So, you’ve got a product idea and a passion to get it out into the world – now what should you do? For thousands of UK brands the answer is Shopify. The platform lets you build a store in an afternoon, offer different payment options, and (with the right 3PL partner) ship orders just as quickly. Below you’ll find information on how to launch your brand-new business, running and scaling your Shopify venture, plus where Lesters Logistics fits in once sales start coming through.
How Do I Start Selling on Shopify?
- Create an account. Shopify’s 3-day free trial gets you into the dashboard with nothing more than an email address.
- Pick a theme. Start with a free template like Dawn; you can tweak colours and fonts later.
- Add products. Upload good quality photos, add in a short description and choose variants (size, colour, pack size).
- Set up payments. Stripe/Shopify Payments covers major cards; PayPal is two clicks away.
- Choose shipping zones or integrate a 3PL. Manual shipping profiles work at first. When orders pile up, connect your store to Lesters Logistics for automatic rates, labels and tracking.
- Launch. Your website is ready to go! You’re live!
How Does Selling on Shopify Work Day-to-Day?
Once your store is live, Shopify handles the checkout, sends confirmation emails and drops every order into the admin panel (or straight into our warehouse management system if you’ve integrated with us). You update inventory, publish new products and run discounts, while Shopify calculates taxes and tracks revenue in real time. Selling on Shopify works best when the fulfilment loop is tight; orders flow out of Shopify, stock levels flow back in. That’s exactly what our WMS connection does.
How to Check Best-Selling Products on Shopify
From your Shopify dashboard go to Analytics → Reports → Sales by product and sort by quantity sold. You’ll spot trends in minutes, it’s great for re-ordering stock or creating bundles. However, Lesters can even feed real-time outbound data back into these tools so forecasting stays razor-sharp.
Is Selling on Shopify Free?
No. Selling on Shopify costs money. After the trial, plans start at £19/month (Basic) plus a small card-processing fee. Apps and premium themes add extra cost, but you can run lean for months on the base plan. Think of Shopify as the rent for your digital shopfront, it’s modest compared to a high-street lease, and far more flexible.
Choosing the Right Shopify Plan (UK pricing, 2025)
Shopify now shows two price columns when you toggle between “Pay monthly” and “Pay yearly (save 25 %)”. Here’s how the three core tiers break down:
Plan | Pay monthly | Pay yearly (-25 %) | Shopify payments card rate* | Staff accounts | Best for |
Basic | £25/mo | £19/mo | 2 % + 25p (online) | 2 | Solo founders testing a product idea. |
Grow (formerly “Shopify”) | £65/mo | £49/mo | 1.7 % + 25p | 5 | Small teams running paid ads and needing extra reports. |
Advanced | £344/mo | £259/mo | 1.5 % + 25p | 15 | High-volume brands, multi-currency and detailed custom reporting. |
*Third-party gateways add 2 % / 1 % / 0.6 % respectively.
Returns & Refunds: Keeping Shoppers Happy
Nobody loves returns, but customers will value how painless the process is, if it’s done well. Shopify gives you a solid foundation. In the admin panel you can mark an order as “Return requested,” generate a prepaid Royal Mail or DPD label in two clicks (if you use Shopify Shipping), and email the link straight from the dashboard. On the retail side, you can enable Shopify’s self-serve returns portal, which lets shoppers key in their order number and postcode, pick the items they’re sending back, and print the label on their own without any inbox ping-pong from your support team.
When to Hand Off Fulfilment to a 3PL
Think of outsourcing to a third party logistics company like hiring your first employee: you don’t do it on day one, but you also don’t wait until you’re drowning. A good way to test this is analysing your time and space. If you’re spending two-plus hours a day taping boxes, printing labels and doing post-office runs, or if product cartons have migrated from the spare room to the kitchen table, you’re past the DIY comfort zone.
Other red flags to look out for:
- Missed dispatch promises – Once-a-week post drops were fine at launch; now next-day orders are piling up and Trustpilot reviews are at stake.
- Weekend stock counts – If Sunday afternoon is devoted to reconciling Shopify inventory with what’s actually on the shelf, you’re paying yourself in stress, not profit.
- Seasonal spikes – A promo with an influencer doubles sales overnight; great for revenue, brutal for your packing bench.
- International expansion – Customs documents, HS codes and duty calculations are busywork a growth-minded founder shouldn’t own.
Calling in Lesters Logistics at this stage changes everything. Orders come straight to our warehouse in real time, our team pick and packs, stores and serves and ships the same day, and inventory levels sync straight back to Shopify. You regain evenings, the hallway becomes a hallway again, and customers get professional unboxing experiences that keep them coming back.
In short, when fulfilment stops feeling like part of the dream and starts eating the dream, that’s your cue to hand the tape-gun to us.
Where Lesters Logistics Comes In
- One-click integration – We connect directly to your Shopify store; orders drop into our system automatically.
- Same-day pick & pack – Place-by-midday and your customer’s parcel is on a van before tea.
- Live tracking links. We push carrier updates back to Shopify, so your buyers stay informed without extra emails from you.
- Scalable storage – Whether you’re shipping five luxury hampers a week or 5,000 skincare kits a day, we flex rack space and labour to match demand.
- Returns handled – Our team inspects, restocks, or recycles, so you keep margin and maintain happy shoppers.
Ready to “Launch”?
Shopify simplifies online stores; Lesters Logistics simplifies everything after your customer clicks “Buy Now.” If you’re mapping out how to start selling on Shopify or you’ve outgrown the spare room, contact us today. We’ll walk you through the integration process, our transparent pricing and next-day delivery that wins our existing customers five-star reviews.
Grow the sales. We’ll move the boxes.