New store setup checklist: what to configure first before launching

Launching a new store? Everything in Brainerce can be configured in any sequence, but some sequences cost you a weekend of rework.

This checklist covers a physical-goods store, a digital-downloads store, and selling into the EU; the steps that differ are marked.

The sequence, in one line: create the store → connect a storefront → add one product → regions and currency → tax → payment providers → shipping (skip for digital) → email → a real test order → go live.

Connecting a storefront is step 2, not the last step. It is the one people leave until the end and the one that costs the most when they do. Brainerce is only the backend, so until a storefront is wired to it through the SDK there is nothing for a customer to buy from, and anything you designed first gets rewritten to match the real SDK.

1. Create the store

Sign up and run the setup wizard: store basics, then modules, tax, shipping, email, and a summary. See Create your store.

The business type you pick here switches modules on and off for you. Choosing Digital products or Services turns Shipping and Inventory off, which is what you want: no shipping zones to configure, no stock to count. You can change any of it later in Settings → Modules.

2. Connect a storefront before you design anything

Do this second, not last. Brainerce is the backend; your storefront is a separate site that talks to it through the SDK. If you design the storefront first and wire it up afterwards, you rewrite the logic to match the real SDK.

See Connect your storefront. The fastest path is the CLI scaffolder, which writes the connection into a working Next.js storefront for you.

3. Add a product: one, not the whole catalog

Add a single product and get it appearing on your storefront. One real product that works end to end tells you more than fifty that you have not tested.

See Add a product. Bulk import comes later, once you know the shape is right, and remember it only creates, so import each file once.

4. Regions and currency, if you sell abroad

Selling to more than one country in more than one currency? Set up regions now, before you price the catalog. A region binds countries to a currency, a tax-display mode, and the payment providers allowed there.

Do it before pricing because a region decides whether prices are shown tax-inclusive, which changes what number you want to type into the price field.

Selling in one country only? Skip this.

5. Tax

Turn on tax collection and add your rates: Set up taxes. Choose inclusive pricing for the EU, UK and Israel; exclusive for the US.

Brainerce applies the rates you enter. It does not work out where you are registered or what you owe. That part is yours.

6. Payments

Install a provider from Apps → Payment Gateways, connect it with your credentials, then enable it for each region under Settings → Regions.

Both halves matter. Installing a gateway does not put it at checkout; it has to be enabled for the region the buyer is in. This is the single most common reason a checkout shows no payment options. See Connect payment methods.

7. Shipping, only if you ship things

Create at least one zone and one rate. Without an active zone covering the buyer's country and an active rate in it, checkout offers no shipping option and the order cannot complete.

Selling digital goods or services? You turned this module off in step 1. Skip it.

8. Email

Check the templates your customers will receive.

Then verify your own sending domain, which is a copy and paste job at your domain host and takes a few minutes. Until you do, your emails go out from an address shared with every other Brainerce store, so whether they reach the inbox depends partly on how other people send. On your own domain the email says it is from you, and inbox placement depends on your sending alone. See Send from your own domain.

9. Place a real test order

Buy something from your own storefront, start to finish, with a real payment method in test mode. This is the step people skip and regret.

You are checking four things at once: the product appears, a payment method is offered, the order lands in Orders, and the confirmation email arrives.

10. Go live

Switch your payment provider from test to live credentials, and set your sales channel's mode to Live with the real domain. See Sales channels.

11. Tell Google you exist: ten minutes, once

The day you go live, do three small things so search engines and AI assistants start finding the store:

1. Write your homepage meta description in Settings: the sentence Google shows under your store name.
2. Paste your Google site-verification tag in Apps → Google → Merchant Center, then verify the domain in Google Search Console.
3. Check each product has a clean slug and a meta description. The SEO column on the Products page scores this for you.

Everything else (sitemap, structured data, instant indexing pings) your storefront does automatically. The full picture: Get found on Google and Your store in ChatGPT and AI search.

The short version

Create → connect a storefront → one product → regions → tax → payments → shipping → email → test order → live → tell Google.

The two steps that cause the most rework if you leave them late are connecting the storefront (step 2) and regions (step 4). Both change decisions you would otherwise make twice.

What's next?

• Connect your storefront is step 2, the one that matters most.
• Create your store covers the setup wizard in detail.
• What Brainerce does not support is worth reading before you build around an assumption.