Set up and publish your Online Store
On this page
Everything lives on one settings screen: Settings → Online Store (the card reads "Publish a product catalog as a public shopping page that captures orders as quotes"). Only owners and admins can save changes here.
Step 1 — pick a catalog
Under Catalog to publish, choose the product catalog the store should sell. This is required — you cannot enable the store without one. You curate what appears in it under Product Catalogs (the screen links there directly). Saving marks your chosen catalog as the published one; only one catalog is published at a time.
Step 2 — publish
Tick Publish storefront and click Save changes. Your store is now live at the Public link shown on the page (/shop/<your-subdomain>), with Copy, Open and Preview buttons. Unticking it takes the store offline — visitors then see "Store not available". Preview always shows your saved theme and sections, even while the store is unpublished, so you can check changes before going live.
Step 2b — choose a checkout mode
Under Checkout, pick how customers complete an order:
| Mode | What shoppers see | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Quote only (default) | "Request a quote" button, no payment step | Order arrives as a quote you follow up on — nothing changes from today |
| Pay now | "Pay now" button | The order becomes a quote, immediately converted to an invoice, and the shopper is redirected to your payment gateway to pay |
| Quote + optional pay | Both "Pay now" and "Send me a quote" | The shopper picks; each option follows its own path above |
Pay now and Quote + optional pay need an active payment gateway. Connect PayFast or Netcash under Settings → Integrations first — if no gateway is connected, the store automatically falls back to Quote only and the settings screen shows a warning, even if you've saved a pay-enabled mode. Once a gateway is connected, an optional preference lets you pin checkout to a specific gateway (Auto / Netcash / PayFast).
After a Pay now order is paid, the linked sales opportunity automatically advances to the Quote / Order pipeline stage (if your pipeline has one).
Step 2c — pick an appearance and homepage layout
Under Appearance, choose one of three themes:
| Theme | Look |
|---|---|
| Minimal | Light, thin header, product-first |
| Catalog | Dense B2B grid with strong category chips (good default for wholesale/bulk sellers) |
| Bold | Dark header with high-contrast calls to action |
An optional accent colour override lets you set a specific button/highlight colour instead of your brand primary colour.
Under Homepage layout, add, remove, reorder (drag or the up/down controls) and edit the sections that make up your storefront's homepage: Hero banner, Category chips, Product grid, Rich text, Policy strip and Featured products. Each section has its own editable fields (e.g. the hero's heading, subheading, CTA label/link and image). Use Preview to check the result before publishing.
Step 3 — who handles new orders
Assign new orders to picks the team member who owns every incoming order (they become the owner of the opportunity and quote, and get the notification). If you leave it on Unassigned queue, all owners, admins and managers are notified instead.
Step 4 — store policies (optional)
Three free-text boxes — Shipping information, Returns policy, and Guarantee / warranty — are shown in a "Shipping & Returns" section under every product on the store.
Step 5 — order delivery (how the customer gets their quote)
Under Order delivery you control what the shopper receives after submitting an order:
- Send order via — Email only, WhatsApp only, or Email & WhatsApp.
- WhatsApp — needs a connected WhatsApp number (the screen warns you and links to Settings → WhatsApp if none is connected). Pick an approved Order template, or leave it on the default quote template. The order link fills the template's link variable; name and company fill the rest. A checkbox controls whether the quote PDF is also sent over WhatsApp (when the conversation allows it).
- Send from — choose one of your verified from-addresses for the order email (better deliverability), or use the default system address. Addresses are managed under Settings → Communications.
- Email template — the standard order email works out of the box, or click Customise template to build your own in the email-block builder. Supported placeholders:
{{order_summary}}(items, totals and the view-quote button),{{customer_name}},{{company_name}},{{business_phone}},{{quote_number}},{{quote_link}}. If you leave out{{order_summary}}it is added at the bottom automatically. Reset to standard removes your custom template.
Good to know
- If you tick Publish without choosing a catalog, saving is blocked with "Choose a catalog to publish before enabling the store."
- Your store's branding (name, logo, colours, footer contact details) comes from your existing company settings — nothing extra to configure.
- Switching checkout mode or appearance takes effect immediately after Save changes — no redeploy needed.