Your Limecube shop lets you sell products straight from your website, take payment by card, invoice or in person, manage stock and orders, and even sync everything to Xero. This guide covers every part of the shop that is live today.
Setting up your shop
To add a shop to your site, open the Pages panel in the editor, click the + button, and choose Set Up Shop. Give your shop a menu name (or keep 'Shop') and click Create shop. Your shop page and menu item are created and you are taken straight into it.
Most shop settings live in your shop admin, opened from the shop page. Throughout this guide, menu paths like Catalogue › Variants refer to that admin.
Product options: sizes, colours and more
Sell the same product in different sizes, colours or materials, each with its own price, stock and item code. Limecube keeps a single variant library shared across your whole shop, so you set up 'Size: Small, Medium, Large' once and reuse it on every product.
Step 1: build your option library
- 1In your shop admin, go to Catalogue › Variants.
- 2Click Add variant type and give it a title like Size, Colour or Material.
- 3Tick Show colour swatch if the options are colours. Each value then gets a colour picker and shows as a round dot on your product page.
- 4Tick Allow image upload if choosing an option should change the product photo (great for colours).
- 5Save, then use Add value to add each option. Drag values by the handle to set the order customers see.
Step 2: add options to a product
- 1Go to Catalogue › All Products and open a product.
- 2Find the Variants section and pick a type from the Add option group dropdown.
- 3All values switch on automatically. Click any value to turn it off if this product does not come in that option.
- 4If the type allows images, use Choose image under a value to set the photo for that option. This is per product, so the same 'Navy' can show a different photo on each product.
Step 3: set prices and stock per combination
Click Combination options to open a table with one row per combination (Small + Navy, Small + Black, and so on). For each row you can set:
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Item code / SKU | Leave blank if you do not use codes. |
| Price | Leave blank to use the product's normal price. |
| Inventory | Leave blank to share the product's stock. |
| Availability | Default, Available, Sold out, Out of stock, or Lock to single item. |
Customers see clickable buttons, not dropdowns: colour swatches, image chips or plain text chips depending on your settings. The price and item code update live as options are chosen, and a sold-out combination is dimmed and cannot be added to the cart. The library is shared shop-wide, so deleting a type or value removes it from every product that uses it.
Stock control and item codes
Open any product in Catalogue › All Products. Next to Item code / SKU you will find Inventory: leave it empty for no stock control, or enter a number to track stock. It counts down automatically as orders are paid, and at 0 the product shows as out of stock. If the product has options, leave this field empty and set stock per combination instead.
Item code / SKU is optional. It shows on the product page, makes products findable in your shop's search box, and is what Xero matches on if you use the accounting integration.
Product availability
| Setting | What customers get |
|---|---|
| Available | Normal: they choose any quantity. |
| Lock to single item | Quantity fixed at 1, perfect for one-off or handmade pieces. |
| Sold out | A 'Sold out' label, and it cannot be added to the cart. |
| Out of stock | The same, labelled 'Out of stock'. |
The quantity box will not go past what is left. If a customer tries, they see a message like Stock limit reached, added 3 to your cart. If something in their cart exceeds stock, the Checkout button is disabled until they adjust it. On All Products, use the stock dropdown to filter by In stock, Low stock (1 to 10 left) or Out of stock.
The 'Sold out' badge on your shop grid follows the Product availability dropdown, not the stock number. A product that counts down to 0 shows out of stock on its own page, but to get the badge on the grid, set the dropdown to Sold out as well. There are no low-stock email alerts, so check the Low stock filter periodically. Sold-out products are never hidden or deleted, so customers can still find them.
Import and export products with a spreadsheet
Bulk-add or bulk-edit products by exporting a spreadsheet, changing it, and importing it back. To export: go to Catalogue › All Products and click Export CSV. You get
products-export.csv containing every product in your shop (filters and searches do not affect the export). It opens cleanly in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets. To import: click Import CSV, choose your file, and you get a summary like Products imported: 12. Products updated: 30.How the file works
Each product has a
product row, followed by a variant row for each option combination. Categories are separated with a |, Published is 1 or 0, and availability uses the words in_stock, sold_out, out_of_stock or locked. To add a new product, copy an existing row, change the details, and leave the Product ID cell empty. Rows that keep their Product ID are updated in place.A few traps worth knowing. Always start from a fresh export, older files miss columns and are rejected. It is all or nothing: if any row has an error, nothing imports and you get the problem line numbers. Empty cells erase data: clearing Description, item code, stock or Categories wipes that field (Price and Availability are the exceptions, where blank keeps what is there). Anything other than
1 in the Published column unpublishes the product. New categories and options are created automatically, so a typo permanently adds a stray one, spell-check first. Files must be .csv, up to 20,000 rows.Ways to get paid: card, invoice or in store
Your shop can take money three ways.
