Running a shop

Shop mode turns ShopClass into a store. You add the products, shoppers fill a cart and check out, and you ship the orders. It needs a theme made for shops, such as Aisle.

1. Turn it on

1. Settings → General → Site is a: pick Shop. In shop mode only admins add products. A shop also sells digital goods. Credit packages, credits and paying to publish are hidden in a shop and come back when you switch to classifieds. A classifieds site keeps the cart, orders and payment plugins too, but its billing Orders tab shows only the unpaid-order cancel days and the order number prefix.
2. Settings → Billing: switch Enable billing on and set your currency.
3. Settings → Billing → Shop (called Orders on a classifieds site): set the delivery charge, the amount that makes delivery free, cash on delivery and its fee, how long unpaid orders wait before they are cancelled, how long a card payment holds the stock, and the order number prefix. Cash on delivery only in limits cash on delivery to the countries, regions or cities you pick (a buyer’s address must be inside one); empty offers it everywhere you deliver. Store address (country, region, city) is used for a product with no location of its own. Product weights in picks grams and kilograms or ounces and pounds for every weight field.
4. Appearance: activate the shop theme. If it asks for plugins, one screen installs and turns them on for you.
5. Install a payment method (see below), or use the built-in bank transfer and cash on delivery.

2. Add a product

Add a product as an admin. The form is split into sections. The On this page list in the side column jumps to each one.

• Product: name, category and description.
• Photos.
• Price and stock: the price and currency. Switch on Sell online so buyers can add the product to a cart, then set the old price, SKU and stock. With it off, buyers see the price and contact you.
• Options: for sizes or colours (see below). Shown once Sell online is on.
• Shipping: weight and shipping class. Shown once Sell online is on. A product in a digital category has no shipping; it is delivered as a download.
• Details: the fields of the chosen category, such as custom fields and downloadable files.
• Location: optional and folded away. Leave it empty and the product uses the store address.
• Seller and contact: folded away; it opens by itself if something in it needs fixing.
• Publishing (side column): status, dates and expiry.

Save stores the product; Cancel goes back to the list.

For a product that comes in sizes or colours, add option rows: one row per combination, such as Black / M, each with its own SKU, price, stock and an optional old price, shown crossed out. The shopper picks the options on the product page.

• Stock is counted per row. At 0 the row is out of stock. Leave it blank to not count.
• Weight and Shipping class are for the Shipping plugin. Weight is typed in grams, or in ounces when Product weights in is ounces and pounds.
• Every order takes the stock when it is placed. A shopper cannot order the last unit someone else holds. A card order still unpaid after Hold stock for card payments (minutes) is cancelled and its stock goes back on sale.

3. Orders

Billing → Orders lists every order. Open one to see its items, address and buyer.

A number beside Billing and Orders counts the orders waiting to ship, and the dashboard lists the five oldest.

Status	Meaning
Pending	Placed, not paid. Bank transfer and cash on delivery orders wait here. Any pending order can be cancelled.
Paid	Money received. It shows in To ship until you send it.
Processing	You are preparing it. Set it with Start processing, or it starts when the first parcel ships. A cash on delivery order can start before it is paid. It stays in To ship.
Shipped	Every item has shipped. You marked it shipped with a carrier and tracking number (you can edit them later; shipping with none asks you to confirm). Cash on delivery is shipped before it is paid.
Delivered	You marked it delivered. A cash on delivery order is marked paid now.
Cancelled	Closed before payment, by you, the buyer, or because a card order was not paid within the hold minutes. The stock goes back on sale.
Refunded	The money went back. The stock goes back on sale.
Failed	The payment provider reported a failed card payment. The order is closed and its stock goes back on sale.

To ship an order in parts, open it and use Ship this order (Send another parcel after the first): set the quantity in Send now for each line and add the carrier and tracking. The order stays Processing until the last item ships, then becomes Shipped. Each parcel keeps its own tracking, which you can edit. Mark packed is a note for you; it changes no status and sends no mail. The order page also lists its status history. Orders from before 7.1 have none.

Invoices and credit notes

Every paid order gets a numbered invoice, such as INV-2026-00042. Each refund gets a credit note, such as CN-2026-00003, with its own numbers. Both restart on 1 January. The buyer opens them from the order in their account and from the receipt mail.

