The OFFICIAL Shopify Tutorial For Beginners (Part 2)

Key Takeaways

Okay, picture this. You spent 20 hours building your store. You picked the products, nailed the branding, hit publish, and then you realize you can't actually accept money yet or ship anything. Yeah, not ideal. This is where a lot of people get stuck because let's be honest, payments, taxes, shipping, this is the stuff that makes people go, "Do I really need to deal with this right now?" Short answer, yes. But the good news, it's way easier than it sounds. Welcome back to part two of our four-part Shopify tutorial series. If you're just joining us, a quick heads up, part one is where we actually build your store and add products. I'd recommend starting there first, then coming back here when you're ready. I've linked that video down below for you. Today, we're making your store fully operational. We're setting up payments so money can actually hit your account. Configuring shipping so orders go out smoothly. talking through taxes without making your brain hurt and breaking down fulfillment. And yeah, Sidekick is still here to help us navigate the trickier parts. Make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss parts three and four because we are just getting started. All right, let's do this. First up, payments and checkout fundamentals. Let's talk about getting payment set up so you can get paid. Hands down, the easiest place for most merchants to start is with Shopify payments. It's built right into Shopify and available in most countries, which means fewer hoops and fewer things to connect. Before we do anything, though, a quick important step. Make sure you have two-step authentication enabled on your Shopify account. It's required for Shopify payments and it's just good security practice anyway. To turn it on, head to your profile, then security, right inside your Shopify admin. Click turn on twostep. Enter your password and choose how you want to authenticate. That could be an authenticator app like Google Authenticator or Duo, an SMS text message, a security key, or Shopify's built-in mobile prompts. Follow the onscreen steps. Save your recovery codes in a secure place. Your notes app doesn't count. And you're good to go. This adds an extra layer of protection so no one's getting into your store without you knowing about it. All right, that's set up. Amazing. Now, let's get back to payments. You'll need a form of identification to verify you're a real person. So, make sure you have a driver's license, ID card, or password handy. To activate Shopify payments, go to settings in the lower lefthand corner of your dashboard, aka the admin. Then click payments. You'll see a prompt to finish setting up your account. Just follow along with me step by step. First thing you'll do here is choose your business type. If you're just starting out and you don't have a business number yet, you're going to select individual. Even if you're technically a sole proprietor, still pick individual. There isn't a separate sole proprietor option, so don't overthink it. Next, you'll enter your personal info like your legal name exactly as it appears on your ID, date of birth, social security number, individual tax identification number, or tax identification number, email, phone number, and home address. You'll also need to upload a verification document like a passport or a driver's license. And once that's all in, hit save. Now, if you're running this as a registered business, like an LLC, corporation, or partnership, select that option. Shopify is going to ask for your business details, so have your documents prepped. Confused? Let's ask Sidekick. Hey, Sidekick. My business name is registered, but it's not a corporation or an LLC. Should I register as an individual or a business? And if I'm in Europe and not Canada or the US, how do I know the difference? In this case, Sidekick lets us know that if you have a business registration number, you should register as a business. So, good thing we checked. To register as a business, you'll enter your registered business name, your business number, employer identification number, company or VAT registration number, business phone number, and business address. After that, you'll add an account representative. This is usually you, the owner, or whoever has signing authority. They'll need to enter their legal name, date of birth, individual tax number like an ITIN, SSN, or TIN, and a residential address. Here's the thing, and this is super important. You'll need to make sure everything matches your governmentissued documents exactly. For example, if your driver's license says Robert, but you go by Rob, use Robert. Mismatches like that are the number one reason people get held up in verification and we are not doing that today. Once you hit save, Shopify will review your application. Most verification processes take a few hours, but note that in some instances it can take a few days. I know waiting is annoying, but this is Shopify making sure everything is legit. And in the meantime, you can keep building out other parts of your store, which is actually perfect because we've got shipping and taxes to handle. Next, one last thing before we move on. Make sure your bank account is set up to accept a transfers if you're in the US, EFT if you're in Canada, Swift if you're in Europe, Asia, or Africa, and Beex for Australia. This is how Shopify actually deposits your money. Most standard checking accounts are fine, but it's worth double-checking with your bank if you don't know. And if you're not sure whether Shopify Payments is available in your country, this is a perfect moment to chat with your trusty sidekick. Just open it up and ask, "Am I eligible for Shopify payments? If not, show me supported gateways in my country." Super easy. If you want to add additional payment methods, you can do it right from the same settings and then payments page. In the additional payment methods section, click add payment methods and you'll be able to activate things like PayPal, third-party credit card processors, or other alternative payment methods. You can have multiple payment options active at the same time. Adding alternatives now won't interfere with your Shopify payment setup, and your