If you are thinking about expanding your business with eCommerce, you are making the right move. E Commerce makes selling more innovative,engaging and most importantly, it grows sales. But what platform would you use to get started? In this week’s article, I’ll show you how to create an online store easily with Shopify.
How Does It Work?
Established in 2004, Shopify is an eCommerce solution that enables business owners to sell their merchandise online. There are generally three ways to do this; build an online store with Shopify, open a Facebook Store or embed product listing on your preexisting website.
1) Online Store
To get started with an online store, simply create a user account with a store name. On the user admin dashboard, you can choose from a variety of website themes which range from free to paid ones.
Theme customization is easy and you can change anything from design layout to your checkout point. Besides a product page, your online store will also have a blog feature which allows you to optimize for SEO through Page Title, Meta Description and exchange comments with readers. You may choose the subdomain from Shopify or use your own custom domain as the store’s address.
When adding products to your store, make sure you have this information ready as they are necessary for the shoppers experience as well as for search engine visibility.
- Product Title, Description and Images
- Pricing, Inventory and Shipping
- Product Categorization
The information will sync automatically and you’ll be able to see the product listing when you visit the store front. The next step is to add in a checkout system and then, you are ready to receive orders online.
2) Facebook Store
If your business already has some social following on Facebook, this eCommerce method is worth considering. To create a Facebook store, you must first read their sales policy as it would affect the way you process orders through the social media platform.
After connecting to a business page, Facebook will review your account. Once you have been approved, you will be able to create a ‘Shop’ tab on your Facebook page and start selling.
3) Buy Button
This method is great for businesses who already have a website and just wanted a simple eCommerce feature without having to relocate the entire site to Shopify’s hosting.
To create a Buy Button, you just need to select a product and copy the embed code. Then, paste the code in the HTML source of your web page and the front end would look something like this.
When customers click on the ‘Buy Now’ button, it would lead them to the checkout system for them to complete their purchase.
How Much Does Shopify Cost?
The Shopify solution is available in four types of packages – the Lite, Basic, Pro and Unlimited. It’s important to note that while the transaction fees varies, you can list unlimited products in all of them.
Here’s the breakdown of the different plans as well as the eCommerce features that they provide.
Shopify also offers a 14-days free trial where you can test out different features before deciding on a plan. They don’t require your credit card information so do check it out.
What Are The Pros and Cons of using Shopify?
For an eCommerce solution, Shopify stands out in many ways. Here are just some of the pros.
- Easy to set up without any designing or technical skills.
- Clean, professional looking and responsive themes for online stores.
- Contain features that are optimized for SEO.
- Extremely affordable. Even without a proper online store, you can acquire basic eCommerce features (the Buy Button) for as low as $9/month.
- Suitable for small, medium as well as enterprise business.
- Offers reputable technical support.
However, it’s not entirely a perfect software for these situations.
- All product sales are subjected to either a transaction fee or a credit card rate, depending on the type of payment system you use. The built-in payment system, which offers a lower rate, is only available in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK.
- To improve the eCommerce feature, you’ll need to install apps in which some are paid, thus increasing your overall maintenance of an online store.
So, Is Shopify Worthy of Your Time?
Out of the box, the Shopify solution is quite easy to use even for beginners and I think this software is a great option for those who want to start an ecommerce business either directly from an online store, through Facebook or from an existing website or blog.
However, after building an online store, you also need to promote it through various methods such as;
- Using keywords in the product SEO.
- Share it on social media.
- Create video tutorials to make your product/store more interesting.
- Write a blog to get more reader engagement.
- Do email marketing to showcase latest products or promotion.
- Use paid advertising on search engines or social networks to drive more targeted audience.
To learn more of these, I highly recommend that you check out Wealthy Affiliate as it is the go-to platform for anyone looking to start an online business. They have some of the best tools, tutorials and even teach you how to build a website from scratch. Combining the eCommerce features from Shopify AND the training at WAU, you will be on the right track to create a successful online store.
I hope this article has offered you some helpful information. If you need any help getting started, just leave me a comment below and I’ll get back to you.
I have heard good things about Shopify. You have put a lot of information in this article which helps see the pros and cons of using Shopify. I have a couple of questions. If you start with the Lite package, can you just upgrade to the next level as needed? What are the average amount of extra costs that will be needed to run a business through Shopify?
Gloria, in response to your questions;
1) Yes, you can upgrade (or downgrade) your eCommerce package as necessary.
