Signing Up & Onboarding Your Store

Enter your full name and email address, your phone number, your role (Founder, Marketing Manager, Developer, or Other), and your company name.

Next to the phone number field is a country code dropdown: +1 US, +44 UK, +91 IN, +61 AU, and +1 CA. Pick the one matching your number before you continue.

Email verification happens on this same screen. Click Send OTP and a six-digit code arrives in your inbox within seconds. Type it into the six-digit code field — the wizard will not let you continue until the code is confirmed.

Gmail addresses: Verify with Google. When the email you type ends in @gmail.com or @googlemail.com, a Verify with Google button appears under the field, below an or divider. It is an alternative to the code, not a replacement: Send OTP stays available and is the only option for every other email provider (Outlook, Yahoo, your own domain, and so on). The Google button never shows for those addresses.

To use it:

1. Fill in your details and type your Gmail address in the Email field. The button is greyed out while a code is being sent or checked, and while Google is being contacted.
2. Click Verify with Google. The page saves what you have typed so far and takes you to Google's account chooser. Your email address is not sent in the link.
3. Pick the Google account that is the same address you typed (case and dots do not matter, so Asha.Rao@gmail.com and asharao@gmail.com match; googlemail.com and gmail.com count as the same mailbox).
4. Google sends you straight back to the same page. A Confirming with Google… line shows for a moment, your name, email, phone, country code, role, and company are put back exactly as you left them, and the field changes to the green Verified badge with a Verified with Google note below it. You can continue to the next step without a code.

If something goes wrong, a message appears under the email field with a Use OTP instead link that clears it and takes you to Send OTP:

• "You chose … Pick the Google account for … or use OTP." — you signed in with a different Google account than the address you typed. Click Verify with Google again and choose the right account, or use OTP. The email you typed is never replaced by the Google one.
• "Google verification was cancelled." — you closed or backed out of Google's screens.
• "This Google confirmation expired. Please try again." — the round trip took too long (the page keeps your details for 15 minutes) or the page was opened in a different tab or browser than the one you started in. Start again from the button.
• "Google could not confirm this email address.", "Google verification did not complete.", or "Verify with Google is unavailable right now." — use OTP instead.
• "Verify with Google works only for Gmail addresses." — the address is not a Gmail one; use OTP.
• "Too many Google verification attempts for this email." — wait and try later, or use OTP.

Editing the email field at any point clears the Google state, so a different address always needs its own verification (Google or OTP).

A few protections run quietly in the background so this step can't be abused:

• You can request at most 3 codes per hour for the same email address. If you hit that limit, wait before trying again.
• Each code allows 5 incorrect attempts before it is locked — request a fresh one if you run out.
• A code expires 10 minutes after it's sent. If yours expires, click Resend OTP (it becomes available 60 seconds after the previous send) to get a new one.

Enter your store/business name, your industry (Fashion, Beauty, Electronics, Food & Beverage, Home & Living, Health & Wellness, or Other), and your business size (just you, 2–10 people, 10–50, or 50+).

Directly under the store name field, a line labelled Your store address updates as you type and shows the address your store will get, for example aranya-living.billionbiz.store. You do not type the address yourself. BillionBiz builds it from the store name: letters are made lowercase, every run of spaces, punctuation, or other symbols becomes a single hyphen, hyphens at the start or end are dropped, and the result is cut off at 30 characters. So Acme & Co! becomes acme-co.billionbiz.store. The same address appears on the left-panel preview.

When you click or tab out of the store name field, BillionBiz checks whether that address is available — you'll see Checking availability..., then a green Store name is available! or a red message saying the name is already taken so you can pick something else. The check runs once you leave the field, not on every keystroke, so finish typing your full store name before checking the result. Editing the name clears the result and you need to leave the field again to re-check. Subdomains must be 3–30 characters, lowercase letters/numbers/hyphens only, and can't be a reserved word like admin, shop, store, test, or www. Your subdomain becomes part of your store's web address (yourname.billionbiz.store), so it's worth choosing something you'll want to keep.

If the check cannot reach the server (for example you lose your connection), no message appears and you can still continue; the address is checked again when your store is created.

Coming back to a closed account. If you closed your BillionBiz account earlier and sign up again with the same email (verified with the OTP in the first step), typing your old store name shows This store name belongs to your closed account. instead of the "taken" message. The note says your previous store records are kept so you can pick up where you left off, that your store content is not restored, and that you start on the free plan. Click Reactivate old account to confirm; the note then reads Your old account will be reactivated when you finish signing up. and the rest of signup continues as normal. The step cannot be completed until you click the button. Only the owner of the closed account, with the verified email OTP, sees this; anyone else gets the usual "taken" message. Changing the store name clears the confirmation.

