Before you begin
To create an online store, you need only three things:
A Business plan – it's necessary for your e-store to be hosted on the Internet
A website template – it's like a skeleton of your soon-to-be website; all our website templates are easily customizable
A domain name – it's your website's address
How to Create an Online Store
Step 1 – Connect Your Website Template to Your Business Plan
Once you select a website template that suits your needs, connect it to your Business plan.
NOTES:
The domain can be connected anytime later
Connecting a domain publishes your website, i.e., makes your website publicly available to everyone
If you've accidentally published your website, you can simply disconnect the domain from your website template
Step 2 – Set Up the Online Store
Once your website template is connected to your Business plan, open the website editor and enable the online store platform – it will give you access to the store management area.
Step 3 – Create Products
The online store supports the following types of products: physical, digital, services, donations, and appointments. To add products, go to the Products section in your store management area.
Step 4 – Display Products on Your Website
Once you add products, they are not automatically displayed on your website: remember to add product sections to the preferred website pages.
Step 5 – Enable Payments
In your online store, you can enable two types of payments: online payments and manual payments.
Step 6 – Set Up Shipping
To set up shipping methods, go to the Shipping section in your store management area.
Step 7 – Check the General Store Settings
In your store settings, check the following:
Store details: specify your store name and regional settings
Company information: add your company name, logo, contacts, and address
Checkout settings: add checkout policies and custom fields
Emails: view the emails that are automatically sent from your online store
Invoice settings: customize the content of your invoices
Step 8 – Check the Shopping Bag Settings
You can enable or disable the shopping bag in your website's header settings within the editor. For example, if you have just one product to sell, you can disable the shopping bag which automatically enables express checkout. This way, your clients can buy one product at a time and are instantly redirected to the checkout page (they would skip the “Shopping bag” step).
To change the shopping bag language, go to the Checkout section in your store management area.
Step 9 – Customize the Template to Match Your Brand Style
Remember to personalize your website. If you're not sure where to start, you may follow these guidelines: How to customize a website template
Step 10 – Check the SEO Settings
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. In short, SEO is about how well your website performs in search engines like Google. It depends on many various factors: speed, mobile optimization, keywords, quality of your content, and so on. Learn more: SEO settings, Product SEO settings 💡
Step 11 – Publish Your Website
Once you're ready, go ahead and publish your website! If you're eager to declare your online presence, but there's still some work to do, you may publish only the landing page (“Coming soon”).
Step 12 – Grow Your Business
To make your business more visible than ever, use marketing tools, such as: