What a company store must include before you send the link to a client

A company store that is missing one of these gets used twice and then abandoned, and you get blamed for the software. Run this checklist before you send the link.

Launching a company store is easy. Launching one that is still in use a year later is the job, and the difference is almost always a missing rule rather than a missing feature. When a store dies, it is usually because somebody ordered the wrong thing, or nobody could tell who was allowed to order at all.

Run this before you send the link.

1. Only what they are allowed to buy

A company store is not a catalogue. If it shows three hundred products, the client has to police it, and policing is what they hired you to avoid.

• The approved list only, per group if groups differ.
• Retired products removed, not hidden behind a filter.
• Nothing purchasable that you cannot actually deliver this month.

2. Logo placement that cannot be changed

Brand control is why company stores exist. If a user can move the logo, resize it, or pick a version from 2019, the store is now a brand risk instead of a brand control.

• Placement and size fixed per product, by you.
• Current logo files only, with the old ones gone.
• Sub brands and departments handled as separate rules, not as a free choice.

3. Pricing per group, correctly

Half the stores we see have one price list and three kinds of buyer. Head office pays one thing, franchisees another, and employees buying personally a third, and if the store cannot express that, somebody is getting the wrong price.

• Price by group, with the group decided at login, not by the user.
• Taxes and shipping shown truthfully before checkout.
• If head office is billed instead of the buyer, that has to be a rule in the store, not a note in an email.

4. Sizing help, before the order not after

Apparel returns are almost all sizing, and on decorated goods a return is a write off. This is the cheapest possible place to save money.

• A real size chart per garment, not one generic chart for the whole store.
• Fit notes in plain language, including whether it runs small.
• Where it matters, a one time fit kit before the store opens.

5. One approval rule, written down

Every company has an unwritten rule about who can spend what. If the store does not express it, the client's finance person will discover it the hard way and the store will be switched off.

• Either a budget per person or per department, or an approver who signs off, or open ordering. Pick one and configure it.
• Allowance based stores need to show the remaining balance where the buyer will see it.
• The approver needs a notification they will actually act on.

6. Shipping the client can live with

• To one address, to many, or to individual homes. Decide before launch, not at the first order.
• Cost shown honestly. A surprise at checkout is where orders get abandoned.
• A stated rule for split shipments when part of the order is backordered.

7. Order history that makes reordering trivial

This is the whole recurring revenue engine and it is the feature most often left out. If a returning buyer has to rebuild their order, they will email you instead, and you are back to doing it by hand.

• Every buyer sees their own past orders.
• Reorder in one action, with the same logo and the same sizes.
• New hire ordering a standard kit should be one click, not a conversation.

8. Reporting the client can read alone

The store has to answer the questions the client will ask you every quarter, without them asking.

• Spend by department or group, for the period they care about.
• What was ordered, by whom, and where it went.
• Exportable, because their finance team lives in a spreadsheet.

The three that get skipped most

Reporting, sizing and the approval rule. All three are invisible on day one and all three are why a store is quietly abandoned by month four. None of them are hard. They are just not exciting to build, and nobody asks for them until they are missing.