Getting Started

Welcome to FirearmCart! This guide will walk you through the essential steps to launch your firearm retail store. Most stores can be set up and ready to accept orders within an hour.

Quick Setup Checklist

After you sign up, FirearmCart walks you through a short guided setup — store information, collections, domain, and payment — before dropping you on the dashboard. You can skip any step and come back to it later. This guide covers those steps plus everything else you need before launch:

Step 1: Store Information

Your store information appears throughout your website, emails, and invoices. Getting this right from the start ensures a professional presence.

Accessing Store Settings

1. From your dashboard, click Settings in the left sidebar
2. Select General from the settings menu

Required Information

Business Details

• Store Name - Your business name as customers will see it (required)
• Email Address - Primary contact email for customer inquiries (required)
• Phone Number - Customer service phone number

Business Address Enter your Street Address, City, State, and ZIP/Postal Code. Your business address is used for:

• Pre-filling payment-provider onboarding
• Customer trust and FFL verification

Store Assets Upload a Store Logo (PNG, JPG or GIF, up to 1 MB) and a square Favicon (ICO, PNG or JPG, up to 1 MB).

Store Policies

Every new store is created with four policy pages already in place. Navigate to Content > Policies to customize them:

• Terms and Conditions - Rules for using your store
• Privacy Policy - How you collect and use customer data
• Refund Policy - How you handle refunds and returns
• Shipping Policy - Delivery timeframes and procedures

Use Add Policy to create additional ones — an FFL Transfer Policy, for example, is not created by default.

Tip: Take time to customize these policies. For firearms retailers, clear FFL transfer policies help set customer expectations and reduce support inquiries.

Learn more about Store Information

Step 2: Payment Provider

FirearmCart partners with payment processors that specialize in firearm industry merchants. Unlike mainstream processors, these partners understand your business and won’t freeze your account.

Supported Payment Processors

Card gateways

Buy Now, Pay Later

One card gateway and one BNPL provider can be active at the same time.

Connecting a Payment Processor

1. Navigate to Settings > Payments
2. Click Add Gateway (or Add BNPL Provider)
3. Select your provider, name the account, and enter your credentials
4. Click Save

The first provider you add in each section is activated automatically.

Testing Your Connection

Fortis, Authorize.net, and NMI offer a Test connection action in the provider’s row menu. It checks your stored credentials against the gateway without moving money and reports back as a toast — no charge is created.

Important: You’ll need an approved merchant account with one of these processors before connecting. If you don’t have one, contact the processor directly or reach out to FirearmCart support for referrals.

Learn more about Payment Providers

Step 3: Shipping Configuration

Proper shipping configuration is critical for firearm retailers. You need to handle both standard merchandise and regulated items like firearms and ammunition.

Shipping Zones

Shipping zones let you define rates based on customer location:

1. Navigate to Settings > Shipping
2. Click Add Zone
3. Name your zone and click Create Zone
4. Select the states it covers, click Save States, then add shipping rates

Rate Condition Types

Each rate uses one of three condition types:

Order-total and weight ranges can’t overlap within a zone, and the first range must start at 0.

Firearm Shipping Requirements

Flat zone rates don’t know what’s in the cart. If you need carrier-accurate pricing that respects handgun air-service rules and ammunition ground-only rules, activate a real-time rate provider (UPS, Stamps.com, or ShipStation) from the Plugin Marketplace. Real-time rates take priority over your manual zone rates at checkout.

Learn more about Shipping

Step 4: Add Products

Your product catalog is the heart of your store. FirearmCart makes it easy to add products with all the details firearm buyers expect.

Adding Your First Product

1. Navigate to Products in the sidebar
2. Click Add New Product
3. Give your product a name
4. Click Create Product

Product Information

Basic Details

• Product Name - Product name (e.g., “Glock 19 Gen 5 9mm”)
• Description - Detailed product description with features
• SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) - Your internal product code
• Barcode (ISBN, UPC, GTIN, etc.) - For inventory matching

Pricing

• Price - Regular selling price
• Compare at price - Original price (shows as crossed out for sales)
• Cost per item - Your cost (for profit tracking, not shown to customers)

Product Type

Every product has a Product Type, chosen from FirearmCart’s built-in category list (hundreds of entries, from Handguns and Ammunition down to Arrow Rests and Night Vision Monoculars). It’s the single most important field on the product: it drives FFL compliance — whether the item must ship to a licensed dealer for transfer — as well as shipping compliance and carrier restrictions.

Specifications

Beyond the built-in fields, each product has a free-form Specifications list where you add your own name/value pairs — Caliber, Barrel Length, Capacity, Action, and so on. Add them one at a time from the Specifications card on the product page. Whether and how they render on the storefront depends on your theme.

Product Images

Upload high-quality images to showcase your products. Use a large, square, consistently framed image as the primary photo, then add extra angles and detail shots.

Importing from a plugin

To bring in a distributor catalog or print-on-demand merch instead of creating every product by hand, activate the plugin from Plugins > Marketplace and import from its page. See Integrations — firearms distributors such as Lipseys and RSR, or Printify for merch.

Product Variants

Create variants for products with different options:

• Example: Glock 19 available in Black, FDE, and Gray
• Example: AR-15 Lower Receiver in different colors or configurations

Collections

Organize products into collections for easier browsing:

• By Type - Handguns, Rifles, Shotguns, Ammunition
• By Brand - Glock, Smith & Wesson, Ruger
• By Purpose - Home Defense, Concealed Carry, Hunting
• Sales - Clearance, Weekly Specials Learn more about Products

Step 5: Theme Customization

FirearmCart uses a powerful theme system. You can customize your store’s appearance without any coding knowledge using the Visual Editor.

