Shopping Platforms & Marketplaces

Our view at Stack - Shopify has just about everything you need if you're looking to sell online. It excels with unlimited products, user-friendly setup, and 24/7 support. It offers 6,000+ app integrations, abandoned cart recovery, and shipping discounts up to 88%. Plus, it allows selling both online and in-person, scaling as your business grows.

Commerce is moving faster than ever, and businesses need up-to-the-minute insight into their store performance to keep up with customer expectations, and make informed decisions in the moment. 

That’s why we’re revamping Shopify analytics to work smarter, faster, and more intuitively for you. It’s the same data you’ve had access to in Shopify—now available in real time, and with rich visualizations that remove the time and effort required to use your data to inform business decisions. And with new ways to view, explore, and curate your data, you’ll be able to discover critical insights faster than ever before.

Deeper data exploration

You get the most value from your data when using it to answer business questions—but those questions can be highly unique and specific, and hard to answer within rigid data frameworks. So we’ve redesigned our built-for-commerce analytics platform to help you explore your data without constraints. 

Now, you’ll be able to configure all pre-built Shopify reports to layer on any combination of metrics or dimensions you’re interested in seeing together like sales, sessions, average order value, conversion rate, country, etc. Once in a report, you can add or remove metrics and dimensions, change the visualization type, and specify a date range from the configuration panel. You’ll see the various selections populate in the report and from there you can save it to return to in the future.

Imagine you’d like to understand the success of a recent promotion you ran. You want to see sales side-by-side with sessions and understand how many visitors converted to new customers as a result. You likely also want to see the top products sold during the promotion to get insight into your top products driving sales, or whether the promotion was successful in moving specific inventory. Now, you’ll be able to see all that data and more in a single view. You can continue building on top of that analysis until you’ve found the answers to your business questions.

If you prefer to build a report from scratch, you can do that as well by creating an exploration from the Reports page. This gives you the autonomy to create exactly what you’re looking for and saves you time searching for a suitable report to fit your specific needs.

With the new analytics experience you’ll be able to see a unified view of multiple intersections of your data, like sales and sessions over time, giving you the precise answers you need about the many facets of your business. Soon, you’ll also be able to query your data in real time with the same degree of flexibility using ShopifyQL, all from the convenience of your admin.

Personalized metrics at a glance

Another critical need for businesses is access to quick, easily consumable data for the most important and common performance metrics. The new analytics has a dashboard experience designed for quick and easy use right when you land on the analytics section in Shopify. If you’re short on time, or before diving into deeper analysis, you can view your most important metrics like sales, orders, or sessions at a glance and get a pulse on the real-time health of your store—no digging around in reports required.

We’ve made the dashboard completely customizable so that you can select which metrics you want to see appear there, in what order, and how visible you want them. You can drag & drop, resize, add, or remove any metric card—including custom cards for reports you create—to tailor your dashboard to your needs and make it that much easier to find what you’re looking for in your data.

Powered-up analytics to optimize your business

With fresh, up-to-the-minute data and new UI enhancements, Shopify’s analytics is gearing up to be more powerful than ever. The new experience, which will be available to all Shopify merchants in the coming months, will take the heavy lifting out of analyzing your data so you can focus on optimizing your store and meeting your customers’ needs.

If Shopify is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Shopify has just about everything you need if you're looking to sell online. It excels with unlimited products, user-friendly setup, and 24/7 support. It offers 6,000+ app integrations, abandoned cart recovery, and shipping discounts up to 88%. Plus, it allows selling both online and in-person, scaling as your business grows.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary in the United States is just over $59,000. But with the cost of living slowly creeping upward, you might be wondering, “How can I make my first $100 on the side?” People are always looking for creative ways to make money.

Rest assured, you’re not alone. A 2023 Bankrate survey found that 39% of Americans have a side hustle—including 45% of households whose incomes exceed $100,000. People with successful side projects may have been more likely to respond, but it still demonstrates that money can be made on the side of most full-time jobs.

