Setting up an online store while simultaneously managing your campaign might sound daunting, but trust us, it’s easy and so worth it. We’ve put together a setup checklist for Shopify with our recommended specifications to whisk you through the process and get you on your way. We’ve tried to cover the essential, sometimes less obvious details, but don’t hesitate to reach out if you have a question at any time. Shopify tech support is also available 24/7 and has an incredibly helpful team.

Settings

Note: these options will vary based on your Shopify subscription and staff account permissions.

General – set up your basic settings like address, time zone, account email, phone number (required to accept payments.)

Payment providers – Recommended: Shopify Payments and PayPal Express.

        Accept payments - Enable payment providers to accept credit cards, PayPal, and other payment methods during checkout.

        Shopify payments: Add a provider > Shopify payments > Continue > Complete account setup

                Note: You can use test mode to test the checkout experience on your store. Click edit > use test mode > save to enable.

        PayPal:  Select PayPal method (if wanted)

        Payment authorization – Most online stores wait to bill a customer until after their product has shipped. By selecting ‘automatically capture payment for orders’ your customers will be billed upon completing checkout. Payments authorizations expire 7 days after an order has been created. If payment has not been captured after 7 days the payment method will need to be reauthorized by the customer. In other words, you should capture payment before 7 days for everyone's convenience.

Checkout – define the details your customers see in the checkout process

        Style - Upload your store’s logo, change colors and fonts, and more to customize the style of your checkout.

        Customer accounts – ‘Accounts are optional’ is our recommended setting.

        Customer contact - The method by which customers will receive notifications regarding their order (confirmation, shipment notification, etc.)

        Form options – Personal preference (up to you)

        Order processing

            While the customer is checking out:

                Use billing address as the shipping address by default

                Enable address autocompletion

            After an order has been paid:

                Automatically fulfill only the gift cards of the order

            After an order has been fulfilled and paid:

                Automatically archive the order

            Additional scripts - You can implement custom features for checkout as well as integrate various advertising and marketing services using this feature.

        Email marketing - Pre-select the sign-up option.

        Abandoned checkouts - Recovering abandoned checkouts is an easy way to increase sales. Shopify provides a default service for this, but we recommend looking into what's available in the Shopify app store for some enhanced functionality.

        Checkout language – This is the language displayed in your store's checkout. You can edit this content via the 'manage checkout language' or via Online store > Actions > Edit languages.

        Policies - Save some time and generate the sample policies from Shopify then edit according to your needs.

Shipping – Manage the details shipping prices displayed to your customers as well as shipping details related to order processing/fulfillment for your store.

        Shipping origin – This is the address used to calculate shipping costs as well as what is printed on shipping labels purchased from Shopify.

        Shipping zones – Any shipping rate displayed to your customer at checkout is edited here. You can control which rates are displayed to your customer based on order total, shipping weight, and destination. Find more detailed information on shipping zones here.

Shopify allows you to print up to 10 shipping labels at a time through your Orders page. For bulk order processing and label printing for larger volumes we recommend ShipStation (starting at $9/month), Shippo ($.05/order), ShippingEasy (starting at $29/month).

All other shipping details beyond this point are dependent on your needs.

Taxes – Sales tax is owed for US orders when the purchaser resides within the county or state of your business. In other words, if your business is in Ohio, then only customers in Ohio will be charged sales tax.

Notifications – Manage the templates used for any communications sent from your store to your customers, i.e. order/shipping confirmations.

Gift cards – Add an expiration date to your gift cards if you want.

Files – You can use the Files page to upload images, videos, and documents to your use on your website or business.

Sales channels – Shopify has an incredibly robust platform that can bring in sales from a variety of sources beyond your usual online store. Use Sales Channels to sell on Amazon, Instagram, mobile apps and more.

Account – Manage your Shopify billing and staff permissions.

        Accounts and permissions – Add/manage staff accounts and permissions here. You can also use this section to manage collaborator access.

        Invoice – View your account billing history here.