Starting an online Shopify store can be an exciting and rewarding way to start or grow your own business. With the right preparation and knowledge, anyone can create a successful Shopify ecommerce store. This step-by-step guide will walk you through everything you need to know to get your own Shopify store up and running.
Step 1: Choose a business idea and niche
The first step in starting a Shopify store is deciding what you want to sell. Choosing a specific niche or product category to focus on will make it easier to target potential customers. Do market research to find gaps or opportunities, and make sure there is enough demand for what you want to sell. Consider your own interests, skills, and hobbies when deciding on a product niche. Some common Shopify store niches include:
- Fashion and accessories
- Home goods and furniture
- Jewelry and craft supplies
- Beauty, health and wellness
- Electronics and tech accessories
- Pet supplies
- Toys and baby products
- Sports and outdoors equipment
- Food and beverages
Your niche should be specific enough to attract targeted customers but still have enough potential demand to drive sales. Do keyword research to find terms and phrases people are searching for related to your products. The more focused your niche, the easier it will be to stand out.
Step 2: Find suppliers and source products
Once you’ve settled on a product niche, you need to find suppliers and inventory to stock your Shopify store. There are a few options for sourcing products to sell:
- Dropshipping: With dropshipping, you sell products that are shipped directly from a supplier or wholesaler to your customers. You don’t have to buy or hold any inventory yourself. Popular dropshipping suppliers include Oberlo, AliExpress, and Spocket.
- Wholesale: You can buy products in bulk quantities directly from manufacturers or wholesalers. This requires more upfront inventory costs but usually offers better profit margins.
- Handmade: If you’re crafty or creative, you can sell handmade products like art, jewelry, crafts, candles, clothing, and more. Useful resources include Etsy, ArtFire, Dawanda.
- Vintage and secondhand: Selling curated vintage or used products can be very profitable. Check out garage sales, thrift stores, Craigslist, eBay, etc. for inventory.
- Print on demand: With print-on-demand, products like t-shirts, mugs, and posters are printed and shipped only when an order comes in. This saves on warehousing and inventory costs. Top POD companies are Printful, Printify, Teespring.
Do thorough research before choosing product suppliers to ensure they are legitimate, offer good quality items, and have favorable shipping rates and fulfillment fees. Make sure the products fit your brand and niche.
Step 3: Set up your Shopify store
Now it’s time to set up your Shopify store and backend. Here’s how to get started:
- Go to Shopify.com and sign up for an account. Shopify offers a free 14-day trial.
- Choose a Shopify plan. The basic Shopify plan costs $29/month. Upgraded plans offer more features.
- Select a template. Shopify has many free and paid store theme templates to choose from. Pick one that fits your brand.
- Customize your theme. Edit colors, fonts, pages, and add branding elements like your logo.
- Set up your domain name and setup a business email.
- Configure shipping and payment options. Shopify integrates with many shipping carriers and payment providers.
- Add inventory/products to your store and setup collections or categories to organize them logically.
- Configure taxes if selling physical products. You can use an app like TaxJar.
Take your time setting up your store backend properly from the start. this will make managing your Shopify business much easier down the road. Follow Shopify’s guides and tutorials if you need help.
Step 4: Optimize your store for conversions
Making sales isn’t just about setting up a pretty storefront. You need to optimize your Shopify store to convert visitors into paying customers. Some tips:
- Ensure your store has a clear value proposition and messaging.
- Use high-quality photos and product descriptions.
- Set up trust factors like reviews, guarantees, testimonials, etc.
- Make checkout fast and easy with minimal steps.
- Show social proof like “20k Instagram followers” or “5-star rated”.
- Place high-intent items like best-sellers on your homepage.
- Use urgency and scarcity tactics like limited-time discounts or low stock warnings.
- Show customers secure checkout badges like Norton.
The goal is to make customers feel confident purchasing from your store. Test different versions of product pages and messaging to see what converts best.
Step 5: Import products to your Shopify store
Populating your Shopify store with product listings is easy, especially if you use Oberlo for dropshipping. Here are some tips for adding products:
- Import items directly from Oberlo as you find them – no manual work required!
- For wholesale or your own inventory, use the “Add Product” button to manually create listings.
- Add high-quality product images, detailed descriptions, variants, pricing, etc.
- Organize products into clear categories and collections.
- Link related products together in the backend to encourage shoppers to view more.
- Add alt text to images to optimize for search engines.
- Consider hiring a product photographer and writer to make listings really stand out.
Quality product listings will make your store look more professional and entice customers to purchase. Remove or improve any low-quality or incomplete listings.
