Shopify Tutorial for Beginners in 2026 - Complete Guide

hi there my name is Simon and in this video I'm going to show you how to create an e-commerce website using Shopify from start to finish so the great thing about this video is that it's not just a tutorial on how to use Shopify but it's actually a complete guide on how to build your Shopify website from the ground up so we will build an entire Shopify store together and we won't skip any steps along the way all you need to do is follow along with this video and by the end you'll have a fully functional and professional Shopify store ready to sell your products we will be using a free Shopify theme that is fully responsive meaning your website will look great on any screen size whether it's on a computer on a tablet or on a mobile phone and as always I will leave all the steps we're going to cover in this video down below in the timestamps so if you're looking for a specific part you can just jump ahead so let's get started with the video all right so the first thing we want to do is create our Shopify account now if you don't already have an account I recommend to use the first link Down Below in the description to create your Shopify account this link will take you to my Shopify Commerce coach lining page where you can sign up for a 3-day free trial plus you get an additional month for using Shopify with all the features for just $1 and this gives you enough time to create your entire store and launch it it before you have to go on a fully paid plan so once you're on this page just type in your email right here and click on start free trial then here Shopify wants to ask us a few questions we're going to save some time and just click on skip all at the bottom then here we want to choose the location of our business and click on next then here we get a few different ways how we can create our Shopify account so we can use our Apple Facebook or Google account or we can simply sign up using our email which is what I'm going to do here we want to choose our password and click on create Shopify account and that takes us into our Shopify dashboard now the first thing we want to do here is make sure to get our extended Shopify trial so we get that extra month for just $1 and to get this we have to choose a Shopify plan within the first 3 days of signing up so let's do that now by clicking on select a plan up here or down here on the bottom right and here we're going to choose the basic plan which has everything that we need now here we can see a quick overview of our plan so currently we are still on the free trial for 3 days then after the 3 days we're going to have to pay $1 for the next 30 days and then if we don't cancel our plan within those 30 days we're going to be on the regular plan for $39 per month then here on the left you can choose your payment method credit card or pay PayPal enter your payment information and click on subscribe and here just enter your business address details and click on confirm business address great so now that we have successfully activated our extended Shopify trial we can start building our Shopify website and the first thing we're going to do is choose a theme for our Shopify website so let's click on online store and that will automatically take us to the themes and here we can see that the theme that is currently installed is the dawn theme now for our Shopify store we're going to use a different theme so let's scroll down and then click on visit theme store and here we can find tons of different themes we can use for our Shopify store now I'm going to just stick to the free ones here so let's just filter by the free themes and the one that we're going to use is one of their newest and best themes they have which is called the trade theme and it's all the way here at the bottom so let's just click on this theme and then let's click on try theme so now this theme has been added and we can see it right here in the theme library and to activate this new theme we want to click on publish right here and confirm and now up here we can see that our current theme is the trade theme now let's go ahead and customize our website by clicking on customize right here and this will take us into the the page builder of Shopify now as you can see here we already have a lot of placeholder content for our Shopify website and we can customize everything about this page using this page builder now here on the left side you can see an overview of what we currently have on our page all the way at the top we have the header which is this area right here and then all the way at the bottom we have the footer area which is this one right here and the header and the footer will be visible on every single page on our store currently we are on the homepage and we can switch Pages by just clicking up here and then go to the product page collection page collection list page or the card page checkout page and so on but for now we're just going to stay here on the homepage and to see what our store looks like on different devices we can just come up here and switch to the mobile view and see what the store looks like on a mobile phone or we can also go to the full screen view right here and then we can go back to the desktop view now all the themes of Shopify are fully responsive so they're already optimized for all of the different screen sizes so what we can do is make all of our changes here on the desktop view and it should automatically look good on all of the other views as well now customizing our website using the Shopify page builder is very easy your page is basically made up of multiple sections and then within those we have different blocks so here for example we have this image Banner section which is this section right here and then inside of this section we have a text block a heading block and then a button block the same here we have a multi column section which is this section right here and then we have multiple columns within this section now here we could for example just delete one of these columns here but just hovering over them right here and then clicking on the trash icon or we can also just click on the column here and then click on the trash icon right here or if you want to delete the entire section we can just just delete it here by hovering over it and then clicking on the trash icon or we can click on it here and that will open up the options for this section and all the way at the bottom we can see remove section we can also move sections around on our page so for example if you want to move this Rich Text section we can just click on it here and then we can move it wherever we want on our page now whenever we want to add a new section to our page we can just go to where we want to add that section let's say in between those two right here and then we can see those little plus icons which when we hover over it it says add section so we can just click on it here and then the menu with the different type of content sections will open up and for example we can choose the slideshow section and by click clicking on it it will be added right here to our page another way to add a new section is just going back here to the overview and then scroll all the way down and right here we can see add section so we can just click here and then choose the section we want to add all right so now that you understand how the Shopify page builder Works let's start customizing our website the first thing I want to do is change the background of this hero section right here so what I'm going to do is click on the image Banner right here and then here under first image we can select the image we want to use so either you just click on select