How I Built A Shopify Store

Hi there! I’m spending 30 days documenting my dropshipping journey. I have created a series of blog posts to walk you through my experience. In this read, I discuss how I made a Shopify store from scratch. To check out my entire project, click here.

After selecting a product, the next big step is to create a store around it. Before diving straight into the store process, it is important to spend a substantial amount of thought coming up with a store name. This is important because the name you choose will appear in the store itself, domain, logo, ads, emails, products, and overall brand. The name can be anything, but I made sure to keep it related to my niche.

The Meaning Behind My Store Name

I chose AlignMyself for my store because “Align” means give support to, followed by “Myself,” meaning you, the consumer. This name provides a general definition of all of the products I will be selling. When people see AlignMyself, I want them to imagine themselves getting the support they deserve through our high-quality brace collection. The Brace collection relieves people from existing pain or prevents it from happening. Not only does the name relate to every product in the store, but it also allows room for growth with future developments.

Once I selected a name, I created a new Gmail: alignmyself@gmail.com. I then used the new email to make all the necessary accounts for my store.

Using my new email, I created a Shopify account.

Creating Pages

The following step I took after creating quick but necessary accounts was to install Oberlo to my Shopify account. I used Oberlo to connect products from Aliexpress to Shopify and then use it to fulfill orders. Once I installed Oberlo, I went to my products on Aliexpress and started importing them. I was then able to view all of my imported products in the Oberlo app and customize the photos, prices, headings, and SEO descriptions.

The next step I took was to create the website pages. I created pages for the following information:

• Contact Us
• Returns & Refunds
• General FAQ
• Shipping FAQ
• Terms Of Service
• Privacy Policy

I added these quick links at the bottom of the website for customer support and ease of website navigation.

The Store Design/Layout

-Once I set up the pages, I added them to the footer menu so the customers can find them easily. I then proceeded to set up the rest of the website layout with the appropriate functioning navigation links.

After creating all of the essential features for my store, I customized the entire store layout/design and made a logo using Canva.

I added featured products on sale to my home page, followed by a view all link to the entire product collection. I aimed to have a simple minimalist look on my store home page for ease of use because I designed it for an older 35–65 year old demographic. I also made a mission statement to tell the customers what the importance of this store is.

One of my main goals for this site was to make the user experience as simple as possible. When choosing a product, you’re presented with a clean layout.

As you can see, all of my products have good reviews. How do I have reviews on my products when my store is still new? Well, I imported already existing reviews from the exact products to build a form of trust between the store and the customers.

When customers add items to their cart, they are instantly presented with different payment options to proceed with the checkout, as shown below.

Suppose customers leave items in their cart. They are automatically added to an email automation I created. The first email is sent 30 minutes after the selected item(s) is left in the cart reminding the customer to check out.

After 24 hours, a follow-up email is sent with a similar reminder, but this time, I integrated a 10% discount code for their selected product(s).

The first email is sent soon after as a friendly reminder, and the second email is sent as a final push for the customer to purchase the product with a persuasive discount code. I only set up two follow-up emails for this automation because I want to avoid customers adding my emails to their spam list.

A final touch I added for my store's customer success portion was installing a chatbot for efficient customer communication. It works anywhere on the site and stays in place on the bottom right corner for easy access.

The chatbot was quickly utilized the first day the store was live. Someone from a different time zone sent a message while I wasn’t available, but the chatbot collected the user’s email, so I was quickly able to reply to their question via email.

Once I built the store foundation, I added a couple of crucial features to make AlignMyself an official website. I purchased the store domain: alignmyself.com and a support email: support@alignmyself.com, which is my primary communication source between myself and consumers.

Once my store set up was complete, I connected my store to a Facebook Business Manager account to run Facebook and Instagram ads. You can read more about how I ran Facebook/Instagram ads here.

As I was building my store, I also utilized different tech tools like Kaviyo, Loox, Canva, and more. You can read more about the tools I used to enhance my store experience here.