customers will just see more payment choices at checkout. All right, next, let's set your defaults. We all have a default setting. Mine is efficiency. If something can be set once and run in the background, that's exactly how I want it, and your store should work the same way. While in the payments section of settings, scroll to the payment capture method section and select automatically at checkout. This means your money gets captured the second someone places an order. No extra clicks, no chasing payments. You can always switch to manual later if you decide you want to review orders before charging, but automatic is the easiest place to start. Next up, wallets. Shop Pay, Apple Pay, and Google Pay will automatically show up at checkout, making the whole process way faster for customers. And faster checkout usually means higher conversions. It's a win-win. To add more in payments, click manage next to Shopify payments and then hit manage payment methods in the right hand corner. Then make sure to toggle on any other wallets you want to add or toggle off any payment methods you don't want to accept. Now let's talk customer contact settings. Head to checkout. Find customer contact method, which is where you can personalize how customers receive order information, including email or SMS. Check the box next to show a link for customers to track their order with shop. Pro tip, make sure the marketing consent box is checked so you can start building your email list from day one. Future you will absolutely thank you for that. All right, payments check. Let's keep moving. Next, shipping fundamentals. Let's talk shipping. And I know what you're thinking. Oh great, this is going to be so complicated. But don't worry, I'm here to walk you through this. A quick reminder, if you get stuck at any point, Sidekick is always there to help you troubleshoot or walk through setup, and you never lose those chats. All your conversations with Sidekick are saved right in your admin at the bottom of the left navigation, so you can always come back to them later. The first thing we're setting up are shipping zones. Think of zones as buckets for where you ship. Different countries or different parts of the world go into different zones, and each zone gets its own shipping rates. It's pretty straightforward. Head to settings, then click on shipping and delivery. When you land here, you'll probably already see general shipping rates with two zones set up, domestic and international. Shopify does this automatically, so you're not starting from scratch. Under your domestic zone, you'll see shipping rates based on weight already filled in. If you want to add a new one, just click add rate. This is where you decide what to charge. Maybe it's $5.95, $10, or even free shipping if that makes sense for your business. You also have the option to let Shopify automatically calculate shipping for you. That's based on where the item is shipping from, where it's going, and the package weight and size. So, rates can vary, but it takes the guesswork out of it. And if this starts to feel overwhelming, this is where Sidekick really shines. For example, you could type something like, "Hi, Sidekick. Shipping for my matcha drinks is half of a pound for a single,3 pound for a three-pack, and seven pounds for an eight pack. Can you help me update my domestic shipping rates? Sidekick will then walk you through updating your domestic rates step by step, give you reference prices based on typical carrier costs, and even ask whether you want to charge a flat rate, pass through actual shipping costs, or bake shipping into your product price. Once you've made your decision, Psychic can help you add those new rates and double check that everything is set up correctly. When you're finished, click done, then save. And that's it. Next, adding a zone. All right. Now, let's add a new shipping zone and set up shipping to another country. Quick thing to know up front, a country can only live in one shipping zone at a time. So, if the country you want is already lumped into something like an international zone, we'll need to remove it from there first before giving it its own zone. Here's how to do that. Go to shipping and delivery and scroll down to find the section called international. Click the three dots next to that section. Then click edit zone. You'll then see a drop-own menu appear. You'll see a full list of countries in that zone. Find the ones that you want to remove from your international shipping zone. Uncheck the box next to each country or zone. Once you're finished, click done and then save. Cool. Now that country is officially removed and ready for its own zone. All right, back to shipping and delivery. Click on shipping, then look for the section that says start shipping to more places at the bottom of the page. Click on go to markets. Then click on create market. Name your market. Add a condition. Then select a market by checking the box for that country. And then click done and save. Now click add rate to set up what shipping to that country will cost. And you've got options here. Flat rate if you want one simple price for all orders. Calculated rates if you're using a carrier and want Shopify to calculate shipping based on weight and distance. or free shipping if you want to offer it. Just remember, international shipping can add up, so be intentional here. Set your price in any conditions you want and then click done and save. From here, it's basically rinse and repeat for any other countries or regions you want to ship to. Okay, now getting your package weights right. Before we fully move on, we need to talk about package weights because this part actually matters a lot. Especially if you're using calculated shipping. Your product might weigh one thing on its own, but once you add the box, packing materials, bubble wrap, all of that, it weighs more. And if your weights aren't accurate, you could end up undercharging for shipping and quietly losing money on every order. That is not ideal. To fix this, go back to shipping and delivery. Scroll down to the packages section and click add package. Choose your package type. Then enter the outside dimensions of the box and the weight of the empty packaging. Give it a name like small box or standard mailer, whatever helps you remember what it is. If all your products ship in the same packaging, check the box that says set as default and you're done. But if different products use different packaging, you'll need to assign packages at the product level. Head to products, select a product, and click add variant. Scroll down to the shipping section and choose the correct package from the drop down. Then hit save. While you're there, double check the product weight, too. These little details are what keep your shipping costs accurate. Okay. Now, local delivery and store pickup options. If you have a physical location or you're serving customers locally, you might want to set up local delivery or store pickup. Totally optional, but very useful. For local delivery, click setup under the local delivery section. Choose the location you'll deliver from. Then define your delivery area either by setting a delivery radius like 100 miles or kilome or entering specific postal codes. You can also set a minimum order amount and a delivery fee. Then click save. For store pickup, click setup under the store pickup section. Select the pickup location. Set your pickup times. add any special instructions and then click save. It's super straightforward. Okay, a few things to keep in mind. If you're using drop shipping or print on demand, check with your suppliers about their shipping costs to these regions before you set your rates, especially for international orders. You don't want to find out after the fact that you're losing money every time someone checks out. Also, quick strategy tip. A lot of successful stores offer free shipping and just build the cost into their product prices. Like instead of charging $30 for a product plus $5 of shipping, charge $35 with free shipping. It sounds like a small thing, but it genuinely increases conversions. People love seeing free shipping. And as always, if you get stuck, open Sidekick and ask things like, "Help me set free shipping over $100 in my domestic zone, help me set up international shipping, or walk me through adding a saved package. It is clutch for troubleshooting in real time." Okay, shipping zones are handled. Let's keep going. Labels and printing. Here's something really convenient. You can actually buy shipping labels directly in your Shopify admin. No need to go to the post office or log into separate carrier websites. If shipping labels aren't available directly through Shopify where you are, no stress. You can install a shipping app from the Shopify app store. Apps like After Ship Shipping Plus Labels or Ready to Ship Shipping Labels. They'll handle label creation for you. So either way, you're covered. When you buy a label through Shopify, this is what's happening behind the scenes. Shopify is purchasing that label from the carrier using their pre-negotiated discounted rates. And yes, you get that discount. Huge plus. But here's the important part. The cost of that label is not taken out of the money your customer just paid you. It's completely separate. Instead, the charge gets added to your Shopify account balance. So, how do you actually pay for these labels? Shopify uses a billing threshold system. As you buy labels, those charges accumulate on your account. When you hit your billing threshold, which is determined by your activity and store history, Shopify immediately invoices the credit card you have on file for your Shopify account. Now, if you never hit that threshold during your billing cycle, maybe you're not shipping a ton of orders yet. Those label charges just bundle up and get added to your regular monthly Shopify subscription bill at the end of the cycle. The big takeaway is that label costs are treated like a normal business expense. They're not pulled from your sales or payouts. If you ever want to check your current billing threshold or see what charges are stacking up, go to settings and then billing and look under bills. Everything you need will be right there. All right, labels are covered. Next up, let's talk shipping insurance. And honestly, we've all been on the customer side. When a package goes missing, it's not great. So, from the merchant side, this is one of those things that's worth thinking about upfront. If you're using Shopify payments and you're on the Grow, Advanced, or Plus plan, you automatically get up to $200 in insurance included at no extra cost on each eligible shipping label. That's built in, which is really nice. That said, always read the fine print. Make sure the insurance actually covers what you're shipping. There are usually exclusions, especially for things like fragile items or higher value products. On the basic plan, shipping insurance is not automatically included when you purchase shipping labels through Shopify. However, you can still purchase shipping insurance for your orders for up to $5,000. If you're shipping from Canada or Europe, you have a few alternatives. Options for Canadian and European merchants. Use carrier insurance directly, install a third party insurance app, or self-insure. Again, if you're not sure what the best option is for your business in your country, ask Sidekick. Now, before we move on to shipping payments, double check your zones, rates, packages, and make sure everything is saved and locked in. Now that we have shipping set, let's move on to fulfillment. Up next, fulfillment fundamentals. Now, let's talk fulfillment because workflow is everything. The goal here is to make sure that when, not if, orders start coming in, you already have a repeatable system in place. Even if things are slow right now, set this up like future you is about to be busy. Fulfillment is the process of preparing, packing, and shipping items to customers after they place an order. You can fulfill orders yourself. Use a third party app or use a fulfillment service such as Shopify Fulfillment Network. To see your orders, head to the orders tab. You won't see anything here just quite yet, but I'll walk you through the process for when you do. When you start getting orders, click on an approved order. Review the customer details. Grab the items from inventory and prep your packaging. Then in the top right, click on print packing slip. This paper goes inside