Shopify 101: Beginner's Guide to Setting Up a Shopify Store

2024 Edition

Starting an online store used to be complicated and costly, but not anymore. Shopify gives small and large business owners and entrepreneurs an easy way to start selling online. It has everything you need in 2025, from hosting to payments in one affordable plan. In this guide, we will go through what Shopify is, how to set up your store pricing details, and some must-have apps of 2025. So, let's get started.

What is Shopify?

Shopify is an all-in-one ecommerce platform that lets anyone create, manage, and grow an online and POS with ease. It helps you sell products online or in person with tools to design your site, manage inventory, process payments, handle shipping, and market your brand, all without coding. Even being a cloud-based business, you can run your store from any device.

Shopify offers customizable themes, built-in payment processing, fast checkout, and thousands of app integrations. Today, millions of businesses from small startups to global brands use Shopify to launch and scale their stores

This user-friendly platform will help you design and manage your website from scratch, without any prior knowledge or experience! You'll be able to showcase and sell products, set up carts & payment gateways quickly, so that your business becomes immediately visible on the web.

At the same time, it provides essential analytics and data that help business owners to make informed decisions, navigate the complexities of the market, and generate more revenue.

How to Start a Shopify Store?

Starting a Shopify store can be a smooth process if you approach it with proper planning and execution. Here are some practical steps to help you get started.

• Step 1: Identify your niche and research your market  

Before setting up your Shopify store, you must identify your target audience and research your market. Determine your niche and unique selling points. Do market research to validate if your business idea is profitable and in demand. This step helps you build a comprehensive understanding of what you'll offer and who your target audience is.

• Step 2: Establish your brand and business identity  

Your brand and business identity are essential components when building an online presence. Choose a business name that is memorable and relevant to your brand. Create a logo, color scheme, and design elements that will represent your brand consistently. Establish your brand identity and ensure that it reflects your business's purpose and values.

• Step 3: Register your business 

Once you've established your brand identity, it's time to register your business legally. Register your business with the appropriate local government bodies and obtain all necessary licenses and permits. Identify the taxes and contributions you'll be responsible for and ensure that you comply with all legal obligations.

• Step 4: Set up your Shopify account

Now that you've finalized all the legal requirements, it's time to set up your Shopify account. Go to the Shopify website and click on "Start Free Trial". Shopify will then take you through the process to help set you up. We'll look at the step-by-step process of setting up a store in a bit.

How Does Shopify Work?

Shopify is an all-in-one commerce platform that unites tools, products, and integrations into a single system, helping you sell anywhere, grow your brand, and manage your business with ease.

1. Build Your Online Store

Create your store in minutes with Shopify’s online store editor.

• AI-powered design: Generate a custom theme by describing your brand or products.
  
  
• Professional themes: Choose from 250+ mobile-friendly, customizable designs with dynamic effects.
  
  
• Content creation: Use Shopify Magic to write product descriptions and original content.
  
  
• Extra features: Add apps to extend your store’s functionality without coding.
  
  

2. Find Products to Sell

Whether you’re selling handmade products or sourcing inventory, Shopify connects you with suppliers.

• Partner with verified suppliers for dropshipping, print-on-demand, or wholesale.
  
  
• Use Shopify Collective to import products from other Shopify stores and ship directly to customers.

3. Turn Browsers into Buyers

Shopify offers one of the world’s fastest and highest-converting checkouts.

• Accept all major payment methods instantly.
  
  
• Boost conversions with Shop Pay, which allows you to make one-tap purchases.

4. Automate Shipping

Manage fulfillment and delivery with built-in tools.

• Print labels to track orders, and save on shipping rates.
  
  
• Scale with the Shopify Fulfillment Network for storage, packing, and returns.
  
  
• Offer local delivery and faster shipping with Shop Promise.

5. Sell Everywhere

Expand beyond your online store.

• Sell on social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
  
  
• List products on marketplaces such as Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and Etsy.
  
  
• You can opt for Shopify POS to sync inventory for in-person and online sales.
  
