How to Start an Online Store in 7 Days (After a Booth Closure)

This is the exact 7-day plan we run for clients. You can follow it yourself. If you'd rather we do it for you, we're at /pricing — but the playbook below is all here, no gate.

Before you start: two things you need in hand

1. A business name you're comfortable using for the next five years. If Painted Tree was your primary storefront, you likely already have this. If not, don't overthink it — pick something, register the domain, move on.
2. A credit card. You'll spend $15 on a domain, $39 on Shopify, maybe $20 on a theme. Budget $100 for the week.

Day 1 — Foundation

Morning (2 hours):

• Register the domain at Namecheap or Cloudflare Registrar ($12-$15/year)
• Sign up for Shopify Basic ($39/mo, first 3 days free)
• Create a Gmail or Google Workspace account for the business

Afternoon (1-2 hours):

• In Shopify: enter your business info, sales tax nexus, payout bank account
• Enable Shopify Payments or connect Stripe
• Install these free apps immediately: Shopify Email (first 10K emails/mo free), SEO Manager (free tier)

Evening: Gather a spreadsheet of your products (name, price, description, SKU, weight). You'll use it tomorrow.

Day 2 — Theme + branding

Morning (3 hours):

• Browse Shopify's free theme library. For boutique stores, try Dawn (free, Shopify-maintained, excellent) or pay $180-$280 for Impulse or Warehouse from the Shopify Theme Store if you want more polish.
• Install the theme. Don't customize yet.

Afternoon:

• Create a simple logo in Canva (free tier). Text-based with one accent color is fine.
• Upload the logo to Theme Settings → Header.
• Set your brand color (one accent, not five). Use the "Colors" section in Theme Settings.
• Update the favicon (a 32x32 square version of your logo).

Day 3 — Pages

Build these pages in Shopify Admin → Online Store → Pages:

1. About — 2-3 paragraphs. Who you are, what you make, why it matters. Use first-person.
2. Contact — Your email. Optional: a Shopify contact form.
3. Shipping & returns — 200-400 words. Be specific on timelines and return windows.
4. Privacy policy — Use Shopify's free policy generator.
5. Terms of service — Same generator.

Day 4 — Products

Block off 4-6 hours.

Product upload approach:

• Use Shopify's CSV import for more than 20 products. Template: Admin → Products → Import.
• For each product: 1-2 good photos (iPhone + daylight is fine), clear title, 2-3 sentence description, price, weight, SKU.
• Group into 3-6 Collections (Candles, Home Decor, Apparel, etc.) — not more.

Product photography shortcut:

• Stand near a north-facing window between 10am-2pm.
• Use a white foam board as a bounce card on the shadow side.
• Shoot on a white or light-wood surface.
• Edit only with "Vivid" filter in iPhone Photos app. Don't overdo it.

Day 5 — Payments, shipping, tax

Payments (30 min):

• Test a $1 purchase on yourself to confirm Shopify Payments works.

Shipping (1-2 hours):

• Go to Settings → Shipping. Create a "General" zone for Domestic.
• Weight-based shipping rates are simplest: $5 under 1 lb, $10 1-3 lb, $15 3+ lb. Refine later.
• Turn off International shipping until you want the complexity.

Tax (1 hour):

• Go to Settings → Taxes. Shopify auto-calculates US sales tax if you enter your nexus states.
• If you only have nexus in your home state, enter just that one. Don't overcomplicate.

Day 6 — Email + automation + QA

Email capture (1 hour):

• Add a footer newsletter signup via Theme Customizer.
• Set up a welcome email in Shopify Email: subject "Hey, thanks for being here" — 2 paragraphs, 10% off first order, signed from you.

QA (2 hours):

• Test the full checkout on desktop + mobile.
• Check every page in the footer — do they all load?
• Check your site on PageSpeed Insights. Fix any images over 500KB.
• Invite 3 friends/family to do a fake checkout and email you what broke.

Day 7 — Launch

Morning:

• Point your domain to Shopify (Settings → Domains → Connect existing domain). DNS can take a few hours to propagate — do this early.

Afternoon:

• Announce on Instagram + Facebook with a 20% off first-24-hours discount code.
• Email every customer whose email you have. Subject: "I'm back online."
• Post in every local Facebook group where it's welcome.

Evening:

• Watch your analytics. You'll get your first order in the first 48 hours if you told enough people.

If you stall

The #1 reason DIY 7-day builds slip into 7-week builds is perfectionism on photos and product descriptions. Ship ugly first. Improve in week two.

The #2 reason is analysis paralysis on theme choice. Use Dawn. It's free, fast, and fine.

The #3 reason is trying to do all 200 products at once. Launch with 20. Add more after.

If you want us to do it

Same playbook, we execute it. $697 (Launch tier) for up to 20 products, $1,197 for up to 50, $1,997 for unlimited plus brand + automation.

See pricing → · Book a call →