Setting up your Online Shop

Welcome to the world of online retail! Our online shop is easy to use; anyone with basic computer knowledge can set up and maintain their own online shop. This user guide walks you through the set-up of your shop and provides practical advice for getting the most out of it.

Note A — Mobile Optimisation: All Rocketspark shops are mobile optimised, which means that your shop automatically adjusts for easy usage when accessed from a mobile device (e.g., smartphone, or tablet). Your website detects when a customer visits your shop from a mobile device and is automatically reconfigured, making browsing, checkout and payment with a mobile simple. Take a look at our blog to find out more about the mobile shop feature.

Note B — Shop Testing: If at this stage you are just trying out the shop, we recommend that you focus on “Section 1: How to add products”. You don’t need to configure your shop settings (Section 2) if you’re just testing.

SECTION 1: ADD PRODUCTS TO YOUR SHOP

Adding products to your online shop is easy. But there are a couple of things you need to think about before you get started.

Before You Begin...

Before you start adding products to your shop, we recommend that you give our e-book a really good read. Download our free e-book , 'Getting started with E-Commerce by Rocketspark - The beginners' guide to starting an online shop'.

Your next step will be to spend some time planning out your categories and filters/tags (for our current purposes, filters and tags are essentially the same thing). Categories and tags make it easy for customers to find what they’re looking for. So what are categories and filters/tags?

Categories: A category is where a product is “located”. Not physically, of course, but where on your website a customer would go to find it. A product can only go in one category.
Filters/tags: A tag is a way of labelling it. This allows customers to filter their search results to help them find what they’re after. A product can have unlimited tags.

Admittedly, they sound pretty similar but they actually perform different functions. The key difference between the two is that a product can go in only one category but can have multiple tags. This means that your categories should be reasonably broad, permanent and “fundamental”. Your tags can be pretty much anything you like: niche, temporary, minor—whatever. Still confused? Perhaps an example would help…

Example: Imagine you own an online clothing boutique. Your categories will probably be according to clothing types, e.g.: Jackets, Tees, Jeans, Shorts, Accessories. Every product in your shop will fit into one of those categories. Your tags, on the other hand, can be pretty much anything else. You might like to have price range tags: $0-$99, $100-$199, $200-$299. A customer on a budget could then filter their search to items “$0-$99”. You could have style tags: Retro, Street, Casual, Formal. A customer looking for something old-school could limit their search to “Retro” items. Another possibility would be setting up sale tags: On Sale, Christmas specials, Winter Clearance. A customer looking to pick up a bargain could limit their results using the “On Sale” filter.

So before you start, take the time to map out what categories you want and how you’ll use tags. Ask yourself: How will my customers shop? How will they search? How can I help them find what they want? Thinking that through now will ensure your customers can find what they want, which of course will mean better sales.

Add Products to Your Shop

Now it’s time to add products to your shop. We’ll walk you through the process using a fictional example of a business that sells famous landmarks, like clocks and towers (who doesn’t want to be able to buy the Eiffel Tower online, right?).

Enable your store - skip to adding your product:

Log into your Rocketspark Dashboard.
On the left-hand side click on the title Store
Once you have clicked on the Store, you will be shown a screen that tells you your store has been disabled. You need to click on the "Add Store" button
When you click on the "Add Store" button, a popup will appear asking you to confirm if you are wanting to add a store to your website. Click onto "Add Store" again if you want to continue, otherwise click "Cancel".

Adding your first product:

Once you have added your store, you will see a checklist of things that need to be completed before your store can be set online. This includes adding products to your store.

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Heading to the first thing on that list, you will see a link that says "Add your first product" If you click on this, it will take you to a new page with the heading "New Product".

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You’ll be taken to a new page, headed “New Product”. It’s time now to enter the following product details:
1. “Product Title”. Type in the name of the product you wish to add.
2. “Product Code”. Type in the product code, which is a code unique to the product that enables identification.
3. “Description”. Type in a description of the product.
4. “Category”:
  1. Select from the menu the existing categories you want to put the product under.
  2. To add a new category, type in the “Add new” field (at the bottom of the “Category” menu) and click “Add” next to it.
5. “Shipping rate”. Select from the menu the shipping rate you want to apply to the product. NOTE: If no shipping rate is set at this stage of the process, no shipping will be applied during checkout when this product is ordered.
6. “Product status”. Select from the menu the status of the product (e.g., “For Sale”, “Out of Stock” etc.). You can update the status easily at any time by clicking the menu on the right side of the black bar at the top of the page. For detailed explanations of each of these options, take a look at “Product Status” in our “Explanations of Shop Fields” guide.

