Objective#

This tutorial walks you through creating your Shopify account and subscribing to the plan that fits your project. Theme setup, products, payments, and going live are not covered here.

Prerequisites#

Before you start, have the following ready:

• an email address you can access (a professional one if possible);
• a phone number for verification;
• your business details (trading name, address);
• a payment card, required only when you subscribe to a plan after the trial.

Kaizen recommendation#

We ask you to subscribe to the Grow plan with annual billing.

This gives you access to CCS (carrier-calculated shipping): your carriers’ rates appear in real time at checkout. On Grow, CCS is included only with an annual billing cycle. With monthly billing, Shopify charges an extra fee and Support often has to activate the feature. The Basic plan does not include CCS.

Always check current prices on the official pricing page. Amounts change by country, promotion, and billing cycle.

1. Create the account#

Go to shopify.com and start the free trial. You can also open the store-creation form directly: accounts.shopify.com/store-create.

Enter your email, choose a password, then give your store a name. You can change that name later.

Shopify then asks a few questions about your business. Your answers customise the dashboard; they do not lock you into any setting.

2. Understand the free trial#

Shopify currently offers a 3-day free trial, with no credit card required. A promotional offer often follows (for example $1 per month for 3 months). Check the offer shown when you sign up: it is not permanent.

If you do not choose a plan before the trial ends, your store is paused and you are not charged.

If you subscribe to a plan during the trial, Shopify starts charging the subscription only after the trial ends. You do not lose any work already done. See the pricing plans FAQ.

3. Choose the plan#

Compare plans on shopify.com/pricing. For a standard online store, the relevant plans are the following.

Basic lets you run a full store, typically for a single person. It does not include CCS. Do not choose it for a project we are delivering.

Grow (formerly the “Shopify” plan) suits small teams (up to 5 staff accounts), with fuller reports and lower transaction fees. CCS is included if you pay annually. This is the plan we recommend.

Advanced adds more staff accounts (up to 15), CCS by default, and tools suited to higher volume.

Plus is for larger businesses: custom pricing, CCS included, and advanced features.

If a Starter plan appears, do not select it: it is meant for selling on social media or through a link, not for running a full online store.

We also recommend enabling Shopify Payments when it is available. That avoids the extra transaction fees Shopify charges if you take payments through a third-party provider (those fees depend on the plan).

4. Subscribe to Grow annually#

In the Shopify admin, open Settings, then the plan section. You can also use the setup guide and click Select a plan.

Choose Grow, then the annual billing cycle. Enter your payment method and confirm.

You can later move up to Advanced or Plus if volume requires it. Do not downgrade to Basic: you would lose CCS. Do not stay on monthly Grow: CCS is not included there without an extra fee.

After creation#

Once the account is created and the annual Grow plan is in place, let us know. We can then continue with store setup.

Official links#

• Create a Shopify account
• Shopify pricing
• Introduction to Shopify
• Pricing plans FAQ
• Initial setup
• Third-party carrier-calculated shipping (CCS)
• CCS availability by plan
• Official Shopify tutorial

Contact#

If you run into a problem while creating the account or choosing the plan, contact us. We can help you through this step.