You will also need to enter your email address. This is used by the website to send you notifications of new orders or customer queries, and it can also be used when logging into your online trading account. Some traders may prefer to create a new email address that resembles their trade name to avoid confusing customers when you enter into correspondence with them.

After this, you will create a password (this should be a secure password and not something like “Password123” etc.). If you ever forget your password, you can reset it quite easily by clicking the “Login” link at the bottom of every page on the website and using the “Forgot Password” option.

After this, you will create a Shop Name. This might be your own name or a name under which you ordinarily trade so that customers can recognise it (e.g. “Annie Antique”). When you finish completing this field and attempt to enter something in the next field, “Shop URL”, you will notice that the URL is automatically generated based on your shop name (e.g. vintageireland.eu/shop/annie-antique). This URL is where your shop resides on the internet and you can share this link with others. A message should appear which says “Available”, and this means that this name has not already been taken by someone else. If the name is “Unavailable”, you will need to choose another.

There are some other considerations when naming your shop. As you will see in the Terms of Use, information like shop names, email addresses and usernames must not infringe copyright, parody any other person or organisation, contain any offensive or vulgar language, promote any political party or cause, and you must not use a name which contains “Vintage Ireland” “Antiques Fairs Ireland” and so on, as this could confuse customers.

After this, you will have the opportunity to read the Terms of Use (“Terms & Conditions”) and check a box to state you agree to them.

Finally, you will see a drop-down menu showing the types of membership available (there may only be one), and a summary of the plan’s features and capabilities. Proceed by clicking Register, and then fill out the Billing Details form that appears and enter your card details to checkout.

You will then be taken to a step-by-step guide or “Wizard” to set up your shop. In most cases, you can simply leave any pre-filled fields as they are. Leave “Address” blank if you do not have a physical shop; however, you may have to complete the “Country” field.

You will be asked if you wish to show your email address in your shop; however, it is not necessary to do so as customers can use your shop’s built-in Contact button.

On the next page, you will be asked to click a button and “Connect with Stripe”. This is the secure online payment processor that will enable you to accept card payments and receive payments to your bank account. Follow the on-screen instructions to set up your Stripe account. If you already have a Stripe account, you will be asked to log in to Stripe and confirm that you wish to connect your account to your new online shop.

Be sure to follow the steps shown by Stripe, including making a copy of your emergency backup code Stripe gives you.

When asked, select “Retail” from the drop-down menu for Industry, and then select “Other merchandise”, unless there is another option that accurately describes your business.

Optional: If you have a professional website, you may enter it in the website field when asked. Otherwise, you can share a business social media profile (ie. not a personal social media account) or use your newly created shop URL (e.g. https://vintageireland.eu/shop/your-shop).

Stripe will ask you to describe the products or services that you provide and when you charge your customers. An example answer to this question might be:

“Antiques, vintage and collectable items. Customers are charged at the time of purchase”.

Your customers are charged at the time of purchase by the website, working in conjunction with Stripe.

After this, you need to enter bank details and confirm that you are the account holder and authorise transfers to/from this bank account.

Transfers to your account are required so that you can receive payment when a customer makes a purchase. Transfers from your account are required so that Stripe can, for instance, return money to a customer’s card if you ever use the “Refund” option in your trader dashboard. This is all done in a few clicks and negates the hassle of writing separate cheques or requesting customer bank details; the money is simply returned to the card they paid with.

On this note, all payouts from purchases are delayed by two weeks; this means the money may still be in your Stripe account and Stripe may be able to issue the refund from there without debiting the full amount from your bank account.

Next, create a Statement Descriptor that customers can recognise (e.g.”ANNIEANTIQUE”), and then create a shortened descriptor (e.g. “ANNIEANTIQ”).

Complete the final steps with Stripe and you will be returned to the Vintage Ireland website. You are now ready to continue to “Setting Up Your Shop”.