  

6. Market Your Brand

Understand your customers and grow your reach.

• Track performance with reports and analytics.
  
  
• Run campaigns with audience lists, abandoned cart emails, and influencer partnerships via Shopify Collabs.

7. Integrate Thousands of Apps

You have varieties of options from 8,000+ apps in the Shopify App Store to add everything from dropshipping solutions to AI-powered customer support.

8. Manage Your Finances

Shopify makes it easy to handle business finances.

• Automate tax collection and track expenses.
  
  
• Access Shopify Capital for funding and Shopify Credit for cashback on eligible business purchases.

9. From Startup to Enterprise

When markets change, so can your Shopify store. The flexible stores help you adopt new tools, sales channels, and automate processes without rebuilding your business from scratch.

How to Use Shopify in 7 Steps?

You can begin with a three-day free trial, after which it costs one dollar per month for the next three months.

1. Create & Access Your Store
After signing up, log in to your dashboard, and explore tabs for products, orders, customers, themes, and settings.

2. Choose & Customize Your Theme
Go to Online Store → Themes, select a free/paid template or use AI to generate one. Customize layout, colors, fonts, menus, and upload your logo.

3. Add Products & Organize Collections
Products → Add Product: Fill in details, upload images, set prices, and shipping info— group items into collections for easier browsing.

4. Set Up Navigation & Homepage
Link collections to your main menu, policies to your footer, and build your homepage with featured products, promo banners, and an About section.

5. Marketplace

To set up a market in Shopify, go to Markets from the left-hand menu (outside of Settings), click Create Market, and give it a name, such as North America. Then, add the countries or regions you want to target, like the United States and Canada, and if needed, narrow it down further to specific states or provinces.

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6. Configure Payments & Shipping
Go to Settings, where you can connect payment gateways to verify your account, set shipping zones, delivery options, and rates.

6. Shopify Policies, Test & Launch

Use Shopify templates for refund, privacy, and terms, and create a custom shipping policy. Link them in your store’s footer. After that, preview your store, check navigation, run a test order, select a paid plan, and remove password protection to go live.

Shopify Price - How Much Does Shopify Cost?

Shopify is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms available today. It provides users with a range of features and tools to set up and run an online store. However, one of the key considerations for users is the cost of using Shopify.

You can start a 3-day trial for free. After that, choose a plan that suits the size and stage of your business. Then enjoy $1/month for 3 months. Shopify’s pricing in 2025 starts at $5/month for the Starter plan and can go up to about $2,300/month for the enterprise-level Shopify Plus plan.  

Shopify primarily offers three plans: Basic, Shopify, and Advanced. Here's the plan comparison.

• Starter – $5/month. For selling on social media.
  
  
• Basic – $29/month (or $39 if paying monthly).
  
  
• Grow/ Shopify – $79/month (or $105 monthly)
  
  
• Advanced – $299/month (or $399 monthly).
  
  
• Shopify Plus – From $2,300/month. For large businesses, with custom pricing and lower fees.

How much is a Shopify monthly vs yearly plan?

The cost of Shopify varies depending on whether you choose a monthly or yearly billing plan. Here is a comparison of Shopify's typical monthly vs yearly plan pricing in 2025:

• Starter Plan:

• Monthly: $5/month
• Yearly: $5/month (no significant discount)

• Basic Plan:

• Monthly: $39/month
• Yearly: $29/month (billed annually, saves about 25%)

• Grow (Standard) Plan:

• Monthly: $105/month
• Yearly: $79/month (billed annually, saves about 25%)

• Advanced Plan:

• Monthly: $399/month
• Yearly: $299/month (billed annually, saves about 25%)

• Shopify Plus (Enterprise):

• Custom pricing starts around $2,300/month, usually billed yearly or on a contract basis.

Note: With the Shopify yearly plan, you get a 25% discount.

How do they get paid for the orders they receive?

Once a customer pays for an order using Shopify Payments or certain accelerated checkouts, the money is sent to the payout bank account you’ve set up with Shopify Payments.

