How to use Shopify: 7 easy steps to get started

Shopify offers individuals and businesses a powerful all-in-one ecommerce website builder to establish and manage their online presence.

The combination of Shopify’s user-friendly interface and powerful features means that users can build, customise and operate an online store in one place. And, importantly, they can do all of this without the need for extensive coding knowledge or experience.

In this article, we’ll help you get started with Shopify.

Step 1: Set up your Shopify account

It probably won’t be a surprise to find that setting up your Shopify account is the first step in using it.

To set up, you should visit Shopify and sign up for an account. Enter your store’s name and contact information, and create a password.

There are a few things to bear in mind at this stage. Firstly, your brand name. You might already run a business and so you might need to use that brand name for your domain; or, you might be launching from scratch. Either way, you should visit our how to choose a domain name page for tips on how to make the right choice.

As you can see in the images above, during the signup process, you’ll asked to answer a few questions. This will help you to define where you plan to sell, what you plan to sell, as well as what stage you are at. Shopify will use this information to suggest the tools and features you will most likely need as you build your website.

At this stage, you should also think about which Shopify plan is best for you. How much are you willing to pay, and what features do you need?

Take a look at our best ecommerce website builders page to compare plans from Shopify and other providers. Or you can visit our Shopify website builder review to find out more about our view.

Step 2: Select a theme and customise it

Once you’ve confirmed that you do want to use a Shopify plan, and also confirmed which plan you want to use, it’s time to select a template for your site.

Your site template should reflect your brand identity as much as possible. Think about how you want your site to appear to users. Consider who your audience is and what they might expect to find when they visit your online store.

At this stage, you can also begin customising the template you choose. As a drag-and-drop website builder, Shopify makes this easy. Try out different layouts, colour schemes and functionalities.

As well as thinking about appearance, you should also make sure that your site works as intended on different devices. Designing for desktop might make sense with some audiences, but if your site doesn’t look good on mobile then you could be sacrificing a lot of traffic and revenue down the line.

You should also think about trust signals at this point, adding trust badges, customer reviews if you have them, as well as icons to show that you will be taking secure payments.

Step 3: Add and manage products

To sell online, you need to have products available for your users to see.

With Shopify, you can access the ‘Products’ section in the admin dashboard. From here you can easily ‘Add Products’. Input the relevant product details, such as title, description and price, along with any product images.

As you add products, you can make use of Shopify’s AI tools to automatically generate product descriptions. Simply provide a few features or keywords and let the tool know what tone you want the content to take.

Once you’ve started adding products, you can begin organising them into categories and collections. This will make it easier for both you and your customers to navigate between items.

Make sure to set up inventory tracking so that you can manage stock levels, and also consider how you can optimise product pages to rank better in search engine results. For help with this last step, you might want to take a look at our what is search engine optimisation (SEO) page.

Step 4: Set up payment and shipping

Your online store won’t operate if you don’t accept payments through it.

Set up a payment gateway like Shopify Payments or PayPal to begin accepting online payments from your customers.

You should also consider taxes and other factors. You can allow automatic tax calculations in Shopify, which works based on a customer’s location. You can also define shopping zones, rates and provide carrier options.

With Shopify, you are able to integrate third-party shipping apps to streamline order delivery and tracking.

Step 5: Market your online store

To help drive sales, you should consider investing in the various forms of website marketing that are available to you.

Consider social media marketing to improve your brand presence across a range of platforms, including things like Facebook and Instagram. These platforms will usually provide you with the tools to market organically and with paid-for adverts.

You can also set up email marketing campaigns using Shopify’s in-built apps. As you begin selling products and capturing customer email addresses, you’ll be able to build up a database of contact information, with bespoke data available to you that can be used to create future marketing campaigns to drive repeat business.

Throughout your marketing efforts, consider what sort of promotions you’ll be able to run, what sort of discounts you might offer to return customers, and whether you want to incorporate referral programs to attract more new customers over time.

Step 6: Provide customer support

With Shopify, you can use a range of channels, including email, live chat and phone, to address any customer issues promptly.

Make sure to create and follow a robust set of guidelines for how customer complaints or feedback are dealt with. You want to be consistent and fair.

Above all, make sure to reply in the most positive way you can to ensure that customers are satisfied. There’s no quicker way to lose customers than by treating them badly, whether intentionally or not.

Make sure that your return and refund policies are clear on your site and easily found.

Step 7: Scale your online store

Once you start seeing success with your Shopify store, you can begin considering how to scale up.

This might mean upgrading to a more expensive plan that offers more options for adding apps and extensions to your site, or it might mean investing more in products or marketing.

Whatever route you take, make sure to analyse the data that is available to you. Keep an eye on traffic, sales, and everything else to ensure that you know what is working, what isn’t working, and what needs to be improved.

How to use Shopify: Final thoughts

Shopify provides users and businesses with an easy way to create and manage an online store. It offers a range of features and functions, with the flexibility to adapt these tools to your needs.

By following the steps outlined in our guide, you can begin using Shopify to establish a professional ecommerce presence that will attract customers, and drive revenue.

Bryn Glover

Bryn is the founder and editor of WebsiteJumpStart. He has worked in the digital field for over a decade and was editor for Startups.co.uk - the UK's leading small business website - and for NerdWallet UK before launching WebsiteJumpStart to help people and businesses get online with ease.

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