Shopify Tutorial: How to Start a Shopify Store in 2024
(Fast & Successful)

Identify your Shopify Store Niche

Some first-time entrepreneurs don't give a lot of thought to the Niche. They think something like: selling hiking gear sounds great, let's do it. This is a bad idea because The Niche you choose will affect many things, including.

1. Your sales figures.
2. The amount of effort you need to put in to get clients.
3. Whether you will have repeat customers.

A strategic niche is very important, so you have to spend a lot of time thinking about it. First, let's talk about pricing.

Pricing

At the most basic level, we all understand the concept that

If you sell cheaper items, more people may buy them, but the average order value is lower.

If you sell more expensive items, you may have fewer people buying them, but the average order value is higher.

But when it comes to pricing, it's not just as simple as what you see in front of you. If you sell low-cost goods and you're targeting low- and middle-income groups, there's a lot of pre-sales work that needs to be done.

Why?

Because these people have less disposable income, they are cautious about every purchase, which means you need to answer more questions before you can sell a product.

In contrast, if you choose a niche that suits the middle-class consumer, you won't have this problem. Sure, you may encounter the odd picky customer who will still bombard you with tons of questions, but most customers don't need a highly maintained service.

At this point, you may be wondering: what are the criteria for pricing? Is there a minimum price as a cut-off?

While there are no strict rules, please try pricing items at $100 or more, the rationale behind this is this.

After taking into account operational, warehousing and marketing costs, most e-commerce sites end up with profit margins between 20% and 30%. Assuming you sell products that all earn 20%, if you sell $20 in merchandise, you will only earn $4 per sale, which is very poor; but if you sell $100 in merchandise, then that number is $20, which looks good.

When you think about it, you spend the same amount of time and effort on processing and fulfilling orders whether you are selling $20 or $100 items, so why not try to get more in return?

We have established that lower margin Niches cater to lower income groups and are associated with cheaper products. More importantly, you also need to consider brand loyalty, popularity, and the customer lifecycle.

Brand Loyalty

In short, you should avoid using Niches that are already dominated by household names. here is an example.

Let's say your headphones suddenly break and you need to buy a new pair. You'll likely pull out your phone and open the official Sony (or Bose, Beats, Sennheiser, etc.) website, or go to one of their offline stores.

Compare this to another scenario: Let's say you're renovating your house and think a nice chandelier would add a lot of interest. Then you might pull out your phone and search for phrases like buy furniture online or free shipping on local furniture.

See the difference in behavior?

In a Niche market dominated by a few brands, consumers don't even consider alternatives. Their brand loyalty follows and they run straight to the brand. This clearly does not bode well for new entrants.

Popularity

Now, I'm not saying that you need to limit yourself to selling popular products. In fact, this may be a bad idea because once the hype dies down, you may find that performance becomes very flat. Instead, you should try to identify a Niche or product that is growing slowly but steadily.

To get a deeper understanding of this topic, a handy tool is available: Google Trends. Just type in a keyword and you can see how many people are searching for it (globally or in specific countries/regions). For example, for the term Airfryer (air fryer), you will see a nice upward trend over the last 5 years.

The charts peak every year around December, so maybe air fryers are a popular Christmas gift? But that's okay. In fact, you'll be hard pressed to find Niche or products that show a smooth trajectory, as long as the overall trend is positive, that's all that matters!

Customer Lifecycle

Last but not least, please consider the Customer Lifecycle (CLV).

This requires you to think ahead, but it's important to have foresight when starting a business. After the first sale is made and the business is running smoothly, the next natural step is to try to generate more income. So how do you do it?

Many entrepreneurs try to increase the lifecycle value of their customers by coming up with strategies to re-target existing customers and continue selling to them. But this part is very tricky, and certain Niches are absolutely terrible at it. It's essential to pay attention to this ahead of time, so that after six months of running an online business and trying to figure out how to increase CLV, you don't find out: oops, I screwed up.

Take weddings, for example. It's easy to think that weddings hold high profits because every couple is willing to splurge on their big day. This is true, but they don't realize that clients have a very short life cycle. You may have 100 clients today, but those 100 clients will be gone in 3 months and never return.

While other online stores are able to maintain customers and sell products to existing customers, it's a different matter for you. In order to expand your business, you must actively invest in advertising, and other forms of marketing. You will be caught in an endless cycle of customer acquisition, and once you stop, sales will follow. Isn't that rather scary?

Before moving on to the next section, here is a short summary.

Unprofitable Niches usually cater to lower income groups and are associated with lower priced products, which hardly evoke brand loyalty and fail to capture long-term customer value; in contrast, profitable Niches cater to middle and upper income groups, are associated with more expensive products, have higher brand loyalty and have a long customer lifecycle.

