How to Set Up a Shopify Store: Step by Step Tutorial

There are LOTS of Shopify tutorials online and they all basically tell you what you need to do but don’t show you how to actually do it.

We don’t do that at EcommerceGold and that is why we created a step-by-step guide that covers all of the main aspects of setting up a Shopify but also included short video tutorials to show you how to do it as well as we know that sometimes reading how to do it with a couple of screenshots isn’t always enough.

We will also include links to any detailed or specialist tutorials that we have created that may require the installation of apps.

EcommerceGold is reader supported and we may earn a commission from products or services purchased through links on our site at no additional cost to you, to learn more please see our affiliate disclosure.

Step 1: Sign Up To Shopify

Shopify Free Trial Sign Up

Step number 1 is to sign up with Shopify and the signup process is very straightforward and you only need to enter an email address to start the signup process and you will then be asked a few questions so that they can help tailor the process towards your business, including:

  • Whether you are just starting out or already selling online
  • Where you would like to sell (online, social media, in-store etc)
  • What you plan to sell (physical, digital or service-based products)
  • The name of your store
  • Where you are located

Once you have answered or skipped these questions, you will then be asked to create a password, which will enable you to create an account with Shopify.

After this has all been completed, you will be given access to the Shopify platform for a 3-day free trial and following this trial, you can sign up to Shopify for 3 months for $1, after which you will need to upgrade to one of the paid plans, which are:

  • Shopify Basic: $39/m
  • Shopify Standard: $105/m
  • Shopify Advanced: $399/m

Step 2: Understanding the Shopify Dashboard

Admin Dashboard Shopify

The second step is to begin understanding the layout of the Shopify dashboard and where all of the important areas are located.

To help with this, Shopify has kept its dashboard very simple and some important things to note are:

  1. The Shopify logo in the top left will take you back to the dashboard homepage when clicked
  2. Your name in the top right allows you to access your profile and the Shopify support center
  3. Shopify uses a sidebar navigation menu with clearly labeled headings of:
    • Home
    • Orders
    • Products
    • Customers
    • Analytics
    • Marketing
    • Discounts
  4. Sales channels, which by default includes the online store and all customization options and any other sales channels which are added will appear here
  5. Apps, this allows you to quickly and easily access any apps that you have installed
  6. At the very bottom of the sidebar is the settings section, which is where you access all of your store’s settings including billing options

You will also be greeted by a short setup guide on your first sign up and it depends on the options you select when setting up your store as to what will be displayed here.

Step 3: Settings and Configuration

In this section, we go through the settings section, which includes steps such as:

  • Setting up your payments
  • Setting up your shipping settings

There are lots of options within the settings section and we aren’t going to cover every single one, instead, we are going to focus on the main options that are going to apply to the majority of Shopify stores.

#1 Store Details

Shopify Store Details

The very first section is the Store Details and this contains a lot of the information that you entered when you signed up to Shopify and if you need to make any changes to this information, you can do so here.

The sections on this page includes:

  • Profile – this contains the Store Name, Contact Phone Number and Email Addresses (if you want to use a different email address for emails that you send to customers, then you want to change the sender email address)
  • Billing Information – this is the business address for your store and where the address to which Shopify invoices are addressed to
  • Store Currency – choose the primary currency for your store (this can only be changed by Shopify after you have processed your first sale)
  • Time Zone and Units of Measurements – set your stores timezone and the units of measurement you use (imperial or metric)
  • Order Format – choose if you want a prefix or suffix for your order numbers

Once you have got all of the store details entered and you happy with them, make sure to click save before exiting the page.

#2 Plans & Billing

Even though these are separate sections, we decided to cover them together.

The Plan section is very simple, this is where you come to upgrade your plan or can choose to deactivate your store.

The Billing section contains many more options, including:

  • Payment Method – the method you choose to pay your monthly subscription fees
  • Billing Currency – the currency in which your store and any apps are billed every month
  • Subscriptions – this lists all of your active subscriptions, including your Shopify store and apps
  • Bills & Credits – lists all the charges and credits applied to your account
  • Tax Registration – enter any applicable tax numbers relating to your business
  • Statement of Charges – view a summary of all your Shopify charges for the last 90 days

Once again, make sure to click save for any changes that have been made.

#3 Payments

This is where you set up all of the payment gateways you want to offer on your Shopify store, we aren’t going to cover these as they are simply a case of selecting the payment gateway that you want to use and following the instructions on screen.

For any payment gateway that requires an account, such as PayPal and Amazon Pay, it is best to set these up before you set up your Shopify store as it makes the Shopify store set up much quicker as many require documentation and/or verification before you can use them.

