It took me twelve months to launch my first online store. To start, I used traditional strategies. I set up the company myself, searched for wholesalers and underestimated my marketing budget. However, I created a beautiful store, added thousands of products manually, and never sold a single product.
After selling my ecommerce company with $3M in annual sales and seven Shopify shops on my CV, I now understand the mistakes I made and have found a solution.
I did the same thing as most people — I focused too much on making a store look great instead of trying to sell.
Many people believe that you should not attempt to launch an online business without knowing the basics. It can seem complicated to set up an ecommerce store if you are a new entrepreneur.
My experience has shown me that learning and creating along the way is much more productive. Launching your ecommerce shop is the first step. After your store is launched, you can look into ad campaigns or logo designs.
My favorite quote is “Get moving, get better.”
This tutorial will show you how to create a Shopify store that sells dozens of products. It takes less than 30 minutes. Although it won’t be perfect this tutorial will help you get started.
This article will show you how to build a complete women’s jewelry store that sells accessories. If you want to get started with product research, I recommend that you read the Dropshipping Tutorial. We also made a video about the most important ecommerce terms beginners should know. These terms will make it easier to navigate the tutorial below.
How to Create a Shopify Store with DSers: Creating Shopify Stores in 5 Minutes
Choose A Business Name
It is important to choose a business name, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. You should choose something simple and random. For my women’s jewelry shop, I created Utopia Jewelry and Blackwell Jewelry.
I suggest adding “store” or “shop” to your domain name . It is easier to get one if there are multiple words in your name.
The Shopify Store Name Generator is a useful tool to help you create an ecommerce store name. It will suggest keywords that you might like to include in your ecommerce store’s name. You can then scroll through the options to choose your preferred business name and launch you business.
The Shopify Business Name Generator is free and easy to use. This is one less thing you need to worry about when you start your own business.
Make a list with 10-15 ideas for brand names. Make sure that the name you choose isn’t already trademarked. Dot com domains rank higher in search engines. Professional brands also use this extension. Shopify’s Domain Name Registration Tool allows you to search for available domains at.com. You can also find out how much a domain is worth and buy one for your store.
Create Shopify Account
You had to buy a server, upload an online store to it, pay someone to modify it and maintain it. It was time-consuming and expensive. The end result was slow and ineffective.
Shopify makes it easy. Shopify makes it easy to create an ecommerce store. All of the server setups and maintenance are handled for you.
Shopify.com: Click’start your trial’, enter your store name and create your shop.
This is the first step towards setting up Shopify. Next, you need to create your business model.
Learn more about Shopify Dropshipping
The traditional ecommerce model works as follows: You first buy several hundred products. After they arrive, you stock them in your garage, or small warehouse. When someone places an order, your ship them to your customer.
This model is great for larger companies but can be costly for startups.
Dropshipping is an alternative model that allows you to open an online store.
Dropshipping is a quick way for people to start an online store. This allows them to spend more time on sales and less on their inventory. Dropshipping means that you don’t have to keep any inventory and you don’t have to worry about shipping the products. This saves time and money.
You can simply add products to an ecommerce shop and pay the supplier when you receive an order. The supplier will then ship it to your customer. You don’t need extra storage or worry about what to do if you have unsold stock.
We will be focusing exclusively on dropshipping from now on, as the alternative takes more capital, time and risks. Dropshipping apps allow you to import products from your database in minutes. DSers allows you to import AliExpress dropshipped products to your ecommerce store in just minutes. All orders received by your store will be sent directly to your customers within a matter of minutes.
It is a safe strategy to select products with high ratings, lots of orders and many positive reviews. This indicates that these products are popular and loved by people. Remember that some items may have a lot of orders, but few reviews or ratings. These are the products you should avoid droppingshipping.
Create Shopify Stores: Fine Tune Your Settings in 10 Minutes
To make your Shopify store work smoothly, you’ll need to adjust a few settings. Click the gear icon in the lower left corner of Shopify.
Go to “General” and fill in all details about your store.
Next, set up the payments.
Set up Payments
Shopify Payments is a great option, regardless of where you are located. You can accept credit cards, Google Pay and Shopify Pay payments. Shopify Payments can be signed up by providing Shopify your personal information, business details, and bank account numbers.
PayPal payments can also be accepted. Under Shopify Settings > Payments Section, add your PayPal email address. You can later modify, remove or add additional payment options.
Register at PayPal.com if you don’t already have a PayPal account. It takes about five minutes.
