Your first steps

The order to work in when your shop is brand new, and where each step is explained.

A new shop has a lot of empty screens, and it is not obvious where to start. Work in this order and each step makes the next one easier.

One evening, not one month

Steps 1 to 5 are enough to start taking orders. The rest can be done later, a little at a time, while the shop is already running.

The order to work in#

Sign in and change your password. Do this before anything else — it is covered on the previous page.
Put in your shop's basics: name, logo, contact details and currency, under Settings → General. Your shop name shows in the browser tab, in emails and on every invoice, so get it right now rather than later.
Make your categories first, before any product. Categories are the groups customers browse by — Shirts, Drinks, Chargers. Making them first means every product you add can be put in the right group straight away, instead of you going back over all of them later.
Add your products. Do two or three by hand first to see how the form works, then keep going. Name and Price are what matter; a good photo sells more than anything else on the page.
Set how you get paid and how you deliver, under Settings → Payments and Settings → Shipping. Without this a customer can fill a cart but cannot finish. Check that your delivery charge is what you actually charge.
Place one test order on your own website, from start to finish. This is the single most useful thing you will do — it shows you exactly what your customer sees, and the order shows up in Orders → All Orders so you can practise moving it to Shipped and Delivered.
Make the website look like your shop: colours and fonts under Design → Theme & Colors and Design → Typography, and the big picture at the top under Design → Home Banners.
Arrange your homepage and your menu — which rows of products appear and in what order, under Design → Pages, and the links across the top under Design → Navigation.
Fill in the footer — address, phone, opening hours and social links, under Design → Footer. This is the part customers look at when they want to trust you.
Give your staff their own logins under Team, one role each. Never let two people share one login.
Only now, tell people about it: set your search-engine title and description under Settings → Meta & SEO, and set up a coupon or a sale if you want an opening offer.

The same list, as a checklist#

Step	Where you do it	Explained later under
1 · Change your password	Profile	Getting started → Signing in
2 · Shop name, logo, currency	Settings → General	Settings
3 · Categories	Categories & Brands → Category List	Products
4 · Products	Manage Product → All Products → Add Product	Products
5 · Payment and delivery	Settings → Payments, Settings → Shipping	Settings
6 · One test order	Your website, then Orders → All Orders	Orders
7 · Colours, fonts, banner	Design → Theme & Colors, Typography, Home Banners	Design
8 · Homepage and menu	Design → Pages, Design → Navigation	Design
9 · Footer	Design → Footer	Design
10 · Staff logins	Team → Add Member	Team
11 · Search listing and offers	Settings → Meta & SEO, Coupon	Settings, Promotional Deals

Before you send customers to the website#

Open your own website on your phone, not only on a computer. Most of your customers will arrive on a phone.
Check that the stock numbers are right. A product showing stock you do not have will be sold, and then you have to explain.
Check that your delivery charge and free-delivery limit are what you actually want to charge.
Make sure a real person reads the email address on the shop — that is where order emails and password resets go.

Do the test order (step 6) before you tell anybody about the shop. It is the only way to find out that payment or delivery is not set up — and much better that you find out than a customer does.

After the test order, delete it from Orders → All Orders so your figures start from zero. It goes to the Recycle bin, not straight out.