currency position you determine whether the currency symbol or currency specification appears before or after the price.
WooCommerce basically offers:
- Links
- right
- left with space
- right with space
Depending on the selected currency, a price can be displayed like this, for example:
CHF 49.90
CHF 49.90
49.90 CHF
49.90 CHF
Choose the variant that matches the desired display of your shop.
10. Set thousand separator #
The thousands separator determines the visible display of larger amounts.
Depending on the chosen spelling, a price can be displayed differently, for example:
1,250.00
1.250,00
The separator does not change the actual product price. It determines how numbers are displayed in the shop.
11. Set decimal separator #
The decimal separator separate the entire amount from the decimal places.
Examples:
49.90
49,90
This is also about the display of prices in the shop.
12. Set number of decimal places #
The number of decimal places determines how many digits WooCommerce displays to the right of the decimal separator.
For example, with two decimal places, it displays:
CHF 49.90
Changes to this setting will affect the price display in the shop. Therefore, change it consciously and check various product prices afterwards.
13. Save settings #
After making the general settings, click below on Save changes.
Only after that does WooCommerce apply the new values.
Tip: Especially during the initial setup, it makes sense not to change twenty settings at once and only test at the end. Make adjustments one area at a time, save, and then check whether your shop behaves as expected.
What other WooCommerce settings are there? #
The page General is only the beginning. Under WooCommerce → Settings you will find further areas for the actual shop configuration.
| Area | What is it used for? |
|---|---|
| Products | Basic product settings, units of measurement, ratings, inventory management, and downloadable product settings. |
| Taxes | Tax calculation, tax display, tax brackets and tax rates. This section appears when tax calculation has been activated. |
| Shipping | Shipping zones, shipping methods and further settings for shipping. |
| Payments | Activation and configuration of available payment methods. |
| Account & Privacy | Guest orders, customer accounts, and various privacy options. |
| Emails | WooCommerce notifications and basic shop email settings. |
| Integration | Settings for specific services and integrations. |
| Visibility | Settings regarding the visibility or publication of the shop. |
| Extended | Page setup and further technical WooCommerce functions. |
Depending on the installed plugins, WooCommerce extensions, theme, or custom code, additional tabs and settings may appear. Therefore, two WooCommerce stores do not necessarily look exactly the same.
Check cart, checkout, and my account #
WooCommerce requires specific pages for the checkout process and the customer account.
Open:
WooCommerce
→ Settings
→ Advanced
There you will find settings and mappings for core shop functions. These include, among other things, the shopping cart, checkout, and My Account.
You should not delete or modify these areas without a reason. They are required by WooCommerce for important shop functions.
We explain in detail how the shopping cart and checkout work together and what happens there during an order in the article Understanding Cart and Checkout in WooCommerce.
What should you check after the basic settings? #
After saving, open your shop once like a regular visitor. It is best to also use a private browser window so that you don't just see the shop from the perspective of a logged-in administrator.
First, check:
- Is the desired currency displayed?
- Does the price format look correct?
- Are the correct sales regions stored?
- Are the shipping regions restricted appropriately?
- Is the tax function enabled or disabled according to your planned configuration?
- Is the voucher function only activated when you want to use it?
A complete test order does not make sense at this point if products, shipping, taxes, and payment methods are not yet fully set up.
When all areas are set up, we will later in the article Testing a WooCommerce shop before launch: Test order and checklist perform a complete ordering process from the customer's perspective.
Example of a simple Swiss shop #
So that you can better categorize the settings, let's take as an example a shop based in Switzerland that sells physical products exclusively within Switzerland.
| Setting | Technical example |
|---|---|
| Shop address | Actual Swiss business address |
| Sales region | Switzerland |
| Shipping region | Switzerland |
| Default customer location | Depending on the desired shop behavior, for example shop country or no default location |
| Currency | Swiss Franc (CHF) |
| Taxes | Enable if tax calculation via WooCommerce is required |
| Vouchers | Enable if coupon codes are to be offered |
Please note: This example shows only one possible technical configuration. It is not a legal or tax recommendation for Swiss online shops.
What is still missing #
With the general settings, we have created the basic framework conditions. However, the shop is not yet finished with this.
Next, we will set up the actual shop contents and features:
Basic settings
↓
Create products
↓
Product types and variants
↓
Product categories and attributes
↓
Product images
↓
Inventory
↓
Cart and checkout
↓
Customer accounts
↓
Orders
↓
Coupons
↓
Taxes
↓
Shipping
↓
Payment methods
↓
Shop emails
↓
Test order
In the next step, we will therefore show you how you can creating the first product in WooCommerce and which details are important in the process.
Summary #
You can find the basic settings of your WooCommerce store under WooCommerce → Settings → General.
First, enter your correct shop address and determine the countries you want to sell to and ship physical goods to. Then, decide how WooCommerce should handle an unknown customer location.
Enable tax calculation and coupon codes only if you need these features for your store. Then, set your base currency and the desired price display.
Save your changes and then check the settings from the perspective of a regular visitor. Products, shipping costs, tax rates, payment methods, and other shop features will be set up separately in the next steps.