Setup Checkout
Shopify allows you to view and change your checkout settings. New store owners should consider making customer accounts optional in order to allow customers to check out as guests.
Also, take a look at these options:
- Checkout abandoned:Shopify lets you set up reminder emails to remind people who visit your checkout, but don’t complete their purchase. Shopify will send you an email 10 hours after someone abandons the checkout. This is to ensure that your site remains fresh in their minds.
- Contact Customers can choose how they wish to be reached after placing orders. You can choose to be contacted via text message or email. If you are looking to create an email list, it is better to send this email.
- Email marketing Customers can opt to subscribe at the checkout. You can also reach out to customers with discount offers or new products later to increase sales.
Generate Requirements Policies
Shopify has a number of tools that can be used to generate terms and conditions, standard privacy and return policies. These tools can be accessed from Shopify Settings > Law > scroll down to the Refund > Privacy section > Terms of Service > Shipping Statements section to create each sample policy.
Get Free Shipping
It is a great idea to offer free shipping if you are looking to open an online shop. This can be set as the default in your Shopify account settings. Remember to include shipping costs in the item price if you wish to make a profit.
Navigate to Shopify Settings > Shipping, and then delete any shipping zones marked “Domestic”. Next, click on the “Add shipping zones” button. If you are offering free shipping, type it in. Then choose “Rest Of World” if you are okay with shipping to other countries. Next, click the “Add rate” button under the “Price-based rates” section. Select the “Free shipping rate.”
Once everything is set up, remember to click “Save”.
Not all companies offer free shipping. Make sure you let your customers know the shipping costs. This can be done by integrating Shopify and Canada Post, USPS and other carriers to create live pricing. If you plan to ship from the US, Canada, Australia or elsewhere, Shopify Shipping is a good option. Shopify Shipping offers significant savings up to 88% and substantial discounts on shipping rates.
Set Up Taxes
You must collect sales tax from customers if you are an ecommerce shop. Shopify automatically calculates taxes based upon the current sales tax rates across the globe. It’s still a good idea consult a tax professional to make sure you are charging the correct amount of tax. You can modify the default tax settings to meet specific tax requirements in your area if you have such products.
Shopify allows you to create your tax regions by going to Settings > Taxes. You can then override defaults for products that have specific conditions or modify default rates if necessary. Here you can also enter your tax code. Shopify does not remit, file or pay your sales taxes.
Create an online store
Shopify lets you sell your products through multiple channels, such as an online store, Facebook Store, brick & mortar store, and so on.
We are currently creating an Online Store. If it hasn’t been added yet, go to Shopify Settings > Channel Sales and add Online Store to your sales channel.
Create a Shopify Store: Add Products & Content in 10 Minutes
Customize the products before you import them from DSers to your store. Add product descriptions, photos, and any other details such as assigning them collections or adding tags. It’s a huge headache to import products first, then customize later. Don’t do this.
It is important to consider the content you use to personalize your products. As you improve and test your store, this is an area you should love.
People can’t touch your products. Writing good content that sparks interest is the best way to get them to see how amazing your products are.
Here are some suggestions for customizing these items:
- Description
- Images
- About Us page
- Pricing and inventory
- Categories
Product Description
Make sure your product description is clear and concise. This will help customers make an immediate purchase decision.
Ask yourself:
- What are the problems that customers face and what product can they solve?
- What are my customers’ benefits from using my product
- What sets my products apart from other products on the market?
These questions should be answered in a concise description that is easy to understand.
Your product descriptions will stand out if you keep it lighthearted and positive. You can also break down information into smaller, more digestible pieces. This is possible with the help of visuals, bullet points and headings.
Product Photos
Dropshipping is a different story. You don’t have to take product photos on your own. Dropshipping suppliers will often provide decent product photos. If you are selling a popular product, I recommend that you check out stock photography websites such as Shopify’s burst. If you are interested in taking your own photos, you can check out our product photographer course.
About Us
Although this page will be unique for your online store, it will take some time to create. Copy and paste the following ‘About Us” pages into your browser. Later, you can edit the page to fit your store.
Make your About Us page personal. You should tell a story about the reasons you created the brand. To show that you are a person behind your eCommerce business, take pictures of yourself. Luxy hair is my favorite company to have a great About Us page.
Product Pricing & Inventory
Shopify’s pricing section includes three fields: price and compare at price. The third field is cost per item. If you wish to inform your customers that the product is currently on sale, use the second field. You can enter the price of the product in “Compare at Price” or the price after sale in “Price.” However, you should not list random sales. Make sure that you are covering your costs and still making a profit.
