Create a storefront
The storefront is the last link in the chain, and this is the right moment to build it: a product, a price and a customer exist, so there is something for it to render. A storefront over an empty catalog teaches you nothing.
There are two routes to a running shop, and the choice decides who maintains it for the next five years. Most companies should start with a managed theme. Choose your own site only if you have a frontend team or a storefront you are migrating rather than replacing.
shop.example.de, and someone who can add a DNS record for it. You can build
and preview without one, but a theme cannot go live without a verified domain.Route A: install a theme
- In Experience Studio, go to Extend and Develop › Marketplace.
- Open a theme and read its listing: publisher, version, languages, features, pricing, and the permissions it requests. Themes ask for access to tenant data; read the list rather than clicking past it.
- Select Install. The theme is installed for the tenant and serves nothing yet.
- Go to Surfaces › Domains, add your hostname and follow the verification steps. DNS takes minutes to hours to propagate; the domain's status tells you when it is verified.
- In Extend and Develop › Installed Themes, use Activate on domain and pick the domain.
- Open the theme's Settings tab and set your logo and colours. See Themes and branding.
Route B: deploy your own site
- Go to Extend and Develop › Sites and select Create site.
- Choose the source: a Git repository, where every push to the production branch triggers a build, or a manual upload of your build output.
- Review the install command, build command, output directory and the environment variables discovered in the repository. Mark secrets as secret.
- Deploy. The first build appears in the site's Deployments list.
- In Surfaces › Domains, open your domain, choose Self-hosted storefront under Routing, pick the site, and apply.
What the three audiences see
A B2B storefront shows three different pages from the same content, and this is the check that catches the most. Open the shop three ways:
| Open it as | Confirm |
|---|---|
| Signed out, in a private window | The intended prices, or the intended absence of them, and a way to register |
| The contact from Add a customer | The product, its list price at quantity 1 and the rung at 50 |
| A contract customer, if you set one up | Their price, not the list price |
If any of the three surprises you, the configuration is wrong, and it is nearly always a price-list scope or a login-state setting rather than the storefront. See What buyers see before they log in.
What to check
- Sites shows your storefront with Status built and Live reading Yes, not Out of date.
- For a theme, Installed Themes shows the Live on column naming your domain.
- The domain's status is live and its certificate has a valid-until date in the future.
- The product from Create products is findable by its SKU in the shop's search.
When it does not work
- "No verified domains" when activating a theme: DNS has not verified yet. Finish Domains and going live first.
- The site builds but the domain shows nothing: routing was never applied. A domain with Not routed under Serving is doing exactly that.
- The product is not in the shop: work through the six causes in Why a product is not showing up, starting with the enabled flag.
Next
- Place an order: close the loop as a buyer.
- Guide: Create a storefront in the Storefronts book.
- Product Help: Sites, Domains and Themes.