The attraction of a side hustle isn’t just limited by the opportunity to pad your wallet. Sure, you can use the extra cash to grow your savings account, set your own schedule, and eventually quit your job if your venture becomes successful. But learning how to build and sell products and services on the side also offers several related benefits:

• Security. A day job can offer stability, but it also puts your earning potential all in one basket. If you lose your job, you lose your only source of income. Diversifying with a side hustle means you’ll still have cash if the worst happens.
• A new hobby. A hobby is something that you want to do but don’t have to do. Some creative people cross-pollinate their hobbies and day jobs. Hobbies are something fun to do, yet they sometimes have spillover benefits for your day-to-day work. They give you another place to learn and grow, even if your day job (or another important activity) has hit a wall.
• Building your money-making skill set. Making money is its own distinct skill—one you need to practice if you want to turn interests and talent into a sustainable business. Even if a specific side project doesn’t reach its full potential, you’ll still build valuable skills that can be applied to your next idea.

24 creative ways to make money

1. Sell your photos
2. Print on demand
3. Teach online classes
4. Recommend your favorite products
5. Rent your unused space
6. Sell your services
7. Create niche products
8. Host tours in your city
9. Test websites and apps
10. Sell your art
11. Housesitting and pet-sitting
12. Work as a mover, handyman, or errand-runner
13. Sell second-hand clothes
14. Become an online juror
15. Answer questions
16. Become a home chef
17. Tune pianos
18. Babysitting
19. Join clinical trials
20. Flip furniture
21. Become a fitness instructor
22. Organize other people’s things
23. Become a translator
24. Become a mystery shopper

We’ll break down each side hustle idea by:

• Effort: How much time, skill, or experience you’ll need to put into the idea.
• Leverage: How well positioned you are to turn the idea into a money-making one that increases in value without needing your direct attention. A low leverage idea is a 1:1 trade of time for money. A high leverage idea will have much more of a return for your efforts, often resulting in passive income.
• Startup costs: The upfront budget you’ll need to launch the idea.
• Potential earnings: How much profit you can expect to make from your side hustle per year.

1. Sell your photos

Effort: Medium

Leverage: Low

Startup costs (out of 5 💸): 💸

Potential earnings: On average, 35¢ per image. Typically, you’re looking at 10¢ to $99.50 per (royalty-free) sale, or up to $500 for a photo sold under an extended license. The exact payout will depend on the platform you use to sell your work. Shutterstock, for instance, pays between 15% and 40% of its revenue to the photographers who submitted the images.

Photographs are like any other product, and in order to successfully sell your photography you need to target an audience of potential customers who want or have a need for them. Start by thinking about the photography style you’re most interested in, whether that’s landscapes, portraits, or pets.

Then, depending on how you plan to monetize (e.g., by selling prints or offering rights to stock photography sites), see if there’s a specific lane or niche you can identify. The Haute Stock library was born out of this concept. Its founder, Rachel Rouhana, was frustrated with the lack of stylish stock photography available for women business owners. So she created Haute Stock to fill that gap in the market.

Learn more: How to Sell Photos Online (For Both Amateur and Pro Photographers)

Once you’ve found your niche, start building a following on visual-heavy platforms like Instagram and Pinterest. Snap some niche-specific photos, use a free photo editor to polish them up, then sell them on sites like Adobe Stock and Shutterstock. Monitor which style works best through the platform’s analytics.

Use your social media accounts to tease your paid content—bloggers and business owners always need stock photos. You could pitch directly to your target business owner, asking whether they’d be willing to pay for your photos—and how much they’re willing to pay. For example: You might identify the audience for your pet-related photos as dog retailers who are willing to pay $25 per stock photo.

Bear in mind that you’ll need to price your stock photos based on three factors: the demand for photos in that industry, the price competitors are charging, and the fees you’re paying to take the photos themselves.

If you’re shooting people, you’ll need to pay them, and if you’re shooting locations you’ll usually need permission or to pay a fee. Build this into your pricing to make sure you’re not losing more money than you’re making.

2. Print on demand

Effort: Low

Leverage: High

Startup costs: 💸💸

Potential earnings: According to the Print On Demand Market Report, the global print-on-demand market was worth $7.7 billion in 2023, with apparel representing the largest market segment.

Print on demand is a low-risk way to make money that, unlike traditional dropshipping, lets you leverage your creative talents. Here’s how it works: You work with a supplier to customize (or white label) products such as books, t-shirts, phone cases, or other merchandise. You add your design to a plain item, then the supplier prints and delivers your products to customers on a per-order basis so you don’t have to hold inventory in order to start selling.