#4 Checkout and Account

Shopify Checkout and Account set up

An important section when setting up your Shopify store is the Checkout and Accounts as this contains all of the options for your checkout and customer accounts and this includes:

  • Checkout Style – customize your checkout by adding a logo and changing colors, fonts & more
  • Customer Contact Method – choose the contact mode for customers to enter during the checkout from either Phone number & email or just email
  • Customer Information – this is the information that the customer needs to enter during the checkout and includes options for Name, Company Name, Address Line 2 and Shipping Phone Number
  • Tipping – includes an option for customers to add a tip during the checkout
  • Order Processing – includes options for:
    • When the customer is checking out such as whether the shipping address auto fills the billing address and whether you want to add a confirmation step
    • Auto options for order fulfillment after the order has been paid
    • Choose whether to auto-archive orders once they have been fulfilled or refunded
  • Marketing Options – offer options for customers to sign up to email and/or SMS marketing
  • Abandoned Checkout Emails – set options for abandoned carts including whether they are sent automatically, who they are sent to and how long after the cart has been abandoned that the email should be sent
  • Order Status Page – allows you to add scripts and customizations to the page, such as for order tracking
  • Checkout Language – choose the language that your checkout page is displayed in
  • Customer Accounts – choose how customers log into their account, either via their email and password or through a one-time code that is emailed to them
  • Customer Account Actions – choose whether you offer self-serve returns, meaning that customers can auto-start a return on your store

As you can see, there are a lot of options on this page and you would use these options to help refine your checkout process so that you can hopefully increase your store’s conversion rate.

#5 Shipping and Delivery

Shopify Shipping and Delivery Settings

You only need to set up the Shopping and Delivery options if you are selling physical products, if you are selling virtual or digital products on Shopify, then you can skip this section.

If you are selling physical products, then you definitely need to fill this section out, even if you are using third-party companies for your shipping or order fulfillment and there are a few sections, which are:

  • Shipping
  • Local Delivery
  • Local Pickup
  • Delivery Customization
  • Packages
  • Shipping Labels
  • Packing Slips
  • Carrier Accounts
  • Custom Order Fulfillment

And there are quite a few different options when it comes to setting up your shipping options, which is why we created a more detailed guide on Setting up Shipping in Shopify.

#6 Taxes and Duties

Shopify Taxes and Duties

Another important section if the Taxes and Duties as this is where you configure the options on how you collect taxes and duties on your site, if you aren’t sure about whether you need to do this or what your requirements are then it is best to speak to a local tax professional as rules and regulations vary between countries.

But in this section there are options for:

  • The locations in the world where you collect sales tax
  • How to set up duties and import taxes for international orders
  • How tax is charged on your store, with options for:
    • Including tax in the sale price
    • Include/exclude tax based on the customer’s country
    • Charge tax on shipping

It is important to get this set up correctly so that you are collecting the right amount of tax from the right customers.

#7 Policies

The final section we are going to cover in this step of the guide is policies, which is the last section within settings and you not only want to get these set up and published but also make sure they are legal and comply with any regulations, this is why it is best to get them checked by a legal professional before going live with your store.

There are 5 sections within policies, that are for:

  • Refund policy
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms of service (Terms and Conditions)
  • Shipping policy
  • Contact information

For the Refund, Privacy and Terms of Service, Shopify does have a template generator, which is a great starting point but these aren’t legal advice as Shopify states and as mentioned, you need to get these made or checked by a legal professional before your store goes live.

Other Settings

As we said, there are plenty of settings to work through but we feel these are the most important ones and we will cover domain names further in this guide but it is worth looking through all of sections to see if there is anything that will apply to your store.

The only thing we will mention here is the Apps and Sales Channels section as this is where you go to uninstall any apps that you have added to your store and where you can add additional sales channels such as the Buy Button.

Step 4: Add a New Product

Now that you have got all of your settings configured, it is time to start adding your inventory and in this section we cover how to create a new product.

The first part of setting up your inventory is to create a new product and even though Shopify’s add new product page is very easy to use, we are going to cover it a bit of detail to help you get your products set up properly.

Shopify Add New Product Page

#1 Product Title

The first part of setting up your product page is to add a product title, which is a very important part of your page as the title uses the page’s H1 tag, meaning that it is the most important heading on the page.

When creating a product title, you want it to be unique to that page and ideally:

  • Include the Primary Keyword for the product
  • Be between 55-60 characters long
  • Read organically

Generally, product titles are quite descriptive and will include very product-related information such as brand, model, gender, color etc.

