Opening a store on PlatformDTC now takes fewer steps, and the store you get on day one shows only what is really yours. We went through everything between signing up and a first sale, and took out what a new merchant should never have had to find, type or wait for.
A real store from the first minute
You sign up with your email address. A store name is optional. Your store is created in your browser's time zone, with a designed theme already live at its own address.
That store's home page is built only from your products: your first product with its photos, price and buy button, then the rest of your catalogue. Before you add a product, it shows your store name and nothing else. There are no sample products, review counts, member counts or discounts you didn't set, and the menu and footer link only to pages your store really has.
Your refund, shipping, privacy, terms and contact policies are written the moment the store is created, so your checkout shows them from the first order. They are rewritten when you change your store name, email, currency or country. Order and shipping emails carry your store's name as the sender, and replies come to you.
Three steps, and the guide only says done when it is
The setup guide on Home has three required steps: add a product, set up payments, take your store live.
- A product counts once it is live. A product with a price that you add from the catalogue or the Supplier Network goes on sale straight away. If all you have are drafts, the guide says how many and offers Make a product live.
- Payments count once your checkout can take cards. Starting the form is not the same as being able to sell, and the guide says so.
- Live means live. When your store's address first serves your store, you get one email, “Your store is live”, with the link.
Designing, checking shipping and tax, connecting your AI and connecting your own domain are optional steps that never stand between you and “all done”. The shipping and tax step tells you in one line what your checkout charges today, for example that shipping is free on every order, and lets you set one flat price per order without leaving Home. Hide for a day puts the guide away, and Show setup guide brings it back.
Getting paid without the wait
Payments are one screen with one button. PlatformDTC Payments is listed first, your country shows in one line, and Start taking payments opens Stripe's secure form on the same page. What we already know about you is filled in, and anything still missing is named in plain words, like “your bank account” or “a photo ID”. The price is the same as everywhere else on PlatformDTC: 2.9% + 30¢ per sale, no monthly fee.
- Checkout turns on by itself. If you never picked a card provider, your checkout uses PlatformDTC Payments as soon as your account can take cards. A provider you picked is never changed.
- Sell before payouts are verified. Your store takes cards as soon as Stripe allows charges. Stripe holds payouts until it has verified your details.
- Apple Pay and Google Pay are switched on for your checkout address when your account can take cards.
- A reminder if you stop half-way. After a day we email you how many details Stripe still needs, with a link back to where you stopped. At most 3 reminders, 3 days apart.
Shipping prices now have one screen, Settings → Shipping, and Taxes and duties is in every store's settings menu with no app to install. Nothing is charged for tax until you add a registration and switch tax on yourself.
Connect once, we do the rest
Every outside channel is on one screen, Settings → Connections.
- Facebook and Instagram. After you connect, your store gets the pixel your ad account used most recently, or a new one, with purchases also sent from our server. Your product catalog is connected once your store is live. If your login has several ad accounts, the one that spent the most in the last 30 days is turned on.
- TikTok. Connecting puts your ad account's pixel on your store and checkout.
- Email from your own domain. Type an address like orders@yourbrand.com, and we show the records to copy into your domain provider, with that provider's own steps when we recognise it.
Bring your own AI
Agents → Connect your AI has a tab each for Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code and other AI apps, with the address to copy and three steps. Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code and Cursor show under their own name. A connected AI can read your store and make everyday changes. Anything that spends money, goes live or messages a customer, such as a support reply or a tracking email, waits for your OK.
So you don't miss those requests, the Agents item in your sidebar shows how many are waiting, and you get an email, “Your AI is waiting for your OK”, with a link to each one, at most every 15 minutes.
Where to read more
Each step is written up in the docs: Set up your store, Set up PlatformDTC Payments, Google Shopping and Facebook catalog and Connect your own agent. Every change is also in the changelog.