One last thing, don't blindly enter a Niche market that you know nothing about. If you find a Niche that meets the above criteria but you are not familiar with, then take the time to do your market research. The more you know about your competitors and how the industry works, the better your chances of success with your online store.

Sell other people's products, or sell your own products

What's the next step in launching an online business?

Should you decide to sell someone else's product (forwarding distribution) or sell your own product (direct sales)!

Transit delivery has become very popular, but like anything else, this business is fraught with a host of challenges. Here, I will detail the pros and cons so you can make an informed decision.

In some ways, transit delivery can feel like the ultimate online store hack. You don't have to hold inventory, which means.

1. You do not need to purchase items in advance .
2. You can list more products in the store with essentially zero risk .
3. No storage costs .
4. No packing and packaging activities: With a forwarding and delivery business, almost anyone can easily enter the e-commerce field, even a destitute older man or a high school student who still gets pocket money from his parents. However, there are some not-so-good things here.
5. No control over how orders are executed: It may seem tempting for a manufacturer to take care of order delivery for you, but that's the problem: when they screw up, your customers will blame you. For online stores that take care of their delivery, it's easy to communicate with customers to apologize, correct the problem, and move on. But transit delivery has to contact a manufacturer thousands of miles away, and obviously, it's not easy.
6. Product Return Issues: Most sellers on Speedy (the most popular transit delivery platform) or 1688 do not do returns. Even if they had this business, you would need to send the defective product to the manufacturer, replace it from them, and ship it back to your customer.

So you have two options.

None of your store policies have a status indicating that you can process returns.

Or allow the return of the product and cover the damages.

If you're on a budget, then most likely you won't have to deal with returns. But don't do it!

You are still a new brand that no one has heard of and need to build trust with your customers. Therefore, if you have a strict no-return policy, that could delay potential customers from buying from your store.

Here's my suggestion: offer return processing, but only for defective products with some explanation that these products need to be shipped back to you in a shorter period of time (maybe 7 days) to be eligible.

If a manufacturer keeps sending defective products, stop working with them and find a different manufacturer.

Lack of brand effect

You can ask the supplier to not include any marketing materials in the package they send to the customer, but the fact that you likely won't be able to design any form of packaging or use your own name or logo means the customer won't have the best unboxing experience. Basically, they will receive a very nondescript box with a few Chinese shipping labels on it and nothing in the box to indicate that it came from your store.

If you're just planning to learn about e-commerce quickly, that's great. But if you're trying to build a brand, then this is a major hurdle.

Now that we've covered all there is to know about transit delivery, let's move on to selling your own products. First of all, the disadvantages are obvious.

1. The cost of purchasing the product.
2. The cost of storing the product.
3. Picking and packing takes time and money.

Basically, selling your own products costs a lot of money and is very painful to manage. With forwarding and distribution, you can outsource a lot of your business. But when you sell your own products, you are responsible for everything and need to put more processes together.

On the bright side, it's great to hold your own.

Ensure a perfect customer experience

Statistics show that most unhappy customers don't tell you they are unhappy, you just get forgotten by them and then lose those customers forever. If you don't realize this, you're hurting your own customer retention (and revenue). To avoid reducing this revenue, you need to improve in the area of customer service.

Direct selling has many advantages in terms of enhancing the customer experience, including.

1. Shorter delivery times.
2. Carefully designed packaging.
3. Knowing their products in all aspects.
4. Problems can be resolved quickly once they arise.
5. Higher profit margins
6. Buying products from the manufacturer usually follows a minimum order quantity, meaning that if you buy in bulk, you get some discount.
7. You can either keep the higher spread or pass the discount on to the consumer, which will drive more sales. Either way, your store will generate more revenue!
8. Define your own brand

We have already talked about the importance of putting branding on your products and packaging if you intend to use the brand for the long term. It's not just that consumers recognize your brand, but more importantly, that products delivered in well-designed branded packaging are more attractive.

How would you feel if you received a worn out, unmarked cardboard box? It might be like you just bought something from the black market or some guy in the basement tried to scam you. But you'd definitely be more excited to get the same product in a beautifully designed package, and there's a reason people shoot unboxing experiences!

One final benefit about branding: Awesome branding and packaging helps consumers share your product on social media. You can even include call-to-action phrases on your packaging and tell consumers to use your brand hashtag when posting on social media (Organifi does this very well).

Before moving on to the next step, let's briefly introduce the subscription box model that is currently very popular.

