· 13 min read

How to Make Money on Shopify: 10 Proven Ways For 2024

Shopify is one of the largest e-commerce platforms that has blown up in popularity with over 1 million stores. Given that more and more consumers are shifting towards online shopping, store owners are open to a massive revenue opportunity.

Sellers who find effective methods of making money online and marketing their service or products build their reputation gradually and skyrocket their sales.

But wait a second.

Is it that easy to make money through Shopify? Yes, if you know how to. One of the most amazing things about Shopify is how easy it is to use for both retailers and customers. And the best part is it is effortless to get started as a seller.

man putting money in piggy bank

Whether you own a small business or looking to start a new venture to make money with Shopify, there are several proven ways that many other sellers already use. We’ll go through how to make money on Shopify and provide tips for your business to grow fast.

Things to do before you start a business on Shopify:

  • Create a business plan.
  • Validate and thoroughly consider your business idea before you invest.
  • Find your e-commerce niche and define your target audience.
  • Define a set of digital channels to promote your brand and product.
  • Plan your SEO tactics. Consider starting a blog to boost SEO.
How to Increase Your Blog Post Engagements?
  • Decide on the shipping and payment methods.
  • Make sure your website is fully functional and aligns with Google’s and other search engines’ guidelines with proper design.

1. Start an Ecommerce Store

woman running an ecommerce store

If you are wondering how to make money on Shopify, starting an e-commerce store can be your answer. The platform makes it easy for everyone to set up an online store without hassle.

You have many different options about what to sell, such as handmade goods, something you resell, or a service you provide.

Shopify is ideal for e-commerce than most similar platforms because it’s simple to add items, curate them, and let your customers easily checkout. Moreover, you can create a blog for your Shopify store to bring more organic traffic to your site.

Here’s a helpful Shopify SEO guide to give your store a headstart with the basic SEO.

In addition to a blog, you can make use of Shopify apps to increase your sales. There are a lot of apps and reviews in the app store. For example, you can find the best upsell app for your Shopify store and drive more revenue by upselling products at checkout.

2. Build a Shopify Dropshipping Business

woman with smartphone purchasing a drop shipping item

Dropshipping is quite popular these days; e-commerce and many Shopify merchants make a lot of money through it. The best part of it is that there won’t be any pressure on your inventory.

Dropshipping is a business model that allows business owners to outsource the products to sell and sell them on your website.

All you need to do is find suppliers whose products are similar or the same as your niche. Then, upload your new SKU (Stock-Keeping Unit and wait for customers to buy.

Dropshipping business can be summed up in the following steps:

Step 1. Customers place an order from your store.

Step 2. Your Shopify store sends the order information automatically to your dropshipping supplier.

Step 3. Your dropshipping supplier handles the order, including the packaging, labeling (if necessary.)

Step 4. Your dropshipping supplier delivers the order directly to the customer.

How Shopify helps your dropshipping business:

  • Seamless integration options with the world’s leading dropshipping suppliers such as Oberlo, Spocket, and DSer
  • Shopify dropshipping apps to help you with orders and shipping management, as well as advertising
  • Integration opportunity with other sales channels such as Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook Ads to easily manage your marketing and advertising

3. Become a Shopify Affiliate Marketer

Shopify affiliate program page

Making money on Shopify doesn’t always mean that you need to sell anything in some cases. You can join the Shopify Affiliate Program and become an affiliate.

This program involves content creators, educators, influencers, and individuals who want to inspire audiences and make them start their entrepreneurship with Shopify.

To join the program, partners need to refer their audiences to Shopify. Like regular affiliate marketing, this one also works with commissions. You receive commissions when your audience registers a paid Shopify business plan.

You can strengthen your affiliate campaigns with email marketing. Take a look at our post about affiliate email marketing hacks you should know.

4. Start Your Own Clothing Line or Accessory Brand

woman taking a picture of clothes to sell online

Making money with Shopify is easier these days thanks to apps like Printful and Printify. The process of designing, manufacturing, and shipping printed clothes is more streamlined and simpler than ever.

You can transform your creative designs into something profitable by starting your own clothing line. Apps like Printful ask you to connect your Shopify store to the app, select the goods you want to apply your design, and then upload your design.

They print out products on demand. So, whenever customers purchase a product, they take their fee from the payment and start producing the product.

You won’t have to deal with shipping either as they print and ship the product themselves. Pretty profitable, isn’t it?

Additionally, setting up an accessory brand is also a common way to make money on Shopify. Whether you craft them yourself, dropship, or have them made, you can build a strong brand, especially with the help of successful marketing.

