How to Make Money With Shopify | 5 Profitable Ideas (2021)

how to make money with shopify

Wouldn’t you love to find out how to make money with Shopify? So you want to create your very own online business but just don’t have any solid ideas of what to sell! Well, I’m here to share with you 5 online business ideas that you can start today with Shopify!

There are so many people searching how to create a Successful Shopify store online. So many countless people from the online community who are researching what is shopify ,how does it work and how you can make money with it?

And according to Statista there were over 4 trillion sales which came from ecommerce alone and it keeps on growing, it was recorded that sales were up by 15 % in 2018 and eCommerce is a trillion dollar industry, and it appears it is on track!

If you’re wanting to skip straight to a particular section, use the table of contents below. Other than that let us dive straight into ways you can make money with shopify.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. If you choose to use purchase anything through my links then I can continue to make in depth review articles, comparisons and more at no cost to you!

How to Make Money With Shopify - 5 Profitable Ideas

Now that you understand what Shopify is and what it can do for you, the next thing we need to think about is building a profitable business with it.

#1 - Make Money with Shopify Dropshipping! 

Dropshipping with your own online store is a great way to start marking money online. It is selling products without holding any inventory.

When you are done reading this Shopify article then you’ll be ready to kick off with your own store with this 14-day free Shopify trial.

In a nutshell, Dropshipping is the process of selling physical products online through an online store. This is a cost effective way to get a retail store up and running because of these reasons;

  • It requires no huge investment;
  • Not needing physical stock;
  • You also don’t need a warehouse or brick and mortar store (this is huge costs in rent alone) 

Lets say you sell a $30 outdoor torch and the actual wholesale cost of the torch is $9 , meaning if you sold 1 of these torches you will make a profit of $21. Now imagine selling 100’s of these in 1 day!! Now that is the power of an Online Store and Facebook, Google or Pinterest Ads.

The best part about shopify dropshipping is that there are so many cool apps (or extensions) that will streamline the process. So if you're a small outfit, starting out this can be helpful or if you expand to a team of 100 staff then you'll find these shopify apps effective at managing your profitable business.

I made an awesome tutorial on how to start a dropshipping store with shopify and make money from the getgo, check it out below.

#2 - Start an Online T-Shirt Store with Print on Demand

Another great way on how to make money with Shopify is through Print on demand or POD for short. Imagine starting your own clothing brand with zero upfront costs and without the hassle of storing inventory.

You can start your very own online t-shirt store with Shopify and printful. The best part is you don’t need to buy blank white t-shirts just to have them lying around collecting dust.

how-to-start-a-tshirt-business

How does Print on Demand Work?

Print on demand is a simple process and I will show you how it works and how you get paid.

  1. Add your cool designs to your Shopify store.
  2. Customers visit your store and orders a T-shirt they Like;
  3. Your store sends the order to a print on demand service;
  4. The print on demand service ships the order to your customer
  5. You make a profit.

The above steps are a very simplified way of making print on demand products, that's why I made a detailed video illustrating how you to can make money on shopify with print on demand. Check it out below.


You can literally use print on demand for anything like Canvas Art, Mugs, Tote bags and more.

#3 - Make Money with Shopify by Flipping Old Products 

Another awesome way on how to make money with Shopify is to flip your old products that you have lying around and don’t have much use for. Your store can be dedicated to flipping literally anything . Here’s a list of ideas of what you could flip!

  • Outdoor Furniture;
  • Antiques;
  • Collectibles;
  • Records;
  • Old Branded Clothes!

#4 - Sell Digital Products on Shopify and Make Money

Another great way on how to make money with shopify is to sell old things and you simply love keeping on to them. No problem, if you’re one to create products on your computer like books, courses or even software files then you can make money by selling them.

Before I started this blog I use to own a blog about iPhone app development.

Instead of creating games and hosting it on the app store I sold my products digitally to my audience who wanted to use them as a base template to start making their own games. 

It was really lucrative as I was selling them at $100 a pop, and the best part was I had unlimited inventory.

Other possible digital products you could sell are: 

  • Video Courses (On Just about anything);
  • Apps;
  • Stock Photos, Music, Video;
  • Digital Downloads or Templates;
  • Membership Access.

#5 - Sell Your Crafts with Shopify

A lot of people use Etsy to sell their crafts such as Jewellery & Accessories. Don’t get me wrong, Etsy is great however it is quite limiting.

The biggest limit you place on yourself is you don’t own the customers information, meaning you can’t re-market to them as you please.

If you’re using Etsy as your primary source of selling your crafts you need to diversify and stand out from them by creating your own store.

Other possible crafts you could sell on Shopify are:

  • Bracelets;
  • Earings;
  • Rings;
  • Necklaces, Bags and;
  • Purses

How to be Successful on Shopify a Complete Guide for Beginners

Shopify can be very tedious for those who don’t know what its about . Let me assure you that it is probably the most simplest tool you could have to make sales on.

There are so many of the best dropshipping apps you could use to increase conversions, help customers, make money with shopify. These are the best ways to make money on shopify, it’s by working on what to sell on shopify.

Selling Shopify Products with Instagram

Another way to make money with Shopify is with Instagram Influencers. These people are able to persuade their audience to purchase your products however it will cost you advertising costs to get this traffic.

shopify-instagram-influencers

Why I Use Shopify

If you’re looking to start an eCommerce store that is hosted on a reliable platform, then choosing Shopify for your eCommerce needs may be the answer. Ecommerce has been one of the best things that has ever happened to me.