With this business, your customers specify whether they want a 3-month, 6-month, 12-month, or any other periodical subscription you offer. You can charge the full amount up front or you can do monthly billing. The advantage of this model is the customer lifecycle, as they are paying every month.

One final quick recap.

Transit distribution does not require capital and is the easiest way to get started, but has the lowest profit margins and poor branding.

Wholesale purchases require more capital and have to handle operations such as packaging and distribution, but can offer higher margins and better branding.

Subscription box stores are also available, and this business has a lot of room to play.

Once you've chosen your business model, it's time to start the fun part, designing your company (or website) name and registering the domain name!

Register the Perfect Domain Name

While not as unsuccessful as your Niche of choice, the company (or website) name is still very important.

People are obsessed with picking a unique name, my advice is to give yourself a 1 to 2 week deadline and if you're really stuck, then pick the name you think is best. Otherwise this step can waste months of time and ultimately kill your online store project in its infancy.

Here are some things to encourage and avoid to help you choose a good name.

Things to encourage and things to avoid

1. Please choose a name that is easy to pronounce
2. For us, it is usually difficult to spell correctly. Therefore, please choose a word that is easy to pronounce, otherwise the customer is likely to be redirected to the wrong address.
3. Choose a name that has some meaning
4. If the name is relevant to the Niche you are in, then people can more easily understand your business. If it has a deeper, more personalized meaning, then it can also be a great backstory for media placement.
5. Remain as original as possible
6. Use of already registered trademarks is likely to attract legal action.
7. Choose a .com domain name
8. While .co and other domains are becoming more popular, people still instinctively type in .com, and you definitely want your customers to find you more easily!
9. Don't choose a name that is too long
10. Website names should be 2 to 4 words, or 1 to 3 words. Again, the easier it is to pronounce and spell, the better people will remember it.
11. Don't choose names that are a combination of words and numbers
12. which will make it appear less professional.
13. Don't quote a specific product or product line
14. Don't do this unless you intend to focus on selling a highly innovative product. What happens when you decide to expand your product line in the future? You get stuck with that product.
15. If you need more help, check out Shopify's Business Name Builder.
16. Select the products to be sold

Decide Shopify fees and Shopify selling fees.

Choosing a Product or Service to Sell

You've chosen a Niche, have a site name and URL, now how do you determine what products to sell?

The answer is easy to find with some shared data, such as heading to Amazon Best Sellers to see the most popular items under your Niche at

Services you can sell on Shopify

Record all ideas in a document or spreadsheet, but there are some things to keep in mind.

1. Avoiding the use of registered brands.
2. Looking for $50 to $100 products with good margins.
3. Trying to find products with lower shipping costs.
4. Choose something that you understand.
5. Find things you can improve (check the reviews to see what people are upset about and then make a better product).
6. AliExpress and 1688 have many suppliers, but the difference is that you can buy as many products as you want on AliExpress, but most products on 1688 come with a minimum order quantity.
7. If you don't like Chinese suppliers, then you can also look at SaleHoo, which lists many high quality suppliers. Their market research lab is very useful for finding popular products, allowing you to compare different products and evaluate them based on sales trends, competitive ratings, and other metrics.

When looking for a supplier, please note the following tips.

1. Communicate consistently. The more you talk to them, the better you will feel, and don't be afraid to talk over the phone.
2. Avoid excessive or strange charges from suppliers.
3. Ask them questions often. Their customer support is your customer support, especially if you plan to transit distribution.
4. To learn more about finding the right supplier, check out this guide.
5. Create an online store

The best and easiest solution when it comes to creating an eCommerce store is Shopify. for more information about Shopify, check out this article of ours.

Set up a Shopify Store

Create your Shopify account 

Sign up for a free trial

Open the Shopify homepage and click on the Start free trial button to see the free trial option at

A few details will need to be filled in to complete the registration, but this will not take more than two minutes. After successful registration, you will be redirected to the dashboard.

Provide more details about your Shopify Store

Shopify pricing

Customize your Shopify store settings

The final step before publishing: check all settings and make sure everything is accurate.

1. Checkout page: specifies whether the customer needs to register in order to checkout.
2. Payment Providers page: enable different payment methods, PayPal and credit cards are the best options, bitcoin might be good too.
3. Shipping page: set up shipping costs for different regions, at the beginning of the establishment, you can go to 1688 or Taobao to find a cross-border logistics provider.
4. Notifications page: design the emails that customers receive when they complete their orders.
5. Promote the online store

Design the store website

Select a template/theme

In the Dashboard page, scroll down and click the Customize theme button.

This will take you to the themes page, scroll down again and click on the Explore free themes button.

