Shopify is a cloud-based e-commerce platform, paid by monthly subscription, that lets you open and run an online store on your own domain without renting a server or installing software. Shopify hosts the store, while you manage products, orders, design, payments and shipping from one dashboard. Setup begins by creating an account and entering store details, followed by adding products, selecting a theme, configuring payment and shipping methods, and publishing legal pages. After testing everything with a test order, remove the store password to open for sales.
Some of these steps work differently for a store opened in Türkiye. Because Shopify’s own payment system, Shopify Payments, is not available in Türkiye, card payments are collected through a local payment provider. This affects both your fee per sale and the currency in which overseas customers can pay. Since the platform’s ready-made policy templates are not generated in Turkish, you need to prepare returns, privacy and terms of sale policies that comply with local legislation. Accounting for these differences from the outset reduces the likelihood of having to change your payment setup or currency after launch.
How does Shopify work?
Shopify, on its Turkish blog, describes itself as a commerce platform that helps you sell in person or online. Stores run on its secure cloud hosting. From a merchant’s perspective, Shopify is a selling system whose infrastructure you rent while managing your own products, content and orders.
Products, orders, and reports are brought together in Shopify's admin. Sales channels connect to the same dashboard: when you add Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or Google alongside your online store, you still manage products and orders from one place. You can also start with a single channel and add more as the store becomes established.
The theme determines the store’s appearance and can be customized without coding through the theme editor. When preset options are insufficient, further changes involve editing theme code in Shopify’s Liquid template language. The Shopify Help Center's theme support page says paid-theme developers do not provide customisation and recommends working with a Shopify Partner for it. If you need a brand-specific design or functionality missing from your theme, include support from a Shopify partner agency in your setup budget from the start.
Apps add functionality not provided by the theme; Shopify describes thousands of apps built by third-party developers. Before installing one, review its cost and whether it supports Turkish. Avoiding apps you will not use prevents unnecessary fees from accumulating.
What affects the cost of Shopify?
Shopify's Turkish pricing page lists plans in US dollars. As of October 2026, Basic is 27 USD with monthly billing or 19 USD per month billed annually; Grow is 72 USD monthly or 54 USD per month billed annually. Advanced is 399 USD with monthly billing, while Plus starts at 2,300 USD per month. Their TL equivalents vary with exchange rates, so account for currency changes in annual budgets.
New accounts start with a three-day free trial that does not require a credit card. The pricing page also lists an introductory offer of 1 USD per month for three months after the trial; check the current terms on that page before choosing a plan.
Payments also involve another fee separate from the subscription. The list of countries supported by Shopify Payments does not include Türkiye, and the company states that businesses in countries not listed must use a third-party payment provider. Shopify charges an additional transaction fee for each payment processed through a third-party provider, depending on your plan: 2 percent on Basic, 1 percent on Grow, 0.6 percent on Advanced and 0.2 percent on Plus. The payment provider’s contracted commission is charged in addition to this fee.
Transaction fees also affect which plan is more economical. With annual billing, the subscription difference between Basic and Grow is 35 USD per month, while the transaction fee difference is 1 percent of sales processed through the payment provider. Considering only these two costs, Grow becomes cheaper than Basic once your monthly sales through the payment provider exceed 3,500 USD. With monthly billing, the subscription difference is 45 USD, raising the threshold to 4,500 USD. Other feature differences between the plans are excluded from this calculation.
For manual payment methods such as bank transfers and cash on delivery, no third-party transaction fee applies. Paid themes, app subscriptions, domains and shipping also belong in the budget. Shopify's Türkiye guidance identifies payment infrastructure, shipping integrations and app fees as factors in total cost.
What to consider before choosing Shopify
The same platform produces different outcomes for a boutique selling domestically and a manufacturer targeting international customers. Although Shopify has the same definition for every business, its suitability depends on your target markets and existing systems.
