- Hey there, Samantha Renée here with Shopify.
Today, as I work from home,
I'm going to run you through seven steps
to get your business online,
and start selling with Shopify.
Let's get started.
If your business has primarily been selling out of
retail locations, you may already have a website,
but no online store with checkout.
If this is true for you,
there are a couple of options.
First, you could use a subdomain,
to offer an online shopping experience,
while keeping your existing website on your main URL.
For example, if your website is called
AlyAthletics.com, you'd create a link
on that website called Shop.
Then create a Subdomain called Shop.AlyAthletics.com
that links to your Shopify store.
Second, you could add a Shopify Buy Button
to your existing website or blog.
Buy buttons give customers a way
to buy products without leaving the website,
and shows, details like product pictures,
descriptions, and prices.
And of course, if you don't already have
a website setup, you can use Shopify's
easy to use Website Builder, to
customize and launch your online store
in a matter of minutes.
Now let's get into products.
Whether you build your website with Shopify,
or use an existing website,
you'll use Shopify to track and manage
your product inventory.
For people launching their online store,
for the first time.
Shopify offers Data Migration Services.
Meaning if you need to move things
like products and page information
from your existing website, over to Shopify,
it's quick and easy with Migration apps,
or CSV files.
If you use a POS System, in your
Brick and Mortar Store, then you can use
Shopify's free POS Data Migration Service
to move your existing products over to Shopify.
If you aren't moving products
from an existing POS or software,
then you'll have to add your products
to your Shopify store manually.
To speed up the process, we recommend
starting with your top-selling,
or easiest to ship products.
This way you can start selling,
and slowly get your full Product Catalog online.
You can also create a template,
for how you'll write out your
Product Descriptions, Titles, and Variants,
and follow that template to make your products
a little faster.
Along with physical products,
you might choose to sell gift cards.
Which is a fast way to get your business
selling online and help supplement cashflow,
if you've had to temporarily shut your doors.
When customers purchase gift cards online,
they're delivered to them by email.
They can be used at checkout to buy products
from your online store or for local delivery,
and pickup, If you have those options set up.
Now it's time to set up the pages
in your online store.
Whether you're migrating an existing website,
or getting online for the first time,
you'll want to use your logo, and your
brand colors as much as possible,
to keep your store recognizable,
to your existing customers.
Your homepage is your storefront.
This is the first page your customers see
when they visit your online store.
So use this page to share important information.
Here are a few page topics you might consider,
policy pages like refunds, shipping,
terms of service, and privacy, help to
set the expectations with your customers,
as they build trust with your brand.
These policies are auto-generated
in the Shopify admin, but you can always
customize them to fit your business.
An FAQ page is also another key component
to building trust with your customers.
While also answering questions
that you get a lot.
Consider adding your store hours, contact information,
safety protocols, or anything else you think
your customers might need to know.
And lastly, a contact us page,
lets customers know how to reach you.
You can add a form to this page,
so that customers can send you an email
without leaving the website.
Now let's talk about how you get paid.
Before you can make your first sale,
you do need to activate a Payment Gateway
from your Payment provider settings.
When you choose a Payment Gateway,
research, the Payout schedules, Available Currencies,
and the cost of Credit Card and Transaction fees.
Shopify payments, is a built-in
payment gateway made by Shopify.
It accepts all major payment options,
and it saves you the hassle of signing up
for another service.
And if you're selling a product
that you don't often see sold elsewhere,
I would suggest taking a look at our
Terms of Service to make sure that you can use
Shopify payments.
(swoosh)
When you sell online, you need to have a way
to send your products to your customers.
Queue shipping, Shopify has many shipping
options you can offer to your customers.
You can create General shipping rates
for all of your products,
or you can make different shipping
profiles and rates for certain products.
For each shipping profile, you can make
shipping zones to specify which Countries
you want to ship to, and then
create shipping rates for each zone.
For example,
if you ship to both Canada and the U.S.,
you can create a zone for each Country,
and then create shipping rates for each zone.
You can also offer flat shipping rates,
Conditional Flat shipping rates,
which are based on the weight or price
of a customer's cart, or Carrier calculated rates,
If you qualify for Shopify shipping.
And for customers who live close to you,
you can add local Delivery or local Pickup options.
(swoosh)
After you've opened your store,
It's time to let people know
that you're open for business.
Getting traffic to your new online store
is not guaranteed.
Luckily, there are many options
to market your business.
Since we know buying local is more
important than ever, consider telling
your community about your online shop.
Local radio and TV stations,
often feature businesses
who've made the move online.
Try reaching out to them to see if
they'd feature your business.
You can also research local blogs and websites,
and offer them an article that they could post
in exchange for a link back to your website.
Another way to generate traffic,
is through paid ads.
Facebook has a powerful advertising platform
that allows you to target your ads
to specific audiences on both Facebook
and on Instagram.
For example, if you sell workout clothes for women,
your ads can target
women ages 15 to 55,
searching for workout clothes in North America.
With Shopify marketing,
You can easily setup, run, and evaluate
Facebook Ads and Google Ads.
And now, you can also run
email marketing campaigns,
with Shopify email.
No matter which way you choose to get traffic
to your website, you should be
capturing email addresses.
Email marketing gives you a way to stay
connected with both your customers,
and your potential customers.
Shopify email empowers you to send
Branded emails and promotions to your customers,
right from Shopify marketing.
It provides clear workflows to get campaigns
set up quickly with limited marketing expertise.
I hope this gives you a sense
of what you can do to get your
business on Shopify today.
If you still have questions,
about getting your business online,
reach out to our support team 24/7 at
help.shopify.com