How to Set Up a Shopify Store with No Technical Experience (Complete Beginner's Guide)

Start by creating your Shopify account with a free trial. You won't need a credit card to get started.

Shopify's free trial lasts 3 days and requires no credit card. After 3 days, you can continue building with the $1/month plan for your first 3 months before standard plan pricing begins.

Go to shopify.com and click the signup button. Enter your email address, create a password, and choose a store name. Your store name will become part of your initial store URL (you can add a custom domain later).

Answer the brief questionnaire about whether you're already selling and what you plan to sell. These answers help Shopify customize your dashboard, but they don't lock you into any specific setup. Click through to access your Shopify admin.

Products are the foundation of your store. You'll add them one at a time through the Shopify admin.

From your Shopify admin, click Products in the left sidebar, then click Add product.

Source: Shopify
Fill in the product title and description. The description is where you explain what the product is, what problem it solves, and why someone should buy it. Write in plain language—your customers care about benefits, not technical jargon.

Add at least one product image. Shopify accepts standard image formats and will automatically resize them for different parts of your store. Good product photography matters, but you don't need professional equipment. Clear, well-lit photos taken on a smartphone work fine when you're starting out.

Set your price in the Pricing section. If you charge taxes, Shopify can calculate them automatically based on your location and your customer's location.

If you have physical inventory, scroll down to the Inventory section and enter your available quantity. Check the box that says "Track quantity" so Shopify prevents overselling.

Click Save in the top right corner.

Source: Shopify
If you have multiple products, you can add them one by one using this same process. For faster bulk uploads, you can use a CSV file—Shopify provides a template that works in Excel or Google Sheets.

Your theme controls how your store looks. Shopify provides free themes that are professionally designed and mobile-responsive.

From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes.

Browse the free themes in the Theme Library. Each theme shows a preview. Click View demo to see a live example of how the theme displays products, collections, and pages.

When you find a theme you like, click Add to install it to your store, then click Customize to edit it.

Source: Shopify
The theme editor opens in a visual interface. You'll see your store preview on the right and editing controls on the left. No coding required—you click sections to edit text, swap images, change colors, and rearrange layout blocks.

Click on your store name at the top to edit your logo. Upload an image or use text. Adjust your color scheme under Theme settings > Colors. Most merchants start by matching their brand colors and adding a logo, then refine other elements over time.

Click Save in the top right when you're done.

Your store needs a few key pages beyond product listings: an About Us page, contact information, and policy pages.

Go to Online Store > Pages in your Shopify admin, then click Add page.

Create an "About Us" page. This is where you tell your story—why you started the business, what makes your products different, and what customers can expect. Keep it conversational and focused on the customer's perspective.

Add a "Contact" page. You can include an email address, phone number, or use Shopify's contact form feature.

You'll also need policy pages: refund policy, privacy policy, shipping policy, and terms of service. Shopify can generate basic templates for these under Settings > Policies. Review and customize them to match your specific business practices, or have a lawyer review them if you're unsure.

You need to tell Shopify how you want to get paid.

Go to Settings > Payments in your Shopify admin.

Shopify Payments is Shopify's own payment provider. If it's available in your country, it's the simplest option—it accepts all major credit cards, has no third-party transaction fees, and pays out directly to your bank account. Click Complete account setup and follow the prompts to enter your business and banking details.

If Shopify Payments isn't available in your region, you can activate a third-party payment provider like PayPal or Stripe from the same page. Note that using third-party providers adds a small transaction fee on top of Shopify's plan fees.

The Basic plan carries a 2% transaction fee on every order processed through a third-party provider — on top of the payment processor's own fees. Using Shopify Payments eliminates this surcharge entirely.

If you're selling physical goods, configure your shipping settings so customers know what to expect.

Go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.

Shopify creates default shipping zones based on your business location. Click into your primary zone (for example, "Domestic" for your home country) to set shipping rates.

You can offer flat-rate shipping (one price regardless of order size), free shipping, or calculated rates based on carrier pricing. When you're starting out, flat-rate or free shipping with a minimum order value are the simplest approaches.

Add the rate name (for example, "Standard Shipping"), set the price, and click Done, then Save.

Your store starts with a myshopify.com URL, but you'll want a custom domain for a professional brand presence.

Go to Settings > Domains.

You have two options: buy a new domain directly through Shopify, or connect a domain you already own from another provider.

To buy a domain from Shopify, click Buy new domain, search for your desired name, and complete the purchase. Shopify automatically connects it to your store.

To connect an existing domain, click Connect existing domain and follow the instructions. You'll need to log in to your domain provider (like GoDaddy or Namecheap) and update some DNS settings. Shopify provides step-by-step instructions specific to major providers.

Before you go live, place a test order to make sure everything works.

You can only place test orders after choosing a paid plan — testing is not available during the free trial period. If you're using Shopify Payments, enable test mode within the Shopify Payments settings. If you haven't set up Shopify Payments, use the Bogus Gateway: deactivate your current payment provider first, then select "(for testing) Bogus Gateway" from the provider list and activate it. After testing, deactivate the Bogus Gateway and reactivate your live provider before launch.

Visit your store like a customer would. Add a product to cart, proceed to checkout, and complete the order using a test card number that Shopify provides.

Review the test order in your Shopify admin under Orders. Check that the product, price, shipping, and taxes all appear correctly. If something looks wrong, go back and adjust your settings before launching.

When you're ready to make your store public, you need to remove the password protection and select a paid plan.

Go to Online Store > Preferences in your Shopify admin. Scroll down to the "Password protection" section and uncheck the box that says "Restrict access to visitors with the password."

Shopify will prompt you to select a pricing plan. Review the available plans—Basic is the right starting point for most new stores. Enter your payment information and activate the plan.

Your store is now live. Anyone can visit your domain and place real orders.

Once your store is live, focus on these growth actions:

Install apps from the Shopify App Store to add functionality you need—email marketing, customer reviews, inventory management, or abandoned cart recovery. Start with free apps and add paid ones as your revenue grows.

Set up email hosting for your custom domain so you can communicate with customers from a professional email address (like hello@yourstore.com instead of a generic Gmail).

Create content like blog posts or guides related to your products. This helps with search engine visibility and builds trust with potential customers.

Monitor your store's performance in the Shopify admin analytics. Track which products sell, where traffic comes from, and where customers drop off in the checkout process.

"Operating a Shopify store should not come from the desire to operate a store. It all starts with your product and what you want to sell, and then you have to ask the question 'what's the best way to sell this?' Don't worry about what your store needs from a theoretical standpoint, worry about building a business around the product you want to sell; the website is only a piece of your business, even if it is your main sales channel… the underlying business is 10x more important."

You don't need technical skills to launch on Shopify—just clarity on what you're selling and the willingness to work through each setup step. Start your free trial, add your first product, and follow this guide section by section.