Since you can take the lion’s share of logistics and operations work off your plate thanks to Shopify apps like Printful, Lulu Direct, and Printify, you’ll have more time to focus on design, branding, and marketing your products. It’s a very accessible business model if you’re working a full-time job. You can get creative with your own talents or commission a freelance designer to help you with patterns or full-blown product designs.

Since your customized products will be manufactured once a customer places an order, you also won’t have to pay for the items until you’ve sold them.

Print on demand is a superb model for creatives who want to get involved with their products but don’t have time to commit to making or manufacturing them. It combines the ability to be expressive and to build a distinct brand with the ease of dropshipping, making it a nice sandbox to start your side hustle in.

3. Teach online classes

Effort: High

Leverage: Medium

Startup costs: 💸💸💸

Potential earnings: Your earnings will depend on the subject you teach, your level of experience, and where your students are located. The International TEFL Academy reports that teachers of English as a foreign language can expect to earn between $10 and $40 per hour. More experienced or niche class teachers charge upward of $3,000 per course.

Turning your industry knowledge into an online course is a smart way to make extra money. For example, the creators behind Sugarlash PRO Academy found a unique niche they were knowledgeable about and created a series of profitable online courses around the topic. 

You can start making money by teaching classes in an area you’re interested in. What can you talk about for hours on end? What do your family and friends ask for your advice on? The answers might be a great class idea. But remember, a huge part of any online course’s success is the audience who purchases it.

Some niches might not be as profitable as others, so check whether there’s high demand for your course topic before investing time in creating it. Generally speaking, you want to look for audiences willing to pay money in order to make progress. Passionate hobbyists or professionals who are willing to invest in their craft are prime examples.

Next, plan the flow of your course. Think about the topics you want to cover and create content for each section. This could be a one-off lesson sold as a class or a curriculum of content on a similar theme offered as a course.

Sure, you’ll need to spend some time promoting your course. But once you’ve invested time in creating the content, your investment is basically done. The time and money you spend developing the course is upfront, meaning you’ll only need to fork out marginal costs if and when you update it

You can host and distribute your content on platforms like Shopify, Udemy, Teachable, Skillshare, or LinkedIn Learning, all of which allow creators to monetize their courses.

4. Recommend your favorite products

Effort: Low

Leverage: Medium

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: Successful affiliate marketers can expect to earn between $66,000 and $119,000 per year, according to Glassdoor. However, most people won’t earn that much. A survey by Influencer Marketing Hub reveals that fewer than half of all affiliate marketers will earn more than $10,000 in a year.

Perhaps you’ve got a list of products you couldn’t live without. You refer one of those products to your friend, and they soon feel the same. Affiliate marketing is a way to monetize your passion for helping people connect with the right product. 

The affiliate marketing model works by recommending products to your network and receiving a bonus—usually a percentage of the sale price in commission or gift cards—as a reward. Most companies, including Amazon and eBay, offer a refer-a-friend incentive.

You could take things a step further by recommending your favorite products to a bigger audience through blogging or posting on social media. Wirecutter has a team of staff writers who create product-centric content for its audience. The site monetizes through the commissions they receive for referrals.

Reviews on sites like Wirecutter aren’t spammy—there’s no pushy feeling that forces you into making a purchase just because the writers will receive a commission. Their reviews are in-depth, unbiased, and genuinely make it easier for you to find the right product. That’s the basic idea of great affiliate marketing: providing education and context that can be challenging for the official company to present in a genuine way.

It’s relatively easy to get started with affiliate marketing, but to see significant income, you need to have a large online following. To take your first steps toward affiliate marketing, search your favorite brands’ websites to see if they offer a refer-a-friend program. (If they don’t, you can always email to enquire.) Ask friends to use your link or code when they purchase from that brand and you’ll both typically get a reward.

5. Rent your unused space

Effort: Low

Leverage: Medium

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: $300 to $2,000 per month for a parking space, according to PeerStorage. $50 to hundreds per hour for indoor meeting space, according to Peerspace. Hundreds per night, according to Airbnb and VRBO.

If you have some extra space in your home, office, garage, or parking lot, you might be able to make some money renting it out.

One example is your backyard. You can treat it as a side-hustle opportunity by listing it on sites like Hipcamp and charging people to pitch their tent there. Create boundaries with the people you open your camping space to—such as whether they’re allowed to use your indoor toilet, access your home, or light barbecues on your grass.

