5 Things to Do Before Your First Sale

Your store is live. Products are up. You're one share away from your first sale. Before you post that link everywhere, run through this list - five minutes now saves you an awkward DM later "sorry, that was actually sold out".

1. Add real photos, not "it'll do" photos

Customers can't touch your product before they buy it. The photo is doing all the convincing. A blurry, badly lit photo says "I'm not sure about this either" louder than any caption can fix.

You don't need a studio. Natural light near a window and a plain background will outperform 90% of what's currently being posted as a "product photo" on the internet.

A well-lit photo on a plain background vs. a photo taken on a bed with the charger cable still in frame. We've all been the second one. Growth starts with admitting it.

2. Turn on at least one real payment method

"Pay on delivery" alone works, but it also means every sale depends on you physically showing up, or a rider you trust, before money changes hands. Connect Paystack so customers can pay by card up front - it's the difference between "let's see if this order is even real" and money already being in your account.

3. Set your delivery expectations before someone asks

Vague delivery answers ("depends where you are") lose sales to the seller who has a clear one. If you deliver in multiple areas at different rates, set that up as delivery zones so customers see the fee before they check out - no back-and-forth negotiating a delivery price in the DMs.

4. Fill in your About page and policies

A store with no "About," no returns policy, and no business hours reads as "might disappear with my money." Two minutes filling these in from Settings makes you look like a business that's been doing this for years, even if today is day one.

5. Place a test order yourself

Before you tell the world your store is open, be the first customer. Add something to cart, go through checkout, see what the receipt looks like, see what notification you get. If something's off, you want to be the one who finds it - not your first real customer.

Nothing builds confidence like knowing your own checkout actually works before you find out the hard way, mid-launch, from a stranger.

That's it

Five things, none of them take long, and every one of them is the difference between "looks like a real store" and "looks like a link someone sent in a group chat." Go make your first sale.