As a newcomer, you might struggle and face difficulties when tackling the daunting task of creating a brand-new Shopify store. So, if you are wondering how to build a Shopify store from scratch, you have come to the right place. With our comprehensive and intricate guidance, you will find that this task, once challenging and complex, is now like a breeze.
Things you need to prepare in advance to build a successful Shopify store
Preparation is a crucial step to ensure your process in building a Shopify store is as smooth as possible. The checklist below will cover some of the most basic prep tasks needed to be accomplished:
1. Business license
A business license is not a requirement to open a Shopify store. However, having a registered store offers several legal benefits and helps you avoid any unwanted regulatory issues that might arise later on. Earning a license can take some time, so try to prioritize this task first.
2. Product information
Images, product videos, descriptions, pricing, testimonials, etc of every individual product are all required. Since customers can’t perceive your products physically, this is important to create a perception for them.
One tip is to organize those elements in a table or a spreadsheet. This will not only help you keep track of your lines of products but also be extremely useful when you start adding your products to the Shopify platform.
3. Branding essentials
This includes everything that can highlight your brand identity, values, and positioning, making your brand easily recognizable. Some key components are logo, color palette, typography, key visuals, brand vision, and mission, etc.
4. Content audit
A content audit gives you the chance to go over all your existing content (product descriptions, images, blog posts, etc) and ensure it is aligned with your brand voice, messaging, and goals and is SEO-friendly.
5. Domain name
All new Shopify stores are provided with a free default domain name in the following format: “your-store-name.myshopify.com”. However, this is not pleasant both to owners and customers because it shows a lack of professionalism and may affect your customer’s trust. For that reason, we do insist that you invest in a custom domain name. It will give you better SEO opportunities as well as greater credibility.
6. Payment and shipping methods
Before creating a Shopify store, reliable payment and shipping methods have to be established to make the purchase process smooth for customers. Remember, when it comes to selecting suitable payment and shipping options, it depends on your business’s model, the nature of your products, and above all – customer preferences.
7. Analytics tools
Analytic tools are not mandatory requirements to set up a Shopify store. However, they are vital to your store’s growth. By constantly monitoring your store’s performance, you will gain valuable insights to further enhance the overall shopping experience. While Shopify has its own built-in analytic and reporting features, the platform is also highly compatible with many third-party apps. So, feel free to choose those that best meet your needs.
Step-by-step instruction on how to build a Shopify store from scratch
Step 1: Sign up for your Shopify account
Creating a Shopify account is the first step to take. After accessing the Shopify homepage, choose “Start free trial” at the top right corner.
Shopify offers various ways to create an account. You can use your Google, Apple, or Facebook account or your email address. After that, the platform will ask you some questions about your business, you can either answer or skip them. Then click on “Create Shopify account”.
Step 2: Choose a suitable plan
When you finish signing up for a Shopify account, the platform will redirect you to the Shopify Admin Dashboard. This is where the real work starts.
But before that, you need to select a plan. In Shopify, the plans are subscription-based services which allow businesses to set up, run, and expand their stores by providing website hosting, payment processing, inventory management, marketing functionalities, and other tools all in one.
Each offer caters to different business needs. Carefully consider which plan can best support your business, and fit within your budget. The platform provides 6 support packs to choose from:
- Basic ($29 start at first month): For small businesses or startups, it gives the essential features required for establishing and managing an online store effectively. This plan currently is the most popular one.
- Shopify ($79 start at first month): The plan gives more advanced features including professional reports. It is suitable for businesses that have begun to gain traction as well as those that require more detailed analytics to optimize performance.
- Advanced ($299 start at first month): The plan offers even greater scalability for larger businesses with more complex needs. Advanced reporting tools, third-party calculated shipping rates, and 15 additional staff accounts are included.
- Plus ($2300 per month): Enterprises and high-volume businesses will most likely find this plan to be the best option. A fully customizable plan designed for scalability, ideal for brands requiring automation, high-security measures, and specialized support for large order volumes.
- Starters ($5 start at first month): It comes with basic order management and a Shopify checkout system. This plan is created for those who want to sell online through social media, messaging apps, or their existing websites but without features supporting an online store.
- Retail ($79 start at first month): The plan is designed for retailers who have physical stores but also desire to do business online. It provides all the features of the Starter plan, along with multiple Shopify POS app features.
Don’t worry too much if you can’t make a decision at the time! Thanks to the Shopify support policy for newcomers, you will have the opportunity to try out a plan that only costs $1 for the first month. Additionally, based on the changes in your preferences over time, you can also upgrade or downgrade your plan accordingly.
Step 3: Choose a theme
Now you are ready to build a Shopify website. The first thing you need to do is choose a theme for your website. This step can either make or break your online business because it acts as the foundation of a well-functioning e-store.
To select a theme, first, go to “Online Store”, scroll down, and choose “Visit Theme Store”. This will open the Shopify Theme Store containing a range of 200+ both free and paid themes.
After selecting a theme, click on the “Try theme” or “View demo store” button to assess the theme more closely. Since all the paid themes come with unlimited free trials (only pay when publishing), you can take all the time needed to choose before making the final purchase.
In case you are still troubled, we recommend you check out the Eurus theme. This is a very versatile theme that is suitable for any type of business. With a relatively average price of $290, Eurus provides 5 types of different presets, 20+ premium features, over 40 drag-and-dropable sections, 80 ready-to-use templates, and 24/7 available support.
A good theme is the one that can support and express your brand identity really well. For more theme reviews and tips to pick your perfect theme, come to Omni Themes and get updates on our latest articles.
