How to Start an Online Store: From Idea to First Order
· Portican team
Start your online store step by step: prepare your offer, set up the home page, split the team's work, test a purchase, then process your first order.
You start an online store by first preparing your offer and the order process, then setting up the shop, access and accounting. Before launch, try the whole purchase as a customer, so you know how to receive, pay for, pack and ship an order.
What should you prepare before starting an online store?
Start with your offer, not with the platform settings. Write down:
- which products you sell,
- who they are for,
- how the individual variants differ,
- what information you need from the customer,
- where you deliver,
- how the customer will pay,
- who prepares and ships the order.
For products, prepare names, descriptions, photos, prices, availability and category assignment. If you sell variants, settle their names and stock quantities before you add the products.
Also write down the path of an order, from the form being submitted to delivery. Decide who checks the payment, who prepares the parcel, who talks to the customer and who issues the document. You will use this list later for the test order.
Check your legal and tax obligations with your accountant or adviser, according to the country where you do business and sell. This guide describes screens and procedures, it does not replace legal or tax advice.
How do you set up the first page of the store?
The home page should quickly explain to a visitor what you sell and where to go next. Prepare a main heading, a short sentence under it, a cover photo, a main button and a few verifiable facts about buying from you.
In the Portican administration, the home page is edited in the menu Content → First page. You can switch sections on and off, change their order, choose categories for tiles and build strips of products.
Put only promises you can keep. It might be, for example, information about delivery, dispatch or how long the shop has been operating. Empty fields keep the default content, so you do not have to fill them in just to avoid leaving the form empty.
Save your changes as a draft first, and publish them afterwards. The setting applies to the market selected in the administration. For another market you need to prepare a separate home page and language version.
If you are looking for add-ons, in the Engines menu you choose them from a grid of cards with a name and a slogan, and screen previews are in the engine detail.
How do you set up your team before launch?
Split access by the work done, not by who happens to be at hand. The owner keeps money, subscription and people management. To others, you can give only the actions they really need.
In Portican you will find roles under Store → People and access. A custom role can, for example, allow working with images, viewing or handling orders, exporting orders, managing customers or setting up promotions.
Proceed like this:
- Name the role after the work, for example Warehouse or Copywriter.
- Tick only the permissions that are needed.
- Send an invitation to a specific person.
- Test what they see after logging in and what they can change.
- When responsibility changes, edit the role, not a password shared by the whole team.
If someone uses a role or an invitation is waiting for it, first move these people to another role. Only then remove it. A change of permissions applies immediately.
How do you prepare accounting together with documents?
Set up accounting before you sell, not only after the first revenue. Agree with your accountant which files they need, to which address they should be sent and on which day of the month they will receive them.
In Portican the export is under Store → Accounting export. The setting applies to the company, so the export may include all markets of the same company. On one screen you set up the export for accounting software and PDF documents.
Prepare this procedure:
- Find out from your accountant whether they need a format for KROS OMEGA, ALFA plus, or a spreadsheet for other software.
- Set the recipient and the day of the automatic sending.
- Set a separate recipient for PDF documents, if it should be a different one.
- Check the codes, the numbering series and the accounts, if you use OMEGA.
- Send a test e-mail to the agreed address.
- Agree on a check after the first regular export.
A test send does not lock the month. The automatic sending, however, sends only the dates that occur after it is switched on. If the day for a given month has already passed, you need to send that month manually.
An important check is whether the order has a document issued. A delivered or paid order without a document will not appear in the export. The month preview lists such orders, and the document is issued in the order detail.
How do you verify the store before the first order?
Before the first order, go through the whole purchase process as a customer and verify that you can receive the order, get it paid, prepare it, issue a document for it and ship it.
Check in particular:
- whether the product can be added to the cart,
- whether the correct price and availability are shown,
- whether the selected delivery works,
- whether the payment ends in the expected status,
- whether the customer receives the necessary e-mails,
- whether you can create a shipment and print a label,
- whether the order appears in the administration,
- whether the document gets into the prepared export.
Run the test on a computer and on a phone. The customer should not have to guess where to click or what happens after paying.
The merchant opens a new market on their own in the administration, without waiting for a deployment. When choosing a solution, check the current prices directly in the Portican pricing.
How do you process the first order?
Open the order in the menu Sales → Orders and follow the order control panel at the top of the detail. The panel shows the next step depending on whether you are waiting for the customer, the bank or the courier.
For a regular order, check:
- whether the payment has been received or it is cash on delivery,
- whether the goods are available,
- whether the address and delivery method match,
- whether the correct document has been issued,
- whether a shipment needs to be created and a label printed.
If you are waiting for a bank transfer, you record the receipt in the order. With cash on delivery, the courier records the payment on delivery. You use the variable symbol to match the payment, and you can also find the order by it in search.
If the warehouse records fewer pieces than the order needs, first correct the stock or add the missing quantity. Only then create the shipment. You can add an instruction for production or packing directly in the order detail.
If an order changes after the document is issued, settle the difference with another invoice or a credit note, depending on the direction of the change. For a higher new amount you issue an invoice for the difference, for a lower one a credit note.
Cancelling an order does not by itself return the money received. The payment has to be refunded using the relevant payment method, and for an issued invoice a credit note is issued.
What should you take away from this process?
Do not launch the online store after finishing a single screen. First prepare your offer and responsibilities, then set up the home page, the team and accounting. Next, make a test purchase, and for the first real order follow the payment, stock, document and shipment.
With accounting export, keep in mind that automatic sending does not retroactively cover a date that has already passed. Before regular operation, therefore, also check the first manual or automatic export. You will find an overview of all settings in the Portican features.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need the team set up before launch?
If more people work on the online store, set up access and responsibilities before the first order, so that everyone knows what they can do.
When should I prepare accounting?
Before the first sale. That way your accountant gets the documents in the format and to the address you agreed on.
What if an order has no document issued?
It will be missing from the accounting export. Issue the document in the order detail, and it belongs in the export for the month in which you issued it.
What if an order changes after the document is issued?
Settle the difference with another invoice or a credit note, depending on whether the amount went up or down.
Do I have to wait for a deployment for a new market?
No. The merchant opens a new market on their own in the administration, according to the options of the solution.