How To Build A Shopify Store The Right Way
How To Build A Shopify Store The Right Way
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
Contents
Chapter 1: The Basics .................................................................................................................................... 4
What Is Shopify? ....................................................................................................................................... 4
How To Use Shopify .................................................................................................................................. 4
Dropshipping ......................................................................................................................................... 5
Print-On-Demand .................................................................................................................................. 6
Selling Your Own Products Or Services ................................................................................................. 7
How Much Is Shopify And How To Start Your First Store For Free ........................................................... 8
Budget required to start ....................................................................................................................... 9
Where to start: Niche store or Generic store? ....................................................................................... 10
Generic or General Store: ................................................................................................................... 10
Niche Store:......................................................................................................................................... 11
Pick a Niche: Top 3 Shopify Steady Niches ............................................................................................. 12
Women’s Clothing & Accessories ....................................................................................................... 13
Jewelry ................................................................................................................................................ 13
Home & Garden .................................................................................................................................. 13
Chapter 2: Shopify Store Creation .............................................................................................................. 16
Pick a Name For Your Store .................................................................................................................... 16
Sign up for Shopify in less than 5mns ..................................................................................................... 17
Setting up a domain for your store ......................................................................................................... 19
Branding: Free logo creation................................................................................................................... 21
Setting up a business email address the easy way ................................................................................. 21
Theme Installation and Customization ................................................................................................... 22
Chapter 3 – Store Settings .......................................................................................................................... 23
General.................................................................................................................................................... 23
Payment Providers .................................................................................................................................. 24
Checkout Settings ................................................................................................................................... 25
Shipping................................................................................................................................................... 27
Taxes ....................................................................................................................................................... 27
Gift Cards ................................................................................................................................................ 27
Notifications ............................................................................................................................................ 28
Files ......................................................................................................................................................... 28
Sales Channels......................................................................................................................................... 28
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
Account ................................................................................................................................................... 28
Billing....................................................................................................................................................... 28
Legal ........................................................................................................................................................ 29
Creating Required Pages ......................................................................................................................... 29
Navigation ............................................................................................................................................... 30
Create Collections ................................................................................................................................... 30
Basic Applications to Install .................................................................................................................... 30
Adding Products to your Store................................................................................................................ 31
Product Variants ..................................................................................................................................... 31
Chapter 4 – Opening For Business. Going “Live” ........................................................................................ 32
Setting up preferences ............................................................................................................................ 32
Google Analytics...................................................................................................................................... 32
Facebook Pixel ........................................................................................................................................ 32
Storefront Password ............................................................................................................................... 33
Chapter 5: Your First Sale and Beyond ....................................................................................................... 34
Top 10 Shopify Stores ............................................................................................................................. 34
My 22 Days Experiment - $1,121.57 In Revenue .................................................................................... 35
Next Steps ............................................................................................................................................... 35
About The Author ................................................................................................................................... 36
Resources .................................................................................................................................................... 37
Done For You Shopify Store Setup .......................................................................................................... 37
Shopify Docs ............................................................................................................................................ 37
Shopify Blog ............................................................................................................................................ 37
Ecommerce University ............................................................................................................................ 37
Shopify Dropshipping: Top 3 Steady Niches Revealed ........................................................................... 37
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
Chapter 1: The Basics
What Is Shopify?
Shopify is an all-in-one ecommerce platform that allows you to create your own online
store. It provides you with several themes that can be customized to meet individual
users’ branding requirements.
One of the key selling point of Shopify is that users without technical or design
experience can create beautiful online websites.
As stated on their website, Shopify powers ambitious entrepreneurs all over the world
with more than 600,000 stores, 1,000,000+ active users and $72B+ sold on Shopify.
I can tell from my own experience that it is one of the most user friendly ecommerce
platform out there.
I will share with you how most entrepreneurs use Shopify to earn an income online.
The widely business model used is called Dropshipping although people also use
Shopify to sell their own line of products or services.
