*Steps to Install › Basic Setup*

# Basic Setup

Every screen of the setup wizard, your three store pages, demo data and the checks to run before you launch. 9 parts.

Quick links

- [The setup wizard](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/basic-setup/#overview)
- [Step 1. Location & currency](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/basic-setup/#location)
- [Step 2. Payments & checkout](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/basic-setup/#payments)
- [Step 3. Shipping](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/basic-setup/#shipping)
- [Step 4. Finish up](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/basic-setup/#finish)
- [Your store is set up](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/basic-setup/#done)
- [Your three store pages](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/basic-setup/#pages)
- [Try it with demo data](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/basic-setup/#demo)
- [Before you launch](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/basic-setup/#go-live)

**Where to find it:** WP Admin › WP EasyCart › Settings › Setup wizard

*The wizard*

## Set up your store in four steps

What each wizard screen asks, and what it saves.

### The setup wizard

Four short steps, about five minutes

Once WP EasyCart is installed, setting up takes a few minutes. The **Set up your store** wizard opens by itself when you visit **WP EasyCart › Settings** until setup is finished, and **Settings › All settings** leads with a **Set up your store** card showing where you are. A store that has already taken an order counts as set up. Its four steps are **Location & currency**, **Payments & checkout**, **Shipping** and **Finish up**.

**Continue** saves the step you are on and moves to the next. The stepper at the top, **Back** and the **Edit** links in the summary let you revisit a step; with changes on the page, the wizard asks first and can save them on the way. **Save & exit** saves the step too, then leaves for your Products screen and remembers where you were. Go back to a step and it shows the answers you gave, so nothing is reset by looking again.

Everything starts from your country. The wizard sets your currency, how prices are written, your weight and size units, your tax, the countries you ship to and starter shipping rates for it, and the payment gateways and carriers it shows first are the ones that serve your country.

The **Setup summary** on the right fills in as you go. Below it, **Applied automatically** shows the recommended settings and your three store pages, which are set up before you answer a single question.

**Skip setup** jumps to the end, and **Dismiss setup** on the Settings card does the same. Recommended settings stay applied and your store pages stay in place. To come back later, press **Run the setup wizard again** at the top of Settings › All settings, or **Run the setup wizard** on Settings › Store › Store details.

> **💡 Note:** Everything the wizard sets can be changed later in WP EasyCart › Settings. The wizard is a shortcut, not a lock-in.

### Step 1. Location & currency

Where is your store based?

Your country sets your currency, how prices are written, your weight and size units and the tax you charge. On a new store the wizard pre-fills it from your WordPress language and timezone; change anything that is not right.

**Country**: where your business is. It decides your tax, goes first in checkout’s country lists, and becomes the country checkout’s address forms start on ( **Preselected country** in Settings › Checkout ) when you ship there. A country you already chose there yourself is kept. A US store also picks its state and a Canadian store its province, because they set the sales tax, GST / HST and PST.
**Currency**: follows the country, and you can pick another. Under it the wizard shows **Prices look like** in your country’s format, such as $1,234.56 or 1 234,56 €, with **Weights in** pounds or kilograms and **Sizes in** inches or centimetres. Continue saves all of them. A store that already weighs in ounces or grams keeps that unit while the country weighs the same way.
**Store language**: the words shoppers see in your store, cart, checkout and emails. Change any wording, or add languages, under Settings › Appearance › Language.
**Tax**, named for your country ( Sales tax, VAT, GST, or GST / HST and PST ): **Set up tax for my country** applies the settings stores in your country are expected to use, with today’s rates, and lists them first. On a store with tax already set up the switch reads **Update my tax settings to these** and shows what would change. VAT and GST countries also answer **My prices include VAT** ( or GST ), EU stores choose how they charge customers in other EU countries, and Canadian stores say whether they are registered for PST in every PST province.

On a site still on WordPress’s UTC clock, your country and state also set the time zone, so store hours and pickup times are your own; a zone you chose yourself is kept.

