How to Make Money with Shopify
A lot of entrepreneurs are apprehensive of quitting their full-time job and start their own business.
Thanks to many online platforms, building your own business is not as hard and scary anymore. The growth of e-commerce has become exponential in the past few years. And the future for e-commerce is just as promising. In fact, it is predicted that e-commerce sales will increase to $4.5 trillion in 2021.
If you’re thinking of starting your own business in the world of e-commerce, you must consider choosing Shopify as your platform. This guide will teach you everything you need to know on how to make money with Shopify.
What is Shopify?
Shopify is an e-commerce platform that allows entrepreneurs to create their store even when they don’t have much technical knowledge and skill. This platform allows you to create, grow and manage your business. It enables you to create your online store, and you can even customize it to match your company’s branding. It’s a one-stop-shop to building your online store.
With Shopify, it is easier to market your products and services. It allows you to promote your business to several places including mobile, web, online marketplaces, social media, pop-up shops, and brick-and-mortar locations.
Shopify is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms used. In fact, it grabbed the second rank amongst the e-commerce platforms used in 2019, right next to WooCommerce. It supports more than 500,000 online stores in about 175 countries. This e-commerce platform has earned a total revenue of $1.073 billion last year while it’s expected to increase between $1.48 billion and $1.50 billion this 2019.
Created by Tobias Lütke and Scott Lake in 2004, Shopify was not originally designed to become the biggest e-commerce platform. The creators simply wanted to create an online store where they could sell snowboarding gear. Since 2013, Shopify’s annual revenues have almost doubled. There’s no doubt that this platform is growing as it now generates more than $20 million in revenue each month.
How Much Does it Cost?
If you want to know how to make money with Shopify, you can take advantage of their 14-day free trial. Once the free trial is up, you would need to upgrade your subscription to a paid trial.
Below are the Shopify plans that you can choose from.
Shopify Lite Plan
For only $9 per month, this plan gives you a “Buy” button. It also allows you to sell on Facebook and accept credit card payments. This plan does not give you a real online store with a shopping cart. Instead, it is intended to add the functionality of Buy buttons to an existing blog or website.
Basic Shopify Plan
The price structure for this plan is $29 per month + 2.9% and 30¢ per transaction. This plan gives you a fully functional blog and website through Shopify. You don’t need to create a separate website since Shopify will manage all of your products and orders. In addition, Basic Shopify Plan allows you to upload an unlimited number of products to your store. It also comes with fraud analysis tools.
Shopify Plan
This plan is quite an upgrade from Basic Shopify Plan $79 per month + 2.6% and 30¢ per transaction. Aside from the features that you would get with the Basic Shopify Plan, this plan gives you more features like access to abandoned cart recovery, professional reports, and gift cards. If you want your store to have unlimited products and unlimited storage, then this plan is perfect for you. This plan also works best if your store earns more than $5,000 per month since transaction fees go down as the volume of external payment gateways increase.
Advanced Shopify Plan
This plan is priced at $299 per month + 2.4% and 30¢ per transaction. You get the features from the previous plans such as unlimited product uploads and abandoned card recovery. Additional features that come with this plan are the third-party calculated shipping rates and advanced report builder. If your company makes over $10,000 per month and prefer a third party to handle your shipping, this plan is perfect for you.
Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus starts around $2000 per month + 2.15% per transaction. This plan includes 200 TB of storage as well as resources to help with your marketing and design. It works best for huge companies that would rather automate their orders.
How to Make Money with Shopify
Below are some of the most effective ways on how you can maximize this e-commerce platform and grow your business.
1. Sell Your Thrift Store Finds
Do you enjoy scoring great items in thrift stores?
If your answer is yes, then you may want to consider turning this hobby into a business opportunity.
Thrift stores hold so many unique and interesting items that you can’t find in the malls. Vintage t-shirt, old soccer jersey, collector’s items – the list just goes on. What’s even sweeter is that you can get these great items at a very affordable price.
A lot of people are always on the lookout for unique items that don’t cost a fortune. But only a few are willing to do the dirty work and hit up thrift stores. This is where your expertise should come in. You can use Shopify to sell your thrift store finds.
You’re spending too much time rummaging on thrift stores anyway so you might as well make money while doing this hobby. And the return of money is promising too. The $5 vintage T-shirt that you brought can be sold to $40 on your Shopify store.
2. Offer Your Freelance Service
Freelancing is a great form of a side hustle. You have full control of the projects that you take on while you’re earning a decent amount of money.
There are tons of freelance opportunities that you can find online. Graphic designers, web developers, SEO specialists, writers, social media managers, and admin virtual assistants are just some of the in-demand roles.
You can find freelance gigs on platforms like Upwork or Fivver. But if you want to level up your freelancing game, then you can create your own Shopify store and market your freelance service. List the services that you offer as products. You must also disable the shipping option since there is no need for you to deliver anything physically to your clients.