Settings → Billing → Receipts turns invoices off and sets the two prefixes. Billing → Invoices lists them by type and date, with a CSV download for your accountant. A document is frozen when it is made: later changes to the order or to your business details do not alter it. Orders paid before 7.1 have no invoice.

When a tax plugin reports tax for each item, the invoice and the order page show a Tax column with the rate and amount, and the tax code (such as HSN) under the product name. If the plugin asks for a buyer tax number, the buyer types it at checkout and it prints under Billed to. Orders made before this have tax shown as a whole.

Refunding part of an order

Open the order and use Refund part. Enter an amount, or the units to refund, and a reason, and choose whether the units go back on sale (on by default for items not yet shipped). If the payment plugin supports it, the money goes back through the provider; otherwise the refund is recorded and you send the money yourself. Each partial refund makes a credit note and a mail to the buyer. The order shows Partly refunded until the credit notes add up to what was paid, then it becomes Refunded. Refund part needs an invoice: an order without one, such as one paid before 7.1 or while invoices were off, can only be refunded in full. When the order has tax per line, returning units refunds those units’ own tax, so a mixed 5% and 19% order refunds only the tax of the lines you return. A credit pack order is refunded whole.

A card payment that arrives after its order was cancelled is refunded by the payment plugin.

Unpaid bank transfer and cash on delivery orders are cancelled after Cancel unpaid orders after (days). A shopper may hold at most the number of open unpaid bank transfer orders you allow. Cash on delivery and card orders are not limited.

4. The order mails

The buyer is e-mailed when an order is:

1. placed (bank transfer and cash on delivery, before payment),
2. paid, with the receipt and invoice link,
3. part shipped, one mail per parcel with its items and tracking,
4. shipped, when the last item goes, with the carrier and tracking link,
5. delivered,
6. cancelled,
7. partly refunded, with the credit note link,
8. refunded.

You get a “New order” mail for each order. A mail that cannot be sent waits on the job queue and is tried again, once per order and kind. Developers change the wording with the MailComposing event; see Order mails.

5. Plugins that add to the shop

Each one is free, works on plain shared hosting and does nothing until you set it up.

Plugin	What it adds
Shipping	Delivery zones by country, state or postcode, Standard and Express, weight prices, free delivery, delivery dates and tracking links.
Tax	Tax lines from a default, country and category rates, prices with or without tax, and a tax invoice with tax per line and an optional buyer tax number.
Tax GST	India GST on top of Tax: CGST and SGST in your state, IGST elsewhere, GSTIN and HSN on the invoice.
Promotions	Coupon codes, automatic discounts, a first-order offer and use limits.
Shop emails	A newsletter sign-up list with double opt-in and CSV export, and one reminder for a signed-in shopper’s left cart.
Analytics	Google Analytics 4 and Meta Pixel shop events, with a consent bar. Nothing loads before the visitor accepts.
Digital Goods	Downloadable files for a product, with links in the receipt.
Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay	Card and wallet payments. Buyers pay on the provider’s page. The installer offers all three; none is ticked by default.

What shoppers see in their account

A signed-in shopper gets a buyer account: the dashboard with their recent orders, Your orders, profile, password and delete account. The seller pages (listings, public profile, alerts, credits and API access) are hidden, and a link to one leads to the dashboard. With Digital Goods on, a Downloads entry lists what they bought. An admin signed in sees everything.

Addresses keeps up to 10 delivery addresses. The default one is also the account’s own address. At checkout the saved addresses show as cards with the default chosen; “Use a new address” opens the form, and “Save this address” (ticked) adds it to the book. The form follows the country: it asks for a state or county only where people write one, names the postcode field as that country does (Postcode, ZIP code, PIN code) and checks its shape. State is a list of the site’s regions for that country, or a text box when there are none. When the site has only one country, the Country box is hidden. Phone numbers may start with + and a country code. The first address saved becomes the default. A classifieds site has no Addresses page.

6. Customise

If your theme supports it, Appearance → Customise edits the home page sections and the look beside a live preview. Nothing shows to visitors until you press Publish. See Customise your theme.

Before you open

• Place a test order with bank transfer, then ship and deliver it, and read each mail.
• Check that cron or the auto-cron runs: hold days, retries and reminders depend on it.
• Write your delivery and refund terms into your Terms page.
• For the money side, see currencies and paid listings.