How to Launch Your Own Online Store With Shopify

Here well look at one of the most popular ways of launching an online store.

Shopify

Unquestionably the easiest way to open an online store is by usingShopify.

The Basic Shopify plan at $29 per month is more than adequate for most beginning online retailers.

Choose a store named WeSellStuff, for example, and your site address will be wesellstuff.myshopify.com.

Fortunately, setting up a personal domain name is fairly routine.

After that, youll be on the main dashboard page.

you might do this by clicking the Customize Theme button on your dashboard screen.

punch the Explore Free Themes button to check out the options available as part of your Shopify package.

Once you find the template you like, go for the Add button in the pop-up window.

Then, somewhat counterintuitively, scroll down and nudge the Actions button and select Publish.

There are two basic ways to populate your page with products.

The first would be if you already have possession of the physical products you want to sell.

To set up your products, smack the products text link in the left-side menu.

Then click Add product.

Two online directories that could help in this regard areDobaandInventory Source.

So socks might be one collection, watches another, and sale another.

Many of the Shopify templates work with collections, so its wise to set them up from the outset.

Enter the details on the next page.

Adding a blog to your site is equally straightforward.

Choose Online Store in the left-side menu, then Blog posts, followed by Create blog post.

After writing your post, be sure to poke the button next to Visible in the upper right.

hit the Add section link on the left and choose Blog post.

Oberlo is just one of hundreds of apps available through Shopify.

These plugins allow you to do more with your store that the basic Shopify interface allows.

A Shopify store automatically comes with credit card processing as part of your monthly fee.

Shopify charges you 2.9% plus $.30 of every transaction they process.

Otherwise, tap on Change provider (top right) and choose another processor.

The payments page also allows you to set up other payment options such as Amazon Pay andCoinbase.

To access them, punch configs again and navigate to Notifications.

Shopify also makes it extremely easy to offer discounts to your shoppers.

The interface is super smooth and navigating around the site comes pretty intuitively.

Still, the siteeven in its un-enhanced-by-apps formatprovides plenty for a beginning e-retailer to sink their mouse into.