How to Set Up a Simple Shopify Store

A practical, beginner-friendly article for small business owners who want to launch an online store without technical overwhelm.

Faith Shumia•January 18, 2026•5 min read
How to Set Up a Simple Shopify Store

How to Set Up a Simple Shopify Store

Shopify has become one of the most talked-about e-commerce tools today. Many businesses, including Kenyan entrepreneurs, are using it to run successful online stores.

If you’ve been wondering whether setting up your own Shopify store is complicated…The short answer is: it isn’t!

While you may later need to work with a developer for advanced customization, conversion optimization, or deeper analytics, launching a basic store is surprisingly straightforward and easy. Let’s walk through it.

Step 1: Start Your Shopify Account

Getting started with Shopify is straightforward.

Shopify offers a 3-month free trial so you can explore and build your store before committing. During the trial, Shopify will charge a small verification fee ($1) to validate your payment method.

After the trial ends, plans typically start at:

For most small and medium Kenyan stores, the Basic plan is more than sufficient.

You can use your M-Pesa Global Pay Card when entering payment details during signup.

Step 2: Explore Your Admin Dashboard

After signing up, Shopify will ask a few basic questions about your business, such as your business name, where you operate from, and what you plan to sell.

Once completed, you’ll land on your Admin Dashboard. This is essentially your store’s control center, where you manage everything.

You’ll notice a navigation menu on the left containing important sections like Products, Orders, Online Store, and Settings. These are the primary areas you’ll use while building and running your store.

Step 3: Add Your Products

Your first practical task inside the Shopify dashboard is adding your products. Without products, your store cannot function.

Here’s how to add products:

If you already have your products listed in a .CSV file, Shopify allows bulk imports. Just ensure your columns match Shopify’s required format.

If you have fewer than 20 products, manual entry is usually the fastest and simplest approach.

Step 4: Customize Your Theme

A theme controls how your store looks and feels to customers. This is where your branding and visual identity come to life.

To edit your theme:

This opens the theme editor, where you can modify texts, images, layout, colors, and overall structure.

Important Customization: Hero Section

The hero section, the main banner on your homepage, is often the first thing visitors see. It plays a major role in shaping first impressions.

Here’s how to align it with your brand:

After updating your hero image and text, your homepage will typically contain:

That structure is more than sufficient for a strong basic homepage.

Don’t forget to Save your changes (top-right inside the editor).

Step 5: Set Up Your Payment Method

Even though your store theme manages browsing and checkout, you still need a payment provider to actually receive money from customers.

For Kenyan sellers, Pesapal comes highly recommended because it supports multiple payment options including:

To set up Pesapal:

Once installed and configured, your store can accept payments directly at checkout.

Now your customers can browse products → add items to cart → checkout → pay online.

Step 6: Buy a Custom Domain

At this stage, your store is using Shopify’s default address:

your-store-name.myshopify.com

While this works perfectly fine, it doesn’t appear very professional to customers.

Why get a custom domain?

To buy a domain:

A good choice could be:

And That’s It!

You now have a functional Shopify store where customers can:

Of course, you can always improve and scale your store by adding more pages, refining product descriptions, integrating marketing tools, or installing inventory and automation apps. But for now, this setup is more than enough to start selling online today.

Need Help Refining Your Store?

If you'd like help improving conversions, branding, UX, or performance…

Feel free to reach out.

~ Faith Shumia