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For many entrepreneurs, launching a Shopify store is an awesome way to dip their toes into eCommerce. But is Shopify only used for dropshipping? This is what I’m about to reveal!
The short answer is NO! Shopify is an eCommerce platform that acts as your cloud-hosted eCommerce solution, which allows you to create a professional storefront, sell products online, and take payments from your customers. You can either sell products, services or start your blog on Shopify!
In this article, I’m about to share with you how Shopify exactly works, along with the various business models that Shopify could be the best fit for!
If you find this post helpful and inspiring, don’t keep it to yourself, and share it with your beloved ones 🙂
How Does Shopify Work?
As a newbie in the eCommerce world, the image of how Shopify exactly works may not be purely clear… That’s fine!
Basically, the way that Shopify works is that it acts as your hosted eCommerce solution, which allows you to easily create a professional-looking online storefront, display your products/services and take payments from your customers.
Without the need of any coding or technical skills! They do all the hard work for you, and this is the biggest advantage of leveraging an eCommerce platform like Shopify.
For less than a minute, you can signup for a free account on Shopify and familiarize yourself with your backend dashboard.
Shopify offers a 14-day free trial in which you get the chance to try out the platform without even paying a dime.
With the free trial, you get access to the whole platform, but how to get the most out of Shopify free trial?
- Create an online storefront
- List your products and services
- Categorize your products and services into collections
- Upload a theme and customize your store’s interface
- Edit your products’ titles, prices, and descriptions
- Add a logo design
- Integrate a unique domain
- Set up your payment gateways
- Connect an autoresponder
- Add your pages and policies
- Getting familiarized with the settings page (shipping, taxes, etc…)
While the Shopify free trial is a great starting point to test how the platform works without committing to a paid plan, you can’t receive actual orders or capture payments from your customers unless you subscribe to a monthly package.
Each Shopify pricing plan offers a variety of features. There is no one specific plan that works for every business, but here’s a guide by Shopify to help you decide what plan works for you and your business.
Is Shopify Just For Dropshipping?
Certainly not! Shopify is the leading company in the eCommerce industry and it allows you to sell anything online, track your inventories and capture payments from your customers securely and effectively!
Now, this is a misconception for beginners and newbies in the eCommerce world, maybe because of the fact that dropshipping’s and Shopify’s popularity have risen dramatically since 2015-2016.
The dropshipping term has become popular in 2006 when Aliexpress became popular in the United States with the launch of Chinese ecommerce stores.
Later that year, Shopify was founded by Tobias Lutke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake, and has gained a lot of popularity since then!
Therefore, people may think that it only supports the dropshipping business model. It’s fair to mention that Shopify is supportive of drop shippers but it’s not limited to that business model only!
What Is Shopify Used For?
Below are some examples of what can be sold and offered on Shopify:
- Physical goods – Do you have handmade products that you’d manufactured and would like to sell online? Shopify could just be a lucrative solution! Not only for physical products you own, but you can also dropship other people’s products through Shopify!
- Digital products – Shopify also allows you to sell digital products (products that are sold digitally and require no physical delivery and shipping!) This may includes templates, eBooks, audio downloads, premium images and more!
- Memberships – Have you ever heard about subscription-based eCommerce businesses? These are companies that send their subscribers a gift box with some items every single month, and here are some examples of them featured on Forbes! On Shopify, you can create a similar business and offer a monthly subscription box service.
- Consultations – If you’re an expert in something, chances are that people would be willing to pay you for a 30-min or an hour consultation… With Shopify, your customers can book online or in-person consultations with ease!
- Rentals – This may involve an integration between both the physical products-based and the services-based types of businseses. Assuming you want to rent wedding dresses or event booths, for example, you can use the Shopify platform!
- Services – The eServices industry is rapidly growing, especially in what the world is facing in 2020-2021! More people are flocking towards online businesses and websites, so there’s a huge demand on digital services. This may include digital marketing, writing, video creation, desgining, and more! With Shopify, you can sell your services online and get paid for your expertise and time!
- Ticketed experiences – Shopify also works great for this type of business which may include: Workshops, events like wine tasting, networking events, summits, or more!
- Classes, lessons, and events – Want an effective way to sell lessons and classes? Consider Shopify! Customers can book, rent or purchase from you through your online Shopify storefront!
In other words, Shopify has everything you need to start selling anything online, anywhere! (Click here to test it out for free and see if it serves your business!)
How To Start An eCommerce Sore That Doesn’t Dropship?
Using Shopify without dropshipping is becoming more popular each day, especially with the rise of demand for digital services!
eServices are doing great and its global sales are projected to hit $216m+ by the end of 2021…
Fast forward to 2020, a new “drop” model has risen and gained more popularity than ever!
