⏱ Time to complete: You can have a basic store ready in 30 minutes. Getting it fully polished takes a few hours to a day depending on the number of products.

Start Your Free Trial

Visit Shopify.com and click "Start free trial". Enter your email address (or sign up with Google/Apple) and create a password.

Shopify will ask a few quick questions about your business:

Are you just starting out or already selling?
What kind of products will you sell?
What's the name of your store?

These questions help personalize your setup. Answer honestly — you can always change everything later.

Ready to begin?

Start your 3-day free trial now — no credit card required.

Create Your Shopify Account

Choose and Customize Your Theme

In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store → Themes. You'll see your current theme (Dawn is the default and excellent for most stores).

To browse themes: Click "Visit Theme Store" to see 100+ free and premium options. Filter by industry (clothing, electronics, beauty, etc.) or by price.

Customization tips:

Click "Customize" to open the drag-and-drop editor
Upload your logo in the header settings
Set your brand colors (use your primary and accent colors)
Choose fonts that match your brand personality
Arrange homepage sections: hero banner, featured products, testimonials

Pro tip: Don't spend too much time on design at the start. Choose a clean theme that looks good and focus on getting products live first.

Add Your Products

Go to Products → Add product in your admin. For each product, add:

Title: Clear, keyword-rich product name
Description: Benefits-focused, at least 150 words
Images: High-quality photos, at least 3 angles
Price: Regular and compare-at price (for sale items)
Inventory: Track quantity, SKU, barcode
Variants: If the product comes in different sizes/colors
Shipping: Weight and dimensions for accurate shipping calculation

Create Collections to organize products into categories (e.g., "Men's Shoes", "Sale Items", "New Arrivals").

Set Up Payments & Shipping

Payments

Go to Settings → Payments. Shopify Payments is the recommended option — it has the lowest fees and no transaction fees on top of subscription costs.

To use Shopify Payments, you'll need to provide banking information and verify your identity. If your country doesn't support Shopify Payments, choose a third-party gateway like PayPal, Stripe, or a local option.

Shipping

Go to Settings → Shipping and delivery. Set up:

Shipping zones: Domestic, international, etc.
Shipping rates: Free shipping (great for conversion), flat rate, or carrier-calculated
Handling time: How long before you ship orders

Launch Your Store

Before going live, do a final checklist:

✓ Test place an order (use a test payment gateway)
✓ Check your store on mobile devices
✓ Set up email notifications (order confirmation, shipping updates)
✓ Connect your custom domain (Settings → Domains)
✓ Add essential pages: About, Contact, Return Policy, Privacy Policy
✓ Set up Google Analytics (via Shopify's integration)

When you're ready, go to Settings → Plan and choose your subscription. Your store will go live and start accepting real customer orders!

Start Your Store Now

What to Do After Launch

📣 Drive Traffic

Use social media, SEO blog content, and paid ads to bring customers to your store.

Read our marketing guides →

🔄 Recover Abandoned Carts

Enable Shopify's abandoned cart recovery emails — typically recovers 5-15% of lost sales.

📊 Monitor Analytics

Check your analytics dashboard daily. Understand where your traffic comes from and which products convert best.

How to Start a Shopify Store