Creating Your First Shopify Online Store 1/19 

   

 

Buyer’s Guide  

Creating Your First Shopify Online Store 

 

 

   

 

 Creating Your First Shopify Online Store 2/19 

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Important Notice The content in this document is informational in nature. As Shopify may change their policy at any moment, we cannot guarantee that the information in this guide is always accurate.  Before you start selling products via Shopify, you must confirm all rules and processes directly with Shopify. 

Table of Content Copyright Notice 2 

Contact us 2 Disclaimer 2 

Important Notice 3 

Table of Content 3 

1.0 Create Your Shopify Store 4 1.1 Pricing 5 1.2 Create your Shopify account 6 

Step 1: Click on Get Started or Start your free trial 6 Step 2: Select store name and password 6 Step 3: Add your address 7 Step 4: Store created (select plan) 7 Step 5: Select Basic Shopify plan 8 Step 6: Add your own website domain 8 

1.3 Customize store and add products 9 Step 1: Select theme 9 Step 2: Customize menus 10 

Step 3: Store preferences 11 Step 4: Add pages 12 Step 5: Add products 13 1.4 Shopify Apps 14 1.5 Payment Gateways 14 1.6 Shipping Options 16 

2.0 Marketing 17 2.1 Blogging 17 

Writing blog posts 17 About SEO 17 

2.2 Paid Ads 18 Platforms 18 Option A: Custom Audiences 18 Option B: Keyword Ads 18 Option C: Retargeting 19 Email List 19 

 

 

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1.0 Create Your Shopify Store 

  Shopify is today the world’s largest e-commerce platform. It’s also the platform that is the easiest to get started with, and to scale as you grow in the future. To keep things simple, we focus Basic Shopify in this Buyer’s Guide. 

   

 

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1.1 Pricing 

 

 There are 3 versions (Pricing Page) of the Shopify ecommerce platform. Basic Shopify is 

generally sufficient when launching your first online store.  

   

 

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1.2 Create your Shopify account 

Step 1: Click on Get Started or Start your free trial 

 

Step 2: Select store name and password 

 

   

 

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Step 3: Add your address 

 

Step 4: Store created (select plan) 

 

 

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Step 5: Select Basic Shopify plan 

 

 You can pay monthly or annually with your credit card 

Step 6: Add your own website domain 

 You can either buy a new domain on the Shopify platform, or connect an existing domain 

that you already own. 

   

 

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1.3 Customize store and add products 

At this stage, you’ve successfully launched your first online store. However, this is only the beginning, as you need to add products and tweak the store design. Click on Online Store in the left sidebar to access the items below. 

Step 1: Select theme 

 

 The Shopify Theme is a template that decides the design and layout of your online store. 

Hence, you don’t need to design the store on your own - but can choose from hundreds of free and paid Shopify Themes.   

 

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Step 2: Customize menus 

 

 Most online stores have a Main menu and a Footer menu. You can freely customize the menu 

items. A few suggestions follow below.  

Main Menu Structure  

Product Category + Sub Category 1 + Sub Category 2 + Sub Category 3 + Sub Category 4 

Accessories + Sub Category 5 + Sub Category 6 + Sub Category 7 + Sub Category 8 

Reviews + Customer reviews + Money back guarantee 

About us + Contact us + Our company + Payment options + Delivery options + Returns + Blog 

 Footer Menu Structure 

 

Review  Contact us  Terms of Service  Privacy Policy 

    

 

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Step 3: Store preferences 

 

 In the store preferences page, you can add the Title and meta description, improving your Google rankings. You can also add your Google Analytics code, and Facebook pixel - which is 

used to track your visitors on Facebook and Instagram.   

 

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Step 4: Add pages 

 

 You can add non-product pages to your online store, that are later assigned to a specific menu 

item. We recommend that you add the following pages:  

Contact us Reviews 

Money back guarantee Delivery options Payment options 

Our company Blog 

 The following two pages are mandatory to add: 

 Terms of service 

Privacy policy  

   

 

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Step 5: Add products 

 

 Each product is added manually to the Shopify store 

   

 

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1.4 Shopify Apps 

The Apps are what make the Shopify platform so powerful. The Apps enable you to add additional functionality to your online store. A few examples follow below:  

● Payment gateways ● Shipping plugins ● Email marketing ● Pop Ups ● Taxes & accounting ● Customer service ● Social media integration 

 More apps can be found in the Shopify App Store 

1.5 Payment Gateways 

 

 Go to Settings in the lower left bar and click on Payment providers 

 

 

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 From here, you can set up your Shopify Payments account (accept credit cards) or link your 

PayPal account. You can also add alternative payment options, such as COD (Cash on delivery) or wire transfer.  

 

   

 

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1.6 Shipping Options 

 

 You can add shipping rates based on weight class and destination country. You can also install 

Apps to link your store with third party logistics companies, such as Easyship (Link).  

   

 

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2.0 Marketing 

 

2.1 Blogging 

Writing blog posts about your industry enables you rank on Google, which provides a long term source of website visitors. For many online stores, free traffic from Google is the main driver of sales. 

Writing blog posts 

● Focus on specific topics (i.e., keywords) that people actually search for ● Make sure that the URL is matching the headline ● Write at least 1500 to 2000 words ● Add 10 - 15 minute long tutorial videos to each blog post 

About SEO 

● It can take 6 to 12 months (from the date of publication) before you get traffic to a blog post. The sooner you start, the better.  

● You must write blog posts on a regular basis (at least 2 per month is recommended) to maintain and grow your traffic from Google. Inactive websites stagnate. 

   

 

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2.2 Paid Ads 

Don’t want to wait 6 to 12 months for the ‘free’ Google traffic to come in? Then you’ll need to pay for ads. Below are some of the largest platforms used by ecommerce companies. 

Platforms 

● Facebook (Text, Image, Video) ● Instagram (Text, Image, Video) ● Youtube (Video) ● Google Adwords (Text, Image) 

Option A: Custom Audiences 

If you’re starting from scratch, you need to get people to your online store. Specifically, you need the right people, as you will pay per click or video view.  What makes Facebook, Instagram and Youtube attractive, is that you can show ads to specific audiences. For example, you can show ads based on the following parameters:  

● Country ● City ● Age ● Sex ● Language ● Interests ● Income 

Option B: Keyword Ads 

You can also show ads on Google, via their Adwords platform. Hence, you can show text ads based on keyword searches. This can be highly profitable for certain products. 

   

 

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Option C: Retargeting 

By adding a Google or Facebook pixel to your website, you can show ads to your audience even after they have left your Shopify store.   For example, you can visitors on specific product pages, and show them relevant image and video ads on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube - thereby increasing the chance of them buying your product.   However, retargeting requires that you actually have traffic to your website in the first place. 

Email List 

People rarely buy anything on their first visit. Hence, you need to make them come back several times. Thus, you need an email list to stay in touch with your visitors.   The most effective way to make them sign up is by setting up an email opt-in popup on your website (Shopify Store) - linked to a Drip.com account.  

● Use OptinMonster to create popups  

● Create Drip.com account to link the popup to a list  

● Create an ebook, discount code or other opt-in bonus  

● Send weekly news letters and/or quarterly discounts and offers  It works. The very fact that you’re reading this is proof of that.