There can be a lot to think about when you start your new business.
Here’s your essential checklist for how to set up and launch your online store with
Shopify.
Hi I’m Casey with Shopify.
As you follow along with the video, feel free to pause and work on your store as you need.
You don’t need to check off everything on this list just do what’s best for you and
your business.
For all the links that are mentioned in this video, check out our detailed description
below.
You can also visit community.shopify.com to chat with other entrepreneurs about your ecommerce
journey.
Now let’s get started!
You just began your free 14 day trial with Shopify, but where do you start?
Maybe you already have some products or maybe you aren’t sure what you want to sell yet.
Our Shopify blog has helpful articles to help you find a business niche, make a plan, and
source products.
New businesses often use a dropshipping model to source and ship products.
With dropshipping, you sell products that are stored and shipped by a supplier.
You don't need to hold any inventory or ship items yourself.
If you want to hold inventory, then consider using a wholesale marketplace, like Handshake,
to find products.
After you decide what to sell, it’s time to add your products.
From the “Products” page you can add appealing, detailed titles and descriptions for your
products.
Next you can add media files to the product.
Visuals help your customers decide if they want to make a purchase.
So it’s best to have a visual for all of your products.
Next, you need to organize these products into collections so customers can browse similar
products together.
Our store sells athletic gear, so I put workout clothes, athletic accessories, and fitness
trackers into separate collections.
You can create a manual collection, where you individually select every item included.
Or, you can create an automated collection using product tags.
Next, let's talk about something fun and exciting: designing the look and feel of your store
with a theme!
You get to choose from a variety of free Shopify themes, each with their own unique look and
feel.
In the theme editor, customize your online store’s colors, fonts, imagery, and layout
to give customers a sense of your brand when they visit your store.
You can use hatchful.shopify.com to design a free logo and favicon for your store, and
you can use burst.shopify.com for free high-resolution images that you can use for your store’s
slideshow and more.
While you build your store’s brand, you might want to buy a custom domain.
Custom domains don’t have myshopify.com in the web address, and they give customers
a short website to remember for brand recognition.
Our athletic store uses the custom domain alyathletics.com.
You can buy a custom domain right in your Shopify admin and set it on auto-renewal,
so you don't have to worry about losing your store’s domain name.
After you have a concept for your store, it’s time to put it in writing.
An “About Us” page helps shoppers decide if they want to buy from you.
So tell them about your business, its mission, and the people who run it.
You can create a “Contact us” page using Shopify’s contact form template, and even
include how customers can reach out by phone, email or in person.
You should also consider creating a frequently asked questions page to cover topics like
international orders, how products are made, safety concerns, sizing options and anything
else relevant to your business.
Now that you have your collections and pages done, it’s time to link them all together
in your online store so that customers can find what they’re looking for.
Usually, you link collections and products in the main menu at the top of your online
store, and extra pages like contact forms, FAQ’s and policies in the footer menu.
Next, decide how you want customers to check out.
Depending on your location, that’s going to affect which payment gateways or payment
providers are available to you.
When deciding on a payment gateway, research the cost of credit card and transaction fees,
terms of service (in case certain products are restricted), payout schedules, and available
currencies.
Before you start accepting payment for orders, you want to do a thorough review of your tax
settings.
Shopify uses many default sales tax rates, which are updated regularly.
If you use the default rates, then you need to confirm that they are current and correct
for your business.
If you ever need to, you can also override default rates.
But, since taxes are different in every region, you should consult with a tax specialist to
make sure you’re setting the right tax rates for your business.
Nest decide where you want to ship your products.
If you’re just starting a new business, try shipping to a few countries first before
shipping worldwide.
Keep the shipments close to home so that you can set customer expectations for delivery
times and rates.
For example, if you live in the United States, you might start by shipping to both the United
States and Canada.
You can create flat rate shipping, or calculated shipping rates that charge by order price
or weight.
And, if you’re eligible, then you can use Shopify Shipping for discounted rates.
Shopify also has options for local delivery and pickup.
Review the different options and decide what’s best for your business.
Before you launch your store, you should always test that it works the way you want it to.
You can do this with test orders and payments.
This is a great way to see what orders look like in your admin, review customer email
notifications, check your shipping rates, and test your checkout process.
After you know your online store is running smoothly, it’s time to expand your reach.
Think about different sales channels and where you want to sell your products.
Sales channels are platforms where you can sell, like Facebook, Instagram, Google and
more.
It’s also best practice to create store policies to inform your customers and help
protect your business.
Create policy pages that cover topics like refunds, terms of service, privacy and shipping.
You can use Shopify’s pre-made policy templates to generate a policy.
Just remember you should always review and make adjustments to suit your business.
You can’t generate a pre-made policy for shipping, but you can visit Shopify Community
for help with what to include.
After you make your policies, don’t forget to link them in your store menus so customers
can easily find them.
You might have already created a contact form, but businesses that chat with customers are
known to sell more and have better customer retention by building those relationships.
With Shopify Inbox, you can manage all your online interactions with customers.
You can use Shopify Inbox to customize the look of customer chats on your online store,
create automatic responses, and view conversation analytics from your admin.
You should consider how you want to market your new business and products, before you
launch.
In the “marketing” section of your Shopify admin, you see a variety of options to promote
your business.
Consider using Facebook advertising, Google Shopping, or email campaigns.
Have campaigns or ads ready to start when you launch your online store.
You’re almost ready to launch your online store.
What’s left to do?
A final review.
Take a look through your products, descriptions and pages and review them for spelling errors
or areas that need more information.
You can ask someone else to do a review for you as well!
A new perspective can help find things you didn’t notice.
Here’s a tip: you can ask the entrepreneurs in Shopify Community for feedback on your
store.
New Shopify stores are protected by a password page that looks something like this, depending
on your store theme.
The password page limits access to your store until you’re ready to launch.
Before you remove your store password, you need to pick a plan and add billing information.
Take a look through the different subscriptions available and choose what’s right for you!
The day has finally come.
It’s time to remove your password and make everything available to the public.
After you launch, monitor your reports and analytics, continue to optimize your site,
and start your marketing campaigns.
Congratulations on launching your store!
Remember to use the links below for every step that I covered and for next steps for
how to grow your business.
If you have any questions, leave a comment for us below or checkout help.shopify.com