References
- https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/setting-up
- https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/setting-up/preferences
Introduction
After you've set up Shopify, most of the work is done.
- Your online store will automatically use your Shopify settings for checkout and order fulfillment.
- Your products will automatically appear on your online store.
- Your online store is automatically assigned a unique
myshopify.com
domain name, or website address. You domain name is based on either the store name that you entered when you signed up or the domain name that was autogenerated if you did not enter a store name at that time. You can choose a newmyshopify.com
domain name after you sign up for Shopify to display in the address bar to customers. You can only change themyshopify.com
domain one time. Learn more about choosing a new[.myshopify.com](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/intro-to-shopify/initial-setup/setup-business-settings#change-myshopify-domain)
domain name.
There are a few steps you should follow before launching to make sure your online store is ready for customers.
If you need help setting up or customizing your online store, then you can hire a Shopify Partner. Learn more about hiring a Shopify Partner.
Edit the theme defaults
Your online store uses a default theme, Dawn, to lay out content. You can choose a different theme, but either way you will need to edit the theme's default sections using the theme editor.
You can also change the General settings for the theme to customize colors and fonts to match your business.
Looking for an in-depth course on online store design? Visit Shopify Academy to browse free educational courses designed to help you build your business. Learn more about brand identity, store customization, marketing, and more from industry experts and established Shopify entrepreneurs.
Link to store policies
You should link to store policies from your online store navigation so that your customers will know what to expect for order fulfillment and returns.
Customize and launch your online store
Launch your online store and open for business by removing the password. You can further customize your online store, but it is best to start selling as soon as possible. If you launch your online store, then you can start promoting your products and working to increase traffic to your store. Then you can use reports and analytics to see how customers are interacting with your online store and make improvements based on that information.
There are a few things you can do to customize your online store:
- Use a custom domain to help customers find your online store.
- Choose a different theme and customize it for your business.
- Upload images or other files to use in your theme, product details, webpages, and blog posts.
- Add a webpage with store information.
- Add a blog to share news and other content.
- Group your products into collections to help customers discover them.
- Set up menus to help your customers find their way around your online store.
- Add chat to online store pages by installing Shopify Inbox.
Upgrading from Shopify Lite
The Online Store sales channel is automatically added to your Shopify admin in the Sales Channels list, unless you are on a Shopify Lite plan. If you upgrade your Shopify plan from Shopify Lite, then you can add the Online Store sales channel.
Steps:
- From your Shopify admin, click the
+
button beside the Sales channels heading. - Within the list of available channels, click Learn more beside Online Store.
- Click Add channel.
Setting your online store preferences
You can edit the title and meta description of your online store, add tracking codes, and enable a password page on the Preferences page.
Edit the title and meta description for your home page
You can set the page title and meta description for your online store home page. These display in search engine results. Use descriptive text and keywords to improve the search engine ranking for your online store. Learn more about search engine optimization.
Steps:
- From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Preferences.
- In the Title and meta description section, enter a title and meta description for your store.
- Click Save.
Adding tracking information for Google Analytics
Google is sunsetting Universal Analytics in July 2023, and replacing it with Google Analytics 4(GA4). To learn more about Google Analytics, refer to setting up Google Analytics 4.
Adding or removing your online store password
You can restrict visitors access to your online store by adding the password page in the Password protection section. The password page is a landing page that requires any visitor to provide a password to visit your online store. If you want your customers to access your online store, then you can provide them with the password to your online store.
Learn more about adding, removing, and customizing the password page.
Protecting your online store with Google reCAPTCHA
Google reCAPTCHA helps analyze the behavior of visitors to your online store to block spam from bots. Google reCAPTCHA also reduces friction for real users by eliminating captcha challenges and is enabled by default on all Shopify stores.
Google reCAPTCHA can appear in the following locations of your online store:
- in contact and comment forms
- on login, create account, and password recovery pages
To learn more about editing Google reCAPTCHA in themes, visit Shopify.dev.
Activate or deactivate reCAPTCHA on online store
Google reCAPTCHA v3 is enabled by default on all Shopify stores. Information about reCAPTCHA is available to all visitors. reCAPTCHA v3 continuously monitors the visitor’s behavior to determine whether it’s a human or a bot.
If reCAPTCHA v3 can't determine whether a visitor is a bot, then it uses the v2 reCAPTCHA flow and prompts the visitor to prove they're human by clicking a checkbox.
Steps:
- From your Shopify admin, click Settings > Apps and sales channels.
- From the Apps and sales channels page, click Online store.
- Click Open sales channel.
- Click Preferences.
- In the Spam protection section, you can check to activate or uncheck to deactivate Google reCAPTCHA for that location:
- Enable Google reCAPTCHA on contact and comment forms
- Enable Google reCAPTCHA on login, create account and password recovery pages.
Google reCAPTCHA on contact and comment forms
Use Google reCAPTCHA on contact forms and blog comments to minimize incoming spam from bots. Google reCAPTCHA is enabled by default on all Shopify stores.
When Google reCAPTCHA is enabled, customers who make multiple comments or enter comments from an email addresses that Google considers suspicious are redirected to the page where they can complete the "not a robot" activity.
Google reCAPTCHA on login, create account and password recovery pages
Use Google reCAPTCHA on login pages, create account pages, and password recovery forms to minimize unwanted traffic to your online store. Google reCAPTCHA is enabled by default on all Shopify stores.
When Google reCAPTCHA is enabled, customers who make multiple attempts to log in, create accounts, or reset their passwords are asked to enter a CAPTCHA to make sure that they're legitimate users.