Getting Started with Shopify: Complete Beginner’s Guide (2025)
Shopify powers over 4 million online stores worldwide. It’s the fastest way to launch an ecommerce business — you can have a professional store live within a day, no technical skills required. This guide covers everything you need to get started.
What Is Shopify?
Shopify is a fully hosted ecommerce platform. Unlike WooCommerce, which you install on your own WordPress site, Shopify is a Software as a Service (SaaS) — you pay a monthly fee and Shopify handles hosting, security, updates, and infrastructure.
You focus on your products and marketing. Shopify handles everything else.
Shopify Plans and Pricing
- Basic Shopify: $29/month — best for new stores
- Shopify: $79/month — adds better reports, 5 staff accounts
- Advanced Shopify: $299/month — third-party calculated shipping rates, advanced reports
- Shopify Plus: $2,000+/month — enterprise features
All plans include hosting, an SSL certificate, and an abandoned cart recovery feature.
Transaction fees: If you don’t use Shopify Payments, Shopify charges 0.5–2% per transaction on top of your payment gateway’s fees. Shopify Payments eliminates this extra fee.
Step 1: Create Your Shopify Account
- Go to Shopify.com
- Click “Start free trial” (14 days free)
- Enter your email, password, and store name
- Answer a few questions about your business
- You’re in!
Your store is immediately live at yourstorename.myshopify.com. You’ll connect a custom domain later.
Step 2: Set Up Your Store Details
From the admin dashboard, go to Settings > General:
- Store name and contact information
- Address (used for tax calculations and invoices)
- Currency
- Time zone
Step 3: Choose a Theme
Your theme determines your store’s look. Go to Online Store > Themes.
Free themes: Shopify includes several well-designed free themes. For new stores, a free theme is perfectly adequate.
Premium themes: Shopify’s theme store has 70+ premium themes ($100–$400 one-time). They offer more design options and niche-specific features.
For detailed theme recommendations, see our best Shopify themes guide and best free Shopify themes.
Step 4: Customize Your Theme
Click “Customize” on your active theme to open the visual editor. From here you can:
- Upload your logo
- Set brand colors and fonts
- Arrange sections on your homepage
- Configure header and footer
- Add a banner, featured collections, and testimonials
Shopify’s visual editor is intuitive — changes preview in real-time before you publish.
Step 5: Add Products
Go to Products > Add product:
- Title: Clear, descriptive product name with key attributes
- Description: Detailed selling copy with benefits, materials, dimensions
- Images: High-quality photos; include lifestyle and product-only shots
- Price: Set your selling price and compare-at price (for showing sale pricing)
- Inventory: SKU, barcode, quantity tracking
- Shipping: Weight and dimensions for shipping rate calculations
- Variants: Different sizes, colors, or materials
Step 6: Configure Shipping
Go to Settings > Shipping and delivery:
- Add shipping rates for each country you ship to
- Set up free shipping above a minimum order value (great for increasing average order value)
- Connect Shopify Shipping for discounted USPS, UPS, and DHL rates
For stores shipping primarily to the US, Shopify Shipping saves significant time and money.
Step 7: Set Up Payments
Go to Settings > Payments:
Shopify Payments — the easiest option; available in US, UK, Canada, Australia, and many other countries. No extra transaction fees, accepts all major cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.
PayPal — many customers prefer PayPal; add it as a secondary option.
Stripe — alternative to Shopify Payments in countries where Shopify Payments isn’t available.
Step 8: Configure Taxes
Go to Settings > Taxes and duties. Shopify automatically calculates US sales tax by default. You can configure tax rates for each region.
For complex tax situations, TaxJar integrates with Shopify for automated tax compliance.
Step 9: Connect Your Domain
Your store comes with a free .myshopify.com subdomain. For a professional store, connect a custom domain:
- Go to
Settings > Domains - Click “Connect existing domain” or “Buy new domain”
- Shopify sells domains starting at $11/year, or connect one you’ve already purchased from Namecheap, GoDaddy, etc.
Step 10: Install Key Apps
Shopify’s App Store has 8,000+ apps. Essential ones to install from day one:
- Klaviyo — email and SMS marketing (free for up to 500 contacts)
- Smile.io — loyalty rewards program
- Judge.me — product reviews (free plan available)
- Google & YouTube — sync products to Google Shopping for free product listings
See our full best Shopify apps guide.
Before You Launch
- Add at least 5–10 products
- Homepage configured with hero image and featured collection
- Navigation menu set up
- About, Contact, Shipping, and Return pages created
- Test checkout with a real card (refund yourself)
- Custom domain connected
- Google Analytics connected
- Basic SEO configured (see our Shopify SEO guide)
Useful resources: