Quick Guide on Starting an Ecommerce Store on Shopify
Back in the days, opening a physical store to sell products requires a big investment. Today, that’s no longer the case as the entry barrier is much lower with an online business. Starting a shop as an online entrepreneur can be both thrilling and overwhelming for most of us as with today’s technology, we are now able to sell to anyone everywhere in the world 24/7.When starting out as a beginner, many of us are unfamiliar of different aspects of running an eCommerce shop, which may be frustrating at times. The good news is that eCommerce platforms such as Shopify make it very simple for everyone to create an online store that looks great and functions flawlessly without professional design skills or coding knowledge.
If you want to build a Shopify store but don’t know where to begin, this article is for you. We will provide you information you need to create a Shopify business, such as the benefits of selling on the platform, what you need to set up your Shopify site, the fees involved, and, finally, the steps to take to set up your Shopify store.
What is Shopify?
Shopify is an all-in-one eCommerce platform that allows you to create an online shop and sell items across different channels. Creating a Shopify store is as simple as creating an account and customising an existing template.
Shopify considers itself primarily a website builder. This binding tool, on which Shopify focuses, provides a Graphical User Interface (GUI)-based method of creating a website. Technical knowledge is not required.
Websites created with Shopify are also hosted on their web servers. Shopify offers extra tools to help eCommerce sites function smoothly. It provides them with extra functionality like payment processing, inventory management, shopping cart functions, and shipment processing.
Why use Shopify?
Shopify is becoming one of the most popular eCommerce platforms. With a 20% market share, it is one of the fastest-growing platforms for running an online business. It offers a comprehensive set of eCommerce tools, including design and customization choices.
Shopify sites are also extremely mobile-friendly and cross-channel selling is simple to implement. Shopify’s point-of-sale app is widely regarded as one of the finest and users of Shopify may create accelerated mobile pages (AMP). Additionally, it features a reliable and efficient order fulfilment system.
Shopify is well-known for its plethora of payment options and gateways. Shopify Payments and Point of Sale (POS) are examples. Furthermore, it provides one of the best delivery services (Shopify Shipping) for little or no additional cost. Shopify customers may also incorporate several third-party apps into their stores.
In terms of cross-channel selling, Shopify has developed a system that enables users to quickly link their Shopify stores to other channels in order to enhance conversion and generate sales. Users can now reach a larger audience and convert their followers into buyers by integrating Shopify with social media networks like Instagram, Facebook, and Tiktok.
Steps to Starting a Shopify Store
While it is true that setting up a Shopify site can be time-consuming and involve many tedious steps, the reason for Shopify’s great popularity as an e-commerce platform is its simplicity of use.
Yes, building an online store has never been easier with Shopify, and here’s how you can get started.
1. Prepare everything you’ll need for your Shopify store.
Before developing your Shopify site, make sure you have everything you need. This will speed up the process and result in a better-looking store.
The following are often required:
- A business idea
- A strong business name
- A logo
- Products
- Photos of your products
- Content for your store’s pages (about us, contact us, FAQs)
2. Create a Shopify Account
Create a Shopify account if you haven’t already. For this, all you need is your email address and a password. At this time, you will not be required to validate your email address. This means you can begin creating your shop right away.
The next step is to name your shop. This name must be unique; otherwise, you will be unable to acquire a Shopify domain.
Following that, you will be asked to provide further information about yourself and what you intend to sell.
Some of the information you enter will be used by Shopify to configure factors such as taxes and currencies.
3. Add products to your Shopify store
After you’ve signed up for your Shopify account, you might be tempted to start selecting themes and experimenting with the appearance of your new store. However, it is far preferable to list your items first.
This is because your product line will significantly influence the appearance and feel of your business — and it’s better to avoid spending a long time picking and modifying a theme only to discover that your product pictures don’t go well with it. Ideally, you should plan your shop around your items rather than the other way around.
