How to Set Up a Shopify Store in a Few Minutes

The advent of technology and the internet birthed e-commerce, and has grown ever since. The popularity of e-commerce climaxed when global events like COVID-19 shaped people’s shopping behavior to buy more online. The increase in online shopping also prompted many vendors and business owners to embrace the idea of e-commerce stores. Shopify is at the center of global e-commerce as the setup is easy and offers features to showcase your products properly. This guide will take you through the process of setting up your e-commerce store within minutes.

Register on Shopify

The first step to setting up your Shopify store is registering an account. Go to shopify.com; at the top right corner, click on “Start Free Trial.” Next, you will get a prompt asking whether you are just starting or already selling in person. Next, where do you want to sell, and what do you plan to sell? Select what best describes your business to proceed. Keep in mind you can skip these questions.

On the next page, you will select your country. Once you have selected your country, you can sign up using your email, Google, Facebook, or Apple account.  After a successful signup, Shopify will build your store and redirect you to the dashboard.

Customize Your Store

Once you have been redirected to the dashboard, you will have access to every tool to get your store running. You can begin by changing the theme of your store. Shopify stores come with a default theme; however, you don’t stick with that. There are different themes in the Shopify Theme Library for you to explore. You will be choosing an appealing and the most suitable for your brand.

To change your theme, click “online store”, under sales channels, there you can click on “themes”

Once you have clicked on “Themes,” you can now explore different themes in the Theme Library. From popular free themes, you can click “Visit Theme Store” below to explore other themes. You will be able to access both free and premium themes.

Also, you can preview any of these themes to check whether they are suitable for your brand. Hover on the theme to try the theme. Next, you will be redirected to a page where you can customize your theme.

Add Products

Once you are done customizing your store, next thing is to add products to your store. You can add products to your store through the dashboard. Clicks “Products” and then “Add product”.

Next, you will be directed to the product page where you can add your products.

On the product page, you will need to add necessary product information like:

• Title: A concise and descriptive title of your product to attract customers and also ensure it is searchable. The title must be simple enough to give the customer an idea of what the product is.
• Description: Include a complete and detailed description of your products. This should include features, benefits, and what makes the product unique. You can also add some keywords for optimization. The word count here will depend on how much you want customers to know about your products.
• Media: Upload high-quality product media to create a visual attraction for your products. You have options to upload both images and videos.
• Other things to add: When you scroll down, you can add other details like price, variants, inventory, shipping information, and search engine listings. On the right side, under “Product organization,” you can add the product type, vendor, collections, and tags. Once you are done, click “Save” to add the product to your store.

Add Collection

After adding your products, the next thing is to create a collection. The important thing about the collection is to make buying easier for your customers. Click “Products” and then “Collection”.

Next, click “Create collection” to put your items in a collection.

You can now give your collection a title. Ensure it is concise and descriptive. It must accurately describe the collection. Also, add an image for your collection. For the collection type, you can decide whether to add one by one through the ‘Manual’ type. You can also automate the process by choosing the ‘Automated’ option.

Once you are done, click ‘Save” to continue.

Setup other Pages

Before you publish your Shopify store, you need to also create other pages for full functionality. Some of these pages are:

• Home Page
• About Us Page
• Contact Us Page
• FAQ Page
• Shipping and Returns Policy Page
• Privacy Policy Page
• Terms and Conditions Page
• Blog Page (if applicable)

You can add these pages by clicking on ‘Pages’ in the online store. Then, “Add page”. With this, you can have as many pages as you need.

Create a Navigation Menu

As your store begins to grow, the number of collections begins to increase, and you have to ensure buyers can easily navigate your website. You can do this by creating navigation menus on your Shopify store. To create navigation menus, go to Online Store > Navigation to see the menus you have available. Next, you can proceed to add a new menu and also edit the footer and main menu.

You can begin with the main menu since most buyers will spend their time there. After clicking the main menu, click “Add menu”. Next, you can add pages from the right side of the page.

Connect a Custom Domain

With the free trial, you still have ‘myshopify’ in your URL. However, if you would like a custom URL with only your store name, you need to buy it and connect a domain to your store. If you already have a domain, you can connect to the store.

If you already have a domain, you can connect by clicking Settings, then Domains, to connect your existing Domain. If you don’t have one, you can buy a new one on the same page.

Set Payment Methods

Now that you are almost done, you only need to set up a payment system in your store. The process is straightforward, and you won’t have a problem setting it up. You can do this by heading to ‘Settings’ and then clicking ‘Payments.’ Once you are done, you can click ‘Complete account setup.’

Shipping Options

You must configure your shipping options since you don’t want buyers to have a bad impression of your store with shipping. You can also set this up in your Shopify dashboard. Go to ‘Settings’ and then click ‘Shipping and Delivery’ to configure your shipping options.

Tax Rates

Setting up tax rates is your way of ensuring you abide by any local and international laws. It is a simple process, and you won’t have to sweat it. Under ‘Settings,’ click on ‘Tax and Duties’ to view tax rate settings.

Shopify has done most of the jobs here for you with the automated tax calculations. You only need to enter the shipping zone.

Launch Your Store

You will love this part. Now that you are done adding products, setting up payment gateways, creating other pages, and configuring the shipping options and tax rates, you can now publish your website live. However, you can always recheck to ensure things are in the right places.

Conclusion This seems almost like a journey; to be honest, it is a journey. However, this guide streamlines the whole journey so you can enjoy setting up your Shopify store. Before you know it, your store is live, and you are already making money.