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Section C: Websites
Creating Your Shopify Website
Creating a Shopify Store
Now that you’ve decided to take your business online, at Shopify, you can set up a comprehensive e-store that covers everything- building your online marketplace from scratch to constructing a social media store, to solutions with shipping, payment and more.
Once you have your goods, your suppliers, and you’ve decided on a ecommerce marketing strategy for your product, you have to find the best possible way to market them. However, you can’t just start selling; you require a store to begin with.
How to create your first Shopify store?
While it is a known fact that setting up an e-commerce store often is extremely time-consuming and involves multiple extensive processes, the reason why Shopify has gained immense popularity as an e-commerce platform is its easy usability.
Yes, creating an online store has never been easier with Shopify, and here is how you can set up your first store on the web.
Step 1: Create your account
Visit the Shopify homepage; depending on your geographical location, you will be redirected to your local edition of Shopify.com, where you will see the option to begin your free trial. Click on the icon, found on the top-right corner of your webpage. Next, you will be prompted to fill in some basic details following which; you will have the option of creating a store name. Remember that your store name on Shopify is your identity, so make sure to choose a name that syncs with your business. In case the name you have chosen is unavailable, you will be asked to change Shopify store name.
Step 2: Provide more details about your business
In addition to providing personal contact information, Shopify will also ask you to provide information about your business. Fill in the fields requesting information about your business revenue, state what your goal from your Shopify store is and billing details. Once these have been filled, you will be redirected to your Shopify admin page.
Step 3: Customize your online store
The administrator page on Shopify has all the details you will need to get your online marketplace started. Here, you will have the ability to add items to your marketplace, whether individually or en masse. You can also add services, files, and any items that might be available for digital download.
Step 4: Choose how you want your site to look
The aesthetics of your store should reflect not only your product but your ethos, your style, and more. You would pay close attention to the interiors of any brick-and-mortar store you set up to maximize customer footfall, so why should your virtual store be any different? On Shopify, start by choosing a basic theme from one of the many on offer for virtual storefronts, and then customize those further to suit your brand design and look.
Step 5: Further customize your site’s layout
There are over 100 themes available on the Shopify theme store, many of them for free. This is particularly useful for businesses that are just starting out, and may not necessarily have the budget for the more premium themes. There are modifiable themes available under both the free and paid sections, meaning that you can still have your e-store look the way you want it to.
Knowing basic HTML and CSS, although it would be helpful in personalizing your store, however, need not be a necessity. Shopify storefronts are all as customizable regardless of whether you are familiar with code or not.
Should you have a bit more money to spend, Shopify has a network of web-design agencies called “Shopify Experts”, who can help you with the finer points of customization
You can also choose your Shopify theme based on the industry you are in; the layout on Shopify’s website helps you streamline your search as well. For example, if you are selling apparel, Shopify has a category of recommended themes (again, available in both free and paid versions) for you which may differ from theme options available for the travel industry.
Before you choose a theme, you will be able to see a preview of the same in action; this is especially helpful if you’re using a paid theme – who doesn’t want to avoid buyer’s remorse? You will also be able to see reviews by others who have used the same theme.
A big part of using a theme is how well it is optimized for mobile usage. According to recent statistics, it is estimated today that over 52% of website users today access sites via mobile, meaning that it is crucial for your site to be mobile-friendly. Since mobile optimization is also a crucial factor in terms of search engine optimization, this is something you as a seller want to pay close attention to.
You will be able to customize the look of your website, including footers, text overlays and more. You can upload logos for your company or brand here, pick fonts based on your aesthetic and brand design, change the color scheme of your site, and add information about the items for sale that you would like listed per page of your site, and add links to your social media profiles.
Step 6: Upload products
Now that you’ve decided exactly how your site should look, it is crucial to list all the products you have up for sale, or the services available.
To the left side of your admin panel, you will see a bar that says “Products”. Select that to either add new products to your listings or choose from already existing products in your inventory. Here, you can add the name of the product, a description of what you are selling, images, pricing and more. Shopify allows you also to list any variants of a certain product you may have on offer. You can also add SEO terms, shipping information and more; there is also an option to list inventory for your customers to know what items are still available.
