Shopify: How to make money with an online store

Find the best Shopify theme for your store

As we mentioned earlier, there is a wide range of themes to choose from for your Shopify store. While premium themes can cost up to $500 (around £400), there are plenty of free themes to choose from.

Think about your brand’s overall style and target audience. And if you can, try to find one that matches your social media visuals.

You don’t necessarily have to spend a fortune to get fancy. Just a simple (and free) design can be enough to launch your new store.

Get Shopify apps to enhance your store

There are so many apps available to Shopify members. Some are generic, but some are designed specifically for the platform.

For example, there is an app with a free package called Instafeed. It’s built for Shopify and allows you to add Instagram content to your online store, with your products tagged in the posts.

Not only will Instagram reels and photos look great, but they will also drive more people to your social channels and increase your business’ social proof. In case you’re not familiar with social proof, it’s a concept that suggests that people are more likely to trust and engage with brands that already have an audience.

Another example of a Shopify app is Vitals. It has a free trial of up to 30 days, but after that it costs $29.99+ (around £24) per month. The app aims to increase conversions in several ways, such as helping you get more signups for your newsletter using pop-ups.

Consider dropshipping through Shopify

Struggling to find a place to store your products? Dropshipping could be a good solution.

Basically, dropshipping is an order fulfillment method that involves outsourcing the management and shipping of products. This means that you, as a store owner, do not have to store part of the stock yourself – a third party does it all for you.

The extent to which the dropshipper manages the process depends on your agreement with them. They might just take care of warehousing and shipping, or they might go beyond that and handle things like stock taking.

Do a few calculations to determine if the cost of dropshipping is worth it to run your Shopify store. Especially when you’re just starting out, you may find that you can stock your own inventory to maximize your profits.

Improve your Shopify SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a vital skill for anyone doing business online.

When your web pages rank high for relevant keywords on Google or Bing, people searching for those terms will come across your site. And of course, the more visitors you have to your online store, the more sales you can make – which is SEO very worth.

Shopify automatically handles some aspects of technical SEO, such as adding auto-generated canonical tags to your pages (to avoid duplicate content issues), as well as adding title tags to topics that include your store name.

But while technical SEO is generally about the back end of a website, there are also things you can do on the front end of a website to improve its rankings.

Specifically, target keywords in your copy. By this we don’t mean overusing certain words or phrases for their own sake – that’s not helpful. Instead, think about what people will search for when they search for keywords and focus on creating content that answers their questions.

Again, read Shopify’s tips to optimize your product listings when launching your store.

You can also use SEO tools to improve your keyword research and competitor analysis. SEMrush is a good example and they offer a free trial for students.

Also, if you haven’t already, read Google’s SEO Beginner’s Guide.

Optimize your POS system with Shopify

Point of sale (POS) is a key aspect of any e-commerce business. If billing is too slow or if unnecessary problems arise, it can be the difference between a sale going through or not.

Smooth and easy checkout can also encourage customers to return to your online store again in the future.

At Shopify, you can personalize your POS with process improvement apps, and their customer service is there if you need help with anything.

Join Shopify Collabs

Shopify Collabs is an app that simplifies the process of finding influencers and content creators to work with.

Influencer marketing can be an incredibly powerful way to drive sales and increase your online presence. If that’s an approach you want to try, this app is worth checking out.

As a store owner, you can promote your products online and then creators can sign up to work with you. The app also helps you track gifted items, affiliate offers, and commission payments.

You can download the app for free, but there is a 2.9% commission for processing automatic payments.

Although this app has some great features, reviews are mixed. At the time of writing, the overall rating on the Shopify app store is 3.3/5. However, about 40% of the ratings are five stars, so there are still quite a few positive reviews.

Take some time and read the reviews before you get the app to decide if it’s right for you.

Join the Shopify affiliate program

Do you know other entrepreneurs who might be interested in opening a Shopify store? If you become an affiliate partner with Shopify, you have the opportunity to earn a commission every time someone you refer becomes a merchant on the platform.

You will need to sign up to join the affiliate program on the Shopify website.

To help you get started, we have a guide that covers how affiliate marketing works.

Become a Shopify Partner

If you want to look beyond your own Shopify store, you could become a partner and work with other business leaders to help them grow.

There are several ways to work as a Shopify partner, such as:

• Create an app – Spotted a gap in the market? Run your own Shopify app to help improve processes and save time for other merchants.
• Become a Shopify Consultant – If you’ve built a successful online store yourself, you’ll be in a great position to advise others on their e-commerce business strategy.
• Refer new merchants to Shopify – Once you join the Shopify Partner Program, you can earn a 20% commission on the merchant subscription fees you bring to the platform.

Expand your store with Shopify Plus

For large online stores, Shopify Plus can be a great way to grow your business.

Remember earlier when we listed examples of Gymshark and Kylie Cosmetics as stores that used the platform? Shopify Plus is the side of the platform designed for large e-commerce sites like these.

If you’re just getting started with eCommerce, this advice won’t apply to you…yet. But we’d never stop you from aiming big.

For anyone who dreams of creating an international online store, Shopify could be a good platform for you throughout your brand development journey.

As you’d expect, it’s expensive. Prices start at $2,300 per month (around £1,835) for a three-year term.

It’s probably worth starting with a basic plan and upgrading as and when your business takes off.

Who knows, maybe in a few years we’ll be mentioning your store alongside Gymshark and Kylie Cosmetics as an example of a super successful Shopify business.