Before you open your e-shop: prices, markets, documents
· Portican team
Before opening your e-shop, list your range and use a test order to check market prices, bank transfer payments and documents.
Before opening your e-shop, first prepare your range and then set up the solution, prices, payments and documents. Before launch, go through the whole purchase as a customer and fix the places that would slow an order down.
The steps below are meant for a small or medium e-shop where the owner often handles the settings directly. It pays to split the preparation into the range, the technical setup, additional markets and a test order.
What should you prepare before choosing a solution?
Start with your range, not with the admin settings. List:
- products, variants and categories,
- names, descriptions and photos,
- selling prices and availability,
- shipping and payment methods,
- billing details and rules for documents,
- the markets and languages you want to sell in.
This way you find out what the solution has to handle before you start moving your catalog. If you plan to sell in another country, also prepare separate prices and texts for that market.
How do you choose a solution for your e-shop?
Choose based on the work you will do every day. Check that you can add products, change availability, process an order and adjust prices for a specific market without technical help.
With Portican, you can also look through the range of engines. The engine store offers search, shelves and a card grid with a name and a tagline. Before deciding, check that the way of working you choose matches your range and your team.
If you are comparing the platform's plans, you will find the current options in the pricing. Choose a specific plan only after you have listed the features you need, not just by the name of the package.
What should you set up before opening the store?
Go through the settings in this order:
- Add products, categories, variants, prices and availability.
- Check how names, descriptions and images are displayed.
- Set up shipping, including prices, delivery areas and conditions.
- Turn on the payment methods you want to offer customers.
- Add billing details and the rules for issuing documents.
- Check the e-mails the customer receives after ordering.
For each payment method, check what happens after payment and what the staff must do by hand. With payment by bank transfer, it is important that the customer receives the correct payment details and that the staff can match the payment to the order.
How do you recalculate prices when opening another market?
You can open a new market in Portican yourself, directly in the admin, without waiting for a deployment. After opening it, however, check the prices, because a new market starts with the prices of the home market. The exchange rate matters only on a market with a different currency; a market with the same currency simply takes over the prices from the home market.
Proceed as follows:
- In the admin, switch to the new market.
- Open Store and then Prices for this market.
- Choose the central bank rate or your own fixed rate.
- Consider a surcharge for shipping, returns and exchange rate risk.
- Set the rounding rule.
- Use the preview and check the sample prices.
- Only then start the price recalculation.
The recalculation overwrites all prices on the selected market with prices derived from the home market. Manual changes are lost and the action cannot be undone, so use it deliberately when opening a market and adjust prices separately afterwards.
The rate and the surcharge are not a calculation of a suitable margin. Check for yourself whether the resulting price covers your costs.
How do you set up a pro forma invoice for bank transfer payments?
If you want to send the customer a basis for payment, open Store and Pro forma invoice in the admin. Once enabled, the order confirmation can include a PDF with a payment request, the account, a QR code and the order number.
Check the setup in this order:
- Add your IBAN under Store and Billing details.
- Turn on sending a pro forma invoice for payment by bank transfer.
- Set the due date as a number of days from issue.
- Save the setting.
- Send yourself a test order with payment by bank transfer.
Without an IBAN, no payment request is created. The document is not a tax document. An invoice is created only when the staff records the received payment.
The invoice for a received payment is a separate option and concerns VAT payers. Once enabled, for every transfer recorded before the goods are shipped the customer receives an invoice for the received payment, and after delivery a final invoice with the payment deducted. Turn it on if you ship the goods later than 15 days after receiving the payment or if your accounting requires it. In the usual setup, first check which type of document your accountant actually needs.
How do you test your e-shop before launch?
Place a test order and go through it from the product page to the document. Check in particular:
- whether a product can be added to the cart,
- whether shipping is calculated correctly,
- whether the chosen payment works,
- whether the order confirmation arrives,
- whether it contains the necessary details for a transfer,
- whether the order shows up for the staff,
- whether the correct document is created after the payment is received,
- whether the customer sees the correct order status.
Repeat the same test for every market you want to open. A different currency, language or shipping can change the result of the purchase and the information in the confirmation.
What should you take away from preparing an e-shop?
First write down your range and how you will sell. Then choose a solution, add products and set up shipping, payments and invoicing. For another market, check the price preview before the one-time recalculation, and for payment by bank transfer, keep the payment request apart from the tax document. Postpone the launch until the test order goes through. You will find an overview of all the settings in the features of Portican.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to change all prices by hand before opening another market?
No. On a market with a different currency, you recalculate them from the home market using the central bank rate or your own fixed rate, with a surcharge and rounding. A market with the same currency takes over the prices from the home market.
Does the recalculation also overwrite prices I changed by hand?
Yes. The recalculation overwrites the prices on the selected market, so look at the preview before starting it and expect to lose manual changes.
Is a pro forma invoice a tax document?
No. It is a payment request; an invoice is created only after the received payment is recorded according to the configured procedure.
What if I do not fill in the IBAN for a transfer?
The pro forma invoice PDF is not created, because the customer has no information in the document about where to send the money.
When should I place a test order?
Only after setting up the range, shipping, payments and documents, so that you test the whole process before launch.