This guide provides a step-by-step overview of setting up your Lightspeed eCom online store. You will learn how to enable Retail POS (X-Series) products to sell online, create payment and shipping methods, tailor your eCom site design to reflect your brand, and all the basics you need to make your first online sale. 

Step 1. Activate Lightspeed eCom

Begin by activating ecommerce for your offline business. Once you enable Lightspeed eCom, you can manage basic online store settings on the Online tab in your Retail POS back office. For deeper store management, open the full-fledged eCom admin by navigating to the Online tab > Overview > Go to eCom (E-Series).

Learn more about activating Lightspeed eCom →

If you've been using eCom without ecommerce as an online showroom website and now want to expand to selling online, start by enabling checkout on your Lightspeed eCom site.

Step 2. Check your online catalog

When you connect your Retail POS catalog to Lightspeed eCom, all your products are immediately synced and displayed in your online storefront. You can manage product availability in eCom by hiding products you don't want to sell online. 

When you add new products to Retail POS, you can choose whether to make them available for online shopping. To do so, you create a new product as usual and tick the Sell online checkbox under Product categories.

Learn more about adding and removing products in Lightspeed eCom →

Step 3. Connect payment processors

There are several payment methods integrated with Lightspeed Retail, including Lightspeed Payments and PayPal. If you have one of those methods connected to your POS, you can accept payments with those methods. All you have to do is connect your existing payment account with Lightspeed eCom.

Alternatively, you can connect any other payment method, even if it’s not integrated with your Retail POS.

Learn more about setting up payments in Lightspeed eCom →

Step 4. Add shipping or pickup methods

To deliver goods to customers, you need to provide them with shipping options. It can be regular shipping with a carrier, local delivery, or self-pickup. The easiest option is to offer in-store pickup so that customers can buy your goods online and then pick up in one of your stores. 

On the Online tab > Settings > Shipping and pickup page in Retail POS, you can manage your shipping methods. That includes getting live-time rates from the most popular carriers, setting up local delivery, and customizing shipping zones and their rates.

Learn more about setting up shipping and delivery in Lightspeed eCom →

Step 5. Make your products shine online

When buying from your online store, customers cannot touch the products or talk to an assistant. That's why product information is key. It includes photos and videos to showcase your items from different angles, detailed product descriptions to help customers make purchase decisions, and easy-to-browse categories.

With Lightspeed, you can leverage the AI to enhance images, write copy, and more.

Learn more about setting up product details for eCom →

Step 6. Configure taxes

You need to set up taxes for your online sales. Since you already have taxes set up for your business, all you have to do is duplicate those rates for your online store. To do so, open the Lightspeed eCom admin, go to Settings > Taxes, and create tax rules. 

Learn more about configuring taxes in Lightspeed eCom →

Step 7. Personalize checkout experience

To make a purchase, your customers need to enter their email, name, and shipping address at checkout. You can customize your online checkout flow to match your needs. For example, ask shoppers how they learned about your business or offer gift wrapping.

Learn more about setting up Lightspeed eCom checkout →

Step 8. Design your site

When you connect eCom, you get access to the code-free website builder called Instant Site. It's flexible to customize. You can access the site editor by navigating to Online > Webstore > Edit Site in Retail POS.

Here’s what you could do:

• Choose a ready-made theme for your type of business.
• Add goal-focused sections like customer reviews, contacts, or announcement taglines.
• Create a navigation menu to highlight your brands and categories.
• Translate your site into different languages.

Learn more about setting up your Lightspeed eCom site →

Your eCom site is not the only option for online sales: you can start selling on social & marketplaces, create a neat landing page for your brand, or add your eCom store to a custom website.

Step 9. Connect domain to your website

When you connect eCom, you get a new Instant Site located on a free editable domain that ends with “.company.site”. For example, flowers-in-oregon.company.site. We recommend that you buy a custom domain and use it instead. For example, flowers-in-oregon.com.

A custom domain reflects your brand, and it’s more likely to be ranked higher in Google. Domains ending with .com or .org are also more familiar to customers and, therefore, more trustworthy. You can either buy a domain from Lightspeed or connect your existing third-party domain.

Learn how to connect a domain to your Lightspeed eCom site →

Step 10. Set up notifications

Your eCom store sends email notifications to your customers about their orders. You can adjust what notifications to send and also turn off the option to receive a copy of those notifications (just to avoid visual clutter in your inbox). 

You can go an extra mile and customize your template design by adding your brand logo, changing senders’ name in the emails, and more.

Learn more about managing email notifications in Lightspeed eCom →

What's next?