Compatibility:

WebSite X5 Pro

Your website can be more than a simple showcase: for instance, you can turn it into the main distribution channel for your products or services, as it can  potentially reach more people than your physical store would.


With WebSite X5, anyone can easily create an e-commerce. These are the fundamental steps to follow: 


#tip -  Remember that orders are not sent through the local preview of your website, you are automatically redirected to the Order Confirmation Page instead. In order for the e-commerce to function properly, the website must be exported on the Server.

 

Create a product catalog

The first thing you need to do is to create a catalog for the products you want to sell on your online shop:

  • Go to Step 1 - Settings > Shopping Cart.
  • Use the New Category button to create all the categories you need.
  • Select a Category and click on the New product button: use all the options in the Product Settings window to report all the necessary details to define the product in questions. Please don't forget you can write the short description, the details, the tags and SEO tags using MagicText, the Artificial Intelligence-based text generation assistant available in WebSite X5 Pro (starting from version 2023.2) and in WebSite X5 Agency.
  • Follow these steps to add all the necessary categories and products.


#tip -   For more information about how to create a product catalog see:  How to create a product catalog? If you don't want to create it manually, you can also import a product catalog as .TXT or .CSV file by selecting the Import Products option (see: How to import/export Products).


Define the shipping and payment methods

Once you have your product catalog, you need to choose the shipping and payment methods you want to make available on your online store. 

  • Go to Shopping Cart > Order Management. You will find in the Shipping type list section the "Mail" and "Express Delivery" options available by default: select them one by one and click on Edit to open the Shipping type window and customize the parameters.
  • Click on Add to define a new shipping method (see: How to define shipping methods?).


You can define the payment methods in the Payment Type List section by following the same steps (see: How to define payment methods).


Set up an order form

Obviously, Customers need to fill in an Order form with the necessary billing and possibly shipping details to complete the order. You can follow these steps to create an Order form: 

  • Go to Shopping Cart > Customer Details  and set up your Order form using the options in the Order Form summary table. Select a field you want to work on and use the and buttons to make it "visible", i.e. available on the form, and "mandatory", i.e. the customer will compulsorily have to fill it in to proceed.
  • Once you have created your Form, activate the Allow shipping data to differ from invoice data option to duplicate the fields and let your Customers report different shipping details.
  • You can use available editor to report the Sales Terms and Conditions the Customer will need to accept to complete the order. 


Activate the method to receive and process orders

If a Customer places an order, two e-mails are necessary: the first one is the Order Summary which you must receive as Administrator of the Website, the second one is the Order Confirmation e-mail for the Customer.

  • Go to Shopping Cart> Sending Order, select Sending data by e-mail and type in the Administrator's E-mail, i.e. the e-mail address you want to receive the orders to. 
  • If you want to include the data related to the order in an attached .CSV file, choose the Attach order Data in CVS format option: thanks to this .CSV file, you will be able to easily report the data into an accountancy program.
  • Now create the Notification E-Mail for the customer by typing it in the Header and Footer Text sections (see: How to write notification e-mails?).


Instead of receiving a single order by e-mail, with the Pro edition you can collect and manage them using an online Database ( see: How to send data via database?).


Set up the Buy Now buttons

Once your shopping cart is complete, you need to add the details and the necessary links for the customers to have access to the product they're looking for, read the description and buy them. Now you need to: 

  1. Create a page for each product, in order to showcase it the way you prefer, such as by using images, texts, tables etc. In this case, you can create a "Buy now" button using the Add to Cart  option (see:  How to create the "buy now" button?).
  2. Show your products using the Product Catalog cards (see: How to work with the Product Catalog Object?).
  3. Set up a search engine on your online shop, so your customers can use it to find the wished products (see: What's the Product Search page and how to use it).
  4. Activate the Product pages for your products and link them using the relative buttons and/or menu items, so to provide more information about the products. (see: What's the product page and how to use it)


The former method allows you more customization freedom, but you need to do some extra steps; the other methods the latter allows you to proceed faster, as it automatizes the product cards and the Product Pages creation.


#tip - In order to meet the best decision according to your needs, please see: How to present the products of your product catalog


Export your website online and manage the orders

Now you are ready to export your online store:


You can manage the orders with the dedicated section on the online control Panel (see, How to manage orders and products with the online Control Panel).  If you are working with the Pro edition, you can also manage your orders using the WebSite X5 Manager App (see, How to manage orders and products with the WebSite X5 Manager App).