| Method | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Credit card (Stripe) | The standard option. Connect Stripe under Configuration › Payment settings, choose your currency, and leave Payment method on Credit card (Stripe). Customers pay immediately with card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. | Most shops |
| Invoice (pay later) | No card taken. Set Payment method to Invoice (pay later). The button becomes Place order and the customer is told an invoice will follow, plus your Invoice instructions (Settings › Emails). | Trade, wholesale, bank transfer |
| Payment in store | Under Configuration › Shipping, tick Local pickup, set Payment to Payment in store, and add your Pickup address. Pickup customers pay on collection. | Click and collect |
Invoice orders appear in Order History marked Invoice pending. When the money lands, click Mark as paid. Payment in store is set per shipping method, so you can take card payments for posted orders while pickup customers pay in person.
If you see Payments haven't been set up for this shop yet on your live site, your shop is missing its payment or currency setup. The All Products page lists exactly what is outstanding.
Tax
Under Payment settings, Tax label (e.g. GST, VAT) and Tax percentage control a line that reads Includes 10% GST on your product pages, cart and checkout.
This is a label only. It does not add tax on top of your prices or change them in any way, so enter your prices with tax already included. You need both fields filled in for the line to show, and each product has a Tax switch to hide it on specific items.
Selling services and digital products
Not everything needs shipping. When editing a product, find the Shipping section and choose Service or digital product instead of Physical product. Those orders skip shipping charges and delivery details. You can then write separate wording for these customers under Configuration › Settings:
- Emails tab, Digital products order email message: what they receive by email.
- Thank You page tab, Digital product message: what they see straight after ordering.
There are matching messages for Pickup orders too, so click-and-collect customers can be told when and where to collect, separately from posted orders.
Connect your shop to Xero
Send your shop orders straight into Xero as invoices, and let Xero keep your stock levels up to date.
What it does
- Creates an invoice in Xero for each order, with a line per product (including chosen options and item code), plus shipping and discount lines.
- Records the payment against that invoice for orders paid online.
- Finds or creates the customer in Xero from the order details.
- Reads stock levels back from Xero, so selling through Xero keeps your shop in step.
- Keeps a full, searchable sync log you can export.
Connecting
- 1In your shop admin, go to Configuration › Xero.
- 2On the Connection tab, follow Step 1 to create your Xero app, copying the Redirect URI shown on screen into Xero exactly as written.
- 3Paste your Client ID and Client Secret from Xero into Step 2 and click Save Changes.
- 4Click Connect to Xero, sign in, and choose which Xero organisation to link.
- 5Click Test Connection to confirm.
Then finish the setup, this bit is essential. Nothing syncs until you map your accounts: go to the Account Codes tab, click Refresh from Xero, choose a Xero account for all five lines (Product, Shipping, Discount, Fee and Payment) and save. If you skip this you will see Missing account mappings and orders will not sync. It is the single most common setup problem.
Worth setting up too
- Sync Settings: when orders sync (Realtime, Scheduled, or Both, which is recommended) and which order statuses trigger it.
- Order Mapping: your invoice number prefix (e.g.
INV-), payment terms in days, and your Xero branding theme. - Tax Mapping: whether your prices include or exclude tax, and which Xero tax rate to use.
- Customer Settings: whether to match customers by email or always create new contacts in Xero.
Keeping stock in step
Xero is the source of truth for stock. After each invoice is created, Limecube reads that product's Quantity On Hand back from Xero: 2 or more shows as available, exactly 1 locks to a single item, and 0 or less marks it sold out. Products in Xero that are not set to track inventory are left under your control in Limecube. You can also click Import Products from Xero on the Sync Settings tab to create shop products from items you already have in Xero. They arrive unpublished so you can add photos and check details first, and it is safe to run more than once.
