Shopify Services

Absolutely. I've built several stores from the ground up using existing themes from the Theme Store, along with a combination of different apps to fill the gaps and custom tweaks that I've either implemented myself or hired more skilled programmers to built for me.

The exact costs are going to vary depending on your plans, but in general you should plan for:

1. The cost of your stock, of course.

2. The cost of any shipping and taxes you may need to pay.

3. $29.00 USD per month for your Shopify store.

4. Approximately $30.00 per year for your domain.

5. If you want to purchase a premium theme, you should plan between $180.00 USD and $500.00 USD, depending on which one you want. This is optional, as you can do just as well with a free theme.

6. I recommend budgeting approximately $20.00 USD per month for apps, though that's hugely variable depending on what you need. Some stores don't need any apps at all.

7. I recommend budgeting approximately $200.00 to $500.00 a month for marketing, but again that's optional and extremely dependent on your exact business model. Marketing is one of those things where you get back what you put in, so the more money you put into marketing, the more you'll get back. What I did was start small and gradually increase it as my business grew.

8. Lastly, don't forget to budget in the costs of any staff members you choose to hire, including me.

A theme is a template that you apply to your Shopify store, which sets the basic overall look of your store. Think of it like a house. If Shopify's basic checkout system is the foundation of the house, then your theme gives you the layout of the house, the walls, doors, windows, and floors.

The Theme Store is the main place you'll look to find a nice new theme for your store. Shopify provides several lovely free themes that you can start out with, here.

Alternately, if you want something a bit fancier, then you can look at a premium theme. Premium themes are designed by third party software developers external to Shopify, and they provide a much broader range of variety than the free themes that Shopify offers. But, they're also more expensive.

There are also Shopify themes available outside of the Theme Store, but the difference is that those ones are not verified by Shopify's development team, so there are no guarantees that they'll work as intended. Keep in mind that if you choose one of those, then if anything goes wrong, the Shopify Support Team can't help at all.

Theme purchases are not refundable under any circumstances, so be careful if you decide to purchase a Premium Theme!

Building on the metaphor from the last segment, if your theme gives the basic walls and floor of your house, then your apps give you the fittings and fixtures - the wallpaper, the light fittings, and fancy appliances you want to purchase, etc.

Apps are plugins that you can add to your store to give you access to additional features that don't come with the default Shopify platform. For example, the Product Reviews app lets your customers leave reviews on your products, like on Amazon. They let you customise your store to your heart's content.

You can find apps in The App Store. Some are provided for free, like Product Reviews. The vast majority have some kind of price attached to them. Either a small monthly fee, a one-off purchase price, or a usage fee. Depends entirely on the app.

Most apps allow you to try before you buy, but if you install an app to try it out and decide not to keep it, remember to uninstall it before the trial period is over or you'll get charged for it. App fees are almost always non-refundable.

Shopify Experts are professional freelancers who can help with different aspects of your store. Shopify's official support team don't have the capacity to help with store building or customisation, so if you need help beyond basic troubleshooting then Experts are the way to go.

People advertising on that page are not staff members of Shopify themselves, but they have been vetted to confirm their abilities. It's pretty similar to hiring someone from Fiverr or Upwork, except these folks have Shopify's official stamp of approval, and I believe Shopify acts as an escrow service to sit on the money until you confirm you're happy with the work.

I am not an official Shopify Expert yet, though I've been thinking about signing up for the programme. I qualify, but I'm leery about officially committing because of my health issues. Right now, I'm more comfortable as a casual freelancer so I can come and go as my health allows.

The first step in setting up any new business is to solidify your vision. Sit down with a notebook and draw up some sketches of how you want your website to look. There are a few different pages to plan, like the front page, the product page, and the collection pages. So, think about how you want your site to look when people first arrive. Do you want them to be greeted by images of your products, or a little information about who you are? Where do you want them to go next?

I recommend spending some time looking at other people's websites, to get a feel for what you like and don't like. So long as you're not directly copying someone else's store, it's okay to draw inspiration from how they've done something. For example, the menus on my CK Swagworks website were originally inspired by Mighty Ape, but I took the basic idea and modified it to fit my own vision.

Even very rough sketches can help you identify a theme, and that's where you really need to be before you can start doing anything else. Once you have your ideas solidified, you can either start building your site yourself, or you can give them to me to help guide me as I'm building it for you.

Another important thing to thing about is your branding. If you don't already have a logo, I strongly recommend spending a few dollars to have a graphic designer make one for you. You should also identify 2-3 brand identity colours, and a couple of fonts. If you don't feel comfortable choosing these yourself, then I'm happy to help. I rather enjoy establishing new branding schemes!

