Store Settings covers many of the key functions in your store, ranging from the physical dimensions of your products to security and privacy. Store settings is a significant part of the control panel, so it is essential you familiarize yourself with these settings. The various Store Settings sections can be accessed under Settings › General.
Requirements
- To view and manage Store Settings, you will need the Manage Settings user permission enabled on your user account.
Website Settings
Website store settings can be accessed in Settings › Website.
Physical Dimension Settings
Localized Store Experiences: Dimension settings are available for all of our supported languages. For more information on the default language store setting, see Store Profile Settings.
Physical dimension settings allow you to specify the measurement units your store uses for product weight and volume, choose the display style for decimals, and assign a factoring dimension for calculating shipping costs. For more information, see Physical Dimension Settings and the Shipping Calculator.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) settings are where you assign your store’s default metadata. This is used for your homepage, as well as any other store pages that don’t have specific SEO data added to them. To learn more, see Homepage SEO Fields.
HTTPS
By default, BigCommerce stores have sitewide HTTPS already enabled. For more information, see Sitewide HTTPS.
Multi-Storefront: If you have Multi-Storefront (MSF) enabled on your store, the storefront SEO settings found in Channel Manager will take priority and override global SEO store settings. This is to enable each storefront to have its own SEO strategy.
Search Engine Robots
The Search Engine Robots field allows you to control which pages you would like to prevent search engines from indexing. We do not recommend changing your robots text files unless you know exactly what you are doing. See Robots.txt File for more information.
Display Settings
Display settings control a range of things that appear on the storefront or in the control panel. They allow you to enable or disable many features such as wish lists, product comparisons, and more. Display settings can be accessed in Settings › Display.
Display Settings
- Product Breadcrumbs
- Show One Only — displays only the first category the product appears in
- Don't Show — disables breadcrumb links from appearing on the product page
- Show Quantity Box for Products — determines if a quantity box displays on product pages. If disabled, only 1 product at a time can be added to a customer's cart.
- Enable Search Suggest — determines if spelling suggestions should be made automatically when customers are searching your store
- Auto Approve Reviews — determines if product reviews are approved and displayed on product pages automatically or if they require review and manual approval first
- Enable Wishlist — determines if customers are able to store products in wishlists to be purchased at a later date. Account creation must be enabled for this feature to work.
- Enable Product Comparisons — determines if customers are able to select and compare two or more products on a single page. See Product Display Settings for more information.
- Enable Account Creation — determines if customers are able to create store accounts, which allow them to check out quicker and access other account-specific features. This setting differs from the checkout setting to automatically create an account after checkout.
Stores using a legacy Blueprint theme will see additional display settings. For more information on these settings, see Blueprint Themes. For Stencil themes, these additional settings are managed in Page Builder.
Control Panel
- Use WYSIWYG Editor — This determines if the WYSIWYG Editor is shown when entering content for product descriptions, category descriptions, web pages, and other areas of the control panel.
- Show Product Thumbnails — This determines if thumbnail images are shown on the Products › View screen of the control panel.
Category Settings
The Category Settings section allows you to manage which products are displayed on category pages, how they are sorted, and the display depth in your store’s navigation menu. See Category Settings for more information.
Product Settings
The Product Settings section determines whether or not certain product attributes are visible to your customers. For detailed descriptions of these settings, see Product Display Settings.
Image Settings
Image Settings allows you to set image sizes and related settings for Blueprint themes. To navigate to your store's Image settings go to Settings › General, then click the Images tab.
For a complete list of Blueprint image settings, see Blueprint Themes.
Don't see the Images tabs? Stencil themes control product image sizes in Page Builder. Stores with a Stencil theme enabled won't see the Images tab.
Share Settings
Share settings show social media icons on product pages and blog posts so shoppers can share it on their social media page. Displaying these icons makes it easy for shoppers to share your products and grow your brand. Share settings can be accessed in Settings › Share.
How do I link to my store's social media? If you're looking to add links to your store's social media pages, see our article on Adding Social Media Links. If you're looking to connect your store to marketplaces such as Facebook and Instagram Shopping, see Selling Everywhere with Channel Manager for more information.
Available Share Options
The sharing settings control what options your customers are provided with to share your products across various social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. For more information, see Adding and Linking a Social Media Icon.
More Options
The More options link allows you to enable or disable Pinterest Rich Pins. The settings for eBay and SocialShop, if visible in your store, refer to discontinued integrations that have since been replaced and can be ignored.
Save your changes before exiting.
Date & Timezone Settings
Date and timezone settings can be accessed in Settings › Date & Timezone.
Localized Store Experiences: Date and timezone settings are available for all of our supported languages. For more information on the default language store setting, see Store Profile Settings.
The date and timezone settings allow you to control the internal time tracking used in your store's dashboard. This helps you keep a record of when orders come in and how dates are displayed. This is also how the store tracks when to end a discount or coupon offer if they had a time limit. For more information, see our article on Date and Timezone Settings.
URL Structure Settings
Having descriptive URLs can help with SEO and improve your store's ranking in search engines. You can control how these are formatted in URL Structure settings. The default options are all primed to be SEO-friendly, but deciding which one is best for your business depends on your industry.
URL structure settings can be accessed in Settings › URL Structure. For more information on customizing your store’s URLs, see SEO Fields.
Search Settings
Search settings can be accessed in Settings › Search.
For more information on these settings and steps you can take to make your store's search work to its full potential, see Configuring Store Search.
Stores using a legacy Blueprint theme will see additional search display settings. For more information on these settings, see Blueprint Themes. For Stencil themes, these additional settings are managed in Page Builder.
Security & Privacy Settings
Security settings are located in Settings › Security & Privacy. These settings control various aspects of your store such as shopper password complexity, inactivity thresholds, reCAPTCHA, and privacy.
For a detailed overview of the security settings available for your store, see Security and Privacy Settings.
Miscellaneous Settings
Miscellaneous store settings can be accessed in Settings › Miscellaneous.
Email Settings
- Product Review Emails — determines whether customers are automatically sent an email asking them to review the products they purchased. If enabled, the text field that appears below allows you to configure how many days after an order is marked Shipped or Completed the email should be sent. The checkbox enables review emails to also be sent to guest customers. See Managing Reviews for more information.
- Forward Order Invoice — determines if a copy of the order invoice should be emailed to the addresses entered below any time a customer completes a purchase. For more information, see Forwarding Invoices.
- Use SMTP Server — determines whether the store should use the default BigCommerce mail servers or a third-party SMTP server when sending email messages from your store. If "Let me specify my own SMTP server details" is selected, you will need to enter the SMTP hostname, username, password, and port. See Using a Custom SMTP Server for more information.
- Administrator's Email — the email address where all system notifications should be sent (unless otherwise specified). Only one address may be entered.
Localized Store Experiences: Abandoned and converted cart email notifications for merchants are available for all of our supported languages. For more information on the default language store setting, see Store Profile Settings.
Abandoned cart email settings allow you to enable customer consent for abandoned cart emails and notify you when a cart is abandoned. For more information, see Using the Abandoned Cart Saver.
Advanced Store Settings
- Allow Purchasing — determines whether or not customers can order from your store. If disabled, products will still be visible, but customers will not be able to add them to their cart.
Order Settings
- Starting Order Number — allows you to set the order number for the next order placed. Subsequent orders will count upwards from this number. The value entered in this field must be greater than your highest existing order number.
Throttler
- Enable Throttler — determines whether or not your store should restrict the number of product reviews a customer can post within a specified time frame. If enabled, the number of reviews and time frame can be configured below.
FAQ
If a setting is not available in the control panel, can I adjust it somewhere else?
For Stencil themes, there may be a setting found in Page Builder. Some desired changes may require theme customization. Visit the BigCommerce Partner Directory, or consider submitting an Agency Design Request to connect with third-party developers.