the box. From there, print your shipping label. Then ship the order by either dropping it off or scheduling a pickup depending on what you selected. Once it's on its way, your customer automatically gets that very satisfying your order has shipped email with tracking. Shopify should automatically mark as fulfilled. But one thing to note, if an order has multiple items, you can choose which ones to fulfill. So if one item is on back order, you can ship the rest now and fulfill the remaining item later once it's back in stock. Before you know it, things start moving fast. So how you organize multiple orders is up to you. For example, if you have 10 orders, you might pack two at a time, mark them in progress, and then keep going. Once everything is ready, head back to orders, check the box at the top, and bulk print packing slips and create shipping labels. Then mark everything as fulfilled in one go. It's way more efficient. Now, let's talk customer notifications. We all know how exciting it is as a customer to get that your order has shift email. So, let's make sure yours is personalized to your company. Ask Sidekick, "Show me where I can edit the designs of my customer email templates." Sidekick will bring you to that section immediately. Click on navigate to customize email templates. And there you can edit your confirmation email. From here, you can add your logo, and yes, you can ask Sidekick to help you make one. Update your accent color and make sure everything feels on brand and polished. To preview your email, press save. Returns. Keep it simple and clear. To set up your return and refund policies, go to settings, click policies, and then click return and refund policy. If you don't already have one, Shopify provides a template you can edit. The clearer it is, the fewer arguments you'll have. Once you're happy with it, make it live. Returns do happen, though, so let's make them less stressful for everyone. Head to settings, then to customer accounts, and toggle on selfserve returns. Then go back to policies on the left at the bottom of the menu and click return and refund policy. No policy is set yet, so hit insert template. Customize it to match your preferences and click publish. You can also manage your return rules here. This is where you select your return window marked in days, return shipping cost, restocking fee, and set your final sale items. As always, once you're done, make sure to press save. Okay, I think we can mark fulfillment as dialed in now. So, let's move on. Up next, taxes fundamentals. All right, the final section. Let's talk taxes. Not fun, but necessary. The basic rule here is simple. Your tax setting should reflect where your business has a physical presence. That means where you're located, where your inventory lives, and where you have employees. The good news, Shopify already does a lot of the heavy lifting. It automatically calculates sales tax based on your store location and where you're shipping to. To configure your tax settings, go to settings, then taxes and duties. Select the country your store is based in. Click collect in a new region under sales tax and select the appropriate location like province or state. Input your sales tax ID number if you have one and finalize by clicking collect sales tax. Then scroll down to duties and import taxes. Click set up. Select all markets that apply and press save. The nice part is that Shopify will take it from there and automatically calculate taxes and duties at checkout so your customers don't have to pay them upon delivery. Just make sure to update your shipping policy to include that fact. Now, the truth is taxes are one of those things we all know exists but would rather not think about. So, here are a few settings worth double-checking. Tax on shipping. This varies by jurisdiction. This depends on the region. Go to your settings and navigate to taxes and duties. Click into the country or state. Then look for shipping tax options. For US states, click advanced options to choose whether shipping is taxable. Tax inclusive pricing. This displays prices with tax already included, which is required in many markets like Japan and common in the EU. To enable it, scroll down to global settings and check include sales tax and product price and shipping rate. For international selling, you can also use dynamic tax inclusive pricing to automatically show tax included prices to customers in regions that expect it. For example, a $100 product might show as $100 tax included in the UK, but $90.91 plus tax at checkout in the US. To set this up, click markets, select a market, and adjust the pricing settings there. And if any of this makes your head spin, again, Sidekick is your best friend, so use it. Test and verify. Once everything is set up, you need to make sure it actually works. So, let's run a few test orders using different addresses. In the Shopify payments section, click manage, then toggle over to test mode. Navigate back to your admin and click the I icon next to the online store. Now, you'll see your store from your customer's point of view. Click on your product and create an order. Here you can ask Sidekick for official Shopify test credit card numbers to test paying for your products prior to your store going live. Double check your tax settings, shipping, and your workflow process. That's right, test the process of receiving and fulfilling an order to work out anything that's sticking. And remember to make sure that links to your policy pages, like your return policy, are visible at checkout. Once you feel good, turn test mode off. Two final pieces of advice for future you. Always keep records of your tax registrations and always consult a local tax professional. Rules change constantly and expert advice is so worth it. Okay, you did it. You are officially halfway through. You've completed part two of our four-part series. You've locked in your operational essentials. Payments are active. Shipping is set up. Fulfillment is ready to go. and taxes are handled. Honestly, that's huge. Next up is part three where we dive into launching and marketing your store. Don't miss it. Watch that next and make sure you like and subscribe so you stay in the loop. I'm Kylie Maher and I'll see you soon.