Lesson 1 of 7 4 min
Create your store
Name it, pick a template you will keep, and get a draft store you can open in your dashboard.
Creating the store takes two minutes. The one decision in it that you cannot change later is the template, so this lesson is mostly about choosing that well.
The three steps
- 1On your Dashboard, click New Site and choose Ecommerce Store. A Create Your Store window opens with three steps: Name, Template, Describe.
- 2Name: enter your store name and a slug — the word that becomes your free link,
yourslug.sitesplaced.site. Lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens. Use the name you settled on in Pick a name. - 3Template: pick the storefront design closest to what you sell. There is a General Store that suits anything, and templates for clothing, jewellery, food, grocery, beauty, home and decor, electronics, pets, furniture, footwear, wellness, gifts, and homestays. Every template is free.
- 4Describe: answer What do you sell? if you are on the Starter plan or higher and want AI to write your headlines and about text, or leave it empty and the template's own words are used. Click Create Store, then Open Store.
The template is fixed once the store exists
You can change colours, fonts, sections, menu and every word later. You cannot swap the template. If you are torn between two, pick the one whose product cards and product page look right for your photos; the home page is the easier part to restyle.
What you have now
A store in Draft — only you can open it, and nothing is public until you click Publish. The dashboard has tabs for Home, Orders, Products, Messages, Design and Settings, and it works on your phone. The step-by-step version of this lesson, with screenshots, is Create & publish your store; Tour your store dashboard explains each tab.
Do not add products yet. The next lesson sets up how products are priced and stocked, and doing that first saves you editing every product twice.
Write down
Your store link: ______.sitesplaced.site. You will share it after lesson six, not before.
Stuck on this lesson? Ask an AI assistant — it reads our guides and answers with the exact steps.