Cmsmart Stores Setup Wizard: What's New, October 2026

Applies to Cmsmart Stores, the Store Setup wizard and Cmsmart Product Designer (formerly NBDesigner) · Updated October 2026. Cmsmart Stores are ready-made WooCommerce storefronts for print, gift, apparel, B2B and marketplace businesses, built on Cmsmart Product Designer.

Why did adding a new Cmsmart store used to mean slow, manual work?

We manually built a Cmsmart Print Shop Store the old way to document it, and it still works — but it is not one click. The sequence looks like this:

• Upload and activate the Cmsmart Stores parent theme zip, then the store's own child theme zip, as two separate installs under Appearance, Themes.
• Upload and activate the Cmsmart Stores Blocks plugin and Cmsmart Product Designer separately, each from its own zip, under Plugins.
• Import a demo content pack from Tools, Cmsmart Stores demo content, then run Load demo images as a second pass to replace the placeholders.
• Switch WooCommerce's Coming soon mode to Live yourself before customers can see anything, since every fresh WooCommerce site starts hidden.

What could your next Cmsmart store look like today?

The six niche stores — Cmsmart Print Shop Store, Cmsmart T-Shirt Store, Cmsmart Gift Store, Cmsmart 3D Print Store, Cmsmart Boxed Store and Cmsmart Boxed 2 Store — are included in a Fullstore plan and run Cmsmart Product Designer out of the box, so a personalised photo pillow, a T-shirt or a business card sells with templates, print options and a price calculator already configured on sample products.

The Cmsmart B2B Store is a catalogue-first storefront for print businesses that sell to companies: guests see a sign-in and apply-for-an-account prompt instead of a price, and signed-in business accounts get company pricing, quick order and reorder from the Cmsmart B2B add-on built into the store's design.

The Cmsmart Marketplace Store turns the same designer into a multi-vendor marketplace: independent makers get seller storefronts and a design gallery, shoppers get one cart and checkout across every maker, and every product carries a Made by and Design by line.

How does Cmsmart launch a store from the dashboard to a live site?

That shared-parent-plus-child-theme structure is the same pattern WordPress itself documents for child themes: the parent theme (Cmsmart Stores) carries the shared design system, and each niche gets its own child theme on top, so a Cmsmart update to the shared parts does not have to touch every store's customisations.

How do you set up your first store with the Cmsmart Stores Setup wizard?

1. In Store Catalogue, pick a store and press Set Up. The six niche stores show an Included in your plan pill on a Fullstore key; the B2B and Marketplace stores show Requires B2B or Requires Marketplace until that add-on key is active.
2. Choose Download installer file (about 10 minutes) or Theme files, manual (about 30 minutes) if you would rather install the theme and plugins yourself; the manual path is also described in the Cmsmart store install guide.
3. Download the one PHP installer file and upload it to an empty folder on your own host, then open its link in a browser. The file works for 7 days and at most 3 installs.
4. The installer checks your host first — PHP version, memory, a writable folder and HTTPS, the same kind of requirements WooCommerce documents for any store — before it lets you continue.
5. Fill in an empty database (or a cPanel token so Cmsmart creates one) and your admin email; your store name and email are pre-filled from the dashboard, and Cmsmart never receives your admin password.
6. Press Install my store. The installer downloads and checks the files, installs WordPress, WooCommerce, the theme pair and the plugins, imports the demo store and sample data, and activates your licence key, all on the same page.
7. When it finishes, the store is already live with sample data and your licence active — no separate step to flip Site visibility, and no further action needed before customers can browse it.

What's new in Cmsmart Product Designer this update?

Newest first, from the release notes:

• 2.18.4 (22 October 2026): the design area now shows correctly on every small screen, including a narrow browser window and "desktop site" mode on a phone, and the Process button fits on a phone screen.
• 2.18.3 (18 October 2026): fixes a cart bug on caching stores, where a first-time shopper's design — or a guest's saved design from "My designs" — could go missing after the first Process; "Convert font to outlines" also works again without an outside font library.
• 2.18.2 (17 October 2026): Cmsmart Overview, the Orders list, the order export and a product's edit page all open again on a store with a recently refunded order.

