How to Start a Shopify Store

The first week of a real store, in the order that avoids redoing work: settings before products, products before the theme, and a test order before anyone else sees it. Nine steps, and the three settings people forget until a customer finds them.

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Before you sign up: three answers

• What are you selling, and where does it come from? Your own products, a supplier who ships for you (dropshipping), or designs printed on demand (print on demand). It changes everything that follows.
• Where will your first customers come from? A store with no traffic plan is a website. Write down the first channel before you build.
• What is your budget for year one? Our pricing page works through a real first year.

1. Start the trial

Shopify’s trial is 3 days with no credit card, then $1 a month for 3 months once you pick a plan. During the trial the checkout is inactive, so build freely — you cannot take a real order by mistake. The details are on our free trial page.

2. Settings first — including the three everyone forgets

Store name, contact email, currency and address come first. Then the three that cause the most trouble later:

• Shipping zones and rates. Decide where you ship and what it costs before adding products, because product weights feed into the rates.
• Taxes. Shopify calculates sales tax automatically, but only where you tell it you are registered to collect. That registration is your job, not Shopify’s.
• Policies and contact details. Refund, privacy, shipping and terms pages, and a way to reach you. Payment providers and customers both look for them.

3. Add five real products

Not fifty — five, done properly: a title people would search for, a description in your own words (never the supplier’s text, which a hundred other stores also use), real photos, price, stock and variants. You will learn more from five finished products than from fifty drafts.

4. Choose a theme — a free one

Start on one of the 24 free themes Shopify makes. Buy a premium theme later, when you can name the thing it does that yours cannot.

5. Pages and navigation

A home page, one collection, an about page and a contact page — your theme has a built-in contact form, no app needed. Put the policy pages in the footer menu.

6. Payments

Turn on Shopify Payments. On Basic, US cards cost 2.9% + 30¢, and using a different provider adds an extra 2% per order on top — the fees page explains when that is worth it.

7. Place a test order

Use Shopify’s test payment gateway, or Shopify Payments’ test mode — neither charges you. Follow the order all the way: checkout, confirmation email, the order in your admin. You can also place a real order and refund it, but your payment processor may keep its fee.

8. Connect a domain

Buy one through Shopify or connect one you already own. Use the same name you will print on packaging and put in social profiles.

9. Pick a plan and launch

Start on Basic at $29 a month billed yearly — or monthly in year one, to keep the freedom to leave. Move to Grow when you need a second login or pass $25,000 a month in card sales, where its lower rate starts paying for itself. Then remove the storefront password.

What the first year costs

A realistic small store: $2,000 a month in sales at a $50 average order, a free theme and $30 a month of apps.

Questions we get asked

How long does it take to start a Shopify store?

A working store can be built within the trial. A store you would be proud to advertise usually takes a few weeks of evenings, mostly spent on products and photos.

How much money do I need to start?

The plan, a domain, and whatever your products cost you. The table above shows a first year for a small store; the plan is a minority of it.

Do I need to know how to code?

No. Everything on this page is done in Shopify’s admin and theme editor.

Start your free trialNo credit card to start