Title and description boxes found on a Shopify product page

#2 Product Description

The second section is the product description and as this is the single largest content section on a Shopify product page, you want to create a good one as it can not only help you get sales but there are also SEO benefits (if that is part of your marketing strategy).

When you are creating your product description, the Shopify text editor includes a selection of formatting options that you can use to create an easy-to-read piece of copy for your customers.

There are also some general guidelines to help you write better copy:

  • Don’t use the H1 tag for headings, this should only be used for the product title
  • Keep paragraphs short and punchy
  • List all important information in bullet points
  • Sell the benefits of the product rather than the features
  • Avoid using manufacturer descriptions

This will help you create original, well-written product descriptions that in many cases lead to better sales.

#3 Add Media (Images & Video)

Section number 3 is adding media to your product and Shopify offers you the ability to add multiple media types and you can also choose whether you want to upload them directly to Shopify or add them from another URL, if you want to upload your media, then it must comply with the following:

Images

  • File type either JPG, PNG or GIF
  • Max size 4472 x 4472px or 20 megapixels, less than 20mb in file size

Video

  • Length up to 10 minutes long
  • Max file size 1gb
  • Resolution up for 4k (4096 x 2160px)
  • File type either .mp4 or .mov

3D Images

  • File size up to 500mb
  • File type GLB or USDZ

For your product images, you want to upload the correct image size and your theme’s documentation should state what the optimal image size is, uploading a web-optimized image is also helpful.

This is because the smaller the file size, the quicker the page should load, which is very beneficial to user experience.

For the videos, you can add links directly from YouTube or Vimeo but we found that videos displayed better when uploaded directly to Shopify but be aware that it can take time for videos to upload and be processed.

The add media box from the Shopify product page

#4 Pricing

Next up is setting the price for your product and this is quite straightforward as you can set:

  • The Sale Price, this is what the product will be selling for on the front end of your store
  • Compare at Price, this is if you are discounting the product and you enter the original price in the compare at price box and on sale price in the price box
  • Tax, a checkbox to say whether or not you pay charge tax on the product or not
  • Cost per Item, this is how much you paid for the item but this isn’t displayed to your customers
Price information box on Shopify product page

#5 Inventory Management

The next section if for your inventory management and there are three options here:

  1. Track Quantity – this should be ticked for physical products otherwise you will list an unlimited amount and when ticked, you will be able to say where the stock is located. A default stock location is created based on the address you entered when setting up your store and additional locations can be added by going to Settings → Locations and adding another location
  2. Continue Selling When Out Of Stock – if you want to continue taking order even when the product is out of stock, then check this box
  3. This Product Has A SKU or Barcode – if either of these apply to the product, then check the box and two fields will appear where you can enter the relevant information

#6 Shipping

The next section if Shipping and there are two main options here:

The first is for Physical Products and is selected by default and this asks you to enter to weight, which is only really required for weight based shipping and if you are selling internationally, then you need to check the box and enter:

  • Country/Region of Origin – in most cases is the country where it was manufactured.
  • Harmonized System (HS) Code – this is used to describe what category the product falls into and to find the right code, either start typing a word that describes the product or if you know the code, start typing it and a menu will appear showing all the options that match what you started typing

The second option is for Digital products or services and selecting this removes the shipping from that product.

Shopify Product Shipping

#7 Variations

If you are selling products that have different variations such as size or color, then you want to click the check box under the Options section. This then allows you to add up to three main options such as size, color and material.

You can then add the individual options in the boxes below the main option, like in the image below where we have added Small and Big.

Shopify Tutorial - Product Options

Once you have added your Options, a box will appear below, where you can enter the price, quantity and SKU code for all of your variations.

Shopify Tutorial - Product Variations

If you want to add more specific information to each variant, then click the edit button and a pop-up will appear that allows you to:

  • Set price and cost per item
  • Inventory info such as SKU, Barcode
  • The quantity at each location
  • HS Code for international selling

Once you have entered the information you want in the pop-up, click done and it will add that to the chosen variation.

#8 SEO Settings

At the bottom of the page is the section to set up all of the on-page SEO settings, including:

  • Page Title – if you want the title of the page to appear different from the product title in search results, then entered your desired page title here (aim for 50-60 characters to avoid parts being cut off)
  • Description – this is the meta description that sits below the title in search results, aim to keep this between 155-160 characters for best effect, if this is not filled in then it will pull it from your product description
  • URL and Handle – this gives you some control over the page URL and will be based on the product title by default but if you want to edit the URL, this is where it is done

If SEO is a serious part of your Shopify stores marketing strategy, then you do want to spend some time editing this section.

