Are you planning to launch an online store but you don’t even know where to start? The first step: Close your laptop. The second step: Start the plan in your mind, write it down so we have it all clear and organized. The third step: Welcome to Shopify!
Shopify offers one of the simplest ways to create your online store. Once you have the plan in your mind, you have chosen your store’s name and you know your product offerings, you can push the button.
So, let’s get started!
Table of Contents
#1 Create your account
Start a 14-day free trial. Enter your email, name, and store name. Then select “Create your store”. On the next step, you’ll have to answer some questions about yourself and then you’ll be asked to enter your name and your mailing address. Once you are done with that, click “Enter my store” and you are… in!
#2 Choose your store’s theme
Next step?Select and customize your Shopify theme.Probably you will be overwhelmed about the options but you just have to keep in mind the one that’s appropriate for your store. The good news is that you don’t have to write code and among hundreds of themes, you will find the most suitable one for you. There are plenty of free and paid themes!
Once you’ve chosen your theme, you are ready to customize it, the way you like it!
How?
Go to Online Store > Themes > Customize. After clicking it, you will be able to view your theme’s documentation, add photos, change the text, edit the code, and much more.
Add your logo and move on to optimize your settings.
#3 Store’s settings
- On General settings, you can edit the name, email, location, and more.
- On the Standards and formats section, you set your timezone and standard information like weight units.
- Shipping settings! Which delivery methods are best for your business? It’s time to decide! If your shipping rates are too narrow, or you don’t give enough options, you may lose out on some sales.
So go to the Settings > Shipping page. In the “Shipping rates” section, see if you have set a weight-based shipping rate and adjust it according to your product’s specifications.
- Receiving Payments: On Shopify, you can enable a number of payment methods. Also, in order to choose the currency for your store, go to Settings > General > Standards and formats > Change formatting.
- Legal Settings! You don’t want to be illegal, so this step is important. You need a Refund Policy, a Privacy Policy, and a Terms of Service Agreement.
#4 Test your order system
To test your system, you can simulate a transaction using Shopify’s Bogus Gateway.
How to use it:
At checkout, enter the following credit card details instead of genuine numbers:
Testing a real payment gateway with a genuine transaction:
#5 Register your domain with Shopify
Remember, you have two choices! Either to purchase a domain from Shopify and have it added directly to your store, or you can buy your domain name elsewhere and add it to Shopify. You will need to update your DNS records if you’re uploading an existing name, however.
Upon activation, you can then go to that particular domain and see your website.
#6 Add your products
Finally the best part!
Click “Products” and then “Add Product”. For every product, you will need a title, description, price, and images.
Note! Make it clear what your product is, describe it (the benefits of it), and sell it.
Of course, you need to add the SKU, barcode, and quantity of each product.
#7 Organization section
In this section you can label your products, so you can group them in some way and make it easier to manage your store’s product catalog, apply rules or discounts or a specific product, and more.
Complete the boxes:
- Product availability
- Product type
- Vendor
- Tags
- Collections
#8 Set up collections
Group your products if they have some features in common that customers might look for when visiting your store. For example, your customers might be shopping for clothes specifically for men or children, products on sale or seasonal products, etc.
Creating a collection, helps customers to find quickly what they are looking for without going through your whole catalog.
When you add a new collection, you can select how products should be added to it, manually or automatically:
#9 Launch your store
Congratulations, you did it! Maybe your online store it’s not perfect for the moment, but by the time you will get used to it and keep learning. These were just the first, baby steps so you can start your online store.
Why do we choose Shopify? It’s a useful tool for beginners, it saves you time and money. If you don’t want to hire a developer or you don’t have the money and the time to do so, with Shopify you can sell however many products you want and you can always scale it up!
Happy selling! P.S. Haven’t you created your online retail yet? Click here & start your free 14-day trial!
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