Launch an online store with SGEN

From a blank site to your first live sale — payments, shipping, tax, products, and a verified test order

Your site is built. Your content is live. Now you want to sell something.

This tutorial walks the complete launch sequence — eight steps that take you from zero to a store that accepts real payments, shows accurate shipping options at checkout, applies the right tax rate, has a published product visible to shoppers, and has a test order sitting in your Orders list before you share the URL with anyone.

Follow the steps in order. Skipping ahead past payments commonly results in a storefront that accepts Add to Cart but cannot complete checkout — a frustrating experience for your first customers and a support ticket you want to avoid.

Time to complete: approximately 60-90 minutes for a fresh store, assuming your Stripe credentials are ready.

Overview

What this tutorial covers:

1. Enable your store and set the basics
2. Connect your payment gateway
3. Set shipping methods
4. Configure taxes
5. Add your first product
6. Create a category
7. Create a launch coupon (optional)
8. Preview, test, and go live

What this tutorial is not:

• A settings reference — each linked doc goes field by field.
• A bulk-import guide — this walks one product to verify the full checkout flow.
• A multi-currency guide — SGEN uses a single currency set in your store configuration.

Prerequisites

Before you open any configuration screen, have the following ready:

• Stripe credentials: your Publishable Key and Secret Key (use test keys first, live keys at go-live). Find them in your Stripe dashboard under Developers → API Keys.
• Ship-from address: the city, state, and country you ship from.
• Weight unit: pounds or kilograms — match what your shipping carrier expects.
• Tax rate: a global percentage, or a per-state table if you sell across tax regions. Ask your accountant for the right number before opening the Taxes screen.
• One product image: at least one photo for the product you will add in Step 5. SGEN accepts JPG, PNG, and WebP.

Your account role must be Administrator or Site Owner. If Store Management is absent from the admin sidebar, ask your site's super-admin to confirm your role before proceeding.

Where to go

Every ecommerce configuration screen lives under Store Management in the SGEN admin sidebar.

Steps

Step 1 — Enable your store and set the basics

Open Store Management → Store Configuration → General.

Set the following fields, then click Save Changes:

• Store Status: set to Closed for now. You will flip this to Online after the test order in Step 8.
• Ship-From Country / State: the country and state your packages ship from. Match this to where your inventory lives — it feeds the shipping and tax calculations at checkout.
• Weight Unit: match your carrier. If your carrier quotes rates in pounds, pick lb. If in kilograms, pick kg.
• Dimension Unit: inches or centimetres — match your packaging tape measure.
• Customer login for checkout: set to Guest checkout allowed unless your store is members-only.

All five cards on this panel save together on one click. There is no per-card save and no draft state. Changes are live on the next shopper page load.

Checkpoint: the green success banner reads "Ecommerce configuration has been successfully updated!" after you click Save Changes.

Step 2 — Connect your payment gateway

Open Store Management → Store Configuration → Payment.

This is the most important step. Without a connected, enabled gateway, no order can complete.

Enable online payments: Toggle Enable Online Payments on. This master switch must be active before any individual gateway can process a charge.

Configure Stripe:

1. Toggle Enable Stripe on.
2. Leave Mode set to Test — you will switch to Live after a successful test order in Step 8.
3. Paste your Test Publishable Key (starts with pk_test_).
4. Paste your Test Secret Key (starts with sk_test_).
5. Copy the read-only Webhook URL shown on screen. Open your Stripe dashboard → Developers → Webhooks → Add destination, paste the URL, and subscribe to at minimum payment_intent.succeeded. Stripe gives you a signing secret — paste it into Webhook Secret (test) and save.

PayPal (optional): toggle Enable PayPal on and paste your Sandbox Client ID and Secret if you want PayPal alongside Stripe. You can add PayPal after launch — it does not block going live.

Click Save Settings.

Checkpoint: the green success banner appears. A test order in Step 8 confirms the full payment flow end to end.

Step 3 — Set shipping methods

Open Store Management → Store Configuration → Shipping.

