How to Launch a Shopify Store for New Merchants [PLUS Tips]

Owning a business is one of the paths to financial freedom. Nowadays, more and more people are finding great success in ecommerce. And if you want to take a leap of faith and ignite your journey towards success, you must first know how to launch a Shopify store to start your ecommerce business.

Shopify isn’t the only ecommerce website in the world. Other solutions include BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, and more. However, Shopify stands out from the rest of these ecommerce solutions because of its expansive ecosystem of apps, themes, partners, and more than 2,400,000 active merchants as of today (source: storeleads). 

As such, you can’t go wrong with using Shopify for your very first online store. However, one of the early challenges you will encounter will be correctly launching your online store.

For that, we’ve got you covered. This article will guide you through the 12 essential steps to get your store up and running smoothly. We also included some success tips at the end to make sure that you’re headed toward your goals.

What Is Shopify?

Shopify is an ecommerce website builder that’s designed to be user-friendly so that even beginners can launch their Shopify stores. At the same time, Shopify is also designed to handle enterprise-level ecommerce brands with complex needs.

Some of the large brands on Shopify include Gymshark, Spanx, and Allbirds, among others. Thus, whether you’re launching a small Shopify store or a big brand, Shopify can handle it.

Shopify Vs. Other Platforms

According to StoreLeads, Shopify is the largest full-range website builder with more than 2,400,000 live Shopify stores. Other online store builders in the market are Wix, Squarespace, and BigCommerce with 700,000+, 300,000+, and 44,000+ users respectively.

Aside from the huge disparity in terms of user base, Shopify also has a huge ecosystem of experts and affiliates. With this massive popularity, new Shopify store owners won’t have a hard time looking for information in starting their ecommerce journey.

Lastly, the Shopify app store has more than 13,000 apps for all types of merchants across every ecommerce niche there is. Shopify has the largest ecommerce app store in the world whereas the Wix ecommerce platform only has 500 apps to date.

Benefits Of Using Shopify

If you launch an ecommerce store using Shopify, you’ll get to enjoy the following benefits:

• Rich app library that suits businesses of size and niche
• More than 200 choices of highly-responsive Shopify store themes (including free and paid themes)
• Easily accessible online resources published by the platform itself and other creators focusing on Shopify
• 24//7 live chat support for all Shopify store owners
• Access to the exclusive directory of Shopify experts for more advanced ecommerce needs
• Robust ecommerce platform with a guaranteed uptime of 99.99% so you can keep on selling everyday

How Much Does Launching A Shopify Store Cost?

The cost of launching an ecommerce website highly depends on the size of your business, your goals, and usage.

But here’s the thing, you can launch a Shopify store for only $1 for your first month!

Source: Shopify

Only on your second month will you have to pay for the full subscription plan as follows:

• Basic - $39 per month
• Shopify - $105 per month
• Advanced - $399 per month
• Shopify plus - $2300 per month

But if you want to save more from the monthly subscription, you can opt for paying annually which is equivalent to:

• Basic - $29 per month
• Shopify - $75 per month
• Advanced - $299 per month
• Shopify plus - $2300 per month

With these figures in mind, let’s estimate how much launching a Shopify store costs.

Launching A Small Shopify Store With Free Apps & Themes

A small Shopify store uses the Basic plan and free apps and themes. As such, if you’re going in this direction, launching your own online store would only cost $39 per month.

This option is best for individual entrepreneurs who want to launch a small online business with minimal expenses. Be that as it may, a small Shopify store is nowhere near lackluster.

The Basic plan is capable enough to start growing your own online business. And with free Shopify themes with enough power, you could still create a beautiful online store with all the necessary ecommerce functions.

Moreover, most paid Shopify apps offer free plans that are useful enough for small Shopify stores.

Launching A Shopify Store With Paid Themes & Apps

Now, where the complexity of estimating the cost of an online store comes is when you start using paid themes and apps.

Paid themes start from as low as $140 all the way $450. A low price does not always mean that the theme is lacking in features. At the same time, choosing an expensive theme does not mean that you’re getting the best one for your store.

As a discerning ecommerce business owner, it’s always best to check the theme features and compare prices with other themes. For us, the sweet spot in terms of theme price is $200 to $300.

At that price range, the one that we can highly recommend is the Shopify Shine theme which only costs $210 while having features that are comparable to the Prestige theme which costs $380.

In addition to themes, Shopify apps also highly vary in price depending on the solution that you need. Shopify apps provide more features to your store. And there are several types of apps in the Shopify app store. The apps that you will use will depend on your current needs.

Be that as it may, even without apps, you can start selling on your Shopify store. So be sure to research first before paying for an app.