International sales and currencies
Shopify presents its platform to businesses in Türkiye as suited to export-focused e-commerce. Adding languages lets you display product information, policies and checkout in international customers’ own languages, with translations managed through Translate & Adapt. However, stores opened from Türkiye face a currency limitation. According to Shopify's Help Center, selling in local currencies is supported only through Shopify Payments and Adyen; orders using other third-party providers are processed in the store’s default currency. Thus, a TL-denominated store using a provider such as iyzico or PayTR also charges overseas customers in TL.
If international sales are your primary goal, clarify currencies and payment arrangements before setting up the store. Market research, customs procedures for international shipping, and cross-border e-commerce incentives are part of the same plan. Our cross-border e-commerce consulting page covers these topics together.
Connecting the systems you use
Before choosing a platform, find out how your accounting and invoicing software, shipping provider, marketplace accounts, and ERP system, if you use one, will integrate with Shopify. If an app is available, review its cost and the data it transfers; otherwise, budget for custom development. For brands using an ERP such as Nebim, transferring inventory and orders between the two systems is a project in its own right. Our Shopify Nebim integration page provides details for V3 and Winner versions.
Include domestic platforms such as Ticimax, IdeaSoft, T-Soft and ikas in your comparison. To compare platforms side by side, refer to the platform introductions on our e-commerce website setup page.
Migrating from another platform
Plan redirects from old to new URLs from the outset when moving to Shopify. Google's website migration guide recommends preparing a mapping of old and new URLs when moving to new addresses, and using permanent redirects such as 301 wherever possible. Shopify also lets you create URL redirects for changed addresses and import an existing redirect list from a file.
Migrating without mapping product, category and content pages can put hard-earned search visibility at risk. Listed in Shopify's official Partner directory, Pam Ajans offers data migration from other platforms and configurations that preserve SEO value. If your team cannot take on this work, planning the move with a partner reduces the margin for error.
Set up your Shopify store step by step
Following the setup order below reduces settings you must revisit. Entering prices before choosing the currency, or placing test orders before defining shipping charges, means doing the same work twice.
1. Create an account and enter your store details
Starting a free trial and creating an account on Shopify opens your admin dashboard; entering billing details and answering initial setup questions is optional. Then add your store address to the business details in the general settings. Shopify requires this address before the store goes live.
Select the store currency in the same section. Shopify defines it as the currency used to price products and display reports. Changing it later requires revising product prices and shipping charges. Turkish lira is the natural choice for domestic sales, and Shopify confirms that TL sales are supported. You can also set the admin language to Turkish.
2. Add products and collections
Enter a title, description, images, price and stock information for every product. Options such as size and color are variants: each combination for a T-shirt sold in three sizes and two colors is a separate variant. Create collections to group products by category, theme or customer intent, and point menu category links to those collections.
If you have hundreds of products or are moving from another platform, import them with a CSV file instead of entering them individually. Shopify requires column headings to match its sample CSV exactly, including case. Testing a file with a few products before importing the full catalogue prevents having to fix the same errors across hundreds of products.
3. Choose a theme and customize your storefront
The Theme Store includes Shopify’s free themes and paid themes from third-party developers. Starting with a free theme avoids spending before your needs are clear. Before buying a paid theme, preview it in the dashboard and test it with your products. Shopify states that developers cannot issue refunds for these themes and that a purchased theme is licensed only to the store where it was bought, so do not skip the preview.
After choosing a theme, configure your logo, colors, and homepage sections in the theme editor. Create pages such as About, Contact, and FAQs at this stage and add them to the menu. Check the storefront separately on a phone: product images, navigation, and the add-to-cart button must be easy to use on a small screen too.
4. Connect your payment methods
For card payments, you connect a payment provider that works with Shopify to your store; Shopify lists iyzico and PayTR as examples for businesses in Türkiye. We explain the criteria beyond commission rates that you should use to compare providers’ offers in our e-commerce website setup guide. Confirming company and tax information with your accountant before applying avoids delays caused by missing documents.
