Setting up your storefront from onboarding
The e-commerce onboarding step walks you through Stripe connection, first products, and shop type templates so your storefront is ready to take orders in minutes.
When you choose the 'Online store' intent during signup, VeloCMS adds an extra onboarding step — shop setup — that gets your storefront ready to take orders before you finish the wizard. The step has two parts: Stripe connection and a guided 'first three products' flow with templates tailored to your shop type (apparel, digital, physical).
Connecting your Stripe account
VeloCMS is BYOK — you bring your own Stripe keys, we encrypt them at rest with AES-256-GCM. Paste your Stripe secret key (starts with sk_live_ or sk_test_) and publishable key (pk_live_ or pk_test_) into the onboarding form. We validate the keys against the Stripe API before saving. You cannot finish the onboarding wizard without valid Stripe keys — this is a deliberate gate so your public shop never appears without a working checkout.
Shop type templates
Pick the shop type that matches what you sell — apparel (sized / colored physical goods), digital (downloads, subscriptions), or physical (single-SKU items like books, prints, accessories). Each type pre-fills the 'first three products' form with realistic defaults: for apparel, size and color attributes are already configured; for digital, the download URL field is prominent and stock is infinite; for physical, the SKU and weight fields are required.
You can always add more products, more attributes, or change shop type later. The onboarding 'first three' is just enough to take your first order — most tenants ship a dozen products in their first week. Skip templates you don't want and come back to them via Admin > Products > New.
What happens after onboarding
The shop page goes live at /shop the moment you publish your first product. Customers browse, add to cart, and check out via Stripe. Orders land in Admin > Orders as they come in. Low-stock alerts are enabled by default (see the Low-stock alerts article). You can customize the shop theme, add categories, and configure shipping zones from Admin > Settings > Shop whenever you're ready.