Create An Online Store

WebStarts Stores is everything you need to create an online store. Easily create and sell products directly from your website. Instantly accept credit card payments from your store.

Store Features

WebStarts Stores include a variety of features like creating product variants, so you can sell products in a variety of colors and sizes. In addition, you're able to upload multiple photos and even videos of your products. You can also do things like display the number of a product you have in stock, offer free shipping, and much more.

Instant Credit Card Acceptance

With WebStarts Stores there's no long underwriting process to begin accepting credit cards. Simply sign up and you're automatically ready to accept Visa, Master Card, American Express, and Discover. And yes, you can accept PayPal too.

Customize The Look and Feel of Your Store

With WebStarts Stores you can use the drag and drop editor to customize the look of your store. It's also perfect for creating the pages you need to support your store. Like the home page, about, contact, and landing pages.

Creating An Account

The first step to creating a Store with WebStarts is signing up for an account. You can sign up for an account by clicking the Get Started button on the WebStarts home page.

Choosing A Template

In the first step, you'll be prompted to choose a template for your store. Choose a template you like, all the templates are completely customizable.

Enabling Your Store App

After creating your account you'll be taken to the dashboard view. This is like the control center for your website. To enable your store click on the Store panel. You'll then be prompted to choose a plan. Choose the store plan that's right for you.

Payments Acceptance

When you choose a store plan your setup with WePay as your payment acceptance method by default. WePay allows you to accept credit card payments and deposits the funds into your bank account. A few moments after choosing your store plan you'll receive an email from WePay asking you to provide them with your bank details. 

There are several other payment acceptance methods compatible with WebStarts Stores. They include Paypal, Stripe, and Authorize.net. For instructions on how to configure each of these payment acceptance methods click here.

Creating A Product

Now that your store is enabled you'll be prompted to create your first product. Click the Add Product button and you'll be prompted to enter a product name, description, price, and photo. 

Taxes

You can specify whether you'd like to charge tax for a specific product. You configure your tax rules under the Settings tab. We'll cover more about that later.

Categories

You can organize your products by category. Click the drop-down in the category section to either create a new category or assign one. To create, delete, re-arrange, or rename a category click on the Categories tab.

Product Photos

You can provide multiple photos for each of your products. This helps you show off several different views of your product.

Product Videos

You're also able to provide videos of your products.

Product Shipping

By enabling shipping you'll be able to enter a weight associated with a specific product that can be used in helping determine the cost of shipping at checkout.

Product Variants

Sometimes you may want to sell variations of a product. For example, sizes, colors, material, etc. Enabling product variants will allow you to upload a photo and video as well as set a price for each of your variations. To create a variant first give the variant a name like "Size". Next, enter the variant name in the field to the right. These would be something like Small, Medium, Large etc. You can add up to three variant types.

Inventory Management

By enabling inventory management you can choose to add inventory rules to your product. This way people won't be able to place an order for a product you no longer have in stock. You can also display the number of a product you have in stock by checking the Display stock on hand box. 

Digital Delivery

By enabling digital delivery you can sell a product that can be delivered purely in a digital form. This includes things like ebooks, software, photos, videos, and more. The Download Link Text field is where you assign the name of the text someone clicks on to download the digital product. The Download Link field is where you can add a URL if your digital product is not hosted on WebStarts. The attachment icon is where you can upload the digital product to WebStarts. Lastly the Download Instructions field is where you can enter instructions that accompany the digital file.

Configuring Taxes

Under the Settings tab in the Tax section, you can create tax rules for different geographical regions. Click Add Tax Setting and you'll be able to specify a tax rate for a specific country and state. The tax rate will then be applied when someone places an order from the specific country or state provided you've enabled tax collection for the product they're ordering.

Configuring Shipping

Under the Settings tab in the Shipping section, you'll be able to create shipping rules. By choosing UPS as your shipping provider UPS base shipping rates will be presented to your shoppers to their zip code. Your actual UPS shipping rates may vary depending on your specific UPS account. You can choose to create custom shipping options by clicking Add Custom Option. You can then set shipping prices based on weight, price (order size), or quantity (number of products in an order). If for example, you wanted to ship using USPS Priority you can name the option 2-3 Day Priority Mail and then enter the flat rate you charge depending on the box size.

Viewing Orders

When someone places an order on your website you'll receive an email notification as well as a notification alert in your WebStarts account. The email notification and alert will provide you with the customer order notification so you'll know what to send to a person, the type of shipping they chose, the price they paid, and more. In addition, the customer data will be stored in a database for later use.

Running Reports

The reports tab allows you to view your total sales for a specified time period or a specific product.

Testing Your Store

Once your store is built out and configured you can test it by putting it into test mode. This will allow you to make a purchase from your own store without charging your credit card. You can find this option under the Settings tab. When you're finished testing be sure to put your store back into Live Mode. Note charges made while in test mode will not actually be processed so you don't want to accidentally leave your store in test mode.

Creating Supporting Pages

One of the huge benefits of WebStarts over other store builders is the ease which you can create supporting pages for your store. For your store to succeed you need more than an online catalog. You need a homepage to show off your latest and greatest products and sales. You need landing pages that extol the virtues of specific products, you need an about page that tells the story of who you are. Not to mention the contact and policy pages. All of these pages can be easily created using the WebStarts page editor.

The WebStarts page editor is drag and drop so each element can be placed exactly where you want to be displayed on a page. This also provides an easy way for you to add text, images, and other content to your website.

Connecting A Domain

When your store and accompanying pages are finished you'll want them to be accessible from a top-level domain (Example: YourVeryOwn.com). You can register a new domain name with WebStarts and it will automatically begin resolving to your store in moments.

You can also connect a domain name you registered with another company. Simply click Add Domain and choose "I Already Have A Domain Name". Enter the domain name in the field and click continue. You will then have to update your name servers to ns1.webstarts.com and ns2.webstarts.com.

If you're looking to make a website to support your online store you can do that with WebStarts too. Just go to WebStarts.com and sign up for a free account. Webstarts is everything you need to create a website in the cloud. It's your hosting, domain name, and design tools all-in-one. You don't need to know how to code. Drag and drop elements where you want them to appear. It's that easy.