Getting Started with Shopify

If you want to get started with Shopify but don’t quite know where to start, this is your guide. There are a few simple steps to begin building a site with Shopify right away:

1. Prep what you want to display
2. Set up your Shopify account and/or free trial 
3. Upload all your important business or brand information
4. Add core marketing pages
5. Add whatever you’re selling
6. Set up payment and shipping details
7. Update your layout and design
8. Connect to a custom domain

Let’s go into more detail for each step.

Prep what you want to display

When designing and/or building anything, you should start by planning. For a website, you don’t need every single detail right away. But it’s a good idea to begin by collecting the vital information you’ll need for the site. That way once you’re ready to start, you can hit the ground running. 

Things to collect include:

• Important business or brand information like contact details, brand colors, logos, etc.
• A list of pages you want on the site – like a homepage, about page, contact page, etc. Also consider if you want a blog or services page or anything more unique (Collect content for these pages, or at least an outline of what they should contain).
• Details about how you want to accept payment. Do research on the payment methods Shopify offers. You can choose from any of the the following payment portals to offer:
  • Stripe
  • Shop Pay
  • Apple Pay
  • Google Pay
  • PayPal Express
  • Authorize.net
  • Adyen Braintree 
  • Worldpay
  • Shop Pay Installments
  • Klarna
  • Afterpay
  • Affirm
• Details on how you want to send whatever it is you’re selling. Do you need to calculate shipping costs? How will you print labels? Do you need to build an email drip campaign to fulfill digital purchases? Research options to determine what makes sense for you.
• Collect details about what you’re selling. For example, if you’re selling physical items, create a spreadsheet that contains:
  • Name
  • Description
  • Variation (style, size, color, flavor, etc.)
  • Price
  • Shipping cost

Knowing all of these things means that once you log into Shopify, you have everything you need to populate your site quickly.

Set up your Shopify account and/or free trial

Once you have your site content, head over to https://www.shopify.com/ and find a start button – either “start free trial” or “start for free.”

Enter your email address and details about your business goals when prompted. 

You’ll be sent to the main admin dashboard. This is where all the magic happens!

Upload all your important business or brand information

From your dashboard, go to Settings. Here, you can add:

• Your official store name
• The address for your business/store
• Your time zone
• Default currency
• Billing details

This information is vital for your store to be able to run properly. You can always come back later to change these things if you want to.

Add core marketing pages

To create pages, go to the Pages subsection under your Online Store tab. Create each page one by one. You can use built-in templates in order to create mandatory legal pages (Refunds, Privacy, Terms of Service)

A store is made up of more than products or services. You need marketing pages so potential clients and customers can find and learn about you. Look at the websites of your competitors. What kinds of pages do they include?

You definitely want to have:

1. A homepage
2. An about page
3. A contact page

You can also have a blog, a page with delivery or return details, FAQ page, careers, etc. 

Why should you create these pages before adding your products and services? Building these pages gives you a baseline for organizing exactly what it is you’re selling: physically, digitally, and emotionally. 

You can also have the option of launching the site with just your marketing pages and include “Coming Soon!” messaging. That way you can start marketing the brand, collect interest, and then get to work adding the products and services later. 

Add whatever you’re selling

Shopify is specifically meant for ecommerce websites. So if you’re using it, chances are you have at least one product or service to sell. This step is important to get right as it’s the main focus of the site for users.

Start in your dashboard and select Products (Use this section even if what you’re selling is digital or virtual, such as PDF downloads or service contracts).

Select Add your products to be sent to the item creation tool. This is where the prep from early will come in handy. You can refer to the spreadsheet you made as you fill out these pages.

One-by-one, fill in the required information:

• Product title
• At least one image
• Detailed descriptions
• Inventory tracking details
• Prices
• Shipping details

Remember: Select Add your products for every unique item you add. If you sell t-shirts in different colors or sizes, that should be one product just with different variations. If you sell t-shirts and hats, you should have a t-shirt product and a hat product.

Set up payment and shipping details

Now it’s time to configure how payments will work. 

Start in your dashboard and select Settings, then Payments. Go to the section called Shopify Payments, then select Activate Shopify Payments. 

Here is where you’d enter important information such as:

• Business details
• Your address
• Employer Identification Number
• Bank information

Enable payment gateways like PayPal by going to Additional payment methods, then Add payment methods.

If you’re selling physical items, it’s important to also configure the costs for shipping. Customers tend to expect that when they buy online, they’ll pay a little extra to cover shipping costs. 

To set up shipping settings, go to Settings, then Shipping and Delivery, then Shipping Profiles and select Create New Profile. Add the corresponding shipping zones that match how you want to ship, then assign specific amounts for each zone. For example, maybe you charge $5 to ship domestically, but $15 to ship internationally. 

Update your layout and design

Getting started with Shopify means using the pre-made themes provided for you. You don’t have to edit them once they’ve been applied to your site. But if you want, you can update certain things to customize the experience. 

Go to “Online Store,” then “Themes”. Find the theme you’re using, then choose Edit theme. On the following page you can edit the menu bar, sidebar, sections and blocks. For a full tutorial on editing Shopify themes, check out their documentation.

Connect to a custom domain

It’s a good idea to link to a custom domain name. By default, your domain will include “myshopify” right in the middle. For example, myshop.myshopify.com. This isn’t the most professional way to display your site domain. It’s a good idea to pick and install a custom one, like myshop.com. 

From the admin area, go to “Domains”. Search for and purchase a domain directly from Shopify. That way it’s immediately connected to your store (If you already have a domain somewhere else and need help connecting it to your Shopify site, let us know).

Launch your site

The last thing to do is to publish your site for people to be able to view and interact with. When you’re ready for your site to go live, go to Online Store, then Preferences, and disable the storefront password. 

You’ll be asked to pick a monthly subscription. Once you’ve chosen it, you’ll be able to provide public access to the site!

Getting started with Shopify is easier than you think!

But it’s perfectly normal to get stuck here or there. If you need a hand setting up your new Shopify website, let us know!