Setting Up Your E-commerce Store

Category: Shops Reading time: 6 min

Groomera includes a built-in e-commerce store that lets you sell grooming products directly from your public storefront. Clients browse, add to cart, and check out with Stripe — no third-party store required. This guide walks through adding products, managing inventory, handling orders, and generating shipping labels.

Before You Start — Connect Stripe

Product purchases go through Stripe Connect — the same payment system used for service bookings. Before listing any products for sale, make sure your Stripe account is fully connected.

To verify:

1. Go to Settings → Payments or Settings → Billing
2. Check that your Stripe Connect account shows as Active or Connected
3. If it's not connected, click Connect Stripe and follow the setup flow

Until Stripe is connected, products can be displayed on your storefront but clients won't be able to complete a purchase.

How the Store Appears to Clients

Your product store is automatically embedded in your public storefront at groomera.com/[zipcode]/[username]. Clients scroll past your services and see your product listings below.

Each product shows:

• Product name and photo
• Short description
• Price
• An Add to Cart button

Clients can add multiple products to their cart and check out in one transaction via Stripe. Payments go directly to your connected Stripe account.

Step 1 — Go to Products

1. Log in as an owner
2. Click Products in the left sidebar
3. You'll see your product inventory list (empty to start)
4. Click + Add Product to create your first listing

Step 2 — Add a Product

Fill in the product form:

Click Save to publish the product to your storefront immediately.

Step 3 — Upload Product Photos

Product photos make a significant difference in purchase conversion. Clients can't touch or smell the product — the photo is their only visual reference.

Best practices:

• Use a clean background (white or light gray works best)
• Show the full product clearly — front label visible
• 800×800 pixels minimum; square format preferred
• Add a second photo showing the product in use or alongside a pet for context

Photos are uploaded and hosted via Cloudinary — just drag and drop your image file in the upload area.

Managing Inventory

Groomera tracks stock quantities for each product. When a client purchases a unit, the quantity decrements automatically.

When stock hits 0: The product is marked as Out of Stock and the Add to Cart button is replaced with an "Out of Stock" label. The product remains visible but isn't purchasable.

To restock:

1. Open the product listing
2. Update the Stock Quantity field to the new count
3. Save — the product immediately becomes purchasable again

To hide a product without deleting it: Set stock quantity to 0 or use the Deactivate toggle if available. The listing disappears from your storefront until you re-enable it.

Viewing and Managing Orders

When a client purchases a product, an order is created in your dashboard.

To view orders:

1. Go to Products in your sidebar
2. Click the Orders tab (or navigate to Orders if it's a separate section)
3. You'll see a list of all product orders with:

- Client name and contact info - Products ordered and quantities - Order total - Payment status (Paid / Pending / Refunded) - Shipping status (Unfulfilled / Shipped / Delivered) - Shipping address

Click any order to open the full detail view.

Generating Shipping Labels

For products that require shipping, Groomera integrates with Shippo and EasyShip to generate labels directly from your dashboard.

Setting Up Shippo or EasyShip

1. Go to Settings → Integrations (or Settings → Shipping)
2. Find the Shippo or EasyShip section
3. Enter your API key from your Shippo/EasyShip account
4. Save

If you don't have a Shippo or EasyShip account, sign up at goshippo.com or easyship.com. Both offer free tiers for low-volume shipping.

Generating a Label for an Order

1. Open the order from your Orders list
2. Verify the shipping address is complete and correct
3. Click Generate Shipping Label
4. Choose your carrier preference and shipping speed
5. Confirm the shipment details and click Purchase Label
6. The label downloads as a PDF — print and attach to your package

The order's shipping status updates automatically to Shipped once a label is generated.

💡 For local pickup orders: If a client is picking up in person, skip label generation and manually update the order status to Fulfilled from the order detail view.

In-Person vs. Online Sales

Your Groomera store handles online product orders placed through your storefront. In-person retail sales (client buys a bottle of shampoo at the counter) are not processed through the Groomera product checkout — handle those through your point-of-sale system as normal.

For income tracking purposes, you can log in-person retail sales manually in Budget & Expense under income entries. This keeps your financials accurate even for cash transactions.

What Products Should You Sell?

If you're not sure where to start, these categories consistently perform well in grooming retail:

Start with 5–10 products max. A focused, curated selection performs better than an overwhelming catalog — and is easier to manage inventory for.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I offer free local pickup instead of shipping? Yes. If you don't want to deal with shipping at all, simply don't set up a shipping integration. Clients can still purchase products online and collect them at their next appointment — note this in your product descriptions ("Available for pickup at our shop").

Q: Can clients return products? Returns are handled between you and the client — Groomera doesn't manage return logistics. If you agree to a refund, process it manually through your Stripe dashboard. Then update the inventory count in Groomera accordingly.

Q: Will product sales show in my reports? Yes. Product revenue is tracked separately from service revenue in your Reports section, so you can see how much of your total income comes from retail vs. appointments.

Q: Can I sell digital products (e.g., care guides, downloadable content)? Currently, the product system is designed for physical goods with inventory tracking. Digital product delivery isn't supported in the current version.

Q: What currencies are supported? Groomera supports the currencies available through your Stripe account. For most users, this includes USD, CAD, GBP, EUR, and AUD, among others. Your Stripe account currency setting determines what clients are charged in.

Related articles:

• Tracking Expenses and Income →
• Reading Your Reports →
• My Public Storefront Isn't Loading →