Shopify's manual payment options cover non-card methods, including bank transfers and cash on delivery. Orders placed using manual payment appear as unpaid, and you must mark them as paid yourself when you receive the money. Clearly stating your IBAN and the order number to include in the transfer reference makes matching incoming payments to orders easier.
5. Configure shipping and taxes
Shipping setup starts with creating a shipping zone, which Shopify defines as a group of countries or regions with the same shipping rates. If you only sell domestically, a single zone covering Türkiye is sufficient. Within the zone, you can charge a fixed rate of your choice or offer free shipping. Rates calculated by a carrier such as UPS or FedEx based on order details are a plan-dependent feature; according to Shopify's shipping carrier integration guide, it is available on Advanced and Plus, and can be added to Grow for an additional monthly fee or by switching to annual billing. State free-shipping conditions consistently on product pages and in the cart so customers do not encounter unexpected charges at checkout.
Distance Contracts Regulation lists the total price of goods inclusive of all taxes among the information that must be given to consumers before a contract. To display prices this way in Shopify, enable “Include sales tax in product price and shipping rate” in the tax settings. With this option enabled, the price you enter includes tax, which appears as a separate line on the order. If your products have different VAT rates, consult your accountant about how to configure them.
6. Prepare your legal pages in Turkish
Shopify can generate templates for policies such as returns, privacy and terms of service, but these templates are available in English and only a few European languages. Shopify’s policy guide says merchants operating stores in another language must create their own policies, and emphasizes that store owners remain responsible for complying with published policies even when templates are used.
Write return policies and sales terms based on the Distance Contracts Regulation. Consumers may withdraw within fourteen days without giving a reason, and the contract is not deemed concluded until they confirm receiving the pre-contract information. Plan during setup how that form and the distance sales contract will be accepted at checkout. For withdrawal exceptions, pre-contract information requirements, ETBİS registration and KVKK notices, see our detailed article on steps to consider when creating an online store.
7. Connect your domain
Every store receives an address in the format magazaniz.myshopify.com when it is opened. For a permanent address, you can buy a domain from Shopify or connect one purchased from another provider. If you are redirecting a domain already used by another website to Shopify, schedule the connection close to launch day so visitors looking for your old site do not land on a welcome page while the new store is still password-protected.
8. Place a test order and launch your store
Place at least one test order before opening the store for sales. Shopify’s launch preparation guide explains that a test order lets you check that checkout, order processing, inventory, shipping and tax settings work correctly. Two approaches are recommended for stores not using Shopify Payments: simulating a transaction with the platform’s test payment gateway, or making a real payment through your provider and immediately cancelling and refunding the order. Testing with your actual payment provider may be preferable because it also tests the integration you have connected; Shopify notes that the provider may charge fees for this approach.
Check each of the following with a test order:
- The order confirmation email arrives in Turkish with correct details
- Shipping costs are calculated according to your rules
- Prices display VAT-inclusive amounts and the tax line is calculated correctly
- Obtaining acceptance of pre-contract information and the distance-selling agreement at checkout
- The product's stock count decreases after the order
When you find an error, correct the setting and repeat the test. Shopify also recommends placing a new test order after every change to payment settings.
During the trial, the store is automatically private and visitors see a password page instead of the store’s pages. To open it to the public, select a subscription plan, make sure your payment method is no longer in test mode, then remove the store password.
The first weeks after launch
Shopify automatically creates a sitemap.xml for each store containing links to products, collections, pages and blog posts. Submitting it to Google Search Console helps Google discover and index your pages. Google cannot access it while the store is password-protected, so submit it after removing the password.
As the first orders arrive, regularly track where visitors and sales come from. If you plan to bring in traffic through Google or Meta ads, connect the relevant sales channel to your store and verify that conversion measurement works before launching the campaign. Without measurement, it is difficult to see which sales your spend generated. Metrics such as ROAS, which shows the return on ad spend, are explained in our digital marketing glossary with sample calculations.
To review your store setup sequence, payment and currency decisions together in the context of your business, contact the Pam Ajans team through our contact page.