Everyone says, “Shopify: the easiest and quickest way to build your eCommerce store”. But how long does it take to turn the business idea into a real online store in Shopify?

I would say, it depends on the type of store you desire!

A basic store with a single product can be live in a few hours, thanks to Shopify’s user-friendly interface. Adding more products, crafting catchy descriptions, and designing your storefront take a few days to a week. Craving custom apps or advanced features? This may take a few weeks.

It’s all on your terms. Here, we’ll calculate the Shopify store creation time and also dive into the factors that play a major role in determining your store’s launch timeline.

So, let’s get started.

What’s the Average Time to Build a Shopify Store?

The process of creating a Shopify store is not uniform. The timeline can vary significantly based on the complexity of your store.

Still, based on the Shopify stores we have built, the average time to create a Shopify website is:

• Basic Store: 1-5 days (with pre-built themes and minimal customization)
• Standard Store: 2-4 weeks (with some customization and development work)
• Advanced Store: 4-8 weeks (with extensive customization, complex features)

So, a basic store with a Shopify Basic Plan ready-made Shopify 2.0 themes and minimal customization takes around 1-5 days. This is perfect if you’re just starting out and want to test the waters.

If you’re aiming for a more customized experience, a standard store with some development work might be your fit. This typically takes around 2-4 weeks. But if you’re dreaming big and want a store with extensive customization and complex features, you’re looking at a 4-8 weeks timeline.

Here the key point to note is your specific requirements significantly influence the time required to build a Shopify store. We’ll surely discuss more influencing factors in this guide, but let’s discuss the time spent in every phase of building a Shopify website.

Timeframe for Creating a Shopify Store

The process of creating and launching an eCommerce store, specifically a Shopify store, consists of several key steps; from the initial setup, theme selection, product integration, and many more. Each step requires careful consideration and varies in time commitment depending on your store’s complexity.

We will now explore these steps.

STEP 1: Account Creation and Initial Setup

Time: Approx. 4-8 hrs

It all begins with creating a Shopify account. This involves providing basic information like your email address, password, and store name. You can choose from various subscription plans based on your needs and budget.

This process is quick and easy, taking just a few minutes. However, the planning stage is important to avoid much time consumption. Prioritizing the general eCommerce UX approach and website navigation during the initial setup ensures a smooth customer experience later on.

A significant part of the setup process is adding a custom domain for your Shopify store. You can buy a domain directly through the admin panel or connect an existing domain to your Shopify account. Additionally, creating a Shopify website offers a free policy generator, making it easy to generate these crucial legal policy pages.

STEP 2: Theme Selection and Customization

Time: Approx. 1-3 days

Selecting and customizing a theme is the next stage of your Shopify store creation. The Shopify platform provides quick-setup themes that can save you valuable time. However, the time it takes for theme selection and customization can vary from just a few hours to several weeks depending on your design preferences.

Customization is key for a unique shopping experience. You can easily change the fonts or brand colors across the entire shop or site through the theme settings. Shopify also offers a wide range of apps to help you achieve custom functionalities on your Shopify site.

STEP 3: Product and Content Addition

Time: Approx. 1-2 days

Adding products and content to your Shopify store is an exciting yet quite time-consuming phase, especially if you have numerous products and categories. You can add products manually or import them from a CSV file.

For each product you sell, you’ll provide details like title, description, images, pricing, inventory, and shipping information. To complete this step quickly make sure your product details and content of all required eCommerce website pages are prepared in advance.

STEP 4: Custom Development

Time: Few hours, few days or few weeks depending on the custom requirement.

While Shopify offers a great starting point, it might not perfectly capture your brand vision or cater to your specific needs. Custom development allows you to modify an existing code or build a functionality/theme from scratch that reflects your brand identity and resonates with your target audience.

Now it may take less time if there’s a need for minor tweaks or you have to wait for weeks if you need a new feature development by Shopify experts.

With proper planning and organization, you can make these steps of the store-building process more efficient and less time-consuming.

Before we calculate the total time it takes to build a Shopify website, let’s also understand how the store development time can vary in different situations.

Key Factors Affecting Shopify Store Creation Time

Despite a streamlined process of creating a Shopify store with appropriate resources and planning, several key factors can influence the time taken.

Let’s explore these factors in detail.

1. Knowledge and Experience

The time needed to build a Shopify store is greatly influenced by the knowledge and experience of the person creating the online store (either a merchant or a Shopify expert).

Having a good understanding of Shopify’s features and functionalities, along with experience in setting up online stores, can speed up the process. It allows you to troubleshoot and resolve issues more efficiently, ultimately saving time.

In addition to technical knowledge, expertise in content creation, social media marketing, and SEO is also crucial. As professional developers build more e-commerce websites, they become faster and more efficient at it, and this results in optimal website performance and a better user experience.

So, if you’re starting a small business with a limited budget, you can create your own online store by yourself. Otherwise, you should consider someone experienced for your Shopify store development.

2. Website Size

Some eCommerce stores have only 5-10 pages, and some enterprise stores have more than 100 pages.

So, this is an important factor to consider when planning your website development, especially for Shopify websites.

The number of pages and features on your website affects the build time. Incorporating additional features like a product comparison, referral program, or community forums can enhance your store but may increase the setup time.

