Storefront Shopping Guide

This guide is for storefront shoppers. It covers the homepage, categories and brands, search, product details, favorites and product interests, the cart, checkout, orders, and personal pages. Whether a capability appears depends on the current site's configuration, authentication mode, product state, and payment readiness. A button or menu that is not rendered is therefore not automatically a fault.

Public storefront pages can be browsed without signing in. Favorites, the signed-in interest list, order history, addresses, and personal settings require an account. The cart and some product-interest actions also work for guests, but guest and account data have different storage boundaries.

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1. Understand the entries, language, and account boundary

1.1 Main shopping entries

On desktop, these personal pages are available from the header user menu. On mobile, comparable entries are in the navigation drawer. Personal pages also provide controls to return to the previous page and to the homepage.

The site has Chinese, English, and French routes. Changing the language preserves locale-aware navigation. Product, category, brand, tag, and order-item translations depend on the content maintained by the merchant. When a translation is unavailable, the page uses available fallback text; this does not change the product identity or price.

1.2 Guest and account data are not the same data

A signed-out cart is stored in the current browser. After sign-in, the storefront switches to that user's account cart. The current user journey does not automatically merge the pre-login guest cart into the account cart. Seeing different items after sign-in is the expected account-isolation behavior; do not add or order the same products repeatedly to try to recover the former view.

Signing out removes the just-used account cart display from the browser and switches to an empty guest cart. Favorites and account orders remain available when the user signs in again. Use the instructions on the account pages for registration, Google linking, recovery, and MFA.

1.3 Common account operations before shopping

Use “Login” in the header to open the sign-in page, or choose “Register” from the sign-in page or user menu; the page presents the authentication mode for the current site, and not every site uses phone numbers. An email site registers an email with a password of at least 8 characters and, after email verification, accepts username or email at sign-in. A phone site applies its configured country or region rule and accepts phone or customer number at sign-in; the initial password is the last 6 digits of the normalized phone. WeChat nickname and group appear only when enabled. Google also appears only when the feature is enabled and the site's setup is ready. If the Google email already belongs to a local account, sign in by the original method and link Google explicitly in Personal Settings.

Five password failures for the same site, identity, and IP within 15 minutes lock sign-in for 30 minutes. A disabled or deleted account requires administrator help. On an email site, choose “Forgot password?” or “Go to account recovery” on the sign-in page for a one-time recovery link; a phone site currently directs the user to an administrator. After signing in, use the avatar menu to open Personal Settings and change the store password; it must have at least 8 characters and revokes every existing session. Change a phone account's initial password promptly.

2. Browse the homepage

2.1 Content that may appear

The homepage is assembled from modules published by the merchant for the current site and language. Its actual composition and order can vary:

• Carousel: it appears only when the homepage has the banner module, the site enables the carousel feature, and at least one carousel item is enabled. Multiple items can autoplay or be changed with previous, next, and indicator controls; hovering pauses autoplay.
• Product sections: these can contain merchant-selected products, a dynamic latest-products feed, or a for-you recommendation. Products selected for ordinary homepage sections are deduplicated in section order.
• Category and brand sections: selecting a card opens the corresponding category or brand page.
• Recommendation section: it requests products for the current context and excludes products already used by the relevant homepage feeds.

The merchant controls which card titles, prices, tags, borders, and image ratios are visible. Purchase availability is still checked by the site; visual styling cannot make an unavailable product purchasable.

2.2 Loading, genuine emptiness, and service failure

The homepage distinguishes three outcomes:

• A skeleton or loading state appears while content is being requested.
• If the service succeeds but the merchant has published no homepage sections, a real empty state offers a button to browse the search page.
• If the homepage is temporarily unavailable and no content can be shown, the page displays a load failure with Retry. It also retries when connectivity or focus returns and again after about 30 seconds.

During a brief failure, the system can display the last successfully loaded homepage content. It is a recovery view and may not include the most recent homepage edit. Inventory, payment, and order behavior never rely on this temporary display.

3. Browse by category or brand

3.1 Category pages

Header category navigation, homepage category cards, and breadcrumbs open the category page; choose All products from the category navigation when needed. The category title and description come from localized category data. A parent-category query includes that category and all of its descendants, and the breadcrumb keeps the path from its ancestors to the current category.

