Time to read: 20 minutes
Content
The one commerce platform behind it all,
Sell online and in person,
Sell locally and globally,
Sell direct and wholesale,
Sell on desktop and mobile,
For everyone from entrepreneurs to enterprise,
Sell here, there, and everywhere.
These are the promises that Shopify makes on its website for everyone considering its platform as the starting point of their ecommerce business. Pretty promising and inspiring, like any other marketing message on a major platform like Shopify.
The only thing is, these are not just promises — these are real, tangible benefits you can access if you decide to start your business journey with Shopify. As an ecommerce development company with years of experience building Shopify-driven stores and watching our clients’ business achievements and milestones, we can expertly say that these statements are true. Especially for those who consider launching their ecommerce business with the help of an out-of-the-box solution.
What’s more important: you can achieve all that’s promised regardless of your business size. Shopify offers diversified service packs that meet the needs of businesses of different scales, segments, and growth stages – whether you’re just starting and don’t have resources to build from scratch, gradually expanding, and need tools to effectively scale your operations, or joining an international and global market.
If you are a solopreneur or launching a small business, you can quickly start your ecommerce website on Shopify and get everything you need for the proper operation of your entire business: tools for selling online locally and globally, seamless checkout, financial management, marketing activities, and much more — everything your business needs to start selling goods, even without much experience. Decathlon, Gymshark, and Staples followed the same way and have grown into well-known businesses.
If you own a mid-sized business or are preparing for the gradual scaling of your business, you can take advantage of all the perks of the Shopify Plus platform, like Glossier, Jigsaw, or Kylie Cosmetics, which offers more advanced features, higher customization, automation tools, and dedicated support. More importantly, it provides greater flexibility for handling larger volumes of orders as they grow alongside your business’s popularity.
If your business has reached the enterprise level, like Mattel, — Shopify for Enterprise allows you to seamlessly set up multi-channel sales, integrate with various third-party solutions for external and internal operations, and leverage a highly scalable infrastructure to expand your business operations.
In this article, we’ll cover the following points to give you a clear understanding of how to make a Shopify store:
Shopify maintains its leading position among ecommerce website-building platforms. As of 2025, among the top 1 million sites, Shopify ranks first as the foundation for 24% of ecommerce websites among them (which is 283,214 as of March 7th), followed by WooCommerce in second place:
Interestingly, Shopify Plus also makes the list, securing third place:
In general estimates, Shopify-based stores account for 33% of all existing ecommerce websites on the Internet.
More precisely, 5.23 million online stores use Shopify, with 57.65% operating exclusively in the U.S. This naturally results in a significant customer base, with an estimated 875 million customers served by Shopify-driven stores in 2024.
A few factors are responsible for Shopify being the first choice among businesses and solopreneurs:
N/B: This point heavily depends on your location and plan. Shopify Basic offers multiple payment options and providers; however, multicurrency payments are only available if you activate Shopify Payments, which isn’t accessible everywhere. You’ll need to look for local third-party payment gateway providers to integrate with. Additionally, your ability to offer multiple payment options and currencies depends on how external payment gateways integrate with Shopify’s built-in checkout.
To get a better understanding how businesses of different sizes can benefit from Shopify, we created a small comparison table that outlines critical aspects each business owner looks to:
As you can see, no platform is perfect, and long-term costs and flexibility are key. Before launching a Shopify store, business owners should evaluate monthly subscription fees, potential app costs, and long-term platform dependency. While Shopify provides a comprehensive ecosystem, businesses relying on paid apps or requiring future migration should plan accordingly. However, with an experienced team, these challenges can be effectively managed.
There are two ways to launch a Shopify store:
In this article, we’re going to cover the specifics of both options. For the first, we will provide a step-by-step guide to launching a Shopify store and preparing it for essential business operations. For the second, we will describe how the team of professionals can help you and when it’s worth hiring them.
However, before diving into the technical details of launching your store, you should first assess your business needs and select a Shopify plan. This is a crucial step that must be completed before working on the website itself.
Shopify offers four main pricing plans, each designed for different levels of business needs. From solopreneurs launching their first store to enterprises requiring full customization, each plan comes with its own set of capabilities:
Basic Shopify ($39) is perfect for solopreneurs testing the market, but high transaction fees (2%) and limited analytics make scaling inefficient. Without automation or real-time shipping rates, fulfillment will be manual, which will ultimately increase operational overhead as the order volume grows.