To include images of the product, complete the following steps:
1. Click the “Upload Picture” button, located on the right side of the “Description” field.
2. A file browser will appear. Locate the image you wish to add and click “open”.
3. Your image will now appear above the button. To add more, simply repeat step 2. To change the order of images, simply click-and-drag the image to the new position you want for it. To delete an image, place your cursor so that it hovers over the image until a rubbish bin icon appears. Click the icon, then click “Yes” when asked for confirmation. The image will be removed.
  
  When you upload images for your product, these will be used in 3 different places:
- The first image will be used as the main product image on the listing page.
- All of the images will be available in a gallery on the product page.
- When you click on the images they will display a larger version.
When you upload your images, they will be automatically scaled to fit the maximum width or height of the part of your website where they will be displayed. The Rocketspark platform automatically optimises your image for web viewing when you upload it, so we recommend uploading it at a size much larger than it will actually appear (at least 2000px wide by whatever height you decide on to determine the shape of your images—remember that the enlarged version will be quite large and will be displayed at retina resolution (high-resolution displays) for people with retina screens so it needs to be high quality).

The only way for the images to be all the same shape would be if you adjusted the image sizes to all be the same before you load them into your products. There are free picture editors on most computers (just double click the picture saved on your computer to see which programme opens the picture) or you can use a free online service such as www.picmonkey.com.
It’s time to move on to the “Price, Inventory & Variants” section. You’ll first need to determine whether or not there are any product variants (e.g., size, colour).
1. If there are no variants, leave as is (the toggle next to the “Price, Inventory & Variants” heading is set to off [red] by default). But if there are variants, set the toggle to on (green). Then complete the rest of the section by entering the following details:
  1. “Price”. Type in the amount you wish to charge for the product, including tax.
  2. “Stock”. Type in the number of that product you have in stock. If you don’t want to manage stock, leave this as 0, and select “Continue Selling” from the “If stock reaches zero” menu.
  3. “If stock reaches zero”. Select from the menu the appropriate action if stock reaches zero (e.g., “Hide product”). When stock reaches zero the product status will change to this value, unless set to “Continue selling”.
  4. Lightspeed syncing is available for those customers that are connected with Lightspeed. To find out more check out this helpful guide.
2. If there are product variants, set the toggle next to the “Price, Inventory & Variants” heading to on (green) by clicking it. If this is the first time you have enabled variants then you’ll be shown the variant setup pane. This allows you to quickly add all the colour and size options (or other variants) for a product and Rocketspark will generate all the possible combinations of these as variants for you.
  1. “Option Type”. Type in the kind of variant (e.g., “Size” or “Colour”).
  2. “Options”. Type in the various options. (e.g., “Small, Medium, Large”) these can be separated by commas to add multiples at a time or just add one. Click the “Add” button to add these as a new option type.
  3. Once you have added an option type you can click “Add” after each entry or alternatively delete unwanted options by clicking on the “x” icon in the dark grey option bubbles.
  4. Once you have all the possible option types and options added for your product click the red “Setup all variants” button. A table will be created with each possible combination of variants. You must set the price and stock levels for each variant:
    1. Click the pencil icon in the “Price” column to set the price of that particular variant. Type in the price. Repeat for each variant.
    2. Click the pencil icon in the “Stock” column to set the stock level of that particular variant. Type in the stock level. Repeat for each variant.
    3. Click the pencil icon of any other field you wish to edit and simply type in the correct word/value.
    4. In the final column of the table, you can delete, move, or set as the default any of the variants. To delete one, click the “x” icon. To move a variant, hover over the field and an up/down arrow will appear; click and drag the field to the desired position. To set it as the default variant, click the tick icon next to the applicable variant. The default variant is the option initially displayed/selected when a shopper first visits your product page.
    5. You can add new options and option types at any time by clicking the “Add Attribute Column” and “Add Variant Row” buttons at the bottom of the table, and simply filling out the field that appears.
      
