Shopify seems pretty complicated

Start a Business
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Greetings…I have been monitoring some of the topics in the community chat, just opened a shop, designerpens.myshopify.com, and the whole process of getting a shop up and running seems pretty complicated. I know very little about meta tags, HTML, javascript, SEO etc. I am not sure about moving forward. Just my $.02

Thanks

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Hi there!

Opening a Webstore may look daunting on the outside, but it’s really simple actually. It does take effort and time though.

The steps are fairly straightforward (no particular order):

  1. Create your products and Collections in the Products tab.
  2. Browse for themes.
  3. Customize your site. Go in steps. Homepage, Contact, Policies, Products, Menus.
  4. Fine tune site with micro-adjustments and personalized customizations.
  5. Trust signals like review widget.
  6. SEO, advertising, and outreach.

You are in a particularly advantaged position, actually. You have physical, tangible products. Do you sell locally? If not, it can make getting the initial reviews way easier and strengthen your overall business outlook.

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Thank you for taking the time to share advice.

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Hi @Designerpen, welcome to Shopify!

It can definitely feel overwhelming at first, most merchants start without knowing about things like meta tags, HTML, or SEO, and that’s totally normal. The good news is you don’t need to be a developer to get your store running. Shopify is built to handle the technical side for you, so you can focus on your products and customers at first.

Here are a few simple steps that might help you move forward:

  • Theme setup: Start with a free Shopify theme and customize colors, fonts, and images in the visual editor(no coding required).

  • Products: Add clear photos and good product descriptions; this will help with SEO automatically.

  • Basic SEO: On each product/collection page, fill in the “Search engine listing” fields (title + description). Shopify uses those as meta tags, so pay attention to those details, and product title, description and handle.

  • Apps & resources: If you want to expand functionality (popups, reviews, email marketing), the Shopify App Store has beginner-friendly options.

  • Learning curve: The Shopify Academy and YouTube tutorials can give you small, practical lessons step by step.

Take it one piece at a time, even a small progress (like setting up your first product page) will give you confidence to keep going. And if you ever feel stuck, this Community is the right place to ask questions.

Thanks!

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thank you for taking the time to provide some guidance.

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The best thing about shopify is its “simplicity”.

I set up my shop (matacare) in a few hours and it has been giving me sales from then on. I did seo of course.

I think shopify is very good for beginner businessman/women.

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@Designerpen

Congrats on getting your shop up, that’s already a big step :clap:. Don’t stress too much about meta tags, HTML, or coding stuff right now — Shopify handles most of the heavy lifting for you. Just start simple: pick a theme you like, add good product photos/descriptions, and fill in the SEO title/description fields on each product. You can always layer on the tech bits later as you grow.

It definitely feels like a lot at first, but take it one step at a time — you’ll get the hang of it. And the community’s here whenever you need a hand :slightly_smiling_face:.

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Well, yes and no. Like any platform, it has its own learning curve. But the good news is — you don’t have to figure everything out from day one. Take your time. Make an action plan and split it into categories that make sense: product listings, design, SEO, store setup, business development, and so on. Then break each task down into smaller steps and just work through them one at a time. That’s the only way to keep your sanity and momentum without losing the bigger picture.

We live in the AI age now — use tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot. Ask when something isn’t clear. Just don’t rely too much on their code and always double-check their answers. Ask for sources, examples, and test everything.

One thing I strongly recommend — hire a designer and a developer, and use a premium theme. But don’t do it backwards like I did. I bought a theme first, then hired a developer to adapt it. I went through three different devs who all said “it looks fine,” when it didn’t. Eventually I realized the right approach was to start with a designer. Someone who gives you a proper Figma file — then you give that to your developer to implement. Only then should you choose a theme based on the required functionality. The first theme I bought didn’t support half the things I needed anyway, so I had to buy another one.

You can definitely postpone some of that at the beginning. But if you’re serious about building something solid, you’ll hit that wall eventually. And when you do, it’s better to already know what your priorities are.

Also — don’t be surprised when you realize every “out of the box” feature (SEO, popups, upsells, forms, custom sections, whatever) is locked behind a paid app. Sure, most apps have free trials or a basic tier, but they’re often so limited that you’ll end up paying anyway.

So yeah — complicated? Sometimes. But also very doable. Just don’t try to sprint through it. That’s where most people burn out.

