Course description

You make or sell things people love, and customers keep asking whether they can buy online. Shopify can give you your own online shop, but the sign-up is the easy part: then come products and photos, delivery charges, payments, policies, the law on refunds and prices, and the question of how anyone will find you. This course takes you from "should I?" to a shop that's open, properly priced, legally sound and running smoothly week by week.

It's a full course, not a quick tour. There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, and every lesson ends with a practical task for your own shop or a practice scenario. You follow Viyan, a hand weaver with a small shop in Knaresborough, as she plans, builds and launches her online shop and runs it through its first seven months: her settings, her prices and sums, her first orders and returns, and the mistakes she made and fixed. Every section has a practice pack with a worksheet, model answers, a cheat sheet and ready-to-use tools, including a costs planner, a pricing calculator, a product details sheet, delivery and policy templates, a launch checklist, message templates, a marketing plan and a shop accounts workbook.

What you'll learn

• Getting started: how a Shopify shop works, whether your own shop suits you better than a marketplace, Shopify's plans and every cost to count, your break-even point and a shop plan before the free trial starts.
• Setting up your store: signing up, a tour of the admin, store details, your own domain name, and keeping your store secure with two-step authentication, staff access and an eye for scam emails.
• Adding your products: product pages, variants and SKUs, stock, packed weights and cost per item, collections, and descriptions that answer buyers' questions, including fibre content and product safety rules.
• Designing your online store: choosing a theme, the theme editor, a home page with a clear headline, About, Contact and FAQ pages, menus and the footer, and checking your shop on a phone for readability and speed.
• Payments, pricing and tax: Shopify Payments and payouts, checkout settings, pricing for profit with card fees and postage, VAT and the threshold, and trial orders before you launch.
• Delivery, policies and the law: delivery rates and free delivery, collection from your shop, refund and other policies, the 14-day cancellation right, the Consumer Rights Act, showing the full price, privacy, cookies and business details.
• Launching and handling orders: a launch checklist and going live, fulfilling orders, packing and postage, cancellations, returns, refunds and chargebacks, and customer service.
• Marketing your shop: your first visitors, search engine basics, email marketing with consent, discounts and abandoned checkouts, and genuine reviews and honest claims.
• Apps, figures and money: choosing apps safely, reading your analytics, bookkeeping with payouts, fees and refunds, tax for online sellers, and selling in person, elsewhere in the UK and beyond.
• Final project and next steps: a review of the example shop's first seven months, planning and building a complete shop for your own business or a practice scenario, a weekly routine and your next 12 months.

Who it's for

Makers, crafters and small retailers in the UK who want to sell physical products through their own Shopify shop, whether you're starting from scratch or adding an online shop to a stall or a high street shop. You don't need any technical experience. If you don't have products ready yet, a complete practice scenario lets you work through every stage. Shopify's plans and screens change, so the course shows you how to check current pricing and find settings that have moved. Rootlet is independent and isn't connected to Shopify. The course gives general information about UK law and tax, not legal or tax advice, and shows you where to check the current rules.

What will I learn?

• Decide whether your own online shop suits your business, and work out what it will really cost
• Set up a Shopify store with the right details, your own domain and secure access
• Add products with variants, stock, packed weights, collections and pages that answer buyers' questions
• Choose and set up a theme, build a clear home page and check your shop on a phone
• Take payments, set up checkout, price for profit and get VAT settings right
• Set up delivery, collection and store policies that follow UK consumer law
• Launch with a checklist, then fulfil, pack, refund and answer buyers well
• Bring your first visitors with email, search, honest discounts and genuine reviews
• Choose apps carefully, read your figures, keep records and understand tax for online sellers

Frequently asked questions