Only 4 Steps to Create Your Live Castiron Store

To start selling on Castiron, you need to complete four steps:

1. Customize Store
2. Connect to Stripe
3. Add Products
4. Update Fulfillment Methods

1. Customize Your Store

When you register for Castiron, you’ll be prompted to pick a store name, URL, select a store category, and provide your contact information. If you’d like to edit your store information, use the menu to navigate to Store > Website.

Choose your store name and enter your contact information. If you have a logo, upload it here to customize your store.

Navigate to the About tab of the store setup process and you'll be able to further customize your store. Choose or upload a cover image, add a profile picture, and any biographical or store details you'd like to include. If your store caters to any specific dietary needs, you can mark them here as well. 

2. Connect to Stripe

Using the menu on the left side of the screen, navigate to Settings > Payments> Payouts to connect your Stripe account. 

You will walk through the Stripe connection process after clicking Connect to Stripe. During the process, you'll be asked to set up the account as either an individual or a business and provide identification details (so that Stripe can verify your identity) and connect your bank account so that you can begin receiving payouts. Castiron can access your Stripe transaction details to assist you with your shop, but we do not have access to private information, such as bank account numbers, social security numbers, or credit card numbers. You can log into Stripe separately should you need to update any personal information at any point.  

Your Castiron Shop is  Now"Live"

**Please note that connecting to Stripe will make your shop "live" online. However, people will likely not discover your shop until you share it with them. But you can hide the content from website visitors until you are ready to "go live". To do this you have two options:

1. Make All Pages Inactive. Your webpage will be live, but no products or any other pages on your shop site will be visable to customers. 

To do this, from the Pages tab in your shop's admin, click on each page, set to Inactive, then Save. 

If you set all pages, including the Home page to inactive all that is shown to a website visitor is a box collecting customer emails addresses for future marketing. 

You can choose to leave only your "Home" page active. There will be no action buttons (like Shop or Request a Quote) for customers to click on. It will only be a shop landing page with a link at the bottom for people to sign up for future updates.  

Simple make all pages Active when you are ready to officially go live. Then share it with everyone you know!

The other option for your shop when you arent ready to start selling is:

2. Turn off Fulfillments. If you want your customers to be able to look at your products and other pages, but not buy anything yet, make all of your fulfillment options Inactive. This will keep your shop Live but customers will not be able to add products to a cart yet. We highly recommend pairing this option with an announcement banner so customers know when you plan to open!  you are ready to go live, simply make your Fulfillment options Active. 

See the article How to Put Your Shop in Vacation Mode for more specifics on how to turn shop pages and actions off and on.

3. Add Products

To add a product to your store, click Products in the left hand menu of the Admin site.

Click Add Product and populate the following details:

• Product Name*
• Description
• Photo
• Inventory
• Price*
• Allergen Info
• Dietary Info
• Status (Active = product will show up in your store, Inactive = will not show in your public store)
• Category 

*Required field

4. Update Your Fulfillment Methods

Navigate to Store > Fulfillment using the left hand menu in the Castiron Admin site. 

Add each method of fulfillment that is available to your customers. Choose from Pickup, Delivery or Shipping. Be sure to include descriptions around details, timing and accessibility. Add any additional pricing you'd like to include for each. If you have multiple options of the same fulfillment type (for example, Friday delivery and Saturday delivery), create a new fulfillment option for each. Your customers will select one at checkout.

Note: If you have not set up at least one fulfillment method, customers will not be able to purchase from your store.

See the article Everything to Know About Fulfillments for additional information 

Once these four steps are complete, congrats — you are ready to sell on Castiron! 

Article: Can I Place a Test Order to My Shop?