Shopify is perhaps the most popular eCommerce platform out there. With more than one million stores currently running on Shopify, and more than 4000 different third-party apps to pick from, Shopify offers the most diversified, yet solid platform to run an online store.
The truth, however, is that not everyone with a Shopify store is making money off it. More often than not, it has got less to do with Shopify as a platform, and more to do with the strategies that are deployed to bring targeted traffic to the store, and convert them.
The good news is that Shopify has all the tools that one would need to not only set up an online store but also market them in order to bring a steady stream of customers.
In this article, we are going to read some of these strategies that one can use to make money on Shopify.
Is selling on Shopify worth it?
Let’s be honest – Shopify is not the only eCommerce platform available. There are several free alternatives like Magento, WooCommerce, and PrestaShop that you could go with instead.
So why should anyone pick a paid tool like Shopify over these free alternatives? The answer to this comes down to the ecosystem.
Shopify boasts of one of the most sophisticated eCommerce ecosystems in the market today. You have literally thousands of beautiful themes to choose from. There are more than 4200 third-party apps that you can deploy to build a sophisticated store.
This is not to mention the million-plus fellow customers that you can chat with on eCommerce forums to help you with anything and everything related to selling on Shopify.
So, when you think about it, the time it takes for you to learn the trade and start making money is much shorter with Shopify, than it is with other free alternatives.
Sure, you don’t spend a penny upfront with WooCommerce – but you more than make up for the investments with Shopify in quick time.
A word of note here – this is not to say that platforms like Magento and WooCommerce don’t have an ecosystem out there. They absolutely do. But given that Shopify is a paid tool, the average Shopify customer is a lot more motivated to succeed than users of free alternatives and is thus more likely to help you better.
Can Shopify make you rich?
Yes, your Shopify store can absolutely make you rich. But they can also burn a hole in your pocket with no revenues to show.
The answer to this question is it depends. Shopify is not a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. All that the business offers is a platform for you to run an online store on. How much money you make depends on a lot of factors like the specific products you sell, the audience you target, the marketing campaigns that you execute, your pricing compared to competitors, and lastly, your branding.
The good news is that Shopify has all the tools to help you succeed, and make a lot of money in the process.
You can use apps like Oberlo to launch a successful store with no inventory of your own. The app connects you to dropshipping suppliers and lists products directly from them so that when you do make a sale, the app directly lets the dropshipper fulfill the order on your behalf.
All you need to do in such cases is market your store – without any of hassles related to stocking, shipping, or order fulfillment.
There are apps like Privy that lets you capture email addresses and send marketing mailers. Apps like ReferralCandy let you build a loyal audience. And, there are of course dozens of apps that handle shipping for you at the cheapest rates.
All it takes is a click of a few buttons to integrate all of these different features into your store. No coding is required. In other words, if you have the right strategy to grow your store, you have all the necessary tools on Shopify to make it happen. And from that perspective, yes, Shopify can absolutely make you rich.
Are Shopify stores profitable?
The short answer to this question is that Shopify stores are like any other business. A lot of them fail, some of them make a little money, and a few of them make thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit.
Here is the long answer. Shopify, like any other eCommerce platform like BigCommerce or WooCommerce or even the Amazon marketplace, is just that – a platform. The success or failure of it depends entirely on what you make of it.
Let’s say you sell apparel online. You may decide to sell it on Amazon, or Etsy, or your own eCommerce website (with Shopify). Each of these decisions comes at a cost.
Selling on Amazon gives you fantastic visibility. But Amazon also takes a big cut off your earnings. Relative to this, selling products in your own store may seem a lot more profitable on a per-unit basis. But for your store to be truly profitable and a business you can live off of, you need to market your store well and get a ton of traffic.
Where Shopify stands out is in its reliability and ease of integration. When you run an eCommerce website on Shopify, the store itself is hosted on Shopify’s servers. These services have a really high uptime of 99.99% – which means that your stores rarely ever go down even during peak traffic.
Add to this the ability to quickly integrate various marketing tools, you will realize that all the roadblocks that can potentially lower your site’s success are taken away when you use Shopify. Success is completely dependent on the work you put in.
How much do successful Shopify stores make?
Let’s consider Alexa traffic rankings as a barometer for successful stores. Going by this, some of the biggest Shopify stores today are Cettire.com (Alexa rank 1388), ColourPop.com (Alexa rank: 2772), FashionNova.com (Alexa rank: 3377), JB Hi-Fi (Alexa rank: 3764), and Gymshark.com (Alexa rank: 3657).
Now we do not exactly know how much these stores make. But according to various third-party sources, Cettire.com is doing nearly $110 million a year in revenue. ColourPop Cosmetics is making around $257 million in net sales, while FashionNova has more than double that at
$597 million.
JB Hi-Fi’s sales are mostly generated in Australia and it has an annual sales figure of around $330 million while GymShark nets $295 million annually.
