What To Sell on Shopify: 17 Creative Ideas for 2024

If you consider promoting on-line, what initially involves thoughts? In all probability merchandise like printed t-shirts, handmade jewelry, or pet supplies, proper? Creating or curating tangible items to promote on-line is a standard enterprise mannequin, in spite of everything—one which defines many who use Shopify immediately.

However figuring out what to promote on Shopify can nonetheless be a difficult process. Will you create your individual handmade merchandise or dropship for different manufacturers? Will you hop on a development or invent one thing completely new?

Contemplate additionally that you would be able to promote extra than simply issues you’ll be able to contact and really feel. Many founders are utilizing Shopify in inventive methods to promote just about something and all the pieces. Promoting experiences, programs, leases, and digital items are just some of the unique business ideas you’ll discover on this information. Forward, discover a product that excites you and get began promoting on Shopify immediately.

What to promote on Shopify: 17 concepts

1. Handmade products
2. Dropshipping products
3. Print-on-demand products
4. Merch
5. Trending products
6. Curated products
7. Service appointments
8. Memberships
9. Consultations
10. Digital products
11. Experiences
12. Classes and workshops
13. Rentals
14. Quotes, estimates, and assessments
15. Donations
16. Event tickets
17. Gift cards

If you happen to’re embarking on a brand new entrepreneurial journey, otherwise you’re searching for a change, think about promoting merchandise or increasing your brainstorming past tangible items. Right here, we’ll discover what you’ll be able to promote on Shopify, together with actual retailer examples, app ideas, and recommendation for getting began.

1. Handmade merchandise

One of the crucial frequent issues to promote on Shopify is handmade items. You probably have a pastime like jewellery making or baking, chances are high you could possibly monetize it. Turning your hobby into a business means discovering an viewers, streamlining your manufacturing processes, and getting ready your merchandise to sell online. 

When stained glass artist Debbie Bean discovered her calling, she labored facet jobs and reduce family bills to develop her new enterprise. She discovered her begin at a neighborhood craft present and grew her model by word of mouth from there. Her work was featured in additional than 200 retailers worldwide earlier than she pivoted her enterprise to large-scale artwork installations.

Suggestions for getting began

• Scaling a hand-crafted enterprise is hard, however you ultimately can rent employees to assist with meeting. Within the meantime, strive streamlining your course of to make merchandise in batches.
• Contemplate a made-to-order mannequin that lets you produce work solely when it’s offered. 
• Brand storytelling is vital for maker manufacturers. Take time to craft your individual.
• Contemplate personalised merchandise like including monogram embroidery for an additional value.

2. Dropshipping merchandise

Dropshipping is a superb possibility for ecommerce learners. It’s a enterprise mannequin that lets you promote merchandise with out holding stock or coping with transport. A dropshipping enterprise is one which sells merchandise on-line for one more firm that, in flip, ships these merchandise on to the client.

Tan Choudhury found dropshipping whereas scuffling with the transport points in his first enterprise. Since then, he’s develop into an skilled, serving to others promote merchandise this fashion. His largest piece of recommendation? Begin with one product. “Making an attempt to merchandise 20 merchandise as a newbie could be fairly overwhelming,” says Tan.

Suggestions for getting began

• Discover respected suppliers that may ship merchandise on time.
• Deal with differentiating your model from the opposite dropshipping companies promoting related merchandise.
• Look to trending merchandise for inspiration on what to promote.
• You possibly can dropship nearly something, from clothing and jewelry to books and baby products.

3. Print-on-demand merchandise

Print on demand is one other kind of enterprise mannequin that requires no stock or transport. If you happen to’re a inventive, think about using print on demand to use your designs to t-shirts, smartphone equipment, mugs, and extra. 

Maria Qamar, additionally identified by her artist identify HATECOPY, discovered print on demand after her artwork enterprise took off. “Sooner or later the quantity grew to become a lot that I couldn’t make time to attract. I used to be spending all of my days delivering and in transit,” she says. Print on demand now permits her to deal with the inventive components of her enterprise.

Suggestions for getting began

• There are a variety of print-on-demand companies to select from. Discover one which has the sorts of merchandise and high quality you’re searching for. 
• Authors can also use print on demand to sell books on Shopify, bypassing the normal writer route. 

4. Merch

There’s a approach to promote merchandise even when your enterprise isn’t about merchandise. Many service companies and on-line creators sell merch to diversify earnings streams and construct model affinity. Influencers can construct their very own ecommerce retailer and promote merchandise to followers. That is additionally an effective way to construct your e mail record and personal your viewers away from social platforms.

Sarah Andersen’s doodles caught the eye of Tumblr customers again in 2011. Since then, she’s constructed these drawings into a comic book e book empire known as Sarah’s Scribbles. Finally, merch made sense for her model, and he or she launched a line of tees, plushies, mugs, and prints alongside her comics.

Suggestions for getting began

• Use a print-on-demand service or app from the Shopify App Store to keep away from dealing with stock. 
• Use merch as a approach to provide decrease value gadgets to your combine. An artist who sells solely costly originals can add merch printed with artwork to the combo.

