Use these 10 tips for getting started with Shopify to launch your online business this year. If you are like most small business owners you are eager to get online. We found that one of the best platforms for small business is Shopify. There are a ton of other platforms but not all will fit your needs. With Shopify anyone can sell online or in their retail venue. Currently 500,000 businesses use Shopify to sell their goods or services online.
Shopify is a premium service, which means there are no freebies other than their 14-day free trial. But you can start with Basic Shopify for $29 per month. Here how to setup shop on Shopify:
Sign Up
First things first! Go to the website, enter your email address, and click the “Get Started” button.
Enter the Required Information
You’ll be asked for your shop name and contact details.
Setup Your Store
This is the fun stuff! We recommend beginning with store customization. You don’t have to know anything about coding or building websites. But, if you do code, you can add a lot more customization to the existing themes. Currently, Shopify has ten free themes and more than 60 paid themes ranging in price from $140-180. The themes can be filtered by industry, layout style, number of products you have, and more. This part will likely take a while, but you can always change store styles later. But if you want to make sure your store absolutely does not look like any others, or if it’s important to your brand to be original, you will need a designer to create a custom one of a kind theme.
Customize Your Storefront
Clicking the “Customize” button will take you to the area where you’ll add your logo, product photos and content about your shop. You can also change colors, fonts, and other general settings.
Add Your Products
Once you’re satisfied with the way your store looks, you’ll need to enter your product information, which includes: images, descriptions, prices, inventory control and shipping information. You’ll see that there’s a lot of important information to enter, so this part can easily get overwhelming.
Shipping
You’re going to have to get those products to your customers, so remember this step! This is where you’ll specify shipping costs, package sizes and preferred provider.
Payment Providers
You’re also going to have to get paid! The default payment providers are Shopify Payments and PayPal, but you can choose from several other options, depending on your customer base.
Sales Tax
Tax laws are very complex, so this section can get pretty complicated, but it’s very important. No one wants a letter from the IRS or state finance authorities!
Add Your Customers
If you already have an existing database, you can upload it to Shopify.
Add Apps For Other Sales Channels
You can add apps to cross-sell your products on Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Pinterest, and more.
This is, by no means, an exhaustive list outlining the finer points of Shopify. But with these 10 tips for getting started with Shopify you can at least get started. However, if even these ten steps seem overwhelming, let us help! We can get your store up and running in a matter of weeks. We can also help with day-to-day operations to free you up for the fun stuff like sourcing and promoting your products!