A checkout with no active shipping method cannot complete for physical products. Enable at least one method before you add products.

The four available shipping methods:

Recommended starting point for most stores: enable the master Shipping System switch, enable Flat Rate with an amount that covers your average postage cost, and enable Free Shipping with a minimum set 10-20% above your average order value. That combination — a flat fee below the threshold, free above it — gives customers a clear reason to add one more item to their cart.

You can enable multiple methods simultaneously. Customers pick their preferred option at checkout.

Click Save Shipping Settings.

Checkpoint: open your site in a private window, add any product to the cart, and proceed to checkout. At least one shipping option should appear. If none appear, return here and confirm the master switch is on and at least one method below it is toggled on.

Step 4 — Configure taxes

Open Store Management → Store Configuration → Taxes.

Work with your accountant before configuring taxes. The right setup depends on your jurisdiction, your business structure, and where you have tax obligations. This tutorial shows where to enter the numbers your accountant gives you — it does not give tax advice.

Set the following fields:

• Enable Taxes: toggle on to add a tax line to orders. If your store has no tax obligation, leave this off.
• Inclusive Pricing: leave off for US stores (tax is added at checkout). Toggle on for UK and EU stores that display VAT-inclusive prices on product pages.
• Tax Label: the short name shown on every receipt — "Sales Tax" for US, "VAT" for UK/EU, "GST" for Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
• Global Tax Rate: enter your rate as a plain percentage — for example 8.25 for 8.25%. Enter 0 if your jurisdiction has no tax.
• Shipping Taxable: on or off depending on your jurisdiction's rules for taxing shipping costs. Ask your accountant.
• Location-Based Tax (optional): if you sell across regions with different rates, enable this section and add per-country / per-state rows that override the global rate for matching shopper addresses.

Click Save Tax Settings.

Checkpoint: open your store in a private window, add a product, and proceed to checkout. The order summary should show a tax line with your label and rate — or no tax line if you left the master switch off.

Step 5 — Add your first product

How SGEN ecommerce uses Custom Objects. Products in SGEN are records in a structured catalog built on Custom Objects — not loose posts or pages. That means each product record is clean, queryable, and reusable: the same record drives your listing page, detail page, shipping calculation, and order confirmation. You define the product type once; every product you add shares the same field schema and does not repeat the setup work.

Open Store Management → Products → Add New.

Creating one product before launch lets you run a complete end-to-end test checkout from browse to payment confirmation.

Fill in the following on the General tab:

• Product Name: a clear, descriptive name — this appears on the public product page, your cart, and every order receipt.
• Type: leave on Simple (one SKU, one price, no size or color picker).
• Regular price: enter a whole-dollar amount. Decimal prices (e.g. $29.99) currently round to the nearest dollar at save — use whole-dollar prices for launch.
• Short Description: one or two sentences for the product card on the archive.
• Description: a full paragraph for the product detail page.

On the Inventory tab:

• SKU: your internal product code. Optional, but recommended — a consistent prefix (e.g. YS-PROD-001) makes catalog management and CSV exports much easier.
• Manage Stock: toggle on; enter your opening stock quantity; set Sold Out Handling to Show as Out of Stock.

On the Shipping tab (physical products only):

• Weight: the product's weight in the unit you set in Step 1 (lb or kg). This feeds weight-based shipping calculations at checkout.

Upload your product photo via the Thumbnail card in the sidebar (JPG or WebP, minimum 800×800 px for sharp rendering on high-resolution screens).

On the SEO tab:

• Page Title: product name plus your store name, under 60 characters.
• Meta Description: a one-sentence summary under 160 characters — this is what search engines show below your page title in results.

Set Status to Draft — you will publish this product after the test order in Step 8.

Click Create Product.

Checkpoint: go to Store Management → Products. Your new product appears in the list with a Draft status badge.

Step 6 — Create a category

Open Store Management → Products → Categories.

Categories group your products into browsable archive pages. A product assigned to "Apparel" shows up at /product_category/apparel.

