Most people overbuild their first WordPress store. They install 20 plugins, spend a week tweaking colors, and never launch. I’ve launched over a dozen stores in 48 hours or less, and the difference is ruthless minimalism. This isn’t about cutting corners—it’s about cutting everything that doesn’t directly lead to a sale.
Here’s the stack I use, in order of installation. Each one has a specific job, and I’ll tell you the setting you’ll forget.
**1. WooCommerce** – The obvious one. But the setting you’ll forget: under WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Inventory, turn off “Hold stock (minutes)” unless you’re selling limited quantities. For digital products, stock management is irrelevant and can cause false “out of stock” errors. Also, disable the default customer emails for processing orders—they confuse buyers when you’re selling downloads.
**2. A lightweight theme** – I use GeneratePress or Kadence. Both are fast and don’t fight with WooCommerce templates. The setting you’ll forget: in the customizer, set your product archive to show 3 columns and 12 products per page. More than that and mobile users bounce.
**3. A payment gateway** – Stripe or PayPal. I prefer Stripe for lower fees and better checkout. The setting you’ll forget: enable “Payment Request Buttons” in Stripe settings so Apple Pay and Google Pay show up. That alone can increase mobile conversions by 20%.
**4. An SMTP plugin** – WP Mail SMTP. Your host’s default mail will land in spam. The setting you’ll forget: authenticate with your domain’s email (like [email protected]) instead of a Gmail address. Gmail addresses get flagged.
**5. A digital delivery plugin** – If you’re selling downloads, WooCommerce’s built-in digital product option works, but it’s clunky. I use Easy Digital Downloads for pure digital stores, or WooCommerce + a free plugin like “Download Monitor” for mixed. The setting you’ll forget: set download expiry to 30 days and limit to 3 downloads. Unlimited downloads lead to sharing.
**6. A caching plugin** – WP Rocket or LiteSpeed Cache. The setting you’ll forget: exclude cart, checkout, and my-account pages from caching. If you don’t, customers see stale carts and get errors.
**7. A security plugin** – Wordfence or Solid Security. The setting you’ll forget: enable two-factor authentication for your admin account. Brute force attacks are constant.
That’s seven plugins. You might need an SEO plugin (Rank Math) and a forms plugin (WPForms) if you’re collecting leads, but those can wait until after launch.
Now, the order matters. Install WooCommerce first, then theme, then payment gateway, then SMTP. Test a transaction before you add any other plugin. If something breaks, you know it’s the last one you added.
After launch, you can add more. But your first sale won’t come from a fancy upsell plugin. It’ll come from a working checkout and a product someone wants. Keep it simple.
One more thing: backup before you start. Use UpdraftPlus and save a copy to Google Drive. When you’re experimenting, you’ll be glad you did.