How to Create a Shopify Store – Guide
Shopify Inc. is a Canadian multinational e-commerce company based in Ottawa, Ontario. It offers online retailers a suite of services including payment, marketing, shipping and customer engagement tools.
Shopify, one of the world’s leading ecommerce platforms, announced that it has over 1.7 million businesses using its platform as of May 2021. According to BuiltWith, 1.58 million websites will run on the Shopify platform by 2021. According to W3Tech, 4.4% of the top 10 million sites. Use Shopify to power your business. Total gross trading volume for the 2019 calendar exceeded $61 billion. As Shopify is one of the top 10 publicly traded Canadian companies by market capitalization, you can be sure that this platform is reliable and scalable for your business needs. Total revenue for the full year 2020 was $2.929 billion - an increase of 12% from 2019! With so much growth in store for your business, it’s no wonder Shopify is one of Canada’s top 10 most valuable companies! ..
How to Create a Shopify store
Create your Shopify account
Visit the Shopify homepage. Depending on your geographic location, you will be redirected to your local edition of Shopify.com, where you will see the option to start your free trial. Click on the icon located in the upper right corner of your web page. You will then be asked to fill in some basic details after which you will have the option to create a store name. Remember that your Shopify store name is your identity, so make sure you choose a name that syncs with your business. If your chosen name isn’t available, you’ll be prompted to change your Shopify store name. ..
Provide more details about your Shopify store
Shopify is asking for personal contact information in addition to business information. They will also ask for this information about your business’s revenue, what your Shopify store goal is, and billing details. Once you have filled in all of these fields, you will be redirected to your Shopify admin page.
Customize your Shopify store
The Shopify admin page has all the details you need to get started with your online marketplace. Here, you can add items to your market, either individually or in bulk. You can also add services, files, and any items that may be available for digital download. Choose the look and feel of your shopify store. ..
Your online store should be designed to reflect your brand’s spirit, style, and more. You should pay close attention to the interiors of any brick and mortar store you set up. If you’re using a virtual storefront, start by choosing a basic theme from one of the many offered for virtual storefronts, then customize it further to suit your brand’s design and look and feel.
Further customize your Shopify store layout
There are over 100 themes available in the Shopify Theme Store, many of which are free. This is particularly useful for businesses that are just starting out and may not necessarily have the budget for the more premium themes. There are modifiable themes available in both the free and paid sections, which means you can still have your online store the way you want it. Knowing basic HTML and CSS, while useful for customizing your store, is not a necessity. Shopify storefronts can all be customized, whether you’re familiar with the code or not. If you have a little more money to spend, Shopify has a network of web design agencies called “Shopify Experts” who can help you with the finer points of customization. ..
Shopify themes are available in both free and paid versions. Before choosing a theme, you can see a preview of it in action. You can also choose your Shopify theme based on the industry you’re in; for example, if you’re selling clothing, Shopify has a category of recommended themes (available in both free and paid versions) for you.
There are a few things you can do to optimize your website for mobile use. First, make sure that your website is mobile-friendly. This means that the site looks and feels great on devices like smartphones and tablets. You can customize the look and feel of your site, including footers, text overlays, and more. You can also upload logos for your business or brand here, choose fonts based on your branding aesthetic and design, change your website’s color scheme, and add information about items for sale you’d like to list per page on your website. Second, add links to your social media profiles. This will help people find you more easily when they want to visit your site from a mobile device. You can also add links to other websites in order to improve the reach of your site on different platforms. Finally, make sure that you are optimizing for search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is important because it will help increase the visibility of your site among search engines. You can optimize the titles of pages on your website for better ranking in search results pages (SERPs). You can also use keywords in content so that people searching for those terms will find what they’re looking for more easily.
Upload products to your shopify store
Now that you have decided on the look and feel of your website, it is important to list all of the products and services that you offer. On the left side of your admin panel, you will see a bar that says “Products”. Select this to add new products to your listings or choose from products already in your inventory. Here, you can add your product name, a description of what you are selling, images, pricing, and more. Shopify also allows you to list any variants of a certain product that you might offer. You can also add SEO terms, submission information, and more; there is also the option to list the stock so your customers know which items are still available. ..
Group and categorize your products
Make sure all your products are properly categorized so that your customers can find what they’re looking for. For example, if you sell clothes, list the gender, age group or older for which you offer clothing or other relevant information. If you sell household items, list the category for that as well.
You can add products to collections automatically if they meet specific criteria, or you can set up your collections so that they are automatically added to certain collections if they meet specific criteria.
To define up Shopify Payment
When creating a Shopify store, the most important step is to define your business model. This will determine how you will make money and how you will receive payments. You can use third-party payment solutions or a payment gateway to make this process easier.
When selecting a payment gateway, make sure you understand the fees and payment modes that will be charged. You can do this by examining your user base and demographics, then conducting research if necessary to learn what payment modes your customers are likely to use. You can then choose a solution accordingly.
Learn all about shopify taxes and shipping costs
This is the step where you need to be especially careful. Make sure that all your information is correct for taxation purposes, as you will need to mention it on your products. Always keep records of your investments, purchases and other relevant information, and make multiple copies of your data. Also, make sure that your customers know if additional taxes are included in the cost of the product or if they incur an additional cost. To ensure transparency, you can mention Shopify taxes and international shipping fees for each product in the products section and also clearly specify whether they are included in the cost of the product or if they incur an additional cost. ..
Test your ordering system
Shopify has a feature called “Bogus Gateway” which allows you to test if your order system is working properly.
To test that your payment and ordering systems are up and running and ensure they are working properly, place an order with actual payment information as you would on any other e-commerce site. Go ahead to buy an item; however, the trick here is to simply cancel the order just in time to ensure your own money is refunded. The next step involves a quick check of your payment gateway’s backend to test that your ordering system is working well. ..
Customize your domain
Shopify domains are a great way to start and grow your online store. They are only $2 to $4 more than external domain names, and you can use them to redirect DNS yourself if you need to. However, make sure you update the information in your Shopify store so that your customers can find your store easily. This can be done by going back to your Settings and finding the Domain tab. Once there, click “Add Domain” to add it. After that, you will also need to change existing DNS records.
Remove password protection
When you create a Shopify store, it is password protected by default. Make sure that after you finish setting it up completely, you must disable password protection or your website will remain inaccessible to customers. ..
Make periodic checks
Regularly performing administrative tasks on the backend can help ensure your website remains up-to-date and compliant with regulations. ..