Shopify SEO Options

#9 Sidebar Options

The final set of options for creating a product are in the right sidebar and these are pretty simple as there are only a couple:

  1. Product Status – this is where you set the product to active or draft and choose which sales channels it is available for
  2. Product Organization – this is how the product is going to be organized on your store and includes options for:
    • Product Category, different to collections as this is used for shopping feeds such as Google shopping
    • Product Type
    • Vendor
    • Collections
    • Tags
  3. Online Store – if you have created a custom template for your product page, then select it from the dropdown menu

One you have set your product up, make sure to click save otherwise you will have to start again!

Step 5: Creating A Collection

The second part of setting up your inventory is to create collections so that you can organize your products, which makes life easier for your customers.

The next step, although you could do this before creating your products is to create your collections and these aren’t the most straightforward to set as there are two options for this, both of which we have covered below:

Manual Shopify Collections

The first and arguably easiest collection type to create is a manual collection and this is where you manually add products to the collection and this can either be done via the collection page or product creation/edit page.

To create a manual collection, just go to Products → Collections and click add new and the following page will appear:

Shopify Create Manual Collection

And by default, the Collection Type option is set to manual and you just need to enter:

  • A title
  • A description (optional but helpful)
  • SEO
  • Choose which sales channels this collection is available for
  • Upload an image for the collection

Once all the information has been added, you then want to save the collection so that you can begin adding products to the the collection and there are two ways to do this.

This first is by going in and editing the collection that you have just created and you will see there is a section to select the products for the collection that has replaced the collection type section.

Shopify Add Products to Manual Collection

Clicking the Browse button will open a pop up window from which you can select which products you want to go into your collection.

Shopify Select Manual Collection Products

Simply check the products that you want to add to the collection and click add and then these products will be automatically added to your collection.

The second way is done from the product creation/edit page.

Simply go on to the product page and in the right sidebar is a heading for collections. Click in the search box and it will show all of the manual collections you have created.

Shopify Manual Products Add

You can also start typing the name of the collection if you have created multiple ones and when you see the one you want to add the product to, click the checkbox to select that collection and then save the product to confirm the changes and this product will then have been added to your chosen collection.

Automated Shopify Collections

The second option when is the Automated collections, which have a bit of a steeper learning curve but once you get the hang of it, they can be very useful.

What makes Automated Collections different, is that they are based on conditions, such as:

  • Product Title – this is if you want to create a collection around words that appear in numerous product titles such as rings or watches
  • Product Type – if you entered a product type when creating your products, then you can use this as a way to put them into a collection
  • Product Vendor – if you have items from specific vendors or brands and want to put them into their own collection
  • Product Price – this is used if you want to group items together based on their price, for example products between $10 and $30
  • Product Tag – if you created tags for your products, such as men’s ring or ladies watch, then you can create a collection around these tags

Once you have decided which conditions are going to be used for the collection, you then set the parameters for that rule, such as:

  • is equal to
  • is greater than
  • is less than
  • contains

You then enter in the data that Shopify will use to select the products. Sorry if this sounds confusing but it is a bit of a challenge to put it into words but we have given a couple of examples below to try and show you how it works.

Example 1:

If you wanted to create a collection of gift ideas for less than £25, you would set up the automated collection like this:

Shopify would then put all of your products that you are selling for less than £25 into this collection.

Example 2:

You can also create more than one rule for a collection and for this example, I am going to create a collection for Men’s Seiko Watches and it would look like this:

Shopify Automated Collections Example 2

With a collection like this, you could easily replace the product title with Product Type or Tag as long as they contained those words.

Once you have created this Automated collection, any product that you create or have already created that fits the conditions will automatically be added to this collection.

We would recommend watching the video on this one as it makes to process much easier to understand.

Step 6: Customize Your Store

Now it is time to start working on the design of your Shopify store as this is what your customers are going to see and you want it to fit your brand.

#1 Choosing a Theme

The first step in this process is to choose a theme and this can be quite challenging as there are thousands of themes to choose from that are available:

  • Through the Shopify Theme Store
  • Through marketplaces such as ThemeForest
  • Direct from developers

And that is why recommend choosing a theme that loads quickly (we created a list of the Fastest Shopify Themes) as this helps to improve your customer’s user experience, which can:

  • Increase conversion rates
  • Help your store’s SEO

And many of the fast-loading premium themes also come with a good selection of built-in features, meaning you need fewer apps on your store, which can potentially save you money over the long term.