      Further explanation of how things work:
    - A maximum of three attribute types are allowed per product.
    - If the variant toggle is on, you must have at least one variant set up.
    - Variants must have all fields filled out.
    - If the “If stock reaches zero” menu is set to “Hidden” or “Sold out”, you must have stock available to also set the product status to “For Sale”.
    - The product code must be unique per product, Rocketspark will try to automatically generate these for you.
    - If you are connected with Lightspeed, changes should only be made within Lightspeed unless you want to change the visibility when out of stock.
The final section is headed “Related Products”. You need to determine if you’d like related products to be displayed on the page with this product.
1. If you do not want related products to be displayed, set the toggle to off (red) by clicking on it. Alternatively, simply don’t add any related products.
2. If you do want related products to be displayed, check that the toggle is set to on (green) by clicking it. Then do the following:
  1. Begin typing in the product name of a related product you would like displayed. A list of suggestions should appear (provided you have already added the product). Select from the suggestions the product you would like displayed and click the “Add” button next to it.
  2. Do this for as many related products as you want to be displayed on the product page. Each selection will appear below the field. To delete a related product from being displayed, just click the “x” icon on the right of the grey bar.
Click the red “Save Changes” button located at the top of the page to save this information.

Your new product has now been added! Repeat this process for as many products as you wish to add.

Note A—Managing Categories and Filters: You can easily manage your categories and filters from the main page of your shop:

Sort or change the order of categories/filters simply by clicking on the one you wish to move and moving it up or down the list.
Hide a category/filter by hovering over it and clicking on the “x” that appears next to it.
Show a previously hidden category by clicking the “show category” or “show tag” option visible at the bottom of the list. A list of your categories/filters will appear, including any hidden ones. Click on the category/filter you wish to “un-hide”.

See "How do shop filters work on mobile" here.

Note B—Shipping and Currency Settings: You’re probably eager to get your online shop live as soon as possible. That’s great but don’t forget to configure shop settings before going live, especially shipping and currency details (Go to Section 2 for instructions about shop settings).

Add Products to the Main Pages of Your Website

Did you know you can showcase your products on the main pages of your website? It’s a great way to promote popular products to users who are looking at, say, your home page. Once your shop has gone live online, an additional option will be enabled that allows you to add products from your store to the main pages of your website.

Go to the page where you want to showcase the product (e.g., home page).
Click “add block” (which appears when you hover your mouse over a certain section of the webpage).
An “Add a block” box will appear. Click “product”.
An “Add a product” box will appear. Add the product to the page by clicking on the drop-down menu (which will have listed all products that you have already added to your online shop) and selecting the item you wish to showcase.

The product has now been added to your page, displaying the product name, an image, a short description and the price.

Create Buttons that Link to Products or Shop Categories

You can do some clever things using buttons. Rather than adding products to the main pages of your website, a button can be set up that will take your customer directly to a particular category in your shop. (Never created a button before? Check out our guide to adding buttons.)

Go to the page where you want to add the button (e.g., home page).
Click “add block” (which appears when you hover your mouse over a certain section of the webpage).
An “Add a block” box will appear. Click “Button”.
An “Add a button” box will appear. Complete the following:
1. Button text: Type in the text you want to appear on the button (and choose whether you want the text left-aligned or centred on the button by clicking the relevant alignment option immediately to the right of the “Button text” field).
2. This button links to: Select from the following options:
  1. Page: For linking to the whole shop e.g., a “buy now” button that takes you to the shop landing page.
  2. Category: For linking to a category within the shop. This is great for highlighting a certain subset of products that customers might otherwise overlook. E.g., a button that takes you to “On Sale” or “Fair Trade” products.
  3. Product: For linking to a specific product in your shop. E.g., a “best seller” button that takes the customer to the most popular product.
    
    Note: You’ll notice that there’s also a “website” option. This is for creating external links and is therefore irrelevant to our purposes here i.e., directing users to your shop! You’ll find out more general information about adding buttons here.
3. Menu: From the drop-down menu, select the page (in this case, “Shop"), category or product you’re linking to (The options on this menu are determined by what you’ve already set up in your shop).
Click “Save”.

Customise your button style: With a little ability in design, you can create your own button using our image linking feature. E.g., you could create a funky-looking button that links to your shop—one that practically screams “click me!”

