This article will go through some of the basic steps needed to create your online store.  


Log in as an administrator

Go to the login page in your admin panel. The login URL is always your domain, followed by admin and login (yourdomainname.com/admin/login). If you have not yet added a primary custom domain, your domain will be a CloudCart subdomain and will look like this - yourdomain.cloudcart.net/admin/login. 


After you have entered your login details, you will see the main information page of the admin panel, which displays detailed information with data about your orders, sales, customers, and products. The following information will be displayed: 


  • in the upper left corner, you will find the Customer Service Center. There is an indication of whether all systems are working in order, access to the Status Monitor, the Help Center and the ability to send a message to the Support department. 
  • in the upper right corner, you have statistics for new and abandoned orders, out-of-stock products and the total number of customers:
    • new orders - here are visible all orders that are not marked as completed. This means that they need to be monitored in order to take appropriate measures to be completed.
    • abandoned orders - sometimes customers who add something to their cart give up in the order process and do not complete it. Any order in which a potential customer provides his contact information but fails to complete it is considered an abandoned order in the CloudCart platform. 
    • out-of-stock products - here you can track your product range and which products need to be supplied because your customers will not be able to buy them in case they are out of stock.  
    • total customers - this is the total number of customers in the store.  
  • directly under the Customer Service Center in the News Feed are published current posts from our blog page. 
  • To the news feed's right, you can filter your sales for a specific time period. Through this section you find out how the sales in the store are going. The charts are interactive - this means that you can click on selected dates, values, and categories to get more detailed information.
    You can change the period for which information is provided selecting a range from the drop-down menu. This allows you to set a specific calendar period.

  • The Release Notes section displays all CloudCart software improvements in real-time. You have the option to suggest a new feature by pressing the red button.
  • The Store Performance section shows metrics related to your online store's performance - e.g. order income, average order value, etc. 

  • at the bottom right is a descending list of the best-selling products in your store. Having the opportunity to quickly review the best-selling products, you will be able to adequately plan your marketing strategies. Clicking View report will display details for products.  

Organize your product catalog 

The first thing you need to do is create and organize your product catalog. Start by creating categories to which you can later assign your products. From the menu bar, go to the Products > Categories section. You can create parent categories and subcategories.  


See how to create categories in your store here. When creating a category, be sure to define it. 

Adding Product Properties

The next step is to create properties for the main categories, as well as for the subcategories if any. The properties carry information about the product (eg material: wood, glass, etc.). They are assigned to a category instead of the products themselves. Unlike the Variants, the Category Property is not mandatory and they do not have to be selected by customers. They simply characterize the product and are visualized in the filter of the product catalog. Through the properties, customers will be able to more easily and accurately filter the products in your store.  


Find out more about how to add and manage product properties in your store here.

Adding Product Variants

By creating variants for your products, you enable the customer to make a choice in the detail page of the viewed product. Variants determine the specific product. When the product has variants, the customer is obligated to choose one of them. Example of variant- color: green, blue; size: S, M, L, XL, etc. The field of the variant can be different types - radio button, image sample, drop-down menu, color sample, 2D scheme, etc. 


Here you can read more about how to add product variants to your store.  

Adding Vendors

Adding vendors of the products in your store helps to better organize your product catalog. Information about the manufacturers of different products is important for customers when they make their choice of which products to buy. In addition, by adding manufacturers, your customers will be able to easily filter and find the products they want.


For more information, see our article about adding different vendors.


Once you've created the categories, category properties, variants, and added vendors, you can move on to filling out your product catalog.  

Adding a product

From the menu, Products section > Add Product you can add your products. A product can be assigned to a parent category and to a subcategory. /Parent category: Blouses; Subcategory: Men's T-shirts/ 


You can upload both physical and digital products. This article will give you more information on how to add products to your store. Here you can see how to upload 360-degree photos and videos in the detailed product page. 


Once you've added the product you can see how it looks like in the storefront by clicking on the button shown below in the photo.  

If you want to upload a larger number of products at once, and you already have all the necessary information gathered in the so-called CSV file, you can see how to easily import them into your store in the following article:

Importing products with a CSV file

Adding Product Options

Product options add additional features to your products that customers can choose from. Product options can be applied to a specific product, category, or manufacturer.  


The options your customer will be able to use are:

- to enter their own text to the product

- to upload a file that you will receive in the order

- to choose an option from a drop-down menu

- to choose an option from a radio button

- to choose as many options as he wishes


For example: You want to add an option to "Engrave text on a glass" and charge the customer extra for this service. The options can be mandatory or optional, depending on the setting you set. 


*Adding product options requires installing an application in your admin panel. Learn more about how to create and manage product options.  

Adding product bundles

Creating product bundles is an extremely useful option through which you can offer your customers a bundle of two or more products that they will be able to buy at a discount price. It is advisable to add an image that unites all the products so that the customer can get a clear idea of what the bundle contains and what he would buy. Bundles can be created with a certain period of activity in which they can be purchased. Example of a product bundle: Summer set - contains a hat, dress, beach bag.


See more about product bundles in the following articles: Adding Product Bundles and How to visualize Bundles? 

Inventory section

In the Inventory section, you can track inventory in order to avoid selling products that have run out of stock and adjust inventory levels for products. You can easily make bulk changes and maintain products whose stocks are quickly depleted with a single click on the Inventory page. Find out more about inventory tracking and management here.  

Adding Smart Collections

Collections are the easiest way to combine different types of products into one common group. You can use them to create promotions. So as not to enter the detailed page of each product and change its characteristics, you have the opportunity to group different products in separate collections according to various criteria: by category, by tags, by discount / promotion, vendor, price, etc. 


For detailed information about the collections, see the following article - Adding Product Smart Collections.

Product Statuses

Each product in your CloudCart store has a certain status - in stock / out of stock / coming soon, etc. Product statuses are extremely useful, as they give consumers the necessary information about the products you offer in your store and thus encourage them to perform a certain action. You can set different statuses for each product according to its quantity or for all products globally. Statuses determine whether a product can be purchased by the customer or, if it is out of stock, make an inquiry to you.


Find out more about Product Statuses here.