When you get started with your online business, the number of things to take care of can be a bit overwhelming. To help you get started, your cockpit provides you with a handy checklist. You can find it on the dashboard, i.e. the page that you see right after you’ve logged in, or you can access a smaller version of it from the upper right corner on all pages of your cockpit.
This article provides additional information on each step on your checklist.
Skip to:
- Customize your website’s design
- Add content and products
- Set up the checkout process
- Add legal content
- Publish your website
Customize your website’s design
Your website’s design is important – it’s the first thing that your visitors will notice when they land on your website, and it should reflect your brand and your business. Therefore, it is recommended to start with your website design first.
Select a theme
To get started, select the theme that fits your business. You can use the filter and preview options to get an idea which theme is best for your business. And don’t worry if you’re not happy with your first choice: you can always change your theme later, or adjust its colors and fonts as needed.
Upload your logo
If you have a logo for your business and want to display it prominently to highlight your brand, you can upload your logo. It will be displayed in the logo area of your website’s header. Alternatively, you can also keep the default setting and display your website name in that area.
For further information, refer to Upload a logo.
Define your color palette
If you like the colors of your selected theme and they fit your brand, you can skip this step. Otherwise, you have the option of changing the colors of your website, for example to make them match your brand colors.
For further information, refer to Change colors.
Note
It is important to make sure that your website’s colors fit together harmoniously and have a good contrast to ensure good readability for your content and product descriptions. The pre-defined theme colors fulfil these requirements. You can always go back to them by using the Reset link on the color selection screen.Info
If you need inspiration, you can find a lot of beautiful color palettes online by entering “color palettes” in your search engine. There are also color palette generators that can help you find matching colors for your brand color.You can further customize the appearance of your website later.
Add content and products
Content about your business, what you offer and your product range or services are probably the main reasons why people visit your website and one of the most important parts of creating your online business.
You do not need to add a lot of content and products to get started, but it is recommended that you take some time to decide on a good structure for presenting your content and products and try to find a good balance between texts, images and videos.
Add pages & content
After you have taken care of your website design, it’s time to add some content pages. A few general pages like About us have already been added to your website per default. You can use those as a starting point or you can add a whole new page and fill it with information about your business, images, videos, icons, etc.
For further information on how to add pages, refer to Add and edit pages.
Prepare product range
If you want to sell or showcase products on your website, the next step after customizing your website design and adding content pages is adding your first products.
You can learn how to do so in the article Add products.
Manage product categories
After you have added your first products, it is recommended to organize your products into categories. That will make it easier for your visitors to navigate your website and to find what they’re looking for. For further information, refer to Organize your products into categories
You can then also use categories to display products on your website.
Info
The following steps of your checklist differ depending on your website package so you might not see all of them in the checklist. You can learn more about available website packages on the Help & Support page in your cockpit or by contacting your provider.Set up your social media links in the footer
If you are active on social network platforms like Facebook, Instagram or X (formerly Twitter), you can link your social media profiles in the footer of your website. In doing so, you provide an easy way for your website visitors to find you on social media.
For further information, refer to Link your social media profiles in the footer.
Set up the checkout process
If you plan to sell products on your website, it is now time to make sure your visitors can pay for the products they order and have them delivered, including the related order documents.
Set up payment methods
You can get started by offering manual payment methods to your customers, such as payment in advance, invoice or cash.
For further information, refer to Set up manual payment methods.
As customers are used to paying via online payment methods, you are probably going to want to offer online payment methods to meet your customers’ needs.
For further information, refer to Set up online payment methods.
Set up shipping & pickup
In order for your customers to receive the products that they order from your website, you’ll need to determine shipping zones and configure shipping methods.
You can also learn more about shipping zones and methods in general before you get started.
If you want to offer customers to pick up their orders at your local business, you can set up pickup options as well.
For further information, refer to Offer “Pick up in store” to your customers.
Customize order documents
To increase your brand recognition value, it is recommended to customize your order documents by adding your logo, for example. Moreover, you can add your bank information and customized texts to order documents such as invoices and invoice corrections.
For further information, refer to Set up a template for order documents.
Additionally, you can adjust order and invoice numbering and customize order-related emails such as emails for confirming or canceling an order.
Add legal content
Before your set your website to live, it is important to also cover legal topics, such as providing a legal notice or providing a privacy policy.
For further information, refer to Legal pages section in the Help center.
Caution
The articles in the Legal pages section contain initial legal pointers but make no claims in respect to completeness and accuracy. They can under no circumstances serve to replace legal advice on an individual case.Publish your website
If you want to use your website to showcase your work, products or brand, but do not want to sell any products (yet), you can set your website to live in this step.
However, if you want to sell products on your website, there are two last steps that need to be taken care of before you can do so.
Info
Depending on your website package, your cockpit might not provide the functionality to sell products. If you are interested in an upgrade, you can learn more about available website packages on the Help & Support page in your cockpit or by contacting your provider.Activate cart & checkout
By default, the option to allow purchases on your website is deactivated. Once everything is set for customers to order products on your website, you can go ahead and enable the cart functionality. Activating this functionality will display a cart icon in the header of your website and allow customers to add products to a cart and proceed to checkout.
For further information, refer to Show the cart functionality.
Place a test order
When you are done setting up your website, it is recommended to place a test order. This helps you to make sure that your payment and shipping methods are set up correctly and that customers can run through the checkout and order products without any issues.
For further information, refer to place a test order.
After you have successfully placed a test order, you can set your website to live.