Things to consider when launching your webshop

Art. no. 216070389

Everything is ready and the shop is ready to be activated.

Glad you're ready to activate your shop! But before you do, double-check that you haven't missed deleting any of the default text that's inserted into the theme. You should also do some test purchases and make sure your payment methods are active and that shipping is working properly.

We'll go through everything you need to consider in this article, step by step.

About domain: only after you have activated and made your shop visible, you can add your domain. This is the last thing you do when you are about to release the store live. Read more

Removing default texts in the theme

By default, there are some information texts in the theme and these need to be edited or removed. For example, there is a text in the header: "Free shipping! Edit this text under Content & Header.". There are also similar texts on the home page, on the article page, footer and in the checkout.

Go to theme under Appearance -> Themes -> select theme, edit.

Header

Content -> Header -> Custom content in the top row -> Custom content

Home page

Content -> Home page -> Blocks on the right.

Article page

Content -> Article page -> Unique selling points

Content -> Article page -> Freewriting

At the bottom of the article page there are also different blocks. In the block for "Own HTML" there is text that we put in. Click on the block to edit it or delete it. So this appears at the bottom of the page when you go to an article.

Page footer

Content -> Page footer -> Own content. For example, the "Click here to edit" block.

Checkout

Content -> Checkout -> Unique Sellings Points

Content -> Checkout -> Disclaimer

Check payment methods

Go to Settings -> Payment methods

Are you applying for Klarna Checkout? Make sure it's active before you launch your store. Klarna Checkout is called "Invoice, Part Payment, Card Payment and Direct Payment" with us. Click on the payment method to access the settings. Tick to make it active.

Also make sure to remove Klarna DEMO and the regular invoice that is loaded from the start. Klarna DEMO is not a real payment method. The regular invoice is not needed if you use Klarna Checkout. Click on the trash can on the right to remove a payment method.

Check the delivery methods

Go to Settings -> Shipping and delivery.

Create the delivery methods you need by following the guide on the manual page called "Shipping and delivery".

A tip to see which countries the store delivers to is to look in the overview of the delivery methods in the column "Applicable in".

deliverymethods

Terms and info

Go to Own pages -> Terms and info

Make sure the page is not hidden.

You are required by law to inform your customers why you collect their data. Make sure you have a page where you are clear about how your customers' data is processed, that they have the right to know what kind of data you have, that they may receive mailings from you, etc.

If you have a policy on returns, write it here. Write everything a customer might need to know when shopping in your store. Be sure to mention that everything is done in accordance with the GDPR.

You can read more about handling personal data on our GDPR manual page.

Do test purchases in the store

To make sure everything works with shipping fees etc., you should do some test purchases. Add a payment method that doesn't charge any money, such as "Prepayment". Then make a few test purchases and see how the checkout looks and make sure there is the right information in the order confirmation.

If everything looks good, you can then shred the test orders and don't forget to remove or hide the payment method when you are done.

Activate your store

Is everything ready? Great, time to activate!

Click on your login name in the top right corner and select "My subscription":

Select subscriptions and any additional services.

Then go ahead and select payment methods. If you pay by card, the shop will be activated immediately and you can then print an invoice after payment has been made.

Connect domain to shop

Once the shop has been paid for and activated, connect the domain to the shop.

It is not a good idea to connect the domain before everything is ready. This is the last step to do when the store is ready to launch.

First go to Settings -> General -> Hide Store and make sure this checkbox is not checked.

Then log in to your domain provider/web host and re-designate your domain. You can point the domain in two different ways:

CNAME - Point the domain to the domain shop.textalk.se
A-record - Point the domain to the IP address: 192.121.104.141.

If you need help doing this repointing, you need to contact the support of your domain provider/web host.

Please remember to repoint the domain both with www and without www.

For example abicart.se and www.abicart.se.

When everything is re-marked, go to the store and Settings -> Domains and SEO -> tab "Domains".

Click on "New domain name" and enter your domain name. Click on "Add Domain".

If you have reassigned multiple domains, for example with and without www, add the second domain in the box just below the already added domain and then click on the "Add" button.

If you have multiple languages in the store and want to link different domains to them, that's fine. In that case, point to all the domains via CNAME or A-pager above and via the "New domain" button add your domains, for example www.abicart.se, www.abicart.com etc.

Then go to the "URL settings" tab.

Here a block is shown for each active language that is in the store. The most common one is the Swedish language at the top and here are some settings that need to be done.

Domain names

The list shows the domains that are entered in the "Domains" tab. Select the domain.

Language prefix

If you only have one language, you do not need to use a language prefix. We recommend clearing the contents of this field.

If you have multiple languages and use the same domain for them, you must use language prefixes. We recommend not having a language prefix for the base language, but for the remaining languages you must specify one, such as "en" for English.

Suffix

This field is purely aesthetic and has no technical significance. Some people want to use a prefix, but many people want the shortest possible address to the store pages, so there is no need to use this. We recommend clearing the contents of this field.

If you have multiple languages in the store and want to link different domains to them, that's fine. In that case, point all the domains via CNAME or A-pager above and via the "New domain" button you add your domains, for example www.abicart.se, www.abicart.com etc.

Think about after you activate the store

Your store is active!

Now you can start thinking about search engine optimization of the store. Check out our tips on the "SEO optimization in Abicart" manual page.

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