Getting Started with UltraCart: Navigating the Dashboard

Welcome to UltraCart! This guide will help you familiarize yourself with the primary navigation within your UltraCart account dashboard. Understanding the layout is the first step to setting up and managing your online store effectively.

Understanding the Main Navigation

The UltraCart dashboard features a main navigation menu located on the left-hand side of the screen.

Open

This menu provides access to all the core functions of the platform. Here is a breakdown of the main sections:

Home

This is your central landing page when you log in. It provides an overview of your store's performance, recent orders, and quick links to common tasks. It's a great place to start your day and get a snapshot of your business.

• If you're just getting started, you can use the getting started checklist to go through the basics to quickly begin selling your products online.

• You can easily rearrange widgets and components to make your dashboard as useful as possible for your UltraCart account and for each individual user in your organization.

Configuration

This is where you'll configure various aspects of your account and the UltraCart platform to meet your specific business needs.

• Account and Users: Modify your plan, add and modify users, and link other UltraCart accounts for easy account switching.

• Checkout: Your central hub for everything that has to do with your checkout process, including Payment Processing, Shipping details, Gift Certificates, Single Page Checkout settings, Coupons, Customer Profiles, Return Policy, Terms and Conditions, Universal Sales Tax, Loyalty programs, and more.

• Development: Configure API Keys, access the Data Warehouse, Webhooks, and more for advanced integrations and data management.

• Integrations: Setup and configure specific integrations for accounting, channel partners, CRM, Memberships, migration services, and more.

• Order Management: Configure order settings like Accounts Receivable retry settings, order processing, chargebacks, custom fields, setup POS terminals and locations, automate task generation, refund and reject reasons, export orders, and more.

• Email Notifications: Customize email notifications sent to your customers and configure wholesale-specific email settings.

• Items: Configure universal item settings such as pricing tiers, reviews, storewide item options, automate task generation related to items, and more.

StoreFronts

This is where you customize the appearance and functionality of your online store, including marketing pages, checkout content, A/B Tests, Marketing Flows, Email communication, and more. You can manage themes, layouts, content pages, navigation menus, and integrate with third-party services to enhance your customer's shopping experience. Each UltraCart account can have multiple storefronts, and each storefront that is set up will be displayed here.

Within the StoreFronts section, you will find a variety of sub-menus to configure specific aspects of your online store:

• General: Basic settings for the selected storefront, such as store name, theme selection, and contact information displayed on the storefront.

• Appearance: Control the overall look and feel, including fonts, colors, and visual styles.

  • Themes: Select, customize, and manage the visual themes applied to your storefront.

  • Templates: Edit the underlying Velocity templates that structure your storefront pages.

  • CSS: Directly edit the Cascading Style Sheets for advanced styling customization.

• Content: Manage various content blocks and elements used throughout the storefront.

  • Blog Posts: Create and manage blog content for your storefront.

  • Pages: Create and edit custom content pages (e.g., About Us, Contact Us, FAQs).

  • A/B Experiments: Set up and manage A/B tests to optimize storefront elements for conversion.

  • Menus: Configure the navigation menus displayed on your storefront.

  • Search: Configure storefront search settings and indexing.

  • Search Engine Optimization: Manage SEO settings like meta titles, descriptions, and sitemaps for your storefront.

  • Social: Link social media accounts and configure social sharing features.

  • Store Locator: Set up and manage a store locator if you have physical locations.

  • Upsells: Configure rules and display settings for upsell promotions.

  • Language: Manage multi-language settings for your storefront.

• Communication: Configure customer communication preferences related to this storefront.

  • Campaigns & Flows: Access tools for creating marketing campaigns and automated flows specific to this storefront.

  • Library: Store, modify and access your own prebuilt campaigns and flows or access pre-built flows shared by UltraCart or other merchants. 

  • Lists and Segments: Create and manage customer lists and segments for targeted marketing.

  • Transactional Emails: Customize the design and content of transactional emails sent from this storefront.

  • Customers: View customer information related to interactions on this specific storefront.

  • Settings: Settings specific to the storefront's communication.

• Recordings: Access session recordings or analytics related to user behavior on the StoreFront.

• File Manager: Manage files uploaded for use on the storefront.

• Privacy & Tracking: Configure cookie policies, tracking scripts, and privacy settings.

• Advanced: Access deeper, more technical settings for the storefront.

• Server Logs: View logs related to the storefront's server activity.

When first setting up your storefront, you will likely focus on sections like General, Appearance, Themes, Templates, Pages, and Menus to establish the basic look and structure of your online store.

Items

This section is where you manage all your products and services. You'll create or import new items, configure pricing, manage inventory levels, add descriptions and images, and set up item-specific shipping and tax rules, manage reviews, and anything else that has to do with specific items.

Operations

Operations contains general operational sections like Customers, Orders, Reporting, and 3rd Party Email Marketing integrations.

• Customers: Manage and view customer activity, import or export customers, set up pricing tiers and loyalty programs, and more.

• Orders: View, process, fulfill, and manage customer orders from placement to completion.

• Reporting: Access various reports to analyze sales data, customer behavior, inventory, and other key metrics.

• 3rd Party Email Marketing: Configure connections and settings for external email marketing services.

Advanced

The Advanced section contains the Affiliate management section and Developer Tools.

• Affiliate Management: Allows you to set up specific Affiliate marketing groups, configure commissions, set up Custom email templates, manage affiliate and Merchant links, list Affiliates and their commissions, and view related reports.

• Developer Tools: Access tools and settings primarily for developers, potentially including API access details beyond the main Configuration section.

Conversations

The conversations engine allows you to interact with your customers using the integrated StoreFronts webchat as well as SMS (using the Twilio integration). This powerful platform provides a streamlined and completely integrated chat platform within the UltraCart system, allowing you to send coupons, manage customer orders, and more directly within one unified chat interface.

Tasks

Add, assign, and manage tasks for users in your UltraCart Account. For example, you can assign users tasks for orders, item updates or management, customer communication, StoreFront management, and more, contextually within the UI so the user doesn't have to go find the data or information that the task is related to. Users can quickly view active tasks and jump right to the order, item, or section within the platform so the context is immediately apparent for quick task resolution.

Support

Add, manage, and update support tickets. Ask any questions about all things UC here. Our staff will respond quickly and help with any issues that you have with the platform.

This is the first in a series of pages designed to help you setup your UltraCart account.