Shopify is one of the most preferred online platforms for eCommerce businesses to run their stores on a global scale. However, not all budding entrepreneurs are aware of how proficient this platform is and how to get started upon using it.
You can definitely get in touch with the best Shopify development company to get your store ready and live. But even then, you must have the standard knowledge of how Shopify works and how to get started with using it for your business.
Therefore, let’s take this article further to understand Shopify development for beginners and give you a guide to get started with the process.
What are the Steps You Must Follow in Order to Create Your Shopify Store As a Beginner?
It is true that hiring the best Shopify developers would do the job and get your store ready. But, if you don’t understand what every functionality on the platform means or how they work, managing your business would be complex for you in the long run. So, here are the steps that you must follow in order to get started with your store:
1. Don’t Rush to the Computer! Plan the Store in Your Mind First
Planning is the most integral part of running or creating a Shopify store. So, if it takes hours of time before you reach a conclusion in your mind, let it be! Before you connect with any professional or start researching on Shopify on your laptop, you should plan a few things out about your business.
Some of the things you should literally take note of in a piece of paper or diary for the store are:
- You must decide whether you are about to run the store all by yourself or with some business partner.
- If you are working with a partner, how are you about to split the profit and business rights?
- Specify the budget that you are ready to spend and the time you are ready to sacrifice for making this business scale. What you decide in this case will differ, depending on if you are considering the Shopify store as a side hustle or your main job.
Prepare a proper document with all of these statements and more to go back to them whenever you feel stuck while executing your business idea. Following that, you must then set up things such as your income goal, product categories, shipping, etc.
2. Choose an Astounding Name for Your Shopify Store
Well, now that you have your store plan ready, it is time to get started with the development process. The first step towards it is to give your store a name! The name of the store is the soul of your brand, so think of something that’s unique, creative, and represents what you do.
The only tip you should keep in mind while choosing your name is don’t limit yourself to just the specific products. Keep in mind the future expansions you would do for the brand, and choose a name that would go well with your scalable approaches in the long run.
For instance, if you are selling shoes today, don’t just pick a name that resembles shoes. It is because if you intend to add other products to your store later, people would often reject them, as they know you are just for the shoes.
A lot of brands have made this mistake, but there’s no going back! Once you have made a name for yourself, changing or modifying it comes at a great cost and risk! Once you have decided on the name, go get a domain as well!
Domain name is different from your store name but should resemble the same presence. When people type out your website’s URL in the address bar, they use your domain name to find you. It is difficult to find your domain name exactly similar to that of your store’s name. But, do give it a try, or go for something that’s near about the same.
3. Create the Shopify Account and Do the Store Settings
Go to Shopify and create your account by giving in your basic credentials, such as name, email, and store name. Once you select ‘Create your Store’, you will be asked about a few things related to you and your brand.
Give in your address for a start, and click on ‘Enter My Store’. You will be in! Now is the time when you have to get into some technicalities of shaping your store to be able to go live for your audience to access.
For that, you will need a good Shopify theme! There are a lot of default themes available over the platform itself. You can select one and customize it as per your preferences to get a unique look. There are different theme categories depending on the type of store you want to open.
Irrespective of how good the themes are, you won’t be able to grab that unique look, as almost all Shopify store owners have access to the default ones over the platform. Therefore, hire a Shopify development company to help you out with some unique themes on demand.
Following that, there are important store settings that you must do in order to complete the setup of your store, which include:
- Creating some of the essential store pages.
- Adding products and individual categories for the store
- Create different sets of collections
- Set up payment modes and optimize other checkout settings.
- Add the new discount codes for first-time buyers.
- Set up Google Analytics to review the store’s performance.
There are a lot of things that go into creating a Shopify store to ensure it is unique and highly responsive for your target audience. You can also hire the best Shopify developers to create extensions or plugins for integrating better functionalities over the store.
Bottom Line
For a start, these are the things you should keep in mind! Planning before execution is of utmost importance. Therefore, even though you hire a Shopify development company for your store setup, the planning and preparation beforehand, explained in the first two steps, are very crucial! So, get started with your eCommerce store over Shopify today, and bring in great revenue in the long run!
