Shopify supports independent selling like no other e-commerce platform. It enables local merchants to set up online stores and sell across the internet. However, e-commerce still poses challenges that need to be addressed before jumping into action. To help naive or aspiring merchants, Shopify has announced a free course that would help them build online businesses.
Titled ‘First Day to First Sale,’ the course is yet to be launched. However, Shopify has asked interested users to sign up now and get early access for free. “We’ll email you when the course launches. Stay tuned!” the Canadian company says in its response to the applicants.
On Tuesday, Shopify explained in a long tweet that this course would help aspirants tackle the not-so-easy parts with much ease. In five points, the Canadian giant broke down the whole idea of the free course.
Let’s be real, starting a business isn’t easy BUT we have everything you need to make a lot of the not-so-easy parts, well, easy.
— Shopify (@Shopify) May 30, 2023
Let’s break it down:
1. From spark to success
Your customers are out there. The key is knowing what they want. With just the spark of an idea, you…
1. Idea
Shopify spoke about Idea as the first step to starting an online business. It believes that to make an idea successful one must look up to inspiration. It mentioned businesses like Gymshark, Allbirds and FIGS that built their businesses on Shopify.
“Your customers are out there. The key is knowing what they want. With just the spark of an idea, you can follow in the footsteps of Gymshark, Allbirds and FIGS and start your own online empire. Think about a problem you could solve, or something that already exists that maybe you could do better,” Shopify said in its tweet.
2. Profit
Then, Shopify emphasized one of the most sought-after words — profit. Launching a product line is one thing but earning money out of it is another. Shopify doesn’t believe in leaving its merchant partners midway, it helps them gain profit after setting up an online store.
“Once you have something to sell, it’s time to find a place to sell. And guess what? You don’t have to break the bank. For less than a latte you can start an online store and start selling today with the Shopify Starter Plan,” Shopify said.
Go From First Day to First Sale with Shopify USA
3. Marketing
Marketing is of utmost importance to an online business as once to set up an online store and put products on it, you need to reach the target audience for sale. Shopify spoke of small steps that would result in big wins.
“Question; if a product sits in a store and no one is around to see it, can it really make a sale? Not likely. Create a marketing plan that gets your customers to fall in love with your brand, motivates them to hit that Shop Pay checkout button, and gets you that notification that goes “cha-ching”,” Shopify said.
It advised the merchants to start small with four steps.
i. Email
Email Marketing is the most inexpensive and trusted marketing medium. The e-commerce company offers its own email marketing platform — Shopify Email with an express checkout button for maximum results. Included in every plan of Shopify, Shopify Email helps business owners on the Shopify platform to create, run and track email marketing campaigns. It helps merchants to engage subscribers and create promotions.
Email plays a vital role in direct-to-consumer connection in an e-commerce landscape where business owners are compelled to get customers through marketplaces and ads. To be successful in e-commerce, one needs to grab eyeballs and turn potential buyers into loyal customers.
ii. Reviews
Reviews are important for your potential buyers to believe in your business. The course offered by Shopify would help merchants encourage customers to leave reviews.
Chris Campbell, partner at The Charming Bench Company, explains how his company values satisfied customers. “We’ve been asking for more reviews from satisfied customers. We’ve managed to get them to be more vocal about their experiences, rather than focusing on promotional content or paid advertising as our top investment priorities,” he said.
“Happy customers have been powerful word-of-mouth catalysts for our brand, and it has made sense to keep them engaged. We’ve been getting a steady stream of five-star ratings on websites and social media, which we then share on our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram profiles. It’s a great alternative to pushing loud sales messages that don’t always work,” he added.
iii. Reward
One must offer loyalty promos and discounts to build a loyal base of customers. With discounts, merchants can convince customers to purchase more than what they had planned for. A higher order value with each customer will ensure maximum profits.
Another advantage of discounts is that merchants can reduce the number of customers that abandons their cart and leave without placing an order. For this, merchants can display discount coupons on the product page as well as on checkout pages. A little price cut attracts all.
iv. Social Media
Social media helps you tell your brand story for free and reach infinite customers. Shopify shares a pro tip: “Start and go all in on one primary social channel instead of trying to be everything everywhere all at once”.
