Running the Store After the Switch
Where staff do each everyday task once josemadridsalsa.com is the new site running on BigCommerce
Running the Store After the Switch
The new website sits in front of the same BigCommerce store you already use. Anything to do with selling (prices, stock, orders, customers, coupons, gift certificates, shipping and payments) is still done in the BigCommerce admin, exactly as before. The website's own admin handles the things BigCommerce never did: product stories and photos, fundraisers, recipes, the blog and events.
Where to do what
| I want to… | Where | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Change a price or put something on sale | BigCommerce → Products | The website shows the new price within seconds. |
| Mark something out of stock or change stock | BigCommerce → Products | Out-of-stock products can't be added to a cart. |
| Stop selling a product | BigCommerce → Products → untick Visible on storefront | The website then shows it as Out of Stock. To take its page off the website entirely, also deactivate it in the website admin. |
| Add a new salsa | Both: BigCommerce and the website admin, with the exact same name | BigCommerce holds its price and stock; the website admin holds its page (photos, heat level, nutrition). The same name is what links them (see below). |
| Change the jars offered in a Choose-5/6/12 pack | BigCommerce → the pack product → each "Jar" option | The website's pack picker offers every in-stock salsa. If a picked salsa isn't a choice in the BigCommerce Jar options, checkout tells the shopper it isn't available in that pack, so keep the Jar options listing every salsa you sell. |
| Process, ship, refund or cancel an order | BigCommerce → Orders | Order emails to customers come from BigCommerce as before. |
| Look up a customer or their order history | BigCommerce → Customers | |
| Create a coupon code | BigCommerce → Marketing → Coupon codes | Shoppers enter it on BigCommerce's checkout page. |
| Issue or look up a gift certificate | BigCommerce → Marketing → Gift certificates | |
| Change shipping rates or tax settings | BigCommerce → Settings | |
| Change product photos, descriptions, heat level, nutrition or ingredients | Website admin → Products | |
| Run a fundraiser, see its sales and pay out the group | Website admin → Fundraisers | Fundraiser orders are placed and listed on the website, not in BigCommerce. |
| Recipes, blog ("Heat Index"), events, store locations | Website admin |
In the website admin, the Products, Inventory, Orders, Customers and Gift Certificates pages open with a "Managed in BigCommerce" note and a link to the matching BigCommerce screen. If you see that note, the thing you're looking for is probably in BigCommerce.
Two kinds of orders
- Retail orders (anyone buying salsa from the website) are worked in BigCommerce → Orders.
A read-only copy numbered
BC-<number>also appears in the website admin's Orders list, so the website's sales reports include them. Ship, refund and cancel them in BigCommerce; the website refuses those actions on a copy and updates it by itself. - Fundraiser orders (bought from a fundraiser's page, or through a student's referral link) are in the website admin → Orders and the fundraiser's own page, because they're priced by the campaign and credited to the group.
The checkout's look
BigCommerce's checkout is designed to look like this website. The live theme is "Cornerstone — Jose Madrid checkout", a copy of the original Cornerstone theme with a redesigned checkout:
- A slim header with the logo, "Jose Madrid / Salsa · Est. 1987", a "Secure checkout" badge and a "Back to shop" link to the website.
- Each step (Customer, Shipping, Billing, Payment) in its own rounded card, with rounded fields and buttons, salsa-red accents and the website's fonts.
- An order summary card that stays in view, with prices and the total in red.
- A footer linking to Shipping, Returns, Privacy and Contact on the website.
Only the look changed. Ordering, payment, tax, shipping and the order emails are BigCommerce's, exactly as before, and every other page of the old store is untouched.
- To go back to the original look, a developer runs
npm run bigcommerce:theme --workspace @jose-madrid/storefront -- restore(or tell Claude "restore the BigCommerce theme"). The original "Cornerstone" is also still under BigCommerce → Storefront → Themes → My Themes and can be applied there. - To change the design, edit the files in
apps/storefront/bigcommerce-theme/:checkout-style.json(colours),checkout-overlay/templates/pages/(the header and footer markup) andcheckout-overlay/optimized-checkout.append.scss(layout, corners, spacing). Then runnpm run bigcommerce:theme --workspace @jose-madrid/storefront -- apply-checkout-style. Each run uploads a new copy of the theme; older copies stay in My Themes until deleted there. - A full backup of the original theme is kept in
apps/storefront/bigcommerce-theme/backups/2026-09-26/.
When something looks wrong
- The website shows an old price. Wait a minute and reload. Pages also refresh on their own within five minutes. If it keeps happening, the BigCommerce-to-website connection needs re-registering; the fix is in the cutover runbook.
- A checkout or payment problem. Call BigCommerce support. Checkout, payments and order emails are theirs. Tell them the store uses a headless storefront with BigCommerce's hosted checkout on channel 1.
- A website page is broken or down. In Vercel → Deployments, the previous deployment can be put back live in one click.
Adding a new salsa
- Add it in BigCommerce → Products with its price, and make it visible.
- Add it in the website admin → Products with its photos, description, heat level and nutrition, and give it exactly the same name as in BigCommerce. Capital letters, spaces and punctuation don't matter; the words do.
- Open its page on the website. It should show BigCommerce's price, and "Add to Cart" should work.
If the page shows Out of Stock, the names don't match, or the product isn't visible in BigCommerce. A product that is only in BigCommerce doesn't appear on the website at all, and one that is only in the website admin shows as out of stock.
To add it to a mix-and-match pack, also add it as a choice in each Jar option on the pack products in BigCommerce, using the same name.
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