Setting up a Shopify store: the complete guide for an Estonian company

Setting up a Shopify store is not rocket science, but an Estonian company has its own specifics: bank links, parcel machines, VAT and an Estonian-language checkout. This guide takes you from plan to launch in ten steps — each step is short, but the order matters. At the end we talk honestly about when doing it yourself works and when to call an agency.

Ten steps to a working store

1. Make a plan. Before creating an account, decide three things: who you sell to, at what price, and how orders reach the customer. Write down a realistic sales target for the first three months — it keeps later design debates grounded. Register your domain now if you haven't already.

2. Create the account and base settings. Start with the Shopify trial and pick a plan later — Basic costs about €27 a month billed annually. Set the store address, the euro as your currency and billing details in your company's name. Add terms of sale, a privacy policy and a returns policy right away, because Estonian consumer protection expects them.

3. Pick a theme. Free themes such as Dawn are fast and solid; paid ones add flexibility. Choose a theme that suits your product photography, and check the mobile view before buying — a large share of Estonian shoppers order from their phone.

4. Add products. Good photos and well-written descriptions sell more than any app. Give every product a unique description and fill in the SEO fields instead of copying the supplier's text. Image alt texts help both accessibility and Google.

5. Set up payments. Turn on Shopify Payments — it now works in Estonia — and add bank links through the Montonio or Maksekeskus app, because Estonian buyers look for the Swedbank and SEB buttons at checkout. If your average basket is on the pricier side, consider instalments too — they come with the same app. We compare the three payment setups in detail in our Estonian payment gateways article.

6. Set up shipping. The Estonian favourite is the parcel machine: connect Omniva, SmartPost and DPD through ready-made apps and let buyers pick their machine at checkout. Set a free-shipping threshold, for example from €50 — it lifts the average basket. For bulky items add a courier option, since parcel machines have size limits.

7. Get taxes right. Make sure prices include Estonia's 24% VAT and that invoices satisfy your accountant; the VAT return (KMD) is filed in e-MTA by the 20th of each month. If you sell to consumers in other EU countries for more than €10,000 a year, register for the OSS scheme so you can declare foreign VAT in one place.

8. Translate the store. Shopify's default texts are in English: translate the checkout, notification emails and theme strings into Estonian properly, because a half-English checkout breaks trust. If you also target foreign markets, add languages through Shopify Markets.

9. Test everything. Place a real test order: pay, receive the confirmation email, process a refund. Check the store on a phone and ask a friend to walk through their first purchase — fix everything they stumble on. Check page speed as well: oversized images are the most common cause of a slow store.

10. Launch and measure. Remove the password, connect analytics and watch three numbers in the first weeks: visitors, conversion rate and cart abandonment. A store is never finished — it is open.

DIY or agency?

Doing it yourself works when the catalogue is standard, you have time to learn and the budget is tight — Shopify is built to be usable without a developer. Call an agency when you need distinctive design, integrations with inventory or accounting software, or when every week of delay costs more in revenue than the service does. As a benchmark: a theme-based store takes 2–4 weeks and starts from €4,500, while a fully custom build takes 4–8 weeks from €15,000. For an honest estimate of your project, see our store development service — we will tell you frankly whether you need an agency at all.