# Quickstart

> From an empty account to a test sale: create a store, publish a product, connect a payment method, and buy from yourself.

Page: https://sellstamp.com/docs/getting-started/quickstart

## Create your account and store

[Sign up](https://sellstamp.com/register). Setup first asks what you came to sell, then your store’s name, country and currency, then offers a first product and a design. You can skip any step. Everything it asks is also on the setup guide below, so a skipped step is still there to come back to.

## The setup guide

Your store’s **Overview** page opens with a setup guide. These are its items, in its order, and each one links to the screen that completes it:

1. **Complete your store profile**. Store name, seller type, country and currency.
2. **Choose your store address**. The web address customers use to reach your store.
3. **Add a support email**. Where customers reach you about their orders.
4. **Publish your first product**. A draft is invisible — customers can only buy a published product.
5. **Upload the file you're selling**. Products deliver automatically once a file is attached.
6. **Upload your logo**. Shown at the top of your storefront.
7. **Set up a payment method**. Required before your store can take paid orders.
8. **Choose your Sellstamp plan**. Selling needs a plan. Start a free trial — no card required.
9. **Customize your storefront**. Accent color, heading and store description.
10. **Review your store policies**. Confirm your refund and delivery terms are accurate.
11. **Preview your store**. See exactly what customers will see.
12. **Publish your store**. Make your storefront available to customers.
13. **Run a test purchase**. Buy from your own store on the test rail — payment, delivery, licence and email, end to end, before a customer does it for you.
14. **Make your first sale**. Your first real order from a customer lands here.

The next three sections cover the steps people most often get stuck on.

## Add a product

Go to **Products → All products** and create one. Pick what it delivers: a file download, a licence key, a serial key from a pool, a subscription, or a physical good. A new product starts as a draft, and customers only see it once you publish it.

A download product needs its file first. The file is scanned for malware when it finishes uploading, and a product whose file has not passed the scan cannot be published. See [Products and options](https://sellstamp.com/docs/products/products-and-variants) and [Downloadable files](https://sellstamp.com/docs/products/downloadable-files).

## Connect a payment method

Go to **Payments**. Once your store has a country, each method shows whether it works there. That is guidance, not a gate. If you hold an account somewhere else, you can still connect it.

If you only need one, the usual first choice is a card processor with a hosted page (Stripe, PayPal, Mollie) or, where it is how people pay locally, a bank transfer or a QR rail. [How checkout works](https://sellstamp.com/docs/payments/how-checkout-works) explains what the customer sees, and each processor has [its own page](https://sellstamp.com/docs/payments/stripe).

## Make a test sale

Go to **Orders → All orders** and press **Run test purchase**. It buys from your own store on a test payment rail and runs every real step: the order, a signed payment webhook, fulfilment, the licence or download, and the receipt email. It reports which step failed, if one did. You do not need a payment method connected first.

A test order is a real order row marked as a test. It is left out of revenue, invoices, affiliate commissions and your plan’s order allowance, and it is labelled wherever it appears.

## Publish

Preview the store, then publish it from the setup guide. Your first real sale ticks the last item. A test purchase cannot tick that one.