Everything here can be changed later: the country, units, time zone and price format in Settings › Store › Store details, tax in Settings › Payments & Taxes › Taxes. For a step by step walkthrough, see [Set Up VAT or GST for Your Country](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/how-to-guides/set-up-vat-or-gst-for-your-country/) or [Set Up Sales Tax and VAT](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/how-to-guides/set-up-sales-tax-and-vat/).

![The setup wizard opened from WP EasyCart › Settings, on step 1 for a store in Oregon: the four steps across the top, country and state, currency, store language and sales tax, and the setup summary on the right.](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/basic-setup-location-607.jpg)

### Step 2. Payments & checkout

How will customers pay?

Choose who takes your card payments, then the other ways to pay. The lines are grouped the way Settings › Payments & Taxes › Payments groups them, and only gateways that take payments for stores in your country are shown:

**Who takes your card payments?** **Stripe** ( cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Link, entered on your own checkout page ), and, where Square takes payments, **Square** ( cards, plus your Square items brought into your store ). Both need https. **Another gateway** names the PRO gateways stores in your country use, such as Authorize.net, Braintree and NMI, with **Choose a gateway** on a PRO or Premium store.
**Checkout buttons**: **PayPal** buttons, with Venmo for US stores and Pay Later in the countries PayPal offers it. No SSL certificate required. Press **Connect** and sign in with your PayPal login.
**Pay later**: **Bill later**. Customers order now and pay you directly, by bank transfer, cheque or on pickup ( Interac e-Transfer too in Canada ). Shoppers see it as Pay by bank transfer, or Pay by Interac e-Transfer on a Canadian store. No fees. Turn it on with the switch, and use **Add your bank details** to open its settings, where your account goes in your country’s format.

On the free edition a line beneath names the Stripe payment methods popular in your country, with a free PRO trial.

**On the free edition**, tick the **EasyCart Connect terms** box before you connect PayPal, Stripe or Square. Those three carry a 2% EasyCart fee on the free edition; Bill later needs no terms and carries no fee. A PRO or Premium license removes the fee and adds 30+ more gateways.

**Checkout**: **Allow guest checkout** is on by default and recommended. Requiring an account is the single biggest cause of abandoned checkouts, and customers can still create one after ordering.

For a step by step walkthrough, see [How to Take Your First Payment](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/how-to-guides/how-to-take-your-first-payment/).

![Step 2: Stripe, Square and Another gateway under Who takes your card payments?, PayPal under Checkout buttons, Bill later under Pay later.](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/basic-setup-payments-607.jpg)

> **💡 Note:** Every gateway, and the test mode switch, is covered in [Settings › Payments & Taxes › Payments](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/payments-setup/).

### Step 3. Shipping

How do you want to charge for shipping?

**How do shoppers pay for shipping?** Under **My own rates**, pick a starting point and the wizard adds a set of starter rates, priced in your currency and written in your store’s format. You edit the amounts, add free-shipping rules or switch later under Settings › Shipping.

**Flat rates** (recommended to start): customers choose a service level: **Standard shipping**, **Express shipping** and **Next-day shipping**.
**By cart total**: one rate per order, based on the subtotal, so small orders ship for less.
**By weight**: one rate per order, based on total weight, in your weight unit. Best for heavy or bulky products. A pound store starts with tiers at 20, 50, 100 and 500 lb; a kilogram store at 10, 25, 50 and 250 kg; an ounce or gram store gets the same tiers in its own unit.

Each card lists the rates it will add. If you already have rates of that kind, the card says so and nothing new is added.

Then the other ways, each only where it works for your country: **Live rates from my carrier accounts** ( PRO ), quoted by the carriers that serve your country, such as USPS, UPS, FedEx and DHL Express for a US store, with your accounts connected next on Shipping; **Royal Mail** ( PRO, UK stores ), its published prices with no account needed; **Fraktjakt** ( PRO, in the countries it serves ); **Shippo** and **ShipStation** ( Premium ); and **I don’t charge for shipping**, when nothing you sell ships or the price includes it: checkout does not ask for an address, and the store counts as set up for shipping.

