Launch an e-commerce store

Sign up for a Shopify trial and choose a theme from the Theme Store. Add your first products with photos, pricing, and stock levels. Configure your store currency and payment methods in Settings → Payments.

Create a Stripe account and complete business verification. In Shopify go to Settings → Payments, select Stripe as your payment provider, and connect your Stripe account. Run a test transaction using Stripe's test card 4242 4242 4242 4242 to confirm the checkout flow works end to end.

If you have an existing site rather than Shopify, sign up for Snipcart and paste their two script tags into your HTML. Add data-item attributes to your product buy buttons. Snipcart intercepts clicks and renders a full cart and checkout UI without any backend code.

Run npx create-medusa-app in your terminal to scaffold the backend and storefront. Configure your database connection and Stripe plugin in medusa-config.js. Deploy the Medusa server to Railway or Render and connect it to a Next.js storefront for a fully custom headless experience.