How to make money on Shopify, is one of the trendy questions every entrepreneur wants an answer for! Haven’t we all dreamt about becoming our own bosses and running our business that will ensure an abundant income?
By using an e-commerce company like Shopify, this is not far from reach. This article shows how to make money on Shopify and have your own online store.
You could be having some well-established industry that is well going in the physical world and looking forward to going online and reaching more customers.
You could be starting your new company to sell some new products that no one else has ever thought of before. Or you simply desire to earn extra cash from working in sales without quitting your current job. Either way, Shopify is the right choice for you.
Prerequisites
To succeed in building your eCommerce business, you need three essential things:
- In-demand products to sell.
- The skills to market these products.
- The drive and commitment to succeed.
You have probably searched for something like “how to make money on Shopify?” on your search engine before landing on this webpage.
So you already have the needed winner’s mindset -you’re continually learning, exploring new lands, researching in the right places, and preparing yourself for success.
So we are done with the drive to success part. The hard part is a commitment, which is needed for this business because everything is based on consistency.
You have to be present and active, no matter how stormy it could become. You must have patience and realize that you have dedicated yourself for at least a couple of months before seeing any results.
What Can You Sell On Shopify?
Well, you can sell everything found on the shelves of a real store, but you have to be smart and careful when choosing the right set of products.
Think to yourself, what are the goods, products, or services you want to sell on Shopify?
This is the most crucial question, and finding the right answer is your first step on the way to success. Choosing the right product is very vital as there will be a lot of competition.
And everyone desires to have a piece of the cake from this massive market by investing a considerable amount of money, time, and effort in coming up with the perfect marketing strategy that will possibly steal your customers before you even know it.
But, what is the right product for you as a newbie in this business?
Well, this is pretty debatable, but we can agree that the right product is the one that has the highest profit margin and the most demanded with the least required amount of risk or initial capital.
How To Find The Best Sellers On Shopify?
You can first have your own brainstorming mix of ideas and write them down in a notebook.
You can start by thinking about problems that you are facing and the solutions for them, or you might want to consider something that brings happiness and joy to the customer.
Now is the time to express your ideas because after you write down what you find interesting, it is time to find out what is more important, which is what customers find interesting.
Popularity And Demand
You can go hunting for new ideas on specialized websites. For example, if you are interested in handmade or vintage items and craft supplies, you can check websites focused on that domain.
Etsy is the go-to marketplace for millions of handmade makers, and in 2018 Etsy‘s total merchandise sales were approximately $4 billion, so it is an excellent place to start with if that is your specialty.
Shopify, on the other hand, realized that finding popular products to sell can be challenging. That’s why they yearly update a list to help you uncover new trending products and Ideas. And you can find them on the link at the bottom of this article.
You can also explore other great websites like:
- Aliexpress best sellers
- SaleSource Trending Products
- Amazon Bestsellers
Write all the good products and inspiring ideas that you found. After you’re done and got a list of about fifty products, we can move on to the next step. We are filtering our list of products.
We start by excluding:
- Products that violate copyrights.
- Products that are hard to be advertised.
- Products that have a low-profit margin.
- Deceptive products that are classified as scams.
- Products that are hard to be handled by freight forwarding companies.
- Products that have a low ranking or bad reputation.
Congratulations! Now you have a cleaner list of good products. However, If you want to know how to make money on Shopify, you need to know how to find the most demanded products, as that where the money is.
You can start by searching each remaining product on your list by using Google Trends (Link down below) to figure out each product’s popularity.
Google develops this tool to give analysts the chance to figure out what people are mostly looking for on google, their locations, and how their interests change over time.
For example, I want to know whether smartwatches are still getting people’s attention in the American market. So I go to Google Trends Website, Search for the term smartwatches, specify the time range to the last 12 months, set the region to The United States, and let the magic happen!
People were more interested in smartwatches in the US during the last two months.
After deleting the products with low demand expectation, we have a better list that is ready to go to the next step of filtering.
Supply Factor And Market Saturation
We talked a lot about the importance of demand. However, if you genuinely want to apprehend how to make money on Shopify, you have to understand another evenly significant factor in the market, and that is the supply.
In a nutshell, if a product has many suppliers, this is an indication that there will be a lot of competition. And some of your competitors may have already branded their names and gained the trust of the largest proportion of customers.
This is called Market saturation, and it happens when the volume for a product or service is maxed out in a given market.
A few indicators of a saturated market include power concentrated among only three or four major suppliers, slow-to-moderate growth, innovation activity originating from only the major suppliers, and low-profit margins that are not appealing to new suppliers.
Even in market saturation, many companies and businesses choose to keep fighting. When a company operates in a saturated market, a few strategies can be used to remain solvent and possibly increase sales. The first is having a creative mindset.
A company’s product or service has to be more innovatively offered in a saturated market than its competitors to entice customers to buy. The second strategy to stand out is through effective pricing.
So if you have what it takes in terms of creativity and low prices, do not let saturation let you down! You can survive. After all, you almost never step your foot onto untouched, lush land.
Dropshipping
According to Shopify: “Dropshipping lets you sell products by using a supplier that holds the inventory and can guarantee to ship the product for you. First, you pay the wholesale price to the supplier, but keep controlling the price that your customers see in your Shopify store.”
Later on, we will discuss how you can find the best suppliers on Shopify.
The Next Step – Step 2!
