Checklist

This guide provides the main steps that you need to set up your Shopify store. You can use it as a starting point and as a reference to make sure that you don't forget any key tasks.

Step 1: Configure your basic administrative settings

Before you start adding products and setting up your payments, there are a few administrative tasks that you should do:

1. If you want to sell in person, then check with your local laws to see if the Shopify POS system is compliant in your country.
2. Complete the initial setup so that your store address, email address, and other store settings are correct.
3. Know where to manage your account and access your billing information.
4. Add staff so that each of your staff has a personal login account and all sensitive account information remains secure.

Tip

If you don't want a staff to have access to your Shopify admin, then you can create a POS staff PIN for them. POS PINs give your staff access only to Shopify POS and not to your Shopify admin.

Step 2: Download the Shopify POS app

Tip

To see more videos, visit our YouTube channel.

To get started with the Shopify POS app:

1. Download and log in to Shopify POS.
2. Get an overview of what the app can do, and understand the functionality of the different screens in the app.
3. Configure your general Shopify POS app settings on the POS device that you'll be using.
4. Log in to the app.

If you use your Google account to log in to Shopify on your desktop, then you need to reset your password before logging in to Shopify POS. Resetting your Google account password through Shopify does not affect your Google account login on other platforms.

Tip

There are embedded POS apps available in the Shopify App Store that can help you expand the functionality of your POS system.

Step 3: Add and organize your products

If you don’t have anything in your store yet, then you can start with some of the basics.

Note

If you're in the service industry, then make sure that you're familiar with the differences between selling services and selling physical goods.

Steps:

1. Add products to sell in your store from the Shopify admin or from your Shopify POS app. Make sure that you add images so that you can quickly browse through your products on your POS device.
2. Configure the taxes for your products.
3. Create a collection if you want to organize your products into categories.
4. Set the availability to Point of sale.
5. Stock products at your Shopify POS locations.
6. Get familiar with product inventory and transfers since you'll want to keep track of the products that you have available in your store.

Tip

If you're creating new products from your POS app, then their availability for Point of Sale will already be activated, but you'll have to set their availability for the other sales channels in your Shopify admin.

Step 4: Configure your taxes

Charging sales tax is an important part of running your business. Depending on where your store is located, there are different rules and regulations about sales tax that apply to your products. To make sure that your store meets those rules, take some time to understand Shopify’s tax setup process.

Note

If your store sells products to customers in Europe, then note that there are regulations that apply to digital products.

Charge taxes based on your physical location

When you are using Shopify POS, you need to:

1. Set your store's location(s) in your Shopify admin.
2. Set the taxes for your store's physical location.
3. Assign the location to an iPad that you use to complete transactions in your store.

If you need to adjust taxes manually based on a region with unique tax restrictions or a specific collection of products, then you can use tax overrides.

Keep track of your taxes

When you configure the tax settings for your products, you should also think about how you are going to keep track of your taxes throughout the year. There are important dates and deadlines that you must be aware of when filing your taxes, especially in the United States.

If you’re not sure about what system you are going to use to keep track of your taxes, then you might want to look at some accounting apps in the Shopify App Store.

Step 5: Make sure customers can pay you

To make sure that customers can pay you, you need to set up a payment provider. A payment provider lets you accept payments securely. Shopify offers its own payment provider (Shopify Payments), and supports a variety of third-party payment providers for Shopify POS.

When you choose to use Shopify Payments, you avoid paying additional third-party transaction fees, and you can view your payouts right from your Shopify admin.

Tip

If you want to use a third-party payment provider, then your store needs to be on the Shopify plan or higher.

To set up a payment provider:

1. Activate Shopify Payments or select one of the supported third-party payment providers for Shopify POS.
2. Get to know the various transaction types using your Shopify POS app.

Step 6: Order and set up your POS hardware

When you're setting up your POS checkout system, make sure that you have the retail hardware that's right for your business. Depending on what hardware you want to use, you also need to check if your store's Shopify subscription plan supports it:

• All monthly plans let you accept credit card payments on your iPhone or iPad using a supported card reader.
• If you want to add more hardware, such as a cash register and a receipt printer, then your store also needs to be on the Shopify plan or higher.

Note

If you're migrating to Shopify from another platform, then check what hardware you can re-use and what hardware is supported by Shopify.

To set up your POS hardware:

1. Figure out what hardware you need for your store before you order it.
2. Find out where you can purchase your hardware (depending on what country you live in). If you live and run your business in the United States, then you can rent POS hardware from Shopify Hardware Rentals.
3. Configure your in-store Wi-Fi network so that your hardware can connect to Shopify. If you're using only a card reader with your iPhone or iPad's data plan, then you don't need to configure an in-store wi-fi network.
4. Install your hardware and make sure that everything is working as it should.

Getting help with POS hardware

If you have questions about POS hardware that you purchased, then you can look for help in the Shopify POS documentation or contact Shopify's Support team.

If you have questions about any POS hardware you are renting, then you can contact our hardware rental specialists.

Step 7: Place some test orders

Now that you've configured your payment settings and set up your hardware, you should try out a few transactions to make sure that everything works properly and get familiar with the process of taking payments from your customers.

You can run test orders for a few different types of transactions:

• taking a partial payment
• refunding an order
• marking an order as fulfilled
• updating an order.

Step 8: Promote your store online

Ready to launch? Now that all of the setup is done, it's time to tell people about your store!

As you build your business, you'll discover different ways to engage your customers and keep them coming back. The guides on the Shopify blog are a great place to start:

• A Beginner's Guide to Content Marketing
• Inspiring Ecommerce Examples of Social Media Done Right
• Embedded POS apps

You can also join the Shopify community to find great resources and connect with other Shopify merchants.