Why Shopify
Shopify is a subscription e-commerce platform: it hosts the store, handles payments, security and updates, and can be managed from a phone. For most stores it's more reliable and, over time, cheaper than a solution built from scratch.
What to prepare
The heart of a store is its products: clear names, useful descriptions, variants (sizes, colours, formats), consistent photos with similar backgrounds and light. Better to start with a few products presented beautifully than with a huge, neglected catalogue.
- A product list with variants
- Consistent photos
- Descriptions that answer doubts
- Weight and dimensions for shipping
Shipping, returns and payments
Decide in advance where you ship, with which carrier, with what timing and cost for the customer, and how you handle returns. This is the information customers check before buying. For payments, Shopify offers a built-in system and lets you add other methods.
Costs and time
Besides the build, consider the recurring costs: the Shopify subscription, payment fees, any apps and shipping. And the time: packing orders, answering customers, updating the catalogue. An online store is a business, not a shop window.
The most common mistakes
Inconsistent photos, empty product pages, shipping costs revealed only at checkout, missing legal pages, no test purchase before opening. All avoidable with a little preparation.