4. Growth
After launching an online store, deciding on a product line and starting marketing, you are set to see substantial business growth on Shopify. “When the sales start rolling in it’s time to keep the momentum going and grow your business. Embrace the journey of growth, scale up operations, and diversify your product offerings.”
Shopify believes there are three ways to grow business after initial success:
i. Automation
Shopify advises merchants to automate repetitive tasks to save time and focus on business growth. In August 2022, the e-commerce company launched Shopify Flow to help you automate tasks and processes important for your online store. It also helps you manage promotions, loyalty and retention programs for sustainable e-commerce growth.
Shopify Flow is free to install using Shopify App Store. Additional charges may apply, it mentions. Merchants can use this feature directly in Shopify admin, without affecting the speed of the online store. It allows you to design custom workflows and processes required for your business.
Manual and repetitive tasks can be turned into automated workflows using Shopify Flows. The setup doesn’t take much time as you can activate workflows in just three clicks using “pre-built templates for common use cases”.
ii. Physical Sales
Shopify acknowledges the power of physical selling as it advises the merchants to “pick up our POS Go to make sales everywhere”. Launched in September 2022, the retail hardware POS Go enables retailers to offer wireless checkout anywhere in the store. It doesn’t need to be connected to a computer or mobile phone.
POS Go comes with a card reader, inventory tracker and a built-in barcode scanner. Merchants will also be able to manage staff and payments irrespective of where they are online or store. Shopify POS Go app can be customised to manage the store and provide better services to customers.
iii. Collaboration
Shopify also emphasized the power of collaboration to help both parties gain subsequential profits. “Connect with creators to reach new audiences with Shopify Collabs,” it says.
In August 2022, Shopify Collabs was launched as a medium to directly connect merchants with content creators. This not only helps creators easily discover brands but also allows merchants to reach new consumers.
With the help of “Shopify Collabs”, creators can establish partnerships with merchants to build curated shops and share products as per their interests. Facilitating their path to entrepreneurship, Collabs will save creators from the cumbersome process of brand hunting. Hence, they can focus more on making content. As per TechCrunch, Collabs’ pay structure can differ with each merchant and creators will receive their remuneration directly via PayPal.
5. Learn
Learning is a never-ending process. Shopify concluded its tweet with the announcement of the First Day to First Sale course. “This is only the beginning. If you’re looking to dive deeper – if you’ve made it this far I’m sure you do – learn from the pros and soak up their wisdom with the From First Day to First Sale course,” the company said.
When you visit the link shared by Shopify, you see the title ‘Million Dollar Ideas Start Here’. It echoes Shopify’s commitment to power the ecosystem of merchants, app developers, agencies, designers, freelancers and affiliate marketers.
Shopify partners are offered an earning of 20 percent revenue share along with an impressive e-commerce solution and product roadmap. The program allows all partners to join for free, without any trials and offers them a 99.9 percent uptime.
How it Helps?
Jonathan Snow, founder and COO of The Snow Agency, called it a “bulletproof” jacket for Shopify in these times of struggle.
“This is what makes Shopify bulletproof for the long haul. Shopify has become the stickiest platform for sellers, tech partners, and (soon to be) consumers,” Snow said in reply to Finkelstein’s tweet.
Jonathan Snow, founder and COO of The Snow Agency, called it a “bulletproof” jacket for Shopify in times of struggle.
“This is what makes Shopify bulletproof for the long haul. Shopify has become the stickiest platform for sellers, tech partners, and (soon to be) consumers,” Snow said in reply to a tweet by Shopify President Finkelstein.
Finkelstein had posted about how Shopify Partners helped his company make a revenue of $32 billion in 2021.
“$32 billion. That’s how much revenue the Shopify Partners ecosystem generated in 2021. That’s up 45% from 2020 and nearly 7x Shopify’s 2021 revenue – and we’re proud of their success,” Finkelstein tweeted.
