The guide for merchants: Create your own Shopify store

You want to open an online store?

Then you are probably wondering which store system suits you best. Our favorite here is clearly Shopify. Why the system is suitable for merchants of all sizes, what advantages Shopify brings with it and how you can create your own Shopify store, we would like to show you in the following.

Create your own online store - how does it work?

Your mind is made up and you want to set up your first or maybe another online store for your business? Before opening an online store, a few things need to be organized and planned. From the concretization of the business plan, to the selection of a suitable store system, to the determination of the store structure and the legal texts, there is a lot to consider. To help you keep an overview, we will go into all aspects in more detail.

Business model and business plan

Before creating your online store, you must first determine what assortment you offer and what sales strategy you want to pursue. These aspects can have a significant impact on the selection of the right store system. To select your assortment, it is worthwhile to take a look at the relevant target group to understand needs and follow trends. You should already clarify the following questions in your business plan:

• What does your target group look like and which personas are included?

• What problems does your target group have?

• What products can solve these problems?

• Which competitors exist and what are their USPs?

• What is the market coverage for the corresponding products?

• What production costs can be expected?

• Where will you find suppliers and manufacturers?

• How will you manage warehousing and logistics?

• What margins can you expect?

• How many orders do you need to be profitable?

• Through which distribution channels do you want to sell your products?

Determine content

Once you have selected your store system, you must now fill it with content. The following aspects in particular play a role here:

• Categories: If you offer a wide range of products, you should divide your products into categories. You should provide these categories with short category descriptions so that customers know directly which products they can find here.

• Product presentation: When choosing your product photos, you should make sure to use high-resolution images. High-quality images are essential for a good product presentation. Also, choose different perspectives and show the details of their products.

• FAQ section & help center: Make it easy for your customers to get important information by answering all important questions in a FAQ section. If customers have further questions, they should be able to contact your customer service easily. So, offer contact options like a contact form or chat feature.

• Blog: A blog can help you share more information with your customers. For example, here you can showcase new products, provide styling inspiration, or clarify recurring questions in detail. In addition, regularly maintained blogs are also search engine relevant and can thus help you with your Google ranking.

• Seals of approval and certificates: If you have been awarded seals of approval or certificates, you should place them visibly in your store. This creates trust among users and supportively ensures that they make a purchase.

• Reviews: Reviews also create trust and help customers to evaluate your products or brand and identify with them.

Creating a Shopify store: Set store structure

Once the contents of the store have been determined, you can deal with the structure. Here you should attach great importance to clarity and accessibility. When using call-to-action buttons, you should avoid using too many, as this quickly looks unserious and does not allow for orderly user guidance. Rather place them sensibly, e.g. a buy button or a contact button.

Choosing the right theme

Choosing the right Shopify theme is crucial for the success of your online store. Start with a clear idea of your brand and target group: should the store look minimalist, modern or playful? Check the themes in the Shopify Theme Store, which offers free and paid options, and use the filter function to narrow down themes by industry or desired features (e.g. video sections, large images).

Test themes with the live preview to see how your store might look. Pay attention to customization options, mobile-friendliness and loading times. If your focus is on functionality, prioritize themes with integrated features such as product filters or cross-selling options.

Legal requirements

To ensure that your online store meets all legal requirements, you need to pay attention to the following aspects:

• Imprint: Every store must have an imprint. This must be accessible via a few clicks (max. 2).

• Right of withdrawal: Every buyer has the right of withdrawal within 14 days. You must once again inform customers of this right in writing after the ordering process.

• GTC: Customers must be made aware of the GTC before the contract is concluded. They must be placed in a clearly visible location or included in the order form.

• Information requirements: During the ordering process, the customer must receive information about the contract as well as payment, delivery, product and contact options.

• Data protection: The privacy policy must also be clearly visible and accessible at all times. In order for you to be allowed to collect data from your customers, they must consent to the collection.

• Cookies: You must inform the customer about the use of cookies. Especially if you have systems like Google Analytics or Facebook in use, you must ensure that customers first agree to the use of cookies before they are fired.

Customer acquisition through marketing

You can lead customers to your online store in a wide variety of ways. Here, you can use free marketing, such as social media marketing, or place paid advertisements in Google or social media. Search engine optimization and the placement of targeted keywords also ensure more visitors to your store. Newsletter marketing can help you turn first-time customers into repeat customers.

Have Shopify store created by an agency - Shopify store by experts

Creating an online store can be overwhelming at first. To keep a cool head, you can benefit from the know-how of an agency.

Creating a Shopify store with a Shopify agency is a popular option for businesses looking to build a professional e-commerce store. Agencies with Shopify expertise can help with the conception, design, development, and optimization of the store to provide a customized and powerful shopping experience. This can increase efficiency and ensure that the store meets the individual needs and goals of the business.