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Hello @Designerpen ,

I hope you are well!

In start, you may feel complicated but you need to do everything if you create a website on any other platform. Like, Woocommerce or Wix. There are lot of things which you can do with the help of AI but sometimes the AI also provide wrong answer.

So, I recommend you to outsource all the thing so that everything can be done by them and you don’t have to be worried about anything.

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Thank you for your advice

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Thank you for taking the time to share your advice

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Shopify is about as complex as you make it. But, believe it or not, it’s a relatively simple e-commerce platform compared to most.

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Congrats on your store! Honestly, Shopify is one of the most beginner-friendly e-commerce platforms compared to anything else. You can get things up and running in literally no time. I agree, HTML, JavaScript, and SEO can feel overwhelming at first, but once you understand the basics, things get a lot easier. It gives you the superpower to optimize design and drive revenue. Good luck!

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Hi, I can understand where you are coming from. At first glance there is a lot, however from 5 years ago it has been very much simplified.

in fact once you actually understand its the easiest ecommerce software to use in my opinion. And since I paid to get me first store done and shown how to use, I now help others locally get there stores setup,

Take a Step back and simplify it

Products

  • product title
  • Product description
  • Product images
  • Product category (this is a new feature, using Google / Shopify categories)
  • Product Type (your internal product categories)
  • Product vendor (brand name, if leave blank defaults to store)
  • Product tags optional (can create to help make collections and filtering, but not required to start)
  • Variants optional
  • SKU & Barcode, I generally will just use barcode, unless customer has own sku already. Or for my main business we copy sku into barcode as our in store pos fills in the sku with integration & eBay, Kogan, and other marketplaces require barcode filled out.
  • Weight
  • Quantity on hand (unless made to order then leave untracked)

You don’t need to worry about anything else

Metafields will use AI to auto populate bases on the category selected.

Meta description, meta title, url handle ignore this to start will autofill from above. Unless you are looking for SEO optimisation this is when you will use this.

All of my customers I recommend

  • get store live
  • Get all products added & menu optimised
  • Share in social media, integrate social media with Shopify
  • Integrate with Google
  • Intergration with marketplaces if you plan to use. (We out discount code in the package on marketplace so they come direct next time)

Look into SEO once established online store to grow in google rankings & I would recommend a local agency for SEO for better performance. But you also want to know your organic ranking before implementing seo to know if it’s working or not.

Online Store Editor

  • choose theme (I start with free, paid if you want something specific)
  • Drag and drop elements to get the desired off ect you like
  • Select colours & fonts in settings
  • Setup navigation using collections unless you have navigation to direct product

Collections

  • always use smart collections where possible, so it’s automatic set and forget.
  • You can setup smart collections based on title, category, type, vendor or Tags

You don’t need HTML or JavaScript experience. Or any code. If you want to make advance changes then this is available as an option if you choose to do. But you don’t need to.

This is where woo commerce & other Wordpress sites are limited as it’s hard to change code. But if you prefer Wordpress you can integrate it with shopify as well !

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Hi there,

Starting your online store can feel overwhelming, especially when you don’t have prior experience. At this stage you don’t need to worry about things like SEO, meta tags, or code.

You have already done the hard work of getting your store up and running, now focus on building and improving it one step at a time.

I visited your store, and one quick win you can start with is optimising your product images (That’s what customer notice first). Since you are selling designer pens, the visuals should reflect the premium feel.

For example your Jetliner Ball Point Pen (the blue one) is blending with the background. Try a lighter, neutral background. Try a lighter, neutral background so your pen stands out. Keep background consistent across similar products. Also consistent images size will enhance your catalogue’s overall look.

Your are doing great. Just keep refining things step by step and it’ll all come together nicely.

Do check out Shopify Academy, it’s really helpful for beginners (sharing from my experience).

Best of luck!

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The comment “Shopify seems pretty complicated” reflects a common sentiment among new users who may feel overwhelmed by its wide array of features, integrations, and setup requirements. While platforms like Shopify are powerful tools for launching and scaling e-commerce businesses, they do come with a learning curve—especially for beginners without a tech or design background. Interestingly, this mirrors how users might feel when using tools like Delta Executor which also require some technical understanding to navigate scripts and compatibility. In both cases, the initial complexity can be overcome with the right guidance, patience, and a willingness to learn.

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