Setting up a new online shop can be very quick & easy. Here are a few basic steps which will help you get started.
- Sign Up - Check out our Plans and Sign up to our 14-Day free Trial.
- Customise Your Shop - choose between our Templates or use our Theme Editor to modify the look.
- Add Your Catalogue - Manually add your products, imagery and categories or use our Importer & we'll do the heavy lifting for you.
- Choose Your Payment Methods - sign up for a Trust Payments merchant account, add Paypal options, Invoices or even Cash on Delivery.
- Delve into the Details - set up your Shipping Methods, Tax Settings, Navigation Menus, Tracking information, etc.
- Final Prep - Add some Blog posts, Info pages and a Coupon (or two).
- Go Live!
1 Sign in or Sign Up
Initially we need to give our new Shop a Name and enter an Email Address. These can both be changed at a later date if needed (and if the shop name is available).
If the Shop name you want is Unavailable the border will change to Red.
We then need a few more details to get you started. Enter your name, a contact telephone number which will, by default, show on the front end of your site (you can change this later) and a memorable password.
Then select your industry from the drop down list - or the nearest equivalent. Once you've had a read of our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy click the box to accept and you're ready to go!
2 Choose a Template
As a standard we don't charge you for templates. Ever. All of our specially designed templates are there for you to choose from.
Every single template can be further customised to how you want using our Content Builder or, if you know HTML/CSS, you can go ahead and code to your heart's (or eye's) content.
Our templates come preloaded with some industry images and products to help give you an idea of what the final version will look like.
Of course you'll need to add your own imagery and products before going live to show the world your creative flair. You can find more information on adding products and images on our other help documents at Stor Support
Coding Whizz
To edit the HTML/CSS/JS simply hit the menu option (as shown above) to be taken over to the Theme Editor window. You can modify code directly in the Theme Editor Window or Export and Import Theme files if you want to work offline.
Our platform uses the Liquid Markup language which is open-source and developed for use in Ruby on Rails web applications and to load dynamic content on online shops. For further information on Liquid or adjusting templates on the Stor platform please refer to our Developer Help Documents or get in touch with our team.
3 Add Your Catalogue
We won't go into too much detail here about adding Products, Images and Categories as we've got specific help documents for these.
It is, however, worth saying that if you do have long list of products or images then our Import Feature is definitely the way to go.
Add in our Dropbox Integration and you can use all that spare time to build your business rather than doing a load of Admin. Nice.
4 Choose Your Payment Method(s)
At the time of writing your payment method options includes Stor Card Payments through TruConnect, Paypal, Cash On Delivery, Bank transfer, Cheque/Postal Order and Invoice (Purchase Order). These are separated into Offline and Online Payment methods, information about each can be found here: Offline and Online.
We strongly suggest that you use PayPal Express rather than Standard in all cases. This not only gives a better customer experience, as they don't have to leave the site, but this will also lend credence to your site security and general feeling of professionalism.
As the Platform continues to grow, we will continue adding new Payment methods. We'll let you know about these as they're added and available for you to use. If you have any suggestions or requests for additional features or payment gateways you'd love to see then feel free to let us know by emailing features@stor.co. We put all of your suggestions into our Requests Box which is discussed at our monthly team meeting to see if we're able to add them to our ever moving roadmap.
5 Delve Into The Details
As with most things, the more prepared you are, the more likely you are to have an easier time ahead. The same is true in eCommerce. The more time you spend getting your shop front setup with shipping rules, tax settings - stay with us here - Google Analytics, Meta descriptions (SEO) and the perfect Navigation Menu, the better.
Also, try to think about everything you can from your customers perspective. Put yourself in their chair and follow the journey of their buying cycle with you from hitting your site to checking out.
- Does the Navigation menu work as well as it could?
- Is your Shipping setup all ok?
- Are taxes being added correctly for American & European customers?
- Is VAT being added to your Shipping correctly?
Ask a spouse, family member or friend to go through the customer journey too and see if they have any queries. If so, then other people may have queries too. Ask your honest, but friendly tester, what they would improve, if anything, what was confusing.
The Customer Experience is absolutely crucial to having a successful online business. Taking the time to finesse where you can will be totally worth it.
Need some convincing? Have a look around the very useful and well loved eConsultancy website for some further insights.
6 Final Prep
We're nearly there. Now's the time for final touches. Making sure your images and banners are loaded and looking great. Ensuring Contact Pages, About Us pages and Policy pages are completed and proof-read. Ideally, you have at least 1 blog post up with another planned for the following week. And as a welcome treat maybe a coupon code for your first few customers.
Products are in with great imagery and evocative product descriptions. Our categories are all setup and linked to our Navigation Menu. The shop's shipping rules and payment methods are good to go. We've tested and tweaked and tested again. Google is tracking every user and Enhanced eCommerce is activated and waiting with bated breath. So what are we waiting for?
Whether a side-hustle, brick and mortar business or a full-time role; eCommerce is exciting, challenging, and best of all, it's all yours!
Now, go forth and spread the word.
7 Go Live!
Now that you have built out the shop front, added products, set up shipping rules and connected your online payments you're good to go!
Of course if you have any questions please reach out to our Support team on Live Chat or by email.