This is especially advisable if you are planning a large project and there is no clear plan yet. This primarily involves projects with a wide range of products or projects that require SEO optimization or a marketing strategy. In addition, an agency can help you program defined themes or apps and integrate them into your store.

Create Shopify store: The functions of the platform

Shopify offers you a wide range of functions, such as integrated SEO and marketing functions, many selectable themes (free and paid) or quite specifically a postage calculator for your customers. But also an upload function for images and files, Shopify POS or the function to create your products are given in Shopify. Depending on which Shopify plan you choose, other features like customizability of the checkout, more stores in one account or exclusive apps are available. With Shopify Payments, you can also offer different payment options.

These pre-built features will make your set-up easier and thus help you save time.

If the preset features of Shopify are not enough, you can easily customize your store thanks to thousands of apps in the Shopify App Store.

Login to Shopify - create the store

Registration with Shopify

Visit the website www.shopify.com and click on the “Start free trial” button.

You must then register and enter the following information:

• Enter your e-mail address.

• Choose a secure password.

• Define the name of your store. This name will also be displayed in the temporary URL of your store (e.g. myshop.myshopify.com).

• Enter your address, country and telephone number.

Basic store settings

After logging in, you will be taken directly to the Shopify admin dashboard, the central location for managing your store. Here you can manage your content, adjust information and make other settings, such as:

• Store name: Make sure the name matches your store. You can change it later.

• Language and currency: Customize the currency (e.g. Euro) and the store language depending on the country you are operating in.

• Set up domain: Shopify provides you with a default URL (e.g. myshop.myshopify.com). You can buy your own domain directly through Shopify or connect an existing domain.

• Shipping: In order for your customers to receive their orders, you need to set the shipping options for your store.

• Payment options: One of the most important basic settings in Shopify concerns the payment methods. Here you can integrate different methods and providers.

• Tax: Shopify allows you to automatically apply taxes to the sale price depending on which country or region your customer is in. You can customize taxes by country, state or region and set the appropriate tax rates for your products.

• Notifications: Specify which notifications you want to receive and when. Shopify can send you notifications about orders, stock levels and other relevant events.

Create a Shopify store with the help of AI

Building a Shopify store with the help of AI is an innovative way to make the process more efficient, creative and data-driven. Artificial intelligence (AI) can be used at every stage of store building and management - from content creation to user experience optimization.

Benefits:

• Time saving: AI automates repetitive tasks such as creating product descriptions, designing pages and editing images.

• Cost savings: You need fewer external service providers as many tasks can be completed in-house using AI tools.

• Personalization: AI enables the creation of tailored user experiences based on customer behaviour and preferences.

• Efficiency: Optimized processes, such as automated SEO or stock management, improve the store's performance.

• Scalability: AI-supported tools make it easier to integrate new products, categories or markets.

Shopify offers its users its own tools for this, such as Shopify Magic and Shopify Sidekick. But the Shopify App Store also offers some helpful tools here, e.g. for image optimization or automatic creation of product descriptions.

It is important to comply with the legal regulations on the use of AI. We have summarized how to use AI in a legally compliant manner in an article.

Costs of an own online stores

Shopify "rents" the store to you. That means you don't pay directly for the creation of the store at the beginning, but you pay a monthly fee for your store. For this fee, Shopify offers you everything from the backend, where you create products, to payment options, to the frontend, the store that your customers see. Again, the layout and features are largely customizable.

Prices for the Shopify Basic plan start at 36€ per month, credit card fees of 2,1% + 0,30€ are added.

Shopify online store creation: The opening of the store

Opening a Shopify store is quite simple and is therefore also well suited for newcomers to e-commerce. Thanks to the many predefined functions, no or hardly any technical know-how is necessary here. Moreover, Shopify is designed to be very user-friendly.

When you create your Shopify store, you first need to consider which plan suits you. However, you can start by taking advantage of the 14-day trial period to familiarize yourself with Shopify and its features.

After that, you should choose the right theme. Shopify scores here with a large selection of free or paid themes, which can be adapted to your own design ideas. After that, you can start with the design, as well as the input of your content. At this point, you can also consider using a headless CMS such as Storyblok to provide your store with content. This has the great advantage that the backend and frontend run separately from each other and in the event of a failure, only one part of the store is ever affected.

Conclusion

Shopify is worthwhile for all merchants who want to benefit from the wide range of functions. In addition, Shopify makes it quick and easy to create and publish an online store - which makes the system particularly attractive for newcomers. Thanks to the various pricing models, Shopify is also suitable for companies of all sizes.