Troubleshooting & FAQ

Quick fixes for the questions we hear most. Still stuck? Jump to Still need help? at the bottom — we reply to email within one business day.

Orders & payments

A buyer paid but I don’t see the order

Payment confirmation usually lands within seconds. If the gateway is slow or a webhook is missed, a background reconciliation sweep re-verifies pending payments roughly every half-minute — the order appears as soon as the payment is confirmed. In the rare case money was charged but checkout never completed, the platform detects the unmatched payment and refunds the buyer automatically.

A buyer’s payment failed or was declined

Failed payments are normal and don’t need cleanup on your side. The order is left pending or abandoned (no fulfilment happens), and the buyer can simply retry — most failures are gateway- or bank-side: insufficient funds, an expired/blocked card, a UPI request the buyer didn’t approve in time, or a bank’s risk check. There’s nothing to mark or delete; if the retry succeeds the order confirms on its own, and if the buyer doesn’t return the abandoned attempt just expires.

Tip

A declined card is a decision made by the buyer’s bank, not by Sellerlane or the gateway. We can’t override it. Suggest the buyer try a different method (UPI, netbanking, or another card).

An order is stuck on “pending” payment

Two normal cases: the buyer started a UPI/netbanking payment and hasn’t approved it yet (it confirms or expires on its own), or the order uses a manual payment method (e.g. bank transfer) — those stay pending until you mark them paid. Open the order and use Mark manual payment paid once the money lands.

I marked a manual-payment order as paid by mistake

Marking paid records that you received the money offline — it doesn’t move any funds, so there’s nothing to “un-charge.” To correct the record, issue a refund on that order for the amount you marked, which reverses the paid status in your books. (Refunds against a manual payment are recorded for your records — you settle the actual money back to the buyer however you took it.) For gateway payments, an authorized-but-not-captured charge can instead be voided from the order before capture.

A refund I issued hasn’t reached the buyer

Refunds go back to the original payment method. Sellerlane tracks the refund with the gateway until it’s confirmed, but the final bank credit typically takes 5–7 business days for cards (UPI is usually faster). That delay is on the bank’s side.

Can a buyer request a refund or return themselves?

Buyers don’t issue their own refunds, and they don’t start returns either — returns are created by you from the order (the RMA/return flow). What buyers can do, if you enable it, is request an order cancellation (only while the order hasn’t started shipping) from their delivery page, along with re-sending a digital download or gift card, or rescheduling/cancelling an event booking. These arrive as requests for you to approve or decline. See Refunds & returns for how money flows back and how you start a return, and Self-service for the buyer-initiated cancel/redelivery requests and how to turn them on.

Domains & email

My custom domain is stuck on “pending”

Almost always DNS — the records shown in Settings → Domains aren’t in place yet at your registrar. Work through these:

1. Open Settings → Domains and copy the exact records shown (the verification TXT record and the CNAME).

2. At your registrar, confirm each record is added exactly — same name and value, no trailing dots or typos.

3. Remove any conflicting old A or CNAME records on the same name. A stale record pointing elsewhere will block verification.

4. Wait. DNS changes can take up to a few hours to propagate; verification re-checks automatically — you don’t need to click anything again.

Your free yourstore.sellerlane.io address keeps working the whole time, so the store never goes down while DNS settles. For deeper diagnosis see DNS & deliverability troubleshooting.

My domain shows connected but has no padlock / SSL error

SSL certificates are issued automatically right after DNS verifies — usually within minutes. If it’s been longer, ensure your DNS provider isn’t proxying the record (set it to “DNS only”) and that no CAA record on the domain blocks certificate issuance.

My branded email isn’t sending, or messages bounce

If you send from your own domain, the cause is almost always missing or incomplete email authentication. Add all three record types and let them propagate:

1. Add the SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records exactly as shown in Settings → Domains. Without them, inboxes distrust your mail and bounce or spam-folder it.

2. Make sure you have only one SPF record on the domain (multiple SPF records are invalid and cause hard failures).

3. Start your DMARC policy at p=none while you confirm SPF and DKIM both pass, then tighten it later.

4. Re-check propagation — authentication records can take a few hours to take effect.

See Branded email for the full set-up and DNS & deliverability troubleshooting for diagnosing bounces.

My store’s emails land in spam

Beyond authentication (above): send campaigns only to customers who opted in, keep a sane image-to-text ratio, and avoid ALL-CAPS / spam-trigger subject lines. New domains also build reputation gradually — consistent volume helps over time.

Products & search

A product isn’t showing up in storefront search

Search updates in the background — new or edited products typically appear within a minute. If it never appears, check the product’s status is Active (drafts are never shown) and that it’s published to the online store.

