Online shop for SMEs: from order to invoice

An online shop for SMEs rarely fails because of the order page, but because of what surrounds it: the products in the shop differ from those in the accounts, the stock is wrong and every order has to be transferred into an invoice by hand. This guide shows what a small shop really needs, which questions to settle before launch and how to link order, stock and invoice into one continuous process.

What an SME shop really needs

The technology of an order page is now the smallest problem. Seven building blocks that have to fit together are decisive:

• Product master data with number, name, description, photos and price
• Stock, so that nothing is sold that is not available
• Payment that suits your customers and your accounting
• Shipping with costs, delivery countries and a pick-up option
• Legal information: legal notice, prices, general terms and conditions, data protection
• Order confirmation, which the customer receives immediately
• Bookkeeping: every order must end up in your books as an order, an invoice and a stock movement

The more of these building blocks sit in separate programs, the more manual work arises, and with it errors.

Shop and accounting: separate or connected?

Many shops are stand-alone systems with their own product list. That has a price: you maintain products, prices and stock levels in two places and reconcile them. Price changes in the shop that are missing from the accounts, and orders that never end up as an invoice, are the typical consequences.

The alternative is a shop that draws its data from the sales accounting. Then there is only one product list, one stock level and one invoice per order. The drawback is that the shop is only as good as the upkeep of the master data in the accounting. For an SME with a manageable range, the advantage usually outweighs this.

Setting up products properly

A properly set up product saves questions later:

• A unique product number and an understandable name
• Decide on net or gross prices and stick to it consistently. Anyone who calculates net must be able to show value added tax correctly in the end
• Photos of good quality, ideally with a description for every image
• Weight and dimensions, so that shipping costs can be calculated correctly
• Keep variants such as size or colour as separate products with their own stock, instead of hiding them in the name
• Description and search engine details for each product, in every language in which you sell
• Categories that visitors understand, in a structure with at most two to three levels

Promotions should be stored with a start and end date so that they end by themselves.

Choosing payment methods

For an SME that mainly serves business customers and regular customers, the invoice with QR payment slip is often the obvious solution: it is widespread in Switzerland, easy to process in accounting and needs no contract with a payment service provider. If your customers are to pay before shipping, payment in advance is an option, with the goods shipped only after payment has been received. Many private customers expect card or TWINT, but these require a contract with a payment service provider. Before launch, think about which payment methods your target group really expects, and plan the reconciliation of incoming payments in the accounts right away. The invoice part is described in the guide on the QR invoice.

Shipping and stock

Settle before launch:

• the shipping methods, for example A-Mail, B-Mail and pick-up on site
• the shipping costs by class or weight and a possible free-shipping threshold
• the delivery countries, for example only Switzerland and Liechtenstein
• the minimum order value, if small orders are not profitable
• the stock level and a threshold from which you show “only a few left”

Stock should decrease automatically with every order. How you otherwise manage stock is covered in the guide Inventory management for SMEs.

Legal points in online trade

Anyone who offers goods online must observe a few obligations. The Federal Act against Unfair Competition (UWG) requires in Art. 3, para. 1, let. s, among other things, clear and complete information on identity and contact address including the email address, a reference to the individual technical steps that lead to the conclusion of a contract, and means of recognising and correcting input errors before the order is placed. In addition, the customer’s order must be confirmed without delay by electronic means. Prices towards consumers must be shown as final prices under Art. 16 UWG and the Price Indication Ordinance.

Added to this are general terms and conditions, a privacy notice and rules on delivery and returns. If you collect personal data such as name and address, customers must be informed about it under Art. 19 of the Federal Act on Data Protection (DSG). Note also that in Switzerland there is generally no statutory right of withdrawal for ordinary online purchases as there is in the EU; whether and how you offer returns is something you regulate yourself in your terms. If in doubt, have these texts reviewed legally. Software can provide the space for them, but does not write them.

The process after the order

A continuous process looks like this:

It is important that a double submission of the same order does not lead to a second invoice. A clean system recognises repetitions, for example through reloading the page, and treats them as the same order.

Practical example: Muster Imkerei Sonnenhang

Muster Imkerei Sonnenhang is a fictitious family business that sells honey, candles and gift boxes. Until now orders arrived by email and phone; the daughter wrote the invoices by hand in the evening. The family now sets up 12 products, three of them honey varieties, each in two jar sizes as separate products with their own stock: 6 honey products, plus 4 candles and 2 gift boxes, 12 in total.

As shipping methods the family chooses B-Mail and pick-up at the farm, and as the payment method the invoice with QR payment slip. Of one honey product, described in German and French, 40 jars are in stock. Then a customer orders 6: the stock level falls automatically to 34, a sales order with a QR invoice is created and the customer receives a confirmation. An open shipment appears in the task list. The daughter packs the parcel, enters the tracking number and marks the order as shipped. She no longer has to write the invoice; she only reconciles the incoming payments. The family had the return terms and general terms reviewed by a specialist beforehand.

Checklist

• Range and product numbers settled, variants kept as separate products
• Prices uniformly net or gross, value added tax clarified
• Photos with descriptions, weight and dimensions recorded
• Payment methods chosen and reconciliation of incoming payments clarified
• Shipping methods, shipping costs, delivery countries and minimum order value set
• Stock levels recorded and reduced with each order
• Legal notice with contact address and email present
• General terms, privacy notice and return rules reviewed
• Order confirmation worded and tested
• A test order played through to the invoice
• Responsibility for shipping assigned

Sources

• Federal Act against Unfair Competition (UWG, SR 241), Art. 3, para. 1, let. s and Art. 16, as at 1 January 2025: fedlex.admin.ch (German original), accessed on 04.11.2026.
• Federal Act on Data Protection (DSG, SR 235.1), Art. 19, as at 7 July 2025: fedlex.admin.ch (German original), accessed on 04.11.2026.

This guide does not replace legal or tax advice. Information as at 04.11.2026.