What is Shopify & How Does Shopify Work: A Beginner’s Guide To Start Your Own Store

Building a new online business from scratch can feel daunting. However, the right platform can simplify the process, helping you launch and grow your brand with confidence. Shopify is one of the outstanding eCommerce platforms for its simplicity and power, making it great for everyone.

So, what is Shopify, and how does it work? In short, Shopify is known as your all-in-one partner for establishing a successful online store. It offers a wide variety of design and sales features, helping you handle everything from storefront optimization to payment processing and shipping. The blog today provides critical knowledge, demystifying the question: How does Shopify work?

Without further ado, let’s get into it!

What Is Shopify?

Shopify is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) eCommerce platform that lets users create online stores, manage inventory, process payments, and leverage omnichannel marketing strategies. In other words, it will provide all the tools and infrastructure you need to master your business. You don’t even need to worry about technical coding, server maintenance, or security updates. 

Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms for building an online store

The final purpose of Shopify is to help merchants handle all of the tasks on a single, easy-to-use dashboard, which can free up their effort and time to focus on their products and customers. Moreover, Shopify offers an extensive point-of-sale (POS) system for in-person business needs. As a result, you can easily unify and control both offline and digital sales with a unified interface.

Shopify Pricing Plans Shortlisted

This section provides an overview of Shopify plans so that users can choose the best option. Keep in mind that Shopify pricing by country is not similar at all; it can be either higher or lower. 

1. Shopify Basic

At $39 per month, this plan is the perfect starting point for new businesses or those with smaller sales volumes. Merchants can get 2 staff accounts for management, 10 inventory locations, complete access to your Shopify Admin Dashboard, shipping discounts, and international sales. However, this plan doesn’t allow for third-party calculated shipping rates to speed up checkout.  

2. Shopify Grow

So, how does Shopify work for the Grow plan of $105 per month? 

Thanks to more robust eCommerce features and detailed performance reports, Shopify Grow empowers merchants to scale beyond the basics and transform their sales results effectively. This also means that sellers gain access to advanced analytics, allowing them to track customer behavior, product performance, and overall store health in greater detail. With deeper insights, businesses can make data-driven decisions to improve conversion rates and boost profitability.  

3. Shopify Advanced

The $399 per month plan is for large, high-volume businesses. It offers the lowest online credit card rate at 2.5% + 30¢ and a minimal third-party transaction fee of 0.5%. It also includes up to 15 staff accounts and advanced reporting capabilities. Unique features include a custom report builder and third-party calculated shipping rates, which are critical for complex Shopify shipping.

4. Shopify Plus

This is the ultimate solution for enterprise-level commerce or headless commerce. It starts at $2,300/ month and is tailored to each business's specific needs. It offers unparalleled scalability, automation tools, and dedicated support. Companies with very high sales volumes, such as a large retail chain or a major consumer brand, opt for Shopify Plus to handle global operations.

Shopify pricing is categorized into 4 basic plans: Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus. 

How Does Shopify Work For Types of Businesses?

Thanks to its user-friendly design and comprehensive feature set, Shopify powers nearly 6 million active websites across industries, from for-profit to non-profit ones. This platform can satisfy various business needs, no matter your size or experience. So, how does Shopify work?

• Beginners and solo entrepreneurs

Shopify is ideal for those just starting their eCommerce journey. Its simple setup, intuitive dashboard, and easy-to-use templates allow beginners to launch their own stores effortlessly. 

• Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs)

For SMBs, Shopify provides a balance of affordability and powerful tools. Features like inventory tracking, marketing integrations, and multi-channel sales help expand without expensive tech. For these demands, it is often excellent to start with the Shopify Basic or Shopify Growth plans. 

• Dropshippers

Shopify is a widely used platform for creating dropshipping websites. But how does Shopify dropshipping work? Simply, you connect your store with third-party suppliers through apps like Dropshipman and Sup Dropshipping. When a customer places an order, the supplier fulfills and ships it directly to them, eliminating the need for upfront inventory. This low-risk model allows merchants to effectively test products, scale faster, and focus on marketing rather than logistics.  

• Brick-and-mortar stores

With a Shopify POS app, business owners can seamlessly sync in-person and online sales. This means you can control operational activities across multiple locations in real-time, ensuring you never oversell or run out of stock. Customers can benefit from flexible checkout options, including payments, digital wallets, and even buy-online-pick-up-in-store (BOPIS) services.  

• High-volume and enterprise-level businesses 

For larger brands, Shopify Plus delivers the advanced functionality and scalability needed to operate at a global level. It goes beyond standard Shopify features by offering automation tools, enhanced API access, and the ability to create and manage multiple stores under one account. Also, enterprises can get faster checkout speeds, 24/7 support, and personalized onboarding.  

How Does Shopify Work for Sellers: 7 Core Functions

It’s time to find the answer to the question: How does Shopify work from a sales perspective? Apparently, you need to understand the powerful engine behind its user-friendly interface first. This platform is built on 7 key functionalities that work together to simplify your sales processes.   