image and then choose it from your computer or you can just drag and drop your image right in here oh and by the way if you want to follow along with this video just to get some practice building a Shopify store then you can go to the description and click on the Google Drive Link and there you will find all of the images that I'm using to build this example store so now I've changed the background for this image banner and down here we can just play around with some options for example we can add a second image to have one on the left side one on the right side or we can play around with the image overlay opacity to make it darker or a bit brighter we can also change the banner height to maybe medium or we can put it back to small then we can change with the content alignment right here we can put it in the center we can put it to the left side whatever you think looks the best in my case I think it looks pretty good the way it is right now so I'm going to move on to the next step so next I want to change this heading to something different so let's click on it here and this will open up the heading options so I can just replace the text right here and I'm going to do the same thing with this text right here click on it and then just replace the text then let's save the changes we've made so far by clicking on Save at the top right then let's also customize this button here so let's go back to the overview and then choose the button right here I'm going to change the text from shop all to just shop and here we can also change where this button link will go to currently it's set to all products which is fine so I'm going to leave it like that and if you want you can also add a second button so you could do like shop women shop men or something and this will add a a second button and here you also want to link that button to that respective collection and later on in the video I'm going to show you how to actually set up your product collections but for now we're just going to leave it at one button which goes to all of our products so that's pretty much it for this image Banner let's go back to the overview and go to the next section which is this Rich Text section that we can see right here now if you don't need it you can just delete it but I'm going to just change the text by just clicking on it and then I'm just going to replace the text with something else like quality sustainability and individuality and now we can move on to the next section which is the proven best sellers section here it's called the featured collection so this basically features specific products from a specific collection now because we haven't set up our products yet and we haven't set up our collections yet here we can see some placeholder content so before we move on and build out our homepage I want to show you how to add your products and how to sort those products into product collections so let's do that now by clicking on Save first to save our changes and then we have to go back to the Shopify dashboard now I recommend to keep your page builder open so to do that we just right click on the exit icon here at the top left and then click open in a new tab and now in this new tab we have our Shopify dashboard and in the other tab we have our page builder so let's go to our dashboard and here let's go to products and to add our first product let's click on ADD product and we can start with the name of this product so I'm going to be adding a backpack as a product so I'm going to name this one the Explorer and then down here we want to add a description for our product and if you need some help coming up with a good description you can use that generate text tool add some keywords choose the tone you want to have your description in and then generate a description using AI now I've already prepared a description for this product so I'm just going to copy and paste that in here and then we can move on to the media now it's very important to have high quality images for your product so I'm just going to drag and drop in my product images once they're uploaded we can also rearrange them just by dragging them around however we want then we can move on to the pricing so how much we want to charge for this product and my case let's say it is $50 and then if you want we can also add a compare price which shows that this product is now on sale so let's say this product used to be $65 and it's now $50 then we can go to inventory here we were able to track our stock using Shopify so here we can just enter how many of these backpacks we currently have let's say we have 100 in stock and whenever one gets sold then Shopify will keep track of how many we still have in stock and if you want to enable customers to still buy this product even though the stock hits zero and then you want to tick this option right here now let's move on to shipping here you can add a weight for your product this is useful if you want to charge your shipping rates based on the weight but for me I'm just going to leave this at zero and then here we can add variants so up here you can see we have three colors for this backpack we have black blue and green so down here on the variants we can add those variants so let's click on ADD options and then here I want to add the color as the option and here I can just enter the color so let's start with black then blue and green and click done now I want to assign the right picture to each variant so I'm going to click on this picture icon and choose the black backpack for color the blue backpack for the blue color and then the green one for the green color and then you want to make sure to also specify how many you have in stock for each color So currently it says we have 100 of the black color and then let's say we also have 100 of the blue color and then let's say we have 50 for the green color and if you want to you can also change the prices for each variant separately now let's move on to search engine listing this is basically how your product page will be found on search engines so if you want to change that just click on edit and then you can change the page title here you can change the meta description and also the URL handle here at the end I'm going to leave everything as it is and click on Save and now my product has been saved and when we go back to products we can see that we have our first product added to our store now to add more products we can just click on ADD product again and then go through the exact same process now I've went ahead and added a few more products just so we have a bit more content to work with for our example website the next thing I want to do is add product categories to make sure to keep everything organized and sort my products into categories or collections so to do that let's go to products and click on collections Now by default we have this homepage collection which actually I don't need so I'm going to select it here go to the three dots and click on delete collection and confirm and now to create our first product category let's click on create collection and the first one for me is going to be backpacks so I'm going to type that in here and we can also add a short description for this category and under collection type I'm going to keep this add manual for now because I want to manually add my products to this category and then we also want to add a category image right here so I can just drag and drop this image to this field and then click save and now when we go back to our collections we can see our first product category to add more categories we just click on create collection again and then go through the same process so now I've added a few more collections to this store