Beginner Shopify Experience: Quick starter guide to customizing themes, adding products, and making a sale.
By: Leroy Kordyban
Tags: Guides And Tutorials, Online Store, E Commerce Website Design, Make Money Online, Shopify

In October of this year, I was hired to help a client to create a Shopify platform for his comic and collectibles business. I had no idea what I was doing. Yet, he figured that my knowledge in web design and marketing would help us along the way. A rigorous process getting started from scratch, but we made it through. I figured I would create a quick guide to get the ball rolling for those of you new to the world of e-commerce. Hopefully once you learn the basics, you will be able to begin planning your marketing and e-commerce strategy and perhaps delegate tasks such as adding inventory to employees. If you follow this guideline you should be able to have a basic store created and make your first sale on your own store in a day. This depends on how much time you spend in the beginning customizing your theme. I suggest making mild customization in the beginning and focusing on making it through this guide for now.

Note: You must have already purchased a Shopify membership to accept payments and fulfill the process below.

Customize Theme

Getting started was the hardest part of the whole process. I had to learn how to use the platform all at once to make sure that the store fit the business’s style and goals. If you have no web design or developing experience this will be tough. If you do, you will know how the platform works in a matter of minutes since you will understand its usability from using other platforms. If you have no experience in this area, check out this video on how to customize your theme page. Don’t stress over this area too much in the beginning. You will have to come back anyways and touch it up anyhow.

Getting Ready to Sell

First thing you have to do before you sell is add inventory. If you do not have inventory, I suggest taking a picture from google images of a toy and creating a sample to get the process down. Once you have the image, watch this video to learn how to add the product. Create fictitious pricing and add it to your list.

Making Your First Sale

Now that you have a product to sell, you are almost ready to make your first sale. At this point, you will need to have your transit number for the account you wish to deposit money into and your account number. You will need this info to complete the form shown in this video. Once you have been accepted by Shopify to receive payment, you can now make your first purchase as a customer on your own website.

View your store and find your one product you have added. From there, all you must do is follow the checkout process already implemented in your theme. Congratulations! You have made a sale. Now let’s refund your money.

Refund Your sale

To refund your sale, watch this short video on how to refund. The refund should be almost instant. Make sure that you also remember to refund the shipping charge as well. To confirm that you have done so, the value to be refunded on the right side of the screen should match the one on your credit card statement.

I hope that you have a good sense of the basic navigation of Shopify and that I have dulled the overwhelming frustration on where to start. This guide should kick start how you will plan to add your inventory from your brick and mortar store as well as the types of items you will sell. Now, time to dive in deeper and think about shipping methods and costs, as well as marketing your store. Best of luck on your future e-commerce ventures!

For more information on marketing practices or to contact me, please visit www.highmarkmarketing.com