1. Build an online store 

One of Shopify's fundamental features is its intuitive interface, which allows users to create a beautiful and functional website quickly. In the Shopify Theme Store, everyone can choose from professionally designed themes, either free or paid, to optimize their design time and effort. Recently, Shopify has introduced 10 new Shopify Horizon themes, which are highly evaluated for being mobile-friendly, optimized for conversions, and aligned well with a range of industries. 

Shopify has introduced a collection of Horizon themes for better optimization for SEO

Moreover, Shopify Summer 25 Editions releases the ability to build custom theme blocks with AI, where every user only needs to say what they want, and AI can make it real within minutes.  

Do we have another method to design a Shopify store? 

You’re right now! You can utilize drag-and-drop Shopify page builders like Gempages for even more flexibility, creative control, and a more extensive range of pre-made storefront designs. You can freely design and arrange elements within one page, as well as fully customize product pages, landing pages, blog layouts, checkout pages, and more, to match your brand’s identity. 

GemPages is one of the top-rated page builders for Shopify sellers and businesses

However, be mindful of the compatibility between the Shopify dashboard and these builders to embrace the smooth transformation and minimize technical issues while developing your store. 

Learn more: Shopify Customization: How to Build Custom Shopify Pages That Sell? 

2. Add and manage products 

Shopify’s product management system is incredibly intuitive. You can easily add new products, including images, videos, and detailed descriptions, and even organize products into collections. Furthermore, the platform also has built-in features for controlling product variants, like different sizes, dimensions, and colors. If not, sellers can add third-party apps like PC—Custom Product Options to their dashboard to enhance their store with limitless product customization options. 

Custom Product Options is a built-for-Shopify app to offer more customization options

3. Process payments and shipping 

This Shopify feature answers: How does Shopify work to keep your business running smoothly? 

Shopify Payments, the platform’s native payment gateway, allows you to securely accept credit cards, debit cards, and more in 16 countries and 8 currencies. You can also use other Shopify payment methods, such as PayPal, Stripe, Amazon Pay, Klarma, and Square, for convenience. 

When it comes to shipping, Shopify offers discounted rates with major carriers like UPS and DHL. You can print shipping labels directly from your dashboard, making the process faster and more efficient. Recent Summer updates have brought even more value to merchants, including:

• Transfer tracking for multiple shipments.
• A consolidated view of delivery methods for easier management.
• In-admin reporting to monitor shipping performance.
• Expanded partnerships with more logistics providers.

One standout feature is the ability to buy and print up to 250 shipping labels at once. This significantly reduces the time spent on order fulfillment and helps us stay focused on scalability. For a seamless post-purchase experience, let’s consider integrating with Shopify shipping apps! 

Learn more: Shopify Payments vs. Paypal: What's Best for You?

4. Market your eCommerce brand 

Shopify offers a suite of marketing tools, including built-in features and third-party Shopify apps. These tools help you optimize your store for search engines, blog pages for content marketing, email marketing automation for customer relationships, and social proof for brand authenticity. Shopify social media integration also helps you stay connected to audiences wherever they are.

Klaviyo is the top Shopify app for email marketing automation

Moreover, Shopify showcases AI shopping chats to transform customer shopping experiences. An updated ShopifyQL editor with assistive features, date filtering, and convenient keyboard shortcuts is essential to empower brands to create more innovative and data-driven campaigns. 

Learn more: 20 Best Shopify Apps for Conversions

5. Sell across multiple sales channels 

So, how does Shopify work to expand your business reach without increasing your workload? That’s exactly what this feature is about: you control all sales channels from a single dashboard.

Below are the key channels Shopify supports: 

• Shopify online stores
• Social media
• Seller marketplaces
• In-person mobile selling
• Retail store sales
• Non-Shopify websites
• Email and chat
• Branded mobile app
• Wholesale buyers
• International marketplaces

In other words, you’re building an omnichannel experience that effectively satisfies your visitors. In fact, it’s difficult to launch all of these channels simultaneously; thus, opt for proper solutions.   

6. Track performance with analytics and reports

Shopify provides a robust analytics dashboard that gives you real-time insights into your store’s performance. You can track metrics like total sales, average order value, customer acquisition channels, and product performance. This data is critical to making informed business decisions.

Sidekick offers a smarter approach for data analysis on Shopify stores

What makes this even more powerful is Shopify Sidekick, an AI-powered assistant built into your dashboard. Instead of manually digging through reports, you can ask Sidekick questions like “Which products are trending this month?” and get data-driven answers in a few minutes. 

7. Expand with apps from the Shopify App Store

The Shopify App Store is a significant reason for the platform's popularity. It’s a marketplace with 8,000+ powerful apps, from marketing and customer service to inventory and logistics. Consequently, this ecosystem allows you to add features that are not native to Shopify, giving your store a competitive edge and allowing you to customize your store to fit your unique needs.

Learn more: 18 Best Shopify Apps to Increase Sales

How Does Shopify Work Step By Step for Beginners

Now that you’ve clarified everything about this question: How does Shopify work for sales? It’s time to showcase how you can work with Shopify to launch a well–performing website. 