Fill in:

• Name: a short, clear label (e.g. "Apparel", "Digital Downloads", "Accessories").
• Slug: auto-filled from the name; edit if you want a shorter URL path.
• Description (optional): one sentence — shown on the category archive page header.

Click Add New Category.

Then go back to your product (Store Management → Products → edit the product you created in Step 5), pick your new category from the Categories panel in the sidebar, and click Update Product.

Checkpoint: your category now shows a product count of 1 in the Categories list.

Step 7 — Create a launch coupon (optional)

Open Store Management → Coupons → Add New.

A launch coupon gives your first customers a discount and lets you verify coupon redemption as part of the test order. Skip this step if you are not running a launch promotion.

Fill in:

• Coupon Code: all-caps, memorable (e.g. WELCOME10). This is what customers type at checkout.
• Discount Type: Fixed cart discount (a set dollar amount off) or Percentage discount.
• Coupon Amount: the discount value — 10 for $10 off, or 15 for 15% off if you chose Percentage.
• Usage limit per coupon: total redemptions before the code stops working (e.g. 100).
• Usage limit per user: 1 limits each customer to one use of this code.
• Status: set to Draft — flip to Publish after the test order in Step 8.

Click Create a Coupon.

Note: the search bar on the Coupons list page navigates to an error in the current version. Use the status filter tabs (All / Published / Draft / Trash) to find coupons. Coupon redemption at checkout is not affected by this.

Checkpoint: your coupon appears in the Coupons list with a Draft badge.

Step 8 — Preview, run a test order, and go live

Before sharing your store URL, walk the complete checkout from product page to order confirmation in a private browsing window.

8a — Visit your product page

Your product is in Draft status, so it does not appear on /products yet. You can still access it directly by URL to run the test: yoursite.com/product/.

8b — Run the test checkout

1. Open your product page directly: yoursite.com/product/
2. Add the product to cart.
3. Proceed to checkout. Confirm shipping options appear. If none appear, return to Step 3.
4. Confirm the tax line shows your configured rate — or $0.00 if your rate is zero.
5. If you created a coupon in Step 7, enter the coupon code. The cart subtotal should drop by your discount amount.
6. Complete the order using the Stripe test card: 4242 4242 4242 4242, any future expiry, any CVC, any 5-digit ZIP. You should land on an order confirmation page.
7. In the SGEN admin, open Store Management → Orders. Your test order should appear in the list.

If the order stays in Pending after a successful payment: the Stripe webhook is not yet delivering to SGEN. Return to Step 2, confirm the read-only Webhook URL from the Payment panel is registered in your Stripe dashboard under Developers → Webhooks, and confirm the signing secret is pasted into Webhook Secret (test). You can manually update order status from the order detail view while you resolve this.

8c — Go live

Once the test order is confirmed in your Orders list:

1. Payment Gateways → set Stripe Mode to Live, paste your Live Publishable Key (pk_live_...) and Live Secret Key (sk_live_...). Add a matching live webhook in your Stripe dashboard with the same Webhook URL, and paste the live signing secret into Webhook Secret (live). Click Save Settings.
2. Store Configuration → General → set Store Status to Online. Click Save Changes.
3. Edit your product → set Status to Publish. Click Update Product.
4. If you created a coupon → edit it → set Status to Publish. Click Save.

Your store is live.

Verification — what success looks like

Run through this checklist before sharing your store URL publicly:

• [ ] yoursite.com/products shows your published product, not an error or coming-soon screen
• [ ] Adding the product to cart and proceeding to checkout shows at least one shipping option
• [ ] The checkout order summary shows a tax line with your label (or $0.00 for zero-rate jurisdictions)
• [ ] If you created a coupon: entering the code at checkout reduces the cart total correctly
• [ ] Completing a test order with Stripe test card 4242 4242 4242 4242 produces an order in the admin Orders list
• [ ] After switching Stripe to Live mode: completing a real-card purchase produces a charge in your Stripe dashboard

Next steps

Once your store is live:

• Add more products — Store Management → Products → Add New. Each product follows the same flow you used in Step 5.
• Set up downloadable products — for PDFs, files, or other digital goods, tick Virtual on the product form. Virtual products skip shipping calculations at checkout entirely.
• Manage orders — Store Management → Orders shows every order with live status counts. Filter by status, bulk-mark as Shipped or Completed, and export to CSV for fulfilment or accounting.
• Create more coupons — seasonal codes, VIP-only discounts, and partner referral offers each get their own code under Store Management → Coupons.
• Add PayPal — if your customers ask for PayPal as a payment option, return to the Payment Gateways panel and enable it alongside Stripe. You do not need to disable Stripe to add PayPal.

