Peggy's Vintage Halloween Art, established 2002
The back office, start to finish

This is the whole thing.
Not the first page of it.

Every question about running an online shop comes down to one worry: how much work is it, really? Here is the answer, in three screens from a live shop.

Stop one

What you see when you log in

No dashboard inside a dashboard. One screen, and the whole shop is on it.

Click a step to start the tour — each one leads on to the next.

  • 1Everything lives here Products, orders, members, settings — fifteen links, no sub-menus to go hunting through.
  • 2How the shop is doing Pieces listed, orders completed, messages waiting. It updates the moment something happens.
  • 3The button you will press most Listing a new piece starts right here. Photo, price, a few words about it.
  • 4Where you make it yours Your name, your tagline, your logo, your colours. That is the next stop.
  • 5See it the way they see it One click to your live storefront, exactly as a customer finds it.
The Hollow Lane admin dashboard: a sidebar of fifteen links, four summary cards, and three action buttons.
Step 1 of 51. Everything lives hereFifteen links, no sub-menus to go hunting through.Click to go to 2  ↓
Step 2 of 52. How the shop is doingPieces listed, orders completed, messages waiting.Click to go to 3  ↓
Step 3 of 53. The button you will press mostListing a new piece starts right here.Click to go to 4  ↓
Step 4 of 54. Where you make it yoursYour name, tagline, logo and colours.Click to go to 5  ↓
Step 5 of 55. See it the way they see itOne click to your live storefront.Run it again from the top  ↑Stop two: Making it yours  →
Hollow Lane, our demo shop. Mary Hollow has not listed anything yet, which is why the counters read zero — this is exactly what yours looks like on day one.

Making it yours

One page. One Save button at the bottom. It does scroll — there are ten sections — but you can leave nearly all of it empty and your shop still looks finished.

Blank fields fall back to sample wording, so your shop always looks finished. — printed at the top of the page itself

Click a step to start the tour — each one leads on to the next.

  • 1Name your shop Goes in the header, the page titles, and every email that leaves the place.
  • 2Write your tagline One line across the top of every page — or tick the box under it and run several promo lines that fade from one to the next.
  • 3Set your contact email Where orders and customer questions land. Yours, not ours.
  • 4Pick your look Twenty-four colour themes, two layouts, and a Preview button so you can see it before you commit.
  • 5Upload your logo A transparent PNG, about 260px wide. Skip it and your shop name is set in the theme’s own lettering, which never looks unfinished.
  • 6Save One button at the bottom. The storefront changes the second you press it — no publishing step, no waiting.
The Shop Settings page in full: ten sections from Your Shop down to Footer, ending in a Save Shop Settings button.
Step 1 of 61. Name your shopGoes in the header, the page titles, and every email that leaves the place.Click to go to 2  ↓
Step 2 of 62. Write your taglineOne line across the top of every page, or rotate several promo lines.Click to go to 3  ↓
Step 3 of 63. Set your contact emailWhere orders and customer questions land. Yours, not ours.Click to go to 4  ↓
Step 4 of 64. Pick your lookTwenty-four colour themes, two layouts, and a Preview button.Click to go to 5  ↓
Step 5 of 65. Upload your logoA transparent PNG, about 260px wide. Skipping it looks fine too.Click to go to 6  ↓
Step 6 of 66. SaveOne button at the bottom. The storefront changes the second you press it.Run it again from the top  ↑I’ve seen enough. Start my shop  →

The other nine sections — your About page, the home-page banner, the “Why shop with us” strip, the footer, your Facebook and Instagram links — are all sitting there for the day you want them. None of them are in your way before then.

Stop three

Listing a piece

Thirteen things on this form. You will use seven of them, and the item number writes itself.

Click a step to start the tour — each one leads on to the next.

  • 1Title What the piece is called.
  • 2Category Tick every one it belongs in. New categories you make show up here on their own.
  • 3Weight Pick a shipping class and the USPS price comes with it, so postage works itself out at checkout. The one field people forget.
  • 4Description Bold, italics, colour, links. Tell the story — people buying handmade Halloween want to hear it.
  • 5Price What you are asking.
  • 6Photographs One main picture, then pick how many extras you want and it asks for each in turn.
  • 7Save On your storefront immediately, ready to sell.
The Add Product form: title, categories, weight, insurance, exemptions, stock tracking, description, price, status, images and a Save Product button.
Step 1 of 71. TitleWhat the piece is called.Click to go to 2  ↓
Step 2 of 72. CategoryTick every one it belongs in.Click to go to 3  ↓
Step 3 of 73. WeightPick a shipping class; the USPS price comes with it.Click to go to 4  ↓
Step 4 of 74. DescriptionBold, italics, colour, links. Tell the story.Click to go to 5  ↓
Step 5 of 75. PriceWhat you are asking.Click to go to 6  ↓
Step 6 of 76. PhotographsOne main picture, then as many extras as you like.Click to go to 7  ↓
Step 7 of 77. SaveOn your storefront immediately, ready to sell.Start your shop  →

The six you can ignore — shipping insurance, sales-tax and no-shipping exemptions, stock tracking, featuring it on the home page, and the Available / Sold status — are for people selling something other than one-of-a-kind pieces. They all have sensible defaults.

That is the tour.

Three screens. If you can post a photograph to Facebook, you can run one of these — and if you ever get stuck, a real person answers.

Start your shop Try the live demo ↗ Back to the showcase
Screens captured from hollowlane.cozeyhome.net, our live demo shop. Nothing here is a mockup.