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
Dropshipping
I have noticed that most entrepreneurs involved with dropshipping use Aliexpress for
selling physical goods.
Dropshipping in a nutshell is when you play the middle man between the supplier and
the customer. You buy a product at a certain price and resell it with a margin to cover
your costs and profits.
You don’t invest in inventory or whatsoever. You only buy the product when you have
an order on your store. The supplier sends it to your customer without you seeing it or
touching it. This is inventory arbitrage. Your risk is almost nil.
This is not a new concept. Many fortune 100 companies such as Amazon, Walmart use
a similar business model.
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
The most popular suppliers for droshipping with Shopify are:
Aliexpress
Etsy
Ebay
Amazon
Print-On-Demand
When someone orders the product on your store, the printing partner gets it, prints the
said product and ships directly to your customer without you seeing it or touching it.
There is a bit of time and money to be invested in design research and you may have to
pay a monthly fee to some partners.
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
The most popular Print-on-demand partners are:
Teespring
Teelaunch (I have used)
Printful (the one I am currently using)
Pillowprofits
Custom cat
Gearlaunch
You can create and develop your brand from scratch and take it to the world!
Colourpop.com
jeffreestarcosmetics.com
fashionnova.com
kyliecosmetics.com
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
How Much Is Shopify And How To Start Your First Store
For Free
You can start selling on Shopify free for 14 days, no credit card required.
But you will have to pick a plan later for you to unlock Shopify’s potential.
They have several plans to accommodate a wide range of entrepreneurs with their most
popular ones being basic shopify, shopify and advanced shopify.
They do have a starter plan called Shopify lite as well as an enterprise-grade solution
(shopifyplus) for high volume merchants.
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
Based on my experience here is an indication of budget you will need to get started:
-Shopify Online Store: $29 USD per month after the 14 day free trial
-Oberlo Application (if using Aliexpress): $29.90 USD per month if selling more than 50
items per month. If you are selling less than 50 items per month then Oberlo is free.
-Domain Name: $14 USD per year for a domain name registration
-Marketing budget (Facebook or other): $500 minimum, I recommend $1,000 USD per
month if marketing on Facebook.
Once you start generating more revenues, you can re-invest some of your profits into
your business. Additional shopify some paid applications would be required to increase
your store’s conversion and profitability.
Pro Tips
Before jumping headfirst into building a Shopify Store, I highly recommend you immerse
yourself with some of the free training materials on the subject. You have YouTube
Videos, Facebook Groups and even Shopify own free materials.
Most importantly I would advise against buying a Shopify Course right away without you
doing some due diligence.
I have a list of recommended resources at the end of this article to get you going in your
learning journey.
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
Where to start: Niche store or Generic store?
There are two schools of thought out there about what type of store to build
when dropshipping: some strongly believe in starting a niche store while other
recommend a more generic store (or superstore).
There is more opportunity with generic stores. You are not confined to a specific niche.
You can test different products from various niches. This gives you an edge to quickly
adapt and scale easily.
One major downside is the lower conversion rates (not always though).
https://bdgastore.com/
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
Niche Store:
You build your store around one particular theme or niche market. All the products on
your store would be in that market. With niche stores, you have higher conversion rates.
One major downside is that it can fizzle out easily if it’s a trend.
One variation of the niche store is the single product store. You build you store around
one single product. All your marketing effort will be driving traffic to this single product.
https://www.ripndipclothing.com
All the products on this store are centered around the cat niche.
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
Example of one product store
https://getsnoreless.com
If you happen to believe that Dropshipping is dead then think again. People are making
a killing everyday using this business model with Shopify. Do a simple search on
YouTube and you will see successful dropshippers showing you the back end of their
stores with live proof of earnings.
Back to the topic at hand, there are two schools of thought on what niche to get into for
an online business: follow the trend or start with an evergreen market.
