Almost 900 million people around the world shop at stores powered by Shopify. In the U.S., there are more than 2.5 million Shopify stores, including heavy hitters like Netflix and Fashion Nova. Whether you’re testing the waters for your first business or looking to move a retail location online, learning how to create a Shopify store is one of the best moves you can make.
What Is Needed To Open a Shopify Store?
One of the biggest reasons Shopify is so popular for e-commerce is how easy it is to use. It’s the Apple iPhone of online store platforms, complete with helpful walkthroughs and beginner-friendly tools.
There are some basic requirements to start a Shopify store, but the list is short enough to count on one hand:
- Shopify account: Making an account is free.
- Shopify membership: You can get started with Shopify for free, but you need a paid plan to create a store.
- Business registration: Choosing a name for your business and legally registering it is a must.
- Sales tax ID: Every Shopify store needs a sales tax ID — at least for your business’s home state and possibly in other states.
- Resale certificate: A resale certificate can lower how much you pay for products, especially if you’re using dropshipping.
You have a few more steps to take to open the doors to your online store, but the essentials are covered.
How Do You Create a Shopify Store?
Learning how to build a Shopify store has a lot of steps, but the process isn’t complicated. This step-by-step guide shows you exactly what to do. Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.
1. Plan Your Brand
Before you can kick off a road trip, you need a destination and a map. For the smoothest experience starting your Shopify store, create a plan for your brand:
- Niche: Your specialized market, such as apparel for pet owners, customized stainless steel drinkware, or eco-friendly vacation products
- Main products: The items that make your business stand out from the crowd, like sustainable clothing
- Personality: Qualities that make your business special, like being kind and caring, elegant and chic, or bold and bad
- Style: A design theme that matches your brand personality, including attention-grabbing fonts for fashion stores
Defining your brand identity helps with many other decisions, from product selection to advertising.
2. Get the Legal Stuff Out of the Way
The laws for starting an online store vary by state, but you always have to register your business name. This usually means visiting your Secretary of State’s website and paying a registration fee. Many solopreneurs go the LLC route so they can open a business bank account and keep personal finances separate.
To create a Shopify store, you at least need a sales tax ID in the state where your company is based. You must also register in other states to sell products if:
- You have warehouses in the state
- Some employees live in the state
- Your sales volume passes an annual limit
In Michigan, for example, out-of-state stores don’t need to register unless yearly sales exceed $100,000 or 200 transactions.
3. Choose Your Suppliers and Products
Some Shopify store owners purchase raw materials and make their goods at home or a local warehouse. Many others choose dropshipping or print-on-demand. These streamlined business models involve partnering with a third-party supplier, adding custom designs to the base products, and having the supplier ship the finished goods directly to your clients.
Quality matters for your brand’s reputation, so it’s essential to take your time researching trustworthy suppliers. Order some test samples.
Want to save time? Partner with an intermediary that has experience with dropshipping. Highly rated dropshipping apps like Zendrop come with a price tag, but in return, you get vetted suppliers, tools for automated shipments, and simpler delivery.
4. Set Up Payments
Shopify includes all the tools you need to accept credit cards, debit cards, and mobile payments. The easiest method is to use Shopify Payments, the native payment gateway for the platform. This also means you don’t pay any third-party transaction fees, just Shopify’s credit card processing rate.
Here’s how to get started with Shopify Payments:
- Go to the Home section of your Shopify Admin.
- Click on “Set up payments.”
- Review the supported card types, credit card rates, and transaction fees. If everything looks good, click “Complete account setup.”
- Add your store’s business details, such as Employer ID Number or Business Number.
To add additional payment providers (e.g., Stripe, PayPal), go to Admin > Settings > Payments and click on “Add payment methods.” Select “Search by provider” and type in the name of the payment processor you want. Click the “Activate [Name]” button on the next page and connect your Shopify account with the new provider.
5. Choose a Shopify Store Theme
At this point, you know how to handle the “paperwork” related to e-commerce. Now, it’s time to learn how to set up your Shopify store, customizing its look, feel, and functionality.
From your Admin, go to Online Store > Themes and click on “Add theme” to visit the Shopify Theme Store. Browse as many themes as you like, and when you find one that catches your eye, click on it and select “Try theme” to give it a spin for free.
Shopify themes are more than window dressing. They include fonts, layouts, and tools to help you build an eye-catching store that visitors love. Some top-tier retail themes offer countdown timers and customer review schema for product ratings.
Shopify’s free themes offer solid performance but barebones customization. Paid themes cost a pretty penny (a one-time fee) but provide a professional look from the get-go. If you need specific add-ons for wholesale pricing, upsells, or bundles, app integrations are the perfect solution.
6. Customize Your Store
After selecting a store theme, click on “Customize” to start setting up your new home page environment. On the left-hand side of the screen, you can see icons for “Sections” and “Theme Settings.” These tabs let you edit the layout, text, colors, and design of page sections.
Work your way down one section at a time:
- Name: If your theme has a scaling section for your store name, edit it directly. Otherwise, upload an image of your brand name using your unique font.