Step 4: Adding products
Before you move on to customize your theme, there is an important task not to be taken care of – adding your products to the Shopify platform. First, on your Shopify Admin Dashboard, choose “Products” on the navigation panel on the left of the screen.
Next, to add your products, click “Add product”. You will see an editor appear containing sections to fill in the information about the products such as name, description, price, weight, etc. After that, scroll down to the end of the page and click “Save” on the bottom right to update the product.
Now, all you have to do is repeat it with all the remaining products. This manual task can be tedious and time-consuming. However, do you still remember the tip we shared about the preparation for product information? With some careful preparation beforehand, you can speed up and streamline the process easily.
Step 5: Create product collections
In this step, we will show you how to categorize your products into collections in Shopify. With the “Products” option still selected, click on “Collections” >> “Create collection”.
A similar editor to the one in the previous step will appear. After entering all the required information (name, images, description, etc) about the collection, repeat the process with all the collections you have.
Now, to add the products to the respective collections, return to the product editor by selecting the “Products” option. Select all the products that go to a collection, then choose the “more options” symbol on the right side of the screen, choose the corresponding collections, and click “Save”. Repeat with the remaining products.
Step 6: Customize your Shopify store
After setting up your products and collections, Shopify will automatically link and update those items on suitable sections in your theme. The next step is some customization work to do.
Back at your Shopify Admin Dashboard interface, with “Online Store” >> “Themes” selected, click on “Customize” the theme you wish to make adjustments to.
The Shopify web builder window will open. Shopify gives a drag-and-drop theme editor so you can change the store layouts, colors, fonts, and sections without requiring any coding knowledge. This makes customizing a Shopify store really easy and not as time-consuming as you thought it was.
One important note is that always save any changes made by clicking the “Save” button lying in the top right corner.
Step 7: Set up the sender email
Customers will see the sender email in Shopify as the email address they receive from order confirmation, shipping updates, and automated messages from your Shopify store. By default, the platform uses your login account address as the sender email. Updating it to a more professional-looking format than your common personal email ensures greater credibility.
To edit the sender email, on the Shopify Admin Dashboard, go to “Settings”.
Next, go to the “Notification” section. Enter your new email address, then click on “Resend verification”. Shopify will send a verification email to your new address. Finally, open the email and click the verification link to confirm the changes.
Step 8: Set up your payment options
Shopify provides a payment method called Shopify Payments. It is a built-in feature right into your store, enabling merchants to accept payments directly without having to route through a third-party payment service provider.
In the “Payments” section, click “Complete account setup” to activate the payment method.
However, if you wish to seek other payment providers for your store, in the “Payments” section, simply choose “See all other providers” or “Add payment method” and select what you need.
After that, click “Complete account setup” to confirm the changes.
Step 9: Set up your shipping rates
Now, let’s talk about shipping. Move to “Shipping and delivery”, then click on the following section to edit the shipping profile.
You will see that a general shipping profile appears. This is where you will configure how much you want to charge for shipping your products to customers.
First, choose “Create zone” to add a new zone.
A small dialog box will appear. There, you type in the zone name and select the corresponding region. Then hit “Done” to save.
Now, you need to add the shipping rates to the shipping zones. To do that, click “Add rate”, and another dialog box will show up.
All you have to do now is enter the required information and set up your conditional pricing if needed. Each zone can have multiple shipping rates, so feel free to add as many as you need according to your store policy.
Step 10: Test and launch your store
Good work, you have finished building your Shopify store! Before launching your store, it is crucial to test key areas to ensure a smooth shopping experience.
- Product listings: Verify titles, descriptions, pricing, and image quality.
- Checkout and payments: Test payment methods, discounts, and tax calculations with dummy orders.
- Email notifications: Ensure the sender email works.
- Mobile responsiveness: Test store functionality and performance on mobile devices.
- Content: Review all the content on your website from blog posts to refund, privacy, and terms of service pages.
Finally, To publicize your website, navigate to the “Online Store” >> “Themes” section, choose “Remove password” and you are good to go. Keep in mind that if you haven’t paid for the theme, you need to purchase it first to launch your store.
Some tips for building a successful Shopify store
Good work, by following our 10-step instruction, you now have a perfectly-operated online store ready for business! However, this is just the first step, sustaining your business and aiming for brand growth are your ultimate goals. In this final section, we will share with you a few tips to maximize your success rate when doing business online.
- Offer excellent customer support: This is important for keeping a good brand image. Using live chat, AI chatbots, and an easy return policy calms customers and builds long-lasting trust. Responding quickly to questions and even complaints can boost customer satisfaction significantly.
- Receive customer feedback: By reviewing what your customers like or dislike about your shop, you can actively make the necessary adjustments and enhance the shopping experience.
- Implement strong SEO and content strategy: This is essential to raise the visibility of your store to potential customers on their search results. Optimize product pages with relevant keywords, use alt text for images, and create engaging blog posts to drive consistent traffic.
- Set up effective payment and shipping options: Offering diverse payment options, transparent and attractive shipping policies, or even free shipping can dramatically boost conversions.
- Track your store performance: As long as you keep tracking your store’s performance and optimizing it accordingly, your business will keep growing.
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- Top 10 Successful Shopify Pet Stores Examples 2025
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Conclusion
We have reached the end of the article. Congratulations, you have completed our tutorial. Have you seen how easy it is to build a Shopify store from scratch? This may sound pretty intimidating and daunting, but do it the right way, and it is an incredibly exhilarating and rewarding process.
And remember, success doesn’t happen overnight. Refine your store continuously and always stay on top of e-commerce trends and new Shopify features to keep your store competitive
