Getting Started Wizard

Introduction

Welcome to Hotcakes where your e-commerce life is about to get much easier. Whether you’re a developer, a store owner, or a designer, you’ll find that Hotcakes Commerce has something for you.

We created this Quick Start Guide to get you started on the platform. If you haven’t already signed up for a free trial, sign up now. After you sign up, it takes a few minutes for provisioning to take place. You receive confirmation in your email when it’s completed. You’ll need this confirmation email to begin, because it contains your trial username, password, and URL.

Logging Into Your Account

The provisioning email provides you with the username and password for your account. It also includes the link to your provisioned Hotcakes site. Click the link in your provisioning email to open your trial URL. 

Click the “Login” link at the top of the screen.

Enter your username and password provided in the Hotcakes Commerce provisioning email. Click “Login.”

Getting Started Configuration Wizard

Once you sign in, Hotcakes has an easy-to-use configuration wizard to get you started. It’s made up of 5 easy steps to help you set up your online store.

Click the “Start Configuration Wizard” button.

General

Step 1 is where you enter all of your store information including your address, time zone, currency, and store name. You can also add a custom logo to your store.

1. The logo area is where you upload your logo. Click the “Browse” button and choose your logo image.
2. Enter your store address.
3. Geo Location is where you configure the store’s currency settings and time zone.
4. This section is for page configuration. You don’t need to add pages immediately. We’ll skip this part in the Quick Guide, but you can always come back to it to customize store pages.

Click “Save and Continue” to move to the next screen.

Payment

Step 2 is your payment options. Check the payment options you want to display during the checkout process. The Hotcakes Commerce system lets you quickly add and remove payment options with just one checkbox setting.

With some settings, you need to set a payment gateway. For instance, credit card merchants need to define a payment gateway. You can define the merchant settings by clicking the “Edit” link next to the associated payment method.

For instance, if you accept credit cards, click “Edit” next to the credit card check box. The following screen opens.

Choose your gateway and any payment security options. Click “Save Changes” when you are finished.

Repeat this step for each payment method that requires custom settings.

Shipping

Step 3 is your shipping settings. You can set up shipping methods, zones, and any extra handling charges for your orders.

1. Select a shipping method from the drop-down and click “Create.” A window opens with several options, depending on the shipping method you choose. Each shipping method you add to the list displays in the checkout process.
2. You can use Hotcakes’ pre-defined shipping zones, or create your own. To create your own, type a name in the textbox and click “Create.” A window displays where you edit your shipping zones and selected areas in those zones.
3. Select any handling charges and if those charges are per item or per order.

Click the “Save and Continue” button.

Tax Schedules

Hotcakes Commerce handles both US and European tax schedules. VAT is excluded by default, but check the box labeled “Apply VAT Rules” to include it in your total order price.

Click “Complete Configuration” and you'll be taken to the store administration dashboard (seen below).

Adding Sample Products & Categories

Once you’ve completed the configuration wizard, it’s time to add products. If you’re simply evaluating right now, Hotcakes lets you add sample products to save time.

To add some sample products, click the “Add Sample Products and Categories to the Store” button.

You'll be prompted, to let you know that we're also adding some sample data to help you see what the dashboards might look like after you launch your actual store.  Click OK to accept.  The data will get removed later.

After you add sample products, Hotcakes will refresh the page in a moment to display your sample data.  Take a spin around and see how we work together with you and your team to surface actionable information that you can use to grow your store today.