General checklist for starting a new Shopify store
This checklist outlines all the steps that you need to take to get started with Shopify. These steps will help you create, open, and promote your online store. You might find it helpful to print this checklist so that you can refer to it throughout the setup process.
On this page
Use AI-powered tools while you work
Sidekick is an AI-enabled assistant in your Shopify admin. You can describe what you need in everyday language to get guidance, suggested next steps, and help acting on your store data. Shopify Magic offers in-context text and creative suggestions in many admin workflows. Examples include product copy and marketing content. For a full overview, refer to productivity tools for your Shopify admin.
Before you start
Before you start setting up your Shopify store, it's important to understand your goals. Ask yourself basic questions about your store. For example, do you want to sell your products both online and in person? Do you want to sell your products through social media channels like Facebook? This can help you to focus your attention and speed up your setup process. You might also want to think about which pricing plan meets your needs. However, you don't need to choose a plan until the end of your trial.
Considerations and limitations
- Your Shopify subscription pricing plan affects the features that are available to you, including the number of staff accounts, transaction fees, reporting capabilities, and sales channel eligibility.
- Shopify POS hardware availability and Tap to Pay support vary by country.
- If you're migrating your store to Shopify from another platform, then you might need to set up URL redirects to preserve your search engine rankings.
- Sales channel eligibility depends on your region, product types, and sometimes your subscription plan. Review individual channel requirements before committing to a selling strategy.
- You must be at least 18 years old to use Shopify. If you are under 18, then have a parent or guardian set-up the account for you using their own details. Accounts set-up under the details of anyone under 18 may potentially be closed.
Checklist for getting started
Set up your online store
Before you stock your Shopify store with products, you need to enter some information about yourself and your store. You need to decide on some basic standards for your product listings and customer transactions. Also, you need to set up your domain to make sure that your customers can find your store online.
Considerations and limitations
- Your
myshopify.comdomain name can only be changed a single time. Choose carefully during initial setup. - Email sender authentication (SPF and DKIM records) is required by major email providers such as Gmail and Yahoo. Without it, your store emails might be sent to spam or junk folders.
- Tax compliance is your responsibility. Shopify calculates taxes but doesn't file or remit on your behalf unless you use Shopify Tax automated filing.
- Subscription products require Shopify Payments as the primary payment provider.
- The number of staff accounts that you can add depends on your plan. The Basic plan allows no additional staff, the Grow plan allows 5, the Advanced plan allows 15, and the Shopify Plus plan allows unlimited staff. Collaborator accounts and POS-only staff don't count toward these limits.
- Store policy templates are available in English, with some templates also available in French, Italian, and Spanish. For other languages, you need to draft your own policies.
- If you're selling internationally, then changing your store currency affects all markets when you don't use Shopify Payments.
- The number of markets that you can create depends on your subscription plan.
- App charges might continue after pausing or deactivating your store until you uninstall the apps.
Checklist for setting up your online store
Organize your online store
The aesthetics of your store and the kinds of products that you're going to sell are two of the most important parts of your online store. Try a few different themes to decide which one works best for your brand, and then add some products to sell. Depending on how many products you plan to offer, adding and organizing your product listings can be the most time-consuming step of setting up a Shopify store. Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to add your products, to organize them into groups, and to set the necessary tax and shipping information.
Considerations and limitations
- Products require at least a title and a price. You can add up to 250 tags to each product, or an unlimited number of tags on the Shopify Plus plan.
- Avoid frequently changing product URL handles, because this can impact your search engine rankings.
- Long product titles and descriptions might get truncated in search engine results. Keep titles concise and with important keywords at the beginning.
- If you have more than 50 store locations, then save your product before adding inventory quantities.
- Free and paid themes from the Shopify Theme Store differ in layout and features. Preview themes before publishing to make sure the theme supports your content needs.
Checklist for organizing your online store
Test your online store
Before you launch your online store, place some test orders to review how the checkout process works.
Considerations and limitations
- Fraud analysis recommendations are available on the Grow plan or above, or on any plan with Shopify Payments. The Basic plan without Shopify Payments only provides fraud indicators.
- High chargeback rates can result in Shopify Payments being deactivated. Review orders flagged as high risk before fulfilling them.
- Your bank makes the final decision on charge reversals. Shopify doesn't cover chargeback losses.
- After each checkout step, cart inventory is re-validated. Inventory is only held when payment details are submitted.
Checklist for testing your online store
Launch your online store
After you've picked a plan and tested your online store, you're ready for customers to visit it. Review your store one more time, remove your password, and go live.
Considerations and limitations
- You need to choose a subscription plan to remove your online store password during a free trial.
- After you remove the password, your store is publicly visible. Make sure your store policies, contact information, and shipping rates are finalized before going live.
Checklist for launching your online store
Add other online sales channels
After you launch your online store, your business might benefit from adding some other online channels to your Shopify store. There are several optional online channels that you can add to your Shopify admin when selling online.
Considerations and limitations
- Google & YouTube requires a Google Merchant Center account, visible contact information on your store, refund and terms of service policies in your storefront footer, and shipping to a supported country. Product data must include details such as a Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), Manufacturer Part Number (MPN), or brand.
- Facebook and Instagram by Meta requires a Meta business portfolio and compliance with Meta's commerce policies. Merchants are responsible for collecting and remitting tax on Meta channel orders.
- TikTok is available in select countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Mexico, Japan, and Brazil. Products must comply with TikTok's regional prohibited-products policies.
- The Shop channel requires Shopify Payments to be active and a chargeback rate under 1% over the past six months.
- Discount codes can't be restricted to specific sales channels. A code that works on your online store also works on other channels where you sell.
- Discount combinations are limited to a maximum of 5 product or order discount codes plus 1 shipping discount code per order, and a maximum of 25 active automatic discounts.
Checklist for adding sales channels
Promote your online store
After you launch your online store, you need to promote it. You can improve your store's visibility by adding the information that will be used by search engines and by promoting your store in all of the appropriate spaces.
Considerations and limitations
- Search engine indexing isn't instant. It can take 48 to 72 hours for Google and other search engines to index new pages, and not all pages are guaranteed to be indexed.
- Shopify Messaging requires an active paid plan and is available on the Basic plan or above. Pricing is tied to email and SMS send volume. On trial or Pause and Build plans, you can build campaigns and send tests to yourself, but you can't send to subscribers.
- Shopify Inbox is available on the Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Shopify Plus plans.
- Reports and analytics features vary by plan. Advanced and custom reports are available on higher-tier plans.