Free Stores FAQ’s
What is FreeStores?
Freestore is a storefront provided by Dropstore for free to our merchants as an alternative to mainstream websites so they can market their products online. All you need is a payment gateway for you to receive payments from your customers.
Do I need a licence?
You are granted limited license only for the purposes of the store to only allow for guest checkout. You get a licence which gives a maximum of 10 products at a price of R0. If you want more than the 10 products, you can upgrade to any of the other licences in your Dropstore merchant account. This plan is only for FreeStores and not applicable to other store types like Shopify or Woocommerce. Further features would need you to migrate to a different store plan including any added products would require migration to an upgraded merchant subscription plan.
Who Can Apply for Free Stores?
It's free and available to all merchants. There is no application process. You simply need to change the ecommerce framework option to “FreeStore” within your reseller account.
Is there any restriction to the products I can have in my Freestore?
No, the only restriction is the number of products which are limited to the licence you have.
How do customers pay me?
You need to follow the order placement process on Dropstore to finalise and place with the supplier. Once a customer makes a purchase on your Freestore, the payment goes into your payment gateway account which you can configure in your Dropstore account settings. We currently offer integrations with Flutterwave and Payfast. You can configure this in your account settings.
Do I need a Dropstore account?
Yes. That is where you setup and configure your store and manage your store licence.
What happens if a merchant wants to add more features to their Freestore?
Freestore is a base offering, even though merchants have a fully functional online store. If a customer wants more features that are not available, they would need to migrate to a different store.
Can a merchant buy and point their domain name to freestores?
Not currently. This runs on a subdomain at the moment but we are working on adding this feature
Can a change subdomain be changed after the setup?
Yes, you are free to pick any subdomain that is not already taken by another merchant.
How will I track my orders?
Your orders would immediately come into your Dropstore merchant account where you can manage them Dropstore lets you find products, add them to your Freestore Online store, and ship them directly to your customers easily. No inventory, no risk. Sell from best dropshipping wholesale suppliers from South Africa. Grow your Store.
Getting Started With Your Free Stores
1. Login to your Dropstore Reseller dashboard and go to Account
2. Look for Free Stores in the menu list and click
You need to complete the required sections for your site to be accessible publicly or to view. You can checkout our sample store to help you setup: https://freestore.dropstore.store/
1. Store Name
FreeStores runs on a subdomain at the moment. You are free to pick any subdomain that is not already taken by another merchant.
2. Website Details
Add your Store Information i.e About Us, Return Policy, Privacy Policy, Terms & Conditions
3. Payment Gateways
To accept payment gateways, you will need to firstly register an account with the available payment provider options i.e Flutterwave, Payfast
4. Social Media
Add your Social media links - Preferably for your Store pages
5. Contact Details
Add your contact details and Bottom Advert Banner details
6. Home Banner
Add banner images for your store carousel - Please be aware that too many banners may slow down your store so keep it simple. You could use this to advertise those products you wish to promote
7. Shipping Fees
Add a shipping fee for your store. This is the shipping fee your customers pay at checkout. Please note that this is not the shipping fee that you pay for the products. You are able to change shipping fee settings in your Dropstore account, whether to include selling price with shipping fee or not. Checkout our article here
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Happy Dropstore-ing.