The profession of being a content creator is spreading like a wildfire in the entire world and famous creators today are earning more salaries than an average professional like a lawyer or an engineer. Many professionals have switched their careers to content creation and the creator’s economy in itself has become a big market.
While most creators earn from marketing the products of other brands, some dream of becoming entrepreneurs themselves. Shopify makes their dreams come true by offering them a platform to open their shops free of charge.
One of the biggest advantages of having a Shopify store is that one can compete with the big brands without having a big fat budget to promote their products. One can easily promote their brand through simple ways like having a popular social media account or a simple emailing list.
Here is a list of 5 Shopify stores that are now competing with multi-millionaire companies:
1. Putchipuu
Todd and Giovanni, the founders of the brand, Putchipuu, came across a tribe called Wayuu during one of their trips to Columbia. They were truly impressed by their art and handicrafts and decided to open a shop on Shopify to sell their beautiful pieces.
Though they didn’t have a big fat budget to market their products, they are currently one of the biggest Shopify stores in the world. They soon realised that they need to start blogging to make their cause famous. They started a podcast where they spoke about their experiences in Columbia and with the tribe Vayuu. They named their brand ‘Putchipuu’, which means the messenger of the word/protector in Wayuunaiki.
While speaking for Shopify’s blog, they said, “(The best thing we learned was) that we need to be blogging regularly and to try to mix it up with more videos and possibly a podcast of our adventures to Colombia when we are working with the Wayuu people.”
2. Partake Foods
A brand that only started as a mother trying to provide good food to her daughter to prevent her from having allergic reactions, turned into one of the leading food brands of the decade with only a few easy marketing techniques. Partake Foods did not have a big fat marketing budget and many investors refused to invest in it. That, however, didn’t stop the founder, Denise Woodard, from dreaming.
It is only with a simple emailing list that Denise made her brand digitally known to all. Soon her products were placed on Target shelves and in no time Partake Foods became one of the leading Shopify stores in the world.
“There is so much sacrifice and hard work and time that you must put in that no one sees and no one mentions. And it’s expensive—we were really bootstrapped at first. As we’ve grown, we’ve raised funding which has enabled us to hire and scale, but I naively thought that I could bootstrap the business forever—and continue to grow quickly,” said Denise in an interview with Tini Lux.
3. The Honey Pot
The Honey Pot is a brand started by a woman keeping in mind the needs of women and their bodies. The brand focuses on vaginal hygiene and is not only for women who are expecting or are mothers but also for women who are not married. Bea Dixon, the founder of the brand, wanted to use herbal remedies to treat common women’s issues such as bacterial infections. Her brand is liked by all women irrespective of the phase they’re in, in their lives. Starting from a small and noble idea, today this Shopify store sees an annual revenue of $4 million.
4. Meow Meow Tweet
Another organic and vegan skincare Shopify store is this cute and whimsical brand, Meow Meow Tweet. One of its catchy features is that its website is extremely user-friendly and very accessible to its customers.
The website also has a unique dyslexia-friendly mode. Its founders Jeff Kurosaki and Tara Pelletier are both art students who realized that a handmade organic soap felt much softer on their skin in comparison to commercial soap. This got them thinking and they started their small organic range of skin care products.
Their products are not only organic but also eco-friendly. Their products are plastic free and their extra natural quality makes them stand out when compared to the multi-millionaire commercial brands.
5. Tentree
Tentree is an eco-friendly brand that plants ten trees every time someone purchases a product from them. They say that they measure their success by the number of trees they plant and not by the amount of money they make. As an extremely low-budget brand, Tentree started in the basement of its founder, Kalen Emsley. To date, the brand has planted over 50 million plants.
Derrick Emsley, the CEO of the brand said, “Authenticity is important to us because it is who we are. We started a tree-planting company that sells apparel, not the other way around,” he told Business Insider.
“A lot of people and businesses are acting not just as buyers, but also as citizens who care about the world they’re creating and living in. What tentree has done is tap into that current,” Derrick told BDC.
What makes Tentree stand out is its noble approach and its zeal to take action when most people only sit and complain. Tentree uses its blog and other social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to spread awareness and encourage people to buy its products so they can plant more and more trees.
