Selling online courses on Shopify is now a native workflow, not a workaround. Alva Courses is a Shopify app that lets merchants build, sell and deliver courses entirely inside their store — course management lives in the Shopify admin, and students learn in the storefront and their customer account. This guide covers the complete setup, in order, so a first course can go live the same afternoon.
The path below assumes a working Shopify store and a course idea. Each step maps to a real screen in Alva Courses. Follow them top to bottom; later steps depend on earlier ones.
Step 1: Install Alva Courses from the Shopify App Store
Installation begins on the Alva Courses listing in the Shopify App Store. Click install, approve the standard permissions, and the app embeds directly in your Shopify admin. There is no external account to create and no second dashboard to log into — course management opens right alongside your products and orders.
Step 2: Create your first course
From the Alva Courses dashboard, choose Create Course, then add a title, cover image and description. The course becomes the container for everything that follows. You can keep it as a draft while you build, and only publish once the structure, lessons and pricing are ready. Cover images and descriptions also feed the storefront course overview shoppers see.
Step 3: Build sections and lessons with the drag-and-drop builder
Courses in Alva Courses are organised as course → sections → lessons. The drag-and-drop builder lets you reorder by dragging, duplicate, rename, move and delete items, and use Create Multiple to add several lessons at once. Group related lessons into sections — for example a module per week — so the learner sidebar stays clear and progress feels achievable.
Step 4: Add content blocks to each lesson
Open a lesson to reach the rich editor, then stack content blocks: rich text, video, image, PDF, audio, ePub, MS Office documents, quizzes, Zoom links and buttons. Video supports Alva-hosted uploads plus YouTube, Vimeo, VdoCipher and Loom. Toggle "Require completion before next lesson" for sequential gating, and centre lesson titles for a cleaner layout.
Plan your video hosting early
Shopify-hosted files cap at 1 GB or 10 minutes per video on the Unlimited plan. If your lessons run longer or in HD, Unlimited Pro adds Alva Video Hosting with 50 GB and no per-video limits, so you do not need YouTube or a third-party host.
Step 5: Link the course to a Shopify product
Every course you sell connects to a standard Shopify product. Create or pick a product, link it to the course in Alva Courses, and the product becomes the buy button on your storefront. Because it is a normal product, it works with your theme, collections, discounts and the regular Shopify checkout — there is nothing unusual for shoppers to learn.
Step 6: Set pricing and access rules
Pricing lives on the linked Shopify product, so you set the course price the way you set any product price. Alva Courses adds access controls on top: sell one-time lifetime access, or use limited-time access so enrolment expires after a set window. Drip scheduling can also release sections days after purchase to pace a cohort. For a deeper look at numbers, see how to price an online course.
Step 7: Deliver at checkout and by branded email
When an order is paid, Alva Courses enrols the buyer automatically and delivers access two ways. A customizable enrolment email goes out from your own domain (after DNS verification) with a "Start Learning Now" button, and the Thank-You and Order Status pages show an access link via Shopify extensions. Students never wait for a manual step or leave your store.
Step 8: Track enrolments, progress and completions
Each course has a Members Overview with total members, active enrolments, completions, completion rate and per-student progress bars. A global Members view spans every course, where you can search, filter, manually add members, bulk import via CSV and export to CSV. On completion, Alva Courses can auto-award a custom certificate and email it to the student.
Why sell courses inside Shopify instead of a separate LMS
Keeping courses in Shopify means one checkout, one login and one customer record. You reuse your theme, payment setup, discounts and analytics, and you own the customer relationship rather than renting it on another platform. Standalone tools add a second subscription and split your data. For most Shopify sellers, native delivery wins — explore the full feature set on the Alva Courses features overview.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. With a course app like Alva Courses, you sell online courses directly on Shopify. Each course links to a standard Shopify product, so customers buy at your normal checkout. The moment the order is paid, Alva Courses enrols the buyer and gives them access inside their customer account — no separate platform or second login.
Students access courses without leaving your store. After checkout, Alva Courses shows a link on the Thank-You and Order Status pages and sends a branded enrolment email with a Start Learning Now button. Buyers then open My Courses in their Shopify customer account and watch lessons in a storefront player with a sidebar list, progress bar and completion ticks.
A lot. The Alva Courses lesson editor adds content blocks for rich text, video (Alva-hosted, YouTube, Vimeo, VdoCipher or Loom), images, PDFs, audio, ePub, MS Office documents, quizzes, Zoom links and buttons. You can require lesson completion before the next one unlocks, and drip-release lessons a set number of days after enrolment.
No. Alva Courses keeps everything inside Shopify, so you avoid a second subscription, a separate login and split customer data. You build and sell courses with your existing store, theme and checkout, and own the customer relationship. A standalone LMS can suit you if you sell mostly off-Shopify, but most Shopify merchants do not need one.
Alva Courses has two plans, each with a 14-day free trial. Unlimited is $9.99/month for unlimited courses, members, progress tracking, certificates and limited-time access, with Shopify-hosted video capped at 1 GB or 10 minutes per video. Unlimited Pro is $14.99/month and adds Alva Video Hosting with 50 GB and no per-video limits.
Yes. Each course has a Members Overview showing total members, active enrolments, completions, completion rate and per-student progress bars with enrolment dates. A global Members view spans every course, and you can search, filter, manually add members, bulk import via CSV and export to CSV — so enrolment and progress data stays in one place.