but currently all of my collections are empty as we can see here it shows zero products for all of the collections so the next step is to add our products to the respective collection so to do that let's go to our products and then here we want to select all of the products that go into a specific collection or category so I'm going to start with the backpacks so I'm just going to scroll down and look for all of my backpacks so here is one here is another one and then here we have three more so now all of my backpacks are selected so what I can do now is go to the three dots up here click on add collections and then I'm going to choose the backpacks collection and click save and then we want to do the same thing for all of our categories so now I've added all of my products to the correct category so when we go back to collections we can now see that there are products in each of the categories now I have two special categories the new arrivals category and the best sellers category here I can also choose a few products to add to those categories as well so let's go back to products and then I'm just going to choose some random products for my best sellers and then to add them go to the three dots again go to add to collection and add them to the best sellers and then I'm going to also add a few products to the new arrivals collection all right so now that we are done adding our products we are ready to continue building out our homepage and we should still have our page builder open in the other tab right here now if you don't know where that page builder is you can just go to online store go to themes and then click on customize right here and that will take you inside of the page builder now here we already done with the first part of the homepage which is this image Banner now let's move on to the second part which is this featured collection right here so we can use this featured collection to Showcase a specific category from our store like for example our best sellers or maybe our new arrivals I will just add my new arrivals collection so let's just click on the section to open up the menu right here then let's go to collection and click on select collection and I'm going to select the new arrivals which is right here and then click on select and this is now going to show all of our products that are in our new arrivals category now I want to just show five of these products here on the homepage so what I can do is just go to maximum products to show and decrease it to just five and this will show the view all button because there are actually more products in this category now I'm going to change the button style a bit so I'm going to scroll down here and under view all style choose the outline button and then I also want to change the title here to new arrivals so let's scroll up and then change the title right here and then one more thing I want to do is change this quantity selector right here so let's scroll down and go to the quick add option currently it's set to bulk we can either change it to standard to just add an add to cart button or if you want to remove it completely you can just click on none here and then you will just have the image of the product with the name and the price and that's it for the featured collection let's save our changes and then let's move on to the next section right here which is the categories section here we basically have a collection list element or collection list section as we can see here where we can showcase all of the different categories we have on our store so to add our categories here let's just click on the first collection and then we can just click on select collection and then choose the first one I'm going to start with backpacks select and then do the same thing for the second one here just click on it select collection and then choose the second category now I have added five of my categories but I still have a few more so to add more categories I can just go to my collection list click on ADD collection and this will give me a new one right here and we can also rearrange them by just clicking holding and then just dragging them wherever we need them to be now personally I think it would look a bit better if you would have the same layout as up here with the featured collection so just one row with five options and then the view all button so to do that here for the category list as well we're going to have to delete the bottom categories so let's do that by going back to the overview here and then under collection list I'm just going to delete all of the bottom categories like this and then to add the view more button let's select our collection list then scroll down and click on enable view all button and now if our visitors want to see all of our categories they can just click on view all and they will get to the category list page now one more thing I want to do is change the title up here so I'm going to change that to just our top categories then let's save our changes now let's go back to our page overview by going back one step here and then let's just close all of our sections to kind of get a better overview of what we have on our homepage so we have the image Banner here at the top then we have this text section then we have the feature collection then our collection list and then by default here at the bottom we have a multicolumn section we have another feature collection and then we have this multicolumn section now I want to add a few different things to my homepage so what I'm going to do is just delete all of these sections I'm going to delete the multicolumn the featured collection and also the next multicolumn so what I want to add next below this category list is a slideshow section with a few images a few lifestyle images showcasing our products being used so let's add a slideshow section by clicking on ADD section right here and then choose slideshow now I want to just show pictures without any text or buttons so I'm going to click on this image slide here and then just delete the text for the heading delete the subheading and also delete the button label and then just scroll down a bit and untick the show container on desktop option and now we just have the image so let's add the image for the first slide let's scroll up and then I'm just going to drag and drop in my image to this box and it will automatically be added to the first slide and now I want to add two more more images to this slideshow and to just copy the settings of this first slide we can just go to the three dots right here and then click on duplicate and then again three dots duplicate now when we go back here we can see we have three times the same slide and we have one more here which we can actually delete by clicking on the trash icon and now all you have to do is replace the images so let's click on the second slide and then drag in the second image then let's go back and click on the third slide and drag in the third image and save our changes and now to see what it looks like let's go to the three dots here click on view to see a preview of our homepage then here let's scroll down to the slideshow and here we can see we have the first image here and after 5 Seconds it will automatically change or we can just click on this arrow down here it will also change to the next image and then to the last image here now let's go back to our page builder and the next thing I want to do is also add a specific product directly to the homepage so this would be a feature product section so to do that let's click on ADD section and then let's go for feature product and it will be added right here now all we have to do is choose a specific product we want to feature