Two named Cmsmart innovations from the earlier 2.17.0 release are already standard in every 2.18.x build a store installs: the print-ready PDF that matches the order and the approved-artwork lock. See the full list on the Cmsmart Product Designer section of the products page.

Your own dashboard is the source of truth for what you have installed: Commerce, Your Licenses shows the plan and status behind your key, and the Plugins screen or Cmsmart, Overview in wp-admin always shows the exact version running on your site.

What's the value of trying a store before you commit to it?

A Fullstore key activates every niche store; the B2B and Marketplace stores need their own add-on key, and the wizard is honest about which key does what rather than letting a mismatched key fail silently. If you start the installer with the wrong plan, it tells you so and offers an upgrade with the same key instead of a generic error. With no key at all, a free 30-day trial activates every Fullstore store, one click, no card, right inside the same setup flow. An expired key still lets the store run in preview mode, and renewing the same key reactivates it without a new install.

Already a Cmsmart customer? Here's what changes for you

A Premium (plugin-only) key still covers Cmsmart Product Designer on your existing site; stores themselves need a Fullstore, B2B or Marketplace key, with the same free 30-day trial offered from inside Store Setup if you want to test one first. See the full breakdown under existing customers on the Cmsmart platform page, or open Commerce, Your Licenses in your dashboard for your own key's exact status.

Want to go further with a custom build on top of your store?

Common requests we hear once a store is live: customer-group or contract pricing instead of one public price list, a connection from new orders into your existing MIS or ERP, a private catalogue for one business client instead of the shared B2B storefront, or a storefront redesign that keeps the Cmsmart Product Designer and Cmsmart B2B or Marketplace add-ons underneath. None of that is guesswork from the stores you just saw — it is the same plugin and theme stack, extended for your business.

Plan a custom build on my store

Why Cmsmart — and how do you try it today?

Try it in whichever order suits you: browse every store, open the wizard directly, or start from an overview of the whole platform.

See all Cmsmart Stores · Try the Store Setup wizard · What is Cmsmart?

Frequently asked questions

What is the Cmsmart Stores Setup wizard?

It is the dashboard flow under Stores, Store Catalogue that installs a Cmsmart store on your own WordPress host: one installer file downloads, checks your host, installs WordPress, WooCommerce, the store theme, Cmsmart Stores Blocks and Cmsmart Product Designer, then imports sample data and activates your licence, all in one run.

Does it cost anything to try a Cmsmart store?

No. Every store is free to set up and runs with sample data from the first minute. A Fullstore, B2B or Marketplace licence key is what activates a store on your own domain once you are ready to go live with it; a free 30-day trial key is available directly from Store Setup if you do not have one yet.

Which Cmsmart Product Designer version do the stores install?

The six niche stores are at version 2.0.1 (released 22 October 2026), on the shared Cmsmart Stores parent theme 2.0.0; the Cmsmart B2B Store and Cmsmart Marketplace Store are also at 2.0.1, each with Cmsmart Stores Blocks 2.1.2 and the Store Installer kit at 2.0.3. The 2.0.1 store packages bundle Cmsmart Product Designer 2.18.3, and the normal WordPress plugin update then offers 2.18.4. Your Plugins screen always shows the exact version on your own install.

I manually installed a Cmsmart store before the wizard existed — do I need to redo anything?

No. The wizard installs the same parent theme, child theme, Cmsmart Stores Blocks and Cmsmart Product Designer that a manual install uses, so an existing manual install keeps working. Update each plugin and theme from Plugins and Appearance, Themes as usual, or download the latest zips from Store Setup's Theme files and changelog panel.

Where do I see which version of a store I have?

Open Stores, Store Setup in your dashboard and expand Theme files and changelog for a version pill and a What's new and version history list per store, or check Plugins and Appearance, Themes in your own wp-admin for the exact versions running on your site.

Can Cmsmart customise a store beyond what the wizard installs?

Yes, as custom development. The wizard installs the standard Cmsmart Stores package; contract pricing, ERP or MIS connections, private B2B catalogues and bespoke storefront design are scoped and built on top of that same stack for your business.