Going Live Guide

Introduction

Once you have finished with production (setting up your products, images, and design), it's time to get your online store functioning to the public. This guide will give you a step-by-step process on how to go live with your online store.

Setup your Merchant Account/Online Payment Gateway

Setting up online payment methods will allow you to accept payment methods such as credit cards, PayPal, and Checkout by Amazon. The advantage to this is that you do not have to process your payments manually. However, you do need to have an account with a payment gateway.

Click here to see the payment gateways Shift4Shop is integrated with!

If you currently have a merchant account, contact them and let them know you would like to start an account with a payment gateway.

For additional information on Online Payments and gateways, please see our Payment Guide.

Setup Your Offline Payment Methods

Setting up offline payments will allow you to accept checks, money orders, purchase orders, store pickups, etc. All offline payments will have to be manually processed once the order comes through.

For more detailed information on setting up your Offline Payment methods, see the Payment Guide.

Setup your Invoice Number Sequence

To set up your invoice number, go to Settings > General > Store Settings and click on the Checkout tab, where you will see a link labeled "Edit Invoice Number." From here, you can edit the number your invoices will start at. All you have to do is change the letter and number you want the orders to start at and click update. When new orders come in, the system will automatically update each order with a new number in numerical order.

Click here for more information.

Create Your Shipping Methods

To begin adding a shipping method, log in to your store manager and from the left navigation menu, go to Settings > Shipping and click on the Enter Settings button under Shipping Settings.

Update the Real Time Shipping Information field with the address you will be shipping your products from. You will use real-time shipping if you want to use UPS, USPS, FedEx, or Canada Post. Furthermore, we do support many different types of UPS, USPS, FedEx, and Canada Post shipping methods. (these can be set up in the "Shipping Method" section of your Shipping page).

You will use Offline Shipping methods if you want to set up a custom flat rate shipping method, such as by quantity, value, weight, or zip code.

For more information, please see the Shipping Guide.

Setup Your Company Policy Pages

Company policy pages allow customers to get a quick overview of how your company runs and the policies that govern them. It will give your customers confidence in your online store when they see your company information on display. Also, some merchant accounts may require you have certain terms and conditions displayed.

Shift4Shop has created an entire list of company policies/procedures for you to use. Go to Content > Site Content and click on the content button for Terms and Conditions. This is a page we've created for you which uses a Database Feed of terms and policies. From there, you can choose any terms and conditions you want, click on its edit button make changes as needed.

Create Further Checkout Options

At this point, you may have further options for checkout you will want to use. You may want to add Tax options or allow customers to use Gift Certificates.

The following guides may be useful to you:

Place a Test Order

Once all of your options have been set up, you are ready to place a test order through your online store to make sure everything is functioning properly. Make sure to test out all payment methods and shipping options, just as a customer would.

Point your Domain Name to Shift4Shop

To change your DNS to point at your Shift4Shop IP address, you must:

Login to your registrar
Find your Domain name
Change the Name (DNS) server to Shift4Shop's Name (DNS) Servers

Shift4Shop's DNS Servers are:

dns1.3dcart.com
dns2.3dcart.com
dns3.3dcart

If you would like to use a second level domain for your store, i.e. store.mydomain.com, you will require a DNS record change at your current hosting provider:

You will need to ask your provider to create a CNAME for store.yourdomain.com to point to your store's *.s4shops.com or *.3dcartstores.com URL (see welcome email).
Then submit a support ticket with Shift4Shop to let us know the second level domain you are pointing so we can configure it on our web servers.

Quick Summary Checklist

Here's a quick rundown of your steps to go live with your store:

Setup your Email Accounts – Set up your company email accounts.
Setup your Merchant Account/Payment Gateways – Use this to accept online payments such as PayPal, Credit Cards, and Checkout by Amazon, etc.
Setup your Offline Payment Methods – Use these payment methods to accept checks, money orders, purchase orders, and store pickups, etc.
Setup your Invoice Number Sequence – Type in the number you want your orders to start at.
Create your Shipping Methods – Choose between Online methods (FedEx, UPS, USPS, and Canada Post) and Offline methods (by Weight, Value, Quantity, or Zip).
Setup your Company Policy Pages – Choose the terms and conditions you wish to display on your site.
Create Further Checkout Options – Set up your tax options and decide if you want to offer other options, such as gift certificates.
Place a Test Order – Run through a complete order, just as a customer would, to troubleshoot any misconfigurations that may arise.
Point your Domain Name to Shift4Shop – Contact your registrar and change your DNS to our Name servers.