Walk through building an ecommerce store with Salesforce Starter Suite in seven steps: sign up, brand it, add products, set checkout options, connect Stripe, enable order emails, and launch. The video covers setup basics and optimization tips using AI tools like conversational agents.
April 17, 2025
Over 3,000 small, medium and growth business leaders
8 in 10
81%
75%
Stick around to learn how to set up and optimize your online store in seven easy to follow steps in the latest edition of the SMB Trends Report, we surveyed over 3,000 small, medium and growth business leaders around the world, and this is what we found. Over half of the leaders surveyed are concerned about falling behind technologically, with some saying they feel overwhelmed with the pace of changing technology. Additionally, 8 in 10 SMB leaders say that they're willing to spend more on on trusted vendors and scalable technology for growing businesses. Investing in a platform that is not only easy to use, scalable and affordable is crucial to your business's success, especially when you're looking at new ways of selling online. Which is why today we're talking shop and I'm giving you seven steps to set up your online store in Starter Suite. Plus, I'll even share a few ways that you can optimize your store once it's up and running. And hint, hint you yeah, it's AI. Now, whether you're just starting out or looking to take your e commerce game to that next level, this video is for you. 81% of SMB leaders surveyed are optimistic about their business's future given the advancements in technology. And building your business on a platform with endless room for growth is the first step in the right direction. Which is why Salesforce's Starter Suite is the easiest way to get started with the world's number one AI CRM. Now this solution brings marketing, sales, service and commerce together into one easy to use suite. So you have the tools that you need to grow fast all in one deeply connected platform. So let's walk through the seven step process of setting up your online storefront with starter suite. Step 1 Sign up for Salesforce Starter Suite Starter Suite is designed for small businesses and includes essential CRM and commerce features. Now once you get set up, you'll notice that in the commerce app of Starter Suite, there's a wizard that walks us through the different setup steps we need to get started. Step 2 Brand your storefront let's click in and right away you'll notice we have a starting template here for us to use. Now you can quickly add your own content, logos, colors and other styling options, or you can even enter your existing website and our tool will try to grab these things automatically for you and and as you make your updates and tweak the site, you can see how it will look on desktop and mobile form factors. So you can really use a simple wizard if you want to, or you can open up the experience Builder where you can redesign the page however you like. Step 3. Add your product catalog. Alright, so now that our storefront exists, let's add our products to it. So let's click to create a new product and as I add the product information on the left hand side of the page, I can see what it'll look like on our commerce site in this little preview pane on the right. So as we add the product name, you'd see how it would appear on the site and we can just keep adding more information like the sales price and the strikethrough price. Then we'll add some images from our product. You can even group your products into categories to make it easier for your customers to find and search for new and relevant items. When this entry looks good, hit, save and repeat this process for all the products you want to add to your branded ecommerce storefront. Step 4. Determine if you want your customers to register for an account or be able to check out as a guest. So for this next step of the setup wizard, we're really just going in to flip a switch. And when we enable this step, we're basically telling Salesforce to create two separate profiles. One for guests who have not logged in and and one for customers who have logged in. This could take up to an hour, so grab a cup of coffee and hold tight while it does its thing. You'll notice that the box is checked when the job is finally complete. And this is great because it allows you to personalize the experience individuals have on your website depending on their profiles. STEP 5. Connect your payment gateway and payment methods. The first thing we'll do is is connect Salesforce to our payment gateway and for this instance it is stripe. And from there you select the payment methods you'd like to accept. You could choose to accept Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, Google Pay, and as you can see, there's a whole host of other payment methods. Now when you're done, you finish setting all your specifics and that's it. You can now handle payments on your site. Step 6. Set up a payment confirmation email. Now that your payment methods are set up and you are now allowing people to make purchases from your website, your next step is to turn on the order confirmation emails as well. Now this is simple. Just flip a switch to turn it on and Salesforce gives you an email template that you can use right out of the box. You know, I think it's actually pretty robust, but you want to tweak it so it's really to your liking. Step seven. Launch your store. Alright, so now that the steps in the wizard are complete. Okay, let's walk through the entire experience as if we were a customer. Customers can now go to our branded commerce storefront. They can navigate using the menu or just search for our products. When they find something that they like, they can drill into that product to learn more about it. They can see pictures, see the details, see the price, and if they like it, they can add it to their cart and from there they can complete the purchase and using any one of the various payment methods that we set up earlier. And when that order is placed, they're going to get a confirmation message on the screen as well as an automated email in their inbox. And boom. Just like that. You've now created your branded e commerce storefront. Yeah, see, not too difficult. Now I know you just set up your storefront, but these next tips will make sure that you don't fall behind. Now optimizing your storefront. This is just as important as broadening your reach. It's about learning from your customers behaviors through every interaction and continuing to iterate making their experience with you better every time. Did you know that 75% of SMBs are investing in AI in some capacity and growing SMBs are 1.8 times more likely to invest in AI. AI offers an equal footing for small and medium sized business owners can competing with big retailers through trusted tools and resources. It's pretty much like having a team of experts working 247 to help you succeed. So here are three ways investing in AI tools will improve the online store experience for your customers. Invest in conversational AI built directly into your storefront. Now I'm sure you've all heard about AgentForce by now, but in case you haven't, AgentForce is the agentic layer of the Salesforce platform. Adding an AI agent as a personal shopping assistant for your customers is the fastest way to boost conversion rates and provide that white glove experience that we want for our customers. Alright. Send personalized promotions with an internal assistive agent. Creating promotions that are relevant and appealing to your target audience while abiding by your brand guidelines can be challenging. With AI, you can automatically create promotions for a specific segment of buyers and based on customer behavior and preferences, let AI power your customer support channels. Adding AI capabilities to your salesforce org is a long term investment that is worth every penny. When your business skyrockets like I know it will, you can apply AI to multiple support channels like chat, email and phone. Quick and helpful responses can boost customer satisfaction. Now with all that we're just scratching the surface of what growing businesses can do once they set up their commerce storefront. So to learn more, check out our blog and visit Trailhead, our free online learning platform where you can learn all about our SMB solutions. I've added a link in description and guess what? That's it for today. So to learn more about how Salesforce can help you and your business, click the link on screen. You know what? I'll also drop a few resources in the description for you because I care. So thanks so much for watching and we'll see you next time.
