|
Some merchants may want to preserve their main online presence on their existing WordPress site while merely linking to their Shift4Shop store for orders.
The following information will help you accomplish this.
This article contains the following sections. Please click on a link below to review its respective topic.
Note
These instructions will assume that you are familiar with using and setting up links on Wordpress. If you need assistance in creating links within your Wordpress site, please refer to the documentation provided by your Wordpress provider.
Linking to and from your Shift4Shop Store
Back to Top
The easiest method to direct traffic from your Wordpress site to your Shift4Shop site is to create a link that lands on your store's home page. For example, a link labeled "Shop our Store" that would go to your Shift4Shop store's main URL. Visitors viewing your main site would click on this link and be directed to your store to browse your products and shop. Then, after they've browsed and/or made their purchases, they can go back to your Wordpress site through a link on your Shift4Shop store that directs users back to the Wordpress site.
Retrieving your Store URL
Back to Top
The first step in this process is retrieving the store URL that you would link to in Wordpress.
- Log into your Shift4Shop Online Store Manager
- Using the left hand navigation menu, go to Settings >General >Store Settings.
- Look for the "Store URL" field located about halfway down the page.
- Copy this URL for the link that you'll be creating on the Wordpress site
After creating the link on your Wordpress site, visitors to your main site that click on this link will be directed to your Shift4Shop store.
Tip
Most merchants that want to keep their online presence and merely link to their Shift4Shop store in this fashion will use a sub-level domain for their Shift4Shop store's URL. For example, www.domain.com is your Wordpress site and store.domain.com would be your Shift4Shop store's URL. To do this, you would need to create an A Record with your domain registration service.
Click here for more information.
Next, we'll describe how to set up a link on your Shift4Shop store that will direct users back to your Worpress site
Linking back to your Wordpress Site
Back to Top
To create a link on your Shift4Shop store that resolves to your Wordpress site, take these steps.
From your Shift4Shop Online Store Manager:
- Go to Content >Site Content
- In the "Menu Links" section, click on the "+ Add" button
- Provide a name for the link. For example "Main Site" or something similar.
- Leave the "Sub Menu of:" setting as "New"
- Set the sorting to set the location of the link on your store's menu bar
The higher the number, the farther on the list it will display.
- Click on the "Add" button to add the link.
At this point, you've created a link that goes to an extra page on your Shift4Shop store. Next, we'll tailor it to redirect to your Wordpress site.
Under the Menu Links section, locate the link you just created.
- Look to the far right of the page name and click on its Action Wheel
- Select "Content"
- At the very top of the next page, enter your Wordpress site's URL in the "Link" field
(Be sure to use the full URL including the http:// prefix.
- Then click "Save" at the top right to commit your changes.
After following these steps, your Shift4Shop store will contain a link directing visitors to your Wordpress site which they can use after browsing your products and/or making a purchase.
Tip
An alternative to creating a new link to direct traffic back to your Wordpress site is to use the existing "Home" link already set up on your Shift4Shop store. This way, people clicking on "Home" are taken back to your Wordpress URL. To do this, ignore steps 1 through 6 above and simply go with steps 7 through 10 using the "Home" menu link already provided.
You may also take this opportunity to "Hide" any pre-existing links like the "About Us" or "Contact Us" links if they are not needed.
Linking to your Shift4Shop Products
Back to Top
You can also create links on your Worpress site that link directly to products on your Shift4Shop store. Here we'll go over the steps needed to retrieve the URLs for individual products.
- Log into your Shift4Shop Online Store Manager
- Using the left hand navigaiton menu, go to Products >Product List
- Locate the product that you'd like to link on your Wordpress site and click on the product's thumbnail image, ID or Name to open it up
- Next, click on the product's "Advanced" tab found along the top.
- Scroll down the page until you see the "Buy Button" and "Link to this Product" fields.
Each of these URLs can be used as links directly to the product on your Wordpress site.
- Buy Button
This URL can be used to create an "Add to cart" link to the product which will automatically add the item to cart and begin the purchase process for the visitor.
*Please see Additional Information below in regards to using this URL.
- Link to this product
This URL can be used to create a direct link to the product on your Shift4Shop store.
Unlike the "Buy Button" described above, this URL will only link the visitor to the product page for viewing.
Adding the item to cart can then be manually done by the visitor when viewing the product.
*Additional Information
If using the "Buy Button" mentioned above, you will need to provide your own image for the button. You will also need to toggle a specific setting in your Shift4Shop store to actively allow external linking to the add to cart function.
- Log into your Shift4Shop Online Store Manager.
- Using the left hand navigation menu, go to Settings >General >Store Settings.
- Next, click on the "General" tab found along the top of the page.
Once you arrive at the General Tab page, look towards the bottom left for a section labeled "Other Options" and make sure that there's a mark in the "Allow external 'Add to cart' links" checkbox.
- Click "Save" at the top right of the page to commit your changes.
Please click here for more information on using the "Buy Button" option.
|