It’s Drop Servicing, the new baby born business for dropshipping.
So, what is drop servicing?
Drop servicing, drop surfing or digital arbitrage, is a busienss model whereby you sell other people’s services online without the need to provding them yourself!
In the grand scheme of things, it’s not that different than saying running a service business or an advertising agency, except hiring independent freelancers to do the work on your behalf instead of having employees!
Is drop servicing profitable?
The short answer is YES! Drop servicing is a great business model that allows you to handle multiple clients at a time and hire freelancers to do the actual work on your behalf. In other words, you work capacity is determined by the number of freelancers you choose to work with.
Drop servicing is not only profitable, but it will allow you to create a 6-figure living from the comfort of your home, by selling other people’s services and leveraging their skills and knowledge!
Why is drop servicing better than dropshipping?
There are some factors and reasons that make drop servicing a better business model, below are some of them:
- Higher profit margins for a less volume of orders – Unlike dropshipping, in which you need to get tens of daily orders and sales for a low profit margin, with drop servicing, you can have a higher profit margin for a less volume of orders.
- Less overhead – You don’t need to get fancy with ton of features and apps. With drop servicing, your overhead and initial costs are way less than dropshipping.
- No shipping involved – With drop servicing, you are selling digital services. There’s no shipping involved in the process, which makes it more efficient and less risky!
- Higher customer lifetime value – According to Wikipedia, CLV is a prediction of the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with a customer. Some services are recurring and allow you to earn a monthly recurring revenue. The thing that makes drop servicing a lucrative business, and allows you to get the most out of your acquired customers.
- Higher average order value – AOV is the average amount spent on each order on your website. With drop servicing, you’ve got the chance to sell high ticket services, like a full SEO bundle service for $1000/month, or paid advertising management service for $700/month!
- Less customer acquisition cost on the long term – No matter what your business is or what you’re doing online, you would need to drive traffic to your sales funnels and pages. And the cost of gaining a new customer through paid advertising is called “cost of acquisition.” For customers who choose to hire you again or purchase your service again, you will be getting orders for a zero acquisition cost…
How to get started with drop servicing?
Getting started with drop servicing comes into 4 different phases:
- Picking your niche market
- Finding trustworthy freelancers and services
- Building your sales funnels and webpages
- Generating traffic and customers
In my recent article, I’ve talked about the things you need consider when picking your niche and how it determines your business success. You can check it out here.
Drop servicing is all about becoming the middle-man between the buyer and the actual service provider. Job directories and freelance marketplaces is your way to go for finding freelancers and drop services online.
After you find the services you want to resell and the freelancers you’d like to work and partner with, you would need to start establishing your online presence and building your online storefront.
A website or a webpage is the foundation of your drop servicing business! because you definitely need a place where you can list your services, get orders and take payments from customers.
For starting your online storefront, there are two main approaches for that:
- The website approach
- The sales funnels approach
In my other article, I’ve compared between the different website and funnel builders. (You can check it here!)
Finally, filling your funnels with your dream customers is the final piece of the puzzel, because if you don’t have a consistent stream of traffic coming to your new business, do you even call it a business?
Click on the image to get your free copy…
Is there a drop servicing course?
It’s fair to say that drop servicing is a relatively brand new business model if compared to dropshipping or any other business venture!
I’ve personally been publishing a lot of articles related to drop servicing on my blog, eComDimes (the website you’re currently on) and I can confidently say that it’s an underserved niche.
Drop servicing is going to be the next big thing in the next few years… and it’s the perfect time to jump on such a trend!
In the last couple of months, we’ve been receiving a lot of texts and emails requesting for an ultimate drop servicing course, and that’s what I’ve created for you…
The eComDimes ultimate drop servicing blueprint, that teaches you the whole business model from A-Z, literally!
eComDimes is not a single course, it’s a course library that has everything you need to start and run a viable drop servicing business!
eComDimes will equip you with all the necessary starter tools that you need to get yourself positioned to start and grow your own drop servicing business!
If this is an opportunity that you’d like to be part of, grab your whopping 50% discount for being a valuable member of the eComDimes family
Conclusion
Shopify is a great eCommerce solution for those who are looking forward to start dipping their toes in a billion-dollar industry and start selling online.
In this article, I’ve answered a critical question when it comes to considering using such a great platform, which is “Is Shopify for dropshipping only?”
And we have also discussed the various ways that you can use Shopify to achieve success and create a healthy living from the comfort of your home.
The best way to see what Shopify is all about is to grab your 14-day free trial, test its water and see whether it fits your business or not!
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Cheers,
Odeh Ahwal
