Ready for your first customer?

Your account is the starting point for products, payments and orders. Compare the plans against the features you need at launch.

A short, memorable domain is easier to share and type. Register it in an account your business controls.

An address on your own domain makes customer replies easier to recognise. Keep the inbox monitored by someone who can answer order questions.

A good logo and brand will make the shopping experience more memorable for your customers. Your branding is also used across a lot of other important channels including social media, email marketing, and packaging.

Two factor authentication adds a second check when someone signs in. Use it for your store, mailbox and domain account.

Choose the social channels your customers already use. A small number of active profiles is manageable for a new store.

Make sure that you pick a Shopify theme that will support your unique business model and goals. When deciding on a theme, look at the features available, other stores that use the theme, and reviews from other store owners.

A favicon, also known as a shortcut or website icon, is what people see in the website tab and search results to identify your website. Usually, this is a square version of your logo.

Your homepage metadata is used to show your website in search results. To set that up, from the Shopify admin go to Sales Channels → Online Store → Preferences.

Group products in language customers recognise. Keep delivery, returns and contact links easy to find from any page.

Payment icons give customers a quick way to check their preferred method. Only show methods available at checkout.

A visible email address or phone number gives customers somewhere to turn. Include your trading details and the hours someone can reply.

Link to the profiles you actively maintain. Check each link on a phone before launch.

Make your store look more professional by adding your logo, brand colours, and font to the checkout. You can also install apps that customise the checkout further, such as adding cross sells or post purchase surveys.

The first screen needs to explain what you sell and give shoppers a useful next step. Lead with your strongest products and a clear route into the range.

Customise your product pages to include important information about your products, such as a size guide, specifications, or nutrition. Make sure the features of the product, and why customers should buy it from you, are clear.

If you are selling a lot of different products, set up product filters to make it easier for customers to find the right product for them, such as filtering by brand, product type, availability, or price.

Put your strongest reasons to buy near the product and checkout decisions. Specific delivery terms or product details carry more weight than broad promises.

An about page will make your store more authentic and increase trust with customers. On the about page, you can talk about points such as your team, how you started your store, or your mission and values.

Many customers will look for a contact form to get in touch about returns, product questions, or other customer support enquiries. Create a contact form page, add your contact details to it, and link it in your main menu and/or footer.

A page for frequently asked questions will reduce the amount of repeated questions and enquiries you get from customers. Most Shopify themes now come with a template for FAQ pages that you can use, or you can use a Shopify app.

A blog earns its place when you have useful questions to answer. Start with the questions customers ask before buying.

The cart is a good place to confirm delivery expectations and suggest a relevant extra. Keep the route to checkout obvious.

A broken link should still give someone a useful way forward. Keep the page in your brand’s voice and link to search or popular collections.

Most Shopify themes allow you to customise the filtering options for searches, or you can use a Shopify app for more advanced customisation options.

Quick view is where customers can view the product details in a popup and purchase the product without navigating to a different page. Most Shopify themes provide this as an option that can be enabled.

If you accept pickups, add your pickup information to the product pages and shipping policy page. Most Shopify themes will have a prebuilt block you can add to product pages which will automatically show the pickup availability, address, and processing times.

Enabling a cart drawer or dropdown will let customers see the contents of their cart without navigating away from their current page, which can increase average order value and conversion rate.

Navigation breadcrumbs help customers navigate through your website, such as going from a product page to the overarching product category. Most Shopify themes will have a setting to enable this.

Dynamic checkout buttons let customers skip the cart and go straight to the checkout from the product page, which helps increase conversion rate.

Use clear photographs that show the actual products and people behind your store. A local photographer can help create a consistent set.

Another important factor of turning website visitors into paying customers is social proof. This can be in the form of product reviews, written testimonials, video testimonials, user generated content, awards you won, or good press.

Link delivery, returns and privacy information from the footer. Customers need to find these details before they pay.

Collections help organise your products for customers. Stores commonly will group products based on their brand, product type, season, or use case.

High quality product photos are one of the most important factors in conversion rate for product pages. If you don't have good product photos available, consider investing in a professional product photographer, or a lightbox to take good quality photos yourself.

Explain the product in your own voice, including the details someone needs to choose. Check any AI draft against the actual product before publishing.

Even if you do not intend to use them straight away, adding the correct vendor, product type, and unit cost for all of your products from the beginning will simplify reporting and product segmentation in the future.

If you plan to offer gift cards, enable them in Shopify under Products → Gift Cards. Make sure to add a custom gift card image and description.

Make it easy for customers to leave a review after their order arrives. Show useful reviews beside the product they describe.

A social feed can show your products in everyday use. Check the effect on page speed before adding it across the store.

If your store has seasonal products or product drops, such as a clothing store, consider installing a Shopify app that will either automatically hide out of stock products or push them to the bottom of collection pages.

If instead your products are evergreen, meaning that you will restock them often, consider installing a Shopify app that will let customers enter their email address to be notified when the product is back in stock.

Wishlist apps improve customer retention, and provide you with a valuable touchpoint for marketing. I recommend using Wishlist Plus.

Suggest products that naturally belong together. Check that the recommendation still makes sense when one item is sold out.

Ask customers what nearly stopped them buying and how they found you. Keep the survey short enough to answer in a moment.

Choose an email tool around the campaigns and automations you plan to run. Test the signup, welcome email and unsubscribe journey.