Let’s get our hands dirty and build your store on Shopify! As I said, you do not need a large budget to start your online store, and Shopify is considered to be a user-friendly platform.
The monthly fees starting from $29 per month, and you get to have a 14 days trial. We have a few simple steps to initiate your store on Shopify.
Find An Attractive Name For Your Store
Firstly, think of a name for your baby store and make it attractive, simple, and reflective.
You can use Namelix, a fun, effective, and mostly free online tool based on Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to come up with a bunch of names.
Start Your Trial
Secondly, head to Shopify and start your free trial with the name that you have chosen.
Choose A Theme
Thirdly, choose the theme that best suits your products and portfolio from the Shopify Theme Store.
Getting Your Logo
Lastly, make and upload your special logo that combines simplicity with creativity. I suggest that you ask the professionals in the design field to come up with the logo that best represents your business.
You can hire a freelancer from Fiverr, or you can go to Canva to have access to a rich set of free drag-and-drop tools that will give you the chance to design your logo.
According to their website: “Everyone can create professional designs with Canva. It’s easy to use and free”, So give it a try after watching the tutorial YouTube video.
Basic Pages On Your Store
Every E-commerce website needs to show transparency and truthfulness. You should guarantee your customers a good user experience so that they become loyal customers to you.
After all, this is how to make money on Shopify in the long term.
Important pages that should be added to your website:
- Terms & Conditions
- Privacy & Returns Policy
- Shipping & Delivery Information
- Contact Us
Do not worry; All of the above can be easily done using the Shopify control panel.
On the other hand, Shopify automatically generates “Terms and Conditions” along with the “Privacy Policy” pages for you. So you do not have to worry about that.
I guess that now you have started to feel a little more confident and thought to yourself: “I know how to make money on Shopify, but I need to see that money in my bank account.” Well, This is the topic of the following step.
Setting Up Shopify Payments
After deciding on your store’s currency, follow these steps to set up payments: From your Shopify admin, go to Settings -> Payments.
Activate Shopify Payments in one of the following methods: If you haven’t set up a credit card payment provider on your account, click Complete account setup in the Shopify Payments section.
If you have a various credit card payment provider enabled, click Activate Shopify Payments in the Shopify Payments box, then from the dialog Activate Shopify Payments.
In this way, Any other credit card payment provider in your account will be removed. Finally, All details about your store and your banking information must be entered before you click Save.
Based on your country of residence, you will have different options. Make sure you have at least one trusted method like PayPal for receiving money.
Shipping
No one wants to pay for shipping, so if you are just starting your online store and want to attract customers to your products and services, you should offer them free shipping.
You can change this free shipping policy any time later but for now, let’s give our customers the best offer they can get.
If your business sells physical goods, you can find different methods to get your products to your customers. These methods rely on what applies to your business and what kind of goods you sell.
If you are ready to know how to make money on Shopify, please dedicate half an hour to read and understand this article written by the Shopify team to explain how to manage all your store’s shipping settings.
If you are wondering if there are non-physical products that can be sold on Shopify, please check the list of ideas that will help you figure how you can make money on Shopify using your skills and talents at the end of this article.
Domain Name
Your store’s URL should look something like this [your_store_name].myshopify.com.
It is important to change this long domain name to something more proficient and readable. You can do so by buying your own dedicated domain name from the Shopify Control Panel for about $13 a year.
Your supplier is your hidden partner. So knowing how to make money on Shopify means knowing how to find a good partner.
From my experience, I will give you some tips for spotting a legitimate supplier:
- Great rankings and feedback (not less than 95%)
- Competitive prices.
- Low shipping costs.
- The high response rate to messages.
- No monthly fees: Most legitimate suppliers don’t charge their customers monthly fees. Instead, they get paid when you place an order for their products.
- They don’t sell to the public: Most legitimate suppliers don’t sell to the general public.
- Fee for each order: Many drop shippers charge a fee for each order depending on the size and complexity of the shipped items. This is standard in the industry.
- Minimum order sizes: They do this to ensure the business placing the order is worth their time and effort to work with.
Marketing
Last but not least, you have to find suitable marketing strategies.
Paid Facebook ads are plentiful and affordable. You can start with only $5. But I suggest going to the $10 advertising plan as a start.
Influencers on social media like Instagram are also an excellent option for advertising your products and services.
Find an influencer who has the kind of followers who will appreciate your products and deal with these influencers to promote your brand and products.
If you want to make money on Shopify, becoming a marketing nerd is a must. Read more and know-how Influencer Marketing on Instagram.
Final Notes On How To Make Money On Shopify
Making money on Shopify is not limited to Dropshipping. I will give you some ideas to help you figure out how you can make money on Shopify using your skills and talents.
- Start Your Own Clothing Line
- Sell Your Art Online
- Become a Freelance Writer, Designer, or Developer
- Teach an Online Course
- Publish Your Own Book
Conclusion
Now you got the basics and knew how to make money on Shopify. However, keep in mind that online business or any kind of business is not easy, and that’s why some studies suggest that most people will fail at business.
However, those statistics are severely misunderstood because you are the one who determines whether you succeed or fail more than it’s a random selection process.
As a wise man once said: “You just can’t defeat the person who won’t give up.”
Many scientists consider the internet as the new industrial revolution After changing our lives and shifting our understandings. Now you can have your own online store without the need for a lot of capital nor experience.
All you need is a commitment, a laptop, or a smartphone, and a good understanding of the online market with the tools to secure your victory in this field.