With that in mind, here’s the estimated cost of launching an online store:

• $210 one-time payment for the theme (assuming that you’re using the Shine theme)
• $39 per month for the Basic plan
• Plus the total monthly cost of the paid apps that you’re using

How To Launch A Shopify Store In 12 Steps

Launching a Shopify store is not a complicated process as long as you know the proper sequence of doing so. Even if you’re an absolute beginner, there is nothing to be afraid of because we provide detailed Shopify guides that are designed to suit most types of users.

All that is needed is your willingness to learn and some research skills to find the right resources to help you do the job.

So if you’re ready to launch your Shopify store, follow the steps below.

Sign Up With Shopify

The primary step in creating your first ecommerce business is by signing up for a Shopify account. You don’t have to pay yet when signing up with Shopify.

The platform has a three-day trial that gives you enough time to explore all its features. With this trial, you cannot publish your store but you can give the theme editor a try to test its intuitiveness.

After the trial, you will have to choose a plan that suits your needs.

If you’re just starting small on your online store while you learn, we highly recommend the Basic plan as it has all the features you need, and of course, it’s the most affordable plan that you can have.

Connect Your Custom Domain Or Buy One

After choosing a Shopify plan, the next thing that you should do is to purchase a domain or connect your existing one.

Assuming that you don’t have a domain yet, you would have to buy a new one. Here’s how to do that:

• In your Shopify admin, click the Settings button located at the lower-left part of the screen
• In the settings menu, click Domains
• On the domains page, click the Buy new domain button located at the upper-right portion of the screen.
• In the corresponding search bar, type the domain name that you want and click the Buy button to pay for the rights to use the domain for your online business.

Notes:

• Shopify store domains vary in price. Some cost just a little over $10 per year and some cost more.
• If your business name (or target domain) is already taken, try experimenting on different TLDs or top-level domains such as .com, .org, .shop, etc.

Familiarize Yourself With The Shopify Admin

The Shopify admin is your main access to managing your entire online store. It has various functions that will let you manage inventory, create marketing campaigns, monitor your sales channel, and everything that concerns your Shopify store.

The key menu buttons that you need to explore first are:

• Home - The home menu provides various general insights as regards your online store. When setting up your online store, the homepage of your Shopify admin will show you all the basic steps to get you started.
• Orders - The orders menu will contain a list of all the received orders from your Shopify store. It also has some tracking functions to let you know the order status at a glance.
• Products - The products menu is where you go when you want to create new products or manage your existing ones.
• Customers - The customers menu contains a list of all your present and past customers.
• Content - The content menu contains all digital assets such as products and videos that you’ve added to your online store.
• Analytics - The analytics menu contains a large set of reporting tools so you can keep track of various aspects of your online business.
• Marketing - The marketing menu lets you keep track of your marketing campaigns for your prospective customers. You can integrate Meta (Facebook and Instagram) via this menu to keep track of your campaigns within those platforms.
• Discounts - The discounts menu is used if you want to launch promotional discounts on your products.
• Sales Channels - This menu shows you the list of your available sales channels in Shopify. In this case, since we only have the website, only the Online Store sales channel is shown.
• Online Store - The online store menu is where you can manage your themes on Shopify. This is also your access to the Shopify theme editor for when you want to customize your online store.
• Apps - The Apps menu provides a quick link to the installed apps in your store. Note that not all apps will be shown in this menu.
• Settings - The Settings menu is the place to go if you want to make changes to your store that are not related to the design, customers, and merchandising. Some of the things you’ll find here are payments, taxes, shipping, and more.

Choose Your Shopify Theme

The next step in launching your online store is to choose a theme. Although you can only have one theme for your online store, you can switch to another theme in the future if you want to revitalize your store’s appearance.

Another good thing about Shopify is that you can have up to 20 Shopify themes in your store’s theme library. This means that you can explore all these themes (including paid ones) without paying a single dollar.

In Shopify, trying out a theme is free. You only have to pay for a theme when you publish it on your online store. Thus, you can take your time in choosing a theme.

We highly suggest exploring the Shopify theme store first and choosing the themes that you want. Install the ones that you like and explore them one by one.

To install a Shopify theme:

• Go to themes.shopify.com
• On the upper-right corner of the screen, Log In to your Shopify account
• Explore the collection of Shopify themes and click the ones that you like
• On the theme landing page, click Try theme to install it to your store

• After clicking the Try theme button, you will be redirected to your Shopify admin in the Online store menu and you’ll see your new Shopify theme under the theme library.

To explore the theme, click the Customize button and you’ll be redirected to the theme editor where you can perform some customizations. If you like how the theme looks on your store after customization, you can click the Buy button so you can publish it to your store.

