Did you know that Shopify has 820,000 merchants over the world? What’s their secret on how to set up Shopify store?
The statistic on the chart shows us Shopify is attracting more and more merchants every year. With growing rate like this, it’s safe to say Shopify is not going anywhere as it’s on it’s way to the top.
Worked with Shopify from 2017, we saw lots of merchants don’t know how to set up Shopify store. Based on our experience, we provide an entire guideline for beginners in setting up a Shopify store and running it successfully.
There are lots of things to do before setting up a Shopify store, so:
Where do you start?
You will start with finding what to sell on Shopify?
Find for Shopify themes for sale?
Or look for a Shopify domain name generator?
The reality:
Setting up a Shopify store is not as hard as you think.
For today’s post, we will walk you through step by step on how to create a Shopify store. Just follow our instructions, and you will be able to build an amazing store.
Now before diving into the details, we’ve broken the content down into the following main parts:
- Reasons to use Shopify
- Create your brand
- Sign up to Shopify
- Set up domain and email
- Customise themes
- Add products to store
- Set up payment and shipping information
So, are you ready to dive in? Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
How to set up Shopify store? Reasons to know
Before giving you detailed instruction on how to set up Shopify store, let’s find out the reasons to use this platform. Shopify is very user-friendly. There are many many reasons that make Shopify the best eCommerce platform ever. So let us tell you some of them.
#1. Shopify hosts your website
Is Shopify worth it? Yes. You don’t have to pay extra money for hosting, you just have to pay for Shopify plans and that’s it.
#2. Clear dashboard
Shopify gives you a clear and smooth dashboard to modify your store. Even if you’re not familiar with working online before, you will find it’s easy in setting up a Shopify store with this platform.
#3. Free and paid adjustable themes
Shopify offers many free and paid adjustable themes to design your store. All these themes are 100% mobile-friendly. When we talk about selling products online, the mobile version is very important. You can easily find the themes for sales at Shopify apps store.
Find tips to pick the perfect theme for your online store here!
#4. Infinite Number of products & Dataspace
Shopify lets us add an infinite number of products and give us infinite data capacity. This is awesome because when you have a WordPress website, for example, you have to pay extra money for extra storage data space.
#5. Site stats & reports
Shopify offers site statistics and product reports and it’s important to break down your numbers.
#6. Free & paid apps
Shopify offers free and paid apps to make your store stand out.
Shopify’s pricing plans are very direct and clear, they don’t hold any hidden option. You pay for the plan and you go for it. Not only that, Shopify offers 14 day trial, so you don’t have to worry about paying any penny in the first 2 weeks.
#7. 24/7 customer support
Shopify’s customer support is always available to help you set up a Shopify store. No matter how many times you contact their chat support for help, or whatever you ask, they can help you with anything and everything. They are friendly, knowledgeable and always available to give you a hand.
#8. Integrated with social media
Shopify also integrates with Pinterest and Facebook for added selling channels. You no longer have to use a bunch of platforms, this integration is easy and manageable.
#9. Flexible POS to sell online and in-person
One of the great features of Shopify is their POS. You can sell online and in person, while managing your inventory and keeping track of products.
#10. Helpful community
What most merchants like best about Shopify is that they never feel alone. Lots of support both directly and third party groups for merchants. When you ask a question, someone will probably provide you with a clear answer with step-by-step solution.
Now let’s go to the step-by-step instruction on:
- How can I make my store rock?
- What kind of elements and components I can add to my store?
- Should I buy my domain through Shopify?
- How can I change Shopify store name?
- How to set up Shopify store?
We will take you a quick tour shortly.
Setting up a Shopify store step-by-step instruction
Create your brand
First step: Create your brand
Internet nowadays is crowded with thousands of thousands of websites try to sell products, either by dropshipping or other options. Creating your brand will make you look professional and a professional website earns people’s trust.
Asking visitors to fill payment information is a part of how to create a Shopify store journey. Of course, this isn’t an easy task. We have to earn their trust, so they are more likely going to handle you their payment information.
Choose your website title
Now: choose your website title.
Make sure you choose an easy and nice name that can be standout and easy to remember.
Find it hard to generate a name for your website? Don’t worry, there are tools will do it for you. We recommend Namelix or Business Name Generator.
With Namelix, just enter your desired name, it will generate possible results along with logo design. Let’s say, I want to have a floral Shopify store, so I entered floral into the box, and Namelix gave me hundreds of results, like this:
What about Business Name Generator?
Well, it not only gives you name ideas but also checks domain availability for you. Business Name Generator takes data from GoDaddy to help you check if your desired name is available or not:
Design your logo
Pay some money and do design your logo. You can go to Fiverr, pay 5$ or 10$ and get your logo designed. Having a logo makes your brand professional. Remember, all the sellers you buy from have the domain name and have a logo added to their videos and images. So you need to become like them if you want to set up a Shopify store of your own.
Besides the freelancer market like Fiverr, Upwork, 99design…, there are FREE tools to help you design your logo. Try Canva, Hatchful, Brandcrowd and see how well it works!
Buy a brand domain name
Second, you buy a branded domain name. Don’t keep your domain name like this: mywebsitetitle.myshopify.com. It looks unprofessional. You should buy a domain name and don’t worry, it’s not expensive.