I would say try both and see what works for you. From my own experience evergreen
niches seem to be the best markets to start with because of their steadiness. It’s not a
fad that will eventually pass.
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
David Vranicar at Oberlo, the leading marketplace in dropshipped products found on
Aliexpress.com, wrote a blog post on the same topic. He used data from Oberlo to
highlight some of the most popular niches, in the most popular categories, over the
longest period of time.
His analysis covered 2016, 2017 and part of 2018. He concluded that the categories
that get the most sales year after year are:
Within those popular categories, the niches that had the most orders were:
Intimates
Accessories
Dresses
Jewelry
Home Decor
Kitchen, Dining & Bar
Home Textile
Aliexpress has a dropshipping center a resource to help dropshippers sell more of their
products.
It shows hot dropshipping items, trusted suppliers and some insights on products (also
know as product analysis).
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One premise in business you might be familiar with is to sell what is already selling.
Why re-invent the wheel? If the previous niches have been proven to work why not start
there and expand once you have learned the ins and outs of online business with
Shopify. It’s the path of less resistance.
You could take additional steps in validating your niche idea – where required.
For that, use google trends, plug in your niche idea and analyze the trend.
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
Here is an example with the rings niche idea.
Head over to
https://trends.google.com/trends/
Type in the term “rings”. Pick “worldwide”, past 12 months, shopping category
In this case you can see that the trend is upwards. You can make an informed decision
based on this trend, should you require more convincing that is.
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
Chapter 2: Shopify Store Creation
In Chapter 1, I explained what Shopify is and how most online entrepreneurs use it to
build successful businesses. I also shared with you the minimum budget required to
start your very own Shopify Store.
I ended up advising on some popular steady niches used by Shopify store owners.
At this stage I assume that you have picked a niche and done some basic research on
what type of products you could sell in the said niche. Now is the time to build your
online store and it starts with picking a name for your store.
Go to https://www.shopify.com/tools/business-name-generator
Enter a word that you want your business name to include then click on “Generate
names”.
Shopify will spit out a list of possible business names you could use for your store. Don’t
overthink this step, simply pick a name and move on to the next step.
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
Sign up for Shopify in less than 5mns
Visit Shopify.com
You will get to the following page or something similar with a different image (depending
on when you are reading this guide)
Click on “Start free trial” in the top right corner or the middle of the page
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
Enter the required details and click the ‘Create your store now’ button.
Your store name needs to be unique or Shopify will ask you to choose something else.
After this initial screen, you’ll be asked for a few more details, including your name,
address, country and a contact number.
You will also be asked if you have products and, if so, what you aim to sell. If you’re just
trying out Shopify to see if it works for you, you can select ‘I’m just playing around’ in the
‘Do you have products?’ dropdown, and ‘I’m not sure’ in the ‘What will you sell?’ section.
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
After you’ve signed up you’ll be directed straight to your store admin screen. Now you
are ready to start customizing your store, uploading products and setting up payments
and shipping.
For branding purposes it is advisable to have a shorter domain name, preferably a .com
that people can easily remember. In this case it would be dogpeboutik.com
You have two options. Firstly you can buy a domain from Shopify and it will be added to
your store automatically. This is the easiest option and it saves you time.
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
Your second option is to buy a domain from a third party such as NameCheap but you
will have to redirect the DNS records yourself. In that case you click on “connect
existing domain” and follow the instructions.
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
Branding: Free logo creation
Shopify has a tool for free logo creation. This will help you with branding without
spending tons of money for a designer.
Follow the straightforward instructions and provide an email address where your
designs will be sent. Download the files and save them in a safe place for later user.
Go to https://gsuite.google.com/
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
You get a 14-day free trial then it’s $5 per month per user/email address. You don’t
need more than 1 email address to begin with. I suggest creating
[email protected] or [email protected] email.
I recommend using the free shopify theme called Brooklyn. It’s mobile responsive, fully
supported by Shopify technical team and used by many online stores.