on the homepage so we can just click on select product and then let's say we want to feature this product right here the roll toop limited so let's click on it and select and now we have this feature product section on the homepage now another type of section I like to add to a homepage is a collage section so here under add sections we can choose collage and this allows us to add a lifestyle image right here of the product being used then we can add that product right here and we can add the collection where that product belongs to so let's add the image first by clicking on it and then just dragging in the image to this box then let's go to this product and click on select product and find this product we have right here I think it's this one so let's click on select actually this looks a bit different but let's pretend it's the same product and then here under collection we can choose a specific collection so let's click here and then I think this belongs to the small bags collection so let's select it here and click select all right so that's basically how you can build out a very nice looking homepage for your Shopify website obviously there's a lot more you can add to your homepage so we can just go to add section and then check out all of the different types of content you can add to your homepage so now let's look at how we can customize the other pages on our Shopify website as well up here we can see we are currently on the homepage but now let's switch to a different page so let's go to our product Page by clicking on products here and then let's click on default product so this is what the product page currently looks like we have the product information here at the top with the name the price the description and the images and this is actually the information we have entered when we have added the product so back here in the dashboard when we go to product and click on that product this is where the information comes from so the image the name and the description and the price we can all see here on the product page and we can edit our default product page the same way as we have edited our homepage so for example if you want to disable these features right here these rows what we can do is just delete them right here or you can also just hide them by clicking on this I icon here for all of them and then they will be removed from our product page and to add content to our product page it's the same thing so for example we can click on ADD section right here and then maybe add a slideshow to the bottom of this product page right here add some images and now we have a slideshow on this product page now one thing you want to keep in mind is that whatever you add here to this page will show up for every product that is assigned to the default product page so we can create different product page layouts for different types of products let's say I want to create a specific product page layout for all of my backpacks and then have a different one for all of my duffel bags I can do that by creating a specific product page template so let's do that by clicking on default product then products and then let's click on create template I'm going to name this template backpacks and click on create template and now let's say for all of my backpack product pages I want to add something here at the bottom that shows why our backpacks are actually the best ones in the market so what I would want to do is click on ADD section here and then maybe I want to do a multicolumn section and then here I'm going to add three things why these backpacks are actually the best ones in the business so let's say we have added all of those features so let's click on Save change es and now what we want to do is assign all of our backpacks to this specific product page so we can go back to our dashboard then go to products and then let's click on one of our backpacks let's click on this one right here and then here we can scroll down and under theme template we want to change it from default product to backpacks and click save and now when we go to our store and then look for our backpacks here and click on the one we have selected before then we can see here on the product page we have now our multicolumn section that we have added before but again this is just if you want to use different product pages for different types of products now if you want to keep things simple what I would do is just stick to one type of product page and then just keep it General so it fits to every product that you have in store so let's switch back from the backpack product page template to the default one now we can also take a look at the other shop Pages we have on our website like for example The Collection list page so here we can switch from the product page to the collection list this page basically shows all of our different product categories so here if you want to add something like a banner or something you can also do that by just adding a section here and then we also have a page for our collections so the default collection page page just shows how our collections will be showcased when somebody clicks on one of our product categories here again you can just change the design by just clicking on the section make changes here or you can also add things by clicking on ADD section and then just add whatever you think looks great on your collection page so that's it for our shop Pages now I want to also create a few more pages that I think every online store should have which is an about page a contact page and an FAQ page so let's start with our about page let's go to the top right here and then let's click on pages and then here let's click on default page here we can determine what the default page layout is going to be for our website So currently our pages will just start with the page name as a title right here which I think looks a bit boring so we're going to do something different so first let's just hide this section by clicking on the I right here and then let's add a new section and choose the image Banner then for Banner height I'm going to choose small and then untick the show container on desktop and then I want to delete everything but this heading right here so let's click on the text click on the trash icon and then also let's delete the buttons right here by clicking on the trash icon and then for this heading right here I'm going to make this large and that's basically it for our default page layout now every new page that we add to our store will have this image banner and we can add contact here as a heading for the contact page we can add about us for the about page and obviously we can just change the background image for each single page so let's save our changes and then let's start creating our about page so let's click on default page pages and then let's click on create template to create a new one for the about page I'm going to change this to about us and click on create template and now here I can change the title by clicking on it and then just typing in about us and I'm going to also make this bold and then also change the color scheme to make this white so let's go back and then let's click on the image banner and scroll down and change from scheme one to scheme 4 and now I want to change the background image so I'm going to click on the image Banner scroll up and then I'm going to drag in the image I want to use for this banner and there we go now if the image is a bit too bright what we can do is just increase the image overlay opacity to maybe 30% so we can then read the title a bit better and now let's add some content to our about page so let's go back to the overview click on ADD section and I'm going