Category pages show a total and support sorting, filtering, and scroll-based loading. The filter drawer supports:

• preset or custom minimum and maximum prices;
• one or more brands;
• in-stock-only results;
• product attribute values currently available for the query.

Filters are edited as a draft. Only Apply writes them to the URL and runs the new query; Clear All removes applied filters. A missing category produces an explicit warning. An existing category with no matching products produces an empty-result state instead of being presented as missing.

3.2 Brand pages

The brand list displays up to 200 currently public brand cards. Select a card to open that brand's detail page. The detail page can show the brand name, logo, and description and queries only products belonging to that brand. It supports price, inventory, and attribute filters, but does not repeat a brand filter because the page has already fixed the brand.

Category, brand, and search pages share the principal sorting choices: default relevance, price low to high, price high to low, newest, and sales. Default relevance does not mean creation time. Once price, newest, or sales is chosen, that field becomes the primary ordering key. The product page size comes from a public system setting and falls back to 20 when unavailable; approaching the bottom automatically loads the next page.

4. Search for products

4.1 Autocomplete and keyboard use

After at least one character is entered in the header search field, the page waits for roughly 300 milliseconds of inactivity before requesting suggestions. It shows at most 10 on desktop and 8 on mobile. Suggestions can come from:

• recent or common terms in search statistics;
• product titles or SKUs;
• currently public brands;
• currently visible categories.

A product suggestion opens product details, a category suggestion opens its category, and other terms open search results. Use Up and Down to move, Enter to choose, and Escape to close the list. The storefront does not currently expose a separate “popular searches” page section; statistical terms are only one autocomplete source.

4.2 Results, filters, and ordering

Submitting displays the search-results page. The results support the same price, brand, inventory, and attribute filters as the category page, plus relevance, price, newest, and sales sorting. Editing a filter draft does not query immediately; select Apply. Clearing filters preserves the search term while removing filter constraints.

The next result page loads automatically near the bottom. For a non-empty query, a recommendation section can follow the results while excluding products already displayed. Empty states distinguish an empty public catalogue, no result for the term, and no result after filtering. A request failure offers Retry instead of pretending the result count is zero.

If nothing is found, shorten the phrase, try part of the product name or SKU, remove price, brand, or attribute filters, or browse the relevant category or brand. Search can return only products that are currently public and displayable; an exact title cannot expose an administrative draft or deleted product.

5. Read product cards and details

5.1 What a product card represents

Selecting a product card opens product details and preserves whether the shopper came from home, category, brand, search, favorites, or cart. Product-detail breadcrumbs can therefore return to a sensible source. Depending on merchant styling, the card shows the name, current price, possible original price and discount, tags, image, and commerce state.

Out-of-stock, not-yet-on-sale, stopped, and similar overlays come from current product and variant state. A product that cannot yet be purchased but may collect demand can show Express interest or Follow arrival. A normal purchasable card opens the detail page; it does not perform an unconfirmed variantless quick add.

5.2 Product detail and variants

The detail page first loads the current public product, then presents:

• an image gallery that prefers resolved media for the selected variant, then variant media, then base product media;
• title, subtitle, tags, current and original prices, and the discount percentage;
• option combinations, the selected variant SKU, stock, and availability;
• a quantity control from 1 up to current stock for that selected variant;
• Details, Specifications, and Reviews tabs, followed by up to six detail recommendations.

When option groups exist, a complete combination that maps to a real variant must be selected before the primary action can run. Disabled, out-of-stock, or currently unavailable variants cannot be added. The cart and checkout validate again even if an earlier detail view showed availability.

Share first uses the device's native share sheet. If that is unavailable or cancelled, it tries to copy the canonical product link, then presents a manual copy prompt if needed. Detail rich text is sanitized before display; product media and review attachments should still be treated as merchant- or user-supplied content.

The storefront makes best-effort records of product-card selections, recommendation clicks, meaningful detail views, variant selection, add-to-cart, and add-to-wishlist actions for recommendations and product research. A behavior-recording failure does not roll back the shopping action and never replaces inventory or order validation. Privacy and analytics options follow the current settings page.

5.3 Reviews

Any visitor can read public review statistics and pages and filter by image presence or star rating, then sort by recommendation, newest, helpfulness, or rating. A signed-in shopper sees a review form only for delivered order items that remain inside the review eligibility window. If several eligible order items exist, one must be selected first.