Shopify can also be notified that you wish to track your product inventory. Click the “Track Quantity” checkbox to define the number of products you wish to track. Shopify will show “out of stock” if you have sold 30 units of a product. This will stop customers from placing orders until you replenish the stock.
Create Collections
Shopify calls product categories collections. Your collections will include (from top-to-bottom) Earrings and Rings, Necklaces and Watches, Watches, Bracelets, Watches, Watches, Watches, Watches, Watches, Watches, etc. if you are selling women’s jewellery
Simply go to Products > Collections > Add New collection, then enter your collection name and choose your collection conditions.
There are many benefits to setting up collections:
- Different shoppers can quickly navigate your catalog using links to product collections on your homepage and in your navigation menu.
- You can curate products you wish to sell. You can offer discounts to certain products.
Create your Layout to Launch an Online Store ( 5 minutes)
Design is an essential part of creating an online store. Your ecommerce store’s presentation is key to building trust with customers. Shopify will automatically set a default theme for your ecommerce store. It looks great so there is no need to modify it unless you are willing to spend time customizing it. While a customized website can enhance your brand, it is not required to do so when you first launch the store.
If you do decide to use a different theme we recommend you check out the top Shopify themes such as Debut or Simple. You can modify, rearrange, temporarily hide or remove sections in all themes. You can play with many layouts until your store looks great.
You shouldn’t purchase a premium theme until your business has generated enough revenue to pay for it. You don’t have to spend a lot of money at the beginning. Your banner graphic, color scheme and other visual elements can all be used to create a stunning website. A free logo maker can be used to quickly create a logo for your store.
Create Main Menu/Navigation
Your main menu appears on every page of your website. The main menu is usually displayed in the header as an item or in the sidebar as a list. Your main menu is where people will go to get information about your store. Open Shopify admin > Navigation > Edit ‘Main Menu’ card. List all collections.
To give customers more options, you can add multiple dropdown levels to any items in the main menu. You can, for example, group several collections under one menu item that focuses on men’s footwear (so as to not overwhelm women shoppers with products that don’t suit them).
Upload Main Banner
In just minutes, you can create a banner that looks great. Search Google for “banner editing tool” or click here Canva.com. Choose banner dimensions (1200x360px), upload a product image, select your background, and add a button to “Buy Now”.
Canva also offers templates that can be used to create visually appealing designs. You can use them to create a design that is unique. Canva’s templates can be used as inspiration to create a banner that impresses. The website is easy to use and even those with no design experience can create unique banners.
This banner can be added to your ecommerce store via Online Store > Themes > Customize the theme > Edit Homepage Slideshow
Editing Featured Product
Navigate to Customize Theme > Homepage > Featured products. You can select a collection of featured products. You can create a collection by going to Customize Theme > Home page > Featured Products. This will allow you to choose a collection of featured products. It will then appear on the Home Page under the title ‘Featured.
Setting up your Footer
Online Store > Navigation > Add Menu can create a footer. You can write “Footer Menu” in the title, and then choose what you want in your footer. Because we haven’t yet created blog posts, I hide the “Latest News column”.
Go to Online Store. Navigate to the Navigation section. Select Footer Menu. Now, list all pages you have created previously.
Conclusion
Congratulations! You just created your first Shopify eCommerce store!
It wasn’t a difficult task, but it was still a great achievement. Now you can legally call yourself an ecommerce entrepreneur.
Remember that although you have figured out how an ecommerce store can be started, you still need to learn how to make it grow. Ecommerce is all about improving your customer experience, sales, and most importantly, yourself.
So now the question is: How do you start a Shopify store that’s successful? You’ll need to put your efforts into marketing your shop via ads, content creation and building a following on social media. These three elements can make a big impact on your brand’s long-term success. You need to make your brand visible to everyone. People won’t find you by chance. Shopify and DSers make it easier to manage your ecommerce store. There are many marketing tools and tutorials online. To increase your sales, we recommend Facebook Ads. It’s better to get into this area of your eCommerce business immediately than trying to create a marketing plan.
Start by writing down the things you want to accomplish with your ecommerce store. Start by dedicating one hour each day to improving your Shopify shop so you can continue to improve your website and find new ways of increasing sales.
The possibilities are endless if you work hard and have a strong sales team. You can focus on the reason you started your ecommerce business and allow that to drive your determination to succeed. You will learn so much about yourself, no matter where you go on your ecommerce journey.
