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Prerequisites

Before your storefront can show your catalog, you need a BigCommerce channel for it and two API tokens. This page walks through both, and lists the optional information that's worth sending us early.

Prerequisites

A BigCommerce store, administrator access to it, and your Evolve Tenant Dashboard sign-in.

Step 1: Create a channel for your storefront​

Evolve Storefront connects to your BigCommerce store as a headless channel. Create a dedicated channel for it rather than reusing your existing storefront channel.

  1. In the BigCommerce admin, go to Channel Manager.
  2. Add a channel of type Headless storefront (sometimes shown as Custom storefront).
  3. Name it something recognizable, for example Evolve Storefront.

Two things about that channel matter:

Your catalog and customers must be assigned to it. Products, categories and customer accounts are channel-scoped in BigCommerce. Anything not visible to your Evolve channel will not appear on your storefront, even though it looks fine in the BigCommerce admin.

Set the channel's primary site URL to your storefront address, so links in BigCommerce transactional email point at your storefront rather than somewhere else:

https://shop-<tenant>.evolvestorefront.com

If you're launching on your own domain, use that instead. See Custom Domain & SSL.

note

BigCommerce does not allow the primary site URL of the default channel (Channel 1) to be changed. This is one of the reasons to create a dedicated channel.

Step 2: Create a Storefront API token​

Your storefront reads your catalog through the BigCommerce GraphQL Storefront API, using a channel-scoped token.

  1. In the BigCommerce admin, go to Settings → API → Storefront API Tokens.
  2. Create a token, selecting the channel you created in Step 1.
  3. Set an expiry date you're comfortable with, and note it. The storefront stops loading data when the token expires.
  4. Copy the token. BigCommerce shows it once.

The token is a JWT that grants read access to storefront data for that channel only. For the full details, see the BigCommerce Storefront API token documentation.

Token expiry

Note the expiry date. When you rotate the token, update it in your Tenant Dashboard. See Connect Your BigCommerce Store.

Step 3: Find your GraphQL origin​

Your storefront needs the GraphQL endpoint for your store. It takes this shape:

GraphQL origin
https://store-<store_hash>.mybigcommerce.com/graphql

Your store hash is the identifier in your BigCommerce admin URL. If you use a canonical BigCommerce domain, the equivalent /graphql path on that domain also works.

Step 4: Create a Management API token​

Most storefront settings, including feature toggles, theme colors and Google Tag Manager, are stored as channel metafields on your BigCommerce store. You set those with the BigCommerce Management API, which needs a separate token.

  1. In the BigCommerce admin, go to Settings → API → Store-level API accounts.
  2. Create an account with the Channel settings scope set to modify.
  3. Save the client ID, client secret and access token.

You only need this token when you want to change a setting, not for day-to-day merchandising. See Store Settings for how it's used.

What to have ready​

GraphQL originFrom Step 3
Storefront API tokenFrom Step 2
Management API tokenFrom Step 4, for changing settings
Tenant Dashboard sign-inhttps://dashboard-<tenant>.evolvestorefront.com
Handling credentials

Never send tokens, secrets or passwords in a plain email. Your Storefront API token goes into your Tenant Dashboard, where it's stored encrypted and masked afterward. If you need to send us any other credential, ask support for a secure upload link.

Optional, but useful to send early​

Getting these to us before launch avoids a scramble later:

  • Branding assets — logo, favicon, colors, fonts. See Branding & Theming.
  • A custom domain — your own address takes longer to set up because it depends on DNS changes on your side. See Custom Domain & SSL.
  • Your reCAPTCHA v3 keys, if you want spam protection on storefront forms. See Store Settings.

Next Steps​

Connect Your BigCommerce Store — enter your GraphQL origin and Storefront API token.