Shopify Store Setup 2025 Guide

Here’s the complete guide to setting up a Shopify store, including the essential steps to start selling online.

What is Shopify?

Shopify is a leading e-commerce platform for building online stores (e-commerce websites) without coding. It offers a user-friendly interface with customizable features to showcase products, accept payments, and manage orders.

The platform offers flexibility, ease of use, and a powerful order management system that makes e-commerce easier.

How to Create a Shopify Store – Step-by-step Guide

To get started, you must create a Shopify account and enter your business details. Then, you can start adding products and customizing the online store per your preferences.

Claim your free Shopify trial and start selling at just $1 for the first month.

Step 1: Create a Shopify Account

Go to Shopify and click the Start free trial button.

Choose your preferred account sign-up option from email address, Google, Apple, and Facebook, and complete the account setup.

You’ll be asked a few questions about your business like the types of business and the products you sell.

Choose from the following plans as per your business needs:

• Basic Shopify
• Shopify
• Advanced Shopify

You can get started with any of these plans at just $1 a month if you sign up through this Shopify trial link.

Enter your payment details and get started with the plan. You can also skip this step and decide on the plan later.

Once done, a Shopify store will be created in your account and you can start managing it from the admin panel.

Step 2: Set Store & Brand Details

You’ll redirected to the admin dashboard, which offers an interface to manage the store. For example, you can find tabs for orders, products, customers, etc.

Note: At this moment, the online store is password-protected. Meaning, customers can not access your store without a password, which you can find in the preferences tab.

To change basic store details like name and address, click Settings on the bottom-left of the dashboard.

In the Store details, set the store name, phone, and email address.

In the same section, you can configure other settings for your store, like display currency, unit system, timezone, etc.

Configure the settings as per your preferences and save them.

In the General settings, go to Brand to configure the branding details of the store. Here, you can:

• Upload store logo
• Set colors
• Upload cover image
• Business slogan
• Add short description
• Insert social media links

These details ensure that the store remains consistent no matter which theme you choose.

Once the changes are done, click the Save button.

Step 3: Customize Theme

The Shopify setup comes with the default Dawn theme, but you can change and customize its theme.

In the left menu, go to Sales channels > Online Store > Themes.

Here, you’ll find your store’s current theme with options to edit it. You can also explore the Shopify theme’s library to find and apply a perfect theme.

You can modify the layout, content, and look of each page in the theme customization. The Shopify theme editor allows you to add and customize different sections to the store. You can also check out custom sections for Shopify to make it even better.

Modify the theme as per your wish and click Publish or Save.

Note: You can have more than one theme in the store. However, the one that’s active or published is shown to the customers on the front end. This helps you customize the theme in the draft before launching it.

You can always edit any active or draft theme using the Customize button.

If you’re looking for high-end customizations, you may need to modify the theme.liquid code. Our experts can help you do that 🙂

Step 4: Add Products & Collections

In Shopify, you can either add the products manually or import them via CSV.

To add products, go to Shopify dashboard > Products and click Add product.

This will open the product page, where you can add Title, Description, Media, Brand, and other details. You can also assign collections (categories) to the product or can do it later after creating them.

In the Pricing section, you can set:

• Price – This is the actual price of the product that will be paid by the customers.
• Compare-at price – This price is obliterated by a strikethrough with the product price (usually lower) next to it.

Let’s say we’ve set the price to Rs.249 and the product price to Rs.299. It will look like Rs.249 (Rs.299) on the product page.

You can also add your cost price for the product (which will be used for profile calculation in the backend), product quantity, and weight.

If the product has variants, you can add them and enter details for each option.

Shopify will also suggest meta fields (they’re additional attributes) for the product, based on the chosen category. For example, here we have the color, size, age group, and gender fields for the suncap product.

You can set these details based on the products you’re selling.

Next, enter the product details for search engine optimization.

Here, you can control the page title, meta description, and URL, which are displayed on the search engines. You’ll also get a preview of the product page snippet as you enter these details. Here are some tips to write optimized SEO details:

• Try to cover the primary keyword in the title, meta description, and URL
• Keep the URL short and user-friendly
• Do not include stopwords like “the”, “and”, “or” in the URL
• Write the title under 60 characters and the meta description under 158 characters
• Include actionable words like “Buy Now” in the meta description

If you don’t want to do it yourself, you can use the AI content app for Shopify to generate product descriptions, titles, and meta descriptions. It’s free to get started.

Finally, save the product.

You can change the visibility of the product in the store by changing its status: Active (displayed in the store) and Draft (not displayed in the store).

In Shopify, the product categories are called Collections.

Go to the Collections tab in the left menu to create and manage product collections. Here, you can create two types of collections:

• Manual – Assign products to the collections manually
• Automated – Automatically assign products to the collections based on conditions

For example, here we have created an automated collection for Nike Accessories that adds products containing Nike as a vendor. You can also add details like description and image.

Create all the required collections in the store as per your requirements and organize the product listings.

Step 5: Create Pages

In addition to products and categories, you may want to add other pages in your store. For example, the About Us page, contacts page, and privacy policy.

You can add and manage these pages from the Online Store > Pages section in the admin panel.

You can add the page title and description and set SEO details like page title, meta description, and URL. In case you’ve created templates for the pages, you can also choose the template you want to apply.

Create all pages required to create a Shopify store and a good experience for customers.

Step 6: Customize Navigation Menu

By default, the Shopify menu bar may contain a few links like home, catalog, and contact. You may want to customize the top menu bar to include links to product collections and other important pages.

