Trouble getting shopping-local.ssp to connect with new SCA install: "An SSL error has occurred..."

We have a new install of NetSuite SuiteCommerce Advanced. We are moving from SiteBuilder that we've been using for over 10 years. I've been working exclusively with SiteBuilder on dozens of websites since 2004. The last few years I've spent a good amount of time customizing SiteBuilder Extensions, which is NetSuite's name of the cart / checkout version of SuiteCommerce that is available for SiteBuilder.

This new install of SCA has not gone smoothly. Just getting it and the Base Theme installed and allowed to be downloaded took weeks. NetSuite help kept reading from the NSSSD.pdf and telling us to do those things. And it turns out, the NSSSD.pdf instructions are no longer accurate. For instance, now only an Administrator can connect (no longer SD_Deployer role).