For complete beginners · No experience needed

Build your first real Shopify store in 5 weeks. Without the tutorial hell.

You've watched 40 hours of YouTube. You've saved 12 product ideas in Notion. You still don't have a store. MerchantLab is the guided programme that walks you from zero to your first sale, one week at a time.

Start your store today → $79 one-time · 30-day refund
The transformation

Where you are today, where you'll be in 5 weeks.

Right now

  • A Notion doc full of half-baked product ideas
  • 40+ hours of YouTube watched, nothing built
  • Worried about picking the wrong product
  • No idea how to set up payments or shipping
  • Convinced "good products" need huge ad budgets
  • Six months in, still no store, still no sale
→

Five weeks from now

  • One validated product you've actually researched
  • A live Shopify store with branded copy and photos
  • Payment and shipping configured properly
  • A pre-launch traffic plan that costs $0 in ads
  • Your first 100 visitors and your first real sale
  • Confidence that you can build the next one too
The 5-week plan

One step a week. No skipping ahead.

The reason most beginner courses fail is they dump everything on you at once. MerchantLab gives you exactly what you need this week, and nothing else. Tick the box. Move on.

WEEK
01

Pick a product you can actually sell

The validation framework that filters bad ideas before you spend a penny. Where to look for products, how to test demand without ads, and the four red flags that mean "do not start this store".

Deliverable · Your validated product idea
WEEK
02

Set up Shopify properly

Theme, pages, products, payments, shipping zones, tax. Step-by-step screen recordings so you copy the setup that works, not the tutorial-bro version that breaks at checkout.

Deliverable · A live, password-protected store
WEEK
03

Brand it without a designer

Logo, colour palette, product photos, and the four pages that actually sell: home, product, about, FAQ. Templates included. No Photoshop required, no agency needed.

Deliverable · A store that looks legit
WEEK
04

Get your first 100 visitors (no ads)

Organic launch playbook for people with no audience and no budget. Reddit, niche communities, friends-and-family outreach scripts, and the soft-launch checklist that primes your store for traffic without burning cash.

Deliverable · 100+ real visitors
WEEK
05

Make your first sale

Pricing, urgency, the launch-day checklist, and the "ask three friends to buy" script that gets your first transaction on the books. Once you've made one sale, the second is exponentially easier.

Deliverable · Your first paid order
The library

Five PDFs. Not 50 hours of video.

Each guide is short, dense, and skimmable. Designed to be read in one sitting and applied the same week. No fluff, no padding, no upsells inside the PDFs.

01

The Product Validation Playbook

How to pick a first product without guessing, with the four-test validation framework.

PDF · Wk 1
02

The Shopify Setup Manual

Theme, pages, payments, shipping, tax. The configuration that actually works at checkout.

PDF · Wk 2
03

The Branding Without a Designer Guide

Logo, palette, photos, copy. Templates included for the four pages that drive 80% of conversions.

PDF · Wk 3
04

The Zero-Budget Traffic Playbook

How to get your first 100 visitors with no ad spend, no audience, and no agency.

PDF · Wk 4
05

The First Sale Playbook

Pricing, the launch checklist, and the soft-ask scripts that turn visitors into your first paying customers.

PDF · Wk 5
First-store stories

Real beginners. Real first sales.

We don't show you screenshots of $50K months. The students in MerchantLab are at the start of their journey. Here's what their first wins looked like.

"

Six months I'd been "about to start". Two weeks into the lab I had a store. Four weeks in I had three sales. I'm not Jeff Bezos but I built something real and that's what I needed.

M
Maya R.
Handmade ceramics, UK
"

The validation framework alone saved me from launching the wrong product. I had three ideas, only one survived the four tests. That's the one I built. First sale on day 38.

D
Dami O.
Skincare for textured hair
"

The "ask three friends to buy" script felt awkward. I did it anyway. Two said yes, one ordered for her sister. That's three real receipts. Suddenly the store felt like a real business.

L
Leo K.
Print-on-demand apparel
"

I'd already paid for two beginner courses and built nothing. MerchantLab was the first one that gave me a deliverable each week and held me to it. Cost less than the other two combined.

