Storefront

The storefront is your own ordering page at usesela.com/s/your-name. Customers browse your menu or products, fill a cart, check out with cash on delivery, and follow the order on a live tracking page. Your team runs everything from Store in the dashboard: orders, the storefront design, options and add-ons, inventory, reports and customers.

It is built for the links people tap in Instagram and Facebook bios, Messenger chats, ads and QR codes. The whole journey works inside those apps' built-in browsers, with no app to download and no account to create. Sela takes no commission on storefront orders: customers pay you in cash.

Who can use it#

Browsing, the cart, checkout, tracking and the Store back office use no AI credits.

The Store area#

Open Store (المتجر) in the sidebar. It appears only in Restaurant and Standard Store workspaces.

Who can do what#

Every member can open the Store screens. What they can change depends on their role:

Order and stock work needs the permission to update work items. Storefront settings, publishing, option groups and stock tracking need the permission to change settings. See Permission families. A screen your role cannot change says so, for example "Your role can view orders but not change them." Members on hold and read-only workspaces can look but cannot change anything.

Customer phone numbers#

Phone numbers on the orders board, History, the order itself and Customers follow your workspace's phone privacy setting, the same as the inbox. A masked number shows only its last digits. Members with reveal permission reveal it with the same reveal button as in the inbox, and type a reason if your workspace requires one. Call and WhatsApp appear in the order once the full number is on screen. While numbers are masked, the Customers search matches names only. The delivery address is never masked, because the driver needs it.

Set up your storefront#

The Overview checklist tracks these steps: pick your store link, upload a logo, add a cover photo, choose a theme and save, set delivery zones and fees, set opening hours, add at least one orderable item, and publish. The logo and cover photo are optional: once every other step is done, the card reads Your store is set up and lists only the optional touches still missing.

A published storefront also counts as a connected channel, so the dashboard's "Connect a channel" reminder goes away once your store is live.

1. Open Store, then Storefront. Changes show in the Live preview before you save. Use Light and Dark to check both looks.
2. Fill in each tab, described below, and select Save. The first save creates the storefront as a draft.
3. Select Publish. Your store is live at the link shown, and View store opens it.

Brand#

Theme#

• Theme: Saffron, Ember, Olive, Rose, Lagoon, Mono, Midnight or Citrus. Every theme has a light and a dark version. Restaurants start on Saffron, stores on Lagoon.
• Brand colour: an optional six-digit hex colour (such as #C2410C) that replaces the theme accent on buttons and highlights. If it has low contrast on white, prices and links use a darker shade so they stay readable.
• Font: Modern, Classic, Rounded or Bold.
• Colour mode: Light, Dark or Match device.

Layout and sections#

• Catalog style: List (rows with a thumbnail, best for menus), Grid (two product cards per row) or Showcase (large photos, one per row). Restaurants start on List, stores on Grid.
• Header: Cover photo (or a colour band without one) or Compact (logo and name in a slim band).
• Display: Show search and Show item descriptions.
• Sections: drag to reorder, and switch each one on or off. Hidden sections keep their settings.

You can give a section your own title in English and Arabic (up to 80 characters).

Offers is not in this list: it appears on its own when you have published offers, right after Featured items, or before Best sellers or the menu when Featured items is off. See Offers and bundles.

Checkout#

Delivery areas and fees come from Environment, Delivery & fees, the same settings the AI uses. The modes are explained in Orders and payment links. With Fee by area or By branch area, the customer picks the area (and branch) in the cart.

Contact#

Phone, WhatsApp, Instagram username, Address (English and Arabic, up to 200 characters) and Map link (an https:// link, such as a Google Maps share link). They appear on the store page and the tracking page, where customers get Call and WhatsApp buttons.

AI co-pilot#

Show the AI co-pilot on your store, with an optional greeting in English and Arabic (up to 200 characters). See The AI co-pilot.

Store link rules#

• 3 to 30 characters: lowercase letters a-z, digits and single hyphens, starting and ending with a letter or digit.
• It must be unused by any other store, including a link another store gave up in the last 90 days, and some words are reserved, such as admin, shop, store, checkout and orders. The editor suggests a free alternative.
• Sela suggests a link from your business name the first time.

Changing the link#

Once your store has been published, changing the link keeps the old one for 90 days:

• Old links and printed QR codes send customers to the new link, while the store is published.
• No other business can take the old name in that time. You can switch back to it yourself.
• Tracking links keep working for good, and open the order under the new link.

After 90 days the old link stops working and the name becomes free for anyone. Update your bio links and reprint QR codes before then. A store that was never published has nothing to keep, so its link changes straight away.

What publishing checks#

Publish refuses with a message until:

Unpublish takes the store offline. Customers then see a neutral "This store isn't available" page. Sela never shows your customers an upgrade message. Tracking links for existing orders keep working.

