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Step 1 Sign up for Volusion Ecommerce
1. Choose the Volusion Solution that meets your needs. All monthly solutions come with all the features
, free upgrades, free technical support, and premium Rackspace hosting. If you don’t already have a domain name, then you can order one during checkout.
2. Sign up for an SSL certificate. Learn More
Once your order is placed, then Volusion will process it and send you a confirmation email with login information and passwords usually within 24 hours.
Step 2 Set up your merchant account/gateway
Sign up for the merchant account of your choice. We recommend choosing a merchant account that uses a major gateway like Authorize.net, so that you will be able to take full advantage of the all the features available: authorize, capture, credit, and void directly from the Volusion Order Screen. In addition if you choose Authorize.net you can also choose to accept e-checks. (Click here for more information or to sign up)
After you’ve been approved for a merchant account, then you’ll enter in your login and password within the “View/Edit QuickSetup Page” section of the admin.
Select which payment options you want to accept.
Learn more
Step 3 Create Categories
The first part of setting up your store is adding Categories to place your products in.
To add a new category: click on the link ‘Manage Categories / Sub-Categories’ under the CATEGORIES / NAV MENU heading in the right column of the admin area. From the Manage Categories page click the blue ADD button on the top menu bar. A page will load with the form used to add a new category. There are only three fields required to add a new category. Each one is labeled with bold text to the right of the field. Parent ID
designates where the category actually resides. If you are trying to create a main category that is displayed on the Navigation Menu then you would select ‘[0] MAIN CATEGORY’ from the dropdown menu. If you were trying to create a sub-category, then you would select the category you wanted it to be under from the dropdown. Category Name determines what is actually displayed in the link for the category. Category Visible
determines which navigation menu the category is actually displayed in.
Learn more.
Step 4 Load Products
After you have created the categories for your store you can begin adding products. To add a product: click on the ‘View All Products’ link under the PRODUCTS heading at the top of the left column in the admin area. From the products page then click on the blue ADD button in the top menu bar. The product page has several fields that allow you to customize the information used for items in your store but only three are actually required. Again these required fields are labeled with bold text. The product code field is used to for the identification code for the product. This can be a number designated by a manufacturer or vendor or something that you create on your own. The Product Price is used for the actual price displayed on the product page and how much the customer is charged. The Product Name field allows you to specify the name the product is listed under. Even though it is not required it is normally a good idea to fill out Product Category(s) so the products will be listed when the customer selects a category. In this field you would enter the id number for the category you want to have the product listed under. The id numbers for each category can be found in the ‘Manage Categories / Sub-categories’ section.
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Step 5 Importing
If you have hundreds of products, then adding them each manually through the admin area can be quite time consuming. An easier way to add several products is through Volsuion’s import feature. To import products click on the link ‘Import / Export Data’ under the UPDATES / MAINTENANCE heading in the right column of the admin area. From there you will be given the option to do either a data import or a data export. We highly recommend doing a data export before importing to get the correct format for the store database. Also when doing the export we recommend not including any of the fields listed under virtual columns since they can cause issues with the import. Once you have a file with all of your product information in CSV (comma separated value) format you can click on the link for ‘Data Import’. From the import screen you would select Products from the Table dropdown and specify the file you want to use in the File Name field. For Overwrite Existing Data you should set it to replace any existing data with new data unless you want to completely remove all of the products you currently have in your store. Once you have entered all of the required information you can click on the Upload my files button to transfer the data into your store. If you are using a demo and would like to use the import feature, then please ask us to open the import feature.
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Step 6 Customizing Your Store
Volusion’s software is completely customizable and gives you full ftp access to graphics. You can choose to use one of our free templates, create your own design, have Volusion design a custom site for you, or integrate Volusion software into an existing website. In addition you have access within the admin section to change colors site wide on a real time basis.
Learn more.
Step 7 Shipping, Tax & Email Accounts
Shipping
Volusion software comes loaded with real time shipping rates and advanced options like drop shipping automation. You will want to select the carrier(s) of your choice within in the View All Shipping Methods section.
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Tax
Click on Tax Collection/Who Pays. Generally in the United States you only charge tax on an order if your warehouse is in the same state as the customer's ShipTo address, but you will need to check with your local taxing authority to be sure. The default setting assumes you wish to collect tax for California residents only, at 8.35%. You may modify/add states as you wish.
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Setting Up Email Accounts
1. Go to cp2.volusion.com.
2. Login to the control panel. Then click on domains, then click on your domain.
3. Then click on Email Accounts (POP3).
4. Click on the “Add New” button.
5. In the “Email Address:” field, add the email name you wish to use.
6. Enter and then confirm your password.
7. Click on the “Save” button.
Click here to learn more.
Step 8 SEO,PPC & Built in Marketing Tools
SEO (Search engine optimization)
You’ll be hearing a lot about this one. It is really important in making your online business successful and that is why we have built in some of the absolute best SEO features of any software on the market. The software automatically creates dynamic SEO friendly pages, dynamic site maps, has completely customizable Meta tag fields and plenty of spots for keywords.
Learn more
PPC (Pay per click advertising)
As part of a balanced marketing plan you will also need run online advertising. We recommend using the 2 largest online advertising services.
http://www.google.com/ads/
http://www.overture.com
Built in Marketing Tools
Volusion has a lot of great built in marketing tools such as: affiliate programs, email marketing, ability to send out coupons, use gift certificates, ability to set customer discount levels, email a friend, etc.
Learn more
Step 9 Place & Process Orders
Placing Orders
There are several options available for placing orders other than just from the storefront. You will be able to place phone orders from one screen or set up a point of sale system that works with a credit card swipe/ wand and printer within a physical store location.
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Processing Orders
Each time an order is placed, you and the customer will receive a notification via e-mail at the address you specified. Next you will click "Review / Process Orders" from the home page of the admin area. From here you will follow a 5-step process:
1 Lock Order
2 Collect Payments
3 Print Invoice / Packing Slips
4 Ship Items / Add Tracking Numbers
5 Complete Order / Send Emails
Learn more
Step 10 Analytics & Reporting
The Volusion Ecommerce Software has several features available for tracking the statistics of your site including: Top Customers, Top Affiliates, Total Sales, Total Tax, Most Visited Categories, Most Visited Products, Top Selling Products, etc. You will also have access to your website statistics (page views, hits, referrers, etc.), ROI tracking for PPC ad campaigns and the ability to add 3rd party statistics. In addition you are always able to export any financial data, down to even the most minute order details.
Learn more
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