In this section, we will learn how to configure the most essential general store information.
- Let's open the System | Settings menu. The General tab will be opened automatically and we will be able to provide essential general store information for our default store. We will fill the Store Name, Store Owner, Address, Email, and Telephone fields. Store URL is automatically filled in. We don't need to make changes on it.
- We will now open the Store tab where we will fill Title, Meta Tag Description fields, lets not ignore these fields. These are included in HTML head section and help to improve on-site SEO. The single default template for the store is selected. We don't need to touch this section.
We will see Welcome Message section when we scroll down on the same tab page. We should certainly fill it.
The welcome message is shown on the storefront, on the center, as shown in the following screenshot:
- The Local tab determines how our site will behave for store visitors by default. We assumed that our store is California based and because of this, we changed Currency to US Dollar. We can choose the default Language for the store. Here, English is selected by default for both the storefront and administration panel. The Auto Update Currency option should be set to Yes if we have defined more than one currency. The values are retrieved from Yahoo Finance automatically each day.
- Let's continue with the Option tab. We want to show prices without tax value added on product pages. So, we have chosen to set the Display Prices with Tax option to No. This way, the final prices will be shown only on checkout pages.
Note
Please refer to Chapter 3, Tax Management for tax details.
We have left Customer Group field in Default setting.
It is logical to show prices all the time, not depending on whether a visitor has made a login or not. So, we have chosen No for the Login Display Prices feature. We preferred to automatically Approve New Customers by choosing No. This way, interested customers can buy immediately after registration without waiting. Finally, we have allowed Guest Checkout by choosing No. Some customers prefer to be able to shop without any registration process, immediately.
- For legal safety purposes, it is advised to show Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions terms in account registration and before completing the checkout. It is a common practice on most professional online stores. The positive side is that no one actually reads them!
- There are several Stock options we can set for a store. It is a common practice to not show the Display Stock quantity. We will show Out of Stock if the product is out of stock but also added Stock Status, stating that it will be available in 2-3 Days as default. It is advised to review an order before setting it to Completed status. So, when an order is processed, it will be set to Pending for our final review. If we want to track inventory, we would also use the Stock Subtract option.
- The final tab is Image. We can change our Store Logo and use an Icon for web browsers. All uploaded images are automatically resized according to the following settings. So, we can change them according to our needs. Finally, do not forget to click on Save button. Please, remember that the Save button saves all the information on all tabs. If you forget it, you will lose all changes in all tabs.
- This is how our store will look after setting several general store options:
We have just finished changing several general store settings. These included changing store name, logo, welcome message, default currency settings. Then we have changed several stock, price display, and checkout options. Finally, we have checked the main store page to see how these changes affected the overall look.