5. Trending merchandise

If you’re ranging from scratch and searching for one thing to promote on Shopify, think about trending merchandise. If you happen to don’t have a enterprise thought or pastime you’ll be able to convert into one, this can be a excellent place to begin. You already know there’s a marketplace for the product—you simply have to drive them to your web site. 

Google Trends may help you vet your thought’s development potential. Establishing a profitable Shopify retailer in your trending product can be an vital step. There’s possible a ton of competitors: How will you stand out? 

Suggestions for getting began

• Don’t cease at Google Tendencies. TikTok Tendencies, Pinterest Tendencies, commerce publications, shopper magazines, and different on-line shops could be nice locations to find trending merchandise.
• Do not forget that tendencies are fleeting. Have a plan to pivot if curiosity in your product wanes.

6. Curated merchandise

If you happen to’re not excited by making merchandise from scratch, strive a curated method to promoting on Shopify. Contemplate your pursuits: Are you able to curate the perfect area of interest merchandise in that class? What about selling beauty products for a particular pores and skin situation? You possibly can even strive changing into a reseller for an present model in a brand new market. 

You probably have deep curiosity in or data of a particular subject, this can be a excellent place to begin. Use content material advertising to determine your self as an skilled and construct belief. Then, curate the perfect merchandise within the class to promote on Shopify.

Suggestions for getting began

• Discover different on-line shops to get inspiration for yours. How do they curate collections? What makes their retailer stand out?
• Contemplate a subscription field enterprise and take a look at a subscription app from the Shopify App Retailer to assist handle your enterprise.

7. Service appointments

In-person and digital companies alike could make appointments extra seamless for purchasers (and employees) by providing self-serve on-line bookings. Salons, contractors, and music faculties can promote digital session time slots and in-person companies by means of a web-based retailer.

Shops that sometimes promote bodily merchandise can even profit from including companies (free or paid) to their web sites. Toufie, a web-based footwear model that sells handcrafted customized footwear, makes use of appointments to assist nail the match. “Appointment bookings are one of many integral parts to a risk-free buyer purchasing expertise,” says co-founder Meliza Salim.

Suggestions for getting began

• Appointment reserving Shopify apps provide a dynamic calendar, letting clients e book most well-liked time slots with real-time availability. 
• Service companies can even think about branded merch to promote on Shopify alongside appointments.

8. Memberships

Many non-profit organizations depend on paid memberships as a approach to safe ongoing monetary assist. Memberships may also be utilized by creators to promote entry to unique content material for his or her most avid followers. Golf programs, fan golf equipment, galleries, and academic content material producers are extra nice candidates for selling memberships online, securing long-term dedication from clients fairly than promoting one-off companies. 

The Buffalo Botanical Gardens sells single-visit tickets however encourages guests to purchase memberships that enable year-round entry and member-only perks. And child music model Yoto sells memberships to its Yoto Membership. Members obtain Yoto Playing cards within the mail month-to-month. 

Suggestions for getting began

• Memberships work very like subscription businesses, counting on recurring cost performance and buyer account administration instruments. Use this mannequin as a information when organising your ecommerce retailer.
• An app like Bold Memberships lets you promote one-time or recurring memberships on-line.

9. Consultations

Why not promote your experience on-line? Everybody from inside designers to health trainers can use a web-based retailer to e book and promote on-line or in-person consultations. 

The crew behind Carter Design makes use of their Shopify retailer to promote design consultations to shoppers worldwide. This enables the duo to develop their companies into different markets. 

Manufacturers specializing in customization or made-to-order merchandise could promote consultations to assist clients create the proper product. Kaikini founder Taryn Rodighiero runs her customized bikini enterprise with the assistance of on-line consultations to information clients by means of the measuring and ordering course of.

Suggestions for getting began

• An app like BookedUp lets clients e book consultations with you in your web site, syncing with Calendly to keep away from double-booking.
• Attempt Shopify’s invoice generator instrument for billing customized companies that you simply promote by means of session. 

10. Digital merchandise

Digital merchandise can discuss with something you promote that you simply ship in a digital format—course content material, music recordsdata, fonts, or different design parts are just a few examples. (Notice: Later on this article, we’ll dive deeper into promoting programs, particularly.)

Whereas Thread Theory founders Matt and Morgan Meredith promote bodily merchandise like scissors and paper patterns, in addition they provide a lower-cost possibility: PDF stitching patterns delivered nearly. Different companies with printed supplies like magazines or journals could decide to supply digital variations to promote on Shopify that clients can print at house.

Suggestions for getting began

• Apps like Sky Pilot and Easy Digital Products can immediately ship recordsdata to clients after a purchase order, or ship a hyperlink to the place the recordsdata could be downloaded.

11. Experiences

Expertise-based companies can vary from journey and journey suppliers to vineyard tastings to children’ camps. These companies can enhance the client expertise by providing advance ticket purchases and scheduling choices on-line. 

Aspen Expeditions Worldwide sells mountaineering adventures, worldwide guided journeys, and tenting expeditions by means of its ecommerce retailer. Because the product pages for every journey do a number of heavy lifting to tell, educate, and persuade potential clients to make big-ticket purchases, Aspen Expeditions organizes the data by including tabs to the product description. 