Have a professional email name
Also, you need to have a professional email address. Don’t use Gmail or Hotmail, they don’t look professional. You have, and you should have a professional one.
Let’s say, your Shopify store’s name is The flower shop for example. Your email address should be something like [email protected]
Have a phone number
Having a phone number on your website can boost people trust, even if you’re not actually going to use it.
Sign up to Shopify
As mentioned before, Shopify is easy to use and this is one of the most important reasons why hundreds of merchants choose this eCommerce platform for their business. So, Shopify is easy and to start working with it, you just have to sign up.
After signing up to the platform, you get the Shopify 14 day trial. You can use this 14 day trial to learn about how to set up Shopity store and to get familiar with it, then you can start your own store.
Fill the information
Navigate to www.Shopify.com, click on the Start free trial button. Fill in your desired email address, password and store name. The email address doesn’t have to be a professional one, you will get it later, so don’t worry. We’re going to change the email address when we go to store.
Your store name doesn’t have to be professional as we’re gonna buy a branded domain name. So you can write anything in this box (you can change your Shopify store name later).
If for any reason you don’t want to buy a branded domain name, then you have to put a professional store name here. As we said before, we recommend you to buy a branded domain name.
After filling in all the information, just click Create my store. You just have to wait for a few seconds, Shopify needs to finalise your store.
After clicking Next, tell Shopify about yourself by specifying how much you plan to sell and if you’re already selling. Complete by clicking Enter My Store.
It will then ask if you’re making a brick and mortar store or an online store. For this post we only focus on setting up a Shopify online store, so select that option and continue.
The following page asks you to fill in personal information to configure currencies and tax rates.
And this is the online Shopify store, it’s lived and you can work with it.
If you’re familiar with websites using WordPress, you know it’s complicated to do hosting and all the stuff. With Shopify, all you have to do is signing up.
So here is the dashboard with different options, we’ll discover this dashboard shortly.
You will find the Online Store option, this is where you will customise your store. Click onto the eye to see your store.
Remove password for your store
Now we’re going to show you how to unlock your store.
From your Shopify dashboard, go to the Online Store > Preferences, scroll down to Password protection.
After setting up a Shopify store, you might want to start selling. So, you need to unlock your store by removing the password. Shopify requests you to pick a plan. You might enter your credit card information but you don’t have to pay for anything before your Shopify 14 day trial ends. If you don’t want to enter your credit card information, it’s ok, you can still benefit from the trial.
Change timezone and currency
To change timezone and currency to your store, go to Settings > General > Standards and Formats/Store currency, you find what you need.
Set up the domain name and email for your store
As we said, having a branded domain name helps your setting up a Shopify store journey gain more trust from customers.
Buy a domain name
After signing up to Shopify, you will get this link for your store:
You don’t want to keep that, you will buy a branded domain name. To buy a domain name, you can use Shopify domain name generator but we recommend Namesilo. Namesilo is the cheapest domain registrar so you can save your budget. More importantly, not only it gets you a branded domain name, but it will also give you a professional email address for FREE. That’s why we stick with Namesilo to set up a Shopify store.
First, sign up to Namesilo.
You put the domain name you want to use to search box. Let’s say, the web site’s name is gonna be mybouquetshop.
The .com name is unavailable, so we need to find another name. We recommend you use the .com extension, it’s better. So we decide to select a different name: mybouquetstore. It’s available with the .com extension. If you’re satisfied with this result, just click onto Register checked domains.
Then, make sure you choose the WHOIS Privacy setting.
Click Continue, then choose your payment information, now you buy your own domain name.
Add the branded domain name to Shopify store
Now we gonna show you how to add the branded domain name to Shopify store. Go back to Shopify dashboard > Online Store > Domains
Now you have 2 options: Buy new domain and Connect existing domain. Domain names from Shopify are a bit expensive, so that’s why we suggest you buy from Namesilo. So click in Connect existing domain > enter your domain name > Next
So now you see this, you have to change your Namesilo setting to fit these requirements.
Go back to Namesilo > Domain manager > your domain name > DNS Records > Update. Then you scroll down to find Shopify > click Apply Template > Accept
It should take 24 hours to process, so you need to wait until your domain name become available on your store.
Get a branded email address
Let’s move on to getting a branded email address with Namesilo.
Go back to Manage my domains, click on your domain, look for Email Forwarding then click Configure.
Configure email forwarding for your domain: Domain manager page > Configure
To create a new email forward, simply scroll down to the Add/Change an Email Forward box. In the Email field, enter the email forward you’d like to create. Let’s say, you want to use [email protected], then enter a contact in the empty text box.
You want all the emails sent to [email protected] to be forwarded to your personal email address, then enter your personal one in the Forwards to field.
Your customers will see the [email protected], they will send emails to it. But in reality, their emails will go to [email protected].
Otherwise, GoDaddy and Mailchimp are not bad to get your own domain and email. Lots of solutions available, it’s up to you to choose the most suitable way!
Congratulations, Your new Shopify store is ready!
If you’ve managed that way – congratulations! Now you should have a fully working online Shopify store. This is a simple and basic introduction on how to set up Shopify store. In the next episode, we will present you on how to start working with Shopify in an easy and quick way. Stay tuned and meet us in the next episode!
