Shopify: The Basics

Shopify is the platform. Not Wix. Not Squarespace. Not WooCommerce. Shopify is built specifically for ecommerce — it's optimized for selling, for AI indexing, and for scale. When your store takes off, you won't have to migrate to a better platform. You're already on it.

Choosing Your Plan

Start with the Basic plan. At the time of writing, it runs $39/month (Shopify frequently offers promotional rates, so check their site for the current pricing).

The Basic plan gives you everything you need to launch and grow: unlimited products, 2 staff accounts, discount codes, free SSL certificate, and access to the Shopify App Store.

Setting Up Your Account

Go to shopify.pxf.io/leah to start your free trial (Leah's affiliate link — the trial is the same, it just helps support Fiction Empire). You'll need:

1. 1Your author name or pen name (this becomes your store name)
2. 2An email address (use your author email, not a personal Gmail)
3. 3A password
4. 4Your country/region and currency
5. 5A payment method to activate your plan after the trial ends

During setup, Shopify will ask what you're selling. Choose 'Online Store' and describe your products as books / physical goods / digital products. Don't overthink this — it just helps Shopify populate suggestions.

Your Domain Name

Your Shopify store comes with a free myshopify.com subdomain (e.g., yourname.myshopify.com). Do not use this as your permanent URL.

Purchase a custom domain. Ideally, it's your author name: yourname.com. You can buy it directly through Shopify or through a registrar like Namecheap or Google Domains and connect it. A custom domain looks professional and makes your store easier to find.

Payments: Getting Paid

Enable Shopify Payments (available in most countries). This is Shopify's built-in payment processor and it eliminates the extra transaction fee they charge when you use a third-party processor.

You'll need to verify your identity and bank account details. This takes a day or two. Don't skip it — you can't receive payouts until it's done.

Also enable PayPal as a secondary option. A segment of your readers will prefer it, and removing friction from checkout means more completed purchases.