How to manage an online store day to day: a morning review in a few minutes
Managing an online store day to day means a fixed checklist. In the morning you check that the store works, whether orders have come in, whether there are new errors and stock gaps in bestsellers. Once a week you compare sales and fix whatever is blocking purchases. Once a month you tidy up SEO and modules.
Author: The TellMyShop team. A guide for PrestaShop store owners: the cause, the manual fix and the same work in a chat conversation.
Last updated: · 6 min read
Why does a store need a fixed list instead of firefighting?
Because most problems in a store are silent. A payment module stops working after an update and you find out from a customer two days later. A bestseller has had zero stock for a week and nobody noticed, because the product is still shown in the store as unavailable. An old URL from an ad leads to an error page.
A fixed list has one advantage: every day you check the same things in the same order. You don't have to remember what might have broken. You just go through the list and note what needs a response. MyPresta suggests a longer, technical checklist for less frequent reviews.
A daily, weekly and monthly plan
The plan below suits most small and medium stores. Adjust it to your own: a store with one seasonal product has different priorities from a wholesaler with thousands of items.
| When | What to check | Where in PrestaShop | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| daily | new orders and payments | Orders | the customer is waiting for the parcel |
| daily | customer messages | Customers → Customer Service | an unanswered question is a lost sale |
| daily | new errors in the log | Advanced Parameters → Logs | a module error can stop the basket |
| daily | bestseller stock | Catalog → Products, filter by quantity | being out of a hit product hurts most |
| weekly | sales compared with the previous week | Stats | it pays to notice a drop early |
| weekly | URLs returning a 404 error | stats module or Search Console | old links lose customers |
| weekly | products without descriptions and photos | Catalog → Products | empty product pages sell poorly |
| monthly | titles and descriptions in Google | product page, SEO tab | what the customer sees in results |
| monthly | module updates and unused modules | Modules → Module Manager | security and tidiness |
| monthly | finished promotions and discount codes | Catalog → Discounts | an old promotion eats into the margin |
Menu names may differ slightly between PrestaShop versions and admin themes. You'll find a description of the store's built-in statistics in the PrestaShop 8 user guide. Google data, meaning impressions, clicks and indexing problems, you collect in Search Console. Google explains how to get started with Search Console.
The morning review in 7 steps
Wednesday, 8:15. The coffee is still hot and the list has seven points. The order matters: first whatever blocks sales, then the rest.
- Is the store working? Open the home page, one product and the basket on a phone.
- Have orders come in? No orders on a day when there usually are some is often the first sign of a payment failure.
- Are there new errors? Look at the log. An error that appeared yesterday after a module update usually comes from that module.
- How do sales compare with last week? Compare the same day of the week, not yesterday with the day before.
- What couldn't customers find? New 404 URLs with many visits are worth redirecting.
- Are the bestsellers in stock? Check a few products that bring in the most revenue.
- What has changed in the store? Someone on the team changed a price, a module updated, a new product appeared.
Write down three things to do today. You won't get more done between packing parcels and phone calls anyway.
You'll find more on reading the error log in the guide to PrestaShop debug mode, and on “not found” pages in the piece on 404 errors in PrestaShop.
How to do the morning review in one conversation with the chat
Seven tabs in the admin means seven places to click. With the TellMyShop module you ask for a review in one sentence, and your chat (Claude or ChatGPT) reads the log, sales, the 404 report, the technical review and the change history itself. The module panel has a ready “Morning review” task, but writing it in your own words works too.
You: Morning review. Is anything broken, new errors, yesterday's sales compared with last Wednesday, what people couldn't find. Keep it short.
Your chat: The store is working, the technical review shows no new issues. The log has two new errors from the reviews module, both after yesterday's update. Sales yesterday were lower than last Wednesday, mainly in the Garden lamps category. The most common new 404 URL is an old promotion page from the newsletter. For today I suggest: check the reviews module, redirect the old promotion URL to the Garden lamps category, add the missing descriptions to two new products.
You: Prepare the redirect.
Your chat: Preview:
Save? (yes / no)
Card status: waiting for your “yes”old version: /summer-sale-2026 → 404 error page
new version: /summer-sale-2026 → 301 redirect to the Garden lamps category
The names, categories and URLs in the example are samples. The chat builds the review from your store's data, and when it can't see something, it says so plainly.
What works in which version:
- TellMyShop Free is enough for the review itself. It reads the log, sales, 404s, the technical review and the change history. It saves nothing.
- TellMyShop Pro lets you save what came out of the review straight away: a redirect, a product description, a title in Google. Every change has a preview, waits for your “yes” and goes into the change history. You can undo most changes.
- Prices, promotions and stock you can change after turning on the Sales switch in the module panel.
What the review doesn't do: it doesn't handle orders, doesn't change their statuses, doesn't reply to customers and doesn't check payments with the provider. That is still your job in the store admin or your shipping system. The chat will only go through customer messages in Pro, and only with the customer data level enabled in the panel. It then saves a draft reply as a private note and never sends it by itself.
You'll find ready example requests in the use cases a two-minute morning store review and comparing sales with the previous period.
What to do with the review results during the week
The review gives you a list, and a list without decisions changes nothing. Once a week, choose one bigger thing that will help sales the most. Usually it is bestsellers with empty descriptions, a category that is losing ground, or old URLs that still get traffic. We describe how to choose where to start in the guide on which products to improve in your store.
You can start with TellMyShop Free and see whether a review in a conversation fits your working rhythm. Saving changes with a preview and history comes with TellMyShop Pro, and prices are on the pricing page.
Questions and answers
How much time a day does running an online store take?
It depends on the number of orders and products, and on who packs the parcels. Just checking that the store works and whether anything needs a response can fit into a short morning review. Time how long it takes you today and compare after a few weeks of a fixed list.
What should I check in the store daily, and what once a week?
Daily, whatever blocks sales straight away: orders, payments, errors, customer messages and stock gaps in bestsellers. Once a week, sales compared with the previous week, 404 errors and products without descriptions. Once a month, SEO, modules and tidying up.
Will the morning review replace checking orders?
No. The review tells you whether something isn't working and what has changed. You still handle orders, payments and shipping in the store admin or in your shipping system. TellMyShop doesn't change order statuses and doesn't send anything to customers.
Does the morning review work in the free version?
Yes. TellMyShop Free reads the error log, sales, the 404 report, the technical review results and the change history, so the chat can put together a short summary from them. The fixes that come out of it you save in TellMyShop Pro.
Can the chat do the review by itself every morning?
The chat replies when you ask. You start the review with one sentence in the conversation, for example from the ready task in the module panel. That way you see the data as it is at that moment and decide yourself what to tackle first.
PrestaShop is a registered trademark of PrestaShop SA. Claude is a trademark of Anthropic PBC. ChatGPT and OpenAI are trademarks of OpenAI. TellMyShop is not affiliated with these companies.