A review requires 1–5 stars and 5–500 characters and can be marked anonymous. Attachments can be submitted only if the site enables them and each upload passes the current type, count, size, and security-scan policy. Signed-in users can also mark a review helpful or report it; the site still checks eligibility, duplicate submissions, and content state.

6. Distinguish favorites from product interests

6.1 Favorites

Favorites save a currently public product to an account and require sign-in. Select the heart on product details to add or remove the favorite. Open Favorites from the avatar menu to read up to 100 still-public favorites at once, newest favorite first, with contextual recommendations when the list is non-empty. If a product later becomes non-public, the stored favorite may remain but is omitted from the public favorites response.

The page has a sign-in warning, loading skeleton, empty state, expired-session or load-error message, Retry, and Back to home. It has no visible paginator and does not remove a favorite directly from its card; open product details and use the heart again.

6.2 Express interest and follow arrival

An interest action appears only when the product allows demand or arrival interest, and it can refer to a specific variant. It records demand or an arrival-follow state. It is not a favorite and does not guarantee that the merchant will launch, restock, or send a notification.

A guest can activate or cancel interest in the current browser. On successful sign-in, current visitor interests are merged into the account on a best-effort basis. Signed-in users can open Product interests from the avatar menu, view up to 100 active records, and cancel them individually. The list offers Retry after a load error and requests sign-in when anonymous. A cancellation notification offers one Undo action.

7. Manage the cart

7.1 Items, quantities, and Save for later

The cart page stores one line per product variant. Select the header cart button to open it. Adding the same variant accumulates quantity; different variants remain separate lines. The page can:

• update quantity through plus, minus, or direct input; invalid input or a value below 1 normalizes to 1;
• remove an item through the explicit remove action rather than by typing zero;
• move an item to Save for later and move it back;
• clear the active cart while retaining saved items;
• show line subtotals, total units, cart total, and links back to product details.

Save for later is local to the current browser and current cart owner. It does not become a cross-device account list after sign-in. Use Favorites when you need to save products across devices.

The bottom of the cart can show up to eight recommendations and excludes products already in active or saved items. A non-empty cart seeds recommendations from its products. For a signed-in empty cart, delivered products or favorites can supply history seeds; otherwise it uses the general home context. Recommendation failure does not block cart editing or checkout.

7.2 Persistence, synchronization, and validation

A guest cart is stored in the current browser. Signed-in active items remain with the account. The page attempts to synchronize changes; a network or synchronization failure shows an error and retries briefly or when the browser returns online. Avoid editing the same account cart in several tabs while such an error remains unresolved.

The cart can retain an uncheckoutable item and show a validation issue instead of silently dropping it. An unpublished product, disabled variant, insufficient stock, or excessive quantity remains identifiable in the cart, but Proceed to checkout is blocked. Adjust the quantity, remove the item, or choose a valid variant from product details.

Cart totals are a current estimate. They do not lock price, inventory, tax, shipping, or promotion eligibility. Quote and order creation check the latest information again, and merely keeping a product in the cart does not reserve inventory.

8. Enter checkout and submit an order

Proceed to checkout selects the flow defined by the current site configuration:

• Accountless-payment checkout opens the accountless payment page when payment is available. A signed-in shopper uses the account cart; a guest uses the local cart and supplies a contact email. Delivery or pickup, address validation, coupons, and PayPal, Interac e-Transfer, or Stripe appear only when configured and ready.
• Auto-account checkout opens the automatic-account page. It creates an order after shipping details are confirmed and may create an account for a signed-out shopper. It does not expose the four-stage accountless payment selection.

Before submission, the site checks products, variants, prices, inventory, address, shipping, tax, discounts, and payment method again and takes steps to avoid duplicate orders. Do not click repeatedly while the button is submitting or navigating. Advanced checkout creates an unpaid order first and then opens the payment page; order creation, a provider browser return, or an email is not proof of payment.

Follow the checkout page for delivery, pickup, address decisions, guest access, coupons, payment, and auto-account steps.

9. View and continue orders

9.1 My Orders

After signing in, open My orders from the avatar menu. The list contains only orders owned by the signed-in account. When anonymous, the page offers “Login” and returns to the order list after sign-in. The list defaults to 15 rows per page and can change to 30 or 50; the page loads orders by page. It shows the public order number, item count, total, status, and creation time, supports status filtering, and sorts by public order number, total, status, or creation time. The default is newest creation first.