to start with a rich text section and then below this section I'm going to add a multi row section so let's click on ADD section again and choose multirow so now we can just start adding content so I'll start with uh this right here so let's say a better way of living and then also add some text down here and then I'm also going to delete the button because I don't need it so let's go back and then let's delete the button right here and then let's start adding pictures as well for this section so I'm going to click on it and then drag in the first image and then we can customize this text area so I'm going to remove the caption right here and for the heading I'm going to say what we make and then just add some text down here and again I'm going to remove the button by just deleting the button label text and then do the same thing for this row and then again for the last row and then maybe all the way at the bottom we can also add a newsletter signup section so let's go back and then let's click on ADD section and click on email sign up here we can also customize it so maybe we're going to say something like subscribe to our newsletter and then click on Save changes so now we've created a nice design for our about page but it's a bit confusing here on Shopify because now we've actually just created a template for a page but we haven't created the actual page yet so now we have to go back to the dashboard and create the actual about page and then assign it to this template so let's go to our Shopify dashboard then go to online store and click on pages and then here we can see we have already a contact page so let's create a new one by clicking on ADD page we're going to name this about and now under online store we're going to have to choose a theme template and here we're going to choose the theme template we have just created which is the about us template so let's choose about us here and then click on Save and now we can see what the page looks like by clicking on view on your online store and now we can see this is what the about page looks like now later we will also add this page to our navigation menu up here but first let's also create our FAQ page and our Conta page so let's go back to the page builder and then click here and go to pages and click on create template now we're going to create the template for the FAQ page so let's type in FAQ and click on create template then first let's create the banner so let's change this text to FAQ and let's also make it bold then let's change the background image so let's click on the section and just drag in our FAQ Banner image and then we also want to make the text here white so let's go back here click on image banner and then just change this scheme from 1 to 4 now let's add our FAQ section below so let's go back here and click on ADD section and for our FAQs we're going to add the collapsible content section and then let's customize this section by clicking on it and then first I'm going to change the title here to something like find your answers here and then we can move on and customize each of these questions so let's go back and I'm actually going to delete all of them except one so I can create one template for all of my questions then let's click on the one we still have and first I'm going to delete this check mark here by going to Icon and then choosing none and that's basically it for the template so now to create more of them we can just go to the three dots here and click on duplicate for however many FAQ questions we have now let's say the first question is how long does the shipping take we can just go to The Heading here and then write the question how long does shipping take and then down here we can add the answer to the question and we want to do the same thing for all of our questions so select the second one and fill out everything here and then one more thing I would add to the FAQ page is a link to the contact page for everybody who didn't find an answer to their question so let's go to the overview here and click on ADD section and then just add a rich text section and I'm going to change the heading here to couldn't find your answer and make the heading size small then also change this text right here to something that makes sense and then I'm going to link this button to the contact page so let's click on it here go to the link and then go to pages and choose contact and then also change the label to contact us and that's it let's save our changes now just like before we have just created the template for our FAQ page now we have to create the actual page and assign it to this template so let's go back to our Shopify dashboard go to online store pages add a new page and call it FAQ and then for theme template we're going to choose FAQ and click save next let's also finish up our contact page so let's go back to our page builder and then click here go to pages and then for the contact page we don't need to create a new template because there's already one by default called Contact so let's click on this one and as you can see here there's already a contact form so there's not too much we need to do here on the contact page but I do want to have the same Banner type that we have on the other Pages as well and there's already an image Banner right here so let's click on it and then I'm going to first add my banner image by just dragging it into this first image box now this is way too big so let's scroll down here and for Banner height let's choose small and let's make it a bit darker as well by increasing the image overlay opacity to let's say 50% and now I also want to add the heading that says contact so let's go back here and then under image Banner let's click on ADD block and choose the heading I'm going to click on the heading block and then change the text to contact make it large and also make it bold and now I need to put it in the center here so let's click on the IM Banner again then scroll down and for desktop content position let's choose middle Center and then for desktop content alignment let's choose Center and now all I need to do is change the color here so let's go to scheme 1 and choose scheme 4 and let's save our changes and now when we go back to our Shopify dashboard and go to Pages we can see that the contact page already exists by default and when we click on it it's already assigned to the contact page template that we have just customized so now let's take a look at how to customize our navigation menu when we go to a preview of our website we can see here at the top that our navigation menu currently has a home link a catalog link and a contact link now to customize this menu we want to go back to the Shopify dashboard then go to online store and click on navigation Now by default we have two menus we have the main menu which is the one at the top and the footer menu let's customize the one at the top by clicking on main menu and then here we have the menu that we have seen before now I don't want the home link or the catalog link so I'm just going to delete those links from the menu by clicking on the lead right here and then remove and again for the catalog delete and remove now to add new links to our navigation menu we're going to click on ADD menu item and then by clicking into this field we can see all of the options we have so we can either just add specific categories directly to the navigation menu or we can even add specific products to the navigation menu or we can add specific Pages we have created blogs if we have them so let's start by adding our about Page by going to pages and then adding the about page here clicking add and then I also want to add my FAQ page Pages FAQ and add and now