Share your link#

On Overview, use Copy link for your Instagram or Facebook bio, ads and messages, and Download QR to print on menus, bags and the counter.

Taking orders day to day#

Pause orders and busy mode#

On Overview, under Taking orders:

• Pause new orders for 30 minutes, 1 hour or Until I resume (a timed pause can last up to 7 days). Customers can still browse and fill a cart, but checkout is closed. The page says orders are paused and, for a timed pause, when they resume. Resume orders ends the pause.
• Busy mode adds 10, 20 or 30 minutes to the time customers see.

Opening hours#

Orders are accepted only inside the opening hours set in Environment, in your workspace's time zone. Outside them the page shows when you open next, and customers can still browse and prepare a cart. If you set no hours at all, the store takes orders at any time. If every day is switched off, the store is always closed.

New-order alerts#

A new storefront order arrives on Store, Orders in real time, with a chime (switch it with Sound on / Sound off), a highlight and a toast, and a count in the browser tab title. It is also sent to the mobile app and, by Telegram or email, to the people who receive approval alerts. See Notifications, SLA and escalations.

Restaurants that use the AI order tool also see storefront orders in the Operations inbox. Both boards update the same order.

The New column shows orders placed in the last 7 days. Older orders nobody accepted leave the column and appear as Older orders still waiting, a count that opens them in History. See Store orders board.

Accepting orders and stock#

For products with tracked stock, units come off the count when your team accepts the order, not when the customer places it. An unconfirmed cash-on-delivery order does not hold stock, so other customers can still buy it until you accept.

• Checkout still refuses a cart with more units than you have on hand.
• If stock ran short since the order was placed, Accept fails with "Not enough stock to accept this order. Add stock or decline the order." and names the item, how many are left and how many the order needs. Add stock in Inventory, or reject the order.
• Rejecting a new order changes no stock. Cancelling an accepted order puts back exactly the units it took.
• Orders confirmed in an AI chat follow the same rule.

How customers order#

1. Browse. The home page shows your cover, logo and name, whether you are open (or when you open), the delivery time, the delivery fee and minimum order, then your sections in the order you chose. Returning customers see Order again after the menu, and a receipt icon at the top that opens My orders.
2. Choose an item. The item sheet shows the photo, description, price, sizes and option groups, marked Required or Optional with hints such as Choose up to 2. Customers set the quantity and can add a note. If a required choice is missing, Add to order points to it. When stock is tracked, the quantity stops at what you have, and when 5 or fewer are left the sheet says Only 3 left (for example). Customers never see a count above 50, so your exact stock stays private.
3. Review the cart. View order opens the cart: quantities, Delivery or Pickup, the delivery area, the subtotal, delivery fee and total, and how much more is needed for the delivery minimum. The quantity buttons stop at the stock available. If an item sold out, ran short or changed price meanwhile, the cart marks it and offers a fix, such as Make it 3.
4. Check out. One page: Full name, Phone number, delivery area or branch, Address, Nearest landmark and Note for the store (when enabled), and Cash on delivery. Then Place order.
5. Track. The customer lands on the tracking page.

Open pages update on their own. When you mark something sold out, change stock, pause or resume orders, or save the storefront or catalog, customers who already have the store open see it within seconds without reloading. Open and closed follow your opening hours minute by minute.

Offers (bundles) sit in their own Offers row near the top and go in the cart as one item. See Offers and bundles.

How items appear:

What checkout accepts:

• Iraqi mobile numbers typed any common way (0770 123 4567, 770..., +964 770..., 00964..., Arabic digits). They are saved in international form (+964 7XX XXX XXXX). A foreign number needs its country code, such as +44.
• Name up to 80 characters, address up to 300, landmark up to 200, order note up to 500.
• If prices changed while the customer was ordering, a Prices changed sheet shows the old and new total, and nothing is ordered until the customer confirms the new total.
• Tapping Place order twice, or retrying after a lost connection, never creates a second order.

Each order gets a short reference such as ORD-7K3M, the same format as AI chat orders.

The tracking page#

The tracking link looks like usesela.com/s/your-name/o/.... It updates live, with a Live badge, and shows:

• the steps Placed, Confirmed, Preparing, On the way or Ready for pickup, and Delivered or Picked up;
• the order number, the time estimate (your Time shown to customers plus busy mode, or the ready time your team set when accepting), the items, totals and Cash on delivery;
• the delivery area and landmark, never the full address, and a masked phone number;
• Call and WhatsApp buttons to your store, Copy link and Share, Get updates, and Order again on the phone that placed the order;
• the reason and your message if the order was declined or cancelled.

Customers are not messaged on WhatsApp about storefront orders. The tracking page is where they follow the order, so the page asks them to save the link, and offers notifications where the browser supports them.