Similarly, for a small monthly fee you could rent the parking space that comes with your home or apartment to family, friends, or one of the many drivers looking for a parking spot—a huge source of frustration for commuters. This is an especially great side-hustle idea if you use the car space at night but aren’t at home during the day.

You can use sites like Parkopedia or Craigslist to check out your competition. Find what people in your location are charging for their parking space, then price your spot competitively. Pop into local offices and ask whether any staff would be interested in renting your spot.

6. Sell your services

Effort: High

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: More than $20 per hour.

The gig economy is on the rise. An increasing number of people are working as independent contractors or freelancers who work for other organizations on a flexible or temporary basis to earn money online.

Freelancing or service-based online businesses are among the most popular side hustles. In fact, Upwork’s 2023 Freelance Forward survey reported that 64 million Americans performed freelance work in the previous year.

You can get involved by selling your services. Think about what you’re good at or want to learn. There’s probably a company looking to employ someone like you on a project basis, as opposed to a full-time contract.

Start getting experience on sites like Upwork, TaskRabbit, and Fiverr. Be wary that other freelancers, especially those who don’t know how to position their services, might charge pennies for similar work, and that there’s a risk of pricing way too low to beat them in the battle for clients. A great place to start is the average hourly rates in your country for a specific profession. The average hourly rate for a marketer in the US, for example, is $38.

Decide what services you could offer by looking at the skills you’ve nailed in your day job:

• Are you praised for the way you organize your email inbox? You could make a great virtual assistant.
• Do you communicate well with coworkers and summarize your meeting minutes for your team? The leap to writing isn’t too far.
• Can you listen to a client and deliver exactly what they want? You could offer party planning services for people in your area.

You could also take a look at the tasks you enjoy doing. Let’s say you’re working in a marketing agency as your full-time job. You enjoy social media posting but don’t enjoy advertising. You could reach out to clients who only want social media content and offer that as your standalone service. Just make sure there isn’t a non-compete clause in your full-time contract. (It’s worth chatting with your boss to double check.)

You’ll also need to decide on a schedule for your side gig. Some companies hire remote staff that don’t need to be present in the office. Look for that type of role if you’d prefer the flexibility that comes with remote-friendly work. Similarly, if you thrive being around other people or find remote work isolating (even on the side), offer to join other companies in their office when you’re free.

You might need to spend a while creating your portfolio—a collection of work that proves you’re good at the service you’re selling—before you can demand higher rates.

However, you can start with lower rates and potentially use your service offering as a springboard to starting your own business. First, see whether there’s a demand for your service, whether you can fit the work into your schedule, and how much clients are willing to pay you. You might find a hidden home business opportunity to make this income stream your main one.

Service-based side hustles are high margin, and can be very profitable and quick to pay off. But the downside is they’re usually a bit harder to scale into an asset that can run without you. You are your business—you’ll need to be on hand to do the work—or at least oversee it if you grow to the point where you’re able to subcontract work to another freelancer and maximize profit. 

7. Create niche products

Effort: High

Leverage: High

Startup costs: 💸💸💸

Potential earnings: Up to six figures.

You’ve found a skill you’re good at and you’ve started monetizing it by offering a service to clients. But you spend so much time with your clients that you realize there’s a gap in the market for a product you could sell.

Tracey Hicks is a real estate agent and independent business owner who found herself creating small notebooks to keep track of her clients. It dawned on her that other agents would probably benefit from these notebooks too, so she started selling them on her Shopify store.

Another example is Dustin Lee. He noticed that graphic designers were always looking for add-ons to their standard tools, such as paintbrushes, design elements, Photoshop templates, and clip art. So he created RetroSupply, which sells those products directly to other designers.

This follow-on from selling your services will only work if you understand your clients and peers. You might need to land a few freelance gigs before spotting a gap in the market—but that’s a silver lining. Business ideas present themselves more noticeably when you’re in the weeds and living with the problems yourself.

8. Host tours in your city

Effort: High

Leverage: Medium

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: Tour guides typically earn about $22 per hour in the US—plus tips—according to Indeed. Of course, if you operate independently, you can set your own rates and earn significantly more per tour.

If you live in a tourist city, there’s an opportunity to host tours for visitors.