there's multiple ways how you can add your shop Pages now for this store that has multiple categories what I would want to do is a link that's called shop and then below the shop link we have multiple submenu links that go to the specific categories so first let's click on ADD menu item here then let's go and click on this field and then go to products and choose all products now I'm going to change the name of this link to shop so that when somebody clicks on this link it will just go to all products let's click on ADD now just to see what it now looks like let's click on Save menu and then go to our store and reload the page and now here we can see the menu we have just created we have the contact link the about link the FAQ link and the Shop link now the next thing I want to do is create submenus under this Shop link right here so to do that let's go back to our dashboard and then let's click on ADD menu item and go into this field and then let's click on Collections and start by adding the backpacks collection let's click on ADD and now to make this a submenu under the shop link let's click hold and drag this just below a little bit to the right under the shop link like this and then here I want to add all of my categories so let's click on ADD menu item to shop and choose Collections and let's continue with accessories and click on ADD and I'm going to do the same thing for all of the categories I want to add so now I've added my main six categories so let's click on Save menu then let's take another look at our store by clicking on this I icon here and now we can see that the shop link is now a drop-down link so when we click on the drop- down we can see all of the categories right here as a sub men now we can even further categorize our submenu by having multiple columns right here so maybe I want to have the First Column just for my categories and then for my specific categories I want to have a separate column so to do that let's go back to our dashboard and then let's scroll down and click on ADD menu item I'm going to call this one categories and just click on ADD and then choose collections all collections and then click on ADD and now I want to drag this as a submenu to the shop page but now I want to drag all of these collection Pages as a submenu of the categories menu so let's just drag this right here to the right and this as well and there we go now we have three levels we have the first one which is the shop link then we have the categories link and then as a submenu of this Sub menu we have all of those categories so again let's click on Save and see what looks like by going to the preview icon here and now when we click on the shop dropdown menu we can see we have a title here called categories and then we have all of our different categories below this submenu now we can also add multiple columns right here so to do that let's go back here then let's add a new menu item to the shop link by clicking here then I'm going to choose collections and all collections again and change the name to discover click on ADD and now I want to add my special categories in this discover category so let's click on ADD here and then I'm going to go to collections and I'm going to choose the new arrivals first add I'm going to also choose the best sellers and then also the protective category now to make this a sublink for under discover let's just drag this to the right here there we go now let's click on Save menu now before we take a look at what it looks like I want to add one more column for some feature products so let's click on ADD menu item again go here and now I'm just going to go with products all products and here I'm going to name this featured click on ADD and now here for this column I'm going to add some feature products so here let's click on ADD go to products and maybe we want to feature this product here add and then maybe one more maybe this one and now again we want to just drag these products under the featured category and click on Save now let's check out our menu by going to the I icon once again then going to the shop link and now we have three columns we have our categories right here we have our special categories like the new arrivals best sellers and so on and then we also have some feature products all below our Shop link now the only thing I want to do is change the order of these links so let's go back to the dashboard and I want to start with the shop link so I'm going to drag this all the way to the top top then I want to have about then FAQ and then contact so now that's it let's click on Save menu now let's see our final menu by clicking on the I icon once again and now we have the correct order with the shop link right here the about link the FAQ link and the contact link next let's take a look at how to customize our header area so let's go back to the page builder right here then let's go back to the overview and then let's start with the announcement bar here at the top so this announcement bar basically allows you to give special messages to your customers when they first come to your store so it's something you could say is like you get 20% off for your first purchase by using this code or maybe you can also let people know under what order amount they get free shipping and just stuff like that or you can just delete the announcement bar alt together by clicking on the trash icon here if you don't want to use it but I'm going to actually change the text right here by just clicking on the text here and I'm going to say something like free shipping for orders over let's say $50 then let's move on to the layout of the header so let's click on the header right here and the first thing I want to do is change the layout so I'm going to put the logo in the center and then have the menu here on the left side so for the desktop logo position I'm going to change it from middle left to Middle Center and that's it for the header layout the next thing we want to do is add our branded logo to our store so to do that we're going to go into the theme settings by clicking on the gear icon here at the top left then let's go to logo and then right here we can upload our logo now because this has a dark background we want to upload the logo that is suitable for a dark background so optimally it should have a bright color so I have a logo for a dark and a bright background and here I'm going to just drag in the one that is white for the dark background and now I think it's a bit small so I'm going to change the logo width to 100 pixels now we also want to add your side icon or favicon which we can add down here so a favicon is basically the little icon that we can see up here when people visit your store So currently when we go to our store we can just see this globe icon which means we don't have a site icon yet so let's add it by just dragging it in here and you want to make sure that it's basically a square version of your logo so I'm just going to drag it in here and once it's uploaded let's click on Save at the top right then let's go to the three dots and click on view View and now we can see our side icon here at the top now there's one more place where we want to add our logo which is the checkout page so let's switch to the checkout Page by clicking here then let's click on checkout and new customer accounts and then let's drag the logo for the light background into this field so for me this is just a black logo so let's just drag that in here and now we can also see our logo here when somebody checks out on your store let's save our changes and then go back to our online store theme next let's take care of our website footer which is all the way here at the bottom of the website