Starting an online store for the first time involves more decisions than most people expect. Which plan do you choose? How do you set up payments? What should your store look like before you launch, and what can wait? How do you make sure your store is set up in a way that supports growth rather than requiring a rebuild six months later?
This service is designed for businesses at the very beginning of their Shopify journey — exploring e-commerce for the first time, or picking up a project that stalled. We take you from a blank Shopify account to a functional, professional store that is ready to trade.
Why Get Expert Help at the Start?
The way your Shopify store is set up in the early stages affects everything that comes after — your SEO, your checkout conversion, your ability to connect tools, and your options for scaling. Getting the foundations right the first time is significantly less expensive than fixing them later.
Working with us at the start means:
– Your store structure is set up to support growth, not just the immediate launch.
– Your payment gateways are configured correctly for South African customers — including PayFast, PayGate, and Peach Payments.
– Your products, collections, and navigation are structured in a way that makes sense to customers and to search engines.
– You are not paying for features you do not need, or missing features that would make your life easier.
– You have someone to ask when you are not sure what to do next.
What We Set Up
The scope of a Getting Started engagement typically includes:
Shopify plan selection and account configuration
We help you choose the right Shopify plan for your stage of business and configure your account settings, including store currency, taxes, and regions.
Theme selection and basic customisation
We help you select a theme that fits your brand and product range, and make the configuration and styling changes needed to make it feel like yours — without custom development.
Product catalogue setup
We structure your products, variants, and collections in a way that works for your customers and for Shopify’s search and filter capabilities.
Payment and checkout configuration
We connect and test your payment gateways, configure checkout settings, and make sure the end-to-end purchase experience is working correctly before you go live.
Domain connection and basic SEO setup
We connect your domain, configure your page titles and meta descriptions, set up your sitemap, and make sure your store is structured correctly for search engines from day one.
Essential app recommendations
We identify any gaps in Shopify’s native feature set that are relevant to your business and recommend the most appropriate tools to fill them — without overloading your store with unnecessary apps.
How We Get You Started
Step 1: Discovery call
We start with a conversation about your business, your products, and what you want to achieve in the first six months. This shapes everything that follows.
Step 2: Store setup and configuration
We configure your Shopify account, connect your domain, set up your payment gateways, and establish your store’s core structure.
Step 3: Theme setup and product loading
We configure your theme, set up your navigation, and load your initial product catalogue — either directly or by guiding you through the process.
Step 4: Testing and QA
We test the full purchase journey — product pages, cart, checkout, payment, order confirmation — across desktop and mobile before anything goes live.
Step 5: Handover and training
We walk you through how to manage your store day-to-day, add products, process orders, and access the reports you need to make decisions.
Pricing
Getting Started engagements typically range from R28,000 to R95,000 depending on the number of products, the complexity of your payment and shipping setup, and the level of theme customisation required.
Ready to Get Your Store Set Up?
Fill out the contact form and tell us a little about your business — what you sell, where you are starting from, and what success looks like in the first six months. We will put together the most practical path to getting your Shopify store live and generating revenue. You are in good hands.