Building an email marketing list can be difficult at first. You can increase your signups by offering a small incentive for subscribing, such as 10% off their first order, and by installing a Shopify app that will show a subscriber popup such as Klaviyo or Shopify Forms.

Test the search and filters that come with your theme before adding another app. A larger catalogue may need more control over synonyms, product attributes and filter order.

Connect Google Analytics, Google Merchants, Google Ads, and Google Search Console. Most of these can be automatically set up and connected by using the Google app.

Like Google, this can be easily connected by using the official app. Connecting Facebook & Instagram will allow you to advertise and display your products on these social channels.

If you are active or planning to advertise on other social media platforms, such as Snapchat, Pinterest, or TikTok, search for and install the official apps to connect them to your store.

Shopify Inbox is a free messaging tool by Shopify that allows customers to talk to you through a live chat interface, which you can respond to from the Shopify admin or the Shopify mobile app on your phone.

The Shop app is a mobile app marketplace set up by Shopify. Adding the Shop channel is easy, and is becoming increasingly popular with customers.

A fulfilment integration can bring labels and tracking into one workflow. Check its courier coverage and how it handles rural addresses.

If you charge more for rural shipping, I recommend installing an app that makes sure that rural shoppers only see the rural shipping rate to select at checkout.

Choose marketplaces that suit your products and customers. Confirm how stock, prices and orders will stay in sync.

From the Shopify admin, go to Settings → Brand → Fill out all of the fields on this page. These assets are used to apply your brand logo and colours across your store and other channels.

To set your shipping rates, go to Settings → Shipping and delivery → General shipping rates. Make sure to delete the global shipping rate if you do not want to accept international orders.

To set up your tax collection, go to Settings → Tax and duties → Select New Zealand from the list (assuming you are a New Zealand business) → Press "Collect GST" → Enter your GST number. Make sure "Include tax in prices" and "Charge tax on shipping rates" are ticked.

Go to Settings → Billing → Tax Registration → Tick "Yes, I'm GST registered" → enter your IRD number.

Your inventory location will be shown for pickup orders and calculating delivery rates if applicable. To set your inventory location, go to Settings → Location → Select the default location from the list → Update the address.

If you want to accept pick up or local delivery orders, go to Settings → Shipping and Delivery → click a location under local delivery or pickup and enable.

Go to Settings, then Store Details, and make sure the following is correct: Your store name, your store phone, your store email, your legal business name, your business address, your currency, your time zone, and your metric system.

Shopify Payments is Shopify's card processor for accepting Visa and Mastercard. Other card payment gateways such as WindCave can also be installed if desired instead.

Once you have set up Shopify Payments, make sure you have Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Shop Pay enabled. These payment methods are popular with customers that like to use the express checkout.

If you need to add other payment methods, such as Afterpay, Laybuy, or Klarna, go to Settings → Payment Methods → Additional payment methods → add them from here. Instructions are also usually on the payment gateway's website as well.

Enabling customer accounts increases customer retention and provides more opportunities for customer engagement. To enable this, go to Settings → Customer accounts → enable customer accounts.

Make your store's email communications more professional by adding your logo and brand colours. To do this, go to Settings → Notifications → Customise email templates → Add your logo and accent colour.

Adding your policy pages is important to communicate with customers how you will handle shipping, returns, and their privacy. It's also required for many advertising platforms, and linking to these in the website header or footer makes your store more trustworthy.

Give each team member their own account with the access they need. That makes account recovery and changes in responsibility easier to manage.

To be notified when you receive an order, go to Settings → Notifications → then under "Staff order notifications" press "Add recipient" to add a new email.

If you didn't purchase your domain from Shopify, you will need to update some DNS records to point your domain to your Shopify website.

Authenticate the domain used for store emails through your email provider. Send test messages and check the sender name, reply address and formatting.

Selling internationally? Shopify Markets lets you tailor currency, language and pricing for different countries from one store. Open Markets in your Shopify admin to review or create your target markets. Check shipping rates and local settings before activating them.

Go to Settings → Customer privacy to review your privacy policy and configure a cookie banner and data sharing opt-out page where required. Shopify’s automated settings provide recommended regions and content; check these match your business, apps and obligations under GDPR and other applicable privacy laws.

Place a test order from your homepage through to confirmation. Check stock, pricing, delivery charges and payment options on both a phone and a computer.

Follow the main menus, product links and footer links on your phone. Check that each destination matches the label you clicked.

Poor spelling or grammar can give a poor impression to customers, as it makes your site look less trustworthy. Similarly, placeholder images or text also make your website look unfinished, which will make customers concerned about purchasing anything off the store.

Once the storefront password is removed, anyone will be able to visit your website by going to its URL. To remove the storefront password, go to Online Store → Preferences → Untick "Restrict access to visitors with the password".

Once your store is live, make sure that you announce that to your customers on every platform that you engage with them on, including your newsletter, social media accounts, and anywhere/anyone else you can share it to.

A launch offer needs a clear end date and enough margin to support it. Test the offer in checkout before announcing it.

Submitting your sitemap to Google Search Console helps expedite your website appearing in Google. To do this, log into Google Search Console, click on "Sitemaps", then "Add Sitemap", and paste in your URL followed by "/sitemap.xml", e.g.

Once orders are flowing, the success checklist helps you review the next opportunities. Work through it with your actual customer questions and sales data.