“You’ve got the will. We’ve got the way” – Shopify.

Shopify provides you with the necessary tools to get started with an Ecommerce business. This platform will allow you to start from scratch as a beginner with ease.

If you’ve been wanting to set up an online store with Shopify, whether it be for Dropshipping or handmade products, this is the right place to do it.

Shopify for dropshipping couldn’t be easier to set up – make sure you get the FULL lowdown on Dropshipping before reading this post.

Today, I will walk you through the easiest way to set up a Shopify store for beginners in 2020.

Reasons why I love Shopify

• Extremely easy set up: Shopify provide the best solution for those who want a no fuss platform. Your store can be opened in a few minutes and they have great themes to choose from.

• No need for seperate web hosting or additional software: Shopify is a hosted solution, which means less work for you. 

• Excellent fulfilment software for dropshipping businesses: Oberlo allows you to import products to your Shopify store in just a few clicks. They make the fulfilment process a whole lot easier and is essential for a business like dropshipping.

• Integrated apps: The apps available on the Shopify store (most with a free trial) are AMAZING! Once downloaded they are automatically integrated with your stores code and make selling online that much easier.

• Mobile ready: The number of mobile shoppers is increasing by the day, so having a platform that integrates well with mobile is vital. The Shopify themes are mobile responsive, which means that it can be used to manage mobile-optimized stores.

• 24/7 customer support: To kep you store running at all times, Shopify offer amazing round the clock customer support. 

Get your Shopify Store set up

Currently Shopify are offering you a 14 day free trial.

14 days is plenty of time for you to set up your dropshipping store and test a few products. This is great for testing out products if you’re on a tight budget. 

Click here to sign up.

It couldn’t be easier to sign up with Shopify, and I should know I have set up 3 seperate stores in the last year with them.

1. Registering

To register with Shopify, you need to click here to sign up. You will need to enter you email address, a password and the name of your store (this can be changed later).

On the next page, “Tell us a little about yourself”, Shopify will ask you some questions related to the type of store you would to create. These answers do not need to be accurate but just give them some ideas on the types of information to send and recommend to you.

Continue to the next page and enter your name and mailing address. This can be either a home or business address. 

Once you click Enter my store, you’re all done! 

Related Post:

Shopify Vs WordPress: Which is Best Platform for Your Website?

2. Selecting theme

To select a theme, click on Online Store > Themes or go to Shopify themes.

On this page you’ll be able to explore all free and paid themes. Debut, and Brooklyn are my favourites FREE themes.

FREE themes are still killing it when it comes to Shopify sales and conversions. Partner a brilliant FREE theme like Debut with a page builder like Gempages are you have everything you need to get started.

When you’re a little bit further into your Shopify journey you can level up and opt for a paid theme.

I love and still currently use the paid theme Turbo on all of my sites and have found this one to convert the best. You get so much flexibility with the Turbo theme. They help you design a site completely unique to you.

Plus you’re able to have a fully integrated site for both desktop and mobile.

Check it out.

If you click on the ‘View Demo’ Button on each of the theme pages, you’ll be able to check out all of the features for that theme.

Each theme will have different fonts, colour schemes and layout options for you to play around with. Making a design that’s unique to you!

Select your theme + hit INSTALL. If you choose a paid theme, separate to the Shopify store, this is also easily done by selecting a package and downloading.

From here you can Customize Your Theme — you can update + move around sections, change colors, typography, etc.  

Check out my comprehensive guide to the Best themes for Shopify in 2020.

3. Adding Products

If you’d like to keep track of and sell your own items, you can easily add a product by clicking on Products on the left hand menu.

If you’d like to starting importing products from Aliexpress for your dropshipping business, download Oberlo from the App Store.

Click on Apps on the left hand menu and you will see Oberlo is a recommended app alternatively when you get to the store type in Oberlo and install it.

