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Online Seller Setup

Get set up quickly by following our detailed written instructions, watching the step-by-step video, or attending one of our training sessions (or all three). Get started now!

Training Session Registration

Join us either in person or online each Wednesday evening through June, 2022, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. for live training. Ask specific questions regarding your setup or watch as we example setting up a seller and loading products. To make the most of this session, sellers should have prepared and at the ready all items described below under Get Set.

Training Registration
Dates
Location

Get Ready…

Setting up an online storefront is easy. It takes about the same amount of time as preparing for an in-person market, but doesn’t need to be manned, and it runs 24/7. Plus, the effort doesn’t pay off just once, but continues to provide reward as long as you maintain it. That said, to ensure a smooth and frustration-free setup, you must prepare as explained below. Setting up your online storefront should be done on a computer, not a mobile device.

And remember that we are here to help you. Have a question? Contact us at headhen@esvamarket.com.

Get Set…

Prepare the following items and have them handy so you can insert them into the correct spots when creating your storefront.

  1. Photos: Gather all your photos into a single folder on your computer. You will need:
    • Banner Image: a single background image for your store. It can be cropped once uploaded, but we suggest resizing it to 630 pixels wide beforehand since that will be its final width. Images that are too large can cause errors during crop.
    • Profile Picture: a square cropped photo of you. This image can be cropped after upload. Although your logo can be utilized as the profile picture, consider using a more personal photo to help create a personal connection with your shopper. Your logo can be incorporated into the banner image. Use the profile picture as a humanizing element.
    • Product Photos: We are visual, folks. You’ve worked hard on your product, so ensure your photos present it as it deserves to be. Be proud of your accomplishment and resist the temptation to say “good enough”. Shopify offers this instruction on How to Take High-Quality Product Photos With Your Smartphone. Upload a main image plus any supporting product images. We suggest you crop to square BEFORE upload to avoid distortion. Product photos cannot be cropped after upload.
  2. Biography: Important! This is where you give your store’s story. Stories sell. This is where shoppers connect with you and your store on a personal level. If you need help generating your story, we will be glad to lend a hand. Bios are typically four to six sentences, but can be longer. Here are some questions to get you started.
    • Where were you born? When did you move to the Shore? What brought you here?
    • How did you begin your business/art/enterprise? What do you like about it?
    • What do you like about the Shore? What about it makes you smile?
    • Why is your offering unique, satisfying, fulfilling?
    • How does your offering help others? How does it help residents of the Shore?
    • Do your products have an environmental aspect? Are they all natural, organic, or sourced from local materials/ingredients?

      Here is a fictitious example bio:

      Growing up, Arianna Newsome spent many hours after school picking blueberries alongside her siblings. For days the air in her mother’s kitchen blew warm and sticky as she simmered down their harvest, pouring the hot jam into pint Mason jars, and topping their lids with a colorful bow. Everyone in Pungoteague looked forward to their Christmas present from the Newsome’s. Arianna continues her family tradition using her mother’s original recipe using 100% natural ingredients sourced from local growers. Don’t settle for store-bought when you can have the homemade goodness of Arianna’s any time of the year.
  3. Terms and Conditions: At a minimum we suggest you address order cancellation terms.

    Example text:
    Order Cancellation: All sales are final and cannot be cancelled.
    Order Cancellation: All sales are final once shipped and cannot be cancelled.
  4. Shipping Policy: Explain your shipping and return terms.

    Example Text:
    Shipping damage must be reported immediately upon receipt. Returns will be accepted for damaged goods only. Returns must be pre-authorized.
  5. Refund Policy: Explain your refund policy.

    Example text:
    If you are not satisfied with your items for any reason, contact us for a full refund. We will repair or replace damaged items at our discretion.
  6. Shipping: Think through how you will ship your items, whether you will offer local pickup, or both. If shipping, will you use USPS, UPS, or multiple carriers? How do you want to price shipping? Based on a percentage of sale price? Per item? A combination of the two? Do you want to offer free shipping? If so, on what size orders? More on this later…
  7. Product Descriptions: Important! This is your selling text. Describe the product, but like your bio, also tell the product’s story. Feel free to repeat from your bio as some shoppers may not have read it. After you create your product, you will be able to enter both a short description and a long description.

    Example:
    Mildly sweet blueberry jam, 12 fluid oz. Made from 100% locally sourced ingredients, small batch crafted in our local kitchen, and ready to make your Saturday morning pancakes even more memorable. Sweetened mildly with honey from Busy Bee Farms, you can’t get more local than this. [Short description ends here]

    This hometown favorite is crafted by Arianna Newsome who spent many childhood hours after school picking blueberries alongside her siblings. For days the air in her mother’s kitchen blew hot and sticky as she simmered down their harvest, pouring the hot jam into pint Mason jars, and topping their lids with a colorful bow. Everyone in Pungoteague looked forward to their Christmas present from the Newsome’s. Arianna continues her family tradition using her mother’s original recipe using 100% natural ingredients sourced from local growers and. Don’t settle for store-bought when you can have the homemade goodness of Arianna’s any time of the year. [Long description ends here]
  8. Purchase Note: Anything you’d like for the customer to receive with their confirmation email. This can include special instructions, thank you’s, notices, contact information, or anything.

