How to Set Up Your eCommerce Storefront
Welcome to your eCommerce application, purpose-built for firearm retailers and seamlessly embedded within your Point-of-Sale system. Your online store connects directly to your POS — inventory stays in sync automatically, orders flow into the same system you use at the register, and every firearm sale is handled in compliance with federal and state regulations. By the end of this guide, your store will be live, and you will be able to receive and fulfil your first online order.
Steps
- Plan how users navigate your website. In your POS, navigate to Online → Create Navigation → Navigation menus to get started. Your first step is to create the navigation links across the website header. The Navigation editor gives you full control over this menu structure. You do not need to finalize the menu at this time.
Screenshot: Menu Editor screen
- Customize Your Storefront Pages. Navigate to Online → Build & Manage Site → Pages & Content Blocks. At minimum, the following default pages are enabled during your website's implementation phase: Home, Shop / Product Listing, Product Detail, Cart & Checkout, Contact Us. Click the link corresponding to each page to edit the content displayed on the respective page directly within the builder. You can also create additional pages from here.
Screenshot: Pages Management screen
- Publish Products from Your POS Catalog. Go to Inventory → Manage Products → Inventory. You will see your full POS inventory listed here. To make a product available on your online store-front, switch the view to 'Storefront', select the required products and toggle Orchid eComm Visibility to ON, from the bulk actions.
Screenshot: Product catalog with eComm Visibility toggle
- Group Products. Products listed on your online storefront can be categorized into Product Groups. Go to Online → Define Products → Product Groups. Enter the Product Group name and define either to automatically select the Products based on pre-defined condition or to select each of the products to be included, manually.
Screenshot: Product Group Management screen
- Configure Shipping & Delivery. Your Orchid eCommerce Storefront supports three Shipping options. You can choose the integration with ShipStation or Integration with UPS or define your own shipping rates from the built-in options. You will need at least one active shipping method before your store can accept orders.
- Go to Sell → Invoices & Online Orders and toggle Show Online Orders only to ON when your first customer places an order.
- Click the Review link to review the order details, including items, shipping address, and payment confirmation.
- Click Actions → Ship Items from the top right to review and ship the items. Then return to the Review Invoice screen and Click Mark as Fulfilled corresponding to the items whose shipment is dispatched. The customer will receive an automated shipping confirmation email with their tracking information.
Screenshot: Order detail and fulfillment screen
Expected Result
- Your online store is live and you have fulfilled your first order
- Products sync automatically between your POS and eCommerce
- Orders flow into the same system you use at the register
- Every firearm sale is handled in compliance with federal and state regulations
Related Articles
- → ShipStation Integration Guide
- → UPS Integration Guide
- → Customize Built-in Shipping Method
- → Drop-shipping and Automated Fulfillments
- → State-Level Shipping Restriction for Firearm Compliance
- → Advanced Promotions & Discount Stacking
- → FFL Transfer Partner Management
- → Payment & Fraud Detection
💡 Tip
Your Orchid implementation team migrates your website domain, installs the required SSL certificates, setups your chosen website theme, features and the default set of webpages. You build the rest of the pages and handle the part where you decide what products are listed, how they are grouped and priced. Tax rates and payment processing are inherited automatically from your POS, no additional setup is required.
⚠️ Compliance
Every firearm sale through your eCommerce storefront is handled in compliance with federal and state regulations, automatically integrating with your existing POS compliance processes.