Getting started
What to do first, in the order that gets you to a first sale fastest.
Setting up a store on eCrate takes about an hour, and most of that hour is you writing about your own products. This page is the order to do it in.
The dashboard shows a Set up your store checklist on its home page until you take your first order. Nothing on it can be ticked by hand — each step goes green when the thing it describes is actually true — so you can trust it, and it disappears on its own once you have sold something.
Do these four in this order
- Connect Stripe. Nothing can be bought until it is done: checkout refuses every order while your account cannot take charges. It is the one step standing between you and a first sale, and it is the one most likely to take a day, so start it first. See Getting paid.
- Add a product. A product needs a price and, if you track it, some stock. Set it to Active — a draft product is invisible to shoppers, and a store with only drafts looks empty to everyone but you.
- Set up shipping. Until you create a shipping zone, checkout quotes every address free shipping. That is the single most expensive default in the product and it is worth ten minutes. See Shipping.
- Make the storefront yours. Arrange your home page, pick your colours and type, and press Publish. See Your storefront.
What you do not have to do
- There is no plan to choose. eCrate is free to use. It charges 2% of a paid order and nothing when you are not selling. See What eCrate charges.
- There is no theme to buy or install. Every store starts on the same editable storefront.
- There is no app store. Email, the customer inbox, discounts, loyalty, gift cards, subscriptions, B2B terms and the affiliate marketplace are all part of the product.
If you are moving from Shopify
Do the import before you spend an evening typing products in. It brings your products, collections, customers, order history, content and URL redirects across, and you can run it as many times as you like. See Moving a Shopify store across.
Adding people
Settings → Staff invites other people into your store. Roles decide what they can reach:
| Can reach | Owner | Admin | Staff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Products and media | Yes — allowed | Yes — allowed | Yes — allowed |
| Orders | Yes — allowed | Yes — allowed | Yes — allowed |
| Customers and the inbox | Yes — allowed | Yes — allowed | Yes — allowed |
| Marketing and partner deals | Yes — allowed | Yes — allowed | — — not allowed |
| Refunds and store credit | Yes — allowed | Yes — allowed | — — not allowed |
| Store settings | Yes — allowed | Yes — allowed | — — not allowed |
| eCrate billing and Stripe | Yes — allowed | — — not allowed | — — not allowed |
| Inviting teammates | Yes — allowed | — — not allowed | — — not allowed |
| Renaming and transferring the store | Yes — allowed | — — not allowed | — — not allowed |
Only an owner can connect Stripe, see what eCrate has charged you, invite teammates, or rename the store. There is exactly one owner at a time, and ownership can be handed on.