The question most shops skip
When a shop decides to “go online”, the conversation jumps straight to orders and payments. The quieter question comes first: do customers know what you sell? A handloom store with two Branches, a hardware shop, a bakery with a pantry shelf: many of their customers want to see the range, check a price and ask whether something is in stock before they ever place an order.
What a catalog does
A catalog on your Profile shows categories, items with a cover image and a description, prices, options and the availability you set. A visitor browses, opens an item and either comes to the shop or asks about it through a form that saves the question in your dashboard. You reply from your own phone. No cart, no payment, no new process in the shop.
What online ordering adds
Ordering adds a cart for one Branch, a fulfilment choice (pickup, delivery, dine-in, whatever you offer) and a submission that is saved as an Order with a reference before any payment step. Then your own payment instructions appear: Manual UPI, Bank Transfer, pay on fulfilment or your own text. The customer pays you directly and can tell you they have paid; someone on your team checks and confirms it.
What ordering demands of you
- Availability that is true today, per Branch. An Order for an item you do not have is worse than no Order.
- Fulfilment you can run: who packs, who hands over, what the pickup window is.
- Payment instructions you keep current, and a person who checks the account or till and confirms each payment.
- Someone watching the Orders list during opening hours.
A short decision table
Where each step starts on Nichevio
As a hypothetical example, a home and kitchen shop such as Northfield Goods, with Downtown and Highlands Branches, could publish its catalog with a question form first (two Branches start on Business Pro) and add Orders for pickup on Business Growth once its range and prices are stable. Current prices for each plan are on the Pricing page.
A note for suppliers
If your buyers are businesses, the step after a catalog is usually not ordering but a request for quotation (RFQ): several items with quantities, a delivery context and no payment step. On Nichevio an ordinary quote form works from Business Starter; itemized RFQ carts start on Business Growth, separately from Orders.