You can receive your Shopify Payments payouts either in a checking account that meets the requirements for your country or directly in a Shopify Balance account.

Example:  When a customer makes a purchase using Shopify Payments, the payment amount minus transaction fees is transferred to your bank account. Payouts usually occur every few days, based on the schedule you set in your Shopify admin. Shopify Payments also provides fraud protection and does not charge extra third-party transaction fees.

Here's how it works:

Shopify Payments: This is Shopify’s built-in payment gateway that handles credit card payments and digital wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Shop Pay. 

Third-Party Payment Gateways: If Shopify Payments is not available in your region, you can use third-party gateways such as PayPal, Stripe, Square, Razorpay, Sezzle, Klarna, or Authorize.net. 

Manual or Offline Payments: Shopify supports offline payment methods like cash on delivery, bank transfers, or money orders. These payments are handled and confirmed manually outside the platform.

Payout Timing: The timing of payouts depends on your payment gateway and bank. With Shopify Payments, funds usually reach your bank within 2-3 business days after the payment is made. You have control over payout schedules in your Shopify admin settings.

What are Shopify Apps - An Introduction

Shopify has 8000+ apps in the app store. So, when you're getting started with Shopify, one thing you'll want to consider is how to use Shopify apps and integrations to make your business run more efficiently.

What are Shopify Apps? 

Shopify apps are tools that can streamline the process of running your store, from marketing and customer service functions to inventory management. Depending on the type of business you have, there can be a wide variety of available options that are designed specifically for different kinds of businesses and industries.

Best Shopify Apps

Running a successful e-commerce business requires more than just having a great product and an aesthetically pleasing website. One of the most important aspects of a successful online store is using the right tools to improve user experience, streamline processes, and ultimately increase sales. Shopify, one of the leading e-commerce platforms, offers a vast marketplace of apps that can help improve your business. Here are some of the best Shopify apps worth considering:

• PushEngage - PushEngage is a powerful push notification software that delivers targeted messages directly to your visitors. You can customize your messages, segment your audience, and automate your campaigns. Push notifications are proven to be effective in recovering abandoned carts, driving traffic to your website, and increasing conversions.

• Seguno - Seguno is an email marketing app designed specifically for Shopify stores. The app lets you create and send newsletters, abandoned cart emails, and follow-up emails to your customers. Seguno helps you grow your email list, increase customer engagement, and promote your products.

• Plug in SEO - Plug in SEO is an app that provides an automated SEO audit for your Shopify store. The app checks your website for common SEO errors and issues, such as broken links, missing alt tags, and slow page speed. Addressing these issues can help improve your search engine ranking and drive more organic traffic to your website.

• Smile - Smile is a popular referral marketing app that helps you incentivize your customers to refer their friends to your store. You can set up a referral program and offer rewards to customers who successfully refer new customers. Referral marketing is a relatively low-cost way to increase customer acquisition and retention.

• Return Magic - Return Magic is an app that helps you automate your returns process. The app generates prepaid return labels and automates refunds, making it easy for customers to return products they are not satisfied with. By simplifying the returns process, you can improve customer satisfaction and reduce the workload on your customer service team.

• Live Chat - LiveChat is a customer support app that enables you to chat directly with your customers in real-time. The app improves customer satisfaction by providing instant support and answers to their questions. LiveChat also includes useful features such as chatbots, custom chat greetings, and mobile apps.

• Form Builder - Form Builder is an app that lets you create and customize forms for your Shopify store. Forms can be used for various purposes, such as collecting customer feedback, creating contact forms, and processing job applications. The app is user-friendly and includes a drag-and-drop interface, making it easy to design forms that match your brand.