SECTION 2: CONFIGURE YOUR SHOP SETTINGS

It’s important you spend some time getting your shop settings right. We’ll take you step-by-step through the process:

You first need to access your Shop Settings:
1. If you’re currently editing your shop (with the slider set to “Editor”), click the “Shop Settings” button near the top right-hand side of the page.
2. If you’re not currently editing your shop (with the slider set to “Editor”), you can easily access your Shop Settings without having to first go into your shop:
  1. Ensure that the slider at the top of the page is on “Dashboard” (if not, simply move it to that position).
  2. A menu headed “Dashboard Home” will appear on the left-hand side of the page. Click the button "Manage Store" underneath the Store sub-heading.
This is where you will be able to make any changes to the settings on your store. If you click on "Store Preferences", this has a list of other store settings you should work your way through.

Tip: If you have not yet created your website we recommend that you read this “How do I add content to my Rocketspark website?” support guide so that you can understand the basics of making your own website before you start to learn how to make your own online shop.

Order History & Reports

This setting does not need to be configured until your website has gone live. Go to “Section 3: Go live!” for instructions.

Currency Details

It’s possible that your online shop could be visited by overseas internet users. That means setting the currency type—and displaying that clearly to visitors—is paramount.

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Click on 'Manage Store' on the left-hand side of your Dashboard and select 'Currency Details'. This is where you can select the currency you wish to use for your online shop (the default currency is New Zealand Dollar).

Note: Only one currency is used for transactions in your shop. But customers with a credit card using a different currency can still purchase from you. The amount charged to their card will be at the current exchange rate plus any international and/or transaction fees set by the customer’s credit card company.
Type into the “Currency Description” box the description for currency used as you wish it to appear on your website. This is an important detail due to the (potential) international browsers that your shop could attract; it is important to inform them of currency and sales tax details. The text you enter here will appear near the footer of your shop page.
Price Comparison Labels are enabled by default. If you wish to turn price comparisons off, untick the box that says “Enable price comparison label…”. Price Comparison Labels are ideal for retailers that run specials but note that these labels will only appear for products that do not have variants enabled and for which a comparison price has been entered.
If you have opted to leave Price Comparison Labels on, type into the box the phrase you want to indicate the price comparison e.g., “Why Pay”, “RRP”, or “elsewhere”).

Shipping

Unlike traditional retail, online shopping typically means that you ship your items to the customer. This is where you can set various shipping rates depending on the product that people buy and where they live. You currently can't set different prices for delivery timeframe e.g. Next Day, Saturday delivery, Pick up.

The essentials to understand about shipping

One rate of shipping used for all products in an order
The 'Min cost per order' is the base price for a single item. The 'Extra item cost' is the additional price per item charged if more than 1 of the same item is purchased.

Multiple rates of shipping used for products in an order
If two or more different items with different shipping rates are purchased the customer will only be charged the highest of the two 'Min cost per order' values plus the 'Extra item cost' of the second item.

Set which countries you are willing to ship to. To add a shipping country, select the country from the “Add shipping country” drop-down menu and click the “Add Country” button.

You now need to set your shipping rates (if you are selling a service and therefore no shipping is required, you do not need to set up shipping rates). Shipping is perhaps the trickiest part of setting up an online shop, so we will use a customer example to help demonstrate how it works...

Customer Example: Steve has a surf shop that sells surfboards, clothing and accessories (e.g., sunglasses, watches etc.). The cost of shipping a surfboard to a customer is much higher than clothing or accessories. Steve sets up a shipping rate called “Large Item” with a minimum cost per order of $20 and an extra item cost of $10. Whenever Steve adds a new surfboard to his online shop he sets the shipping rate for that product to be “Large Item”. Steve also sets up a shipping rate for clothing and accessories called “Small Item” with a minimum cost per order of $5 and an extra item cost of $0. Steve sets the extra item cost as $0 for “Small Item” because he doesn’t want to charge the customer extra to add small items to their order.

Give the shipping rate a name (e.g., “Standard Shipping”) by clicking the edit button and then typing in your preferred label.
Type in the “Minimum Cost Per Order” box the amount you want to set as a shipping minimum and in the “Extra Item Cost” box the amount you want to be added if more than one of the same item is ordered (for New Zealand shipping, you will need to set this for both the North and South Islands).
To add another shipping rate in addition to Standard shipping (e.g., “Large Item”), click the “Add another shipping rate” button and then repeat the process.

Note A: If two items with different shipping rates are purchased, the customer will only be charged the highest of the two “Min. cost per order” values plus the “Extra item cost” of the second item.

Note B: The customer’s shipping cost will not be calculated until they go to the checkout and complete their shipping details as we can't calculate shipping until we know their address. You can always add a shipping price guide into your product description so that they can see shipping prices for an item.
Click on the next shipping country in your list and repeat steps 2-4.