Common states mean:

For local pickup, the display label can translate the order state into Pending arrangement, Contact confirmed, Ready for pickup, or Picked up. Payment, fulfillment, and merchant processing advance the state. The user page has no generic self-service cancellation or arbitrary status edit.

9.2 Order details

Select “View detail” in an order row to open the order detail page. It shows the public number, creation time, order and payment status, payment summary, product and variant information, shipping, billing, or pickup details, merchandise, shipping, coupon and payment discounts, tax, total, delivery service, estimate, and tracking number when present. A signed-in order with confirmed payment can also fetch available sales documents. The current detail can be printed.

An unpaid order exposes Continue only when safe. PayPal can restart only while the order can still accept payment; a non-expired e-Transfer order can reopen its instructions; Stripe can continue only while payment is not processing, awaiting action, or already successful. A missing button normally means confirmation is underway, the order is terminal or expired, or the payment feature is unavailable—not that the order vanished.

An accountless guest order is not listed in My Orders. After creation, continue in the same browser to read payment status; the detail page can also show the just-created guest order during the current page. If site data is cleared, the device changes, or access expires, contact support with the public order number.

10. Manage profile and addresses

After sign-in, open Personal Settings from the avatar menu to manage the profile. Username is editable but must remain unique; email is editable with format and uniqueness checks, while customer number is read-only. The site separately controls whether phone, WeChat nickname, and WeChat group are visible, required, or user-editable. The avatar uses a site-provided style rather than a local image upload. Profile Save is available only after an actual change, with required data complete, email and phone valid, and no save already running.

Settings also manages the store password, Google linking, and MFA, and directly provides interface language, support-translation language, and light, dark, or system theme preferences. Changing or recovering a password revokes all sessions; an email edit is a sensitive action when MFA is enabled. Google must be explicitly linked from an existing authenticated session, and a matching email must not be assumed to merge accounts automatically.

Only sites that require addresses show Address Management in the avatar menu. Open it to create, edit, delete, and set a default address, with Retry after a load failure:

• Some sites use province, city, and district selection plus a detailed address. Name, valid phone, province, city, district, and detail are required; postal code is optional.
• Other current flows use name, international phone, street, free-text province, and city. Postal code is optional but validated when supplied. Autocomplete suggestions can fill fields when enabled, but every field remains editable.
• Delete and Set default both require confirmation. Save is disabled while invalid, while the phone is invalid, when an edit has no changes, or while a request is running.

Each account has only one default address. Setting another removes the former default flag. Checkout prefers the default address and otherwise starts with the first address in the list, while still allowing the shopper to choose another or overwrite the form manually.

A stored address is not a promise that every shipment can use it. Checkout revalidates against current carrier, zone, and address policies.

11. Troubleshooting and recovery

Do not diagnose network errors by repeatedly clicking Submit. Check the cart, order list, or order detail first. If an order already exists, continue that order instead of creating another. Give support the site, public order number, visible state, and approximate time. Never send a password, full card number, CVC, session data, or verification code.

12. Frequently asked questions

Q1: Can a guest shop and place an order?

A guest can browse, search, use a guest cart, and express interest when a product permits it. Signed-out ordering depends on the current site configuration: accountless-payment checkout creates an order without an account, while auto-account checkout may create an account. Follow the current checkout page.

Q2: How long does a product remain in the cart?

The guest cart follows this browser's local data; the account cart is kept with the account. The site does not promise a fixed expiry for an ordinary cart. Clearing browser data, switching accounts, product unpublishing, variant changes, or inventory changes can affect visibility or checkoutability. A cart does not reserve inventory.

Q3: Why can I not edit or cancel a submitted order?

The current shopper UI has no generic order edit or self-service cancel action. Submission records price, address, inventory, and payment information and may already have started payment or fulfillment. Contact support promptly with the public order number so it can act according to current state.

Q4: How do I know whether an unavailable product will return?

Follow arrival records that intent only when the button is shown; Express interest records a demand signal. Neither guarantees a restock or notification. If neither action appears, favorite a still-public product or search again later.

Q5: What if the page uses the wrong language?

Use the header language switcher. Language changes interface and available translations, not product identity, order ownership, currency, or payment. A product without the target translation uses fallback text.