Shopify ($105) is the logical upgrade for small businesses looking to optimize operations. Lower transaction fees (1%) and enhanced reporting provide better cost control and decision-making. Duties and tax automation also make international expansion smoother.
N/B: If growth is the goal, skipping Basic Shopify reduces long-term inefficiencies.
Advanced Shopify ($399) cuts transaction fees (0.5%), making it significantly more cost-effective for businesses processing high revenue. Custom reporting and real-time shipping calculations prevent logistical errors that can reduce profits.
N/B: If you’re managing multi-location fulfillment and want better cost predictability, Advanced Shopify justifies its price because it displays real-time shipping rates from different carriers, supports up to 10 inventory locations, and provides automated calculation of import duties and taxes.
For brands hitting enterprise-level volumes, Shopify Plus ($2,300) eliminates platform constraints. 0.15% transaction fees, custom checkout optimization, and automation tools like Shopify Flow drive higher conversions and operational efficiency.
N/B: Advanced Shopify works until scale demands complete control. High-growth brands recoup Shopify Plus costs through savings in fees, efficiency, and checkout conversions.
As soon as you’ve chosen the plan, it’s time for you to learn how to build a Shopify store.
Of course, before getting anything done, you can start a free trial or sign up for the Shopify platform (create a Shopify account) and get to building your website:
Step #1: Choose the type of website you want to create according to your business’ specifics
Step #2: Choose what you plan to sell on your website
Step #3: Choose the plan you’ve already thought through earlier (we hope)
Step #4: Enjoy your access to the admin panel
At this stage, you can follow the setup guide that’s available on the home page or your own roadmap, freely jumping between sections.
This is also the section where you can manage and track your orders, product catalog, customers, content, and monitor performance through the analytics section.
Step #5: Your website theme creation
This is an optional section. Each business owner deals with the website design in their own manner. There are various options in this regard:
N/B: While working on a custom theme design for your Shopify store, keep in mind the functionality you are eligible for in terms of the plan you choose. In case you include features that aren’t supported, this can affect your total cost of ownership (TCO).
Step #6: Set up your store name, domain, payment options, and shipping details
In the settings section, you’ll be able to manage all domain-related details, including purchasing a new domain or connecting an existing one. You can also configure payment options for customers and handle other essential settings for selling goods online.
After you set up essential things for your store and before you start selling online, there will be steps 7, 8, and up to eternity that will include:
and so much more…
Although it’s really easy to create the basis for your future store, the most challenging part covers activities that are directly related to your store appearance, operation, customer service, and others. It’s better to create a checklist, a visualized roadmap, or a detailed to-do list so that you don’t miss any details and make sure your store works exactly as you want it to.
However, it’s also important to remember that, although Shopify provides a lot for DIY launching, running a business isn’t easy. You can always ask professionals for help and keep your peace of mind.
For small businesses looking to scale efficiently, building a Shopify store with an outsourcing development team is a strategic move. While Shopify offers a user-friendly setup, ensuring that your store is optimized for growth, seamless operations, and future scalability requires technical expertise and long-term planning. With an experienced ecommerce development team, small businesses benefit from:
Many small businesses that start with a DIY Shopify setup eventually face hidden costs — slow site speeds, poor checkout experiences, SEO issues, and security vulnerabilities. Other error-prone tasks may involve manual data entry, such as entering personal information, delivery details, and updating commerce data. This happens because small businesses often don’t integrate their ecommerce platforms with delivery companies, payment gateways, tax software, CRMs, ERPs, and other systems, relying on manual labor instead.
These errors can lead to lost sales, high customer drop-off rates, and expensive fixes down the line. An outsourcing development team eliminates these risks by getting it right the first time.
Instead of constantly patching issues, you get a highly optimized store that runs smoothly from day one, allowing you to focus on growth, marketing, and customer experience rather than troubleshooting technical challenges.
GET IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME WITH PROFESSIONALS
Avoid costly errors by partnering with a team that has built countless successful ecommerce stores and knows what it takes to get it right from the start
Launching an online store isn’t just about picking a Shopify theme in the Shopify theme store and uploading a few products. If you want a Shopify store that actually runs like a business — not just a website — you need the full engine in place from the start. That means making sure your store isn’t just a catalog but a fully operational system that handles everything from inventory to fulfillment without you checking every little detail daily.
Before anything else, your Shopify store needs a well-structured catalog to make sure products are easy to find, properly categorized, and optimized for both customers and search engines.
A store full of products with bare-bones descriptions won’t work. Shopify’s built-in content management system (CMS) ensures that your store not only sells products but also tells a story.
A strong content strategy means your store isn’t just a list of products — it’s a destination that builds trust and authority in your niche.
Once sales start rolling in, you need an efficient order management system to handle the volume without chaos. Shopify provides:
If you don’t have a system in place, order management can quickly become overwhelming, leading to delayed shipments, customer complaints, and bad reviews.
Shipping isn’t just about getting a package from A to B. This is a significant factor in customer satisfaction. Shopify streamlines fulfillment, whether you’re self-fulfilling, using warehouses, or dropshipping.
Customers expect fast, trackable shipping, and Shopify helps meet those expectations without manual work.
Shopify ensures that you can manage returns and refunds without turning your support inbox into a nightmare.
A smooth returns and refund system improves customer trust and ensures they come back instead of leaving negative reviews.
Once everything is set up, you don’t want to micromanage every little process. Shopify has built-in automation tools to keep things running while you focus on growing:
Automation means your store doesn’t need constant attention: you set it up once, and Shopify handles the rest.
Although Shopify provides all these benefits, businesses and solopreneurs have to consider some limitations in running a Shopify-driven business:
FUTURE-PROOF YOUR SHOPIFY STORE
Ensure your Shopify store can scale effortlessly, adapting to new demands, larger inventories, and expanding customer bases
The cost of building a Shopify website depends on whether you set it up yourself or hire professionals to handle the process. While solopreneurs can start lean with a DIY approach, small businesses benefit more from investing in experts who establish the right systems from the beginning, ensuring efficiency and scalability. Let’s break down the real costs and which approach makes the most financial sense:
For those who want to know how to handle the setup themselves and how to build Shopify website without extensive resources invested, the core cost is Shopify’s subscription plan, which determines available features and transaction fees:
In addition to the subscription fees, you can't forget:
A solopreneur can launch a basic Shopify store for $49 in the first month, while using a free theme and no paid apps. However, for a more advanced setup with premium themes and essential tools, the cost can quickly reach $500–$1,000+.
Surely, managing a store without external help keeps upfront expenses low; however, the biggest cost is still time. Learning Shopify’s tools, configuring settings correctly, and troubleshooting issues can take weeks, potentially delaying business growth. Mistakes in SEO, speed optimization, or payment settings may hurt sales performance, requiring costly fixes later.
For small businesses that plan to grow later, hiring professionals will ensure that their store will be set up correctly from the start. A minimal team — including a Shopify developer, UI/UX designer, SEO expert, and marketer — can significantly enhance performance, leading to better conversions and long-term scalability.
A professional team usually involves:
A small business investing in an expert team can expect to spend between $5,000 and $20,000 upfront, depending on complexity. While the initial cost is higher, a professionally built store is faster, more optimized, and ready for scaling. Ultimately, such a setup will help business owners save money by avoiding costly redesigns or technical debt.
WANT ACCURATE FIGURES INSTEAD OF CONFUSING PRICE RANGES?
Let our experts calculate your launch costs and find the most cost-efficient strategies for your business
For solopreneurs, a DIY approach makes sense in the short term, especially when it comes to testing a new business idea with minimal investment. However, as the store grows, scaling a self-built Shopify site can become overwhelming and require professional help later.
For small businesses, investing in a professional team upfront is a much better financial decision. A well-built Shopify store provides:
A properly structured store from day one prevents future operational headaches and allows small businesses to focus on growth rather than fixing technical issues.
The real question is: Do you want to start small and upgrade later, or invest upfront in a store that works flawlessly from the start? For businesses with long-term ambitions, the answer is clear — expert setup pays off in the long run.
STRENGTHEN YOUR E-COMMERCE SUCCESS WITH THE RIGHT PARTNER
Work with a team that understands the complexities of online retail, ensuring a seamless, scalable, and high-performing Shopify store
Our certified specialists will find the most optimal solution for your business.
