This guide walks you through creating a contest from scratch. The whole process takes about five minutes.

## Step 1: Start a New Contest

1. Open **UserLoop Contests** from your Shopify admin.
2. Click **Create contest** in the top-right corner.

## Step 2: Basic Information

- **Title** — Give your contest a name that customers will see (e.g., "Summer Giveaway 2026"). Maximum 200 characters.
- **Description** — Explain what the contest is about. This appears on your contest entry page. Maximum 5,000 characters.
- **URL slug** — This is the web address for your contest page. It's auto-generated from your title, but you can customize it. Only lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens are allowed. Your contest page URL will be: `https://yourstore.com/apps/contest/your-slug`

## Step 3: Schedule

- **Start date** — When the contest opens for entries.
- **End date** — When the contest stops accepting entries. Must be after the start date.

By default, the end date is set to 30 days from today.

## Step 4: Add Prizes

You can add two types of prizes:

**Product prizes** — Select products directly from your Shopify catalog.
1. Click **Add product prize**.
2. Use the product picker to browse your catalog.
3. The product image and title are pulled in automatically.
4. Set the **quantity** (how many of this prize you're giving away).

**Custom prizes** — Define your own prize that isn't in your catalog.
1. Click **Add custom prize**.
2. Enter a **title** and optional **description**.
3. Optionally add an **image URL**.
4. Set the **quantity** (1–100).

Add as many prizes as you like. You can remove any prize by clicking the remove button next to it.

## Step 5: Entry Settings

- **Winner selection method** — Choose how winners are picked:
  - **Random draw** — Winners are selected randomly from all entries.
  - **Manual selection** — You hand-pick the winners yourself.
- **Entries per customer** — How many times a single customer can enter (1–10). Entries are deduplicated by email address. Default is 1.
- **Collect name** — Check this to add an optional name field to the entry form.
- **Collect phone** — Check this to add an optional phone number field to the entry form.

## Step 6: Terms & Conditions (Optional)

Add your contest rules and legal terms. This text appears as a collapsible section on the entry form. Maximum 50,000 characters.

## Step 7: Save

Click **Create contest** to save. Your contest is created in **Draft** status, meaning it's not visible to customers yet.

## Next Steps

From here you can:

- **Customize the design** — Set colors, add images, and customize text on the Design tab.
- **Activate the contest** — Click **Activate** to make it live and start accepting entries.
- **Share the link** — Copy the contest URL to share on social media, email, or anywhere else.
- **Add to your theme** — Enable the contest popup or form block in your Shopify theme editor.

See [Dashboard Overview](/hc/userloop-contests/articles/contests-dashboard-overview) for a tour of your contest management tools.