Go!

Create Account

Open the registration link sent to you in your vendor approval email.

Enter your name, business email address, phone, password, and remaining information. You can skip name of bank.

Shop Name: is what shoppers will see as the name of your online storefront. This is usually the same as your business name, but does not need to be.

Shop URL: is what will appear at the end of your ESVAmarket.com URL. For example, if my shop name is “Abby Art Gallery”, my shop URL will be auto filled to “abby-art-gallery”. Feel free to shorten or edit.

Company Name: official company name.

Name of Bank: not required here. Will be added later under payments.

Read and agree to the Terms & Conditions.

Click REGISTER.

Store Dashboard

After creating an account, you will land on your store dashboard.

From the menu on the left, select SETTINGS.

A new Settings area will appear, complete with separate tabs on the left. Go through each tab and complete the information in turn.

Store Tab

A few items will be prefilled from setting up your account. Complete others.

Banner Image & Profile Picture: select the images you prepared under the Get Set section above.

Store Categories: Select those pertinent to your store. Delete the “uncategorized” default. We can add more categories for you if needed.

Store Products Per Page: is how many products are displayed on your store’s page before a “next page” link. We suggest 9 or 12. Don’t do too many or the page may take too long to load. Products are typically displayed three across, so choose something divisible by 3.

Multiple Locations: if you maintain more than one physical location, check box and list all locations where shoppers can find you.

Location Name: input physical location name.

Street and Address Fields: list your physical store’s address where customers can find you, or leave blank if you don’t have one.

Email: We highly suggest you show an email address in your store so that shoppers can ask questions and reach you.

More Products: enable for shopper to be able to see more of your products when viewing a single product (recommended).

Map: IMPORTANT! The map is a great way to reinforce that you are a local business. For the map to work on your store page, you must also enter your street address here. As you enter the street address, click on the correct address that auto populates below it! Only by selecting your address in this manner will the map display on your storefront.

Terms and Conditions: paste the text you prepared under the Get Set section above.

Store Opening Time: leave unchecked to accept orders 24/7 (recommended). If you wish for your online store to only accept orders during certain hours of the day, check this box and complete appropriate fields.

Biography: paste the story you prepared under the Get Set section above.

Click UPDATE SETTINGS when done.

Payment Tab

In order for us to pay you, this area needs to be completed.

PayPal: not necessary. If you have an existing PayPal account and would like to receive payment that way, enter your PayPal email.

Bank Transfer: allows us to pay you by depositing funds into your bank account.

Your bank account name: the name on your bank account. Usually your personal name or the business name.

Bank account number (8 to 12 digits) and routing number (9 digits): are available from a check.

IBAN and Swift code: ignore if your bank is based in the U.S. If using a non-U.S. bank, enter this information, but additional fees may apply.

Click UPDATE SETTINGS when done.

Delivery Tab

Complete this tab only if you want to offer Store Pickup or Home Delivery which allows shoppers to schedule a delivery date/time. You can still offer Store Pickup or Home Delivery as a shipping option (next step), but it will not offer the scheduling options available with this tab.

Click UPDATE SETTINGS when done.

Shipping Tab

Select the “Click here to add Shipping Policies” button

Enter shipping and return policies.

Processing Time: Enter how long it will take you to prepare an order to be shipped.

Shipping Policy: paste the text you prepared under the Get Set section above.

Refund Policy: paste the text you prepared under the Get Set section above.

Click SAVE SETTINGS, then click BACK TO ZONE LIST.

Shipping Zone: leave as is (US Domestic). A shipping zone is a geographical area in which you ship. Customers are assigned to the appropriate shipping zone. The default shipping zone is US Domestic, so unless you are offering international shipping, 100% of your shoppers will be assigned to US Domestic.

Click the Zone Name (US Domestic) to enter shipping details.

Select States and Limit Zip/postcodes: we have found that with UPS or FedEx it costs approximately the same to ship from one town to another as it does across country. You can limit this shipping zone by only allowing shipping to certain states or postal codes, but for maximum flexibility we do not encourage this. By the time you pack and ship an item, it doesn’t really matter how far it has to go.

Select ADD SHIPPING METHOD

Shipping Method: how you will ship in each zone, such as Flat Rate, Local Pickup, or Free Shipping. Flat Rate should be renamed to a more specific descriptor such as UPS Ground, or USPS Standard. We suggest you keep it simple when starting out.

All shipping options you set up, for which the shopper is eligible, will be available to the shopper at checkout.

After you add each shipping method, click EDIT to enter further detail.

The Edit Shipping Method popup will appear.

Flat Rate

Don’t let the initial name deceive you. This is a highly flexible shipping method. With it, you can charge a simple flat cost, a flat cost per item, a percentage of the sale, or any combination of all. To make it easy, reference the sample formulas highlighted in blue to get started, changing the variables as you desire.

Example 1:
10.00 * [qty]
This means shipping will be charged at $10 for each item sold.

