Choosing your store management settings

Before you open your store to customers, you need to do the following tasks:

• Add a package type.
• Choose what payment methods you'll accept and where you'll receive payouts.
• Customize your tax settings.
• Add your store's policies to your checkout page.

Add a package type

You can save the dimensions and weights of your preferred package types on the Shipping and delivery settings page in your Shopify admin.

Some mail types have restrictions on the size of the packages that you can use to ship your products. A notice about applicable size restrictions displays on the dialog when you create a new package type.

If you enter dimensions and weights for your packages, then your calculated shipping rates will be more accurate.

Steps:

Set up locations (optional)

If you plan to manage your inventory and fulfill orders from various spaces, then you can use locations. After you set up multiple locations, if you’re out of stock at one location but have inventory at another location, then the order is split so that it is fulfilled from multiple locations.

Your locations can be retail stores, warehouses, pop-up shops, dropshipping suppliers, or any other place where you manage or stock inventory. With multiple locations, you have better visibility into your inventory across your business.

For most Shopify plans, you can have up to six locations.

Create a location

You can add a location. Your inventory is made available for online purchases by default in each new location.

If you have the Inventory at this location is available to fulfill online orders option activated after you create a location, then you can do the following actions from a location page:

• view available delivery methods for a location
• view which delivery methods are activated for a location
• configure delivery methods for a location

After you create a location, your location is added to the bottom of your fulfillment priority list. If you have more than one active location, then you need to specify the priority sequence for order fulfillments. For more information about fulfilling orders with multiple locations, refer to Setting up location fulfillments.

Steps:

Set up a payment method

A variety of payment methods are supported on Shopify, but the simplest way to accept payments online is by using Shopify Payments.

Shopify Payments eliminates the need to set up a third-party payment provider or merchant account to accept payments. Shopify Payments comes fully integrated with your store, and lets you manage your business and financials in one place.

Steps:

After you've set up Shopify Payments, you can configure your settings or make a test transaction on your store.

Set up your taxes

As a merchant, you might need to charge taxes on your sales, and then report and remit those taxes to your government. Although tax laws are complex and can change often, you can set up Shopify to handle common sales tax calculations. You can also set up tax overrides to address unique tax laws and situations.

Shopify uses many default sales tax rates, which are updated regularly. If you use the default rates, then you should confirm that they're current and correct. You can override them whenever necessary.

Make sure your tax settings are correct for your store, and you need to remember to file your store's taxes. Learn more about taxes.

General process to set up taxes

There isn't a formal list of steps to set up your taxes. Instead, use this process as a guide:

1. Determine where you have an obligation to collect tax. This typically starts with your default location and where you operate your business from. This is usually your home country, province, or state.
2. Register with the appropriate state or country.
3. Start to collect tax in each state or country.

After you activate tax collection, review the following considerations:

• If your products have reduced rates or tax exemptions, then do one of the following:
  • If you use Shopify Tax, then make sure you've set the product category field for your products. Shopify Tax determines tax rates and applies exemptions or altered tax rates according to your product categories.
  • If you don't use Shopify Tax, or you need to use a tax rate not accounted for by Shopify Tax, then you can set tax overrides manually. You can set specific products as tax exempt and set tax overrides for products or shipping by using collections.
• If you have customers that are exempt from taxes, then you can change the tax settings in their customer profile.
• If your store uses B2B, then you can add a tax ID or VAT number to company locations and apply relevant tax exemptions.
• You need to file a return with the state or region you're registered in, based on the filing cadence provided by state or region when you register. This is typically on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis.

As you set up taxes, you can access and review your settings on the Taxes and duties page in your Shopify admin. Your sales are monitored to help identify when you have additional tax obligations in other states or countries, also known as nexus.

Add your store policies

Before they buy a product, your customers need to have access to your policies for refunds, privacy, and terms of service.

You need to add your store policies using a separate webpage. Your policies are displayed as links at the bottom of your checkout page.

Steps:

1. Set your store policies.

2. In a new browser tab or window, go to your Pages page.

3. Create a new page.

4. From your store checkout settings, copy each policy to your clipboard.

5. On your new page, paste your clipboard contents.

6. Click Save page.

7. Add a link to your policies page so that your customers can find it.

Next steps

After you finish choosing your store management settings, you can prepare to launch your store.