Online shopping has grown a lot over the past few years.
Taking advantage of this has allowed E-Commerce platform like Shopify to maximize their revenue and users.
With the great user experience of the platform and integrated merchant solutions, I am not surprised by their outstanding growth performance in the past years.
It is very simple to open a Shopify account, and they even offer a free trial where you get 3 months of your selected plan for just $1.
Interested in running your own online business and quitting your mundane job? Keep reading.
There are different ways how everyone can start making money with Shopify. You can either build your own E-commerce store, start dropshipping, become a Shopify affiliate, sign up for Shopify’s Partner Program, or even become a Shopify Virtual Assistant.
Let’s have a closer look at all of these options.
Can You Make Money on Shopify?
The outstanding growth of Shopify revenue and user growth demonstrates that there is big potential to earn serious money.
The LittleData survey just confirms this hypothesis.
From 2,261 surveyed Shopify stores, the average revenue per customer is US$ 92.
So to make it clear – YES, a Shopify store can become a good revenue stream.
The main benefit of Shopify is the ability to customize the features and add plugins, which allows you to create a store without having to know any programming or coding.
To do it right, you have to create a good marketing strategy and research the target market for the products you plan to sell.
Without further ado, let’s look at some cool Shopify ideas and things to sell on Shopify.
6 Ways To Make Money with Shopify
The possibilities for making money with Shopify are endless, and you don’t even have to maintain inventory for some of these amazing Shopify ideas.
These are the top 6 ways you can make money on Shopify.
1. Build E-Commerce Store
Starting an E-Commerce store is one of the best Shopify business ideas because the platform makes it easy to create your own store.
Whether you need to start a store or have an existing business that needs to be online, Shopify is the perfect solution.
One of the coolest things about Shopify is that it allows you to sell anything, whether you are selling Print on Demand products, digital products, clothing, or even services.
Shopify makes it easy to add products, organize them, and make shopping easy for customers.
In order to create an amazing store, you have an extensive selection of professional templates from which to choose.
Also, Shopify offers a variety of analytical tools related to e-commerce and SEO, which makes it ideal for SEO-oriented users.
There is also an amazing load speed on this website which makes e-commerce on it a breeze as it will load in a matter of seconds.
Pro tip: As with every online marketplace or service, you should offer great customer service.
When offering them outstanding customer service and different ways how to connect with you, they will remember your shop and come back to buy again.
In the best case, they recommend your shop to their family or friends.
2. Start a Dropshipping Business
Nowadays, dropshipping is a big deal, and tons of people make money from it.
With its low startup costs and ability to scale, a dropshipping store can be a fantastic opportunity for you to make money.
Launching a dropping store can be a good side hustle or a full-time business idea.
For those who don’t know how dropshipping works, it allows you to fulfill orders through third parties without maintaining inventory.
The key is finding suppliers whose product is like yours. Once that’s done, upload your products to the store and watch for orders to come in.
Once customer buy a produt, you’ll forward the order to the suppliers, and he delivers it to the customers.
Your responsibility is to track the order, make sure it arrives as agreed, and the customer communication.
If you’re on Shopify, there’s an app for almost everything. Oberlo is Shopify’s marketplace for letting entrepreneurs sell their products.
When it comes to finding original U.S. and European products, Spocket.co is another great plugin.
3. Affiliate Marketing
In case you do think E-Commerce is not a good choice for you, you can make money with Shopify by joining their affiliate program.
Courses, social media, YouTube are good ways to start building audience where you can refer Shopify platform and earn for every signup coming from you.
If you refer a person to the Shopify business plan through your link, you will get a $150 commission for each qualified lead.
With 30-day cookie tracking, you get your commission even if they sign up and purchase the plan within 30 days from the first time they clicked the link.
The best and most efficient ways to start building your audience and earn with affiliate marketing is by starting your own blog.
If done right, you can build a sustainable income for you without any equipment or team.
In my guide blogging for beginners, you can learn the best practices on how to start your successful blog.
4. Join Shopify Partner Program
Joining the Shopify Partner Program is another fantastic way to earn extra money with Shopify.
Shopify Partner Program is usually made up of web developers, store designers, and theme creators who are interested in boosting their business and earning commissions on a monthly basis.
There is a variation in commission rates depending on the category.
