How to build a print-on-demand website with ShopBase

With ShopBase, you can easily set up a print-on-demand website that is user-friendly and fully optimized for online merchants (both beginners and experts) who want to expand their businesses.

In this article, you will find all handy information that you can fully take advantage of to set up your online stores from the very first day.

Please refer to this article on how to sign up or log in to ShopBase.

A. Store set up

Once your store is created, you can begin adding campaigns to sell on your store using our PrintHub app. Also, you need to set up your domain and connect at least one payment gateway to make sure that your customers can find your store online and make a payment for your campaigns.

Please refer to this article for an overview of PrintHub app.

Create POD campaigns to sell on your store. By using PrintHub app by ShopBase, you can:

Create new campaign.

Create personalized campaign by adding personalized elements (also known as Custom options) to your campaign.

Create personalized campaign with Custom Art by using our special Custom Art service that can help improving campaign's design quality and providing more unique design ideas with the support from our design team.

Connect domain to your store. On ShopBase, you can:

Buy and manage your domain directly in the Domain section in your ShopBase admin.

Add a custom domain bought from third-party domain providers to your ShopBase store.

Set up payment providers. On ShopBase, we provide a variety of payment gateways to your store, including our built-in payment gateway, ShopBase Payments. Your customers can select among different payment methods to easily pay for their orders. Please refer to this article on how to add payment gateways to your store.

Update Balance account: When using Print Hub to fulfill orders, you will need to set up Balance and top up funds to your Balance. This Balance would be used to pay for the product base cost and shipping fee (if any) for all orders placed by Print Hub. Please refer to this article to understand ShopBase Balance and how to payout/top-up.

B. Store optimization

After you have finished all the basic settings, it's time to start optimizing your store by adding tracking codes, choosing the most suitable theme, creating upsell and cross-sell offers.

Add tracking codes to your store.

From your ShopBase admin site, you can add page performance tracking codes like Google Analytics and codes to track the effectiveness of advertising via Facebook, Google, Klaviyo by following the instructions in this article.

You can also expand new sales channels helps you sell to new customers online, on mobile apps, through social networks, and in person with our built-in features. Please refer to this article for more information on Sales channels.

Select and customize a theme for your store. With our diverse collection of free themes, you can create a unique e-commerce store that highlights your campaigns and offers your customers a positive user experience. Please refer to this article on how to select a theme for your store.

Create upsell and cross-sell offers. With our built-in Boost Upsell app, you can easily create different upsell and cross-sell offers to encourage your customers to purchase more campaigns and increase your revenues. Please refer to this article for more details about Boost Upsell.

C. Start selling

After you have completed all of the preceding steps, you can select a subscription plan and start opening your store for customers to visit.

Remove store's password: To officially launch your store, remove the store's password by following the instruction in this article.

Select and activate subscription plan to keep your store up and working seamlessly. Please refer to these articles on how to update your billing information and select subscription plans.

D. Other setups and optimizations

The following steps are optional and can be completed later to help you further optimize your store.

Create campaign collections. A campaign collection is a group of similar campaigns created in your online store. Creating collections makes it easier for customers to find campaigns while shopping for similar campaigns. With ShopBase, you can:

Create a manual collection.

Create an automated collection.

Customize email notification. Email is a powerful communication way for online merchants. Before launching your ShopBase stores, there are several automated emails you’ll want to customize. This will help nurture your customer list and eventually drive sales. You can go to Settings > Notifications and edit your email templates, including order confirmation, abandoned checkout, shipping confirmation, review request and reminder emails to your customers, along with new order email notification for store's owner and staff accounts.

Set up standards and formats (time zone, weight unit, order ID format). You can choose the time zone, weight unit, order ID formats that are most appropriate for your business in Settings > General. These will be used to calculate campaign prices, shipping weights, and order times.

Set up store currency. Currency formatting is the display of price according to chosen currency unit on the store. By setting up the correct currency formatting, your customers can understand price of campaigns and services with no hassle, which further betters user experience of your online store. Please refer to this article on how to set up currency formatting for your store.

Place a test order. You can test how your store works by following the instructions in this article to place a test order. By placing a test order, you can make sure that your checkout process and other settings (such as shipping rates and email notification) all function accurately. Test order is free of charge.

Happy selling on ShopBase!