Note: To delete either a shipping country or a shipping rate, simply click the red circle (with a white bar inside). A dialogue box asking you to confirm that you wish to delete it will appear. Click “Yes”.
Set a default shipping rate for new products.
You can change your default shipping rate on the right-hand side also. So when new products are added they automatically have your default shipping rate applied. This helps avoid products being added with no shipping rate assigned, which would mean no shipping is charged on that product. If you find that products are being sold without any shipping you can apply the default shipping rate to all products that have no shipping rate applied.
You can also set up a shipping rate here for pick-up orders. You can do this by adding a 'Pick up' location, you can set the cost for this to $0 this way when customers choose to pick up their order they are sent a pickup address for them to go to.
Free shipping. If you'd like to provide free shipping over a certain order value click the "Set minimum value for free shipping button." See step by step guide for free shipping.

Coupons

Want to give your customers a little extra incentive to buy? Coupons (a.k.a. promotional codes) are a great way to motivate select customers by offering special discounts. If you give a coupon code to a customer, that customer can get the discount just by typing that code into the relevant field in their basket during the checkout process.

This section does not need to be set up in order for your shop to run properly; you only need to set up this section if/when you decide to use coupons as a promotional tool. See instructions immediately below to learn how to set up coupons.

Click the “Create a coupon” button.
A box will appear, prompting you to fill out the details of your coupon promotion.
Enter as follows:
1. Campaign title: Type in the name of the campaign. This name is for internal purposes, they're purely to aid you in managing your coupons.
2. Coupon Type: Choose either Single-use: When you want to give the coupon to a specific customer who'll be able to use the coupon once. Multi-use: Giving the same coupon to multiple customers and customers can use the coupon multiple times. Single-use per customer: Give the same coupon to multiple customers and each customer can only use the coupon once. Learn more about this type of coupon on our blog.
  You can also create a coupon for specific brands, product categories and tags.
3. Discount type: You can use a coupon for two kinds of offers:
  1. % discount: Deducts a certain percentage off the total purchase amount (before shipping) e.g., 50% off.
  2. $ discount: Deducts a specific dollar amount off the final total e.g., $50 off.
    Select from the drop-down menu either “% discount” or “$ discount”.
4. Min. Purchase Amount (OPTIONAL): If you wish to set a minimum amount a customer must spend before they qualify for the coupon, type in that amount here.
5. Start Date: Select the date you want the promotion to begin by clicking on the pop-up calendar that appears when you click on this field.
6. End Date: Select the date you want the promotion to end by clicking on the pop-up calendar that appears when you click on this field.
7. Discount Amount: Type in the discount amount you wish to offer (either percentage or dollar amount, depending on what you have selected from the “Discount Type” menu [step 2.b.]).
8. Voucher Code: Type in the code you want to use for the coupon. This code is the actual text/numerals that customers must type in during the checkout process in order to be able to redeem the coupon. Customers must type it in exactly as you have set it (except its not case sensitive i.e., it does not matter if they use upper- or lower-case letters), so it pays to keep this simple. For that reason, we recommend that you avoid using spaces. E.g., VIPCUSTOMER or BOXINGDAYSALE.
Click the “Add” button at the bottom of the box. You will be returned to the Coupons page. Your coupon is now set up and will appear in a list (along with any other coupons you set up) on this page.
You may set up as many coupons as you wish (simply repeat steps 1-3). If you have dozens of coupons, you may wish to use the search field to find a coupon. Simply type in a keyword from the coupon and click “Search”. Coupons matching that search query will appear.

Note: If you wish to delete a coupon, click “remove” on the right-hand side of the coupon in the list. A dialogue box will appear. Click “Yes” to confirm that you wish to delete it.

Your Terms & Conditions

Your Terms & Conditions outline precisely what your customers are agreeing to in purchasing from your shop. Setting that up may sound like a daunting task but we’ve made it as easy as possible.

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Write and edit your Terms & Conditions in the editor box. Formatting tools are available in the toolbar at the top of the editor.
Note: To make this process easier for you, we have included model Terms & Conditions designed only for sellers located in New Zealand selling to New Zealand customers. Be aware, however, that you are entirely responsible for your Terms & Conditions; we, therefore, advise you to revise these carefully and tailor them to your needs. You may wish to seek independent legal advice. Even if you decide to use the model Terms & Conditions provided, you’ll need to, at a minimum, replace all text in bold font with the relevant details and you’ll need to delete the initial few paragraphs (which are instructions for you only) so that they are not visible to the customer.
Tick the box labelled “I have edited and saved my Terms & Conditions and accept them for use in my shop”.
Click the “Save Changes” button.

