How to Sell Online with Shopify® (2026 Update)
Wondering how to get a shopping cart on your website? Our Kelowna marketing agency shows you how to use Shopify®.
Original Post DATE, updated on August 25, 2026 by Kristina Blancher
Are you thinking about creating an online store but don't know where to start? Twin Creek Media has been designing e-commerce websites since the early 2000's, and we're here to help our friends across Kelowna, Penticton, and Vernon. There are plenty of software platforms to sell online, but our top choice is Shopify, a world leader in the industry, and one we've used to help retailers of all sizes venture into e-commerce.
Let's talk about how to set up your online store, market your products, manage sales, and handle pickups and deliveries with ease. When your business thrives, we all benefit.
How Does Shopify Help Your Business?
Shopify is an e-commerce platform that helps retailers sell their products or services online. Think of it as the digital version of your storefront and the foundation of your digital marketing efforts. Your online store is open 24/7, people can shop whenever they like, and you can reach well beyond your local customer base to other regions, other provinces, and other countries.
One exciting thing worth knowing about for 2026: Shopify launched Agentic Storefronts, a plan that lets your products be discovered and purchased directly through AI assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity, without a customer ever visiting your website. There's no storefront cost; you pay per completed sale. It's early days for this channel, but worth understanding as AI search continues to intercept more purchase-intent queries before they ever hit a traditional search result
Benefits of e-commerce websites:
- Manage an online catalogue of products
- Create an additional revenue stream
- Inform locals what you have in stock
- Enable delivery and pickup options
- Track inventory and sales
- Connect to Google Analytics so your business decisions are based on real data
Some of Our E-commerce Website Examples
Fresh Air
Fresh Air has been Kelowna's go-to outdoor sports equipment retailer since the 1980s, with 2 physical locations and a raving customer base. They came to TCM needing the same level of expertise in marketing that their own team brings to ski boots and mountain bikes. Over time, website visitors grew 52%, their social media following tripled, and their YouTube videos have been watched hundreds of thousands of times by locals. "They take my ideas, create it in our budget, and they then push the ideas to a different level," said Ryan Olar of Fresh Air. Read the full case study.
The Greenery Garden Centre
The Greenery added a Shopify catalogue to their existing website and it stuck because the model works beautifully for their product category. Customers browse online, place orders, and pick up curbside. Once an order is placed, the team picks the plants from the greenhouse and notifies the customer when it's ready. You don't ship a 15-gallon planter across the country, but you absolutely let people reserve one before they drive over.
Okanagan Lavender Farm
Want to reach shoppers across the country? Across the world? This local lavender farm produces niche health and beauty products, photographs them professionally, and puts real effort into presentation and online customer service. They've built a loyal following far and wide, people who found them online and have been ordering ever since.
Planet Bee
Planet Bee is a Vernon BC honey farm and meadery that has been family-owned and operated since 1997. When they came to TCM, they were managing 2 separate websites: one for their tourism operation and one for e-commerce. Neither was doing the job. TCM consolidated everything into a single Shopify store, and the results came quickly: a 10% bump in e-commerce sales right after launch, email conversions doubled, and returning customers jumped 136%. "Anytime I hear of any business that wants to move to a Shopify Platform, I always highly recommend their services because I felt they were very good experts in that field," said Olivia Nowek of Planet Bee. Read the full case study.
How Much Does a Shopify E-commerce Website Cost?
This is such a difficult question to answer. It's like asking how much a house costs. Could be $80,000 for a mobile home. Could be $800k for a house in Glenmore or Black Mountain. Could be $8M for an Okanagan lakefront estate. Helpful, right? (I see you shaking your head.)
Okay, some real numbers.