Simply navigate to Products > All Products > Add Product in your Shopify dashboard to add your first product.
You’ll need to provide information about your items after listing them. A product image, a product title, a price, and a product description are all included. All of this contributes to giving your customers more information about your products.
Labels may be used to arrange your products. Product availability, product type, vendor, tags, and collections are some of the labels accessible. These tags assist you in grouping your items and making it easier for your customers to browse.
4. Create your store pages
The best thing to do next is to construct the pages for your store.As with products, you’ll better understand which templates work best for your business if you have your key site content in place before adding a theme.
The following pages are often required:
About us — an overview of your eCommerce business, your values, and your story.
FAQs — a page where you answer frequently asked questions about your products.
Policy pages — a website terms of use page, cookie notice, privacy notice, shipping policy, and return policy.
Contact page — a page containing your phone number, address, and a contact form.
A blog — lets you share news about your business or related content of interest to your customers.
All of these pages, except the blog, may be created in the same manner. Simply navigate to Online Store > Pages and select ‘Add page.’
5. Select a Theme and Customise Your Store
You’ve figured out your items, collections, pages, and main navigation at this stage, so it’s finally time to choose your Shopify theme!
Simply go to the Shopify theme shop, where you’ll discover a large selection of themes.
To begin your customisation, select a theme. Themes are design templates for your store. They only serve as a foundation for additional customisation. Shopify has free and premium themes for various industries and business types.
You may make changes to your homepage once you’ve chosen a theme. Feel free to experiment with different features and rearrange certain parts. This allows you to analyse how well your site fits your specific company goals. You may also change the colours and fonts in your store to match your brand and navigation menus.
6. Set up your shipping rates
With your goods, content, and design in place, it’s time to think about the business side of things and consider:
- how you intend to provide your items to customers
- how much fees you intend to charge them
- how you want to receive payments online
Let’s begin with the most basic, shipping.
In your Shopify dashboard, go to Settings > Shipping & Delivery.
On this page, you can set up and configure your shipping options. You can choose a third-party delivery firm with whom you wish to collaborate. You can add measurements to this page if you offer custom packaging.
Shopify allows you to set up free delivery for your business, which may be of interest to you
7. Choose a payment gateway for your store
You must pick a payment gateway in order to take payments for your items. This is the software that handles credit card transactions done in your shop.
Shopify connects with over 100 payment gateways and also has its own: Shopify Payments. For many merchants, Shopify Payments will be the quickest payment processor to implement — and the only one that does not charge transaction fees.
However, Shopify Payments is only available in a few countries; if you do not reside in one, you’ll have to utilise a third-party payment gateway.
Simply go to Settings > Payments in your Shopify dashboard and follow the instructions to set up a payment gateway.
8. Get Ready for the Launch
The following two stages are critical if you want to manage your Shopify store effectively and smoothly.
First and foremost, you should add a custom domain. A domain is merely your website’s URL. You may connect it to your Shopify store if you already have a domain. If you don’t already have one, you may get one straight from Shopify.
A standard “.com” domain will cost you roughly $14 per year. When you buy it, it will instantly link to your store. This is not required, but your store has to run on a Shopify subdomain without it.
After that, set up analytics. Shopify provides an excellent analytics tool for tracking your sales taxes and earnings. However, you will most likely want to track more than that. You can improve site metrics by using Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel.
Finally, you may opt to add Shopify applications to your store to take advantage of the special features that each app provides. There are applications for practically anything in the Shopify App market, from monthly budget calculation to social media advertising and email list creation, to name a few.
9. Launch your store
When you’re through with your pre-launch checks, remove your password and publish your store. Go to Online Store > Preferences and scroll down to the ‘password protection’ section to achieve this.
Conclusion
Keeping a successful Shopify store running is a constant effort. It is critical to examine and adapt based on the measurements provided. It is advisable to test campaigns to see what works best for your company and establish a path to long-term success.