Example 2:
0.1 * [cost]
This means shipping will be 10% of the total cost

Example 3
[fee percent=’10’ min_fee=’20’ max_fee=”]
This is a special formula, charging 10% of total cost, with a minimum fee of $20, and no maximum fee.

Example 4
10.00 + (0.1 * [cost])
This is how you can combine formulas. This will charge $10.00 plus 10% of total cost.

  • Title: Change “Flat Rate” to be what your shoppers will see. Example: UPS Ground.
  • Cost: follow instructions to create shipping cost desired.
  • Description: not visible to customers. Good place to describe what you’ve set up for your own understanding.

Scroll down if you’d like to specify Shipping Class Cost (optional).

  • Shipping Class Cost: optional. This is an advanced means to create a “class” that allows you to group products and charge accordingly. For example, if selling both small and large items, this allows you to group small items and charge for them accordingly, plus group large items and charge for them accordingly. Example: You may charge 12% of the order for shipping small items, but 15% of the order for large ones.
  • Calculation Type: charge per shipping class, or per most expensive shipping class.

Local Pickup

To provide shoppers the option of picking up their product at your physical store.

Free Shipping

For shoppers to qualify for free shipping after their order reaches a certain size. If used, we suggest you edit the name to be “Free Shipping for orders over $____” to entice shoppers to purchase enough to qualify.

When complete, your shipping tab will look something like this:

Click SAVE CHANGES when complete.

Social Profile Tab

Optional. This is where you can add links to any social media sights for display in your storefront.

Store SEO Tab

Optional. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. This tab allows you to add certain elements to aid search engines in understanding your storefront.

Edit Account Tab

Here you can update name, email, and password.

Entering Products

Select Back To Dashboard to return to main page.

Then select Products to begin entering product information

Click ADD NEW to enter a new product.

Product Photos: select the images you prepared under the Get Set section above. While uploading, consider specifying the following for each photo (optional).

Alt Text: optional. A short description of your photo to help those with disabilities. Also helps for SEO purposes. Example: red raspberry jelly

Description: optional. A longer description of your photo. Also helps for SEO purposes. Example: A glass jar of red raspberry jelly with blue bow on kitchen table from Arianna’s Jam.

Product Name: self explanatory

Product Price: self explanatory

Category: choose an existing category that best describes your product. We can create new categories as needed.

Tags: choose from existing tags or enter your own. Here are a few popular ones:

ESVA Made: for products made on the ESVA

ESVA Branded: for locally branded products, but not necessarily made on the ESVA

Description: paste the text you prepared under the Get Set section above.

Product Type

  • Simple: the most common. For products where shoppers do not need to select any additional attributes such as size or color.
  • Variable: Allows the shopper to select attributes (size, color, etc.) and the vendor to specify different prices for those attributes. Other details can be specified using variable products as well, such as different product photos to display what the variations look like, inventory can be tracked separately by variation, and even different shipping classes assigned.

    Example: Arianna makes strawberry jam in a 12 oz. jar. This is best as a simple product since no variations are needed. But if Arianna began offering her strawberry jam also in a 20 oz. jar, instead of creating a new product Arianna could make this a variable product, allow the shopper choose a size, and charge accordingly.

    Don’t know whether to create multiple simple products or a single variable product? Think how your shopper is used to seeing these items listed and go from there.

Inventory: optional. If you want to maintain inventory on your store so you don’t oversell, set up here.

Shipping and Tax:

  • Size and weight: optional.
  • Shipping class: optional. Reference Shipping Class Cost above. If you wish to group similar products so that shipping is calculated as a “class”, select that class here. Sticking with our earlier example, if my standard “UPS Ground” shipping method was to charge 12% of an order for shipping my blueberry jam, but I also sold large handwoven baskets that were more expensive to ship, I could assign them to the “large items” shipping class and charge 15% by entering special cost calculations for that class under Settings > Shipping > Shipping Zone > Shipping Class.
  • Tax Class: most will be “taxable”.
  • Tax Class: keep as “standard”.

Linked Products: identify similar products in either Upsells or Cross Sells.

Attributes and Variation: see Product Type above. Create and enter product attributes here such as size, color, etc.

For Variable Products Only skip

Choose which attributes require a price difference, and check the “Use for variations” box. Then select “Create variations from all attributes”.

This will create separate variations for each attribute and enable you to charge differently for each, as well as a few other customizations. Afterwards, your screen will look something like this:

Next, assign the base price for all variations so you don’t have to enter it each time.

Once that is done, you can go into the variations where you want to charge more (XX large) and enter the appropriate price. For example, instead of $20 for a XX large shirt, it may be $25.

Notice you can customize several other attributes for all variations using this same method.

Notice that for each variation you can also specify a separate photo. That may be useful if you want to display your product differently when a variation is selected.

Other Options

Visibility: we suggest keeping Visible

Purchase Note: paste the text you prepared under the Get Set section above.

Click SAVE PRODUCT when done.

Repeat for other products. Notice that to create a new product you can easily duplicate an existing one and then edit the differences such as price or photo:

And don’t worry. We will review your storefront and products before making them live.

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