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E-commerce

How to use Shopify

Shopify hosts your store: you add products, group them into collections, choose a theme for the storefront, and configure payments, shipping and taxes before you remove the password page.

Building a Shopify store is easy. Building one that doesn't lose money on shipping, tax or checkout friction takes about five extra decisions — and those are the ones nobody covers in the setup wizard.

What people actually use Shopify for

  • Get a first product live and buyable today
  • Set shipping rates that don't quietly eat the margin
  • Organise a catalogue with collections instead of endless menus
  • Recover abandoned checkouts automatically
  • Understand which products and channels actually sell

Shopify in five steps

  1. 1

    Add one product completely

    Title, description, images, price, SKU, weight and inventory. Weight matters: without it, calculated shipping rates cannot work.

  2. 2

    Set up payments and test a real order

    Enable Shopify Payments or your gateway, then place a genuine low-value order and refund it. Test mode hides real-world failures.

  3. 3

    Configure shipping zones deliberately

    Decide free, flat or calculated per zone. Work out your true packed weight and cost first — flat rates set by guesswork are the most common margin leak.

  4. 4

    Build collections and the main menu

    Automated collections use tags and conditions so new products file themselves. Keep the top menu to five items or fewer.

  5. 5

    Check the theme on mobile, then launch

    Most traffic is mobile. Walk the whole journey on a phone — home, product, cart, checkout — before you remove the password page.

Stuck on your own screen?

Paste a screenshot of the exact Shopify screen you're on and Magic Assist AI tells you what to click next — no course, no 40-minute video.

Teach me Shopify

Common Shopify mistakes

Too many apps

Every app adds scripts to the storefront. Ten apps later the site is slow and conversion drops, which no theme tweak will fix.

Guessed shipping rates

A flat rate below your real cost turns every sale into a small loss. Weigh a packed parcel and price from that.

Skipping tax settings

Tax regions are configurable for a reason. Getting it wrong is discovered at filing time, not at checkout.

Thin product descriptions

Manufacturer copy pasted verbatim ranks nowhere and converts poorly. Write the answer to the question a buyer would actually ask.

Shopify FAQ

How much does Shopify cost to run?

There's a monthly plan fee plus payment processing per transaction, and extra fees if you use a third-party gateway. Apps and the theme are additional.

Do I need a custom theme?

No. A free theme configured well outperforms a poorly set up premium one. Change themes when a specific limitation blocks you.

How do I make my Shopify store show up on Google?

Unique product descriptions, clear collection pages, fast mobile loading, and a submitted sitemap. Shopify generates the sitemap automatically at /sitemap.xml.

Can I sell before my domain is connected?

Yes — the myshopify.com URL works immediately. Connect the custom domain before you start advertising so links and analytics stay consistent.

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