FAQ

My store shows "Closed" even after I set it to Online. Hard-refresh your browser (Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows, Cmd+Shift+R on Mac). If the status still shows Closed, open Store Management → Store Configuration → General, confirm the Store Status dropdown reads Online, and save again.

No shipping options appear at checkout. Confirm the Shipping System master switch is on under Store Management → Store Configuration → Shipping, and that at least one method below it has its switch on. Save the panel and reload the checkout.

The tax line is missing from my checkout. Confirm the Enable Taxes master switch is on under Store Management → Store Configuration → Taxes. Without it, no tax line appears regardless of any rate entered.

My product price saved as a different number than I entered. SGEN currently rounds product prices to the nearest whole dollar at save. Enter whole-dollar amounts for all products at launch — for example 30 rather than 29.99.

The Stripe payment went through but my order is still Pending. Your Stripe webhook is not delivering payment confirmation to SGEN. Open your Stripe dashboard → Developers → Webhooks, confirm the endpoint URL matches the read-only Webhook URL shown in your Payment Gateways panel, and confirm the signing secret in Webhook Secret (live) matches what Stripe shows for that endpoint. You can manually advance order status from the order detail view in the meantime.

The coupon code worked at checkout, but the search bar on the Coupons admin page isn't working. The search bar on the Coupons list page navigates to an error in the current version. Use the status filter tabs (All / Published / Draft / Trash) to locate coupons. Coupon redemption at checkout works correctly.

The checkout field editor is not available. The panel for customizing which billing and shipping fields appear at checkout is not available in the current version. Shoppers see the standard billing and shipping fields and can complete purchases normally. Contact SGEN support if a required field is absent from your checkout.

The currency symbol is always on the left even though I set it to Right. The Purchase Flow setting saves correctly, but the public storefront currently renders the currency symbol on the left regardless of this setting. Leave the setting on Left for launch and watch the SGEN changelog for the fix.

Launch readiness checklist

Work through this before sharing your store URL.

Store setup

• [ ] Store Status is Online — Store Management → Store Configuration → General
• [ ] Ship-From Country and State are set correctly
• [ ] Weight and Dimension units match your shipping carrier

Payments

• [ ] Stripe is enabled with Live mode selected
• [ ] Live Publishable and Secret keys are pasted
• [ ] Live Stripe webhook is registered in your Stripe dashboard with the Webhook URL from the Payment panel
• [ ] Live Webhook Secret is pasted into Webhook Secret (live)
• [ ] Test checkout completed with card 4242 4242 4242 4242 before switching to Live

Shipping

• [ ] Shipping System master switch is on
• [ ] At least one shipping method is enabled with a rate set
• [ ] Shipping options verified at the live checkout

Taxes

• [ ] Tax settings match your accountant's guidance
• [ ] Tax line verified on the public checkout (or confirmed zero-rate for your jurisdiction)

Catalog

• [ ] At least one product is in Publish status
• [ ] Every published product has a product image attached
• [ ] Every published product has a meta title and meta description on the SEO tab
• [ ] All published product prices are whole-dollar amounts

Known platform limitations — verify before launch

• [ ] Decimal prices round to whole dollar — confirm all published prices are whole amounts
• [ ] Checkout field editor is not available — confirm the default billing and shipping fields are acceptable
• [ ] Currency symbol always displays on the left regardless of the Purchase Flow setting
• [ ] Coupon admin search navigates to an error — use status filter tabs to manage coupons (redemption at checkout works)