**Where do you ship?** Choose **Only within** your country, **Across** your region ( North America, Europe and so on, with the number of countries ) or **Worldwide**, every country people live in. Checkout offers only those countries for delivery. A new store outside the US also gets a shipping zone for its own country, in place of the US-only zones it started with while nothing uses them. If you already chose countries under Settings › Store › Countries & Regions and they match none of the three, **Keep the countries I ship to now** leaves them as they are.

For a step by step walkthrough, see [Set Up Shipping That Does Not Lose Money](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/how-to-guides/set-up-shipping-that-does-not-lose-money/).

![Step 3, How do shoppers pay for shipping?: the three starting points under My own rates, then live carrier rates, Shippo and ShipStation.](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/basic-setup-shipping-607.jpg)

### Step 4. Finish up

Pages, policies and notifications

**Recommended settings** were applied when WP EasyCart was installed, and the wizard shows their state: **Cache compatibility**, **Secure checkout (SSL)** and **SEO-friendly product links**. SSL waits for a certificate, and SEO links wait for permalinks other than Plain; both turn on by themselves once your site is ready. **Advanced: change recommended settings** is there if your host tells you to turn one off.

**Store pages**: Store, Cart & Checkout and My Account, each with View and Edit. **Add all three to your menu** puts them in your site navigation in one click.

**Policies**: pick your **Terms & conditions** and **Privacy policy** pages, or press **Create draft**: the draft is filled in from what your store has already answered, such as your business details, where you ship and how you take payment, for you to read, change and publish. Nothing is published for you. **Agreement at checkout** makes customers accept the terms before they place an order.

**Notifications**: **Send order emails from** is the From and Reply-To address customers see; use one on your own domain. **Copy new-order emails to** is your admin address. Press **Send test email** now, because order emails go through WordPress mail, which many hosts handle poorly.

**Help improve EasyCart** shares anonymous usage data, never customer or order data. Neither it nor **Send me security updates and product news from WP EasyCart** is ticked for you ( usage data stays on only for a store that already shares it ). Press **Finish setup** to save.

![Step 4, Finish up: the recommended settings and the store pages, with the setup summary on the right.](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/basic-setup-finish-607.jpg)

> **💡 Note:** Sender addresses and email deliverability are covered in [Settings › Emails & Documents › Email](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/email-settings/).

### Your store is set up

The launch checklist and what to do next

The last screen shows the **Launch checklist**. Items tick off as you do them:

**Create your first product**.
**Place a test order**: walk through checkout as a customer.
**Confirm order emails arrive**: send a test and check your inbox and spam folder.
**Add store pages to your menu**.
**Publish terms & privacy pages**, linked from checkout.
**Set up tax for** your country: ticks off when your tax settings match the ones recommended for it, and otherwise says how many changes there are to review.
**Recommended settings healthy**: cache compatibility, SSL and SEO links.

Each row has a button that takes you there, and **Mark as done** ticks off an item the check cannot see, such as a menu built another way.

Moving from Square or WooCommerce? The checklist adds an optional import item, and the cards beside it offer **Open importer**. **Install demo data** fills the store with samples if you just want to look around.

The checklist stays at the top of **WP EasyCart › Settings › All settings** and of **WP EasyCart › Store Status** until every item is done, so nothing is lost when you leave. **View my store** opens your storefront.

![The last screen: the launch checklist with one item left, Place a test order, and Mark as done.](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/basic-setup-done-607.jpg)

*Under the hood*

## Store pages and demo data

The three pages your store runs on, and sample data to try it out.

### Your three store pages

Store, Cart and Account, each holding one shortcode

Your whole shop runs on three ordinary WordPress pages. WP EasyCart creates them when it is installed and connects them for you, so there is nothing to do here unless one goes missing.