Again, not all pages are created equal. Some pages, like product pages, are relatively simple to create, while others, like the About Us page, contact page, or landing pages, may require more customization and design work. For example, a basic product page with a few images and text might take an hour to create, while a custom landing page with animations and interactive elements could take several days.

3. Product Variety and Volume

Imagine two eCommerce stores:

• Store A: Start selling a premium selection of handmade jewelry, with each piece crafted and described in detail.
• Store B: Offers a vast collection of phone accessories catering to every model and preference like phone cases, screen guards, selfie sticks, etc.

The amount of time it takes to create these stores will be vastly different, all due to the category size.

Expanding your product variety can help you target a larger audience, but it may also increase the setup time as each product variant may require additional configuration.

4. Store Design Complexity

No doubt, Shopify offers free themes and premium themes to build a fully functional website, but that’s not all. Imagine the same themes are being used by thousands of Shopify stores. So, you need to focus on unique theme customization.

Customizing a Shopify theme can take at least a few hours to a couple of days, depending on the complexity of the customization. After finding the perfect eCommerce website theme, the common customization requirements include

• editing theme settings,
• creating custom page templates,
• using existing customization features, and
• modifying the theme files for custom design.

Applying minor tweaks to a pre-built theme, like adjusting colors or adding your logo, can be done relatively quickly and without extensive coding knowledge. If you crave a unique and highly personalized design that deviates significantly from pre-built themes, expect a longer build time.

5. Custom Functionality

This goes beyond adding simple features or tweaks; it’s about building unique functionalities that extend the standard capabilities of Shopify and make your store truly exceptional. Think of it as constructing extensions or even entirely new modules onto your Shopify website.

You may want to follow the eCommerce trends and add features like:

1. virtual products try-on
2. visual product search
3. voice-activated shopping assistants
4. shoppable video content
5. Interactive quizzes and recommendations

and many more. Building these unique features usually involves custom coding, API integrations, and potentially new database structures. Extensive testing and improvement are crucial for ensuring avoiding bugs and a seamless user experience. This adds additional time to the development process.

Now, it’s time to find the answer to how long it takes to create a Shopify store. It’s given below 👇

Calculating the total time to build a Shopify store

With the factors above, estimating the total time to build a Shopify store can appear difficult. However, by considering each factor and understanding your store’s specific requirements, you can estimate a more accurate timeframe.

Here’s a calculation of the time to build a Shopify store:

Factor	Low Complexity	Medium Complexity	High Complexity
Website Size	5-10 pages	11-25 pages	26+ pages
Product categories	10-20 products	21-100 products	100+ products
Store Design	Pre-built theme with minor customization	Moderate customization of pre-built theme	Custom design with unique elements
Custom Requirements	Basic integrations or minor tweaks	Advanced features or data migration	Complex functionalities or marketplace setup
Development Resources	Anyone with basic Shopify knowledge	Freelance developer with Shopify expertise	A professional Shopify development team
Estimated Build Time	1-2 weeks	2-3 weeks	4-8 weeks

The total development time for your Shopify store will depend on a combination of the factors listed above. Use the table to estimate the time range for each factor and add them together to get a rough idea of the overall timeline.

Important Notes:

• These are just estimates, and the actual time may vary depending on your specific needs and circumstances.
• Unexpected challenges or revisions can add to the build time.
• Consider your budget and resources when planning your project timeline.
• It’s always best to consult with a Shopify expert to get a more accurate estimate for your specific needs.

How Aureate Labs can help you quickly build your Shopify store

If expert guidance and support are what you seek throughout your e-commerce website building process, specifically for your Shopify store, try Aureate Labs, a top-notch Shopify development company.

So, how much time does Aureate take to build your store??? We prefer to be vocal about it.

We offer a wide range of Shopify development and optimization services to cater to every aspect of your online store, including:

1. Shopify store setup and configuration
2. Store designing and UX/UI optimization
3. Custom functionality development
4. Shopify app integration
5. Shopify Plus store development
6. Shopify custom theme development
7. Store migration to Shopify
8. Shopify store maintenance
9. Store speed and performance optimization
10. Shopify SEO Services
11. PWA development for Shopify

….and always ready to support your unique ideas!!

What makes us one step ahead is — We provide FREE 3 Months of Post Support! So, don’t worry, we won’t abandon you with the unknown challenges even after your Shopify store is launched successfully!

Final Thoughts!

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is a successful e-commerce store.

Creating a Shopify store is a journey filled with exciting steps and considerations. From initial setup and theme selection to product integration and customization, each step comes with its own time commitment.

Remember, while the process may seem time-consuming, the result is a fully functioning e-commerce store that reflects your brand and meets your customers’ needs. So whether you’re building a basic store or a complex one, the time and effort invested are well worth it.

I know your research won’t stop here. You might be wondering —

• How Much Does It Cost to Build a Shopify Website
• Why you need to Hire Shopify Experts
• How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Shopify Expert
• How to Choose the Best Shopify Development Company
• How to Find and Hire the right Shopify Expert
• How Much Does it Cost to Migrate to Shopify

And many more… I have attached the links above. Simply click them and get your doubts answered.