Branding
Guides covering brand identity, visual language, and brand strategy.
Web Design
Guides covering website management, CMS platforms, and site updates.
Ecommerce
Guides covering online store setup, product management, and order fulfilment.
Marketing
Guides covering email, social media, SEO, and digital advertising.
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Introduction
Getting started with your new Shopify store.
Welcome to Your Website
Welcome to your new Shopify website, built and delivered by Mind Pattern Studio.
This platform has been designed to give you full control over your online store, allowing you to easily manage products, collections, and site content without needing any technical experience. Whether you're adding new products, updating existing listings, or organising your storefront, everything can be handled through Shopify's intuitive admin system.
This guide will help you get up and running confidently, and serve as an ongoing reference as you manage and grow your store.
Need Help?
If you require any technical assistance or run into any issues while managing your website, we're here to help.
Don't hesitate to get in touch for support, guidance, or further training — whether it's a quick question or something more in-depth, we'll ensure you have everything you need to keep your site running smoothly.
Reach out to the Mind Pattern Studio team anytime for support, guidance, or further training on your website.
How to Use This Guide
A brief overview of how this documentation is structured.
This guide has been created to walk you through the key areas of your Shopify website step by step. Each section focuses on a specific part of the system — such as products, collections, or navigation — with clear instructions on how to complete essential tasks.
You can either:
- Follow the guide from start to finish to build a full understanding of the platform, or
- Jump to specific sections when you need help with a particular task
Where relevant, we've also included tips and best practices to help you keep your website consistent, professional, and easy to navigate for your customers.
No prior experience with Shopify is required — simply follow the steps provided, and you'll be able to confidently manage your website.
Terminology
Common Shopify terms you'll encounter when managing your website.
Before getting started, here are some common Shopify terms you'll see when managing your website.
Individual items you are selling. Each product has its own page with images, description, price, and details.
Different versions of a product, such as size or colour, kept under one listing. These are important to add (even if a product only has one variant) as Filters sometimes require these to narrow down products on a collection page.
Customer purchases. Managed in the Orders section for fulfilment and updates.
In Shopify, vendors are used to represent the brand or supplier behind a product. Each product should be assigned to the correct vendor so it can be filtered and organised accordingly.
Groups of products. These act as your website categories, helping customers browse, such as "New In" or "Footwear".
Automatically generated collections based on rules you set, such as product tags, vendor, or product type. This is the main type of collection used on your site to keep things organised without manual sorting. For example, a "Sweatshirts" collection might have the condition: Product Type is equal to Sweatshirt.
Labels added to products to help organise them. Used for filtering, searching, or building smart collections.
Your stock levels. Shopify tracks how many units you have available.
Custom fields used to add extra information to products, beyond the standard Shopify fields. These are configured specifically for your store and can be used to display additional details on product pages.
Options on collection pages that help customers narrow down products, such as size, designer, or category. These are usually powered by tags or product data.
The menu customers use to move around the site. Links to products, collections, or pages.
Standard content pages like About, Contact, or FAQs.
Shopify's reporting area where you can view visitors, sales, customer behaviour, and store performance.
Where all uploaded images and files are stored. This is used when adding product images or updating site content.
Accessed on the left hand panel of the dashboard. This is where you manage the design and layout of your website, including templates, sections, and overall page structure across the site.
The overall structure of your website. Themes control how your site is laid out and how pages function. You can customise them, but do not remove a theme unless absolutely necessary.
A standardised numerical code used internationally to classify products for customs and shipping purposes. Also known as an HS (Harmonised System) code, it is used by couriers and customs authorities to identify what a product is, calculate applicable duties or taxes, and ensure compliance when shipping internationally. For example, a jacket may have the code 6201.93. Adding these in Shopify ensures the correct code is passed to your courier automatically when fulfilling orders.
Becoming the Store Owner
Accept ownership of your Shopify store before getting started.
Before managing the website, you'll need to accept ownership of the Shopify store. This gives you full control over all areas of the site, including products, orders, and settings.
Steps
Once completed, you'll have full access to manage your store and can continue with the rest of this guide.
Billing Setup
Select a Shopify plan and add your billing details to keep the store active.
To keep your store active, you'll need to select a Shopify plan and add billing details.
Steps
Note: In some cases, a 3-month trial may already be active, so you may not need to select a plan straight away.
