Set up eCommerce (take payments online)

Scenario

You've already got a website set up with us but want to start taking payments online (have an eCommerce website).

You have one of our ready made (off the shelf) websites created since 2015
(note if you have a bespoke website please contact us)

What to do

This guide assumes that your website is already up and running and that you've already got all your products added to it.

If so there are a few things you'll need to do to make your website eCommerce:-

1) Set up a payment provider

The payment provider is who will facilitate taking the payment from the customer and paying you. There are a variety of payment providers you can use with your website, please click here for details and a comparison of the different payment providers together with other information such as fees.

Once you have chosen a payment provider, follow the instructions below to set them up in your website.

In your website manager go to the "Settings" menu, and then select "Shop Settings"
Click on the "Payment provider" tab
Here you will be able to pick your payment provider and enter in details for your account

2) Set up delivery pricing

You'll need to choose how much people pay for delivery when ordering one of your items, and which countries you want to deliver to.

There's multiple ways you can set up delivery, and quite a lot of flexibility.

Free delivery to your country (eg if you're in the UK then free UK delivery) can work quite well and help break down the barrier to sale and increase sales. Research shows that offering free delivery can increase sales by at least 10%, and in surveys 93 percent of respondents have said that free shipping encouraged them to buy more online.

If you chose not to offer free delivery then be sure to remember when setting delivery prices that your costs will often vary; and as well as delivery there is the cost of packaging and it can often be tricky to price delivery at exactly what it costs you so it's often easier to select flat rates to minimise work for you and make pricing clearer for customers.

In your website manager go to the "Settings" menu, and then select "Shop Settings"
Click on the "Delivery" tab. Here you can set delivery prices
If you have particular items you'd like to charge a surcharge on, or offer different delivery pricing on, then when adding or updating a product (item) on your website manager, you can also click on the "Delivery" tab there and set up delivery options specifically for this product (item)

3) Select which email address you'd like order confirmations to go to

When an order is placed on your website you'll get an email with details of the order. To select which email address this email goes to, follow the instructions below:-

In your website manager go to the "Settings" menu, and then select "General Settings"
Scroll down to the section "Email address for order confirmations" and enter in the email address you'd like to use

4) OPTIONAL - set up text to appear on the basket page and checkout

If you'd like to have any particular text or messages to appear on the basket or checkout, can you can do this. by:-

Going to your website manager and going to the "Settings" menu, and then select "Shop Settings"
Click on the "Basket" tab and configure as appropriate
Then go to the "Checkout" tab and configure as appropriate

5) Turn the eCommerce feature on

In your website manager go to the "Settings" menu, and then select "Shop Settings"
On this screen, under "Enable eCommerce? (basket, checkout & pay online)" set this option to "Yes"
This will turn eCommerce on and the basket and checkout features will be enabled