These can be niche (like a tour of little-known historical sites) or activity-specific (such as general walking, bike, or alcohol tours). Maybe you’re aware of a fantastic restaurant that only locals know. Think about what you’re knowledgeable about and start to plan the route of your tour. You might need to create a script or fact sheet to explain areas of your city to your attendees.

Then, start to think about how you can find people to join your tour. You could create your own website and optimize it for keywords your tourists are likely searching, such as:

• “Walking tours in [your city]” 
• “Bike tours in [your city]” 
• “Cheap [your city] tours” 

If you don’t fancy that upfront commitment, you can join platforms like Showaround, Get Your Guide, and The Tourpreneur. These platforms let you host tours in your city to make money—and friends—by entertaining tourists passing through. You’ll be making friends while also earning extra cash.

9. Test websites and apps

Effort: Low

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: $10 or more per test.

You form an impression of a website when you visit it, and companies are always looking for feedback on their sites. So you could get paid for sharing your thoughts, whether it’s on design, content, or usability.

This is a great side hustle for people who have spare time at an office—maybe on their lunch break. Sites like UserTesting pay $10 per 20-minute test, which might not sound like much, but if you do one every lunch break, every day, it adds up.

With so many people accessing the internet via smartphones and tablets, a good deal of testing now revolves around mobile apps as opposed to websites. Software Testing Help offers tips on how to get a mobile testing job, along with job portals linking you to such work.

Similarly, you can volunteer to take part in focus groups. Designers, copywriters, and marketers are always looking for feedback on their new campaign. You could email them and volunteer your time to help, asking for a small incentive—like a cash reward or gift card—in return for your time and opinion.

10. Sell your art

Effort: High

Leverage: High

Startup costs: 💸💸💸

Potential earnings: A wide range, spanning from $20 to $20,000 per month.

If you’re a budding artist, selling your work is a great side hustle idea.

It’s a simple way to make money from your hobby—especially when you combine it with the print-on-demand model. Transfer your illustrations onto a physical product (like a t-shirt or coffee mug), and create an online store for your items. You’ll pay only the fee for the item once you sell the product.

Or you could create an online library of your artwork. Work on building a following, then offer quick, personalized art in return for a small fee. This is a great way for budding artists to work on their craft, making extra money on the side and building an audience as they grow. Sites like Buy Me a Coffee let people donate the cost of a coffee in return for your custom work.

Talented artists can also offer made-to-order illustrations. Both businesses and the general public often look for custom illustrations through sites like Etsy or Fiverr.

Alternatively, you can use Shopify to sell your art directly to customers. This means you can set your own pricing, manage your inventory, and have full control over your illustrations.

11. Housesitting and pet-sitting

Effort: Medium

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: Roughly $16 per hour for housesitting, per the Economic Research Institute. Pet-sitters make a similar rate, according to SideHustles.com.

Housesitting and pet-sitting can be a fun and flexible way to make some extra money while also getting a change of scenery—and potentially enjoying the company of furry friends. Both options can be tailored to your lifestyle and preferences, allowing you to choose gigs that fit your schedule and comfort level. To find these opportunities, you can explore online platforms like TrustedHousesitters, HouseCarers, MindMyHouse, and Rover.

As a housesitter, you’ll be entrusted with caring for someone’s home while they’re away. This could involve tasks like collecting mail, watering plants, maintaining the pool (if applicable), and ensuring the overall security of the property.

Some housesitting gigs might even include basic chores like vacuuming or taking out the trash. The responsibilities and duration can vary greatly, so clearing communication with the homeowner beforehand is key. Popular online platforms like TrustedHousesitters connect housesitters with homeowners worldwide.

For pet-sitting enthusiasts, the focus shifts to caring for the homeowner’s furry companions. This could involve feeding, walking, playing with, and cleaning up after the pets. Depending on the animal’s needs, you might also administer medications or provide companionship during the day. Many pet-sitting opportunities can be done from the homeowner’s residence, allowing you to enjoy a homey environment with animal company. Websites like Rover and Care can connect you with pet owners in your area who need pet-sitting services.

12. Work as a mover, handyman, or errand-runner

Effort: Low

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: Average of $35 per hour, but depends on task and experience.

There are many apps where you can sign up to offer simple services like moving furniture and helping to mount a TV on a wall. If you have experience with practical, household tasks, this could be an opportunity to market your skills. You can keep this type of work as a side hustle or turn it into a full-blown online business.