If an order cannot sync, your customer's checkout still completes normally. Failed orders appear on the Logs & Diagnostics tab with Retry (and Retry All). If Xero rejects an invoice because stock ran out, the order is held for review: top the stock up in Xero, then hit Retry. Disconnecting is safe, your settings and mappings are kept. Refunds and cancellations are not sent to Xero, so handle credit notes and voided invoices in Xero directly.
Help customers find products: search, filters and sorting
Your shop can show a filter panel beside your products, but all of it is switched off by default, so turn on what you need. In the page editor, click your Shop Products area, open its settings, then open the Display filters section and switch on any of:
- Product search: a box that matches product names and item codes.
- Price range: a slider so customers can set a budget.
- Categories filter: clickable category buttons.
- Variants filter: buttons for options like size, with colours shown as swatches.
- Sorting options: a Sort by dropdown (Default, Price low to high, Price high to low, Name A to Z, Name Z to A, Newest and Oldest).
A filter only appears if there is something to filter on. Filtering and sorting happen instantly without reloading, and the web address updates so a customer can bookmark or share a filtered view. On phones the filters fold behind a Filters button, with the search box always visible.
What customers see on a product page
Every product page includes, in order: the breadcrumb trail, the image gallery, the title, the price, the tax line, the item code, any option choices, the quantity box and Add to cart, then the full description.
- Image gallery: one photo shows on its own; several become a slider with arrows and a thumbnail strip. Photos attached to colour options are included, and picking that option jumps straight to its photo.
- Item code: only appears if you have set one, and updates to the specific combination chosen.
- Editable areas above and below: you can drop any page elements around your product, the same as a normal page. This is also how you add a 'You may also like' row, place a Shop Products element below and point it at a category.
Customer accounts and order history
Customers can create an account to keep their details and see past orders. There is no password to remember, they enter their email and Limecube sends a one-time sign-in code. After ordering, customers are invited to Create an account. Once signed in, Your account has two tabs: Profile (contact and address details, plus the option to delete their account) and Order history (every order with its date, items, chosen options, quantities and prices).
Limecube adds these to your shop menu automatically: the cart (only when it has something in it), Your account, each of your categories, and Log out when signed in.
Customers only ever see completed orders. Abandoned checkouts stay hidden from them, though you will still see them in your shop admin.
Managing your orders
Everything lives under Sales › Order History.
- Finding orders: filter by Search, a From/To date range, and Order Status (Shipped or Not shipped), then click Filter. Show 10 to 100 per page.
- Marking an order shipped: use the dropdown in the Order status column and switch it to Shipped.
- Marking an invoice paid: for invoice orders showing Invoice pending, click Mark as paid in the Payment column once the money arrives.
- Editing an order: click any order to change quantities, customer details, or shipping and billing addresses.
- Keeping a copy in Google Sheets: at the bottom of Order History, authorise Google Sheets and every future order is copied to a spreadsheet automatically (new orders take up to five minutes to appear).
Orders cannot be refunded or cancelled from your shop admin. Process refunds in your Stripe dashboard.
Publishing and unpublishing your shop
Your shop can be hidden from visitors while you work on it. In your shop admin sidebar, the Unpublish Shop / Publish Shop button hides or restores it, and the button label always tells you what clicking it will do next. Unpublishing removes the shop from your site's menu; your products, orders and settings are untouched and come straight back when you publish again. Handy while you load your first products, or if you close over a holiday.
Your shop and Google
Every published product page automatically includes a hidden 'product card' for search engines with the name, image, description, price, currency and stock status. That is what lets Google show your price and availability directly in search results, with nothing to switch on. To fine-tune how products appear in search, go to SEO Manager › Page Manager, where the Shop products and Shop categories tabs let you edit page titles and descriptions individually, generate them in bulk with AI, or export and import them as a spreadsheet.
Write product descriptions with AI
Short on words? Limecube's AI Content Writer includes Products as a content type and Product description as a format, so you can generate a first draft from a few details and then edit it to sound like you. Choose Short, Medium or Long depending on the product.
Password-protect a product
To keep a product private (a wholesale line, a members-only item, or something not launched yet), open the product and use the Page Restriction section to set a Password. Only people with the password can view that product's page.
Common questions
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