Configuring general settings for your store

During the initial store setup you may have already configured the general business settings for your online shop – such as your store’s name and address, time zone and currency. Before you launch your store to the public, it is important to go over the general settings once again to make sure they are all set correctly.

You can access the general store settings in Setting → General → Store Profile and Settings → General → Regional Settings sections in your store’s admin.

Store name

The name of your store appears in customer-facing email notifications and in your invoices. It is also displayed as the name of your website in the Website section of your store’s admin. A good store name is catchy and reflects the concept of your store – as well as the range of products.

To set or change the name for your store:

Store web address (URL)

Store web address (URL) is a link of the site page where your store is located. For example, you have a website at https://www.mywebsite.com and added your store to the https://www.mywebsite.com/store site page — the address of this page is your store web address. Or you prefer using Instant Site – then your store web address is https://XXXXXX.business.shop/products (with XXXXXX being a changeable part) or your custom domain name if you’ve connected your own domain to your Instant Site.

Make sure to specify the right store address in your store’s Admin as it’s used as a base to form links to product, category and other store pages. These links are displayed in customer email notifications, at order history page in customer accounts, in posts shared to social networks, etc. Besides, the store web address is used for the “View Store” and “Open in storefront” links in your store admin panel and for the “Checkout on website” button on Facebook.

To get your store address, open your site in a browser, navigate to the page where you’ve added your store and copy the URL link for this page that you’ll see in the browser’s address bar:

To add or update the store address in your store settings:

1. From your store’s Admin, go to Settings → General and click Store Profile tab.
2. Click Edit in the Store’s web address (URL) section.
3. Select what applies to you:
   
   
   • If you use your store on Instant Site:
   • Choose I’m using Instant Site.
   • Click Customize domain name.
   • Enter a new name in the Use our subdomain field or specify your own custom domain in the Use your own domain name field (then connect your own domain to your Instant Site if you haven’t done it yet).
   • Click Save to keep the changes.

   If you want to update your store address and move your store from your custom site to Instant Site, you should first choose I’m using Instant Site, then click Save. After that, the Customize domain name button will appear. Click it and specify your domain name.

   • If you use another site platform:
   • Choose My store is set up elsewhere,
   • Enter the web address of the site page where you’ve added your store.
   • Click Save.

If you’ve added the same store to multiple sites, specify the store page URL of your main site as your store web address to ensure that this address is used to form the links related to your store.

Company name, email and address

You can also specify the name, email and physical address (including phone number) of your company in the corresponding Company name and email and Company address fields of the Store Profile page in your store’s admin. This data is usually displayed in your invoices and in email notifications. Your phone number and email, entered in these fields, also appear on the Thank you for your Order page (in the special “Questions on your order?” block) that customers see after placing an order in your shop.

Providing company name, email and address will make your store look more trustworthy. Moreover, clear, concise and up-to-date information will improve the communication with customers later.

Social media accounts

You can add links to your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and Pinterest accounts to the bottom of your store’s email notifications. Providing these links will help keep your customers informed about your news and promotions.

Adding links is simple – you can enter the address of your social media account on the Store Profile page in your store’s admin and just click Save.

If your time and other resources are limited, it’s better to have one regularly updated account than several half-abandoned pages on different social media. Considering the product range of your store is important to make the right choice: some products can be marketed more efficiently on Instagram, some on Facebook, etc.

You can read more about using social media for marketing.

Closing your storefront for maintenance

In case you don’t want to display your storefront – for example, your website is at a pre-launch stage or is currently under construction – you can always temporarily close your storefront for visitors on the Store Profile page in your store’s admin.

Currency

Your store supports all the official currencies, which means you can set your product prices exactly in the currency you want to accept in your store.

To set or change currency in your online store:

1. In your store’s admin, go to the Settings → General page, Regional Settings tab.
2. Choose your store currency in the Currency drop-down menu.
3. Choose the display format for the prices in this currency (it will not affect input fields for prices in your store’s admin):
   

   

4. If you use a non-USD currency, you can specify the conversion rate in case a payment gateway you want to use accepts dollars only or if a shipping service connected to your store doesn’t accept your currency but works with USD. The store will use the entered rate to convert the order total into dollars and send the request to a payment system or, in case of shipping, it will show the correct actual shipping rate in your store’s currency so that your shipping costs coincide with the shipping prices in your store. Example:
   
5. Choose if the currency symbol should be displayed before (prefix) or after the price (suffix).
6. Enable or disable the Hide trailing zeros in fractional part option for prices in your store.
7. Save the changes.

Units of weight & dimensions

You can choose from several weight and dimension units for your store. The weight and dimension values that you enter on your product pages are used to calculate the automatic and carrier-calculated shipping rates for your customers (also product weight is used for manually set-up rates based on weight). You can also display the entered weight values on the product pages using the built-in design settings.

As your store’s weight unit you can choose: kilograms, pounds, ounces, grams or carats. As your store’s dimension units you can choose millimeters, centimeters, inches or yards.

To set default weight and size units in your store:

1. In your store’s admin, go to the Settings → General page, Regional Settings tab.
2. Choose the desired unit in the Weight unit drop-down menu.
3. Choose the desired unit in the Dimensions unit drop-down menu.
4. Choose the display format for the weight and dimension units (it will not affect input fields for them in your store’s admin):
   

   

5. Enable or disable the Hide trailing zeros in fractional part option for weights and sizes in your store.
6. Save the changes.

Store Language

When you create an account, your store automatically detects your browser language and uses it as your store’s language, i.e. for text in your storefront labels, customer notifications, and invoices. If necessary, you can change the language of your store on the Regional settings tab of the admin panel. You can also offer your store in several languages.

Date & Time

You can set up the time zone, time display format and date display format for your store. These settings will be used in data export and email notifications – thus helping you and your customers keep track of the events better.

To set date and time in your online store:

1. In your store’s admin, go to the Settings → General page, Regional Settings tab.
2. Choose your time zone in the Time zone drop-down menu.
3. Choose the desired option in the Time display format drop-down menu.
4. Choose the desired option in the Date display format drop-down menu.
   

   

5. Click Save.