**Store page**: your product catalog, with the `[ec_store]` shortcode. Product, category and manufacturer links are built under this page’s address.
**Cart and checkout page**: where shoppers review their cart and pay, with the `[ec_cart]` shortcode.
**Account page**: where shoppers sign in, register and see their orders, with the `[ec_account]` shortcode.

You find them on the **Store pages** card of **Settings › Store › Store details**, each with a chip saying whether it is **Live**. If one is missing, unpublished or lost its shortcode, the tile says so and offers the fix. **Change…** lets you use another page, adding the shortcode for you, or **Create a new page**.

![Settings › Store › Store details: the Store pages card, each page Live.](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/store-details-store-pages-card-607.jpg)

> **💡 Note:** Every page setting is in [Settings › Store › Store details](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/store-details/).

### Try it with demo data

Sample products and orders to explore before adding your own

Want to see a working store before you add your own products? **Install demo data** adds sample clothing products, categories, option sets, a customer, orders and three shipping rates. Install it from the wizard’s last step, or with **Try it with sample products** on Settings › Store › Store details.

When you are done, the same card reads **Sample products are in your store** and offers **Remove them**. It deletes only what the installer added. Your own products, customers and orders are not touched.

Demo products do not count towards the launch checklist, so **Create your first product** stays open until you add a real one.

![The sample products card once they are installed, offering Remove them.](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/store-details-sample-products-607.jpg)

*Go live*

## Before you launch

The readiness checks and the list to finish before you announce the store.

### Before you launch

Store readiness and the checks worth doing

**WP EasyCart › Store Status** runs four readiness checks: Products, Taxes, Shipping and Payment. A failing Payment check means nobody can check out. A failing Taxes or Shipping check means the store takes orders without charging for something. A store that charges no tax or ships nothing can say so with **We charge no tax** or **We ship nothing**.

Then run down this list:
**Products**: added, with prices and photos.
**Shipping and tax**: rates that match what you really pay and owe.
**Payment**: a gateway connected and out of test mode.
**Design**: your store pages look right with your theme.
**A test order**: placed from start to finish, with the emails arriving.

For the whole journey in one guide, see [How to Build Your First Store with WP EasyCart](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/how-to-guides/how-to-build-your-first-store-with-wp-easycart/). Need help? Open a ticket at [wpeasycart.com/my-account](https://wpeasycart.com/my-account).

![Store Status › Store readiness with all four checks passing.](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/basic-setup-08-store-readiness-602.jpg)

> **⚠️ Careful:** A gateway left in test mode takes no money. Check [Settings › Payments & Taxes › Payments](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/payments-setup/) before you announce the store.

*Keep going*

## Related panels

- [Store details](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/store-details/): Store pages, currency, time zone and sample products.
- [Payments](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/payments-setup/): Every payment gateway and the test mode switch.
- [Rates](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/shipping-rates/): The rate tables behind your shipping method.
- [Taxes](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/tax-setup-and-features/): Sales tax, VAT, GST and tax services.
- [Email](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/email-settings/): Sender addresses, deliverability and the email log.
- [Store Status](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/store-status/): Licence state and the four readiness checks.

## Ready to run your store on WP EasyCart?

Everything in this guide works with the free plugin. PRO and Premium add subscriptions, memberships, wholesale pricing and more. Try every PRO feature free for 14 days.

[Start your free trial](https://www.wpeasycart.com/wp-easycart-professional-14-no-risk-trial/) · [See what is included](https://www.wpeasycart.com/wordpress-shopping-cart-pricing/)

![The WP EasyCart admin: orders and offers](https://docs.wpeasycart.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/cta-wpeasycart-pro-v2.jpg)

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Source: https://docs.wpeasycart.com/docs/administrative-console-guide/basic-setup/ ( updated 2026-11-06 )