So, you've created an online store at www.x-cart.com and need to know what to do next. Follow the steps below, and you can quickly start selling within a day!

The system should automatically sign you in to the X-Cart Admin area right after creating your store. So the very first page you will see will be a "Welcome to X-Cart!" page:

This page offers you to use the X-Cart Onboarding Wizard for the store set-up.

However, if you ever need to sign in, use the Admin area URL and your original login and password from the welcome email, which you should have got after the trial creation. The Admin area login page will look as follows:

X-Cart 5.5.x:

X-Cart 5.4.x:

Here you will need to enter your email and password to log in to the Admin area to configure the store and manage your products and orders. Inside the Admin area, you can also get customer support via chat.

Once you are in your X-Cart Admin area, it is time to configure it. Before you stock your store with products, you need to enter some business information (company name, address, contact emails) about yourself and your store.

Use the Store Profile page to enter this information.

X-Cart 5.5.x:

See Store > Store Profile

X-Cart 5.4.x:

See Store setup > Store profile

Also, you need to decide on some basic standards for your product listings and storefront options representation (currency, language, legal information, etc.).

Entering all of this information is critical for both you and your customers. For example, your name and email will automatically display in customer email notifications. Setting up a timezone allows you to receive orders correctly if you offer in-store pickup. You will need to give your customers access to your policies for refunds, privacy, and service terms before buying a product.

Currency and country standards setup can be done on the Localization page in the Admin area.

X-Cart 5.5.x:

See Store > Localization

X-Cart 5.4.x:

See Store setup > Localization

You can organize company legal pages (return policy, customer care policy, etc.) using a special section of your store Admin area.

X-Cart 5.5.x:

See Design > Menus & Pages, Content Pages tab

X-Cart 5.4.x:

See Content > Pages

An essential part of your online store setup process will be deciding what your store should look like.

X-Cart comes with a default skin/theme with many elements that you can personalize: header image, logo image, page layout, etc. With so many possible design variations, you can create a personalized and unique store. In addition, the default skin/theme is responsive, making your store look good on any screen size. You can also check for alternative design templates in the X-Cart App Store.

The store layout can be adjusted using the Theme Tweaker (X-Cart 5.4.x) / Storefront Builder (X-Cart 5.5.x) tools in your store Admin Area.

X-Cart 5.5.x:

See Design > Themes

X-Cart 5.4.x:

See Look & Feel > Layout

Store logo and favicon can be changed on the Logo & Favicon page of the Look & Feel section of your store Admin Area:

X-Cart 5.5.x:

See Design > Logo & icons

X-Cart 5.4.x:

See Look & Feel > Logo & Favicon

Use the store's general settings to specify the rules for product info representation and expected customer behavior in the storefront.

X-Cart 5.5.x:

See Store > Cart & Checkout

X-Cart 5.4.x:

See Store setup > Cart & checkout

General settings also allow choosing the preferred checkout type for your store, configuring customer profile fields, and setting a default customer address.

Each X-Cart store comes with a set of demo products for testing purposes. You can delete the demo products and populate the store with products when all tests are done.

To delete demo products from your store, use the Remove Data page in the System Tools section of your store Admin area:

X-Cart 5.5.x:

See System > Remove Data

X-Cart 5.4.x:

See System tools > Remove data

When you are ready, add products to sell. Depending on how many products you plan to offer, adding and organizing your product listings can be the most time-consuming step of setting up your X-Cart store. So be sure to give yourself plenty of time to add your products and organize them.

X-Cart allows selling physical or digital products, services, and anything in between.

You can add products to your store using the Catalog > Products section in your store Admin area.

X-Cart 5.5.x:

X-Cart 5.4.x:

If you don't want to add products one by one, use the import tool in your store Admin area.

X-Cart 5.5.x:

See Catalog > Import & Export

X-Cart 5.4.x:

See Catalog > Import

To add structure to your product catalog, organize your products into categories using the Catalog > Categories section.

X-Cart 5.5.x:

X-Cart 5.4.x:

X-Cart supports both online and offline payment methods and allows configuring several payments at once to give your customers more options.

Set up at least one payment method to collect sales revenue. Use the Payment Methods page in your store Admin area for the purpose.

X-Cart 5.5.x:

See Store > Payment Methods

X-Cart 5.4.x:

See Store setup > Payment methods

It is also essential to configure taxes correctly before you start selling.

X-Cart 5.5.x:

See Store > Taxes

X-Cart 5.4.x:

See Store setup > Taxes

Taxes setup will also require the related zones to be configured correctly. This involves configuring countries, states and zones.

X-Cart 5.5.x:

See Store > Localization; Countries, States and Zones tabs

X-Cart 5.4.x:

See Store setup > Countries, states and zones

If you sell physical products that require shipping, you must decide how to distribute your products to your customers. X-Cart supports offline and online shipping methods that you can choose from and combine. You can access the shipping-related settings by selecting Store Setup -> Shipping in your store's Admin menu:

X-Cart 5.5.x:

See Store > Shipping

X-Cart 5.4.x:

See Store setup > Shipping

More information on the shipping setup in X-Cart can be found in the Shipping Setup.