so what I want to do here is add my policy Pages which is like the refund policy terms of service privacy policy and so on so first we have to create those pages and to do that let's go back to the Shopify dashbo board then here let's go to settings scroll down and click on policies and here Shopify has a cool feature where you can just generate your policies from their templates so for example for the return and refund policy we can just click on create from template and then the text will be inserted here now we definitely want to make sure to read through this text and replace all the placeholder content and make sure everything is actually applicable to our business and online store so do that and then you can do the same thing for the privacy policy again make sure to actually read through it and replace the placeholder content the same for terms of service now for our shipping policy there's no template from Shopify so I've just quickly created a template for myself using chat gbt so I'm just going to paste that in here and then we can also add our contact information and then let's go ahead and Save these policies and close the settings now when we go back to our page builder then we can see that our policy Pages have been added here to the footer now personally what I like to do is add them to the footer menu so they show up right here in the center instead of here on the bottom left so to do that we have to just click on the footer right here and then to disable the links here at the bottom I'm going to just scroll down and disable the show policy links feature and then to add them to the footer menu let's go back to the dashboard go to online store navigation then click on the footer menu and then here we can add those links so first I'm going to delete the search link and then add a new menu item go to policies and then just choose all of my policies once all of the policies have been added let's save this menu then go back to the page builder and save our changes and now we have our policy links right here in the center I'm also going to delete this heading right here so let's click on this menu and just delete the text right here and next I also want to add my social media links so to do that we're going to go into the theme settings right here then scroll down and look for social media and here what we can do is just enter our social media links so just make sure to enter a direct link that goes to your social media profile I'm just going to add a random Facebook link right here so as soon as you add your social media link then the icon will appear here and when somebody clicks on the icon it will go to the link you have entered right here and by the way if you want to remove these payment icons here in the footer you can also do that by just clicking on the footer and then down here you can unselect the show payment icons I actually like to show them on my store because then people can see that they have multiple options to check out on the store now the last thing I want to do here in the footer is change this right here at the bottom so first of all I want to change my store to my actual brand name and then I want to remove the powered by Shopify text right here so let's save our changes then let's go back to the dashboard and go to settings and then here under store details let's click on the profile menu and then here under store name we can enter our brand name I'm just going to enter Medics and click save and now when I go back to the page builder and reload the page then I can see that the name has now changed to my brand name now let's also take a look at how to remove this powered by Shopify text to do that we have to go back to the dashboard once again and go to online store here we want to click on the three dots next to our theme and click on edit default theme content then under filter items let's type in powered and then here under links we can see the powered by Shopify text so to remove it on our store we have to just click into this field and then add a space then click on Save go back to to the page builder and reload the page and now when we scroll all the way down we can see that powered by Shopify is now removed now let's take a look at how to change your website colors on Shopify so basically every theme comes with multiple color schemes which are just color pallets that you can apply to different parts of your website so for example let's look at this section right here the featured collection so let's click on it and then here when we scroll down we can see under color scheme we can change it from the scheme one which is currently active to let's say scheme 4 and then the color scheme will change to these colors right here so usually there are two schemes with a light background two schemes with a dark background and then one with a colorful background with the accent color of this store and you can basically switch around your color scheme for each section on your page so I'm going to go back to the scheme one and then we can also change all of the colors inside of those schemes as well and to do that we have to go into the theme settings which are up here by clicking on this skier icon here we can go to colors and here we can find those five color schemes that we have seen before so to customize each of them we can just click on one and then we can see all of the colors that are added to the elements so for the background we have this color right here then we have this text color we have this button color and then we have some more colors down here now you can easily change those colors by just going into this color and then we can change it to whatever we want now you want to be careful when changing individual colors here for one scheme because you have to keep in mind that usually for different sections on your page you have different schemes applied so here if you would want to change the button color to let's say blue and then here on the scheme 2 for example you still have this let's say brown greenish color for the button color so you also have to apply it right here and then also look at the other ones to kind of have a congruent color scheme across your store but by changing these color schemes the colors will change everywhere across your website where those schemes are applied the there's only one place where we have to go and individually change the button color which is the checkout page so when we change from the home page to the checkout page and then to see the button color let's go to the thank you page and then here when we scroll down we have this default blue that Shopify uses for the checkout pages and we can actually change that color as well to our brand color by going down here on the left side and here we can see color so here the accent color we can just change it by clicking on it and then just changing the color right here for the button and also the accent color and then the button will change to our branded color so let's save our changes and then go back to our store theme and now if you want to change your font style across your website you can also do that in the theme settings so here when we go to the theme settings and go to typography then we can choose a different different font for our headings and also for our body text so to change the font for our headings we can just click on change here and then try out a different font I'm just going to choose this one and by choosing it it will automatically change across your entire website to see what it looks like now if you want to choose this new font you can just click on select and then it will change across your entire website the same thing with the body font just click on change here