Find Out How to Make Money on Shopify with These 7 Methods

Starting an online business isn’t only for tech savvy entrepreneurs anymore. It’s possible to quickly convert your interests and skills into a steady income. Keep reading as we cover today’s most popular methods for making money on Shopify.

Laying a Solid Foundation

Shopify is easy, simple, and flexible, but you still need to build and maintain your site no matter how you make your money. The following are true no matter which method you choose to sell your products.

Use a responsive Shopify theme for your store.
Start small and expand as your brand becomes more popular.
Customer retention will boost profitability. Spend time and resources on growing customer loyalty.
Be active and responsive on social media to expand the reach of your brand.
Focus on what many Amazon storefronts don’t offer, such as trust, quality products, excellent customer service, free shipping, money-back guarantee, etc.

Making Money on Shopify with Physical Products

Selling physical products online doesn’t mean you need to rent a warehouse and keep an inventory that may never turn a profit. While it’s possible to run a traditional eCommerce store with Shopify, the platform’s functionality makes it easy to do so much more.

Dropshipping

If you have a limited budget, dropshipping is a great way to start your online store.

Suppliers have products they want to sell, and your online store can serve as the point of sale. You attract the customers, they purchase products in your store, the supplier takes care of the rest — packing, order fulfillment, shipping, etc.

Dropshipping allows you to conveniently bypass barriers that would normally stop you from starting an online store, such as product development, warehousing, overhead, and shipping.

Dropshipping Tips

Don’t try to imitate Amazon. Spend time finding the right niche.
With dropshipping, the website is entirely under your control. Make sure it’s fully optimized with well-written product headings, detailed product descriptions, original high-quality images, videos, etc.
Your store’s reputation depends on your dropshipping suppliers, so pick them carefully.
Pricing is crucial. Each product’s price should give you a profit but should also be lower than what your competitors offer.

Print on Demand

Print on demand (POD) is yet another way to make a living from your living room. Like dropshipping, the POD business strategy eliminates the need for an inventory or huge starting capital. You only need a Shopify store and a few original images or graphic ideas to get the ball rolling.

You create a Shopify store, upload design images to a POD supplier, and promote your products. When customers pick a design to be printed on blank merchandise (like apparel, coffee mugs, etc.), you send the order to your supplier who prints the product and fulfills the order.

Print on Demand Tips

Merchandise options typically include mugs, t-shirts, books, caps, bags, accessories, stickers, etc. It’s important to research what products your niche is interested in buying before setting up your store and choosing a POD supplier.
Your return policy and money-back guarantee must align with the supplier’s policies on these issues.
Always be ready to experiment and improve your designs to boost performance.
Focus on designs that are trending with your target audience. Don’t be afraid to work with skilled freelancers if you lack the ability to create professional images.
Be careful with copyrights! Don’t knowingly steal, borrow, repurpose, or imitate another designer or artist’s works without understanding the legal consequences of doing so.

Product Flipping

Can you get your hands on in-demand products for a good price? Garage sales, thrift stores, eBay, auctions, and estate sales are all good places to source products that may have a strong market outside of your local community.

This method is slightly harder than dropshipping, but still easier than starting an original brand from scratch. Unlike dropshipping, you’re responsible for sourcing the products, storing the inventory, fulfilling orders, and shipping the items to your customers.

Product Flipping Tips

Sell products that are useful and in good condition to grow brand trust.
Don’t sell every product you find. Start with a niche and add more categories later.
Unique items, high-end brands, and high-quality products sell faster and yield higher profits.
Invest in a light box, a good quality camera, and image editing software (we suggest GIMP because it’s free) to create high-quality photos of the products you’re flipping.

Subscription Boxes

The subscription box boom isn’t disappearing yet. Consumers continue to show interest in receiving a collection of curated products every month that match their lifestyle or interests. In the United States, more than 15% of online shoppers have opted for at least one subscription box in the past based on research by McKinsey & Company.

Starting a subscription box business is neither difficult nor expensive with Shopify, and it provides the opportunity to generate a steady monthly revenue. You will be required to continually research new products to offer as well as invest in branded packaging for shipments, but it’s possible to quickly scale this method or keep it as a side gig run from the comfort of your home.

Subscription Box Tips

To differentiate your business from your competitors, it’s crucial to make your niche and subscriptions unique.
The products must closely match the lifestyle and interests of your customers.
Build long-term relationships with large-scale suppliers you can depend on to supply quality products.
Many subscription box businesses fail because of poor pricing. The average charge per box must cover the original cost of the products, business expenses, and profit margin.

Making Money on Shopify with Digital Products

Compared with physical products, digital products have a lot going for them. They’re low cost, have a long lifespan, and can reliably bring in sales revenue. The limitation is that for them to be effective, you need to be an industry expert, a creative talent, or a thorough researcher to create a product your audience wants to buy.

Digital Downloads

Not only are digital downloads often the preferred format for Millennial and Gen Z consumers, they’re also one of the most cost-effective, profitable products to add to your online business. This income source is extremely appealing to many store owners because you never need to replenish your inventory.

Invest in creating a great digital product, and then sit back and watch it sell again and again. There’s a long list of products that you can offer as digital downloads through Shopify, including e-books, music, software, stock photos and videos, wallpaper art, and more.

Digital Download Tips

You’re competing with free content and piracy, so select your niche carefully and market aggressively.
Look closely at Shopify’s paid apps, which provide built-in protection for your assets.
Keep the prices reasonable and focus on quality.
Find your target audience and convince them why your product is worth spending their hard-earned money.
Win them over with discounts and customer service.

Online Courses

If you’re an expert on a subject or know one or more specialists who are willing to share their knowledge, you can create an online course in a niche field through digital videos and supplemental materials that require a one-time purchase or monthly subscription to access the information.

This is an excellent way for you to make money by sharing your skills, expertise, and experiences with those less knowledgeable in your field. Rather than giving a cut of your profits to Udemy, Shopify is the perfect delivery platform with apps such as Courses that let you create and showcase online courses on your site.

Online Course Tips

While making the course informative, make sure your ideas and concepts are easy to understand. This will require a logical course structure, professional video editing, and possibly animated graphics (which can be outsourced to a freelancer).
Divide the course into multiple chapters and topics. Each video should cover just one topic.
Create short tutorial videos that are no more than 10—12 minutes long.
Make the online course accessible on all devices.
Try signing up for an online course similar to your field that has good customer ratings, and take note of why you think it’s effective.

Freelance Services

There are a few challenges but many advantages to providing your freelance services directly through a Shopify site. Shopify’s cut of your revenue is drastically lower than the 25–50% that other freelancer platforms take, but you need to have a reputation and references that will drive clients to your site.

Web developers, web designers, SEO and SMM managers, writers, and virtual assistants are just a few of the roles that are currently in high demand.

Freelance Service Tips

The first impression is important, so choose a Shopify theme that highlights what you can offer.
Instead of products, list your portfolios to showcase your experience.
Create a pricing policy that clearly explains costs, rate structure, payment schedule, and payment methods.
Market your skills and abilities by building backlinks from trusted websites in your industry.

Bonus: Shopify Affiliate Program

You’ve gone to all the work of learning how Shopify works, so why not promote it to others in return for a commission. Shopify’s Affiliate Program rewards you for recommending and successfully convincing your audience to sign up for a paid Shopify plan.

Find Your Own Way to Make Money on Shopify

There are so many ways to make money on Shopify, and the methods above are simply what is currently found to be some of the most effective. The great thing about this platform is that however you choose to build your business, you don’t need technical knowledge or large capital to get started. By investing your time, effort, and less than $100 a month (including the theme and apps), you can make money online!