First, Shopify websites require a monthly subscription. In Canada in 2026, plans are billed in CAD. Here's the full subscription breakdown as of August 2026:
| Plan | Monthly (CAD, annual billing) | Transaction fee | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | ~$7/mo | 5% per transaction | Social selling via links and messaging apps. No full storefront. |
| Basic | $51/mo | 2.9% + $0.30 | New stores and solopreneurs launching their first online shop. |
| Grow | $99/mo | 2.7% + $0.30 | Growing businesses needing better reporting and more staff accounts. |
| Advanced | $389/mo | 2.4% + $0.30 | Scaling brands with high sales volume needing advanced reporting and automation. |
| Plus | ~$3,150/mo 3-year term |
2.15% + $0.30 | Enterprise brands with $2M+ annual revenue needing custom checkout and automation. |
| Prices shown in CAD on annual billing. Monthly billing runs approximately 25% higher. Transaction fees shown are for Shopify Payments; third-party gateway fees apply separately. Apps, themes, and domain costs are additional. Always verify current pricing at Shopify.ca | |||
How Can You Build a Shopify Online Store?
Remember what it took to set up your brick-and-mortar location? Establishing your online store has a whole list of to-dos as well. The concept is pretty straightforward, but the setup is usually a team effort. Roles include project management and strategy, website development, graphic design, data entry of your products, logistics and fulfillment planning, and software training and technical support.
Basics you will need to get started:
- Business logo, branding materials, fonts, colours
- Photos of your products
- Product titles, descriptions, variations, and prices
- Shipping rules, return & exchange policies
- Customer services channels, such as phone and email
- Online payment gateway, such as Stripe, or a bank merchant account/payment provider
Next, you will need to open a Shopify account. You can either establish a new website or have Shopify added to your existing website. Our web design company can help you with all the details needed for new and existing e-commerce websites.
Take Your Shopping Cart for a Test Drive
Data entry is often a big job, especially if you have hundreds of products. Think about who will manage it early on, because it's the step that bogs most projects down.
Once your products are in, you're ready to test the shopping experience before you go live.
Testing checklist:
- Write all your customer service emails: order confirmation, status updates, shipping notifications.
- Get friends or family to pretend they're customers and actually shop. (They'll need fake credit card info to test checkout properly.)
- Add products to a shopping cart and test the checkout process with practice orders.
- Set up your Point of Sale payment options.
- Configure your pickup and delivery options.
- Consider adding live chat. Shoppers love it and it'll save you a lot of back-and-forth emails.
- Collect feedback from your testers and make improvements to categories, descriptions, and navigation.
- Practice, practice, practice. Make sure you and your team have completed enough pretend orders to get the hang of everything before you flip the switch.
In 2026, Canadian e-commerce represents 14.5% of total retail sales, valued at approximately $75 to $80 billion CAD. Over 31.5 million Canadians are shopping online.
Marketing Your Online Store
Well done! Your store is ready! The smart business owner has reserved at least part of their budget for marketing and promotion, because "build it and they will come" isn't a solid business plan (despite what Kevin Costner taught us in Field of Dreams).
Twin Creek Media isn't just a web design company. We're here for the long haul, with a full range of advertising and promotion services:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - rank higher on Google, gain more website visitors, and more customers
- Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and AI Search - Generative Engine Optimization is the practice of getting your content structured, credible, and formatted in a way that AI engines want to cite.
- Content Creation - fresh info for customers and for Google!
- Reputation Management - online reviews, votes, thumbs up, thumbs down… people are talking!
- Media Releases - create a buzz and establish authority with local media
- Social Media Management - steer conversations on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube
- Major Online Advertising Networks - Google ads, Facebook ads, Youtube ads, etc.
- Okanagan Online Advertising Networks - Daily Courier, Capital News, Castanet, KelownaNow, online directories like YellowPages, InfoTel, or specialty sites like Tourism Kelowna
- Traditional Media Planning/Buying - Okanagan radio, TV, newspaper, and magazines
- Email Newsletters - grow an email list and send out news & promos
- Direct Mail - mail postcards, flyers, unaddressed or addressed bulk mail through Canada Post
- Phone Call Tracking - know what’s making your phone ring
- Monthly Performance Reporting - know what’s working and what’s not and optimize your budget
Want to see what that looks like in practice? Have a look at our clients and results.
Twin Creek Media can be your marketing partner for measurable growth, helping businesses build Shopify stores that are designed to convert from day one and supported by a marketing strategy that actually drives traffic to them. Our e-commerce website services are built around real business outcomes, not just how things look. Start a conversation with our team today.