How To Build a Shopify Store
The Right Way
[Step By Step Blueprint]

www.bharaji.com

Before your site can go live you need to add a few more details about your company and how you plan to make deliveries and pay tax. This section is all about the store settings you need to make.

In the left hand sidebar of your admin area you will see the menu to all your settings in Shopify. Start by clicking on menu link the lower left called Settings.

General

Enter your business information. Store title, business address, unit and currency settings.

Payment Providers

An ecommerce payment gateway is a service that allows you to accept credit card payments securely online through your Shopify store. Shopify connects to over 70 different payment gateways across the world.

I recommend using Shopify Payments powered by Stripe and/or Paypal.

You can find additional information on payment setups here:

https://help.shopify.com/manual/payments/third-party-providers

Checkout settings

Set what customer information is collected during checkout, how the order is processed, and your return / terms and conditions.

Use the following settings:

Shipping

Your Shopify Admin helps you manage the delivery of your goods to your customers – a very important aspect of your business! You configure all your shipping settings, including features like free delivery or customer pickup, from your Shipping page.

https://help.shopify.com/manual/shipping

I suggest using two shipping zones only: one domestic USA (assuming you are base in the USA). Set it at $2.95 flat rate (price based shipping)

One international zone set at $4.95 flat rate (price based shipping).

Taxes

When your shop is first created, Shopify sets up some default tax rates for your own country (and its provinces, states, or territories, if applicable).

They do their best to keep the default tax rates up to date, but you should double-check to make sure that they are current and correct.

https://help.shopify.com/manual/taxes

Gift Cards

Gift cards provide a flexible way for your customers to purchase a gift for someone from your store, making it easy for them to share their love for your brand while also maintaining full freedom of choice. With Shopify, customers purchase gift cards the same way they purchase any other product.

https://help.shopify.com/manual/products/gift-card-products

I usually don’t touch this setting when starting out.

Notifications

Choose what notifications are sent to you and your customers.

https://help.shopify.com/manual/sell-online/notifications/edit-template

I don’t change anything here.

Files

In this section you can upload and manage all your images in one area.

https://help.shopify.com/manual/sell-online/online-store/file-uploads

Sales Channels

You can use Shopify to sell your products using one or more online sales channels. Each place where you are selling is like a channel that flows into your business, helping customers from a variety of audiences find your products.

https://help.shopify.com/manual/sell-online/online-sales-channels

I don’t touch this section.

Account

Manage your user account settings and add new staff accounts to help you run your store.

Billing

Manage your billing information and update or upgrade your plan settings.

Legal

This is where you can generate some legal pages required for your store such as Refund Policy, Privacy Policy, Terms Of Services and Shipping Policy. I seldom use the Shipping Policy as I usually indicate clearly the shipping times on the product pages

Creating required pages

As briefly mentioned above, you will need some legal/required pages on your store before opening for business.

Luckily Shopify makes it easier for you to create those pages using some templates.

Pages are meant to be used for static content. They’re great for adding “About us” sections, Terms of Service policies, shipping and refund information.

https://help.shopify.com/manual/sell-online/online-store/pages

Navigation

In order to give your customers access to all the pages, collections and blogs within your online store, you must link to each page in a central place. Your store’s most prominently featured navigation is the main menu.

This is often referred to as your store’s “main navigation,” as this is how visitors to your store will be able to navigate to all the areas of your website.

https://help.shopify.com/manual/sell-online/online-store/menus-and-links

Create collections

A collection is any group of products (chosen by you) with some feature in common that customers might look for when visiting your store.

https://help.shopify.com/manual/products/collections

Ideally you want to create collections before your start importing products to your store.

Basic applications to install

Shopify has a large selection of apps that extend the functionality of your store. There are both free and paid apps in the marketplace.

https://apps.shopify.com/

To get started you will need install Oberlo and its related Google Chrome Extension. This application will help you import products automatically from Aliexpress.

You can also install Printful which will help with Print On Demand products import into your store.

Adding products to your store

Products are the meat and potatoes of your store. Without products to sell, you can’t make any money! Products are often physical goods, but they can also be a digital download (such as a movie, music or ebook file), or a service (an extended warranty, equipment rental, customization of another product or work for hire). Shopify keeps track of all of your products and their inventory on your products page.

https://help.shopify.com/manual/products/add-update-products

Product variants

A product variant is a variation of a product in your store, with differences based on elements such as size, color, material, etc. Let’s say you have a store that sells t-shirts. You create your original product called “t-shirt,” and product variants allow you to advertise the different colors and sizes.

https://help.shopify.com/manual/products/variants

Oberlo helps automate the import of products from aliexpress to shopify