5. Develop a Niche Product & Market It Well

woman presenting a face cream in a store

Most people ask, “can you make money on Shopify?” as a separate question, but let me tell you, it’s not just about the platform you sell your products on.

Of course, it comes with advantages, but you need to know your niche and how to market your product nevertheless.

You can develop a unique niche product that targets a specific audience. This will ensure that you know who your customers are and how to address them. A specific target audience is easier to create marketing rather than a broad and diverse group.

6. Set Up a Local Online Grocery Store

woman shopping from online grocery store

Another way of making money with Shopify is to set up a local online grocery store. If you have your own crop or already have a brick-and-mortar store, you may consider supporting your local sales with a website.

Search engines like Google allow local stores to increase their visibility by showing the stores on maps, the store hours and info on the snippets, etc.

Mind that you can reach an even wider audience by targeting SEO keywords unique to your region. Also, popups with the geolocation targeting feature are useful to turn your existing traffic from the local region into sales or email leads.

7. Sell Digital Products and Downloads

man giving online courses

Selling digital products and downloads is another idea for making money on Shopify. It might be e-books, podcasts, apps, themes, or NFTs.

Mind that investing in digital products like apps, themes, gamers, or software may require a professional team and budget.

Here are some of the common digital products and downloads you can sell:

  • E-books
  • Apps
  • Games
  • Online courses
  • Photos
  • Themes
  • Podcasts
  • Songs

How Shopify can help you make money with digital products:

  • Seamless integrations with third-party tools and apps
  • Free themes and templates to create an appealing store to showcase your products
  • Built-in SEO tools and blogging platform to increase your site traffic

8. Monetize Your Social Media

woman using a smartphone

Monetizing social media is a great option when considering how to make money on Shopify. It is much like an affiliate program; basically, you turn your social media following into a revenue stream.

Shopify’s starting plan has a special focus on social selling, which allows you to add “buy now” links to Facebook and Instagram posts.

If you as an individual or your business are getting successful results from your social media marketing campaigns, it can be a big opportunity to turn it into extra income.

9. Offer Your Freelance Service

freelance designer using tablet

Getting paid for something you are good at might be something you are already doing. But by building a Shopify site can make your freelance service grow and look more professional.

Whether you are a freelance writer, designer, illustrator, etc., you can use Shopify to list your services as products and disable shipping as it’s not something physical.

10. Sell Print-On-Demand Products

Printful print-on-demand for Shopify

We have mentioned how print-on-demand products are popular and profitable to sell and make money on Shopify. The most advantageous part of selling print-on-demand products is that you will eliminate the costs for inventory.

That means you won’t need to store all those excessive items and wait for someone to purchase them.

Shopify offers everything to make print-on-demand sales profitable and straightforward for you. You can integrate with third-party services that provide printing on demand. Besides that, there are many Shopify apps to increase your sales, such as upselling or cross-selling apps.

There are a variety of product types available for print-on-demand:

  • Mugs
  • Tshirts
  • Art prints
  • Gift cards
  • Stickers
  • Towels
  • Books
  • Accessories

Using popups to collect email leads or offer coupons and discounts is another effective method that many store owners adopt to get more sales.

Popupsmart is the best option out there to create a free popup with advanced targeting features. It is a no-code tool. So, you won’t need any coding skills to implement it in your store. Since it is not an app, your Shopify store will keep on loading fast.

Check out Popupsmart popup builder.

Checklist Before Launching Your Shopify Store

Setting up a store with Shopify is indeed very effortless, but there are other things to consider in order not to face ongoing problems long term. Here’s a list of the essentials:

Shopify Apps: The third-party apps you install on your Shopify store through the App store. You can find various apps designed to assist you in your e-commerce efforts at every customer journey stage.

21 Best Shopify Apps To Increase Sales & Conversion (Free and Paid Apps)

Shopify Theme: The theme you select for your store will affect the way search engines see your site as well as the customer experience. A poor design can result in negative UX.

Support Your Store with Email Marketing: Email marketing is an excellent opportunity to return your abandoning customers, let your customers know about the sales and new product launches, etc. Using popup signup forms can help to collect the email addresses of users. Popup

Mobile: Most users browse websites on mobile. You need to make sure your Shopify store is mobile-friendly. Other ways you would be leaving a lot of money on the table.

Wrap-up

We have tried to convey how to make money on Shopify based on the most common methods. Hopefully, you are inspired by them and be successful in your efforts.

Just remember that it takes time, knowledge, and marketing to build a brand or ongoing business. Make sure you have a thorough business plan and marketing strategy before venturing into the e-commerce world.

Do you have any other method to make money on Shopify? Share with us in the comments below!

Suggested articles: