Updated April 12, 2022
Get answers to all your Shopify questions in this ultimate guide to Shopify FAQs.
Shopify is an ecommerce platform that includes tools and services to help you launch, manage, and grow an online business.
Whether you’re considering using Shopify to open an online store or you’re a Shopify expert, you probably have some questions about the platform.
You’ve come to the right place—in this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about Shopify, from setting up your store to boosting sales and everything in between.
Feel free to browse around or skip to the section you’re looking for.
There’s a lot to learn about Shopify, but let’s start with the basics.
Shopify is a software service that simplifies the process of selling products online. Rather than juggling multiple services to list products, engage with customers, ship orders, and process payments, Shopify bundles all of those capabilities into one user-friendly platform for a monthly subscription fee.
Shopify is an ideal solution if you want to sell products online without the hassle of designing or developing a website from scratch. Whether you just started a business today or you’ve been selling for years, there are flexible, affordable Shopify plans for companies of all sizes.
Shopify Plus is a customizable solution for enterprise-level businesses that outgrow Shopify’s standard plan. Some of the key advantages of Shopify Plus include 24/7 priority customer support team, automation tools, a built-in wholesale channel solution, and advanced customization tools.
More than 10,000 brands and artists use Shopify Plus, including Pepsi, Gymshark, and Kylie Jenner.
Shopify Lite lets you make any website shop-able in just a few clicks, whether you're on WordPress, SquareSpace, Wix, Tumblr, or somewhere else. This plan, which costs $9 per month, enables online selling with Buy Buttons and includes reporting and 24/7 support. However, Shopify Lite users don't get access to the functionality of the Shopify basic plan, such as a full online store with a shopping cart.
Shopify offers multiple pricing plans depending on your goals and needs. Here’s an overview of each. You can always start by trying Shopify free for 14 days.
Note: transaction fees are waived when you use Shopify Payments. For a complete breakdown of Shopify pricing plans and what’s included in them, check out Shopify’s pricing page.
Ready to start selling on Shopify? Here are some quick tips to get you up and running.
Here are 7 basic steps to start a Shopify store:
You can change your Shopify store name in 5 steps:
You can change the look and feel of your Shopify store without touching the CSS on the backend of the site.
To start, log into your Shopify dashboard, click “Online Store” on the left navigation menu, then click “Themes.”
In the Themes window, click the “Customize” box in the upper right corner. From here, you can choose a page to edit from the menu on the left.
You can also customize your store’s theme by clicking “Theme Settings” in the same left navigation menu. Here, you can adjust elements such as typography, colors, linked social accounts, and more.
When you sign up for Shopify, your default domain looks something like this:
your-store-name.myshopify.com
Using a custom-branded domain helps potential customers recognize your brand and also helps with search engine optimization (SEO). The change your store's URL, you’ll first need to purchase a domain through Shopify or a third-party registrar.
Once you secure a domain, log into your Shopify admin and click “Domains.” In the Primary Domain section, click “Change primary domain,” choose the domain you want as your primary domain, and click “Save.”
To remove the “Powered by Shopify” message at the bottom of your store, log into your Shopify admin and click “Online Store” in the left navigation menu and choose the theme you want to edit from the “Themes” tab.
Click the “Actions” dropdown menu and choose “Edit languages.” Type “powered” into the Search translations box. Scroll down to the “Powered by Shopify” box and use your space bar to remove the text completely or replace it with another message.
Don’t forget to click “Save.”
A Facebook pixel is a piece of code that lets you track customer data and behavior on your Shopify store. Here’s how to set it up:
Google Analytics lets you gather important data about your Shopify store—here are the steps to set it up:
From here, you can choose between basic ecommerce tracking and enhanced ecommerce tracking.
To enable basic ecommerce tracking, log into your Google Analytics account and choose Admin > View > Ecommerce Settings > Enable Ecommerce > ON.
To enable enhanced ecommerce tracking, go into your Shopify admin and choose “Preferences.” In the “Google Analytics” section, check “Use Enhanced Ecommerce” and click “Save.” Then, in your Google Analytics account, click Admin > View > Ecommerce Settings > Enable Enhanced Ecommerce Reporting > ON.
You can close your Shopify store at any time. Here’s how:
You can still re-open your store or view past bills for 2 years.
More than 1 million people use Shopify to earn money online. Let’s take a look at some of the most common questions about staying profitable on the platform.
You can sell almost anything on Shopify, but here are three of the most common ways people make money on Shopify:
Getting paid on Shopify starts with setting up Shopify Payments. This allows customers to make credit card purchases in your store. You can also choose alternative payment providers, such as PayPal, Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, and Google Pay.
After a customer purchases something from your store, the payment gets processed and moves into your merchant account.
If you use Shopify Payments, check your pay period to see when you’ll receive payouts into your linked bank account. Other payment providers have their own payout schedules.
It may take 24-72 hours for payouts to reach your bank account.
For more information about getting paid on Shopify, visit the Help Center.
Once your store goes live, you shouldn’t expect a flood of purchases out of nowhere. Here are 4 tips to boost your Shopify sales:
Log into your Shopify admin and click “Products” on the left navigation menu. From there, click the “Add Product” button in the top right corner.
From here, you’ll enter the product title, along with details such as a product description, image, availability, and price.
Click “Save” to make your new product live in your store.
Once your Shopify store is live, the next step towards success is adding plugins to find new customers and sell more products. That can include email marketing, custom coupons, or in-depth reporting.
That’s where Privy comes in. You can think of Privy as a digital toolbox with everything you need to grow your store faster and track progress along the way.
More than half a million ecommerce brands use Privy to optimize and grow their online storefronts. With more than 18,000 5-star reviews, Privy is the #1 rated sales app in the Shopify app store. Here are just a few ways Privy helps you sell more on Shopify.
25% of ecommerce revenue comes from email newsletter marketing, on average. Privy’s drag-and-drop templates aren’t just easy to use—they’re revenue-generating machines. In fact, merchants have earned more than $600 million with Privy Email.
More than 500,000 merchants use Privy Pop-Up Displays to capture email addresses while shoppers browse. Choose from dozens of templates that are tested and proven to convert traffic into paying customers.
Less than a quarter of shoppers who add items to their cart end up buying them. Fortunately, you can recover a good chunk of those sales with Abandoned Cart Emails for Shopify.
The average cart recovery rate is 7%. But for Privy customers, the average is 16%. That’s because Privy equips you with automated, customizable emails that entice customers to complete their orders.
Easily create custom coupons to incentivize purchases from target audiences and grow your Shopify store. Privy coupons integrate into emails, pop-ups, and text messages. Best of all, your coupons sync with Shopify so you can track redemptions in real-time.
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. That’s why Privy comes with a customizable dashboard where you can dig into key insights like purchase history, conversion rate product preferences, email analytics, and so much more.
Ready to see how Privy’s tools can take your Shopify store to the next level? Try it for free today and join the 500,000+ stores using Privy to boost sales.