How to Create a Single Product Website With WordPress (In 4 Steps)

A lot of the top e-commerce websites have one thing in common – they feature hundreds of products for you to purchase. However, it’s entirely possible to run a successful store featuring only a single item for sale. To put it another way, you can have a lot of success with a single product website.

Featuring only a single product means you can streamline the whole operation. Inventory is easier to deal with, as is managing product expectations. Plus, you won’t need to update your catalog as often. Last but certainly not least, it makes developing a dedicated site for your product simple.

What single product websites are (and how they work)

One-product sites can be just as lucrative as those with larger catalogs, and a lot easier to manage.

The term ‘single product website’ is fairly self-explanatory. It’s what you call an online store that sells only one item, and it’s more common than you might think.

Logic dictates that the more products you offer for sale, the better your chances are of converting visitors. However, having a broad product catalog also requires more work on your end. A single product website, on the other hand, can be much easier to build and maintain.

The only caveat is that you need to pick a product you know you can sell a lot of. Otherwise, your store will never take off. In theory, you can build a website around any kind of item. However, single product stores tend to work better in specific situations, such as:

• Digital products that don’t have any shipping or manufacturing costs
• Products with powerful branding
• Highly niche products that target a particular type of consumer

Keep in mind that you will need excellent copy, high-quality product images, and a clear Call To Action (CTA) if you want your product to sell. That is always the case, of course, but it’s even more important with one-product sites. In addition, you’ll also want to take care when building the site itself.

How to create a single product website (in 4 steps)

Before we move forward, you’ll need to know what product you want to build your website around. Once you’re clear on that point, the rest of the process is much more straightforward than you might imagine.

1. Choose a web host and install WordPress

The first thing you’ll need is a web host and plan for your store. However, the fact that it’s only going to feature a single product isn’t a reason to pick the cheapest host you can find. Ideally, whichever provider you choose will offer you excellent performance and support, and will be WordPress-friendly.

Fortunately for all of us, top-notch WordPress hosting can be found for pretty cheap these days. We’ve reviewed plenty of hosts in the past, but if you want a quick recommendation, SiteGround is always a good bet.

Two of our other top picks include A2 Hosting and Bluehost. On all three, you can get away with their basic WordPress plans while you get your store off the ground.

With most web hosts, all you have to do is pick a plan, sign up, and log into your account. Then, you’ll be able to install WordPress with just a few clicks. The process is usually simple, but you can check out our full WordPress installation guide if you have any doubts.

2. Set up and configure WooCommerce

WordPress is a highly-versatile platform. However, it doesn’t include e-commerce functionality out of the box. This means if you want your website to be more than just a promotional brochure, you’ll need to find a way to manage inventory and process payments.

As is almost always the case, the answer lies with plugins. There are a lot of e-commerce plugins available for WordPress, but our number-one pick is WooCommerce. It packs in a ton of features, it’s highly customizable, and you can use it to sell a single product or hundreds of them.

WooCommerce

Author(s): Automattic

Current Version: 8.2.1

Last Updated: October 16, 2023

woocommerce.8.2.1.zip

90%Ratings 5,000,000+Installs WP 6.2+Requires

Before we move on, you’ll need to install, activate, and configure WooCommerce. The plugin includes a setup wizard that simplifies the process, but you can also follow our instructions if you want more details.

3. Find a suitable theme for your single product website

Using WooCommerce to publish a single product is straightforward, as we’ll cover in a minute. The trickiest part of setting up a one product website is picking the perfect theme for it.

We’ve introduced you to some excellent e-commerce themes in the past, and we encourage you to take a look at those to get your research started. For this type of project, however, we’d recommend considering our own ShopIsle theme:

ShopIsle is a free WordPress e-commerce theme that was built to integrate smoothly with WooCommerce. With ShopIsle, it doesn’t matter if you want to publish one product or a thousand – the theme will adjust accordingly. Plus, it has a sleek and uncluttered look that’s perfect for highlighting a single item.

There’s also a premium version of ShopIsle, although the free option offers all the sections you’re likely to need for a one-product site. You can check out the theme’s demo to see it in action. Then, once you install it, you can use the WordPress customizer to play around with your store’s layout.

4. Publish your product

Now, it’s time to publish your store’s featured product. To do that, go to the Products > Add New tab. Once there, you’ll be able to set a name and a description for the product you want to publish.

You’ll also want to add several images, since they’re key to driving sales online. Since you’re only selling one specific product, you need to make it look as good as possible. That means including several images of the item from various angles, in use, and in multiple variations (if relevant):

On top of that, there’s a section below the editor that enables you to set your product’s price, shipping details, inventory status, and more:

Since you’re going to focus on one product, we encourage you to add as much detail here as possible. The copy, images, and information you provide will be the keys to your site’s success. So don’t be afraid to try different combinations of content, until you land on the perfect design!

Once your product is live, there’s still plenty to do. Chances are your site is still pretty bare, so you’ll want to add more sections and content. If you want some inspiration, you can check out some of these amazing one-page designs, which can give you ideas for how to design a shop built around a single product. In addition, you’ll want to take a look at our guide to the essential pages for any WordPress website.

Conclusion

You don’t need hundreds of products to run a successful online store. As long as your e-commerce website has strong copy, excellent photos, and an attention-grabbing CTA, you can get away with selling only one item. Plus, this can make store management a lot simpler.

If you’re interested in creating a single product website using WordPress, here’s what you’ll need to do:

Do you have any questions about how to run an online store using WooCommerce and ShopIsle? Ask away in the comments section below!

* This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and then purchase the product, we’ll receive a small fee. No worries though, you’ll still pay the standard amount so there’s no cost on your part.