- View invoices
- Download receipts
- Update your payment method
Your billing is now set up and the store will remain active.
Setting Up Payments
Configure payment methods so customers can complete purchases.
Before you can start taking orders, you'll need to set up your payment methods. This ensures customers can complete purchases and funds are paid into your account.
Steps
- Business name and address
- Bank account details (where payouts will be sent)
- Personal details for verification
Your store is now ready to accept payments.
You can also add additional payment methods in this section, such as Clearpay or Klarna, if you wish to offer flexible payment options to customers.
Adding a Product
How to add new products to your Shopify store.
Adding a new product to your store is straightforward when following best practice. To keep your workflow consistent, we recommend starting by duplicating a similar existing product and updating the necessary fields.
Steps
- Enter the Product Title
- Uncheck Media and Inventory Quantities
- Set Product Status to Draft
Further details such as variants and pricing will be added in the steps below.
- Important: This must match the collection type for the product.
- If you duplicated from a similar product, this may already be set correctly.
Scroll down to the Shipping section and enter the product's Harmonized Code (also called an HS or commodity code).
This data is pushed to your courier and is mandatory for international orders. You can add the code when shipping manually, but best practice is to add it in Shopify — this way the HS code carries over automatically if you duplicate the product in future.
Important: If you have duplicated this product from another listing, always check and update the HS code — do not leave a code that belongs to a different product type.
Metafields (Extra Product Details)
These fields allow extra information to display on the product page:
Scroll down to the metafields section and fill in any custom fields configured for your store. These will vary depending on your setup, but may include things like:
- Product Type / Category Required
- Additional descriptions or specifications Optional
- Custom display options Optional
Only fields relevant to your store will appear here. If you're unsure what a field is for, refer to this guide or contact us.
- Scroll to the top and set Status to Active if you want the product live.
- Otherwise, leave as Draft to save and return later.
Your product has now been created. If you set it to live, it will appear in the relevant categories on your website.
Depending on your store setup, new products may receive tags automatically when published — for example, a "New In" tag that adds them to a featured collection. These automations can be adjusted if needed, so just let us know.
If your store uses tags to power Smart Collections or filters, make sure any required tags are applied correctly when creating each product.
Creating a Collection
How to set up a new Smart Collection on your store.
Your store is set up predominantly using Smart Collections rather than manual ones.
A smart collection automatically pulls in products based on rules you define, such as product type, tags, or designer. This means you don't need to manually add products to collections.
As you add new products, they will automatically appear in the correct collections, keeping everything organised and improving the customer experience — with no manual sorting required.
Steps
- Change the first dropdown to Product type
- Leave the condition as is equal to
- Enter the collection name in the final field
Important: This must exactly match the Product Type used on your products.
Scroll back to the top and press Save.
Optional: Add a Collection Image. Some areas of the site use this image, so it's recommended if the collection will be displayed with a thumbnail.
Once set up correctly, any matching products will automatically appear in this collection.
Managing Orders
View, fulfil, and manage customer orders from your Shopify admin.
Once your store is live, all customer purchases will appear in the Orders section. This is where you can view, fulfil, and manage any issues with orders.
Viewing Orders
Marking an Order as Fulfilled
Refunds & Cancellations
Cancelling an Order
Shipping
Control how customers are charged for delivery and where you ship to.
Shipping settings control how much customers are charged for delivery and where you ship to. In Shopify, this is managed using Rates, Markets, and Shipping Profiles.
Rates: The cost of shipping charged to the customer (e.g. £5 standard delivery, free shipping over £100)
Markets: The countries or regions you sell and ship to (e.g. UK, Europe, International)
Shipping Profiles: Groups of products that share the same shipping rules
Accessing Shipping Settings
Setting Shipping Rates
Enter the following:
- Rate name (e.g. Standard Shipping)
- Price (or set conditions like free shipping over a certain amount)
Managing Markets (Shipping Regions)
Using Shipping Profiles
Shipping profiles allow you to apply different shipping rules to different products.
Checklist
Track your progress as you get your store set up and running.
Use this checklist to work through the key tasks for getting your store set up and running. Tick each item off as you complete it — your progress is saved in your browser.
Getting Started
Products
Collections
Navigation
Orders
Shipping
If you get stuck on any of these tasks, use the Need Assistance? button to send us a message and we'll help you get sorted.