2) The extra costs are likely to come from adding apps to your online store and depending on what you need, they would cost between $10s to $100s. So I can’t really quote an average figure because I don’t know the nature of your business. There are free apps that you can use and I would suggest that you start with those first and consider adding paid apps when you have a reasonable profit from your sales.
Hope this helps.
Great article! I had been selling stainless steel jewelry on an auction site, and wanted to expand my sales potential. I had researched the best ecommerce sites and Shopify kept coming up.
I signed up and while I will say configuration was a bit confusing, it truly is a great platform. The transaction fees you mention are no different than those imposed by Paypal, and if you have ever sold on any online platform like Etsy, eBay, etc, transaction fees should not come as any surprise.
I will say that owning your own ecommerce store does require a lot of work. Traffic is not magic, you have to spend time driving traffic to your page, whether its via ads, blog posts etc, which is the one thing I haven’t gotten around to doing yet.
Hi there Jennifer,
The jewelry niche is a popular one and it’s good to know that you are involved in it. Yup, running an eCommerce store is not easy and driving traffic is important to move your products and grow your business.
The online entrepreneurship courses at Wealthy Affiliate offers good quality training on how to create engaging blog posts as well as launching successful PPC campaigns. The training is quite systematic and you can try the first level for free before signing up for the full course.
So do check it out!
Hey there, thank you for sharing this great information with us about Shopify. I have looked at the Shopify platform a few times before and it seems like a really great way of setting up an online store. I also think that this is quite a cost effective way of selling online, looking at the cost per month and the fee’s, I think it’s really very well priced.
Do you think this would work best if you coupled it with PPC campaigns to get really targeted traffic to your products?
Definitely Andrew,
The thing with eCommerce platform is that there are so many of them out there so most people don’t usually find them unique unless you give them a reason to feel so.
Featuring your products on a blog format will give shoppers more information and PPC campaign will certainly drive this audience to your site better.
An easy way to find out if your products have PPC value is to type in the term on the search engine and see if it shows any ads. If there are, chances are there’s usually a market demand for that product as well.
If you wish to learn more about creating a successful PPC campaign, I would recommend that you check out the training by Kyle from Wealthy Affiliate as he is pretty experienced in this field of online marketing.
This article is gold! I’m currently not at the stage where I want an eCommerce, but this article here let’s me know that if I ever think it’s a good idea, I should immediately follow up. Plus, I will know exactly where to go before setting it all up. I really like how you posted the pros and cons of Shopify, and to me, the cons are not too big of an issue. I know eventually I’ll set up an eCommerce page. Very well written and enjoyed the read.
Hi there Michael,
Looks like you have some exciting plans ahead for your online business. That’s good. Shopify is a reputable eCommerce platform and I personally think that the pros outweigh the cons in many ways. Once you have the product page set up, don’t forget to check out the training at Wealthy Affiliate to learn how to drive traffic to your site.
If you need any help getting started, just let me know.
Great article on Shopify, it’s one of those platforms I’ve wanted to investigate but have never had the time. I’ve looked into others but not Shopify. Thank you for clarifying it’s pros and cons as I am all the more wiser now. I am not sure if I could use Shopify because of having to pay a commission to them for every sale and all the apps that are needed to maintain a shop. Everything else appears fine, but I do think there are better ones out there.
Hi there Sharon,
Most eCommerce platform are going to charge a small percentage from your product sales. If they don’t, it’s questionable how they even make money or maintain their software. But some can charge very high, even up to 20%. I would recommend that you compare different platforms based on their transaction fees as well as the features that they provide.
If they offer a free trial, go for it and experiment with the user interface and buyer’s experience. This would give you a better idea on which one that suits your business needs.
This is a very interesting article with a lot of good information for people wanting to start or expand on an online business.
I may look into it in a bit more detail in the future, but as for now, I have to focus on 1 thing at a time and get it done before moving on to my next venture.
Definitely Thomas,
Setting up an online store isn’t for everyone. It requires a lot of detailed planning from product acquisition to payment so if this is too much on your plate, starting with an affiliate business would be a better choice. With that, at least you can just focus on the technical side of online marketing rather than managing products at the same time.
Hi Cathy. I love your website! It’s pleasing to the eyes, structured and loads of information (but not overloading). I dabbled in Shopify before but didn’t progress very far because I didn’t have a niche or anything like that.
But now I do, I’m building my site first before I venture into something like this. I love the information here. Thank you so much.
Welcome to my blog Eddy,
Sounds like you’ve started on the right track. Finding your business niche is the most important step as an online entrepreneur and you may find yourself experimenting with different situations in the next few months to come – but that’s all good.
If you need any help moving forward, just let me know.