There is literally over a million people who use Shopify as an eCommerce Platform! You've probably just heard about it and now you want to know, How to Sell on Shopify!
I've ran multiple eCommerce stores over the years and starting a Shopify store and beginning to sell when you're a beginner can be challenging.
Today I want to talk about how you can basically start a Shopify store in any niche and how you can start selling your goods.
this page contains affiliate links. see my disclaimer. thanks for reading!
Shopify Overview
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.
eCommerce is the next big thing and finding the best online software to host your store can be a crucial step to the success of your business.
As of today, there are more than 1,000,000 active Shopify stores in the world, generating more $100 billion worth of sales.
For many merchants and store owners Shopify can be considered an excellent choice, although it's not 100% perfect it integrates with brick and mortar stores in an exceptional manner.
It is a self hosted platform, with built in software to create excellent thriving online stores. It's a one-stop shop for anything and everything you need to sell online.
Why Shopify is Best
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. Shopify is an excellent choice for an eCommerce platform and I personally have had a great experience with them.
Ecommerce has been one of the best things that has ever happened to me. As you can tell from my previous Shopify stores, I have made over $100,000 from running a successful ecommerce 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.
Anyone can make money with Shopify and I was able to make my initial investment of $29 in the first few weeks and I went on to make more than that.
Shopify is one of the top eCommerce platforms in 2019 and you can start your own shopify store for as low as $29 a month. Also, if you sign up using my link then you get a 14-day free trial with them.
Related Article : 5 Methods on How to Find Shopify Stores for Product Research
How to Start a Shopify Store Free Email Course
In this free course, I show you how to create an online shopify store from the technical side (it's easy - trust me!) all the way to making your first sale and customers that buy. Join now!
How Much is Shopify?
I love shopify for it's easy to use interface from adding products to building your store page! Many find it popular because of the numerous plans it has and the low start up costs.
Pricing plans start from only $9/month all the way up to $299/month, which is there to accommodate stores that sell high volume.
Fortunately, the plans are monthly so there is no un-ruly year long contracts, which means if you do decide to give up your passion you can easily do so.
Luckily, Shopify offers an option to pause a store for only $9/month so that you can retain customers and make sure your business is not completely shut.
Here's a snippet of the Shopify price plans:
What is Shopify Lite and Shopify Plus?
Both are considered two different eCommerce solutions designed to suit your needs.
- Shopify Lite : Costs $9/month and only allows you to sell on Facebook and messenger.
- Shopify Plus : is $2000/month (minimum) and is more suited for enterprise stores which want to scale. You will have a dedicated support team at this level that offers 24/7 priority support.
Here's My Step-by-Step Beginners Guide on How to Sell on Shopify!
Ready for action? Well now that you know what Shopify is and how it works we can move forward.
I've compiled some basic steps for beginners on selling on Shopify so that you can get a highly converting store making sales right off your initial launch.
1. Set up Your Shopify Account
The best thing I like about Shopify is that the platform is suitable for non-tech people. Setting up products, creating discounts and processing orders can be done in a tick once you've set up your Shopify account.
The first step on selling on Shopify is to register a Shopify account. For beginners, I recommend taking advantage of the free 14-day trial they offer.
One of the best parts is you don't even need a credit card to complete the sign up process (unlike some other free trials).
All the functions are available on the trial so that you can test the waters before spilling out some money.
The account gets automatically cancelled at the end and a plan is required to be purchased in order to start selling.
Enter a valid email address, a password and choose a store name. Be certain on the store name as this will become your primary domain once you've decided to continue.
Once you're happy with the store credentials, you will be requested to answer a couple of questions. The questions relate to if you are currently selling or not.
Simply select what applies from the drop down box! For this example I've selected "I'm just playing around" and my store revenue is $0.
When you're done with that click next to head over to the final step.
The final step is basically to add some business address information so that you can get paid. Fill in the blanks and click next to head over to the admin panel.
Congratulations! You've just created your first shopify store!
From the main menu, Shopify will prompt you to either add products, customize your theme or add a domain.
Since you're a beginner I recommend adding your domain first. Let's cover this off in the next step.
2. Enter a Shopify Domain Address
For those who don't know, a domain is an internet address that links to your website, such as bottomlinecents.com.
This is what customers will type to find your online store. The default domain in Shopify is yourstorename.myshopify.com.
However you can purchase your own store name directly in Shopify and start redirecting customers immediately.
If you're store domain is owned by someone else, don't worry as there is a simple fix for this.
Simply use variations of your domain name for example if you chose yourgoods.com as a primary store name and it was taken you can do the following;
- yourgoodstore.com
- yourgoods.net/.co/.store
- yourgoodshop.com
- youtgoodsdeals.com
These are all variations and your primary name is still in your domain. The chances of these being available is really good.
Here are some good characteristics of a great domain name:
- Short and sweet: Keeping it short will allow customers to remember it effectively. If they can remember it, they will be sure to come back.
- Easy to spell: Don't create strange names that are hard to spell. Customers will find this difficult and it can impact your return rate.
