Intermediate

Build an E-commerce Store

Set up a professional online store with payments and analytics

ShopifyStore Platform

StripePayments

PlausibleAnalytics

What You'll Build

A live online store with product listings, checkout, payment processing, and analytics tracking.

Professional storefront with your branding
Product catalog with variants and inventory
Stripe-powered checkout
Privacy-friendly analytics with Plausible

Prerequisites

A Shopify account (trial currently advertised as 3 days; verify the offer in your region)
Product photos and descriptions ready
A domain name (optional - Shopify provides a subdomain)

Architecture

Shopify handles your storefront, product catalog, inventory, and checkout. Stripe processes the payments. Plausible tracks visitor behavior without cookies.

Customer → Shopify (storefront) → Stripe (payment) → You (fulfillment)

6 Steps

1Create your Shopify store 2Customize your theme 3Add your products 4Configure a supported payment provider 5Add Plausible analytics 6Launch your store

Plan checks and sources

Plan-specific access matters more than a tool’s “free” label. Read the dated profile linked above, then confirm your seat count, usage, billing basis and required export or publishing feature.

Shopify · documentation read 26 October 2026. The public offer read on this date advertises a three-day trial. The page served a euro promotion; do not assume the same offer or ongoing price in another region. Official source.

Make · documentation read 26 October 2026. The Free plan has 1,000 credits/month. Most actions use one credit; some AI actions use more. Credits are not a guarantee of completed workflows. Official source.

Before launch: use a synthetic record, verify permissions and output, test a failed action, and document how to reverse it. A successful checkout preview or API response does not prove a paid order, delivery or confirmed subscription.

Create your Shopify store

Go to shopify.com and start your free trial
Enter your store name, email, and basic info
Choose your industry and what you'll be selling
You'll land in the Shopify admin dashboard

Tip: Use a store name that matches your brand. You can always change the URL later with a custom domain.

Customize your theme

Choose a theme and customize it to match your brand.

Go to Online Store → Themes in the admin
Browse the free themes (Dawn is excellent for most stores)
Click "Customize" on your chosen theme
Upload your logo, set your brand colors and fonts
Customize the homepage sections: hero banner, featured products, testimonials
Add an "About" page and a "Contact" page under Pages

Tip: The Dawn theme is Shopify's best free theme. It's fast, accessible, and works for almost any product type.

Add your products

Create your product listings with photos, descriptions, pricing, and variants.

Go to Products → Add Product
Add a clear product title and compelling description
Upload high-quality product photos (at least 3-5 per product)
Set pricing, compare-at price (for sales), and cost per item
Add variants if needed (size, color, etc.)
Set up inventory tracking and SKUs
Organize products into collections for easy browsing

Tip: Write product descriptions that focus on benefits, not just features. "Keeps your coffee hot for 12 hours" beats "Double-walled stainless steel."

Configure a supported payment provider

Check the payment providers supported for your store, country and business type.

Go to Settings → Payments in the Shopify admin
Check Shopify Payments eligibility or choose a supported third-party payment provider. Do not assume a separate Stripe account can be connected in every region.
Enter your business details, bank account, and tax info
Enable additional payment methods: Apple Pay, Google Pay, Shop Pay
Set up your tax rates under Settings → Taxes
Configure shipping rates under Settings → Shipping

Tip: Check Shopify’s current regional plan and payment-provider fees. Card processing and any additional gateway fee are separate costs.

Warning: Confirm the selected payment provider’s business eligibility and verification requirements before accepting payments.

Add Plausible analytics

Configure analytics and review its data collection, retention and consent requirements for your implementation.

Sign up at plausible.io and add your store's domain
Copy the Plausible script tag
In Shopify, go to Online Store → Themes → Edit Code
Open theme.liquid and paste the Plausible script in the <head> section
Save and verify data is coming in on your Plausible dashboard

Illustrative code, not executed in this review. Check current SDK documentation, authentication, input validation and error handling before use.

theme.liquid (add to <head>)

<script defer data-domain="yourstore.com"
  src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script>

Tip: A product label does not establish compliance for your implementation. Check the actual data sent, hosting, configuration and applicable requirements.

Launch your store

Remove the password page, connect your domain, and go live.

Do a test purchase using Shopify's test mode (Settings → Payments → Enable test mode)
Verify the checkout flow, email confirmations, and order dashboard
Connect your custom domain (Settings → Domains → Connect existing domain)
Remove the store password (Online Store → Preferences → Disable password)
Confirm the public storefront, checkout, fulfilment and failure paths before announcing the launch.

Tip: Do at least 3 test purchases before launching: one desktop, one mobile, and one with a discount code.

Validate before launch

Target outcome: A live online store with product listings, checkout, payment processing, and analytics tracking. Check the actual workflow, failure and recovery paths before publishing.

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