Shopify is the most popular platform for building online stores in India. It's used by over 1 lakh Indian businesses — from small home-based sellers to large brands. This step-by-step guide will walk you through setting up your Shopify store in India, even if you've never built a website before.

What you'll need before you start

  • A business email address
  • Your business/personal PAN
  • Bank account details (for payment gateway setup)
  • Product photos and descriptions
  • A domain name (optional but recommended — e.g., yourbrand.in)

Step 1: Create your Shopify account

Go to shopify.com and click "Start free trial." Shopify gives you a 3-day free trial (no credit card needed), after which plans start at ₹1,994/month (Basic plan).

During signup, answer the basic questions about your business. Don't worry too much about these — you can change everything later.

Step 2: Choose and customise your theme

Shopify has a theme library with both free and paid themes. For most Indian small businesses, the free themes work perfectly well.

Popular free themes:

  • Dawn — Clean, minimal, fast
  • Craft — Good for handmade and artisan products
  • Sense — Works well for beauty and wellness

Once you've chosen a theme, customise the colours, fonts, and layout to match your brand. Add your logo, banner images, and contact details.

Step 3: Add your products

Go to Products → Add product in your Shopify admin panel. For each product, fill in:

  • Title — Use keywords people search for (e.g., "organic cotton baby blanket")
  • Description — Be detailed: size, material, care instructions, what's included
  • Price — And optionally a "compare at" price to show a discount
  • Photos — At least 3–4 high-quality images per product
  • Variants — If you have sizes, colours, etc.
  • SKU and inventory — Track your stock

Step 4: Set up Indian payment gateways

This is the most important step for Indian stores. Go to Settings → Payments.

Recommended: Razorpay

Razorpay is the go-to payment gateway for Indian Shopify stores. It supports UPI, credit/debit cards, net banking, Paytm, PhonePe, and EMI. To connect Razorpay:

  1. Create a free Razorpay account at razorpay.com
  2. Complete KYC (takes 1–2 business days)
  3. In Shopify Payments, search for "Razorpay" and connect your account

Transaction fee: approximately 2% per order (varies by plan).

Also consider: PhonePe Payment Gateway — especially popular with customers in tier-2 and tier-3 cities who primarily use UPI.

Step 5: Configure shipping

Go to Settings → Shipping and delivery. Set up:

  • Shipping zones (pan-India, or specific states)
  • Rates (flat rate, weight-based, or free above a certain amount)
  • Delivery timelines (set realistic expectations — 3–7 days is typical)

For courier integration, connect Shiprocket, Delhivery, or any other courier app from the Shopify App Store. This lets you auto-generate waybills and track shipments from your Shopify dashboard.

Step 6: Set up GST and taxes

Go to Settings → Taxes and duties. For India:

  • Enter your GSTIN (if registered)
  • Shopify will automatically apply GST to eligible products
  • You can set tax rates by product category (0%, 5%, 12%, 18%, 28%)

If you're not GST-registered yet, you can still sell — just ensure your prices are all-inclusive.

Step 7: Connect your domain

By default, your store will be at yourstore.myshopify.com. To use your own domain (e.g., yourbrand.in):

  1. Buy a domain from GoDaddy, Namecheap, or Google Domains (~₹800–₹1,200/year for a .in domain)
  2. Go to Settings → Domains → Connect existing domain
  3. Follow the instructions to update your domain's DNS records

It takes up to 24 hours to go live, but usually much faster.

Step 8: Test before you launch

Before announcing your store, do a test run:

  • Place a test order using Shopify's test payment mode
  • Check your store on mobile (most Indian buyers shop on phones)
  • Verify product pages, checkout, and confirmation emails
  • Ask a friend or family member to try buying something

Common mistakes to avoid

  • Using low-quality product photos — This is the single biggest reason stores don't convert
  • No COD option — Cash on Delivery is still preferred by many Indian buyers, especially for first purchases
  • Vague shipping timelines — Always tell customers how long delivery takes
  • No WhatsApp contact — Indian customers expect to be able to WhatsApp you with questions

Need someone to do this for you?

Setting up Shopify correctly takes 10–15 hours if you're doing it yourself for the first time. If you'd rather skip the learning curve, myPeedika sets up your complete Shopify store in 7 days — theme, products, payments, shipping, and everything else included.