Once installed you can either search for products to import using their search bar or you can install the chrome extension (here) and when you’re on Aliexpress click the import button and the items will automatically be added onto your Oberlo import list.

Tip: Make sure you insert a killer product description for each product as this is the key to a great listing.

4. Adding a domain

Shopify sets you up with a free domain, but do not use this if you plan to take your business seriously. Customers will see it and run…fast.

Grab a domain from 123REG, they are by far the cheapest for domains I have seen and they also offer email hosting services.

If you have a domain you would like to link to your new store this can be done easily:

1. From your Shopify admin, click Online Store > Domains

2. If this is the first domain that you’re connecting to your Shopify store, click Connect existing domain, then click transfer in your domain:

   

3. Now enter the domain you’d like to transfer to Shopify. Do not include www. at the beginning.

4. Click Next and then Verify domain.

5. Receive Payments

It is so simple to receive payments thanks to Shopify’s improved system. In the Settings menu, select Payments and start by choosing your preferred method.

Paypal makes payments nice and easy, and people will automatically associate your store with trust when they see this symbol. Shopify Payments is also available. With Shopify Payments you will be able to accept credit/debit cards. These are the 2 main payments methods.

6. Checkout settings

This part is so straight forward, you just want to make sure you select the best options for yourself and the customer when they checkout.

From the Settings menu select Checkout.

Make sure you select Accounts are optional (Customers will be able to check out with a customer account or as a guest).

From Form options, check the boxes that say: Require first and last name.

If Email Marketing is important for you (which it should be), you want to also make sure the Preselect the sign-up option box is ticked. Click Save when you’re done.

 

7. Shipping

In the settings menu you will also see the Shippings section. It is important you set up where you want to ship your items and how much you want to charge for it.

If you’re dropshipping click on manage rates, set up your shipping zones and price rates.

You can also create different shipping profiles/rates for certain products.

8. Legal Stuff (don’t skip this)

Having policy information on refunds, terms of service and privacy is a legal requirement when setting up any type of online store and Shopify make this extremelty easy for you by setting up templates for you to use. 

In settings select Legal and follow the guided templates to get your policies in place. Make sure you customise them to your liking.

9. Set up Pages and Menus

To set up pages for each of these policies, from the home menu select Online Store > Pages on the left. Copy and Paste the information for each of your newly created policies and create a seperate Page for all of them.

You can create a page for any type of information you want to give your customer. Creating a Shipping Policy, Contact us and About us page are vital and an FAQs page converts customers like crazy!

You will need to add these pages to either your sites Main menu or footer menu. To do this, click on Navigation > Main menu and select which menu you would like to add the first page to.  

Typically the shipping, contact us and about us are placed on your Main menu, whereas the Refund policy, terms of service and Privacy pages are placed on the Footer menu.

In each of the menus you will see an Add Menu Item option, select this and link the already created pages to each item.

When you’re done with your main navigation menu, it should look something like this:

10. Housekeeping

Once you are registered, its best to get your site as optimised as possible. There are some housekeeping steps yuou can take to fully optimise your store:

• Name your store: General > Store details section > , enter name in Store name text field > Save

• Choose legal business name: Settings > General > In the Store address section, update all of the relevant editable text fields > Save

• Billing info: Settings > Billing > Billing information > Replace credit card > Confirm (you wont need to pay until the 14 days are up or you purchase an extras)

• Set default currency: Settings > General > Standards and formats >  Timezone > Select a new timezone > Save

• To view how your store is looking at any time, click on the eye icon next to Online Store.

Phew, You’re Done!

Once you hit Publish your store will go live and you have successfully set up your first Shopify store. You will of course have to add your own little tweaks but this is pretty much it.

Click here to read the best 8 tips to Skyrocket your Shopify Sales right here >>

Get your FREE 14 day trial here >>>

Now it’s time to get customers through the door and sales rolling in!

As usual, let us know how you get on or if there’s anything you want me to go into more detail about.

Good Luck!