Customizing your online store is perhaps one of the most laborious and time-consuming tasks you’ll encounter when launching a Shopify store.

 Here’s a video by The Social Guide that explains how to customize your Shopify website with a Shopify theme in 2024:

How To Customize Your Shopify Website In 2024

Create The Essential Pages

The primary purpose of a Shopify store is to sell your products to your online customers. As such, a product page is important. However, there are other crucial pages that you need to have in your online store.

Homepage, Contact Page, and About Page

All Shopify themes come with a homepage, contact page, and about page out of the box. Thus, you don’t have to create a new one for your store.

All you have to do is customize these pages to suit your online brand persona.

Other types of pages

Other types of pages such as terms and conditions, and privacy policy don’t come pre-built on Shopify themes. However, these are necessary if you are operating an online store from (or if you are selling to customers from) the United States or European Union.

To create these pages:

• Go to your Shopify admin and click Online store
• Click Pages
• And click the Add page button on the upper-right portion of the screen

In the Title field, input Terms & Conditions or Privacy Policy, or any title for a specific page that you’re creating. Within the content section, insert the text and images for the page.

Shopify has a free generator for these pages so you don’t have to create one from scratch. Click the links below:

• Terms and Conditions Generator
• Privacy Policy Generator

Add Your First Products & Collections

One of the most essential pages in your Shopify store is your product page. As such, you need to create product pages that could captivate your audience.

Watch our YouTube video to learn how to add products to Shopify:

How to Add Products to Shopify (The Right Way) | Free Cheat Sheet Included 🙌

After adding new products and creating product pages, you might want to sort these products according to their respective categories.

Categorizing your products into several collections helps your customers easily find what they are looking for. As such, it is crucial to have these pages in your online store.

Adding collection pages requires a series of steps such as editing your products (to include their categories), creating a new page from your Shopify admin, and adding a navigation button to reach that specific page.

Fix Online Store navigation

Your Shopify store navigation plays a crucial role in your sales conversion. As a rule of thumb, every page in your online store must be reached in two to three clicks. This way, potential new customers won’t have a hard time looking for products or other information on your store.

According to Semrush, having streamlined navigation is essential for a profitable online shop. But if your navigation is cluttered and clunky, users may leave, leading to higher bounce rates.

Top Design Firms also found out in their study that 42% of users will leave a website because of poor functionality.

And functionality involves navigation. As such, you need to have a concrete plan regarding the structure of your website while designing it.

To reduce navigation friction, we recommend implementing these things on your store:

• Mega menu at the top of your website
• Navigation links at the footer
• Breadcrumbs for easier backtracking

Set Up Shopify Payments

Shopify Payments is only available in select countries such as the United States, Australia, UK, Hongkong, and 19 others.

As such, if Shopify Payments isn’t available in your location, there are other payment gateways available in Shopify.

Shopify Payments is the simplest way to accept online payments in your store. Additionally, you won’t be charged third-party transaction fees including those that are completed using Shop Pay, Shop Pay Installments, and PayPal Express.

This payment gateway accepts all major payment methods including cards, Paypal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.

To set up Shopify payments:

• Go to Settings in your Shopify admin
• Choose the Payments menu
• Under Payment Providers, click the Choose a Provider button
• In the search field, search for Shopify Payments
• Upon selecting Shopify payments, click Install

Set Up Your Shipping Rates

Before you can formally ship out products from your Shopify store, you need to set up your shipping rates so customers can have a full breakdown of everything that they need to pay when buying from your online store.

Shipping rates highly vary depending on your location, product categories, sizes, weight, and logistics partners.

Here’s a video by the Shopify Help Center to guide you through the Shopify Shipping setup process:

How to setup Shopify Shipping || Shopify Help Center

Set Up Your Shopify Taxes

Paying income taxes is one of your legal obligations when managing an online store.

But in addition to paying income taxes, you might be required to collect sales taxes in areas where you have economic and physical nexus.

Take note that these two types of taxes are different.

• Income taxes are imposed on your gross income
• Sales taxes are consumption taxes that are imposed upon your customers, that you will then have to remit to the government

Note: Consult a tax professional to learn the specific tax regulations in your location.

 To set up Shopify taxes:

• Click Settings in your Shopify admin
• Select Taxes and duties in the settings menu
• Select the United States in the Regional settings
• Click Manage under Tax Service and choose your preferred sales tax collection method

You have three options here:

• Shopify Tax - automated tracking and collections
• Basic Tax - automated tracking and collections with some manual setup
• Manual tax - a fully manual sales tax collection where you can set up your sales tax on all US states

For this, we highly recommend Shopify Tax as it offers the most efficient method of sales tax collection with minimal upkeep from merchants. This reduces the repetitive process from your end.