You can also upload a third party theme, should you choose to.
https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/using-themes/adding-themes
https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/using-themes/themes-by-shopify/brooklyn
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
Chapter 3 – Store Settings
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 adjust.
In the left-hand sidebar of your admin panel you will see the menu to all your settings in
Shopify. Start by clicking on the menu link the lower left called Settings.
General
Enter your business information. Store title, business address, unit and currency
settings.
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
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.
https://help.shopify.com/manual/payments/third-party-providers
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Checkout Settings
Set what customer information is collected during checkout, how the order is processed,
and your return / terms and conditions.
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
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 based
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
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
Notifications
Choose what notifications are sent to you and your customers.
https://help.shopify.com/manual/sell-online/notifications/edit-template
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
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.
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
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.
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
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
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.
https://apps.shopify.com/
To get started you will need to install Oberlo and its related Google Chrome Extension.
This application will help you import products automatically from Aliexpress.
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
You can also install Printful which will help with Print On Demand products import into
your store.
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
You can read more here
https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/dropshipping/oberlo/products-and-pricing/adding-
and-importing-products
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
Chapter 4 – Opening For Business. Going “Live”
Here are some final tweaks to make before going live with your store.
Setting up preferences
Click on “Online Store” and select Preferences
You need to capture your homepage title and meta description. This is what shows
when your store appears in search engine results.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics lets you track visitors to your store, and generates reports that will
help you with your marketing.
https://help.shopify.com/manual/reports-and-analytics/google-analytics
Facebook Pixel
Facebook Pixels allow you to connect your Shopify store to your Facebook Ads
account.
https://help.shopify.com/manual/promoting-marketing/facebook-pixel/facebook-pixel-for-
shopify
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
Storefront Password
The last step is to remove your storefront password. This makes your store public to
everyone on the internet.
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
Chapter 5: Your First Sale and Beyond
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
My 22 Days Experiment - $1,121.57 In Revenue
Here is a screenshot of my one my stores during a 22 day experiment I run for 1
product. This was from January 1 – 23, 2019 (not much happened on the 23rd).
I made $1,121.57 in 22 days. My sales were still going strong but I had to stop the
advertisement because of the Chinese new year fast approaching. I did not want to deal
with angry customers with delayed parcels deliveries. Indeed Chinese suppliers tend to
close for 2-3 weeks during the Chinese New Year.
Note that this was a General store for which I ran a specific campaign for 1 product. No
major optimization as you can notice by the conversion rate and I did not even scale the
campaign.
My main traffic source was Facebook.
Next Steps
Build your first store and start running some traffic to it. I recommend either Instagram
Marketing or Facebook. If you need help with your Facebook Marketing and or building
you store, contact me at [email protected] and I will be happy to assist.
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
About The Author
The Author is Brahima but he goes by the name of B. He lives in Canada and loves
sharing knowledge and helping others on the topic of ecommerce and Internet
Marketing.
He started online in 2005 with his first Ecommerce store but really got serious about
building a profitable online business in 2012.
Since then, he has built several online properties and has a good sense of what works
in the internet marketing industry.
If you are anything like him when he was starting out, he used to jump around from one
thing to another not really knowing what to do.
He thrives to publish good quality content that is actionable and designed to help you
start and grow your own eCommerce Store, generate more traffic and acquire more
customers.
If you would like to get a personal coaching tailored to your needs, then send him an
email at [email protected]
To Your Success.
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]
Resources
Shopify Docs
Help articles for all the options in Shopify https://help.shopify.com/?utm_source=Docs
Shopify Blog
Daily posts with ecommerce expertise https://help.shopify.com/manual/sell-
online/online-store/blogs
Ecommerce University
Free tools and resources to accelerate your skills and success.
https://ecommerce.shopify.com/
Done For You Shopify Store Setup visit https://bharaji.com/shopifysetup or email [email protected]