My orders and coming back#

My orders (top of the page) lists the last 10 orders placed from that phone and browser, with Track order and Reorder. Reorder adds the items that are still available to the cart.

The cart and My orders are saved for that phone and browser, and each visit keeps them for another 90 days. After 90 days without a visit the store starts fresh, with an empty cart and an empty My orders. Tracking links still open their orders. Sela deletes carts that nobody can reach any more.

The in-app browsers inside Instagram and Facebook keep their own storage, separate from Safari or Chrome, and may clear it. The tracking link is the reliable way back to an order, so customers should keep it.

After an order, the tracking page offers Follow your order (also under Get updates). Nothing opens on its own: each option starts from the customer's tap.

Added to the Home Screen, the store opens like an app with your logo and name, with shortcuts to the menu and My orders. Notifications go only to browsers where the customer turned them on. A customer who turned them on for an earlier order also gets Order sent when they place the next one. A new ready time on the same step sends nothing, and a phone that was offline gets only the latest step. The tracking page always shows the latest status.

Offers and bundles#

Offers you publish in Settings, Business records (an offer with its exact items, one price, start and end dates, eligible branches, terms and a checkout policy) appear on the store home in an Offers row. Customers add an offer to the cart as one item, at the offer price, the same way your AI assistant quotes it in chat.

What customers see:

• A card per offer: the picture of its first item, the name, what is in it (for example "2 × Chicken saj · Regular, 1 × Fries"), the offer price with the items' own total struck through and Save 12% (for example), and the end date. Delivery only or Pickup only shows when the offer's fulfillment mode limits it.
• Tapping the card opens the offer: its terms, every item with its quantity, the end date, and a quantity of 1 to 20 to add. An offer has no sizes or options. A note is allowed when Let customers add an order note is on, as for items.
• In the cart, at checkout, on the tracking page and in My orders, the offer is one line with its contents underneath.

Rules:

• The price is the offer price times the quantity. The delivery fee and the minimum order apply to the whole cart as usual.
• Only offers that are published, inside their dates, with at least one active branch, and priced in the store currency appear. Every item in the offer must still be on your menu or catalog exactly as the offer lists it.
• If one of its items sells out, the offer shows Not available right now. If the offer ends, is archived or changes while it is in a cart, the cart marks the line "This offer has ended or changed" and checkout waits until the customer removes it.
• Items with tracked stock count inside offers too: the cart refuses more bundles than the stock covers, counting the same products elsewhere in the cart, and accepting the order takes each item's units.
• A Delivery only offer cannot be picked up, and a Pickup only offer cannot be delivered; the cart says "Not available with this delivery choice". When you price delivery By branch area, an offer is delivered only from the branches it lists that have a delivery branch linked.
• Offers set to Requires staff approval can be ordered on the store too, because every storefront order waits for your team to accept it. The customer is told the store confirms the offer after the order is placed, the order card on the board shows Offer needs review, and an order tool set to run automatically never accepts such an order on its own. In other chats the AI still hands these offers to your team instead of quoting them.

On the board, an order with offers lists them on the card. The order and the kitchen ticket show each offer with its items underneath, and the ticket multiplies them by the quantity so you can pack exactly what goes in the bag.

The AI co-pilot#

The co-pilot is your AI assistant inside the store: an Ask button that opens a chat. Customers ask about the menu or products, and the assistant answers from your catalog and adds items to their cart. While it works, the chat shows what it is doing, such as Searching the menu… or Updating your order…, and each cart change appears as a chip.

What it does and does not do:

• It identifies the exact item, asks for required choices (size, options), then adds it, changes the quantity or options, or removes a line. It uses your live prices and availability, and cannot add something that is sold out, out of stock or missing required options.
• It never places an order. Checkout is always the customer's own button, and the assistant points to it.
• It never asks for a name, phone number or address in the chat. Checkout collects them.
• It writes plain text, without bold or headings, so its replies read the same in the store chat, your Inbox and notifications.
• It adds a published offer to the cart as one item at the offer price, never its items one by one. For an offer that requires staff approval it says your team confirms it after the order is placed.
• It follows your assistant identity and scope and hands off to your team like on any channel. The chat appears in your Inbox, where your team can take over. The customer then sees that they are chatting with your team.

To turn it on:

1. Make sure you have the AI Assist add-on with credits and a saved AI identity with a brand name.
2. In Storefront, open AI co-pilot, turn on Show the AI co-pilot on your store, add a greeting if you like, and select Save.

Each co-pilot reply uses AI credits like any other AI reply. See Credits and usage. Without the AI Assist add-on the tab shows Needs the AI Assist add-on, and the floating Ask chat button is hidden. Everything else on the store keeps working.

Limits#

Many order attempts from the same visitor or the same phone number, or a sudden flood of orders to one store, are slowed down. The customer sees "Too many attempts. Wait a minute and try again."

Troubleshooting#