As a web developer, you are able to earn 20% of a client’s Shopify subscription plan if you help them build a new store or make improvements to the one they already have.
If you are good at creating themes for stores, then you will be paid 70% of the sales that come from the themes that you create.
In the Partner Dashboard, Shopify Partners can access a number of tools.
This dashboard gives you access to all the revenue that has been generated by your business.
Aside from that, the Shopify Partner Dashboard also allows you to see all the money-making items, such as apps, themes, and plugins, on your account.
5. Become Shopify Virtual Assistant
Usually, Shopify store owners run their stores themselves at the beginning, which is reasonable since it’s more cost-effective at the beginning.
Once your store gets bigger and sales start going up, you don’t have the time to supervise operations and make decisions about the business as a whole.
It can be very helpful to hire a Virtual Assistant (VA) in such a case.
Virtual assistants are people hired remotely to help a store owner with daily tasks.
A virtual assistant should be able to manage a variety of tasks in different areas of business, such as product management, customer support, social media management, content creation, and many more.
If you don’t have the capital to start your own Shopify store, you can learn these skills and offer them to different store owners.
When you offer your services as a Shopify VA, you will become more familiar with how things work and can eventually start your own store in the future.
The best places to start as VA are Upwork and Fiverr.
There are thousands of potential customers searching every day for basic or advanced VA services.
6. Develop Apps for Merchants
Developing apps for merchants is an advanced Shopify strategy because you have to know how to code.
If you’ve made apps before, then you can help “expand” the Shopify platform and generate extra income for yours.
Shopify apps can be thought of as plugins that add to an online store’s functionality and make it more consumer-friendly.
If you are looking for an app for your Shopify store, you will find there is a huge selection available.
Many Shopify apps allow sellers to automate all aspects of their online store.
Generally, there are four types of Shopify apps:
- Public Apps: Available on Shopify’s Development Store, they can be accessed by any dealer.
- Custom Apps: Designed for merchants with defined requirements. As they are customized separately, they are not listed in the Shopify App Development store.
- Private Apps: Private apps are used when custom apps don’t meet the client’s needs. There is no listing for them in the Shopify app store.
- Draft Apps: Shopify Partners use draft apps to review ideas while developing Shopify Apps. Only development stores can open them, so store transfers are forever hampered.
5 Best Shopify Business Ideas
Basically, what the word “online” means is that it links businesses with consumers.
From anywhere in the world, you can reach anybody with it.
By combining the right strategies with dedication, you’ll be able to sell your stuff to them and generate profits.
But to be successful in the online world full of competition, you have to or create something original.
Simply, you have to be different.
Let me show you 6 hottest ideas in industries with high potential you can start and dominate right now:
1. Clothing Line
As a matter of fact, fashion and apparel is the second largest industry using Shopify.
Creating your clothing brand is a great way to own an ecommerce store, even if you are not a designer.
Now, printing clothes is easier and more convenient than ever before.
Thanks to Shopify’s partnership with Printful and Printify, you will be able to connect with apparel printers and manufacturers through your store.
As an additional benefit of these providers, they are capable of handling retail fulfillment as well, eliminating the need for stocking and packing.
To really succeed with your clothing brand, however, you need to find a market need.
Additionally, it is essential to understand your target audience.
Use the advantage of social media. There are tons of content published every day on TikTok or Instagram
These are great ways to learn all about the fashion today. And, of course, recognize some trends and “ride them”.
And lastly, you must develop a business plan and decide what your business model will be.
2. Sell Artwork
Selling artwork can be one of the ideal examples of the best things to sell on Shopify.
Unlike a gallery, a Shopify seller does not have to pay a commission to the gallery, so you get all the money in your pocket.
In addition, you can easily market your art online if you are trying to reach teenagers.
Unlike other platforms, Shopify allows you to build your website or sell from your accounts on social media, which gives you an advantage over other platforms.
Moreover, it lets you customize your website to match your personal style and appearance.
Thus, customers and fans are able to experience purchases in an even more captivating way.
It is even possible to add popups as a means of advertising events, generating registrations, or making a call to action for your readers.
As a result, your conversion rates will improve, and you will be able to convert more leads.
3. Grocery Store
Shopify makes it easy for anyone to start their own online grocery store, regardless of whether they grow their own fruits and vegetables or own a local grocery store.
