Getting your shop ready

1. 1Step 1: On the Let’s open your shop page, type your Shop name.
2. 2Step 2: Choose your Shop address: letters, numbers and hyphens. It’s checked as you type, and says when it’s free. Buyers find your shop at that address, on Handsold.
3. 3Step 3: Pick a template. There are 4, each shown on a demo shop. You can try the others and switch whenever you like.
4. 4Step 4: If you sell on Etsy too, add your Etsy shop name under Also sell on Etsy?. Nothing changes on Etsy, and it lets you bring your listings across later.
5. 5Step 5: Press Next: your account, add Your name, Email and a Password of at least 8 characters, then press Open my shop.

If you already have an account, you skip the second part: press Open my shop straight away. No card is needed to open a shop.

While Handsold is opening to makers a few at a time, the page may ask for your email instead, and the team invites you when it’s your turn.

Your shop doesn’t start empty. It comes with 10 pages, already published and written to be true for most small UK shops: About us, FAQs, Delivery, Returns & refunds, Instant downloads, Contact, Accessibility, Terms of sale, Privacy policy and Cancel an order. Read them through in Pages and change anything that isn’t right for you.

It also has two delivery zones, United Kingdom and Rest of the world, each with one price, and order numbers that start with your shop’s initials: Hollow Oak Ceramics’ orders start HOC. Check the prices on the getting-started list or in Delivery.

The list sits at the top of your dashboard. The next step is open and waiting; press any step to open it instead. Most steps tick themselves when the job is done, wherever you did it: add a logo in Settings and the logo step ticks too.

Until your shop is ready, every page shows a small Getting ready card in the menu, with how many steps are done and the next one. Press it to go back to the list.

The list is for the shop’s owner and admins. Someone with the staff role doesn’t see it.

Drop your logo into the box, or tap it to choose a file. A PNG with a see-through background looks best. We pick out the colours in it, and Your shop’s colour offers them: your buttons, links and badges use the one you choose, or keep your template’s own.

The preview beside it is a rough idea of the top of your shop. Press Save my logo to use it. No logo yet? Press I don’t have a logo yet and your shop shows its name instead. More colour choices are in Logo and colours.

Add photos (the first is the main one), then What’s it called? and Price. Under What is it?, choose Something I post or A download.

• Something you post: say How many do you have? and it sells out by itself when they’re gone. Or switch on I make each one to order, and add Working days to make one if it takes longer than usual.
• A download: it’s saved as a draft and the full product editor opens, so you can add the file people download before it goes on sale.

Press Put it in my shop, or Save as a draft to finish it later. Afterwards, Edit everything opens the full editor, for sizes, colours or personalisation. Four to six products make a good start.

If you gave your Etsy shop name when you opened your shop, the step offers Bring your Etsy listings across first. Moving from Etsy explains how.

The step shows all 4 templates (Den, Atelier, Market and Gallery) as real shops. Press Keep on yours, or Use on another (each button has the template’s name), and your shop changes straight away. You can switch again whenever you like.

If you have unpublished changes in the design editor, a new template goes into those instead, and buyers see it once you publish. Templates says more about each one.

Under Posting in United Kingdom, set the Price (0 for free postage), Free over if you’d like free delivery once a basket reaches an amount, and how many working days the post Takes (working days).

Switch on I post to other countries too for one price for everywhere else. Then choose How soon do you post orders? and the time Orders placed after count as the next day. What a buyer would see today shows the dates your buyers will be given.

If you’ve already changed your zones in Delivery, the step shows what you have instead, with These look right. Delivery prices covers zones country by country.

Choose How do you trade?: Sole trader, Partnership and Limited company. Then add your name, Your postal address and An email buyers can write to, and press Save my details. They go in the small print at the bottom of every page of your shop.

A limited company also shows its registered name, number and where it’s registered, so the step sends you to Returns and legal. Who’s selling explains why it’s needed.

Mollie looks after payments for Handsold: it checks who you are and where to send your money. Press Set up Get paid to start, or Do this later to tick the step for now. It stays in Settings, Get paid.

Real card payments aren’t switched on yet, so your checkout runs as a demo: buyers can go all the way through it, but no money changes hands. Try a practice order opens your shop so you can see the checkout as a buyer does.

Getting paid explains Mollie and what changes once payments are on.

The step shows your shop’s address. Press Copy the address and the step ticks itself, or press I’ve shared it once you have. Open and your shop’s name shows it in a new tab, so you can check it first.

Good places for it: your social media bio, your website and email signature, your business cards and packaging, and your mailing list.

When the last step ticks, the list says your shop is ready, with Visit your shop, Copy the address and a few ideas for When you have a minute. Press Go to my dashboard and the list makes way for your orders and numbers for good.

Want it out of the way before then? Press Hide this list. Show the getting-started list again, at the bottom of the dashboard, brings it back with your progress kept.