From first call to first order — the setup-together process

A lot of founders put off getting a proper store because they imagine it as a project: writing product copy, uploading fifty images, configuring payment gateways, testing checkout, and fixing whatever breaks. That is a fair fear if you are picturing doing it alone. Varchas Stores is set up with you, not handed to you as a task list, and that changes how long it actually takes.

The first conversation

It starts with understanding your brand as it exists today, wherever that is, usually an Instagram page, a WhatsApp catalogue, or both. The Varchas team looks at your current products, your pricing, and how you currently take orders and payments. This is also where your domain question gets settled, whether you want to start on yourbrand.varchas.store or point your own domain at it once its DNS is verified. If you want the background on domains specifically, this post covers it.

Getting the catalogue in

This is usually the part that takes the most back and forth, simply because it depends on how many products you sell and how many variants each one has. Products get set up with their colourways and sizes so a customer picks the exact one they want rather than messaging you to check. If you release limited collections, this is also when a Drop gets structured so it appears as a proper section on your store home instead of just another product listed among the rest. If you sell to resellers or in bulk, lot pricing gets set up here too, so a larger quantity automatically triggers a lower unit price without you doing that math manually on each order.

Connecting payments

Your store takes UPI, cards, and netbanking through Cashfree, and Cash on Delivery if you want to keep offering that. This is configured as part of setup, so by the time your store is live, a customer can actually complete a purchase and pay you, rather than the store looking finished but not functioning underneath.

Setting the look

Your storefront theme, hero image, and hero text get set during this stage too, so the store home reflects your brand rather than looking like a generic template. If you already have reels or YouTube videos that show your brand's story or process, those can go under a "Behind the brand" section on the home page as well.

Testing before it goes live

Before your store is announced to customers, a real order gets tested through the actual payment flow, and the admin panel gets shown to you so you know where orders, invoices, and Leads (checkouts that started but were not paid) will appear. Order tracking and order emails are already active by this point, so a customer's experience is complete from the first order onward.

What "a week" actually means

The timeline depends mostly on how much catalogue you have and how quickly product details come together on your side, since that is the part that cannot be done for you. A brand with a tight catalogue of ten products moves faster than one with eighty products across multiple variants. Either way, the setup is a conversation and a series of checks, not a solo project you are left to figure out.

Once live, running the store day to day mostly means checking the admin for new orders and Leads, similar to what you already do checking DMs, just organised in one place. If you want to understand what that day-to-day admin work looks like once orders start coming in, this post on invoices and order emails is a good next read.

Next step

If you are ready to see this happen for your own brand, the Founding Offer covers the first 10 stores, with no setup fee and setup done together. Get in touch at /early-access to start the first conversation.