Suggestions for getting began

• Expertise-based companies might have to gather further buyer data, like medical issues and emergency contacts. Use Shopify Forms to create sturdy and customizable kinds.
• Use video to your benefit: Shopify’s free online video maker may help you create advertising movies utilizing footage from actual experiences.

12. Courses and workshops

The COVID-19 pandemic proved that programs may very well be simply transportable to a digital format. Yoga studios and boxing gyms alike moved to a web-based mannequin, letting individuals purchase class passes and attend on-line. Contemplate different sorts of programs you’ll be able to promote on Shopify: digital advertising, DIY how-tos, and parenting lessons.

If I Made creates unique inventive course content material with business professionals and delivers programming digitally to college students—however it began with in-person studying. “We then took that content material and introduced all of it on-line to make it extra transportable and accessible,” says founder Emily Newman. 

Suggestions for getting began

• Promote programs in a number of codecs like movies, worksheets, booklets, and 1:1 teaching classes.
• An app like Courses Plus can flip your Shopify retailer right into a course platform, permitting you to create classes to promote on-line. 
• Create course content material utilizing Shopify’s free online video maker and promote it again and again.

13. Leases

Rental companies are companies that make bodily merchandise accessible to clients for a predetermined period of time. Prospects pay for the benefit of utilizing an merchandise for a short interval with out the related long-term prices like storage and upkeep.

Mannequin Madness sells retail props to different retailers by means of its on-line retailer, but in addition rents them quickly. When unintended entrepreneur Judi Henderson-Townsen wanted a model, she found just one vendor in her space. “I purchased his whole stock,” she says. Model Insanity makes use of a contact type to evaluate buyer wants earlier than processing the rental.

Costume rental enterprise The Fitzroy, nonetheless, takes a self-serve method by asking clients to pick out a rental interval utilizing a date selector variant accessible on its product web page to “try” the merchandise. It depends on a easy app and a transparent FAQ web page to make the rental and return processes run easily.

Suggestions for getting began

• IzyRent: Rentals & Bookings is an app designed particularly for shops providing leases. It permits for one-click leases in your web site.
• Leases could require additional data to be collected from clients, and Shopify Forms may help you do exactly that. 

14. Quotes, estimates, and assessments

GoGreenSolar sells and installs photo voltaic power options for owners. As a result of customized nature of the product and the extra work concerned in set up, clients can request quotes and skilled recommendation by means of the contact kinds accessible on the corporate’s web site. Self-serve quote requests save time and employees sources for companies that present extremely technical companies and merchandise.

Quotes are a fantastic advertising instrument for a enterprise’s different companies. For instance, a enterprise that gives house power upgrades could promote power audits by means of a web site. The ultimate report would then inform clients how they will recoup the audit value by means of power financial savings—by shopping for the enterprise’s upgrades.

Suggestions for getting began

• An app like G: Request a Quote may help you collect buyer quote requests out of your retailer and convert that quote into an actual order.

15. Donations

Many charities use Shopify because the merchandise arm of their group, promoting branded items, with income supporting the trigger. However charities and non-profits can even use a web-based retailer to “promote” one-time and recurring donations.

An Act of Dog is a registered charity that sells pet work, with proceeds supporting numerous animal rescue organizations. The corporate additionally lets clients donate on to causes by means of the identical web site.

Suggestions for getting began

16. Occasion tickets

On-line ticketing could be employed by plenty of companies, from occasion areas to unbiased theaters to pop-up haunted homes. 

Undertow works with choose artists to promote tickets on-line for music occasions all through the US. It makes use of a paperless supply methodology, sending downloadable tickets to clients. Run Across America makes use of ticketing another way, promoting entry to digital run challenges that individuals full on their very own schedule. Purchases embrace entry to a monitoring app and a sweatshirt. 

Suggestions for getting began

• Design, promote, and scan occasion tickets with the Event Ticketing app that syncs along with your Shopify retailer. 
• A QR code generator could be useful for creating distinctive QR codes that clients can current at reside occasions.

17. Reward playing cards

The only of non-tangible items so as to add to any web site is reward playing cards. From Shopify, you’ll be able to allow reward playing cards for many shops. They’re good for any enterprise, permitting recipients to redeem codes on-line for services or products offered by means of your web site.

Dwelling décor model Apt2B sells branded reward playing cards in a number of denominations, redeemable for furnishings and décor items by means of its on-line retailer.

Suggestions for getting began

• Supply reward playing cards in plenty of denominations to present clients extra choices.
• Push digital reward playing cards in your advertising efforts after the transport cutoff for vacation supply has handed.

Promote (nearly) something on Shopify

If you happen to’re searching for a enterprise thought and aren’t positive what to promote on Shopify, the reply is: nearly something. There are concepts for everybody, even for those who’re not inventive or don’t plan to make your individual merchandise. Don’t restrict your self to promoting bodily gadgets. You possibly can promote all the pieces on Shopify, from memberships to tickets to digital items. Develop your model, arrange a Shopify retailer, and begin promoting merchandise—and all the pieces else—immediately.