Store Setup

Store Setup Overview

Kitbix Commerce keeps every storefront control in a single Settings screen. Finish these tabs immediately after activation so shortcodes, checkout math, and emails share one source of truth.

How the settings panel is organized

  • Store: Currency, tax & shipping defaults, and the list of enabled gateways that CartService can expose.
  • Layout: Template pickers for the grid, single product, cart, checkout, pagination type, and products-per-page.
  • Brand Colors: Hex values that become CSS custom properties and cascade through every public template.
  • Payments: Per-gateway credentials managed by PaymentManager with sandbox/live toggles.
  • Email & SMTP: Sender identity, notification toggles, and optional SMTP credentials used by EmailNotificationService.

Every panel writes into kitbix_commerce_settings, so backups or migrations only need that single option plus the addon table.

Implementation facts

  • Controllers: SettingsController exposes the REST endpoints the React UI calls for load/save.
  • Front end: Shortcodes like [kitbix_commerce_products], [kitbix_commerce_cart], and [kitbix_commerce_checkout] re-read settings on every render.
  • Helpers: kitbix_commerce_get_settings() merges defaults with stored values, so unset fields never break the UI.

Setup sequence

  1. Visit Kitbix Commerce → Settings and walk left-to-right through the tabs.
  2. Choose the production currency and confirm each enabled gateway supports it.
  3. Lock in layout + pagination before building menus so URLs and load-more behavior match.
  4. Match brand colors to your theme, then verify the storefront shortcodes inherit them.
  5. Enter payment credentials, email senders, and SMTP info, then trigger a test checkout.
Captured Settings UI showing Store, Layout, Brand Colors, Payments, and Email & SMTP tabs.

Use live captures from your staging site to replace this placeholder in production docs.

Tips & best practices

Tip: Log the final JSON export of kitbix_commerce_settings in your runbook so teams can diff changes quickly.
Tip: When cloning environments, immediately swap sender emails and API keys to sandbox values to avoid live charges.

Common mistakes

  • Changing currency after publishing products—prices are not converted automatically.
  • Leaving SMTP disabled in production, which pushes all transactional mail through flaky host defaults.
Reminder: Schedule risky changes (currency, tax rate, payment keys) during low traffic windows and retest every shortcode afterward.