Online Store: Getting Started

Once you have signed up for the Online Store, you can start adding your products and customizing your settings!

The basic setup consists of three steps:

1. Adding products
2. Adding payment methods
3. Adding shipping methods

Adding Products

Once you’ve logged into your ECWID account, click on Online Store in the top menu. In the setup screen, click on the blue “Add a product” button.

The product setup dialog box provides a variety of options. For now, we’ll just be adding a single product, and include basic details, an image, inventory information and product options. You can edit the product’s category, options, images, tax and shipping information at a later stage.

To add a new product, click "*New product" in the top-left corner of the Products dialog box.

In the General window, you can enter the basic product details.

• SKU: Stock-keeping Unit. This is not a mandatory field, and if you don't use SKUs for your products, you can leave it as is
• Weight, lbs: Weight is important for shipping, as carriers calculate their rates by product weight.
• Shipping and handling are charged separately to the product. In addition to this, not assigning a product weight means that your online store will regard your product it as an intangible item, such as a digital download, and will not calculate and display a shipping rate at checkout.
• Name: Your product's name. You can change this at any time.
  Product Image: Scroll down the page to locate the image upload area. You can upload a single image via this screen.

Tip: Once you've saved your product details, you can upload a gallery of images for your product, in the "Gallery" tab.

Follow these steps to change the weight of your products:

1. Click System Settings in the top-right corner.
2. Make sure you are in the General tab. 
3. Select Formats & Units.
4. Click on the Weight unit drop-down menu.
5. Change the weight unit you'd like to use.
6. Click Save.

The Online Store also allows you to add a variety of options to your product. For example, if you are selling coffee beans, you can add options for the different size bags you sell. When customers click to buy a bag of coffee beans, they’ll be prompted to choose a size and will also see the price difference between the various options.

Here’s how to do that:

    1.    Click on Options at the top of the Product dialog box.
    2.    Click on New Option.
    3.    Describe your option (e.g., different weight bags for your coffee beans).
    4.    Enter the price of each option.
    5.    Select the display options from the Input Type menu.
    6.    Click Save.

To read more about each option take a look at the Ecwid Products topics.

Setting up a Payment Gateway

The Online Store integrates with a large number of payment gateways (for the full list, click here: Payment Options). The two most popular gateways are PayPal and Google Checkout. To use either of these with the Online Store, you can simply sign up for a merchant account. 

Sign up for a PayPal account
Sign up for a Google Checkout account

Once you have your account set up, you can add a payment method, or edit existing payment methods, in System Settings > Payment.

The payment method options are extremely varied and give you absolute control over what types of payments you accept. Not only that, but you can also accept non-typical payment methods, such as a check or a fax order. Payment methods fall into two different categories:

1) Offline methods

Offline methods don't charge customers right away, they just store the data provided by the customer which you can then process manually. Offline methods include wire transfer, phone ordering and checks.

There are three different types of offline methods:

• Offline Basic: This processor doesn't ask for any details, it just saves the entered order data.
• Offline Check: Asks for an Owner's full name, Checking account number and Bank routing number.
• Offline Purchase Order: Asks for a PO number, Company name, Buyer's full name and Job position.

You then need to process this information, and once payment goes through, you can fulfill the customer's order.

2) Online methods

Online methods process payment immediately, and would apply to methods such as credit cards and PayPal transactions.

Adding a Google Wallet Payment Gateway

•  Go to System Settings > Payments > Google Wallet.  
•  Add your Merchant ID and Merchant Key in the fields provided.
•  Select the types of payment methods you'd like to use.
•  Enable your gateway.
•  Click Save.

Adding a PayPal Express payment method

• Go to System Settings > Payments > PayPal Express Checkout.  
• Enter the API details in the fields provided.
• Enable your gateway.
• Click Save.

Adding other payment gateways

1. Go to System Settings > Payments.
2. In the Payment Processor column of the method you'd like to update, click Change.
3. Choose the payment type you'd like to accept.
4. Select the gateway you'd like to use.
5. Enter your gateway account information as required.
6. Enable your gateway.
7. Click Save.

Adding customer instructions

A customer note is always shown on the next line of the payment method name, and it’s a neat way of adding extra information to your payment methods. A good example of this is if you'd like to work on a Cash on Delivery (COD) basis. Because there isn't a COD payment option, you can simply add this information underneath your preferred payment method.

You can use only plain text in your notes, no HTML is allowed. To add a note, click on "Instruction for customer" next to the relevant payment method on the Payment page.

• Example: The first line, e.g. payment name: "Check".
• The second line note: "COD: Please pay on delivery".

If you are using a shipping company, you will need to contact them to confirm whether they offer a COD service. For example, UPS will collect a cashier's check or money order on your behalf. For more information about this, visit the UPS COD page. Each shipping company works differently so it's best to contact them to confirm.

Store URL

The store URL is the web address of your store and can be added to business cards, and email signatures. It is an optional feature, although some features do rely on it.

Once you have published your site, and log into the Control Panel, you will be reminded that you should set your store URL. Enter the URL of the site to which you've added your Online Store. Click Save to finish.

Setting up shipping

The Online Store supports shipping options worldwide, and also gives you the flexibilty to choose your shipping provider. There are three different shipping calculations available:

• Flat rate: Set a flat shipping rate, or specify free shipping.
• Custom table: Customize your shipping costs by weight, number of items or cart total.
• Carrier-calculated: Automatically calculate costs based on carrier rate tables.

For a detailed explanation of the difference between the methods, and to give you an idea of which method is best for your store, visit the Ecwid Knowledge Base Shipping article.

To add a shipping method:

• Go to System Settings > Shipping.
• Click the New Shipping Method button.
• Select the shipping region and then select the shipping method you'd like to use.
• Click Next.
• Complete the steps provided.
• To activate a shipping option, click Enable.  

Shipping costs are generally calculated on weight and distance, so if you are selling a tangible product it is important to configure your product weight correctly. This will ensure you receive the correct carrier-estimated cost of delivery.

Zones

Destination zones are used for shipping and tax rules when you are setting up your shipping methods. Go to System Settings > Zones. You can also create them at a later stage if you're not sure about your shipping plans yet.

Once you have saved all your options, go to your site in the Sitebuilder. Drag and drop the Online Store Widget onto your page, and your online store will be displayed. 

Take a look at our tutorial on Basic Customization, to get started with changing your currency and adding product options.