This Shopify Cheat Sheet Will Get Your Store Up Fast
Shopify understands that you want to start selling ASAP. That's why they offer clients the tools to open a storefront fast and easy. There are also plenty of templates, apps, and plug-in resources that do the heavy technical lifting.
The problem is, many store owners still want to create their own store with their own hands. Luckily, this isn't difficult to do. This Shopify cheat sheet will show you some tricks to help you build a scalable and visually attractive online store.
Our Shopify cheat sheet is for real beginners. We'll show you how to get your store up and running as fast as possible and even go a step further to explain surefire ways to make your store better with time.
Choose a Theme
You've done the initial business planning, you've picked your store's name, and you've opened a Shopify account. Now, it's time to choose a Shopify Theme template. Selecting a theme is the starting point for quickly opening your Shopify store.
These themes are created by Shopify developers using the platform's open-source Liquid programming language. There are dozens to choose from, many of which come in different styles.
Choosing a theme is very important and should not be done in haste. The right one needs to represent your brand and appeal to your ideal customer.
Enact Store Settings
Shopify has default settings that will remain as-is unless you tweak them to your preferences. You should customize them, as you can optimize your store to make it look and function the way you want.
Here are the key settings you should adjust to get your store up and running fast:
General Settings
Here, you will input basic information, such as your domain name, the email address customers will use to contact you, and your business address. These are critical to include, as they can go a long way in demonstrating to your customers that you are a legitimate business that values their feedback.
Payments
In this section, you can adjust the types of payments your store will accept and the name your customers will see on their billing statements. You can accept credit and debit card payments from U.S. companies and global providers, as well as third-party payment processors like PayPal, Amazon, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.
Shipping
Will you be shipping items you sell yourself or dropshipping? Tweak shipping settings to reflect this. Something your store visitors will see that may influence how they shop your store is free shipping offers. For example, you may want to enact a minimum shipping threshold on all orders, say free shipping on orders over $50.
Create Main Pages
Your Shopify store needs more than a homepage and product pages. You also need a page with your contact information on it, an FAQ page that describes your shipping and refund policies, and maybe even an About Us page that outlines your company's history and mission.
Add Your Initial Products
After your main pages, you must create pages for every product you plan to sell. Before you start, be sure you have an organized spreadsheet of your products, product types, descriptions, and product images.
Of course, make sure to upload at least one high-quality photo (JPG or PNG format) for all products.
Integrate Marketing Tools
Even if you're using templates and shortcuts, setting up a Shopify store is a lot of work. So, when your store is live and functioning, you want to make sure to have the tools in place to attract customers!
A must-have is Google Analytics, a free tool that lets you analyze your store's success in terms of page views, bounce rate, best-selling products, and more. You'll see which pages are performing poorly, so you'll know what you need to improve.
How to Make Your Shopify Store Even Better Over Time
Shopify templates may be great for quickly getting your store up and running, but they're not designed to grow with you. If you want more time and effort put into the design and function of your store, consider hiring a custom developer to build one for you.
A pro can create a beautiful e-commerce store that's customized to fit your specific and ever-changing needs.
Conclusion
Don't know what link_to or pagination means? That's okay — you don't need to be fluent in CSS to set up a Shopify store. But just because you can build a store yourself doesn't mean it'll work right.
We at SKU Agency completely understand that. We have two decades of experience developing custom Shopify stores that are far from template shops. We're certified Shopify Experts who understand the Shopify API inside and out.