#2 Customizing Your Theme

Shopify OS 2.0 Customizer

Once you have chosen your theme, it is time to begin customizing it so that it fits your business and brand and Shopify offers one of the most powerful theme customizers on the market as it allows you to customize pretty much every single page type on your site, including:

  • Homepage
  • Product pages
  • Collection pages
  • Pages
  • Blogs
  • Checkout and Cart

The Shopify theme customizer uses a section system, each with its own set of settings and options and premium themes and some apps will allow you to add additional sections to your site’s pages.

Due to the number of different options that are available when it comes to theme customization, we have created a detailed guide on Shopify Theme Customization.

Another area of customizing your store that you want to pay attention to is your store’s navigation menu as this is the main way that customers are going to navigate around your site and the theme you are using might include options for things like a mega menu.

One note on theme customization is to always check how your site displays on mobile, many people just focus on the desktop appearance but mobile will be one of your main traffic sources, so always make sure to check this.

Step 7: Add Domain

A very important step in getting your store ready to go live is to have it running on a custom domain as the .myshopify.com one doesn’t look professional!

Shopify Tutorial - Domains

With Shopify, there are three ways in which you can set up a custom domain and all of these options can be found by going to Settings → Domain.

  1. Connect Existing Domain (recommended) – this is where you purchase your domain name through a domain name registrar such as Namecheap and then change the records so that it points towards Shopify’s servers
  2. Buy Domain – this is where you buy your domain name directly through Shopify
  3. Transfer Domain – this is where you transfer your domain name from a domain registrar to Shopify

We highly recommend connecting your domain to Shopify as this keeps your domain name and your website builder & hosting with separate companies, which gives you more control over your business.

If you want to add your Shopify store as a domain of an existing website, we have created a guide on Adding a Shopify Store to a Subdomain.

Step 8: Testing & Going Live

By this point, it is nearly ready to go live with your store but before you do that, you want to do some testing and last-minute checks before opening it up to paying customers.

When it comes to testing, you want to check everything that your customers are going to interact with and everything that you are going to be doing as the store owner and the basics you want to check are:

  1. Checkout – set up the bogus payment gateway and run a couple of test orders through the checkout to make sure it is working and emails are being delivered correctly
  2. Payment – once you know the checkout is working, activate your payment gateway/s and run some more test orders to make sure they are working correctly, you can also refund these orders so that you know that process is working
  3. Order Management – make sure emails are being sent out for order updates and how you print order information or sync with third-party software is all working
  4. Contact Form – fill out and submit your contact form to make sure it works and you receive the email, if you have live chat, make sure that is working as well

It can be helpful to double-check everything so once you are happy that everything is working correctly, get friends and/or family to place some test orders and make sure that everything worked properly for them, this can be a great opportunity to get feedback on things that could possibly be improved.

After you have thoroughly tested your store, it is time to set it to live and this is very easy to do, simply go to Sales Channels → Online Store → Preferences and scroll down to the Restrict Store Access section and uncheck the Password Protection option and now your store is open to the public.

Step 9: Marketing Your Shopify Store

Now that your store is built and open to the public, it is time to start getting it out there as in order to make your store a success, you need to be actively marketing it.

As much as you might not want to hear this, building a Shopify store is the easy part, getting paying customers is a lot more challenging, especially if this is your first online store.

There are many different ways to market your Shopify store and we are just going to give you a few ideas below:

  • Paid Search – this is where you pay for ads to be placed on organic search results
  • Search Engine Optimization – is where you optimize your store for SEO so that it can rank in organic search results (we have created a Shopify SEO Checklist if you are interested in SEO)
  • Social Media Marketing – this is where you build accounts on popular social media platforms and then post either organic or paid content to appear in front of your potential target market
  • Email Marketing – this is where you build up an email list (requires traffic first) and then promote your products and offers such as discount codes to your email subscribers

When it comes to marketing your Shopify store, you ideally want to have a plan in place and be marketing your store before it launches as this way you can build up some interest and demand around your products, which increases the chances of your store getting sales from day 1.

Conclusion

Starting a Shopify store might seem like a daunting task and we hope that this guide has made it easier to understand and covered a few things that you might not have been sure about.

And we aren’t saying that you have to follow the steps in the order that we have laid out in this post, you can do things how you want but we just wanted to show what the important steps of setting up a Shopify store are and how to do them.

The great thing about Shopify is that there is a huge online community and plenty of resources, either blog posts, videos or forums/Facebook groups to help you should you get stuck, plus Shopify has its own support team.

Hi, I'm Paul, the Owner and Founder of EcommerceGold.
I ran my own Ecommerce Business for over 7 years and now help others start their own online retail empires!