Ecommerce Shopify Basics

This article is designed for people with no Shopify or e-commerce experience. It is divided into 3 parts: 1) an introduction to the basic elements on Shopify 2) how to apply such elements on Shopify and 3) plugins.

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Part 1: Elements on Shopify

Pages in a Shopify store

Pages in Shopify are most suitable for administrative information that does not directly relate to displaying products for sale. Common examples of 'pages' include 'About Us', 'Contact Us', etc. Do not attempt to create pages to display products. A better way is to allow the system to dynamically display products according to each customer's personalized selections. We will discuss displaying products in Shopify this way in a later section about the element named 'collections' below. Consequently, the first step in setting up the Shopify store is usually entering each product and attaching well thought out tags. As you will see later, tags will become your means of responding to visitor selection with customized screen displays.

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Catalogs in a Shopify store

This is where you can place all of your collections (best sellers, etc). When catalogs appear on main menus, consider naming this option 'All products X' with a drop down menu that displays the different collections.

Collections in a Shopify store

Collections are groupings of products. Common collections include 'best sellers' and major product classifications like 'Formal Wear', 'Casual Wear' and so on. The most common display of collections is as a menu options on the top horizontal bar.

Product Types in a Shopify store

Product types are often the broadest way of categorizing products. For instance, they may be pants, shirts, dresses and so on. Shopify allows you to offer visitors links to these collections that appear as menu options.

Tags in a Shopify store

Tags are variants of single products. Common examples include variables like color and size. They may also include features. Shopify allows you to offer visitors links to these collections that appear as menu options.

Part 2: Applying Shopify Elements

To Add Products on Shopify

1. In left column menu, select 'Products'
2. In top right menu, click "Add Product'

To Add Collections on Shopify

You will be able to attached products to collections only AFTER creating collections in the following way. Additionally, single products may be attached to multiple collectons.

1. In left column menu, select 'Collections' (It should be a selection below 'products')
2. In top right menu, click "Add Collection'
3. Use a title that is a keyword.
4. Enter text that applies to all of the products within the collection.

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To attach products to collections or, more correctly, collections to products

This step requires that you create the following beforehand: collections and products with criteria like 'tags' that will be used for defining the products that will be included in a collection. 

1. In left column menu, select 'Collections' (It should be a selection below 'products'). You will see a list of collections that you created manually beforehand
2. Click on the Collection
3. In the section 'Condition', specify how products (that you have previously created) will be selected for the collection. Example: 'product tag' 'equals' [your tag].

Customizing collection pages

To create pages (Contact Us, About Us and so on) and add pages to navigation menus
Shopify does not automatically make pages accessible in navigation menus. In other words, pages may exist without a visitor's ability to access them. To give access, they must be manually added to navigation menus.

1. In left column menu, select the 'Online Store' icon (shaped like the global sphere).
2. In the new left column menu, select 'Pages'
3. Click 'Add Page'
4. Edit
1. the title (using keywords if possible). However, for this example, a 'FAQs' page was created
2. Content
3. Search engine listing (to include keywords when / if possible)
5. When you have completed the page, click 'Save'
6. At this point, the page will not automatically appear on the website. So go to 'Navigation' in the 'Online  store' menu in the left column. "Navigation' appears below the 'pages' option.
7. 'Edit menu'
8. Click 'Add Menu item'
   
9. Type the name of the navigation option as visitors will view it. As shown below, this will be the 'FAQs' page.
10. Specify the type of link. As the image shows below, a 'page' is the link in this case.
11. Another column to the right appears with the list of pages you have already created
12. Select the page, in this example, the FAQs page. Click 'Save menu' button.
    

To offer downloadable files on product pages

This involves uploading a file to a common space '...' and then creating a link to that file from within the product page.

1. Upload the file
1. Click the 'Settings' to see a left column menu with 'files' in the list of options
2. Click 'Files'
3. Click 'Upload file'
4. Copy the URL that Shopify generates
2. Go to the product page
3. As shown below, highlight the text to be used for the link and click Shopify's 'Insert link' button.
   
4. Paste the URL

To add content to product page tabs

Tabs are not usually offered as a feature in free Shopify templates. However, coding experts can customized versions of Shopify templates to include them. Such a scenario is the basis of this task. Entering in the content of the main description tab will occur as normal. However, adding content for secondary tabs will not be as straight forward. Specifically, you will need to create the content for the secondary tabs as a page and then manually link that page to the tabs. (BTW, Shopify does not automatically place pages onto navigation menus or other means of access). There is one noteworthy disadvantage in the fact that, when additional tabs are designed to use pages as in this case, the content can not be customized to each page. However, this is advantageous if you need to display the same information for all products.

1. In left column menu, select the 'Online Store' icon (shaped like the global sphere).
2. In the new left column menu, select 'Pages'
3. Click 'Add Page'. Edit  the content.
4. When you have completed the page, click 'Save'

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To make add-on recommendations

As above, create a collection like 'Brand X Shirt & Accessories'
When your core product is showcased, the add-on products will be recommended to shoppers.

Part 3: Plugins

Plugins are small pieces of software that are compatible with the Shopify software to the extent that it can be plugged in or added on. Plugins introduce some specialized functionality. The following are some examples that add a lot more functionality to an ecommerce store.

• McAfee Secure: This gives your customers the confidence that they will be able to use their credit card securely on your website
• MailChimp: This is quite a favorite for newsletters
• See my full list of favorites

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To view different plugins or 'apps'

1. In left column menu, select the 'Apps' icon (shaped like puzzle piece).
2. In the top right corner of the screen, click 'Visit Shopify App Store'
3. Define search criteria like category, price and so on using the dropdown menu on the top of page

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