• Referral Candy - If you're not leveraging a referral program, you might be missing out on some valuable sales. Customers who are passionate about your products will usually tell their friends and family about them - why not reward them for doing so? ReferralCandy is the perfect Shopify application to develop bespoke referral programs for your online shop and maximize profits from satisfied clients.
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• Report Pundit- Report Pundit is a powerful reporting and analytics app built for Shopify stores. It offers 100+ prebuilt reports covering sales, inventory, customers, payouts, taxes, and marketing. You can also create fully customizable reports by adding fields like tags, metafields, and third-party app data that Shopify’s native reports don’t support. Reports can be scheduled to deliver automatically to email, Slack, Google Drive, or FTP, saving time and ensuring your team always has the latest insights. By simplifying complex data, Report Pundit helps merchants make faster, data-driven decisions and grow profitably.

For more information, you can read this blog: Top Shopify Apps to Simplify, Sell, and Scale Your Business in 2025

Shopify Integrations

Shopify integrations are must have for any e-commerce store looking to scale up and compete with the big players in the industry. With the vast array of integrations available through Shopify, you can bring your store to life by adding new features, tools, and functionality to boost sales and enhance the customer experience.

One of the most popular integrations for Shopify is Zapier. With Zapier, you can connect Shopify to thousands of other apps, including email marketing, CRM, project management, and automation tools. This means that you can streamline your workflow, automate tedious tasks, and have more time to focus on growing your business. No coding required!

Shopify integrates with major social media and advertising platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Google, Pinterest, and more, which helps you reach new customers and boost sales with targeted campaigns. It also connects with tools like Google Analytics, allowing you to track performance to understand customer behavior and modify your marketing strategy for a better shopping experience.

In addition to these popular options, Shopify offers a wide range of integrations to cater to various business needs. These include payment gateways, shipping and fulfillment, inventory management, reporting & analytics, customer support, and more. By choosing the right integrations for your store, you can create a customized eCommerce platform that suits your brand and business objectives.

Shopify Reporting Apps

The success of e-commerce stores largely depends on how efficiently they manage their data and make use of it to improve their operations. Shopify, being one of the most popular e-commerce platforms, offers numerous tools and apps to help merchants optimize their store's performance.

CTA-  Get Your Store an Advanced Shopify Report 

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Among these, reporting apps play a crucial role in providing insights into store data, enabling store owners to make informed decisions. In this article, we will focus on one of the most effective reporting apps for Shopify, Report Pundit.

Report Pundit is a powerful, flexible, and secure reporting app trusted by thousands of Shopify merchants. What sets it apart from other reporting apps is its ability to create customized reports and integration with 30+ apps to address specific reporting needs.

• This means that merchants can generate reports that are highly relevant to their businesses and provide insights into the areas that need improvement.
• The app offers over 150+ pre-built report templates that cover common reporting needs, such as sales, inventory, customer, purchase, and fulfillment reports.
• Additionally, merchants can create custom reports by choosing from more than 250 metrics, like total sales, AOV, gross profit and etc, and filtering options.
• Another significant advantage of Report Pundit is its competitive pricing. The app offers four pricing plans starting from just $9 per month, and goes maximum of $60 per month, making it an affordable option for merchants of all sizes. Each pricing plan offers different features, allowing merchants to choose the plan that best suits their reporting needs.
• Easy export reports to different formats, including CSV, Excel, and PDF, and schedule automated reports to be sent directly to their inbox.
• One of the most impressive features of Report Pundit is its ability to provide detailed reports instantly. The app's reporting capabilities are highly advanced, providing over 2000+ data fields that you can use to collect detailed insights into your store's performance. Additionally, the app supports multi-currency reporting, enabling you to view sales data in the currency of your choice.

Last but not least, another advantage of Report Pundit is its exceptional customer support. The app has live support, ensuring you get the most out of the app's reporting capabilities.

Use Shopify to Skyrocket Your Online Business

Long story short, Shopify is an amazing platform that makes it easy to set up, run, and grow your online store. The third-party apps in the Shopify App Store help businesses expand by adding advanced features, integrations, and automations that boost growth. Trusted by over a million businesses worldwide, Shopify is built to handle everything from small shops to high-traffic stores.

Get customizable reports, 100+ prebuilt templates, and insights to make smarter decisions starting at just $9/month. Try it free for 14 days or book a demo with our experts today.

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