COVID-19 is disrupting India in an unprecedented manner. In order to deal with the CoronaVirus, with a country of over 1.3 billion people going into lock-down for a period of 21 days starting March 25th, 2020.  While essential categories, such as grocery and pharmacy are going to be available during the lockdown, this creates problems for shops as well as consumers. 

At Shopify, we’re acting quickly to respond with product updates and new offers to help retailers like you navigate these challenging times. We’ll announce more changes soon. Right now, local businesses need to find creative new ways to stay engaged with their customers, even while their retail location is unavailable.

This is a tutorial that helps you quickly set up an online store, so your customers can buy online and safely pick up their products from your store, so that they don’t spend time at your store, or wait outside it for others to finish shopping.

In case you still need assistance with Store-build, scroll down to the bottom of this blog post to connect with select Shopify Partners who can help you go live.

Note: This guide is for businesses that are brand new to Shopify. 

How does ‘buy online, pickup at store’ work?

“Pickup at store” or “curbside pickup” allows customers nearby to buy something online and drive by your store to pick it up—without ever having to leave their car. This “drive-through” option is often more convenient and it can reduce shipping costs and minimize person-to-person interactions. Here are the steps:

1. Your customer will order and pay you online through your new online store
2. You’ll get the order emailed to you, so you can prepare it safely
3. You’ll then tell the customer when it’s ready for pickup
4. Your customer will drive to your store and find the package with their name on top
5. They will safely pick up their order
6. That’s it, you’re done

Before you begin selling

Before you can start selling products online, it’s helpful to have the following items ready:

• Logo for your retail business. If you need a logo made quickly, try Hatchful
• Product names, available inventory quantity & price
• (Optional) Short product descriptions that describe your products and why people should buy. If you need help writing descriptions, read our guide.
• (Optional) Product photos to showcase your catalog. You can take quality photos with most modern phones
• Credit card/debit card to link with the store
• Payment Gateway Account to start accepting online payments. We have tied up with PayU who can help you get Payment gateway account activated in no time. Click here to register with PayU or  you can email channelpartnershipteam@payu.in to help you setup a PG account and one of their executives will contact you

Build your online own online store

We encourage you to try and build a store yourself. Follow this tutorial,  which has been set up with the goal of getting your store up and running within 10 minutes to an hour, depending on how many products you upload. Let’s begin!

The first step is to head over to Shopify’s homepage and start your 90-day free trial. Your store name will become your domain, or the URL that your customers will go to when they want to order from your store.