Checklist: What to include before publishing your shop in Aida AI Website Builder

With Aida AI Website Builder, you can set up and manage your Online Shop with help from Aida in the chat. Aida will guide you through the shop setup, but it's good to know what you need before publishing your shop on your website.

There are some minimum requirements, including at least one product, a shipping method, a payment method and your shop information. Other things, such as a return policy and terms and conditions, are also good to include. Below, you'll find detailed instructions for setting up and managing each of these in your Online Shop.

Note: You need a Commerce plan to publish an Online Shop on your Aida AI Website Builder site.

• Online Shop checklist
• Product
• Payment method
• Shipping
• Shop information
• Terms and conditions
• Privacy policy
• VAT and tax settings
• Consent banner
• Withdrawal button (EU requirement)

Online Shop checklist

Items required for publishing:

• 1 product (physical or digital)
• 1 payment method
• 1 shipping method (does not apply to digital products)
• Shop information 

The following items will not block you from publishing your shop, but they might be needed for legal reasons. Make sure to always check which specific legal requirements apply in the country where your business operates.

• Terms and conditions (including return policy, cancellation policy)
• Privacy policy
• VAT and tax settings
• Withdrawal button (if you're in the EU)

Product

You can create one or more products by telling Aida to create them for you. Describe what you want; add a name and any relevant information for the product, such as size or colour. You can also upload an image of your product without additional information, or upload an entire CSV file if you already have a product catalogue at hand.

You can also create a product manually. Go to Online Shop > Products, click the yellow + Add product button and enter the required product information.

You can read more about adding products in our general guide on getting started with an Online Shop in Aida AI Website Builder.

Payment method

You can add a payment method once Aida has set up your shop.

1. Click the Settings (gear) icon in the navigation panel on the left side of the editor.
2. Go to Payments & VAT.

Depending on what you want to start with, you then have the following options:

• Manual payment - Manual payment doesn't require a connection to a payment provider. For example, you can use it to let customers pay by bank transfer.
• Shore Pay (credit cards and other online payments) - Connect Shore Pay if you want customers to pay by credit card or other supported online payment methods.

Manual payment:

1. Click Manage next to Manual payment.
2. Change the status to Active.
3. Add a name (such as "bank transfer"), a description of what the method is, and instructions for how to use it.
4. Click Save.

Shore Pay (credit card and other online payments):

1. Click +Connect next to Shore Pay.
2. Fill in the setup form. If you have an existing Shore Pay account, you can use the details for that.
3. Click Connect at the bottom of the form.
4. You'll now be redirected to Shore. Follow the onboarding to complete the setup.
5. Once finished, you'll be directed back to your Online Shop settings, where you should see a "Connected" label on Shore Pay if the connection was successfully established.

Shipping

If you sell physical products in your shop, you need to add shipping and delivery details. 

1. Go to Online Shop > Shipping.
2. Click +Add option to add a new shipping option. Once added, you can edit it by clicking the pencil icon next to it.

• If you want to send things by mail, you must add custom shipping; make sure to add destinations and the cost of shipping to these places. You can set flat-rate fees, and you can decide if shipping should be free above a certain amount.
• If you have a physical store and allow local pickup, make sure to add the address of your shop. You can also add instructions for in-store pickups, such as dedicated pick-up hours or what the customer needs to bring when they pick up their purchase.

Shop information

Shop information must be added as this will affect the prices you advertise and which details are displayed on your invoices.

1. Click the Settings (gear) icon on the left.
2. Go to Shop settings.
3. Fill out the details and click Save at the bottom.

Terms and conditions

In some jurisdictions (like the EU), having terms and conditions is a legal requirement for webshops, with specific content mandated. Rules vary by location, so check your local requirements.

Note that what we outline here are general guidelines - not legal advise. Once you have checked up on your local requirements, you can paste a description of them into the chat and ask Aida to create a 'Terms and conditions' page on your website.

Even where not required, terms and conditions are worth having - they set clear expectations and rules for both you and your customers, saving everyone potential trouble.

Terms and conditions could include:

• Company info: name, address, registration/VAT number, contact details
• Products and pricing: descriptions, prices, VAT, right to correct errors
• Ordering: how contracts form, payment methods/timing, right to refuse orders
• Delivery: times, costs, risk transfer
• Returns: withdrawal period (14 days in EU), process, refund terms, exceptions
• Warranty & complaints: statutory rights, how to complain
• Liability limits: caps on damages, force majeure
• IP: content/trademark ownership
• Dispute resolution: governing law, jurisdiction
• Right to amend: how updates are communicated

Note: Unfortunately, Aida can't read external links uploaded to the chat. Once you know what you need, please upload descriptions rather than third-party documents.

Privacy policy

A privacy policy tells visitors what happens to their data when they interact with your website and shop. You generally need one if you do any form of data tracking - like collecting messages via a contact form or using analytics tools. 

As with terms and conditions, what we outline here are general guidelines rather than legal advice. The exact requirements depend on your local jurisdiction, so make sure to check which rules apply to you.

Once you've done that, you can ask Aida to create a privacy policy page tailored to your needs.

Here's a list of some of the topics a privacy policy could address:

• Data collected: What personal info you gather and how (forms, cookies, third parties). 
• Use: Why you collect it - service delivery, marketing, analytics, etc. 
• Sharing: Whether it's shared or sold to third parties, and when. 
• Storage & security: How long it's kept and how it's protected. 
• User rights: Rights to access, correct, delete, or export data (e.g., GDPR, CCPA). 
• Compliance: Meets legal requirements (GDPR, CCPA, COPPA, etc.) and documents accountability. 

VAT and tax settings

You can set VAT and tax details in your Aida Online Shop dashboard.

1. Go to Settings (gear icon) in the panel on the left.
2. Click Payments & VAT.
3. Set the VAT status to Active.
4. Add the VAT rate rate you want to apply.
5. Slide the toggle near the bottom if you want to apply VAT to shipping.
6. Click Save.

Consent banner

By activating your consent banner, you can help your website meet basic requirements for cookie consent.

1. Go to the Settings page.
2. Click Consent banner.
3. Change the visibility to Active. 
4. Publish your website. This starts a scan of your site. Within 24 hours, a consent banner with a cookie policy based on the scan will be visible on your website.

The consent banner's language will always be determined by the language set in the visitor's browser.

Withdrawal button (EU requirement)

Certain shops within the EU must offer their customers an easy way to withdraw an order online. This requirement applies to contracts with customers (B2C) only.

Aida doesn't have a built-in function for this, but you can use the contact form component to set up the withdrawal form and add a button to your website footer with a link to this form. Your customers can then click the button to access the form, add a few details and send the form to you.

You must reply to a withdrawal request without undue delay, meaning within a day or so after the customer has submitted it. Your confirmation email should include a confirmation that the request was received, the customer's submitted details and the date and time of the submission.

Related articles:

• How to set up an Online Shop with Aida AI Website Builder
• FAQ: Aida AI Website Builder