Here you can find about 10 free themes, and if none of them are to your liking, then you can choose to buy a premium theme.

Pro Tip: It's not necessary to use a premium theme right now, but you definitely want to optimize your theme to improve conversions down the road, and this article presents some tips to improve conversions.

Once you have chosen a theme, you can upload your products.

free Shopify themes

Using shopify website builder

paid Shopify themes

Customize Shopify Design

Adding and updating products

Upload product

Importing products with a CSV file

Upload products to your shopify store

Shopify is very user-friendly, so it's a breeze. Just click Products on the left panel and then click Add product.

Repeat this process until all products have been added.

In addition to filling in the standard information (e.g. product name, description, etc.), be sure to enter a meta description for better SEO! For more information on this, check out the following article.

1. How to optimize your e-commerce website for higher conversion rates
2. The Ultimate Guide to E-Commerce Product Page Design

Group and categorize your products

Add other Important pages

In the left panel, click Online Store to open the secondary menu, then click Pages, and then click the Add page button on the right.

First, you need to create the About Us, Logistics Information and Contact Us pages. If you need help, please check out our articles on.

1. How to turn your About Us page into a sales machine
2. How to use return policies to increase sales
3. Pro Tip: If you're not good at writing, don't worry. You can use Shopify to automatically generate refund policy, privacy policy and terms of service pages.
4. Click on the Settings> Legal link in turn and you will see.

Use Features of shopify

Setting up Shopify Payments

Super SIMPLE How to Set Up Shopify Payments

Pick payment gateways

Charge Taxes on Shipping Rates on Shopify

Location-based tax settings

Shopify Payments Setup

Different Payment Methods on Shopify and How to Set Them Up

Handle Sales Tax on Shipping Charges in Shopify

Install Most important Shopify apps for your store

1. Oberlo
2. Kit
3. Sales Notification by MPS
4. Order Printer
5. Product Reviews
6. Free Shipping Bar
7. SEO Site Audit, Benchmark Hero
8. Printful
9. Digital Downloads
10. PushOwl
11. Form Builder
12. Rewards and Referrals by Swell
13. Shopcodes
14. Bulk Image Edit ‑ Image SEO
15. Upsell and Cross-sell Products

Launch your store

Change store name Shopify

Add your custom domain name

Placing a test order

How to sell digital products on Shopify?

Promote your online store

Strategies To Drive Traffic To Your Shopify Store

Now that your website is live, all that's left is to develop a marketing plan.

Content Marketing and SEO

As you may have already learned in this area, the results of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) are amazing. If you sell the exact same product in two online stores, but only one is optimized for search, you will see very different results.

Over time, you'll find that selling products online is a numbers game where you try to maximize the number of visitors, maximize the conversion rate, and maximize the retention rate. This is where content marketing and SEO come in handy. Quality content can help you rank, drive traffic to your store, and build trust with your visitors to increase sales.

Social Media Marketing

One of the golden rules of online marketing: consumers find you when they are hanging out. So make sure you keep your social media pages updated and active!

You can create a content calendar in order to write and schedule posts in advance and make sure that you are always prepared for the main holidays. This may sound like a lot of work, please don't worry, first you just need to choose a channel you want to focus on and start slowly with the smallest of places.

Pay per click (PPC)

Most first-time entrepreneurs are hesitant to try PPC because they fear they will end up going over budget.

But in reality, many online stores spend over $100,000 per month on this, which for those unfamiliar with it sounds like a lot of money. But if I tell you that these companies are getting a 100% ROI on their PPC ads, meaning they're getting $2 in revenue for every $1 they invest, then that ad spend doesn't seem so ridiculous, does it?

So, even if you are not an expert in the field of PPC, you can still make significant profits from it even if you place a mediocre ad.

Finally, don't forget that PPC is not only limited to Google Ads, you can also place Bing Ads and Facebook Ads.

Email Marketing

As already mentioned, merchants can earn an average of $2 for every $1 spent on Google Ads, isn't that tempting?

Compared to PPC, email marketing actually boasts even more impressive numbers, earning an average of $44 for every $1 spent! Don't think that email marketing is old school, outdated and boring, it is actually very powerful and effective and is one of the most profitable types of marketing available today.

Influencer Marketing

If done correctly, then influencer marketing can bring great benefits. But some fake influencers buy a lot of zombie fans, so keep your eyes peeled when using them!

Shopify Apps to Increase Sales Instantly

Conversion Rate Optimization for Shopify stores

What are the advantages and disadvantages of opening your own store?

The advantage is that your profits are yours, there are no commissions you have to pay, Plus you have complete control over your pricing plan and promotional discounts.