- Keyword Relevant: If you are creating a niche surfing store then it makes sense to have the word surf in there somewhere. This can improve your google SEO ranking tremendously.
3. Select a Shopify Theme
The theme is considered the front end of the store. This is what your customers will see when they visit.
Choosing a attractive, functional and converting theme is highly crucial to your stores professional success.
Luckily, Shopify offers some pretty high end free themes that won't cost you a dime.
Theme editing is highly flexible and it allows you to do the following:
- Customize your own theme: All the free themes allow you modify the entire look and feel from the foundations. So even if you have the same theme as someone else, chances are your web sites will look completely different.
- Select a pre-designed theme: If you find it hard designing your store, then don't worry you can simply choose some pre designed Shopify Themes from the Theme store.
I recommend using the brooklyn theme, it is highly converting and it looks clean and sleek. Once you've made some sales and have the money to invest in something more premium, then go for it.
The beauty about Shopify is that you only need to design the store once and the themes automatically size your store front for any mobile device.
4. Add Products to Shopify
By now you must have a pretty attractive looking Shopify store, but what is a good looking store without some product to sell?
Lets turn our focus on how to sell on Shopify - your very own products!
This is probably one of my favourite steps (and also very time consuming). However it is important that the descriptions, title and pricing is detailed and attractive.
Without these 3 aspects, your products are just going to sit there collecting digital dust!
On the left tab, select "Products" and you will be presented with your products to manage. When you click this for the first time you'll see the screen above. From here you have the options to:
- Add a product manually to Shopify: Adding products manually is ok if you have less than 10 products. However it can be time consuming if you have more. Fortunately there is an awesome app that can do this in seconds.
- Use Oberlo to Add Products: Oberlo is a Shopify app that can import products in seconds. It adds the images, title and also the pricing. I like to leave the description alone and modify this directly in Shopify. Simply search for Oberlo in the app store and install it.
If you have a free theme that seems limited in certain ways, then don't worry to much. The beauty about Shopify is that you can install plenty of apps.
These apps improve your store front and back end (like Oberlo) and allows you to sell faster and grow efficiently.
Apps are both free and paid and you're welcome to all 2600+ Shopify apps but you probably will only need a couple.
Important apps like email marketing, customer tracking and currency conversion (if you sell international) are some of the important ones.
6. Market your business and optimize for conversion
Whoop! You made it, this is the last topic on How to Sell on Shopify!
You're now ready to promote your Shopify store and start making tonnes of sales.
Before I close off this article, I want to say that marketing and optimization is probably the most important aspect of just about any business.
If you've come this far you need to take this last step with importance and there is a couple of ways to market your business:
- Email marketing: This is probably the most neglected form of marketing by many businesses. If you built a list, use it as the money is in the list! Existing customers want to see your new product lines, hear from you and see what sales are up and coming. Take the time to email these customers as makign sales from existing customers is far easier than aquiring new ones.
- Use Social Media Like Facebook or Instagram: So many stores are using Facebook and Instagram to pay for showing their brands. Why not do this as well?
- Improve your Product Page: If you have customers coming to your store but not purchasing, then it could be your product page. Writing effective sales copy is what sets businesses apart from back yard lemon stalls. So be sure to put extra effort into your sales copy.
You've Graduated this Mini Course!
Now you're ready to sell and break the internet with your Shopify store.
Shopify is the perfect solution for beginners as it is easy to use and administer. From order management to front end customization it has it all.
This basic tutorial is all you need to get started to sell online. If you are lost then pop a comment in the question box below, I'd be happy to help.
Important eCommerce Resources
- Shopify is my most recommended eCommerce platform over WooCommerce. If you're thinking of selling things online like t-shirt or print on demand merch, then check out this tutorial.
- I use Dropified for all my Shopify dropshipping stores! Although Oberlo is free, I've never really enjoyed it because it does not automatically fulfill the order. Dropified automatically fulfills the order once the tracking becomes live on Aliexpress (stops customers emailing you if the tracking is not live). Dropified have a free 14-day trial.
- Sweet Upsell is a cost effective tool for improving your average order value by offering limited time discounts to certain products after your customers make a purchase. Improving your average order value is a great way for increasing profits and reducing advertising costs.
- My most recommended dropshipping Shopify theme I use for all my eCommerce stores is Booster Theme. It comes with all the necessary apps (except fulfillment) that will save you at least $89/month. Check out my review of Booster Theme Here.
- If booster theme is out of your price range then I recommend getting Debutify, which starts at a free plan with limited features and then moving onto a tiered monthly plan unlocking certain add on features in different tiers. Check out Debufity here.
- Canva is another great tool I use for creating high engaging Facebook Ad thumbnails and also for creating Print on Demand designs such as t-shirts, mugs or anything else print on demand. They have tonnes of free graphics, vectors, fonts and images under their premium plans.
- Pexda is a product research tool I use when I'm feeling a bit lazy and I want to find Dropshipping products to test without doing any of your own product research. They find the top trending products that are trending and their Ultimate Plan gives you suggestions for products that haven't really been advertised yet.
These are courses/products I have personally vetted and recommend.
