In this quick start guide, we will take you from start to finish to having your own branded online store that will support selling:

  • Digital Products (Like online courses, ebooks, printables, etc)
  • Physical Products (Like crafts, supplements, print on demand, etc)
  • Services (like consulting, agency work, coaching, etc)

In this article, we will cover the big picture setup with the following milestones:

  1. Setting up your platform & Integrating your payment gateways
  2. Create a shop
  3. Create products
  4. Implement post-purchase workflows to deliver your products and support your customers
  5. Install an abandoned cart email sequence to maximize conversion rates

Step 1: Set up your Platform and Integrate Payment Gateways

Setting up your platform to be ready for an online store has a few pre-requisites:

  • You have a website and domain connected to the platform
  • Your platform is set up properly to send and receive emails with customers
  • Your platform is ready to securely receive payments

This section will cover each step individually.

Step 1a: Have a website built and ready for your online store.

We have already documented the process for connecting domains, designing sites, and more inside our quick start guide Website Essentials. Please reference that guide to complete this step.

 

Step 1b: Prepare your platform for sending and receiving emails

We have already documented the proper set up for email marketing inside List Essentials. Please refer to that quick start guide to ensure you have the following set up and functioning properly before moving on:

  • You have your dedicated sending domain set up and verified
  • You have proper DKIM, SPF, and DMARC records set up and verified
  • You have sent a test newsletter and it arrived (not in spam)

Now you're ready to move on to the next step!

Step 1c: Integrate your payment gateway to accept payments securely through your store

Freedomkit integrates with the following payment gateways. The setup and integration guide for each gateway is linked below. Please follow the setup guide for your chosen payment method:

We recommend setting up Stripe first if it is supported in your country. Please refer to this list of supported countries.

Once your payment gateway is set up, you are ready to move on!

Step 2: Create A Shop

In this quick video I'll show you how to 

  • Create a shop
  • Make adjustments to the default design
  • Give an overview of the purchasing flow
  • Demonstrate "View in Store" functionality of products

Now that the shop is created, let's start adding products.

Step 3: Create Products for your store

Now it is time to set up the products for your online store. Please refer to this article to dive deep into product creation.

This article will walk you through each option inside the products tab so you'll have a properly designed list of products to sell!

Step 4: Create Post-Purchase Workflows

By default, your customers will receive an automated receipt email from Stripe showing their order total and what they purchased. But we would encourage you to set up a post-purchase workflow to:

  • Thank customers for their purchase
  • Instruct customer of next steps (download, access, etc)
  • Ask for testimonials / reviews
  • Upsell your next product for customer

This article will show you how to launch workflows using the "Order Submitted" Workflow trigger.

 

Step 5: Install an "Abandoned Cart" email sequence

Statistically, a high percentage of your shoppers will add items to their cart but fail to complete their order. This can be due to technical issues, not having a credit card handy, distractions, and more.

The solution to this? Installing an Abandoned Cart email sequence.

This is a high-leveraged activity that you set up once, and then anytime a prospect leaves without completing their purchase you can automate reminder emails to return the customer to their cart and checkout process.

This leads to more revenue with less effort - hooray! To understand and implement the Abandoned Cart process even further, please follow this dedicated guide to abandoned cart customization.

Conclusion

Congratulations - if you have followed through the steps of this quick start guide, you now have the foundations for a functional, beautiful, and automated online store.