Introduction
After you register for AutoDS and connect your first store, AutoDS walks you through a short onboarding flow to personalize your experience and introduce the AutoDS Marketplace: a personalization questionnaire, a guided Marketplace tour, and the Store Setup Guide checklist. This article explains what each screen means, what every button does, and how to complete each step.
Personalization questionnaire
Once you complete AutoDS registration, AutoDS shows a personalization questionnaire on the page titled "Tell us about yourself, [First Name]". It has three screens, each with a progress bar, and the Continue button stays disabled until you make a selection.
"How did you hear about us?" Choose one option: Course Recommendation (which opens a field asking "What is the name of the course?"), Google, Friends Reccomendation, Instagram, Youtube, TikTok, or Other.
"Which types of products do you plan to sell?" Choose one category: Toys & Hobbies, Home & Garden, Home Improvements & Tools, Outdoors, Sports & Fitness, Pets, Electronics & Gadgets, Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry, or Other.
"What are your main goals for using AutoDS?" Select any number of goals: learning how to run a dropshipping store, finding profitable products, designing custom products with Print on Demand (POD), simplifying and speeding up order fulfillment, or monitoring price and stock more closely.
Note: AutoDS uses the goals you select in the personalization questionnaire to personalize your experience and recommendations. You can select any number of goals, and every AutoDS feature remains available to you regardless of which ones you choose.
Once you complete the questionnaire, you move on to connecting your first store.
AutoDS platform tour
After you connect your store, AutoDS redirects you to the AutoDS Marketplace page and starts a short guided tour of the platform's core pages. The tour points to the navigation for four platform pages, Marketplace, Add Products, Drafts, and Products, with an informative tooltip on each one to help you navigate the platform for the first time. You can read through each tooltip to learn what it does, or click Next through each one if you prefer to skip the tour.
The first tooltip highlights the AutoDS Marketplace page, "Find Products in AutoDS Marketplace," and explains that this is where you can "find and add products from AutoDS Marketplace, publish from Drafts, or import from top retailers." This is the main hub for discovering products to sell.
The second tooltip highlights the Add Products button, "Add Products From Retailers," and explains that if you "couldn't find necessary products in Marketplace," you can "import your own products to AutoDS from over 20 of the largest retailers." Use this option when you already know which supplier you want to import from.
The third tooltip highlights the Drafts page, "Edit Products in Drafts," and explains that importing products to Drafts first lets you "edit the product listing before publishing it to the Products page and your store." This gives you a chance to review pricing, images, and descriptions before anything goes live.
The fourth and last tooltip highlights the Products page, "Publish to Products & Your Store," and explains that publishing your chosen items "add[s] them to your store [and lets you] monitor price and stock changes." Click Finish to complete the tour.
Store Setup Guide
Once the AutoDS platform tour ends, the Store Setup Guide appears as a checklist widget docked in the bottom left corner of the platform. It offers $40 in Auto-Order Credits for completing its steps.
Note: The Store Setup Guide remains open on your screen until all steps are completed. It hides automatically on the next page refresh once every item across both sections below is complete. If a step gets stuck or does not update after you complete the requested action, please let us know exactly what you did and share any relevant details so we can look into it further.
First section: from connecting your store to submitting feedback
The first section of the Store Setup Guide checklist covers the steps from connecting your store to submitting your feedback:
"Connect your store": already shown as complete, with a checkmark and strikethrough text, since you finished this step earlier in onboarding.
"Add your first draft": "Import products from AutoDS Marketplace or manually to Drafts first to edit the product before publishing it to the Products page and your store." Use the Browse in Marketplace or Add product with link buttons.
"Add your first product": shows the same explanation as the step above, with the Import from Drafts and Add product with link buttons instead. This step is marked complete after your first successful upload.
"Change your password": "Provide your unique password to protect your account." Click Change password (this takes you to Settings, then Account and Billing) or select "I'll do this later" to skip.
"Link Untracked Products to AutoDS": "Connect untracked by AutoDS products so AutoDS can monitor price and stock changes." Click Go to Untracked Products, or select "I'll do this later" to skip. Click here to learn more about Untracked Products.
"Check how to make your first sale": this step opens a YouTube video preview with guidance in a new tab.
"Complete the checklist & Earn $40 in AO Credits": "Share your feedback to help us make AutoDS even better for you." Click "Share you feedback" to open the feedback survey.
Note: The "Change your password" step in the Store Setup Guide only appears if you use the Shopify Embedded channel. If you use a different selling channel, this step does not appear, and the checklist moves from step 3 directly to step 5.
Feedback survey
After you complete the Store Setup Guide checklist and click "Share you feedback", AutoDS shows a survey asking "How is your experience with AutoDS?", with the message "To help us get better for you, please rate your experience with AutoDS."
Select a star rating from one to five. The Submit button stays disabled until you choose a rating. You can also click "No, thanks" to close the survey without rating.
If you rate one to three stars and click Submit, the survey changes to "We are sorry to hear that! What could we do to improve?", with a text field ("Type your answer here...") and the same "No, thanks" and Submit options.
If you rate four stars and click Submit, the survey instead shows "That's not bad at all! Is there anything we could improve?", with the same text field and options.
After you submit feedback at one to four stars, you see a confirmation screen: "Thank you for your feedback!", letting you know the feedback is being taken into account, with a Done button.
If you rate five stars and click Submit, the survey shows a link to leave a public review. This link depends on your selling channel.
Second section: after submitting feedback
Once you submit your feedback, the Store Setup Guide unlocks its second section:
"First Step of Store Setup": shown as already complete, representing the entire first section above.
"Upgrade store with a .store domain" (tagged "1 year FREE"): "A .store domain helps you 2x your traffic & establish your brand. It's so much better than a boring .com. Get it FREE for the first year and renew it for $5.5/month from year 2, no hidden charges." Click "Claim FREE .store domain NOW!" or select "I'll do this later" to skip.
"Get Free Ad Spend for TikTok": "Advertise your business on TikTok today to drive real business results. Limited time offer, don't miss out!" Click Get Started on TikTok Ads.
"Explore Dropshipping with AutoDS Academy": "To learn everything there is to know about the world of dropshipping, click the button below." Click Explore AutoDS Academy to open it, with free courses by selling channel and popular videos. You can also access the AutoDS Academy anytime by clicking the arrow next to your profile name in the top right corner of the platform, then selecting AutoDS Academy.
Important: The .store domain offered in the Store Setup Guide is free for the first year. From year 2, it renews at $5.50 a month, with no hidden charges.
What's next
Once you finish the onboarding flow, you're ready to build out your store.
If you want structured guidance while you get started, click here to learn about the AutoDS Mentorship Program.