choose a different font and see what it looks like across your store and if you like it just click on select and if you want you can also change the font size so the scale by just dragging this slider to the right to make it larger or to the left to make it smaller now here in the theme settings there's actually a lot more things we could customize like the page layout the animations the button Styles and a lot more personally I leave most things as they are because they look pretty good with the default settings but if you want to customize everything specifically to how you want it to look you can just take some time to go through all these settings and just look at all of the options one thing I do recommend though before you launch your store is to go through every page on the mobile screen view so here we can just change from the desktop view to the mobile view and here we want to make sure everything looks good on the mobile screen as well now usually there's nothing we need to do because every theme is fully responsive and usually it already looks pretty good on the mobile phone but sometimes there are some things some options we have that we can customize for the Mobile screen size specifically so for example for this collection list here we get some different options when we scroll down here on the left side under mobile layout for example we can change from one column to two columns here and then we get this layout which I personally think looks a bit better so again just go through all of your pages on the mobile screen view and just see what kind of options you get and maybe you find something that looks a bit better on the mobile screen view so now before we publish our new Shopify website we want to make sure to go over some important settings to make sure our online store is fully functional so let's click on Save right here and then let's go back to the Shopify dashboard here let's go to settings and here we want to start with the store details and just make sure everything is filled in here correctly make sure your store currency is correct make sure all of your units are correct the ones that you want to use and once that's done we want to move on to payments and here we want to set up Shopify payments which is going to allow our customers to check out on our online store using a credit card or other options like Apple pay or Google pay so all we have to do is click on complete complete account setup and then here we just want to enter all of our business information and our bank account details to make sure we can get paid for all of the revenue our store makes and then the second payment option we have on Shopify is Paypal Now by default PayPal will be activated on your store but if you already have a PayPal account you want to make sure to set it up with your Shopify account so click on complete setup here and connect your PayPal account if you don't have an account and somebody checks out on your store using PayPal then you will be prompted to create your PayPal account to actually get that money that somebody paid using PayPal now if you don't want people to be able to check out using PayPal you can just click on the activate here and then that option will be removed from your store so now let's move on to shipping and delivery here is basically where you can set up your shipping rates so how much you want to charge for shipping your product to your customers here under shipping we already have some default General shipping rate set up so to edit these we can just click here and then this profile is already applied to all of our products and here we can see we have different shipping zones and for each of our shipping Zone we can have multiple shipping rates So currently we have one domestic shipping Zone with one standard rate which gives free shipping and then we have one zone that says International for for all of the other countries and here we are currently charging $20 now what I'm going to do is delete both of these shipping zones and then set up my shipping zones manually so I can just go to the three dots right here and click on delete and then the same thing for this shipping Zone delete and now I don't have any zones so I need to set them up myself so let's click on create Zone Here and Now I want to create a first shipping zone for all of the United States so I'm going to type in United States here and look for the United States there we go I'm just going to select it and click on done and now I can add a rate for shipping within the United States so let's click on ADD rate and I'm going to name this rate standard shipping and let's switch the currencies here to US Dollars and let's say I'm going to charge $7 for standard shipping let's click on done and now I also want to add a rate for free shipping if the order amount is over $50 so let's click on ADD rate again I'm going to name this one free shipping and then we're going to do conditional pricing so let's click on conditional pricing here let's again change the currency and now I'm going to do based on order price here and I'm going to enter $50 as the minimum price and click on done so now within the United States we have standard shipping for for $7 and then if people order something for $50 or more they get free shipping now if I'm also selling to people that are not located in the United States then I want to add more shipping zones for those places what I can do is just create one more shipping Zone called International to have a separate shipping rate for everything that is not the United States so let's do that by clicking on create zone I'm going to name it International and just just choose International here and click on done and let's also add a rate by clicking on ADD rate let's name this international shipping and let's say this one costs $15 click okay and that's basically how you can set up your shipping rates very easily now obviously there's a lot more options you can charge shipping based on weight based on volume there's a lot more options but these are the basic settings let's make sure to save our changes and then there's one more thing we definitely want to take a look at before publishing our store which is getting our branded domain so here when we click on domains and here we can see that our Shopify website is still on a my shopify.com domain with just a few random letters and numbers in front which looks very unprofessional so here we want to make sure to get our own branded domain something like medxm media.com or just your brand name.com so to get your domain you can just click on buy new domain or if you have an existing domain you can connect it by clicking on connect existing domain but if you don't already have one just buy it here on Shopify by clicking on buy new domain then look for the domain that you want to have let's say I'm looking for Medics backpacks and then here I can see medb backpacks.com is still available so I can just click on bu domain then enter all of your information click on buy domain and once that's done the domain will be automatically connected to your Shopify website and that's it for the most important settings let's close them right here and now we are basically ready to publish our store so to publish our store and make it available to our customers we want to go to online store and then here we can see that our store is still password protected so to remove the password we want to click on remove password right right here and now our website is live if you found this video helpful please give it a thumbs up comment down below and subscribe to the channel if you want to see more videos like this I look forward to seeing you in the next one thanks for watching