Hi @BigMan41 ,
Hyde here from Shopify. Great questions!
Shopify is the platform many shops use to build their website, but we don’t actually manage inventory or ship orders from here ourselves. We simply provide you with the means of managing your store yourself!
It sounds like you might have opted for the dropshipping business model. Oberlo is the dropshipping app most people use, and this guide on How Oberlo Works is fundamental reading.
You will need to download Google’s Chrome Browser to your desktop. You can download this via Google here. You should also add the Chrome Extension for Oberlo to your browser from here.
Have a look at this video which show’s how you can download the Oberlo app and install it to your store. I’ve also included how to add a product via the Oberlo app in the same video.
This video will show you how you can upload a product to your store by AliExpress. AliExpress includes a lot of jibberish that’s not needed for your store. I’d advise deleting the images that are not relevant to your product and as well the variants. You should edit the title, price, description, and variants once uploaded to your store to make it look like your own product. I’ve included this in the video as well just to show you an example.
I’ve made a video here on how to fulfill an order. When you see an order in your admin, you will need to first go to your Oberlo app and order it from the supplier. The video shows you how to do this. Once you fulfill the order, you then need to go back to your Shopify admin and click the ‘fulfilled’ button. This will send a notification to the customer saying that their order is on the way. Feel free to contact Oberlo via their email address hello@oberlo.com for any more information.
There’s a really great AliExpress guide titled The Definitive Guide to Dropshipping with Ali Express that I’d recommend having a look over. It covers everything you need to know about dropshipping with AliExpress from start to finish.
In regard to shipping, here’s an informative Shopify Blog called Everything You Need to Know About ePacket Shipping: ePacket Delivery Explained that’s also certainly worth checking out too!
In terms of templates - which we call “themes” - we have a great guide on choosing them here. You will need to customize the theme to make it your own.
When it comes to domains, once you’ve bought a domain (whether it is through us or a third party) you own it and it cannot be copied. There’s more about domains here.
I would recommend working slowly and carefully through the guide right here. You can click through the different topics on the left and read through it:
If you still have difficulties with the guides, you can contact support. If you go to this page and click Contact Support you will be prompted to either login or continue without a store. Once you have selected an option you will be asked to ask about a topic. Search for your query and relevant help docs will populate as well as the option to proceed to live chat or email.
You can also reach our Support team @ShopifySupport on Twitter or through Messenger on Facebook here.
I hope this all helps!
All the best, Hyde.
