Set up your store

Each brand that sells online has its own store. A new store starts at a free address, such as yourbrand.iapz.website. You can move it to your own domain later.

A new store shows Opening soon until you open it. Search engines are kept away, so you can set it up first.

Owners and Managers set up stores.

Make the store

1. Open Website. If your business has no store yet, choose Set up your store. If it already has one, choose the store at the top of the menu, then Set up a store.
2. Brand: choose the brand the store is for. The store takes its name, logo and contact details from the brand. Each brand has one store, so brands that already have one aren't listed.
3. Free address: a name is suggested from the brand's name. Change it if you like. It can use lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens. It says ✓ Free when no other store has it. A few names, like shop and www, are kept for IAPZ.
4. What to sell:
   • The items marked On the store in its WooCommerce link: if you're moving from WooCommerce, the products you already sell online.
   • Every product for the brand: products for all your brands, and those for this brand only. Services aren't put on.
   • None yet: you choose them later.
5. Choose Make the store.

Set it up, one step at a time

Until you open the store, its set-up pages show the steps across the top: Store made, Payments, Shipping, Canada Post, Theme, Pages, Open. Each finished step has a ✓. You can choose any step to go back to it.

1. Payments: choose Connect with Stripe and sign in to your Stripe account, so shoppers can pay by card. Stripe sends you back to the next step. To try the store out first, you can connect a Stripe test account (a sandbox) instead: orders go through, but no real money moves. A store taking test payments can't open; when you're ready, choose Switch to live payments and connect your real Stripe account.
2. Shipping: pickup, and a flat rate if you want one. Choose Save and continue.
3. Canada Post: to show Canada Post's rates at checkout, enter your Canada Post business account: customer number, API key and secret, the postal code you ship from, and the services to offer. Choose Check, save and continue: a test quote checks your details work. Not using Canada Post? Choose Skip for now.
4. Theme: your logo, site icon, colours and fonts. Choose Save and continue.
5. Pages: your home page and others. The shop, category and product pages are there already.
6. Open: use the preview link to see the whole store as shoppers will. When it's ready, choose Open the store.

Not ready for a step yet? Choose Skip for now and come back to it later. Once the store is open, the steps are gone and these pages are ordinary settings.

More than one store

If your business has stores for several brands, the store you're working on is shown at the top of the menu, under Website. Choose it to switch to another store, or to set up a store for another brand. You stay on the same page, such as Shipping, for the store you switch to.