Last Updated on by Dan S
Originally Published August 23, 2022.
Shopify is fast becoming an entrepreneurs dream to reality scenario. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a get rich quick scheme although with the advent of going viral overnight on TikTok with the next big thing, it certainly speeds things up.
In just a few clicks, you can have a fresh Shopify store open ready to get down to business. Before swinging the doors open, you need to settle on the “what”. Below are 10 methods on how you can make money with Shopify in 2023.
10 methods to make money on Shopify in 2024
Below we identify 10 methods on how you can make money on Shopify. Let’s get to them.
Method 1: Invent a product
It may sound hard but with the ability to 3D print at home, customize existing products and simply DIY’ing, you can create your inventory. Once you have this, you simply need to sell it on Shopify.
Method 2: Print on Demand
This is a very popular method. The beauty of Print on Demand is that you don’t need to stock any products. You just need to come up with designs and list them on you Shopify store. Once you get a sale, your POD provider prints, packs and ships it to your customer. You pocket the profit. Cool hey? You can get setup pretty quick by opening a Shopify store and installing Printful for example.
Method 3: Dropship
Probably one of the most popular methods when starting your first Shopify store is to dropship. This is similar to Print On Demand above but with physical products that have been manufactured and are ready to ship. You can find suppliers in your home country usually which results in faster shipping. For the broadest of items, you can dropship from China but the shipping will be slower.
Method 4: List your Etsy items
If you have an Esty store, you can list your products on a Shopify store to start building a core audience and ownership of your own traffic. This will help spread your platform dependency and will give you greater control over selling your items.
Method 5: Create an affiliate store
You can turn a Shopify store into an affiliate store with an app. This will allow you to sell any products which have an affiliate scheme. The most popular affiliate scheme is Amazon but most ecommerce stores and brands have an affiliate scheme. Once signed up, you are provided with links which you can place on your store. Whenever a sale is made as a result of clicking on your specific links, you make a commission.
Method 6: Sell digital courses and ebooks
If you have experience in a certain profession or industry, there are always people willing to pay for this knowledge and experience. Udemy is the biggest self tuition based marketplace in the world. You can create your own niche store selling access to your knowledge, expertise and services through digital courses, tutorials and ebooks.
Method 7: Start your own Supplements line
Yes, there is an app for that. By setting up a Shopify store and adding Supliful to it, you can launch your own supplement brand in a day. There really isn’t an excuse anymore!
Method 8: Resell vintage and hard to find items
Traditionally this is a thrift or car-boot method but with the advent of online commerce, stores are popping online that specialize in vintage or hard to find items. From old lego to baseball cards and car parts to vintage records. If you can locate a supply of vintage or hard to find items then you will find a market for them online through recommerce.
Method 9: Build a following on Social Media and monetize it with fan merch
This is probably one of the harder methods in the list but once established, it can be very lucrative. A popular method is to monetize a loved pet. There are many dog and cat lovers out there so if your pet isn’t camera shy, you can quickly build a following if the content is fun and engaging. Once those likes, shares and follows come in, you will have an audience you can then market to.
Method 10: Buy an existing store
This is probably the quickest method in the list. Shopify run an Exchanges marketplace for merchants looking to sell stores from fresh startups through to those that have proven themselves and even large scale operations in the DTC space. Depending on your budget, you could purchase a store with a business model that suits your needs and look to grow/scale/rescue it and even potentially flip it.
There is no right or wrong way to make money on Shopify. With over 2m Shopify merchants and growing, ecommerce on Shopify is just getting started and the best time to start was yesterday. The next best time to start is now.