I strongly encourage it. Shopify stores do come with their own little domains, but a domain is a very important part of your future branding, so it's well worth investing in one.

Domains prices vary a lot, depending on where you purchase them from and what kind of domain it is. You can purchase your domain through Shopify directly, or you can purchase them through a third-party host and attach them to your Shopify store later. I personally use GoDaddy for all my domains.

Important: If you've checked that your domain is available, buy it immediately!

Don't hesitate or come back later, get it NOW. There's something out there called "domain squatters", which are basically little evil robots that keep track of what domains people are searching for, and if they see that you're interested in a particular domain then they'll buy it out from under you and try to sell it back to you at a ludicrously inflated price. This happened to me. Don't let it happen to you! It's better to buy a domain and let it lapse next year without using it than to have to fork out to rebrand your whole business, or to buy your domain back from domain squatters.

Custom domain emails are when you use a domain that you've purchased to create an email address. For example, my custom domain email address is info@vldreyer.com.

If you own your own domain then you can set up your own custom domain emails using a service like Google Workspace. It has a monthly cost attached, but it's a great way to add a professional touch to your business.

You can also get more than one email address and either send them to the same inbox, or send them to different inboxes. So, you could set up different inboxes for individual staff members, or separate email addresses for different aspects of your business, like the sales team vs the customer service team.

Do you need one? I would say that custom domain emails are a "want" rather than a "need" in the early days of setting up a business. They're very nice to have and look great, but they're also a monthly cost that you may not be able to afford to start with.

If you need to save some money, just set up a regular gmail account for your business instead (e.g. yourbusinessname@gmail.com), then you can easily turn it into a custom domain email later on.

Sure, I'm happy to do that for you. My hourly rate generally does still apply, but flick me a message and let's have a chat about your circumstances.

A Dropshipping Store is a store that doesn't hold items on site, but rather acts as an intermediary between customers and a manufacturer, usually without the customer being aware of it.

With a normal online retail store, what you do is buy products from a manufacturer and store them on site in your own warehouse, then when the customer purchases the item you ship them from your warehouse to their door.

With a dropshipping store, you skip the first step. You wait until a customer orders a product, and then you order it from the manufacturer and have it shipped directly to the customer.

Financially, it's sort of a trade-off. You can get better individual prices on items if you're buying in bulk, but you have to pay storage and warehousing fees, plus wages for warehousing staff, packaging, shipping, etc. With dropshipping, you pay more per item, but you can skip almost all of those costs.

The downside is that you can't put in your own marketing materials with the package (though some manufacturers are happy to slip something in for you) and you don't get to check the quality of the goods before they go out. You're also at the mercy of international transport, which can be... unreliable. COVID-19 did a real number on many dropshipping stores, when delivery timeframes suddenly tripled and shipping costs skyrocketed. But, it is still an option.

Yes, I can help you set up a dropshipping store.

Print On Demand (POD) is one of the most brilliant inventions of our modern era, if you ask me - though I am a little biased!

POD is a life-changing service for artists, designers, and small businesses with their own designs. In the olden days, if you wanted to get any kind of customised merchandise printed, you'd have to go to a offset printer, pay for them to set up a plate for their machines, and then buy literally thousands of units of the same thing. You'd then have to store them and pray that they sell before they turn to mold. And if - god forbid - a staff member happens to spill a can of soda on an entire stack of posters... then you're completely out of luck. Example being something that actually happened to me in the distant past!

Offset printing is still available and it does allow you to print larger quantities cheaper in the long run, but what if you only want one or two? What if you're not sure whether a product will sell? What if you just don't have the funds to buy large quantities, or you don't have the space to store them?

Enter digital printing technology. This fabulous interloper swaggered into the industry in the last decade or so, and changed everything. With digital printing, you no longer need to pay massive setup fees for customised items, or buy in bulk quantities. You just upload a design, select the product you want it printed on, and then the digital printing place will make it for you. One or a thousand, doesn't matter to them. You do get discounts on bulk purchases, but the option is there to buy just a handful, or even one by itself.

Print On Demand is a natural evolution of the process. As digital printing became more wide-spread, people started looking for ways to cut costs. The most obvious solution is to simply cut out the middleman. Instead of ordering a product and having it shipped to your headquarters, then sending it on to your customer, print on demand places will print, wrap, and ship your item straight to your customer without you having to ever handle it in any way.

At the moment, the technology is advanced enough that you can essentially print and ship anything, anywhere in the world. There are still a few things that are cost-prohibitive or not available, but the most common things are easily accessible to just about anyone.

Yes, I can help you set up a print on demand store.