We often see entrepreneurs express their frustration, asking, “Why is my store not making any sales?” or “Why is it not working? Please review my site.”
The reason is simple — they’re not guided right from the beginning of their e-commerce journey. As you can guess, it starts with setting up the store.
So, you need a simple and jargon-free Shopify store setup checklist to reduce the chance of errors and, at the same time, put the whole project one step ahead towards success.
Remember, most e-commerce businesses fail not because of their poor product quality but because of the mistakes they make in the pre-launch stage.
Follow this step-by-step professional guide to ensure you don’t miss any critical steps in your Shopify store setup.
6-Step Shopify Store Setup Checklist
1. Pre-Planning and Feasibility Check for a Solid Foundation
Even before starting the store creation process, it’s wise to do a feasibility check for your idea.
Why? Let’s assume you have a game-changing idea that is unique, and you believe it will work, but you can’t reach the target market. What’s the point in it, then?
The steps below will guide you to assess whether your idea is practically doable or not:
Evaluate Your Idea
A niche market could be the best for you to explore as a new entrepreneur.
To succeed, identify a market where providing unique value will give you a competitive advantage. If you have enough resources, you can target a broader market as well.
Ask yourself these questions to understand how strong your idea is:
- What is the market need you’re planning to meet?
- From where will your business operate?
- Is the idea a Boooom(!)?
- What is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?
- Who are your competitors?
- How long can your business survive before reaching breakeven?
Analyze Your Competitors and Write a Business Plan
When you know who your competitors are, try to understand their branding strategy, sourcing, pricing, target market, reviews, website design, and market share.
Can you beat them? Find a gap where you can outperform your competitors. Writing a proper business plan will help a lot to organize the whole process.
Talk to the Suppliers
Based on the business revenue model, shipping and supply will be different. Dropshipping platforms like Alibaba and AliExpress do not sell or store the products themselves; rather, they work as a connector.
When a customer places an order on the platform, it notifies the manufacturer, and the manufacturer ships the product directly to the customer.
Whether you want your store to function like a dropshipping platform or you want to sell the product yourself, get familiar with your supplier’s policies, pricing, and product quality. Unless you are the manufacturer of the product.
Choose a Name and Create a Logo
If this is your dream project, most probably you have got a cute name for it already in your mind. Choose a short and memorable name to help you with branding. The name and logo must not be a trademark or copyright-protected by any other businesses.
Let’s take Amazon as an example.
At the beginning, the platform was named ‘Cadabra’. But when the founder, Jeff Bezos, thought the name could be misheard and miscommunicated, he decided to change it to ‘Amazon’.
It was easy to pronounce and represent the wide variety, coverage, and diversity of the store. He thought it would help with word-of-mouth marketing and the overall growth of the store.
Abide by Local Regulations
Regardless of your business scale and operational coverage, you will have to respect local regulations and follow their instructions.
Get the required licenses and permits prior to the store launch. You may also want to talk to an expert about taxes and import duties.
Checklist
- Idea evaluated
- Competitor analysis done
- Talked to the suppliers
- Name & logo finalized
- Got the required licenses
2. Shopify Account Sign-up Process
Start the sign-up process on the Shopify platform. It takes only a few steps to create an account:
Select the Right Shopify Plan
Currently, Shopify has four different plans— the ‘Basic’ plan is for solo entrepreneurs. The next package is called ‘Grow’, offered for small teams.
Take the ‘Advanced’ plan if your business is expected to scale up in the near future, or ‘Plus’ if you’re setting up a more complex and large-scale business.
Get the Domain Name for Your Store
Choose a custom domain name for your store. You can get it from Shopify or any other third-party provider like GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, etc.
Pay for Your Shopify Plan
You can make the payment through your cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover) or PayPal. Skip this step to avail a 3-day trial period.
Checklist
- Shopify plan selected
- Domain purchased
- Payment method added
3. Selecting a Shopify Theme
Search for a responsive and fast-loading theme that suits your business on the Shopify Theme Store. Customize the theme as you prefer. Try to align it with your brand colors and fonts.
Compare Free vs Paid Shopify Themes
If you are not a design expert and you don’t want to purchase a theme, Shopify offers plenty of free themes as well.
However, paid themes give you more flexibility and a professional look to your store. To find a Shopify free theme, follow the steps below:
- Go to the Shopify theme page
- Click the “Browse themes” dropdown menu at the top of the page
- Go to “Free themes”
Search by Theme Features or Industry
To find your preferred theme, search by theme type, industry, catalog size, or features. Simply go to the Shopify theme page and apply filters to narrow down the results.
- Go to the Shopify theme page
- Click the “Browse themes” dropdown menu at the top of the page
- Go to “All themes”
- Apply one or more filters and choose your preferred theme from the results
Test Mobile Responsiveness
This is not an option anymore; it’s a must. A fast-loading and mobile-responsive website is the key to success for a digital store.
That’s why I suggest— think again, invest in it if required to, but get a premium theme.
Checklist
- Free/paid theme decided
- Theme selected
- Tested mobile-friendliness
4. Configuring Your Store Settings
This technical step includes adding the necessary legal and business information to the site, setting up the payment gateway, and finalizing the shipping policy, among other tasks.
So, if you are not an expert in this area, you might consider getting professional assistance from someone already working in the industry.