Offering your freelance service on Shopify is also a great way to get more experience and build your portfolio. An impressive portfolio is your key to stand out amongst the thousands of freelancers in the same niche.
3. Promote Your Online Course
Are you an established expert in your field and are looking for ways on how to earn a passive income?
Make money with Shopify by creating your online course and selling it through this e-commerce platform.
If you are confident with your knowledge, skills, and experience, you can impart this wisdom to others while making money. Choose a specific topic and create a video or content walkthrough. Your online course should not only be as informative as possible, but you should make it simple and easy to understand.
What’s even great about online courses is that it can reach a lot of people, regardless of the distance. Consultants or public speakers can only be in one place at once. Online courses, on the other hand, can be accessed by a lot of people across the world all at the same time.
If you want to monetize your thought leadership, these 12 Shopify apps are a great help in promoting your online course.
Digital Downloads – This app allows you to sell digital items with a file size of 5GB or less. Your customers can instantly access the items that they purchased and they even get a notification once these items get updated. You can get this app for free.
SchoolKeep – For $355+ per month, you can use this app to create your own online courses. You can choose from more than 100 premium storefront website themes to showcase your courses. It even allows you to sell your online courses through other social media networks.
MailChimp – Every good entrepreneur knows that his email list is one of his biggest assets. When you sign up with MailChimp-Shopify integration, you can deliver your helpful thought leadership content straight to the inboxes of your customers.
4. Market Your Art Online
If you’re a thriving artist or graphic designer who wants to promote your work to a wider target audience, then selling your art online is a wonderful idea.
Shopify is one of the most common e-commerce platforms used by artists to market their works of art. This platform is also perfect for those artists who want to sell in volume. It comes with lots of features for a hassle-free online selling. Additionally, Shopify makes it easier for the seller to market their arts on Amazon, Instagram, and Facebook.
So how do you get started with selling your art online? Here are some ideas to get you started.
- Jewelry & Crafts – A lot of customers are looking for unique and exquisite jewelries and crafts online. Showcase your creations on social media platforms like Pinterest and Instagram.
- Clothing – You can start creating your own clothing line and sell it online. One helpful way of selling your clothing with your original artwork designs is to sign up for Amazon or Tee Spring and fulfill your orders that way.
- Digital Template Designs – There are tons of template designs that you can sell online – from cute greetings to sewing templates. Sell one-of-a-kind digital templates and create more options for your customers to choose from.
- Paintings & Drawings – It’s time to share your masterpiece with the world. Shopify allows you to sell real canvas art. Regardless if you’re just starting out as a painter or have your own gallery, selling your paintings and drawing through Shopify is a great idea.
- Photography – Photographers can now create their own online store to sell their prints. In addition, you can also opt to sell downloadable digital copies of your photographs.
5. Build Your Dropshipping Business to Make Money with Shopify
Managing an inventory can require a lot of time and money. That is why many entrepreneurs prefer to use an e-commerce store that uses a dropshipping business model. You don’t have to carry any inventory so you have more time to focus on making more sales and growing your online store.
You can start your e-commerce business by launching your Shopify dropshipping store. This is a great option if you are looking for flexibility in running your business.
What is Dropshipping?
Dropshipping is a type of business model where entrepreneurs sell their products without carrying any inventory. When a customer places an order, the store owner simply contacts the supplier. It will be the supplier who will ship the products directly to your customers.
Dropshipping does not require a huge up-front investment. In addition, it’s easy to set up and manage. These reasons make dropshipping an ideal perfect model of business for new entrepreneurs.
Here are some tips that you can apply to achieve success in Shopify dropshipping.
- Be niche-specific. You are more likely to attract customers when you focus on a particular niche.
- Add value to your online store. Remember, dropshipping is not only about selling a product. If you want your customers to keep coming back to your store, you must also provide useful information, insights or solutions to your audience.
- Sell products that are top quality. Gain the trust of your customers by making sure that all of your products are of great quality. Choosing the right supplier is crucial in your dropshipping business. Reliable and trustworthy are must-have qualities in choosing which supplier to work with.
- Create a stunning website. Your website is the ambassador of your brand. To attract more customers, it has to be user-friendly.
- Drive traffic to your website. You won’t be able to sell your products unless you drive traffic to your website. Master the art of marketing and SEO to attract as many website visitors.
- Provide excellent customer service. Happy and satisfied customers are key to the success of your business. Make every customer experience positive. Also, it’s important that you respond to their queries as quickly as you can.
Do you want to create and run a successful dropshipping business? The Ultimate Guide to Dropshipping by Mark Hayes tells you everything that you need to know about dropshipping.
Buy a copy now from AMAZON.COM
Start Your Shopify Business Now
There’s no perfect time to start making money with Shopify than now. This e-commerce platform gives you all the features that you need to create your own online store.
This may initially start as a side hustle to make both ends meet, but the possibility of earning money is endless. “Shopify: Step By Step Guide on How to Make Money Online” can help you jumpstart your e-commerce business.
