Shopify is one of the easiest ways to launch your own online store—even if you’ve never done it before. It handles everything from adding products to accepting payments, all in one place. What’s really exciting now is how Shopify’s new AI features make the whole setup process even faster. Imagine describing what you want to sell, and the AI instantly helps write product descriptions, edit photos, and even build your storefront layout. In just a few minutes, you can go from an idea to a live store, ready to make your first sale.

In this tutorial, we’ll guide you on setting up your Shopify store with the help of AI. You’ll learn how to easily generate, modify, and launch your e-commerce brand. You will see how easy it is to create a store theme, add products, descriptions, and images, and format them with AI. 

By the end of this tutorial, you’ll learn how to:

• Access the Shopify admin panel
• Generate a store theme, add products, and customize the store theme
• Add pages and menus
• Access the AI sidekick 

Let’s dive into it right away!

Step 1 - Access the Shopify admin panel

You can create a free account if you haven’t used Shopify before. You can use Shopify and build your store as a trial for three days. Once the trial ends, you must pay $1 monthly for 03 months to start your brand new store. After that, it’s $19 per month. Click the ‘select Basic’ plan, and you are good to go.

You will be redirected to an admin panel. That’s where we’ll build our first store together. 

Step 2 - Generate a store theme, add products, and customize the store theme

Brainstorming the design ideas, such as the landing page design and the seamless shopping experience for your visitors, can be daunting. But with the help of AI, there is no need to think about design and content flow anymore. Start by clicking the ‘Online Store’ in the left navigation panel. 

Locate the ‘Design your store in seconds’ section and type in relevant keywords describing your products and store. Let’s say you want to set up an EarPods store. Type ‘minimalist earphone store.’

Note: If you’re not satisfied with the generated theme. Click ‘Generate theme’ again. 

Click ‘View Demo’ for the theme you liked the most. Check whether you want the page layout, colors, and fonts. If you’re satisfied, click ‘Try theme.’

Now, click ‘Publish’ in the ‘Theme library’ section to set up your store theme. 

The theme will appear in the admin panel. You can click ‘View your store’ to see how it will be displayed to end users. 

Add Products

Adding products is an easy process. You can leverage the power of AI to write descriptions of the product and other details for you. Click the ‘Products’ link in the menu bar on the left. 

Click ‘Add product’ to add your first product. 

Type the title of your product. In the description box, click the ‘AI’ button to generate a description of your product. 

All you need to do is write a few keywords or a description of your product. AI will generate a paragraph for you. Set the tone and generate again if you’re unsatisfied with the results. Once satisfied, click ‘Keep’ to populate the description box. 

If you don’t have an image of your own, you can generate the product's image. AI will assist you in generating a nice image.

Click a photo you have added in the admin panel. The image editor will open. You can edit the image with AI. 

You can also use suggestions on the right sidebar to generate a prompt for the background image. 

Please fill out the other fields with information and click ‘Save’ at the top of the page to save the product. 

Customize the store theme.

To customize the store theme you selected in the previous step, go back to the admin panel screen and click ‘Customize,’

You can customize all aspects of the theme. Access the settings in the left menu bar and customize each section the way you want. Let’s say you want to change the text on the main header. Click the first ‘slideshow’ under the template. Change the headline text and the description. Use AI to generate a viable description for you. Click ‘Save’ when you’re done. 

You can edit all the pages in your Shopify store by selecting a page from the drop-down menu at the top of the edit page. 

Step 3 - Add pages and menus

After setting up your Shopify store, adding pages and menus helps organize your content and guide visitors through your site. You can create pages like About, Contact, or Shipping Info, then link them in your main or footer navigation. This makes your store easier to browse and gives it a more polished, professional feel.

‍

Go to the admin panel screen and click ‘Pages’ right below the theme link.

Shopify has created a contact us page for you by default. To add a page, click the ‘Add page’ button at the top right corner of the screen. 

Specify the page title. To add a description, click the AI button in the text box. Describe the page's contents, set the tone, and click ‘Generate.’

Verify the information in the generated content and click ‘Keep.’

Click ‘View’ to see how it looks on the page. 

Add as many pages as you want to your store. To add the page links in the footer menu, click the ‘Content’ link on the navigation bar in the admin panel. Select ‘Menus.’

All the menus are listed on this page. Select the one you want to edit. 

We chose the Footer menu. You can add pages to the footer menu by clicking ‘Add menu item.’ 

Step 4 - Access the AI sidekick

Shopify’s AI sidekick is designed to make store management faster and easier. With a few prompts, you can access key settings, such as updating store details, managing policies, or adjusting checkout preferences. Instead of digging through menus, the AI helps you quickly find and change important options to stay focused on growing your business.

Let’s say you want to access the shipping rates settings. To do so, click the AI helper icon at the top right corner of the admin panel page. 

Type a prompt, and the AI sidekick will answer your question with links to the settings you want to access. 

Shopify’s AI sidekick is an extensive AI chatbot. You can ask anything here. For example, you may want to find ways to market your Shopify store. Write the following prompt to explore marketing options for your store. 

Prompt:

Show me ways to market my Shopify store online. 

That’s it for this tutorial, folks. Remember to set the payment options, shipping, and delivery rates before sharing your store with friends and family. Instead of digging through the menus, use the AI sidekick to find settings. Shopify’s AI assistant speeds up the creation of a store and gives you enough time to focus on the most important things.