Building your store on Hekana — from signup to first order

This is not about why you should open a store. It is about the order to work in, so you reach your first order fast without having to go back and redo things.

1. Products first, not design

The thing that delays merchants most is starting with colours and fonts. Start by adding five products with good photos and a clear price. An empty store has nothing to configure.

If you sell sizes or colours, set them up as variants on the product rather than separate products — so stock is counted correctly per size.

2. Payment: start with cash

Turn on cash on delivery from day one — it is still how most Egyptians pay. Then add card and wallet alongside it. Every payment option you add reduces abandoned carts.

3. Shipping: a clear price per governorate

Set your shipping price per governorate before you publish. A customer who meets a surprise shipping charge at the last step abandons the cart — and in Egypt that is the single biggest cause of lost orders.

4. Design: pick a theme and move on

Pick a theme, set your logo and brand colours, and stop. Do not tune spacing before you have sold anything. You can come back to design after your first ten orders, when you actually know what your customers look for.

5. Buy from your own store

Before you send the link to anyone, place a complete order yourself: add to cart, pay, and check the confirmation actually arrives. Most problems surface at this step, while you can still fix them unseen.

6. First order — then let the store run itself

Once orders start arriving, repetitive work begins eating your time. That is the moment to open Hekana Flow and switch on the abandoned-cart flow and the cash-order confirmation flow. Those two save the most time for the least effort.