Step 7: Group and categorize your products
For the ease of access to your customers, make sure all your products have been appropriately categorized. For example, you may sell more than just apparel, in which case, you will want to list either the sex, age group or more, that you offer apparel for or other relevant information. Similarly, if you sell home wares, you will want to have a separate category for that as well.
This option, too, is available via the same admin page, below your products drop down.
Although you can, you need not add products to collections individually. You can also set up your products in a way that they have added to certain collections automatically if they fulfill specific criteria.
Step 8: Set up payment
This step is the most crucial while creating your first ever Shopify store. Once your products are listed, and your e-commerce site is good to go, you need to set up how customers will pay you, how you will receive payments, and more. Shopify has its own gateway; however, you may also use third-party payment solutions.
When selecting a payment gateway, make sure you know exactly what fees you will be charged per transaction along with knowledge about the various kinds of accepted payment modes, cards accepted, and more. You can start by scrutinizing your user-base and demographic carefully and then conduct a survey if required to know what modes of payment your customers are most likely to use. You can then pick a solution accordingly.
Step 9: Know everything about taxes and shipping costs
This is the step where it gets even more serious. Ensure all your details have been properly filled out for taxation purposes because you will need to mention these details within your products. Always keep records of your investments, purchases and other relevant information, and make multiple copies of your data.
Also, your customers will need to know whether additional taxes are included in their costing. To ensure transparency, you can mention taxes and shipping charges for each product under the products section, and also specify clearly if they are included in the cost of the product or incur an additional charge.
Step 10: Test your order system
Shopify has something called a “Bogus Gateway”- which is where you can test if your order system is up and working correctly.
To put it more simply, to test that your payments and ordering systems are underway and ensure they are working properly, place an order with real payment information just like you would on any other e-commerce websites. Go on to buy an item; however, the trick here is to simply cancel the order well in time to ensure your own money is refunded. The next step involves a quick check from the back end of your payment gateway, to test if your order system is working fine.
Step 11: Customize your domain
A unique domain name is one of the most important bits of e-commerce. You can either purchase a domain name through Shopify or through an external hosting website. While Shopify domains only cost between 2-4 US dollars more, with an external domain you may have to redirect the DNS on your own. In case you still decide to go ahead with an external domain, make sure to update the information on your Shopify store. This can be done by going back to your Settings and finding the Domain tab. Once you’re there, click on “Add Domain” to add it. Following this, you will also need to change the existing DNS records.
Step 12: Remove password protection
When you create your Shopify store, it by default is password-protected, so while you are setting it up, it is inaccessible to anyone else but yourself. Make sure that after you are done completely setting it up, you have to disable the password protection, or your site will remain inaccessible to customers.
Step 13: Run periodical checks
Make sure to run periodic administrative work on the back-end, particularly if you are changing domains, upgrading plans and more.
What can you sell on Shopify?
As a maiden entrepreneur, starting off an online store for the first time can be quite exciting. However, to succeed in the area of ecommerce not only requires perseverance but also an up-to-date skill set. You already know about the benefits of using Shopify as a platform, you know the best plan to opt for. What next? To list your business among the most successful Shopify stores, you must find the right and trending products to sell on Shopify, which can often be a real challenge!
As a first-timer, however, there are a couple of things you need to know before you decide what to sell on Shopify.
Product restrictions on Shopify
Certain products and services are not allowed to be sold on an online Shopify store. Before you decide what you want to include in your online store, here is a list of products, and businesses that are prohibited on Shopify.
- Age-restricted products which include alcohol, adult content, tobacco and weapons
- Human hair, hair-extensions or fake hair
- Illegal content
- Sale of social media activity
- Any material that classifies as pornography
- The business that involves fortune tellers
- Pharmacies, pseudo pharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals or any substance that imitates illegal drugs
- Sexually oriented massage parlors, running sex clubs/shows, strip shows, topless bars
- Wire transfers, currency exchange, virtual currencies
- Escorts, mail-order brides, prostitutes, dating services, and more
- Multi-level marketing, ‘get rich instantly’ scams, practices to con people
- Prepaid phone cards, telemarketing, or other telecommunications services