Step 1: Sign up for a Shopify account

At https://www.shopify.com, click Start for free to register for a new account. Shopify offers a 3-day FREE trial so that merchants get used to the platform and discover its potential for selling.

Sign up for a new Shopify account and enjoy the 3-day free trial 

Before accessing the Shopify Admin Dashboard, you need to select a proper pricing plan (you can do it later if you want), answer essential questions, and review your store security settings.  

You should review security settings before accessing the Shopify Admin Dashboard

Note: It’s recommended to enable 2-step authentication and recovery options for emergencies. 

Step 2: Pick your product to sell 

Finding the best products to sell on Shopify is the first step in running a profitable business. For that reason, it's essential to find a market niche that not only suits you but also has a great deal. 

If you don’t have a product idea yet, you can explore what's currently the best-selling product. For a dropshipping service, it’s excellent to start with the Oberlo app or Oberlo Shopify alternatives to get inspired by popular products and learn how to simplify the fulfillment process.

The next step is learning how to add products to Shopify. In your Shopify Admin Dashboard, select Products and click Add Products to open a tab and provide related product information. 

Select the Products tab and click the Add Product button for key information filling

Below are the critical fields that you need to complete for your products to sell on Shopify: 

• Title
• Description
• Media (images, 3D models, and videos)
• Category
• Pricing
• Inventory
• Shipping
• Varinats
• Search engine listing
• Product organization
• Theme template

After that, click the Save button at the bottom of the window to save all the product information. 

Step 3: Design your Shopify storefront

This part will answer the question: How does Shopify work to deliver a compelling storefront? 

You can select one of the 2 methods below to design and optimize your Shopify store presence: 

Use Shopify Themes

In your Shopify Admin Dashboard, click Online Store > Themes and select Customize to start with the current Shopify theme or enter your text illustration to generate themes with AI. 

After that, Shopify will navigate you to its editor to design, customize, and restructure your site.

You can start designing and optimizing your Shopify store instantly with Shopify Editor 

GemPages page builders 

GemPages is rated as the #1 Shopify page builder. It offers a flexible, drag-and-drop editor that lets you build every page from scratch, use 200+ high-converting templates across industries, and even leverage Gem AI to generate your desired, well-structured website layouts in seconds. 

Besides that, GemPages works well with A/B testing apps (e.g., GemX), allowing you to test headlines, images, or CTAs and quickly identify which version drives the most traffic and sales. It also supports advanced features like lazy loading, SEO optimization, mobile responsiveness, and many third-party app integrations, so you can have scalability without relying on developers.

Let’s take a look at how Shopify works step by step with GemPages to deliver a great storefront: 

• Step 1: Click Add Apps > Shopify App Store > Find GemPages > Click Install

• Step 2: Check GemPages’ Policies and click the Install button to enable it

• Step 3: In the GemPages Builder dashboard, click Create new page section. 

Select Create new page section in the GemPages Builder 

• Step 4: Select Start from scratch or a proper theme to customize. 

• Step 5: In the editor, customize elements and drag-and-drop for arrangement. 

The preview of the GemPages editor that sellers can use to optimize their design

Note: You can use Gem AI (Image-to-Layout) directly in the GemPages editor to restructure a new layout for your current Shopify store design with the reference URL or uploaded image. 

Step 4: Set up shipping options

In your Shopify Admin Dashboard, click Settings and select the Shipping and Delivery tab. 

Select the Shipping and Delivery tab in the Shopify Settings

Then, set up shipping rules: the fulfillment of orders and the printing of shipping labels. 

Remember to choose a proper carrier to get reliable services while optimizing shipping rates. You should consider: the type of product, preferred shipping method, weight of product, shipping locations and destinations, ideal package, and your access to flat-rate shipping or free shipping. 

Step 5: Enable payment methods

Continuously, select the Payments tab in the Shopify Settings. You have 2 options available: Shopify Payments or third-party payment providers (e.g., Apple Pay, PayPal, Amazon Pay, etc.).

The Payments tab includes 2 options: Shopify Payments and third-party apps

Step 6: Connect sales channels to maximize sales

In your Shopify Admin Dashboard, click Sales Channels and choose the desired options from the full list of available sales channels on the Shopify App Store. Some outstanding solutions: 

• Social Media: Shop tab on Facebook/ Instagram & “buyable pins” button on Pinterest
• Marketplace: Amazon and eBay
• Buy button: Embed your products on another webpage
• Shopify POS: Enable an extensive Shopify POS system 

Select proper sales channels from the full list in the Shopify Admin Dashboard

Learn more: GemPages Tutorials: The Ultimate Guide For Beginners

Conclusion

How does Shopify work? As you can see, Shopify is a robust, all-in-one commerce platform that supports brands with diverse needs and goals. It streamlines the entire process of selling online, handling everything from website creation to inventory management. From that, you have more time to focus on growing your brand identity instead of getting bogged down in technical details. 

Now, take the first step towards your entrepreneurial dream and start building your store today! Also, don’t forget to visit GemPages blogs to explore more insights for Shopify sales growth!

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