How To Create Online Store With Shopify And Make Money Online In Nigeria

How To Create Online Store (E-Commerce Website) With Shopify And Make Money Online In Nigeria

Do you wish to join the bandwagon of online money making in Nigeria? One of the ways people are making money online nowadays is through online stores. 

There are many systems people use to create their online stores/e-commerce websites today. Shopify is one of the most popular options out there.

Shopify has a 14 days trial that you can check out to see if you'd want to continue making use of the platform.

Building your ecommerce website/online store with Shopify is pretty simple as most things are automated based on information you supply.

Follow these steps to create your online store/ecommerce website on Shopify:

Head on to www.shopify.com.

Click on start free trial.

Shopify asks you to provide your email address, an email, and a name for your store. Supply the above information and submit the form.

On the next page, you'll need to provide certain information. These information will enable Shopify to build your ecommerce website for you.

These questions include: 

Are you selling already?

What is your current revenue?

Which industry will you be operating in?

Are you setting up a store for a client?

Answer the questions appropriately and click Next.

Recommended: Shopify Plans, Features and Pricing

On the next page, provide further information about yourself and your business.

Enter your first name, last name, address, apartment/suite, city, country, state, postal code, business or personal website (this is optional).

If you are operating a registered business, then tick the provided option, then click Enter my store.

Hurray! You've just created your online store on Shopify. The next step will be how to add products to your Shopify website which you just created.

Before that, let us see how to customize your Shopify ecommerce website.

To begin customizing your Shopify ecommerce website, click Settings at the left corner of your dashboard. Now your have several options to choose from based on what you want to customize.

Click the general settings link to edit or customize your store details such as your store name, store contact email and sender email.

The store contact email is your communication channel between the Shopify team and you, while the sender email address that will be visible to your customers when you send them mails. These two can be set differently.

From here also, you can set the store address, legal name of your company, phone number, city, and basically all you setup while creating your account.

Set up the standards and formats by choosing a preferred measurement system of unit for length and weight, set up your time zone and your currency. For Nigeria, choose (GMT +1:00) West Central Africa for the time zone, and choose Nigerian naira (NGN) for the currency if you want to sell to your customers in naira.

Click Save and you will be done with this page.

How to Customize Your Shopify Online Store

To customize your Shopify online store, click the Online Store link at the left side of the side bar.

When your account is initially created, your online store will be password protected. This means that only visitors that have the allocated password will be able to access your store.

To disable the password protection for your store, click Disable Password under theme.

To be able to disable password protection, you need to choose a Shopify plan.

You can customize the following items in your store:

Themes

Blog Posts

Pages

Navigation

Domains

Preferences

How to Customize Title and Meta Description, Sharing Image for Your Shopify Store

To customize your homepage title and meta description, click the preferences link under Online Store.

Set a title for your homepage and set a meta description. You can also set a default image to show when products that do not have an image are shared online and on social media. 

Set your Google Analytics code and Facebook Pixel for analytics and targeting from this page also.

Google Analytics enables you to track the visitors to your store, and generates reports that will help you with your marketing.

Facebook Pixel on the other hand, tracks customer behavior on your online store. This data improves your marketing abilities, including retargeting ads.

You can further limit tracking of your European customers, and limit the third-party sale of your California customer data from this page so as to comply with the CCPA Act.

How to Link a Custom Domain to Your Shopify Store

Linking a custom domain to your Shopify store is pretty easy and simple. To link a custom domain, you must have earlier purchased one. You can purchase a custom domain from Shopify or buy one from other domain seller. 

If you already have a domain you want to use with your new Shopify Online Store, click the domains link under store.

Click "Connect existing domain". This will open a page where you can enter your existing domain. After entering the domain, click Next. Now, you'll need to verify your domain by entering some configuration settings at your domain provider's website.

After connecting and entering the necessary information at your domain provider's website, click the 'Verify' link back at Shopify. If all is set up correctly, you should be able to see your new domain linked and your Shopify traffic redirected to the new domain. 

If you have no custom domain, there's no need to panic as Shopify automatically gives you a subdomain upon account creation. However, you may want to change this to a professionally looking domain. You can also buy a domain from Shopify which will be automatically linked and connected to your ecommerce store. 

To do this, click 'Buy new domain' (Option 2 in the image). Enter the domain you wish to buy in the box provided. If available, you will be able to proceed with payment and buy the domain otherwise, you will be able to see some other suggestions which could have other tlds. Choose the one you prefer or alter the search if you don't find any domain you like among the suggestions.

Click 'Buy' and on the next page, you'd add a payment method to be able to make payment for your new domain.

You can pay with credit card or with PayPal account (if you have one). To pay with credit card, select Credit Card, and enter your card details including Expiry Date, CVV, and your billing information.

When done, click 'Add Credit Card'. Follow the prompts to make payment and the new domain will be added and linked to your account. For PayPal payment, you'll need to follow the same procedure, sign into your PayPal account to complete the payment.

Enter your credit card details to make payment for your new domain on Shopify

To transfer a domain to Shopify, enter the domain you wish to transfer and follow the prompts. Click the Transfer tab (option 3) in the image. You need to have an existing domain with another domain provider to be able to transfer your domain to Shopify.