Pick Free, Starter, Growth, Pro, or Max. See Pricing & Plans for the full feature breakdown of each tier. You can start on Free and upgrade at any time later from the Admin Panel — choosing a paid plan here does not lock you in immediately (see the payment step below).

Plans are listed as a stack of selectable rows. Click a row to choose it: its radio dot fills in, its border is highlighted, and the plan's feature list opens inside the row. The most popular plan carries a Popular label next to its name. The price sits at the right edge of each row. Next stays disabled until you pick one, and the choice also appears on the plan card in the left-panel preview.

At the top of this step, a Monthly / Annual toggle switches the prices shown below it. Monthly is selected by default, and each plan shows its monthly price before GST. If you arrived from the Pricing page with Annual selected there, this step opens on Annual instead.

Switch to Annual to pay once a year. The Annual button carries a Save N% badge, where N is the smallest yearly saving across the paid plans (so the badge never promises more than the weakest plan delivers); it is hidden when no paid plan is listed. Each paid plan then shows the yearly amount you are charged (for example ₹5,999 /yr for Starter). Below it you see the approximate per-month equivalent and how much you save each year compared with twelve monthly payments. Choose your cycle before picking a plan. You can change it later from Settings.

If your account also has hosting plans available, two text tabs appear above the plan list: Online Store and Hosting. Online Store is selected by default and lists the storefront plans (Free/Starter/Growth/Pro/Max); switching to the Hosting tab shows a separate set of hosting-only plans instead. A one-line description under the tabs explains which product line you are looking at. Pick a plan from whichever tab matches what you're signing up for.

Below the plan list, a Compare all store features (or Compare all hosting features, on the Hosting tab) link expands a full side-by-side feature matrix for the active tab's plans, so you can check a specific feature without leaving the wizard.

Plan prices on this step are GST-exclusive. One note under the plan list reads "Prices exclude GST. 18% GST is added at checkout." (the rate is read live from billing). It appears only when at least one plan on the active tab is a paid INR plan, so a list of Free or non-INR plans shows no note. The plan cards themselves carry no per-plan GST line or GST-inclusive total; the GST amount is itemised on the Review and Payment steps. See GST on your subscription for the full breakdown.

A summary card shows everything you entered, including your chosen plan. Click Back to correct anything. Tick the checkbox confirming you've read the Agreement, Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Refund Policy, and Cancellation Policy, then click Launch Store (Free plan) or Create Store & Continue to Payment (paid plans).

For a paid plan, the plan line here shows the price for your chosen cycle. If GST applies, a three-row breakdown sits directly below it: Subtotal (the plan's GST-exclusive price, to two decimals, for example ₹599.00), GST (18%) (₹107.82) and a bold Total payable today (₹706.82). That total is the amount charged on the Payment step; nothing changes between the two screens. Free plans and non-INR plans show no breakdown rows.

Your store, your admin account, and your first 30 days of subscription are created at this moment — on the Free tier, even if you selected a paid plan. This is a safety net: if payment fails or you close the tab, your store already exists.

If you chose Starter, Growth, Pro, or Max, a payment screen appears. The Payment Details panel has three tabs: Card, UPI and Net Banking, opening on Card.

• Card — Card Number, Cardholder Name, Expiry Date and CVV.
• UPI — a UPI ID field that must be a valid UPI ID such as yourname@upi; you are redirected to your UPI app to complete the payment.
• Net Banking — a Popular Banks grid and an Other Banks dropdown; you are redirected to your bank's secure payment page.

The Pay button is enabled only when the details on the tab you are on are valid. Once the payment is verified, your plan upgrades immediately — no separate confirmation step needed.

The plan price at the top of this screen is the GST-exclusive amount. Below it, if GST applies, an itemized breakdown lists Subtotal (that same base price), GST (18%), and a bold Total payable today. The Pay button shows this same total, for example Pay ₹706.82 & Activate Plan, and it is the amount Razorpay charges. The button stays greyed out until the payment details on the screen are filled in. Non-INR plans show no breakdown; the plan price is the full charge.

You can also click Skip — continue on Free plan to stay on Free and upgrade later from the Admin Panel's Settings → Billing & Plan. This payment window is only available for about an hour after your store is created, so if you skip it, upgrade from Settings → Billing & Plan afterward rather than trying to return to this screen.