It is not difficult to start an online grocery store since there is no need to worry about fitting or quality control like there is in so many other types of products.
Focus on SEO keywords that are relevant to your area so that you have the best chance of ranking for these keywords and reaching even more people.
In addition, popups that can be geo-targeted are excellent for converting visitors into customers.
You’ve got to grab your visitors’ attention as soon as they land at your Shopify grocery store.
Create sections such as best deals, lowest prices, and featured items to catch the attention of your audience.
Make sure you don’t use a theme that is heavy on your store, as this can negatively affect page loading speed.
4. Print on Demand Products
Print on Demand products are a remarkable and lucrative way to sell.
With print-on-demand, there is no need to maintain excess inventory, which is one of the most significant advantages.
There’s no need to keep hundreds or thousands of items and wait for sales; just make the items when someone orders them.
When it comes to t-shirts and fan gear, where design makes all the difference, print-on-demand has the biggest advantage over dropshipping.
Third-party partners are available throughout the world to manage your manufacturing processes, which include storing and delivering the products to customers.
Depending on what you are looking for, you can choose from a wide variety of print-on-demand product types, including T-shirts, cups and mugs, bags, accessories, laptop and phone cases, gift cards, invitation cards, and a whole lot more.
5. Sell Digital Products
Selling digital products on Shopify can get you crazy profit margins.
The initial costs of making digital products can be high, but selling them isn’t that expensive.
Delivery of a digital product to a customer is not very expensive once it has been created.
The advantage of selling digital products is that they can be sold millions of times to an array of different customers without the need to keep restocking your inventory.
The number of products you can sell is unlimited.
Digital products can be classified into a wide range of categories, such as eBooks, apps, PDFs, and design templates, to name a few.
As a passive source of income for influencers, content creators, or even celebrities, it is no surprise that they release online products as a means of making a living.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Shopify make you rich?
With many successful online stores launched on the Shopify platform, there is no doubt you can build a profitable business with them.
What you need to focus on is the right strategy.
The fact, that you can build your online store without knowing how to code, allows you to reach your target customers all around the world.
Due to the low startup costs and efficient business models, these ways offer you huge potential to build a profitable business.
These can turn very fast to your advantage. Choose the way that appears the most to you.
As the online world perfect opportunity how to build wealth, it is becoming quite competitive.
So remember, you need to play the long term game. There is a lot of hard work you have to invest to become successful.
As you gain experience in doing business on Shopify, you can start experimenting with other business models or exploring other E-Commerce websites such as Amazon and eBay, so you can grow your business even further by expanding your online presence.
Shopify is not a get-rich-quick scheme like any other business model. Persistence, in-depth market research, hard work, and smart work are all necessary to do any business.
Is Shopify good for beginners?
As the platform has become very popular in recent years, there is a lot of content for free that helps you grow as a beginner.
Different platforms like YouTube or Udemy are offering online courses, paid or free.
The best ways to get started with Shopify is to register on the Shopify Partner Academy.
From “Store Operations Fundamentals”, to “Designing for Conversion”, and even “Theme Development Certification”, you can get certified in any of these fields and start as a beginner.
How much does the average Shopify store make per month?
It depends on the niche of the Shopify store and the market dynamics of that niche.
You can make a lot of money if you choose the right niche, but you can lose money if you pick the wrong niche.
However, in 2020 the average Shopify store revenue was $72 per customer. With simple math: if you can get 1000 customers with $72 average revenue, you will end up with $72,000.
When it comes to average earnings, there aren’t any set numbers.
Finding a niche that suits your tastes and expertise is the key to focusing your efforts.
And because everyone is on the internet right now, so you should conduct market research before getting into an online business, especially one that involves E-Commerce.
Wrapping Up
I hope you like this article, and now you feel more confident about how to start and build a profitable Shopify business.
Just remember, before you start, perform a deep market, competition, and target audience/customer research.
It is important to decide on the right Shopify business idea.
It does not have to be a black or white choice.
As a side hustler, you will have the ability to validate your ideas and scale your business from there as your ideas grow.
If you do not want to go big, you can keep things small. When you start your own online business, you have all the control over what happens.
You have to be patient, know what you’re doing, and use marketing to build your brand. Whenever you decide to venture into the world of E-Commerce, ensure that you have a comprehensive business plan and marketing strategy in place.