However, it is best to consult your tax professional to clarify which method suits you best.

Quick read: How To Set Up Taxes On Shopify? In-Depth Guide For Merchants

Place A Test Order

Now that you have a fully customized store with products, collections, and all the necessary pages; and you’ve set up your Shopify payments, shipping, and taxes, it’s time to see if everything works fine.

This step is crucial to avoid any irregularities for when your customers place their orders in your store. Thus, you need to place a test order.

Here’s how you can place a test order:

• Go to your Shopify admin and click Settings
• Select Payments then Choose a provider. If you have a payment gateway already set up, click Manage instead
• Select (for testing) Bogus Gateway, click Activate

You now have a bogus gateway activated so Shopify would recognize that this is a simulated transaction. Now, follow these steps:

• Go to you online store and place an order on any product as an ordinary customer would
• Enter the following details at the checkout:

• Name on card: “Bogus Gateway”
• Credit card number:

• Enter “1” to simulate a successful transaction
• Enter “2” to simulate a failed transaction
• Enter “3” to simulate an exception (this will indicate that an error has occurred with the provider)

• CVV: 111 (or any 3-digit number)
• Expiry date: Enter any future date.

• After testing the simulated transaction, make sure that you revert to your original payment method by following the same steps in setting up the bogus gateway

Publish Your Store

We’re now down to the final step in launching your Shopify store. After passing the test order, your store is now ready to be published so you can start selling to your customers.

But before you can do that, you need to remove the password protection.

Source: The Paper House

To remove the password:

• Go to your Shopify admin and click the Online Store menu
• Select Preferences
• Scroll down until you find the Password protection section
• Untick the Restrict access to visitors with the password

• Click Save to finalize the process

Congratulations! Your store is now published and open for business.

Tips Before Your Shopify Launch

Now that you’ve mastered the 12 steps on how to launch your Shopify store, here are some final reminders to ensure your success.

Establish Social Presence

Source: Pexels

In addition to your ecommerce store as your main sales channel, you should maximize social media platforms to promote your online store.

With effort and the right strategy, social media can be a huge source of organic traffic to your online store.

Moreover, you can integrate social media apps such as Instagram to your online store using apps such as Vibe Shoppable Instagram Feed. When you use this app, you can sell your products right from your Instagram page.

Register You Business

Source: Pexels

One of the most important things that you need to do before you launch your Shopify store is to register it with the proper jurisdictions.

Remember, a business can only be legal if it is registered. One of the important reasons why you should register your business is so you can pay your taxes to avoid legal troubles.

Additionally, as your business grows, you will be required to collect sales taxes from your customers, and you can only do that if you are registered.

Take Your Time In Designing Your Website

Source: Pexels

It might sound cliche, but it’s true: First impressions last.

That’s why you should not rush the process when designing your online store. Choose the proper elements that would resonate with your audience.

The overall design of a website has a huge impact on how customers perceive your brand. According to Kinesis, 75% of people believe that a website’s credibility is based on design.

Therefore, your online store’s design has a direct correlation to your potential success.

We highly recommend PageFly landing page builder for this sole purpose. Our solution offers a complete suite of tools that can help you design a stunning and functional website.

Learn The Important Conversion-Boosting Elements Of Shopify Stores

Source: Pexels

In addition to design, having the right conversion elements on your online store can help you convert visitors into life-long customers. These elements include:

• Clear value proposition
• Compelling calls to action
• Frictionless website navigation
• Page speed
• Lead capture forms and pop-ups
• Powerful visuals
• High-quality photos
• Product videos
• Promo positioning
• Stock counters
• Testimonials & reviews
• Upsell and cross-sell, and more

Pay Attention To SEO

Source: Pexels

When launching a Shopify store, SEO or search engine optimization will play a huge role in attracting more organic traffic. However, the effect of SEO does not come instantly just like paid ads.

Be that as it may, optimizing your online store for search engines is a good long-term strategy. As such, implement SEO best practices in writing product descriptions, URLs, website navigation, etc.

Conclusion

According to Tidio, 70% of Americans nowadays shop online. Thus, if your business solely relies on in-person sales, you’re missing a lot of opportunities.

Therefore, launching a Shopify store is one of the best decisions that you can make for your business and yourself as it grants you the opportunity to reach new levels of success.

The good thing about launching a Shopify store is that you won’t be alone in your journey.

Shopify has a massive user base, thus making it easier to find help articles when needed. You can join the Shopify Community to read forums, consult the Shopify Help Center when you need assistance, and their 24/7 customer support is always within reach.

And if when your business is ready for expansion, you can hire Shopify Partners to execute your big plans.

Best of luck with your new-found journey!