S
Sara V.
Pet accessories niche
"

The Discord saved me three times. Every time I got stuck on a Shopify setting, someone in the channel had the exact answer in under an hour. Better than any support ticket I've ever raised.

R
Ravi P.
Stationery for students
"

I was the person who'd "build a store one day". Now I have one. The store is small. The store is mine. That mattered way more to me than I expected.

A
Ani T.
Jewellery, Toronto
An honest fit check

This is for you. Or it isn't.

We'd rather you save $79 than buy something that doesn't fit your stage. Read both columns. Be honest with yourself.

✓ MerchantLab is for you if

  • You have never run a Shopify store before
  • You're stuck in tutorial loops, not building
  • You have a product idea (or two, or three)
  • You can commit 4–6 hours a week for 5 weeks
  • You want a real first sale, not "passive income"
  • You're comfortable being a beginner in public

This isn't for you if

  • You already have a live store doing real revenue
  • You're chasing scaling tactics, not foundations
  • You want a "secret hack" instead of weekly work
  • You want a fully-done-for-you store handed to you
  • You're not willing to put your name on a real store
  • You expect a five-figure month in your first month

If the right column is you, our sister programmes MetaScaleLab or CROlab are likely a better fit.

Pricing

Pick the level of help you want.

Three tiers, same 5-week framework. Most students start with The Lab and upgrade later only if they want hands-on help.

The Lab

Self-guided

$79
one-time payment

Everything you need to build your first store on your own pace, with the community there if you get stuck.

  • 5 PDF playbooks (one per week)
  • Discord community access
  • Monthly group Q&A calls (live)
  • 24/7 community support chat
  • 30-day refund guarantee
Start The Lab
MOST POPULAR
Group Cohort

5-week guided

$349
one-time · cohorts of 8

A small cohort going through the programme together, with weekly live calls and a coach who reviews your store as you build it.

  • Everything in The Lab
  • Weekly live group sessions (5 weeks)
  • Coach reviews your store every week
  • Private cohort Discord channel
  • Cohorts of 8 maximum
  • Templates and swipe files included
Apply for next cohort
1:1 Mentorship

Private coaching

$1,200
one-time · 4 weeks

Weekly private calls with a senior coach who builds the store alongside you. By application only, four spots per intake.

  • Everything in Group Cohort
  • 4 × 60-min 1:1 Zoom calls
  • Direct Discord access to your coach
  • Custom product validation review
  • Store launch checklist call
  • Post-launch follow-up audit
Apply for 1:1
Common questions

Things beginners ask before joining.

No. Week 01 is product validation, so you can join with three rough ideas, one rough idea, or none at all. By the end of week 01 you'll have a single validated product to build the store around.
Shopify is roughly $39/month, but they offer a 3-day free trial then $1/month for your first 3 months. We time the programme so you don't pay full price until you've made your first sale. Total store cost during the 5 weeks: usually $4–8.
No. Week 04 is dedicated to organic, zero-budget traffic. The whole programme is designed to get your first sale without paid ads. Once you've validated demand, you can graduate to our sister programme MetaScaleLab if you want to scale with paid traffic.
The PDFs are yours forever. The Discord is monthly. The Q&A calls are recorded. Take 5 weeks, take 10 weeks, take 6 months. The structure helps but the deadline is yours, not ours.
30 days, no questions asked. Email us, we refund. We'd genuinely rather have your $79 back than have you regret the decision. The programme works because students show up, not because they feel trapped.
No. The framework works for dropshipping, print-on-demand, handmade products, sourced inventory, and digital products. We're product-model agnostic. The validation, store setup, branding, and launch principles are the same regardless of how you fulfil orders.
Yes. Shopify works in 175+ countries. Payments and shipping setups vary by region, so the manual covers the most common configurations including EU, UK, North America, Australia, and India. The Discord has students from over 30 countries.
No catch. We charge $79 because we want it to be accessible to people whose income depends on getting this right. We make most of our revenue from cohort and 1:1 upgrades, which roughly 1 in 5 students choose. The Lab tier is profitable on its own and we keep it cheap deliberately.

Stop watching tutorials. Start your store.

One product, one store, one first sale. Five weeks from today.

Start The Lab — $79