Develop Essential Pages
Your Shopify store will definitely have product listings, and it’s a continuous process.
There are other essential pages you need to develop before the launch, e.g., Home Page, About Us, Contact Page, FAQs, Shipping & Return Policy, Terms & Conditions, etc.
Configure Payment Gateway
Go to Settings > Payments to connect your store to a third-party payment gateway or Shopify Payments. Shopify Payments is an umbrella that allows you to receive payments through debit/credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, etc.
Configure Shipping & Taxes
Whether targeting local customers or the international market, you have to configure the product shipping and tax rates.
Based on your business location and coverage area, shipping rates will vary.
Enable Shopify Customer Account
Visitors who wish to purchase from your store are required to open an account and provide the necessary information to receive products, right?
Enable the customer account registration process and do not try to get too much information from them, as it may annoy your customers and appear as a scam.
Checklist
- Essential web pages ready
- Payment gateway added
- Configured shipping & taxes
- Customer account enabled
5. Adding Products to Your Store
I have seen many e-commerce websites listing their products in an unorganized way, and they suffer in the long run.
Add your products in a compelling way so that the customers can easily search for their desired items. Try to keep the following suggestions in mind:
Upload Product Images and Optimize Titles
Add high-resolution product images so that your customers get a clear idea of your product. Also, optimize the titles for SEO/GEO and add a suitable description to each product if possible.
Stay honest to your customers, as misinformation or vague content may create customer dissatisfaction, which will ultimately affect your brand.
Create Product Categories and Collections
Categorize your products into different collections based on common attributes or buyer intent. This helps customers find their desired items easily, and also assists inventory management.
Keep the Inventory and Stock Up-to-date
Even though it may remain unnoticed sometimes as a backstage task, inventory management is as important as any other major function in your business.
Do it precisely to avoid getting lost in numbers and accounting later.
Checklist
- Product images and titles optimised
- Descriptions added
- Products categorized
- Inventory up-to-date
6. Previewing & Testing Your Store Before the Launch
Preview the site and run all the functionality tests before the launch.
Make sure the site speed, product carting, and checkout process are working fine. Plenty of tools to test Shopify sites are available online.
Rest assured, none of your tests and changes will be visible to anyone before you launch the store.
Post-Launch Tips
- After the launch, promote your Shopify store to reach out to your target customers. Improving SEO will help your customers find your store.
- You can also go for paid promotions on search engines and social media. Emphasize brand creation for long-term success.
- Use appropriate tools to track your store’s performance and take necessary actions to accelerate the growth.
- Optimize product pages regularly. Add more products as your store grows.
- Increase social presence and engage with your customers daily, if possible. Listen to their pain points and try to resolve them.
- Improve site speed and enhance user experience. Focus on reducing cart abandonment.
- Collect customer feedback on a regular basis and try to improve product and service quality.
Where to Find Help for Shopify Store Creation?
There are plenty of resources online today. If you have expertise in this field and you want to do it yourself, this blog should be sufficient for a recheck.
Google for more free resources or search on YouTube for video tutorials.
However, if you need professional-level assistance, here are some links you can visit:
Shopify Help Center: Shopify itself has step-by-step guides, blogs, checklists, and FAQs for its users. Go there, read, and follow the instructions.
Community and Forums: Shopify Community is the official Shopify forum, where people come and discuss everything and help each other.
Freelancers & Agencies: Although there are thousands of freelancers available on different platforms, if you need expert assistance, go for an experienced agency that will give you complete support for your business.
Let’s Recap
At first, check if your idea is viable. Make a business plan (including the main points at least, if you can’t go into details).
Create a Shopify account and get familiar with how it works. You’ll get a 3-day trial period. Currently, Shopify is offering $1/month for the first three months.
Utilize the opportunity to set up your store and complete the fundamental pages, so that you can start earning within a few weeks.
Note down or print the Shopify store setup checklist if you need to when setting up the store.
FAQs
1. What is the purpose of a Shopify store setup checklist? Why do I need it?
Answer: A newbie or an expert, I’ve seen many people launching their Shopify store without completing all the crucial steps, resulting in either business failure or poor performance.
A setup checklist makes sure you have taken all the necessary steps and configured every function before going live.
2. How long will it take for a Shopify store creation?
Answer: An expert can set up a basic Shopify store within 1-3 days if all the products, branding, and content are ready. However, if you opt for a more complex and large-scale site, it may take up to 1-2 weeks.
3. Is a paid Shopify theme worth it?
Answer: Paid Shopify themes offer more flexibility, customization, and a better professional look for your site. So, yes, paid Shopify themes are better.
Free themes are for beginners with a limited budget and smaller sites.
4. Do I need to be an expert to set up a Shopify store?
Answer: No, you don’t. Basic web knowledge should be sufficient for the store setup. However, for some beginners, it may take time to learn all the detailed functions of the platform.
Complex e-commerce stores are usually set up and configured by industry experts who have advanced development skills and marketing knowledge.
Entrepreneurs with enough budget most of the time hire an agency that provides complete support for the business.
5. Can I use my own domain name to start a Shopify business?
Answer: Yes, you can use your own domain (like www.yourbrand.com) for Shopify store creation. I do recommend purchasing the domain from Shopify, as it is easier and more secure. You can get it from a reliable third-party provider as well.