Step 6: Set up your domain and hosting
Using your own custom domain name like www.yourstore.com is more professional for your Shopify ecommerce store. Here’s how to set it up:
- Purchase a domain name from a registrar like Namecheap, GoDaddy, etc.
- Point your domain to connect with your Shopify store.
- Use Shopify’s free SSL certificate for the security boost.
- Consider purchasing hosting as well for improved site speed and uptime.
A custom domain signals that your business is legit and built to last. It makes it easier to build your brand too. Proper web hosting helps your site load faster and handle varying traffic levels.
Step 7: Optimize your Shopify store for SEO
SEO or search engine optimization will help people find your products when searching online. To maximize SEO:
- Research focused keywords and include them naturally on relevant pages.
- Create blog content targeting your keywords to boost authority.
- Get backlinks from other sites to improve domain authority.
- Produce SEO-friendly content like guides, ebooks, videos, etc.
- Optimize page elements like URL structure, titles, headings, alt text, meta descriptions, etc.
- Improve site speed and technical SEO elements.
- Monitor your keyword rankings and tweak your approach over time.
SEO is complex but foundational to driving consistent organic traffic. Consider hiring an SEO expert or agency if you need help improving your search visibility.
Step 8: Set up your payment processing
You’ll need to connect payment processing to accept purchases in your Shopify store. Shopify integrates with many popular payment gateways like:
- Stripe
- PayPal
- Authorize.net
- Amazon Pay
- 2Checkout
Consider fees, processing times, fraud protection, and geographical coverage when choosing your provider. You may need a merchant account as well depending on your business. Test payments thoroughly before launching your live store.
Step 9: Fulfill orders and handle shipping
Order fulfillment and shipping may look different depending on your business model:
- Dropshipping: Orders are automatically forwarded to your supplier for fulfillment and direct shipping to customers.
- Warehouse: You store inventory in your own warehouse and handle packaging and shipping yourself.
- Multi-channel: Manage inventory across multiple sales channels using fulfillment software.
- Third-party logistics (3PL): Outsource fulfillment and shipping to a dedicated company like ShipBob, Deliverr, etc.
Choose a model that makes sense based on your location, sales volume, and products. Streamline the process as much as possible.
Step 10: Market and promote your Shopify store
Marketing and promotion will be key driving an initial surge of sales and ongoing growth for your Shopify business. Some proven tactics include:
- SEO (discussed above)
- Google/Facebook ads
- Instagram influencer campaigns
- Targeted promotional emails
- Retargeting ads
- Content marketing (blog, videos, guides, etc)
- PR and earned media mentions
- Word-of-mouth referrals
Build an integrated marketing plan that combines multiple channels for the best results. Consider hiring a digital marketing agency if you need help executing campaigns or managing ads.
Step 11: Provide excellent customer service
Providing exceptional customer service will set you apart, build loyalty, and power word-of-mouth for your Shopify business. Make sure to:
- Offer fast shipping and delivery times.
- Resolve issues and respond to inquiries quickly via chat, email or phone.
- Have a good return/exchange policy and honor it.
- Follow up with transactional emails to thank customers.
- Ask for reviews and feedback.
- Monitor social media closely for any complaints.
Poor customer service can sink even popular online stores quickly. The personal touch matters, so make communication friendly and helpful.
Step 12: Analyze metrics and data
Leverage the data provided in your Shopify store backend to gain insights and make better decisions. Important metrics to track include:
- Total sales revenue
- Average order value
- Conversion rate
- Profit margins
- Cost per acquisition
- Customer lifetime value
- Shopping cart abandonment rate
- Sales by traffic source
- Sales by product/collection
Use an app like Google Analytics for deeper analytics on traffic sources, conversions, etc. Continuously test and optimize based on insights from your store’s data.
Step 13: Continue growing and scaling your business
Launching your Shopify store is just the beginning. Ongoing maintenance and optimization will be required to grow your ecommerce business over time. Some tips:
- Keep adding fresh products and optimizing listings.
- Experiment with marketing channels to find profitable ones.
- Provide new promotions, discounts, and incentives to attract customers.
- Consider branching out to other sales channels like eBay, Amazon, etc.
- Build partnerships, collaborations or wholesale relationships.
- Automate repetitive tasks for efficiency.
- Consider hiring staff or freelancers as needed for growth.
Stay nimble and keep improving your Shopify store processes over time. Continual growth and reinvesting profits will build a highly valuable ecommerce business.
Conclusion
Launching a successful Shopify ecommerce business does require some upfront work and preparation. But the effort is well worth it for the rewards of owning your own brand and selling products online. The steps covered in this guide will get you set up properly to give your Shopify store the best chance of ongoing growth and profits. Just stay focused on providing genuine value to customers, and your hard work will transform into a thriving online business over time.
