You’ve decided to take the plunge and open your own Shopify store – congratulations! I’m excited for you! I think you will really enjoy your adventure!
You’ve probably read here in this blog that I help small business owners get started with their Shopify stores using a do-it-yourself approach. To help you get started, I’ve put together a checklist of tasks that you need to do to create your store from start to finish. Once you finish all the tasks on this list, you are ready to launch your website and “go live” – ready for business!
Here are the 20 steps you will need to take in order to get your store set up. You don’t have to follow the exact order that I have written, but I do recommend this order.
I’ve included links to the Shopify Help pages below each step for your reference. See below for a printable checklist you can use.
- To access your store dashboard go to http://yourstorename.myshopify.com/admin
- Add your personal information to your store account (Settings > General)
https://help.shopify.com/manual/intro-to-shopify/shopify-admin - Upload your product CSV file, or add a few products manually (Products > Import, or Products > Add New Product)
https://help.shopify.com/manual/products/import-export and https://help.shopify.com/manual/products - Create category sections for your products (Products > Collections), then add products to those collections
https://help.shopify.com/manual/products/collections - Add pages, such as an About Us, Contact, Shop Policies, etc. (Online Store > Pages)
https://help.shopify.com/manual/sell-online/online-store/pages - Find a theme that works well with your products and collections (Online Store > Themes)
https://help.shopify.com/manual/using-themes - Create navigation menus (Online Store > Navigation)
https://help.shopify.com/manual/sell-online/online-store/menus-and-links - Customize theme (Online Store > Themes > Customize Theme)
https://help.shopify.com/themes/customization - Set up your payment options (Settings > Payments)
https://help.shopify.com/manual/payments - Set up your checkout options (Settings > Checkout)
https://help.shopify.com/manual/sell-online/checkout-settings - Set up your shipping rates (Settings > Shipping)
https://help.shopify.com/manual/shipping - Set up your tax rates (Settings > Taxes)
https://help.shopify.com/manual/taxes - Add your Domain name (Online Store > Domains)
https://help.shopify.com/manual/domains - Add Sales Channels (optional) (Settings > Sales Channels)
https://help.shopify.com/manual/sell-online#available-online-sales-channels - Add apps (optional) (Apps > Visit Shopify App Store)
https://help.shopify.com/manual/apps - Determine if you are going to use the built in blog. If so, write your first blog post (Online Store > Blog posts)
https://help.shopify.com/manual/sell-online/online-store/blogs - Customize your notification emails (optional) (Settings > Notifications)
https://help.shopify.com/manual/sell-online/notifications - Check your account settings to make sure everything looks good there (Settings > Account)
https://help.shopify.com/manual/your-account - Place a test order
https://help.shopify.com/manual/sell-online/checkout-settings/test-orders and https://help.shopify.com/manual/orders - Open your store!
(If your store is in development mode with me, please contact me when you are ready to open your store)
Click the image below if you would like a checklist that you can print to check off each step.
If you are one of the development stores that I am working with, make sure to see the #shopify-resources channel in our Slack group for even more helpful resources. If you haven’t made the decision yet to start your own Shopify store, make sure to read Getting Started to see how I can help you.
Here’s to a successful start! You’ve got this!!!
Want to know what to do after you launch? I’ve got a checklist for that, too! Click A Post-Launch Checklist for Your Shopify Store