As you can tell from my previous Shopify stores, where I have made over $100,000 from running a successful eCommerce Shopify store in 2017 alone.

I am able to work from home, I can travel whenever I want and my schedule has become more flexible than when I was constricted to a 9-5 day job. Shopify is one of the top eCommerce platforms in 2019 and you can start your own shopify store .

Also, if you sign up using my link then you get a 14-day free trial with them.

Can I use Another eCommerce Platform?

You may be thinking, “ Well I can just start an eCommerce store on my WordPress site for a little cheaper and start selling products this way ” NOOOOO… Don’t do that!

The main problem with that is you won’t be able to really optimize your store for sales you need and another thing is you’ll quickly run into your store not being able to handle a huge amount of traffic.

This could impact your ability to make a lot of sales. Kylie Jenner doesn’t run her store on WordPress, she uses Shopify to host it.

Shopify FAQs

If you're new to the ecom game, then welcome! When I was new I had no guidance one particular words, what ecommerce platform is better or what can they do for me. 

I totally understand where you are placed, that's why I always find frequently asked questions the masses are asking and compile some quick tips and responses to these questions.

So let's take a look at some commonly asked questions about shopify and how to make money with shopify!

What is Shopify?

Shopify is a complete eCommerce solution that allows you to create and develop your very own online eCommerce store in which you can promote, sell and ship digital and physical products online.

It allows you to manage inventory, fulfill your customers orders, takes care of your website security and host unlimited products all without worrying about the technical jargon!

Being online will open your business to new opportunities by being able to promote your products and services in many places such as Facebook, Instagram and even Google.

how to make money with shopify

This allows you to expand your brick and mortar store to a new customer base, yes people who never even heard of you! I heard of Shopify back in 2017 before it was very mainstream.

Back then it wasn’t as Popular as it is today and now it is ranked one of the top eCommerce platforms to use in 2020! Shopify started 16 years ago, back in 2004, by three aspiring Canadian entrepreneurs and is now worth over 3 billion dollars.

So now you know why I love using it! However, many people don’t really know the full potential of it so that’s why I want to share different ways you can make money with Shopify! I wrote a popular article on what is shopify here: What is Shopify a Comprehensive Guide!

How Much Does Shopify Cost?

Shopify offers several plans in which all of them you can make money with! To get your foot over to their door, they offer a 14-day free trial and the best part is you don’t need a credit card to sign up ( I absolutely dislike sites that do this).

In the trial you get access to all the features and even the entire app collection from the Shopify store! So your trial is basically uncapped and free (as it should be!).

The only downside of the trial is they don’t let you sell goods unless you sign up to one of their plans (I recommend the Basic Shopify Plan over the Lite Plan) Shopify Lite Plan Let’s start with the most basic thing of all, the cost!

Shopify lite will set you back at $9 a month, however the features are really limited compared to the basic.

The main let down of the Lite version is you’re not allowed more than one staff account, you have no phone support to resolve problems and you can’t create an online store. What!? How do you sell with the lite plan?

Well, you add buy buttons on your pre existing blog.

Basic Shopify 

Plan Now onto the Basic Shopify Plan, which you can create your very own online store on the basic plan. The Basic plan is perfect for beginners that want to start an online store and want to sell products.

This plan will start at an affordable monthly cost of $29 (or the price of a $1 cup of coffee daily)

Shopify Plan 

If you’re starting to do a bit of volume in your store, over $500 a day then you need to upgrade to the normal Shopify Plan which is $79 per month.

They do charge you 2.6 % of the sale value and an additional 30 cents per transaction, which is a little better than the basic plan.

You get access to more features like the abandoned cart recovery sequence, which means you can ditch any expensive app that you have been using.

The other added benefit of this plan is you also get some beautiful professional reports ( I love data, said no one ever! Ha.) and also the gift cards.

Shopify gift cards are perfect if you want to make more money on Shopify as you can bring back existing customers.

Advanced Shopify Plan

The advanced Shopify plan costs $299/month which is steep as it is, but the transaction fees only get reduced slightly. So you need to really weigh up if you need this plan or if the regular plan is fine.

In this plan you get access to the advanced report builder (for the serious store owner) and a whopping 15 staff accounts. Yep, 15 people can access your stores backend, however you as the primary owner can choose what they see!

I suppose at $299/month you’ll be doing over $100,000 dollars in revenue and you’re profitable!

Shopify Plus 

Shopify plus is for high revenue stores that need reduced transaction fees. You’ll need to apply for this to be able to get onto the plan. Yes, not everyone is capable of being on this plan.

If you want to find out the cost of this and a little more behind the scenes detail, check out this post on Shopify Plus.

Final Thoughts

So those are my 5 simple ways on how to make money with Shopify! In my conclusion, yes you can make money with Shopify at any time of the year, and with ecommerce expenditure increasing over time, you should also try to get a slice of the pie!

Simply pick one of the ideas from the list, focus on it and be persistent! I’ve made money myself using some of these methods and they definitely work. Remember, you can start a shopify online store for free, with their free 14-day trial and you could be on your way to making money in no time.

If I missed out any method that is worthy of making money on shopify, then please reach out to me! I'd be happy to include your suggestion when I update this article.