Seller storefronts and the stores directory

On a multi-seller marketplace, regular sellers want a place of their own: a page with their name and logo that they can share, where buyers browse only their items. With storefronts, each seller can turn their profile into a store. The stores directory at /stores then lists every store on your site, so buyers can find sellers as well as items.

Storefronts are part of the Marketplace plan and work with the Nova theme.

Switch storefronts on

Storefronts are off until you switch them on:

1. Go to Settings › General.
2. In Business sellers, switch on Seller storefronts.
3. Click Save changes in the bar at the bottom.

The switch only shows on the Marketplace plan with the Nova theme. If it says Set by Yclas support for your site, ask us through Support to change it.

How a seller sets up their store

1. In the menu of their account pages, the seller clicks My store.
2. They fill in the store details (see below) and click Save.
3. Once the store is saved, they add a Logo (square) and a Banner (wide) under Pictures, and save again.

Field	What it’s for
Store name	Required, up to 120 characters.
Short address	A short link to the store, such as /store/smith-tools, made from the name if left empty. Lower-case letters, numbers and dashes; each store’s must be different.
Tagline	One line under the name, up to 200 characters.
About the store	Who they are and what they sell.
Shipping policy	How and when they ship.
Returns policy	Their returns terms. Buyers also see it when they ask for a return.
Search engines: Title and Description	The store’s own title (up to 70 characters) and description (up to 170) in Google. Left empty, the store name and tagline are used.

Pictures follow your photo settings for file types and size. Remove under a picture takes it off.

What buyers see

A seller’s store replaces their profile page, at the same address (/user/their-name); the short address leads there too. The store shows:

• the banner, logo, store name and tagline;
• the seller’s published listings, with category buttons and a Search this store box of their own;
• About the store, Shipping and Returns, when the seller filled them in.

Sellers who haven’t set up a store keep their normal profile. A store with no published listings is kept out of search engines until it has some.

The stores directory

With storefronts on, /stores lists every store on your site, 24 to a page. Each card shows the store’s banner, logo, name, tagline and number of listings, and links to the store.

Buyers can:

• search stores by name or tagline (Search stores);
• filter by category, to see the stores that sell in it;
• sort by most listings (the default), newest or name.

Only stores of active sellers with at least one published listing are listed. The directory is in your sitemap; a search or a filter is kept out of search engines so Google sees one directory, not hundreds of copies. Each store page has a Stores link back to the directory in its breadcrumbs.

The directory isn’t added to your menu automatically. Add a link to /stores in your menu so buyers can find it.

If one of your categories already uses stores as its URL name, /stores keeps showing that category and there is no directory. Rename the category’s URL to use the directory.

Good to know

• If you switch storefronts off, profiles go back to normal and the short addresses stop working. Sellers’ store details are kept for when you switch them on again.
• Stores are in your sitemap, so search engines find them.

Related guides

• Member profiles — the profile page a store replaces, and the members directory.
• Business sellers — business accounts, bulk import and stock feeds.
• Sales dashboard for sellers — every seller’s sales and views.
• Menu and footer links — add the stores directory to your menu.