How to set up an online store

Before you can start selling products on your website you need to setup your site to handle products and payments. This consists of the following steps:

1. Create a checkout page with the Checkout Widget added to it.

First, create a new webpage called 'Checkout' ( Learn about creating webpages ). Then, edit the page ( learn about editing pages ).

Then click Insert > Widgets then drag the 'Checkout' Widget to your page and click Publish.

2. Create an 'order success' page and 'order failed' page with infromation for your customers.

Create two new pages ( Learn about creating webpages ), edit them ( learn about editing pages ) and add content indicating that the customer's order has been successfully placed on one page, and that the order has been cancelled on the other. Publish these pages.

3. Complete the settings under Website Settings > Checkout orders to connect your PayPal account and configure important settings

Click Website Settings from the Welcome Screen then click 'Checkout orders'.

Fill out all the information in these settings. See the notes for each section below:

'PayPal email'
Enter your PayPal email address here. This connects the website to your PayPal account so that you receive any payments made.

Show message field in PayPal
Tick this if you want customers to be able to enter a text message with their order once they are transferred to PayPal.

'Order success page' and 'Order fail page'
Chose the pages you created in step 2 above for these options. The 'Order success page' will be shown the user once they've successfully paid. The 'Order fail page' will be shown to the user if they cancel the payment process before completing checkout in PayPal.

'Order received template' and 'Order dispatched template'
Enter a subject and message body to be used as a template for emails sent to the customer. The 'Order received template' is sent to the customer as soon as they complete payment. The 'Order dispatched template' email is sent when you mark the order as 'dispatched' in the CMS. This is optional, you can archive the order without marking it as dispatched. You can use special 'variables' in these templates which will be replaced with information specific the customer's order. These are detailed in the 'show more' section while you're entering the template text.

From
Enter the name and email address that you'd like any emails sent to the customer to appear to be from. They will be able to reply to this address to ensure it's a real email address.

SMTP settings
This is an optional setting but highly recommended. When set, it allows the emails that get sent to the customer to be sent via your own SMTP email server. This reduces the chance of the message being flagged as spam. Contact us for further information on your SMTP settings.