If you operate a small business, you know that staying afloat can be tough. It takes a constant stream of income to cover the costs of keeping your business running, especially when taxes and other expenses come around every quarter.
And that’s why every small business should think about using Shopify as a key part of their financial strategy. The eCommerce platform offers small businesses a chance to get their products sold to customers on their own websites, meaning they won’t have to rely on any other businesses to sell their wares.
In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about using Shopify as a small business, including the benefits it can offer your company.
What Is Shopify?
Shopify is an eCommerce platform that helps merchants sell products and services online. The company focuses on helping small businesses with start-up and expansion by offering tools and services that are customized to the needs of this specific market.
The platform is made up of a merchant account, an eCommerce app, a payment system, and a store builder. With these tools, businesses can set up a storefront to sell products, manage orders and inventory, accept credit card payments, track results and analyze sales.
Why Use Shopify?
If you’re wondering why you should use Shopify, there are a few benefits that come to mind. First and foremost, the platform makes it easy for businesses to set up their own stores.
No matter what kind of products you sell, this can save you a lot of time and energy. Another plus is the fact that it’s very affordable.
With Shopify, you only pay for the hosting, maintenance, and delivery of your products, which means your overall expenses are kept to an absolute minimum.
If you also want to use marketing strategies like email marketing, you can easily do that on the platform. You can send a single email to hundreds or thousands of customers with a simple drag-and-drop interface.
Key Features Of Shopify
Now let’s talk about the key features of Shopify that make it a great choice for small businesses.
- Easy Setup: The setup process of Shopify is simple and straightforward.
- Secure And Proven Platform: Shopify is a proven eCommerce platform that has been around since 2011. This means that it has proved itself to be secure and reliable.
- Efficient And Scalable: As if that wasn’t enough, Shopify is also highly scalable, meaning that it can grow with your business as it grows.
- Affordable: As mentioned above, all you have to pay for with Shopify is hosting, maintenance, and delivery of your products.
- Flexible And Customizable: As if that wasn’t enough, Shopify is also highly customizable. With a variety of app templates, you can make your store look exactly the way you want it to.
What Can Shopify Do For A Small Business?
Now let’s talk about what Shopify can do for your small business.
Boost Revenue:
By setting up your own online store, you’re giving your potential customers a chance to buy from you. And with most eCommerce platforms, you can make money from selling your products.
Increase Customer Engagement:
By having a Shopify storefront, you give your visitors a place where they can leave reviews, buy your products, and contact you. This means they’re much more likely to become customers.
Expand Product Line:
One of the great things about Shopify is that you can add new products to your store without even changing the template. This means that you can keep adding to your product line without breaking a sweat.
Generate Leads:
Once you have the right customers on your website, you can generate leads that you can follow up with.
Manage Inventory:
Considering that most customers will make a purchase on your website, you’ll want to make sure that your inventory levels are managed well. You can do that with Shopify.
Generate Revenue From Shipping And Other Fees:
As a small business, you may charge customers for shipping and handling. With Shopify, you can easily split these charges among customers.
Create Customer Loyalty:
Lastly, you can create customer loyalty programs on Shopify with ease. This is a great way to build your customer base, as customers will become loyal to your brand.
Setting Up A Store On Shopify
You can easily set up a store on Shopify. This eCommerce platform offers an easy-to-use platform that allows you to set up a store in just a few minutes, with support for a wide range of products.
You can choose to operate as a sole proprietor, or you can partner with an eCommerce store that offers features like shipment management and order tracking.
Regardless of the form you take, you’ll need to find a way to promote your products. If your items are primarily digital, you can set up an online store using services like Shopify. When your goods are sold through your store, you make money by charging a fee for each sale.
Marketing On Shopify
To maximize the benefits of using Shopify as a small business, it’s a good idea to market your products through multiple channels. When people search for your products online, the most relevant results will show up.
This means that if you want more people to know about your products, you should create content for niche websites, as well as for your own store.
When people search for your products in their native language, you can offer free guides and other content in that language, as well as translated versions of your core business materials.
When someone makes a purchase from your store, you can collect the customer’s details, including their shipping address, payment method, and the products they purchased. With this information, you can send them a follow-up email, or offer a free gift in exchange for their feedback.
No one ever said being a small business would be easy. In fact, the amount of work that goes into running a small business can easily outweigh the benefits.
But when you use the right tools and implement strategies that work best for your business, the work turns into fun. That’s when being a small business feels like being a part of a team.
Shopify is a great platform for operating as a small business. It allows you to sell your products online, and it doesn’t require a huge investment.
When you use Shopify as a small business, you can focus on running your business rather than managing ad campaigns, scheduling marketing efforts, and dealing with countless other issues that come up in the course of operating a small business.
