Anthony McGrath

Home › Services › Shopify store setup

New Shopify stores

Your Shopify store, set up properly from day one

Launching on Shopify should not mean weeks of fiddling with settings and apps. Your store is designed, built and set up for you, with payments, shipping, tax, SEO and tracking done right, so you can start selling and advertising straight away.

  • 22 years in digital marketing
  • Hands-on: you work with me, not a junior
  • UK, US, Dubai and Australia

By Anthony McGrath · Updated

What does Shopify store setup and build involve?

Shopify store setup and build covers design and theme, products, settings, marketing ready, seo basics and handover. A rushed store launch costs more later. Anthony McGrath does the work himself, with 22 years in digital marketing, for businesses in the UK, the US, Dubai and Australia.

Launch once, launch right

A rushed store launch costs more later. Wrong tax settings, slow themes, missing tracking and messy product data all have to be fixed while you are trying to sell. Setting the store up properly at the start avoids all of it.

Because I also run ads and tracking, your store launches ready for marketing: conversions tracked in GA4, Google Ads and Meta, product feeds ready for Google Shopping, and pages fast enough to make your ad spend go further.

Best for
Shopify and Shopify Plus stores, from new brands to established retailers
What you get
Design and theme, Products, Settings, Marketing ready, SEO basics, Handover
First step
Talk it through: a short call about your store, your products and what is holding sales back.
Where
The UK, the US, Dubai and Australia, working remotely across time zones
Who does the work
Anthony McGrath, hands-on, with 22 years in digital marketing

What's included

Everything needed to open the doors and start selling.

Design and theme

Theme chosen and customised for your brand; Homepage, product and collection pages; Mobile-first layouts; Logo, colours and fonts applied.

Products

Products, variants and photos added; Collections and navigation; Product imports from spreadsheets; Metafields for size guides and specs.

Settings

Payments, Shop Pay and wallets; Shipping zones and rates; Tax for the UK, US, UAE or Australia; Legal pages and policies.

Marketing ready

GA4, Google Ads and Meta tracking; Google and Meta product feeds; Klaviyo or Shopify Email set up; Discount codes and launch offers.

SEO basics

Titles, descriptions and headings; Clean URLs and redirects; Image alt text and schema; Sitemap submitted to Google.

Handover

A walkthrough on running your store; Written notes for your team; Support after launch; Optional monthly care.

Before and after

An example of a store built properly at launch compared with a typical rushed setup.

Time to launch4 weeksBefore: 10 weeks−60%
Mobile PageSpeed score85Before: 42+102%
Conversions tracked correctlyAllBefore: Some

An example of the kind of change this work aims for, based on typical starting points. It is not a promise or a specific client result: every business starts somewhere different.

How it works

  1. Talk it throughA short call about your store, your products and what is holding sales back.
  2. Plan and priceA clear written plan: what gets built, in what order, how long it takes and what it costs.
  3. Build and testBuilt on a copy of your store, tested on real phones, then checked again before anything goes live.
  4. Launch and supportLaunched with tracking checked, then support afterwards so nothing is left half-finished.

Latest Shopify store setup news

Short, plain-English updates on what is changing and what to do about it.

All marketing news

Questions

How long does it take to build a Shopify store?

Most stores launch in three to six weeks, depending on how many products you have and how custom the design is. You get a clear timeline before work starts.

Can you set up tax for different countries?

Yes. UK VAT, US sales tax, UAE VAT and Australian GST can all be set up, along with duties if you ship internationally.

Do I need lots of apps?

No. A new store needs far fewer apps than most people think. I keep it lean, which keeps it fast and keeps your monthly costs down.

Will I be able to edit the store myself?

Yes. Everything is built so you can change products, pages, banners and offers yourself, and you get a walkthrough at handover.

Platforms and tools

  • Shopify
  • Dawn and premium themes
  • Shop Pay
  • Shopify Payments
  • Stripe
  • PayPal
  • Klaviyo
  • Google & YouTube app
  • Meta app
  • GA4
  • Judge.me
  • Shopify Inbox
Anthony McGrath

About Anthony McGrath

Tip of the day

Avoid tiny split audiences. Combine similar ad sets so Meta gets enough conversion data to exit learning phase.

A UK-based freelance digital marketer with 22 years across Shopify, WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, conversion rate optimisation, funnels, Google, Meta and TikTok ads, SEO and tracking. He works directly with businesses in the UK, the US, Dubai and Australia, so the person who plans the work is the person who does it. More about Anthony or connect with him on LinkedIn.

Ready to open your store?

Tell me what you sell and when you want to launch. You get a plan, a timeline and a fixed price.

Plan your new store