How to set up a Shopify store in Nigeria

Before you start

Open the Shopify account yourself, with your own email address. You are the store owner from day one, and Shopify bills you directly. If someone sets up the store for you, they should work through collaborator access that you approve in your own admin, never through your password.

1. Choose a plan and understand the bill

Shopify bills stores in Nigeria in US dollars. Shopify’s help page on payment methods for bills says your card must be able to process recurring international transactions in US dollars or in a supported local currency. Some local debit cards decline these charges, so check yours before your trial ends.

2. Payments: Shopify Payments is not available in Nigeria

Nigeria is not on Shopify’s list of countries supported by Shopify Payments, so your store uses a third-party provider. Two providers document their own Shopify integrations: Paystack, which you connect from the Payments section of your Shopify admin using the API keys from your Paystack dashboard, and Flutterwave, listed in Shopify as “Flutterwave – Africa Payments” and connected in a similar way. Both let you test transactions before going live.

You apply to the provider in your own business name and complete its verification. Approval is the provider’s decision. Add manual methods too: Shopify supports cash on delivery and bank transfer, orders stay unpaid until you confirm the money, and no third-party transaction fee applies to manual payments.

3. Third-party transaction fees

Because you are not using Shopify Payments, Shopify adds a third-party transaction fee to orders paid through your provider. Shopify’s help page confirms the fee applies to third-party gateways and excludes manual payments; the percentage depends on your plan.

4. Products, theme and pages

Start with a free Shopify theme, add your logo, colors and fonts, and create your products with clear titles, prices, photos and variants. Set up the About, Contact, FAQ and policy pages; Shopify provides policy templates that you fill in with your own details.

5. Shipping

Create a shipping zone for Nigeria with the rates you really charge, and add other zones only for countries you actually ship to. Add product weights if you charge by weight, and write the delivery times shoppers will see.

6. Before you open

• Place a real test order on your phone and cancel or refund it.

• Confirm the order email arrived and the order shows in your admin.

• Connect your domain and remove the store password.

• Choose your plan before the trial ends and make sure you can pay Shopify’s bill.

Our free launch checklist covers every one of these points in order.