Online store setup
Sell products on your own domain
Your account already includes a full catalog, checkout, orders, shipping, tax and digital delivery. There is nothing to install and nothing extra to pay for. What follows is the order to do things in.
The part no separate store platform can give you: a customer who buys a product and a customer who books an appointment are the same client record, on the same domain, under the same brand.
Setup
Six steps, in order
- 01
Add your products
Add them one at a time, or import a CSV. The importer reads a standard Shopify product export, so if you already sell somewhere else you can bring the whole catalog over in one pass. Each product can have variants (size, shade), its own photos, stock tracking and a barcode.
Products - 02
Decide how orders reach people
Turn on local pickup, set a flat shipping rate, or both. A free-shipping threshold and named rates are there when you want them. If everything you sell is a download, you can skip this: digital orders are delivered the moment payment clears.
Shop settings - 03
Set your sales tax
Use the same rate you charge in the studio. It applies to online orders automatically, and you can override it per location if you run more than one. Shipping to other states is where tax gets complicated: talk to your accountant before you lean on it.
Shop settings - 04
Connect your domain
Optional, and free. Your store already lives on your goldenhour address; connecting a domain you own means customers see your brand in the address bar instead. The DNS setup is one-time and takes about ten minutes.
Custom domain - 05
Choose your homepage
Booking-first is the default: your domain opens your booking page and the store lives at /shop. Store-first flips it: your domain opens the store and booking moves to /book. Both surfaces stay live either way, and every link you have already sent keeps working.
Shop settings - 06
Design the store
In the design studio you can set an announcement bar, a store headline and image, which collections lead the page, and your returns, shipping and contact policies. Every change previews before it publishes, and one button reverts the whole thing.
Design studio
Two addresses, one domain
Where everything lives
- Booking-first (the default)
- Your domain opens your booking page. Your store is at /shop.
- Store-first
- Your domain opens your store. Booking is at /book.
- The same in both
- Individual products, the cart, your policies, gift cards, memberships and a customer’s account page never change address. Neither do the manage-my-appointment links in your confirmations.
Questions
Common questions
- Do I need a separate store platform?
- No. Your goldenhour account already includes the catalog, checkout, orders and delivery. Products sell on the same domain as your booking page, and a customer who buys and a customer who books are the same client record, so you can see both in one place.
- What tax rate applies to online orders?
- The same blended rate you charge in the studio, which you set in Shop settings. That is the right answer for pickup and for shipments inside your own state. If you start shipping to other states regularly, ask your accountant before you scale it up: sales-tax obligations across state lines depend on your volume, not on your software.
- Can I sell downloads, videos or courses?
- Yes. A digital product is delivered by a secure per-buyer link the moment payment clears, with download limits and expiry you control. Digital orders never ask for a shipping address, so a downloads-only store needs no pickup and no shipping rate.
- Should the store or the booking page be my homepage?
- Booking-first is the default and the right choice for most studios: appointments are the business, and the store supports them. Flip it when products are the first thing you want a visitor to see. Either way both surfaces stay reachable and every link you have ever sent keeps working.
- What happens to links I have already sent out?
- Nothing breaks. Product, cart and policy links keep the same address in both modes. Your booking page stays reachable at /book on your domain whichever way you set it, so a QR code on a business card printed last year still lands on booking.