As a small business owner, you are probably trying to do a lot with a little. You want to grow your online sales, but your time is limited, and your budget is tight.
Usually, setting up an online store means buying a bunch of different software that doesn’t talk to each other—one tool for your website, another for email marketing, one for keeping track of customers, and a separate one for handling customer complaints.
Salesforce Starter Suite changes all that. Built specifically for small businesses, it puts everything you need to sell online, market your products, and look after your customers into one affordable package. Let’s look at how it works and how it can help your business.
Your Storefront: Design with Easy Drag-and-Drop
You don't need to hire an expensive web developer or know how to code to build a beautiful online store. Salesforce makes it simple.
When you log in, you just open the Commerce section and click on the Experience Builder. From there, you can design your storefront using an easy drag-and-drop editor. You can move things around, add your logos, change colors, and make the store look and feel exactly like your brand in just a few clicks.
How to Add Products and Categories (Step-by-Step)
Adding items to your online shop in Salesforce Starter (or the larger Pro Suite) is straightforward. You can add them one by one using a helpful guide built right into the screen.
Quick Check Before You Start: > Make sure your user profile has the Commerce Admin or Commerce Starter App permission turned on. If you were the person who set up the account originally, you will have this automatically.
Here is the step-by-step process to get your products live:
Step 1: Open the Commerce App
Log into your Salesforce Starter Suite. Click the App Launcher (the icon that looks like a 9-dot grid in the top-left corner), search for Commerce, and click it. Once inside, click on the Store tab.
Step 2: Add Your Product Details
If this is your first time, you can use the Setup Assistant on the screen and click Add your first product. If you’ve done this before, just click the New button. Fill in the basics:
- Product Name: Enter the name your customers will see.
- SKU / Product Code: Enter your own internal item number to track your stock (optional).
- Product Description: Write a clear description of what the item is. A good description helps customers choose to buy and makes it easier for people to find your store on Google.
Step 3: Set Your Pricing
- Selling Price: Type in what you want to charge. (While you can save a product draft without a price, it won't show up on your live website until you add one).
- Strikethrough Price: If an item is on sale, put the original retail price here. Salesforce will automatically show a "Sale" or discount badge to your customers.
Step 4: Pick a Category
Choose a Category (like Parts or Accessories) so customers can easily filter and find what they want while browsing your shop.
Step 5: Add Images
Good pictures sell products. Salesforce gives you two main spots for images:
- List Image: The smaller photo people see when searching your site or looking at their shopping cart.
- Default Image: The main, high-quality photo that shows up first on the actual product page. You can upload these directly from your computer.
Step 6: Save and Publish
Click Save, and your product is ready to go!
Time-Saving Tip: > If you have hundreds of products, entering them one by one is too slow. You can upload your whole inventory at once by clicking the little arrow next to your product list and choosing Import via CSV file to upload an Excel-style sheet instead.
Are you building a whole storefront from scratch, or do you just want to create quick "Pay Now" links to send to customers? Salesforce lets you do both easily.
Checkout and Payments: Getting Paid Made Easy
Cart abandonment—when people put items in a cart but leave before buying—is a big problem for online shops. Salesforce fixes this with Salesforce Managed Checkout, which connects your store directly to Stripe without any complicated setup.
All you have to do is go to Commerce → Settings → Checkout, turn on your account, and check the boxes next to the payment types you want to accept. Your store can automatically accept a massive list of popular payment methods, including:
- Cards: Credit Cards and Debit Cards
- Mobile Wallets: Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Venmo
- Buy Now, Pay Later: Affirm, Afterpay, Klarna
- Bank Transfers: ACH Debit, SEPA
Use Your Own Custom Web Address
When you first open your store, Salesforce gives you a web address that looks like yourbrand.my.site.com.
To make your business look professional, you can easily connect your own custom domain (like www.yourbrand.com). Just go to Settings → Domains → Connect Your Store to a Custom Domain, type your web address in, and click verify.
Why It’s the Best Deal for Small Businesses
The main reason to choose Salesforce Starter Suite over alternatives like Shopify or WooCommerce is that you get everything in one place. For one low price, you aren't just getting an online shop; you are getting a complete toolkit to run your business:
- Sales Starter: Track your leads, deals, and customer details.
- Service Starter: Answer customer questions and handle returns or issues.
- Marketing Starter: Send beautiful, automated emails to your customers based on what they buy.
- Commerce Starter: Your fully functional online store.
All of this costs just $25 (or £20) per month per user (plus a very small transaction fee on your sales).
To put that into perspective: A small business with 5 team members pays just $125 (or £100) a month total. For that price, your entire team gets access to your sales tracking, customer service platform, email marketing tools, and online store—all working together perfectly on the same system.
Need Help Getting Started?
Setting up a new system can feel overwhelming when you are busy running a business. At Digital Commerce Advisor, we are an official Salesforce Consulting Partner. We help small businesses launch, customize, and get the most out of Salesforce without the headache.
Want to get your store up and running quickly? Reach out to us today, and let’s build your online store together.