Choosing a Theme

Your store is created with the Horizon theme already published. To browse the rest:

1. Navigate to Store > My Store
2. Click Visit Theme Store
3. Filter by All, Free, or Premium
4. Click Add to Library on a free theme, or purchase a premium one

Adding a theme puts it in your library without touching your live store. Use Publish from a theme’s menu when you’re ready to switch. You can also bring in your own theme with Import theme (a .zip, up to 50 MB).

Visual Theme Editor

The Visual Editor lets you customize your theme in real-time:

1. Navigate to Store > My Store
2. Click Customize on your active theme
3. Use the sidebar to edit sections and settings
4. Preview changes instantly in the preview pane
5. Click Save when finished

Customizable Elements

Global Settings

• Colors and color schemes
• Typography (fonts, sizes)
• Logo and favicon
• Social media links
• Cart behavior Page Sections Each page is built from sections that you can:
• Add - Insert new sections from the library
• Remove - Delete sections you don’t need
• Reorder - Drag sections to rearrange
• Configure - Edit section settings and content Section Examples
• Header - Logo, navigation, cart icon
• Hero Banner - Large featured image with text
• Featured Collection - Showcase products from a collection
• Image with Text - Product stories or about content
• Footer - Links, contact info, newsletter signup

Developer Mode

For advanced customization, enable Developer Mode:

1. Navigate to Store > My Store
2. Open the Theme options dropdown
3. Select Enable Dev Mode and choose a duration — 30 minutes, 2 hours, or 8 hours

Developer Mode:

• Bypasses template caching for instant changes
• Auto-expires after the duration you chose, so caching resumes on its own
• Useful when working with custom Liquid code

The same menu has a Clear cache action if you just need a one-off flush.

Learn more about Theme Customization

Step 6: Custom Domain (Optional)

Connect your own domain for a professional storefront. Until you do, your store is reachable at a FirearmCart system URL of the form my.firearmcart.com/{your-store-id}; with a custom domain connected, customers see www.yourdomain.com instead.

Connect an Existing Domain

1. Navigate to Settings → Domains
2. Click Connect existing domain
3. Enter your domain (e.g. shop.yourdomain.com)
4. Add the CNAME record shown at your DNS provider

DNS Configuration

You only need one CNAME record at your registrar:

That’s it — no nameserver changes, no A records, no extra DNS setup. Your existing email, blog, and other DNS records continue to work unchanged.

Using Cloudflare for your DNS? Make sure the proxy status is DNS only (grey cloud), not proxied (orange cloud).

SSL Certificate

FirearmCart automatically provisions a free SSL certificate for your domain once DNS propagates:

• Automatic provisioning — usually active within 5–30 minutes
• Automatic renewal — certificates renew on their own
• Full encryption — all traffic is encrypted end-to-end

Multiple Domains

You can connect as many domains as you want. Mark one as Primary — that’s the canonical URL shown to customers. Non-primary domains automatically redirect to the primary.

Learn more about Custom Domains

Step 7: Launch Your Store

You’ve configured everything - now it’s time to go live!

Pre-Launch Checklist

Before launching, verify:

• Store information is complete and accurate
• Payment processing is connected and tested
• Shipping zones and rates are configured
• At least one product is published
• Theme is customized with your branding
• Policies are in place (privacy, shipping, returns)
• Test order placed successfully

Placing a Test Order

Always test your checkout flow. Add the Sandbox (Testing) gateway under Settings > Payments so you can run a full order without a real charge:

1. Add a product to cart
2. Complete checkout with a sandbox test card
3. Verify order appears in dashboard
4. Check confirmation emails
5. Cancel/refund the test order
6. Activate your live gateway when you’re done (this deactivates Sandbox automatically)

Going Live

New stores are created locked — visitors on your custom domain see a password page until you turn it off. When you’re ready:

1. Navigate to Settings > General
2. Find the Password protection card
3. Turn Enable lock screen off
4. Click Save Settings — your store is now live!

Note: The lock only applies to your public custom domain. The my.firearmcart.com system URL and theme previews are never locked, so you can keep working on the store while it’s closed to the public.

Post-Launch

After launching:

• Monitor orders - Check your dashboard regularly
• Respond to customers - Answer questions promptly
• Track analytics - Review traffic and sales data
• Optimize - Refine based on customer behavior

Need Help?

Documentation

Browse our comprehensive documentation for detailed guides on every feature:

• Store Setup - Complete store configuration
• Products - Product management and inventory
• Orders - Processing and fulfillment
• Themes - Theme customization and development
• Integrations - Third-party connections

FAQ

Check our Frequently Asked Questions for answers to common questions about:

• Account setup
• Payment processing
• Shipping configuration
• Theme customization
• Compliance requirements

Contact Support

Need personalized help? Our support team understands the firearms industry:

• Support Tickets: Navigate to Support in your dashboard to create a ticket
• Categories: General Question, Technical Issue, Billing & Payments, Feature Request, Bug Report, Feedback, Other
• Priority Levels: Low, Medium, High, Urgent
• File Attachments: Include screenshots to help explain your issue (up to 10 MB per file)

Contact Support

What’s Next?

Now that your store is set up, explore these guides to grow your business:

• Adding Products in Bulk - Import inventory from spreadsheets
• FFL Network - Connect with dealers for transfers
• Marketing Tools - Email campaigns and promotions
• Analytics - Understand your customers and sales