Go to Sales Channels > Online Store > Navigation, where you can find the menus added to the store and also create new ones.

In this example, we have the Main menu that appears in the header of the website. 

You can edit the menu and modify each element as per your preferences.

For example, you can add links to:

• Collections
• Products
• Blog Posts
• Pages
• Policies

Once you’re done customizing the menu bar, click Save.

Here’s what the modified menu bar looks like on the front end.

You can change the position and appearance of the menu bar from the Online Store > Themes > Customize settings.

Step 7: Set up Payment Methods

To accept payments from customers, your store must have a payment gateway.

Go to Payment Settings, where you can set up payment methods for the store. You can choose the default Shopify Payments option if it’s available or other payment methods like PayPal.

You can also search for available options by payment methods (like Credit Cards) or provider name. For example, let’s say we want to add the UPI Payment method in the store, we can choose from any of these service providers.

It’s important to consider the payment provider’s transaction fees and settlement policies before choosing them.

You can also set the default capture method for the payments from the following:

• Automatically at checkout – The amount is deducted when the customer places the order
• Automatically when the entire order is fulfilled – The amount is deducted when the order is marked fulfilled in Shopify
• Manually – You have to manually deduct the amount from the customer’s payment method

In addition to online payment methods, you can also add manual methods like Cash On Delivery and Cheque to accept offline payments.

Step 8: Configure Shipping & Taxes

In Shopify admin > Settings > Shipping and Delivery, you can add shipping methods in the store and configure their rates.

Here, you can find shipping options like:

• Set domestic and international shipping rates
• Create shipping profiles for custom rates
• Set expected delivery dates for orders

Create a new shipping profile, choose the shipment source and applicable destinations, and choose the rates. In this example, we add flat-rate shipping to all products in the store. However, you can also dynamically calculate shipping based on products or use apps for shipping rates.

You must set up rates for all the markets you sell as per your shipping strategy.

If you’re selling taxable goods, you can set up the duty rates and find tax settings for different regions from the Settings > Taxes and duties section.

The additional fees like shipping and taxes will be added to the sub-total to the cart during checkout.

Step 9: Connect Domain

The Shopify domain is the address (e.g. meetanshi.com) using which people can view your store. By default, the Shopify store comes with a free sub-domain, which is something like your-store-name.myshopify.com, which may not be suitable for branding.

You can connect your custom domain (if you’ve one) or buy a new one from Shopify. It costs some extra domain registration fees annually.

Look up the domain for your store and you’ll be able to see the available options.

In our personal opinion, domains that end with .com should be preferred.

You can also connect or transfer a domain from a third-party registrar to a Shopify store.

Step 10: Final Launch 🎉

Once everything looks good, it’s time to launch the website and allow potential customers to access it. Go to your Shopify admin > Preferences tab and remove the password protection from the store.

Here are the further steps:

• Set up Google Search Console property and submit a sitemap so that Google can find the pages
• Connect your Google Analytics with the store to monitor and analyze its performance
• Try placing a test order and go through the checkout process to ensure it’s working fine 
• Let your customers know about the new store through social media posts
• Build a marketing strategy to attract existing customers to the store

In case you need any help setting up a Shopify store and customizing it, you can hire our expert developers at an hourly or fixed rate. Our experts can help you customize the design, implement new features, improve SEO, and make your store user-friendly.

Important Things to Consider After You Create a Shopify Store

Getting your business online with Shopify is great. But, it’s not enough to launch a store and wait for the customers to come in and place orders. Remember, there are millions of Shopify stores (like yours) online and the chances of your website getting lost are very high!

You need a solid marketing strategy, good products, and a customer-centric approach. Some areas you can focus on are:

• Increasing organic traffic
• Improving conversion rates
• Monitoring customer retention rates

One good plan is to focus on the products and business while collaborating with experts to take care of your store. Meetanshi offers expert services to help you achieve your business goals faster with over a decade of e-commerce expertise. Also if you’re considering launching a Shopify store in a specific region, there may be additional details to consider, for example, those looking to start a Shopify store in India, store in Dubai and as such.

FAQs

How Much Does it Cost to Start a Shopify Store?

The basic plan for Shopify starts at $29 a month. But that’s not the only cost associated when you start selling online on the platform.

Here are some additional costs:

• Custom theme & designing ($200 to $500 approx)
• Domain registration fees ($10-20 per year)
• Payment service fees (2% to 3% per transaction)
• Store handling and management (Hire a VA for $20 per hour)
• Third-party apps (a few dollars for each app per month)

The actual cost of setting up a Shopify store is approximately $500 to $2000, depending on your customization needs. You’ll also need to pay the additional monthly fees based on your store size.

How Many Products Can a Shopify Store Handle?

There is no limit on the number of products you can upload to Shopify. However, the upload rate is throttled to 1,000 per day once your store exceeds 50,000 products.

How to Design a Shopify Website Using a Custom Theme?

You can choose a base theme for your Shopify store and customize it as per your needs. This may include basic customization like changing colors, layouts, and also advanced liquid coding. You can hire our Shopify theme designing experts to help you convert a design into a Shopify theme.

Is it Possible to Create a Shopify Store without Coding?

Yes, Shopify does not require coding if you’re looking to set up a store using the pre-set themes. However, you may need a bit of coding knowledge to implement custom design.

Can You Set up a Shopify Store for Free?

You can set up a Shopify store for free and explorer the platform. However, if you want to accept payments and remove the password protection, you’ll need an active Shopify plan.