Once you have Saved Changes at step 3 above you can then control whether it is required for your customers to tick to accept these terms in the checkout. We have this setting turned on automatically for new websites as a large majority of Payment Gateways require this option to be turned on.

Payment Gateway

How do you want your customers to pay? A payment gateway connects to your shop and allows customers to make payments to you.

There are several different payment gateways for you to choose from, each with its own pros and cons. You will need to enable at least one payment gateway in order for customers to be able to make payments through your shop.
Most payment gateways will charge fees (either monthly, per transaction, or a percentage of transaction amount) and will require some setup.

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Click on the gateway you wish to use to be taken to instructions for its setup:

eWAY (setup instructions): Low monthly fees and no merchant account required
Laybuy (Setup instructions): Allows customers to pay off in 6 weekly payments.
Afterpay (Setup instructions): Allows customers to pay off in instalments.
Windcave (Payment Express / DPS) (setup instructions): recognised and trusted brand, Rocketspark customers get special pricing.
Stripe - Recommended (setup instructions): Easy setup, multiple payment options and low fees
PayPal (setup instructions): Easy and fast to setup, though the checkout process isn't as smooth as the other options. Also allows customers to pay with Paypal funds.
Bank Deposit / Direc t Credit (setup instructions): Allows customers to make manual bank transfer payments. Great to use this in addition to one of the above credit card gateways.

If you need help with choosing or setting up a payment gateway, simply contact us and we’ll help you through that process.

Taxes

In many countries, (some) goods and services incur some kind of sales tax (e.g., in New Zealand most goods and services have GST added). Before you can set up this section, you must first have set your shipping countries (in “Shipping”). See “Shipping” section above for instructions.

If you are NOT a Xero customer:

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In the “Tax Rate %” field, type in the applicable tax percentage.
In the “Tax Label” field, type in the tax label e.g., “GST” (NZ, AUS), “VAT” (UK).
Repeat steps 1-2 for each shipping country.

If you ARE a Xero customer:

Editing tax rates must be done through your Xero account. So log into your Xero account and edit them there (click here to learn more about tax rates in Xero).
Select the relevant tax rate/status (pre-populated from Xero) by clicking on the drop-down menu.
Repeat for all shipping countries.

For further instructions about connecting with Xero, click here.

Xero Settings

Want to make the accounting for your shop simple? Connecting your shop to Xero might be the ideal solution.

This setting is not necessary in order for your shop to run properly; this is for those using Xero accounting software. Click here to learn how to connect your Rocketspark shop with your Xero account. Or click here to learn how using Rocketspark and Xero can boost your online shop.

Lightspeed Settings

Want to be able to manage the inventory from both your retail and online shops in one easy system? Connecting your shop to Lightspeed will allow you to do this.

This setting is not necessary in order for your shop to run properly; this is for those using Lightspeedpoint-of-sale software. Click here to learn how to connect your Rocketspark shop with your Lightspeed account. Or click here to learn how using Rocketspark and Lightspeed can streamline your “bricks-and-clicks” shop.

SECTION 3: GO LIVE!

You’re almost done. There’s just a few things to take care of before your shop goes live.

Order confirmation email

When a purchase is made, an email confirmation is automatically sent from Rocketspark to your customer. This email is sent to the email address the client entered at the time of purchase.

The order confirmation will be sent to your customer from messages@rocketsparkmailer.com address but the reply-to address will be the email on your account. You can learn more about why we send emails from an info@rocketspark address here.

The reply email address and the order confirmations emails you receive for sales in your online shop are sent to the email account that is used to log in to your Rocketspark website. Unfortunately, the email cannot be configured to go to an email address that is different to your main log in email but you can change your login email which would change the destination for these confirmation emails.

You can change your login email under the 'My account' section of your dashboard, here you can edit your company/personal information including your email address.

Customising your order confirmation email

If you’d like to customise the order confirmation email to include your branding or special instructions we will be able to do this for you as a small custom project. We are able to add a custom logo to the top of the email and also one area of text content. Please contact us with details of your requirements and we’ll provide a quotation to implement the requirements.