A product is missing from an automated collection

Automated collections re-evaluate their rules when products change. Check the product actually matches all the collection’s conditions (price, tag, vendor are exact matches) — tags are the usual culprit (Tshirt ≠ T-shirt).

A product shows “Sold out” but I have stock

Check the variant-level inventory (each variant tracks its own quantity), and that stock is recorded at the right location. If you don’t want inventory tracked at all, turn off inventory tracking on the product.

Theme & storefront

I made changes in the editor but the live site doesn’t show them

Save keeps changes in your draft; the live site only updates when you Publish. After publishing, give it a moment and hard-refresh (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+R) — storefront assets are cached briefly at the CDN for speed.

A section or block I added isn’t showing on the live site

Two common reasons:

1. You haven’t published. Newly added sections live in your draft until you Publish the theme.

2. The block isn’t valid on that page. Some blocks only render inside the sections that support them; if a block was added where it isn’t supported, it simply won’t appear. Re-add it within a section that lists it.

If it still doesn’t show after publishing, hard-refresh and check you edited the template the page actually uses. See Themes & the editor for how templates, sections, and blocks fit together.

My edits disappeared / someone overwrote them

If two people edit the same theme, the editor detects the conflict on save and asks you to reload the latest version before continuing — so always publish or save before handing off. Check with teammates who have theme permissions.

Buyers say there are no shipping options at checkout

That means no shipping zone covers their address or the zone has no rates. Check Settings → Shipping: does a zone include the buyer’s region, and does it have at least one rate? (Carts with only digital items skip shipping on purpose.)

A buyer lost their download link or gift card

Both are re-deliverable without your involvement: the buyer can request a re-download or gift-card resend from their delivery page (per your self-service rules), or you can resend from the order.

Sign-in & accounts

I can’t log into my admin / I forgot my password

Use the Forgot password link on the seller sign-in page to receive a reset email; check spam if it doesn’t arrive within a few minutes. If you signed up with a social/Google login, sign in the same way you originally did rather than with a password.

Caution

The Security page (change password, two-step authentication, log out of other devices) is still being built — those controls aren’t active yet. To reset a password or remove someone’s access right now, use Forgot password or manage the person from your team list. Reach out to support if you’re locked out.

A buyer says they never received their login code

Codes arrive by email, and by SMS only on stores that have phone login enabled and where SMS delivery is configured for the platform — otherwise phone codes won’t send and the buyer should use email instead. Email codes are the default everywhere. Codes expire after a few minutes. Ask the buyer to check spam and request a new code; a new code replaces the old one. Repeated requests are rate-limited briefly to prevent abuse, so waiting a minute before retrying helps.

A staff invite never arrived

Staff and permissions live under Users (the top-level Users area, not under Settings). Open it, check the address for typos, and re-send or recreate the invite — the invite email can land in spam folders too. See Staff accounts for roles and the Manage staff permission.

Plans & billing

I want to upgrade or downgrade my plan

In-admin billing isn’t live yet, so plan changes are handled by the team and they’re quick. Email or WhatsApp us with your store domain, the plan you want, and monthly vs. yearly — we usually apply it the same day. Full walkthrough in Plans & billing.

I need a GST invoice for my subscription

Automated subscription invoicing isn’t live in the admin yet. Until it ships, contact support for a GST invoice for any plan charge — include your GSTIN so we can put it on the invoice. (This is separate from GST on your own sales; for that see Taxes.)

Was I charged a transaction fee?

No. Sellerlane charges a 0% platform transaction fee on every plan, including Free. You do pay your payment gateway’s standard per-transaction rate (the MDR) — that’s billed by your connected gateway directly to you, not by Sellerlane, and depends on the method and your provider agreement.

POS & in-person

Selling in person uses the same store, catalogue, and inventory as your online shop, so an in-store sale shows up in the same orders list and draws down the same stock. If an in-person order doesn’t appear, confirm it was completed (not left as an open cart) and that the device had a connection when you took payment — once it syncs, the order and any inventory change land in the admin. Cash and other offline tenders behave like manual payments, recorded against the order rather than run through a gateway.

Tip

For anything not covered here, the order timeline and your live analytics are the best first diagnostic — they show what actually happened, in order.

Still need help?

We’re happy to help — reach us any of these ways:

• Email: [email protected] — we reply within one business day.
• WhatsApp: message us on +91 96998 69986 (the same number on your pricing page and the in-app chat widget).
• Help center: browse the rest of these docs — search the top bar for a topic.

When you write in, include your store domain (e.g. yourstore.sellerlane.io) and, for an order issue, the order number — it gets you a faster answer.