So, as you can see, successful Shopify stores can bring you revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars. But truth be told, Shopify is just one of the many cogs in the wheels that have made these brands successful. Great product lines, amazing customer service, and marketing have probably played a bigger role.
But the fact that most of these successful stores still run their online stores on Shopify tells you that this is a platform that can truly scale up as much as you want it to.
How long does it take to make money on Shopify?
When it comes to making money on Shopify, you need to spend either time or money in acquiring customers. Organic marketing strategies like SEO or social media marketing take time to deliver. But they cost relatively less money than advertising. But with online ads, you would be able to make sales as soon as you start running them.
So, which of these two strategies should you deploy with your Shopify store? The answer to this depends on a number of factors.
Firstly, what is the sales cycle for your product like. If you were selling a high-ticket product like a mattress, then the customer is going to need a lot of time to review various alternatives before they make a decision. Here, you could deploy content marketing strategies to draw potential visitors in (either with SEO or PPC), capture their lead, and then nurture them with your marketing mailers before converting them.
Since the margins on your product are high, you can afford this elaborate engagement.
However, for products with very short sales cycles, it is a good idea to be the first site they visit while researching the topic. A PPC ad for the targeted term could help you with your conversion.
This brings us to the next factor which is pricing margins. A product with a high-profit margin can be a viable candidate for PPC ads since you can spend money on acquiring customers to your website.
But if you are selling $10 t-shirts, you really do not have a lot of bandwidth in advertising your products. In such cases, you may want to go with an organic marketing channel like social media.
How much does it cost to start a Shopify store?
It only costs $9/month to start selling with Shopify. This is the Shopify Lite plan that lets you add a product to any website or blog and be able to accept credit card payments for purchases.
Realistically speaking though, this plan is quite limited. You will need a Shopify Basic plan at $29/month to be able to set up a decent store. You get to stock any number of items, have up to 4 locations (if you sell across multiple regions), and 24/7 support.
If you have multiple staff in your team who you want to handle various aspects of running a store (like processing orders, updating product descriptions, etc.), then you must check out their higher-priced plans like the “Shopify” plan or the “Advanced Shopify” plan – they are priced $79/month and $299/month respectively and have more features – like up to 15 staff accounts, up to 8 locations, advanced reports, forex price controls, and international domains for various geographies.
In terms of expenses, this is not everything, though. There are transaction fees that need to be covered (typically between 2.4% and 2.9%). If you want a custom theme for your store, then you are going to be buying it from a third-party vendor that is going to cost money.
Plus, remember all the third-party apps I mentioned that make Shopify such a great eCommerce platform, to begin with? Most of them cost money as well – depending on which apps you install, you are going to be spending money on these apps as well.
In addition to these regular plans, Shopify also has a “Shopify Plus” plan that is meant for large businesses (think Staples, Heinz, etc.). I am not going to cover this in any detail because I don’t expect someone from Staples to be searching on “how to make money on Shopify” anyway!
Can you start Shopify with no money?
With the right strategy, you can establish a profitable Shopify business without spending a dollar from your pocket. Shopify offers a free 14-day trial to its customers. So, in order to launch a successful store with zero spend, this is what you must do:
- Create a marketing channel before you start your store. This could be a social media account with a targeted following, an email list, etc.
- Sign up for the free 14-day trial on Shopify
- Upload one or two of your most popular products
- Create a limited-time discount – let customers know that the high discount is to make up for the possible long waiting time
- Once you get a critical number of orders, set up a bulk purchase from your supplier and fulfill it. You may also dropship if that’s the arrangement you want to go with.
The beauty of this strategy is that it requires you to spend no money upfront. Yet, you will be able to secure traction for your business at short notice.
Of course, this is easier said than done. How do you go about creating a marketing channel that can give you such stupendous results. Well, the answer to this will separate the winners from the losers.
Can I sell anything on Shopify?
No, you can’t. Shopify prohibits its customers from selling a whole bunch of different products that violate its acceptable use policy.
These include certain firearms or firearm parts, products or services that exploit or abuse children, those that condone hate or violence or represent organizations that do this, or infringe copyright or trademarks, use deceptive or illegal practices, promote self-harm, spam, or fund terrorist organizations.
A general rule of thumb – do not sell anything that runs afoul of any local or international laws and regulations.
How do I start my own Shopify store?
Starting your own Shopify store is as simple as clicking a few buttons on your computer.
Step 1: Visit the Shopify homepage, and enter your email address and click on ‘Start free trial’
Step 2: You will be taken through a series of steps where you enter details like your store name, the name of your products, product image, price, and so on.
Step 3: Launch the store
This is literally it. Of course, there are other steps like picking the right theme for your store, integrating your store with apps from the Shopify app store, connecting Shopify payments with your bank, and completing other tax related information.
But when you are just starting out, the three steps mentioned above answers the question of how you can start your own Shopify store.
