How to Start an Online Store in Canada (2026)

Who this guide is for

You have something to sell and you want a real store, not a social media page with "DM to order." This guide walks through the eight steps in order: what to sell, registering the business, choosing a platform, domain, payments, shipping, taxes, and launch. Nothing here is legal or tax advice. For the registration and tax steps, an accountant's one-hour consult is the best money you will spend.

Step 1: Decide what you are selling

Skip this step and the rest is wasted effort. The stores that survive sell something specific to someone specific: handmade candles for eco-conscious gift buyers, not "home goods." Before spending a dollar, validate demand: search your product idea on Google and Amazon, check that competitors exist (no competitors usually means no market, not a brilliant discovery), and confirm you can source or make the product at a margin that survives shipping.

Step 2: Register your business

The rules vary by province, so treat this as a checklist to confirm locally, not gospel.

• Business name: if you operate under any name other than your exact legal name, you must register it in your province. In Ontario, registration runs through ServiceOntario. Selling as "Jane Smith" needs no registration; selling as "Jane Smith Designs" does.
• Structure: most new stores start as sole proprietorships because it is cheap and simple. Incorporation costs more upfront but limits personal liability and can make tax sense once revenue grows. An accountant can tell you which side of that line you are on in one meeting.
• Business bank account: open one before you take your first order. Mixing business revenue into a personal account is the fastest way to make tax season miserable.

Step 3: Choose your platform

This is the biggest decision in the guide. Three options cover nearly everyone.

Shopify: the default choice for Canadians

Shopify is a Canadian company, bills in CAD, and is the reason this guide recommends it first. Basic at CAD $49/month billed monthly (CAD $37/month on annual billing) is enough for most new stores. Grow at CAD $132/month (CAD $99 annual) adds lower card rates and more staff accounts when volume justifies it. Advanced at CAD $517/month (CAD $389 annual) is for established stores doing serious revenue.

Card processing through Shopify Payments runs 2.8% plus CAD $0.30 per online transaction on Basic, dropping to 2.6% plus $0.30 on Grow and 2.4% plus $0.30 on Advanced. If you use a third-party payment processor instead, Shopify adds a surcharge: 2.0% on Basic, 1.0% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced. That surcharge is the quiet argument for just using Shopify Payments.

What you are really buying is freedom from infrastructure. Hosting, security, updates, and PCI compliance are handled. You will never debug a server at midnight because a plugin update broke checkout.

Start your Shopify free trial (affiliate link, opens NorthVetted redirect)

WooCommerce: maximum control, maximum responsibility

WooCommerce itself is a free WordPress plugin. The real costs are everything around it: shared hosting at roughly CAD $150 to $300 per year, a domain at $10 to $20 per year, a premium theme at $50 to $350 one-time if you want one, and extensions for subscriptions, bookings, or advanced shipping at roughly $200 to $800-plus per year. A lean DIY store lands around CAD $200 to $1,000 in year one. Paying a developer can push that past $10,000.

Choose WooCommerce if you already live in WordPress, need custom functionality Shopify apps cannot provide, or want zero platform lock-in. Do not choose it to save money unless you genuinely enjoy maintaining websites, because your time has a price too.

Squarespace: design-first simplicity

Squarespace is the pick for stores where aesthetics do the selling: art, photography, boutique fashion. Basic at USD $25/month billed monthly (USD $19/month annual) carries a 2% transaction fee on physical goods. Core at USD $29/month annual drops the store transaction fee to zero. Plus and Advanced add features at USD $49 and USD $139/month annual respectively.

It is beautiful and simple, and that simplicity is also the ceiling. Product variants, discount logic, and app ecosystem are all thinner than Shopify's. Fine for a small catalogue with high visual standards; limiting for anything complex.

Step 4: Get your domain

Buy a .ca domain. It signals Canadian to buyers and helps with local search. You can buy it directly through Shopify during setup or from any registrar for roughly $15 to $20 per year, then connect it. Either way, grab the matching social handles at the same time, before someone else does.

Step 5: Set up payments

Offer at minimum: credit cards and one express option like Apple Pay or Google Pay. Shopify Payments covers cards at the rates above with no extra surcharge. If you use Stripe directly, which many WooCommerce stores do, the Canadian rate is 2.9% plus CAD $0.30 per domestic online transaction, with an additional 1.5% for international cards.

Do the fee math on your average order value. On a $30 order, 2.8% plus $0.30 is about $1.14, or 3.8% effective. On a $200 order it is about 2.95% effective. Low average order values get eaten alive by the fixed $0.30, which is a quiet argument for bundles and minimum order thresholds.

Step 6: Figure out shipping

Shipping is where Canadian stores win or lose. Get a Canada Post business account for discounted rates, enable calculated shipping at checkout so you never undercharge, and decide your free-shipping threshold deliberately: set it 15 to 20 percent above your current average order value to nudge baskets upward.

Be honest about timelines. A Toronto buyer expects Ontario delivery in days; a Vancouver buyer understands it takes longer. State handling time plus transit time on the product page, not just at checkout, and you will cut "where is my order" emails in half.

Step 7: Handle sales tax correctly

This is the step people skip and regret. Once your taxable revenue exceeds $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters, CRA requires GST/HST registration. Many sellers register earlier voluntarily to claim input tax credits on startup spending.

You charge the buyer's provincial rate: 13% HST in Ontario, 15% HST in the Atlantic provinces, 5% GST plus 9.975% QST in Quebec, 5% GST plus 7% PST in British Columbia, 5% GST plus 6% PST in Saskatchewan, 5% GST plus 7% retail sales tax in Manitoba, and 5% GST only in Alberta and the territories. Shopify's tax engine handles this automatically once configured, which is another quiet point for the platform.

Step 8: Launch checklist

Before you tell anyone the store exists, verify: test checkout with a real $1 product and refund it, confirm tax rates on a test order to each region you will serve, write your shipping, return, and privacy policies (templates are fine to start), connect Google Analytics and Search Console, and place one real order to your own address to experience the unboxing.

Then launch to a small audience first. Friends, existing followers, your email list if you have one. Fix whatever breaks, then widen the circle.