Tax invoices

The order confirmation email is not a tax invoice but simply a confirmation of the order. We recommend that tax invoices are generated from your accounting system whether that be online or paper-based.

If you connect your Rocketspark e-commerce website with Xero an invoice will be created in Xero for each order and you can then email or print the order from Xero.

Order History & Reports

Once your shop is live, you’ll want to see how the shop is performing and keep track of your orders. This section allows you to see sales statistics and manage your orders quickly and easily.

Sales Reports:

This is where you’ll find the following basic sales statistics:

Sales this month (to date)
Sales last month
Highest selling product (including the number of units sold)
Highest selling category (including the number of units sold)

Order History:

This is where you can keep track of individual orders. Each order appears as a list (similar to the way transactions are listed on a bank statement). Note the following features:

Details: Click this to get more information on the order. A box will appear with the details pertaining to the order.
Paid: This tick box is for keeping track of payments. There are two ways this is managed:
1. Payment gateways: If the customer pays using a payment gateway (e.g., Windcave), this box will automatically be ticked once the payment is made (and cannot be un-ticked manually).
2. Direct credit: If the customer pays using direct credit, you will need to check your account to see if they’ve paid and, once paid, you must manually tick the box. That way, you know at a glance who has paid (and who hasn’t).
Shipped: This tick box is for keeping track of shipping, which is really useful in ensuring you don’t forget to ship an order.
1. Once you’ve shipped the order, manually tick the corresponding box.
2. A box will appear asking for a tracking number (this is optional). Enter the tracking number supplied by the courier/post office.
3. Click either “Save” or “Save & notify the customer”.
4. If you choose to notify the customer, a “Notify customer” box will appear. This is an editable preview of the email that will be sent to the customer. The relevant order information will be pre-populated into this email. If you wish to make any changes, simply type the changes directly into the text field (as you would in composing an email).
5. Click “S end email to customer”. Your customer will be notified of the shipment and supplied with their tracking number.
Cancelled: You can mark your orders as "cancelled" which can be useful when you need to cancel a test order or when your customers have requested to cancel the order.

Email Spam

Add the following email addresses to your email address book to prevent our emails about your shop and website from going into your email spam folder:

info@rocketsparkmailer.com

How do customers find your shop

In the Manage Pages menu of your Dashboard, you can set a page in your main menu to go direct to your shop.

While building your shop you will also see the Shop Tab on the side of your page which will only appear on your live site once your shop goes live. If you wish to remove the shop tab/button see this guide for deleting the shop tab from the side of the page.

Flick the Switch to Your Online Shop

Have you added products to your online shop? Have you configured all the necessary shop settings? Then it’s time for your online shop to go live to the public.

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When you’re ready, set your shop to “ONLINE” simply by clicking on the toggle switch in your shop settings. Remember to make your website online too, here's a support guide to walk you through it: http://support.rocketspark.co.nz/customer/en/portal/articles/2047635-how-to-set-my-website-online-or-offline

If your online shop does not appear in "Preview" it is most likely that you have not set your shop online.

If you want to show someone your shop online but have not yet set up your payment gateway you can add details into the bank deposit payment gateway and your shop live.

Your Rocketspark online shop is now live!

Now the Real Work Begins…

Congratulations! Your online shop is now live, available to the public and ready to take orders. You’ve taken an important and necessary first step to become a successful online business. But don’t be fooled: this is when the real work begins.

Online retail is extremely competitive, so promoting your shop is important for giving your shop its best possible chance of success. Don’t assume just because you’ve set up your online shop that the orders will start coming in thick n’ fast. Fortunately, we’ve produced a number of helpful videos and blog posts to get you started and help your online business flourish:

Get your shop found in Google using search engine optimisation (SEO).
Spread the word about your shop by harnessing the power of social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc.).
Find out how to design your home page for great results.
Learn how to make the best possible first impression on website visitors.

We’ve also put a ton of really useful information on running an online shop in an easy-to-watch video series. Check out the rest of our blog; there are dozens of articles there to help you.

It’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work! Once you see those orders rolling in, you’ll be glad you did.

Any questions? Get in touch—we’re here to help.

Articles in this section

SECTION 1: ADD PRODUCTS TO YOUR SHOP

SECTION 2: CONFIGURE YOUR SHOP SETTINGS

SECTION 3: GO LIVE!

SECTION 1: ADD PRODUCTS TO YOUR SHOP