- Logos: Upload a PNG or JPEG image with your store’s logo to Shopify. You can also manage brand elements from the Admin > Settings > General > “Brand assets” section.
- Colors: Personalize the primary, secondary, accent, and button colors of your store to create the right vibe for your brand.
- Fonts: Choose from a large library of fonts for headings and paragraph text, including contemporary and minimalist fonts.
- Blocks: Under the “Sections” tab, you can edit the placeholder text in headings, paragraphs, and other elements. By clicking and dragging elements, you can reposition their location on the page.
- Images: Add or replace image files for banners, page accents, and block elements. High-quality images can tell a story that makes visitors like your brand.
A friendly word of advice when you’re learning how to build a Shopify store: Don’t go overboard with customization. Make it look good, but don’t expect perfection. You can’t start selling until you launch your store, and your time is money.
7. Add Products
Shopify product pages are point-and-click, so you don’t need any programming experience to create high-quality results. The first time you build a product page can take a while, but once you get the right look, you can use the same template for dozens of similar items. Here’s what to do:
- In the Shopify Admin, go to the Products tab.
- Click “Add product” to create a new product page.
- Give the product a descriptive name, such as “Women’s Fleece Long-Sleeve Cardigan.”
- Create a short product description that outlines the item’s features and gets shoppers excited.
- Use a few bullet points to quickly point out benefits and/or key features.
- Add pricing details for the product
- Include any variant categories, such as colors, materials, features, sizes, or age groups.
It’s especially important to upload videos and attractive images. Over 80% of mobile users need product images for online purchases. More than half of American consumers want to see at least three photos before they click the “buy” button, and 30% of users hope for 360-degree photos.
With apparel, accurate size charts can be the make-or-break factor for successful sales — and avoiding returns. They help potential customers “try on” items online. When you have a reputation for clothes that fit, buyers are more likely to return as well as recommend your store to friends.
8. Create Product Collections
In the Collections section, you can design product categories that help shoppers find exactly what they need. Click on the “Add collection” button and choose between manual and smart collections.
The manual option lets you add products from your catalob one by one. This type of collection works well for items like “Women’s running shoes,” “Men’s Tees,” “Diving Watches,” and other specific categories that users are likely to search for.
With smart collections, you set some parameters, and then Shopify automatically pulls from your product catalog. This option is perfect for categories like “Under $25,” “Trending,” “On Sale,” “Summer Favorites,” “Everything in Red,” and other limited-time collections.
9. Set Up Shipping
Shopify supports flat, percentage-based, and free shipping. You can set fees for each shipping zone, including thresholds for free shipping. Apply these rules to individual products or create pricing for groups of items by weight.
If your store’s business model involves dropshipping or print-on-demand, the third-party supplier handles the shipping process. This involves integrating their app or platform with Shopify to coordinate billing and order fulfillment smoothly.
10. Optimize Your Store for Online Searches
The long-term success of your store depends on continually attracting new customers. Paid ads are one option, but you shouldn’t overlook the power of search engine optimization. SEO is free — besides some time and effort.
There are four pillars of SEO for Shopify:
- Keywords: Search terms that help users find your products and store, such as “women’s running shoes” or “stainless steel drinkware for exercise”
- Schema: Site data that helps search engines feature your products, reviews, and FAQs
- Tags: Words and phrases that describe your products, such as “long-sleeve” or “maxi dress”
- Blogs: Helpful articles and guides with topics your audience cares about
Include keywords and schema in all your product descriptions. Blogs bring traffic to your store and highlight your products at the same time; they also give you content to use for social media snippets.
11. Test Functionality
Before making your store live, you need to check that everything works correctly and delivers the user experience you want. Take a “test drive” by browsing products, adding items to your cart, and going through a fake checkout process.
If you run across any snags in the user experience, don’t ignore them. Fix them.
When it comes to quality-of-life issues like rewards, bundles, and automation features, Shopify integrations solve user pain points quickly. You don’t need any coding experience to set up apps, so you won’t need to try to edit the store’s liquid file yourself.
How Much Does It Cost To Set Up a Shopify Store?
The cost to start an e-commerce store ranges from less than $50 to $500 or more. Paid advertising requires a large investment, and business registration costs in some states are over $100.
When it comes to Shopify store costs, there are three direct fees to keep in mind:
- Shopify Plan: $19/month for the Basic tier, with $49/month and $299/month options for larger retailers
- Domain name: Shopify charges around $20 a year for a unique website domain
- Shopify apps (optional): Usually $29/month, though free tiers are available with limited features
One reason dropshipping is popular is that store owners can avoid the costs of buying and storing inventory. It’s possible to achieve profitability even if you don’t have much starting capital, but it takes longer.
We Help Small Business Owners Learn How To Create Shopify Stores
Does the process of starting your own store on Shopify make you excited and nervous at the same time? We can help. Our friendly team can explain step-by-step how to create your store on Shopify and customize it for your needs. Contact us to learn more.