Below is a list of several apps where you can sign up to be a handyman or random task contractor:

• TaskRabbit: a general app that offers everything from home deliveries to shelf mounting to gardening.
• Handy: similar to TaskRabbit, but also offers plumbing and electrical work.
• Fancy Hands: offers assistants of any type to its customers, whether it’s picking up dry cleaning or walking the dog.
• Thumbtack: a platform that rewards specialization, connecting customers with local pros from handymen to wedding DJs to photographers.
• Staffy: finds temps for employers in essentially any industry, often on short notice or same day.

13. Sell second-hand clothes

Effort: Medium

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸💸

Potential earnings: On average between 25% and 40% of the sticker price for clothes—and significantly more for rare or vintage items.

Look in your closet and your dresser. How many pieces of clothing are just sitting there that haven’t been worn for years? As long as they’re in pretty good condition, you may be able to get money for those pieces. The great thing about this side hustle is you can keep it as a part-time thing that you do every spring cleaning, or you can turn it into a small business. 

Once you’ve tried your hand at selling your own used clothes, you can consider buying and reselling your own curated collections of thrifted clothes. Consumers aligned with your taste will pay a premium for hard-to-find pieces you’ve picked up.

To get started, there are a number of websites and apps you can use to sell your clothes.

• ThredUp: for selling your everyday clothes that are still in good condition.
• Poshmark: for selling your clothes quickly, but you’ll have to accept the best offers.
• Depop: specializing in vintage and quirky fashion pieces, though it sells anything.
• Vinted: known for selling high-fashion street brands.
• Rebag: known for luxury handbags
• LePrix: for high-end designer items in good condition (requires authentication process).
• The Real Real: for designer and high-end fashion items.
• Facebook Marketplace: for selling clothes to your local community. 

Remember that these apps will take a percentage of your sales. They can also charge listing fees and extra shipping fees. If you think you could tackle that, you could start an ecommerce store of your own. Stores like Fashionably Yours, an online consignment shop that buys and sells pre-owned designer clothing, operates both online and in-store.

14. Become an online juror

Effort: Medium

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: Usually $5 to $10 per case.

According to One Legal, there are more than 40 million lawsuits filed each year and more than one million registered lawyers. These lawyers sometimes need to practice presenting their cases to real people. That’s where you come in.

eJury offers to pay people to sit on a virtual jury. You log into eJury’s website, review the facts of the case, and then submit your verdict. The verdict isn’t legally binding, it simply shows how you would vote if you were on a jury for this case. This helps lawyers decide where their case is weak and how better to present their case when they actually go to court.

The great thing is you don’t need any specialized knowledge to do this. Just like in a real jury, eJury requires that you aren’t in the legal field at all. It only requires that you be an adult, can read and write, and not be under indictment for any felonies or have any felony convictions on your record.

You can do as many or as few cases as you want. If you find that a case is taking too long, you aren’t obligated to finish it.

eJury onlys pays about $5 to $10 per case, so you probably won’t get rich being an online juror. But you certainly can make some extra money to help with bills or get you some extra spending money.

15. Answer questions

Effort: Low

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: 20% to 50% commission or $5 to $90 fee per question.

If you’re a professional or an expert, you can get paid to answer questions in your field of expertise. All you have to do is apply, and once your credentials are verified, you can start making money right away.

An expert is someone like a doctor, lawyer, veterinarian, plumber, mechanic, etc. Basically, someone with a set of knowledge that the everyday person wouldn’t have. 

The way it works is, users are charged a fee to post questions on sites like JustAnswer.com. They can either pay per question or pay a rate to ask an unlimited amount of questions. Then you, as an expert, will browse the questions that relate to your expertise and choose the ones you want to answer. If your answer is helpful, the user will give you a rating.

A consistently higher rating will give you a bigger percentage of the fee that the user is charged. Sites like Fiverr and Upwork also provide some version of this. This is a great way to get paid for simply sharing what you already know.

16. Become a home chef

Effort: Medium

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸💸

Potential earnings: $20 to $50 per meal.

You can turn your culinary skills into cash by working as a home chef. Home chefs can make money by preparing and selling meals in a few different ways. The estimated salary varies depending on the chosen method, location, and the level of service provided.

For casual cooks, online platforms like Mealawe, Shef, and Eatwith connect them with individuals who want home-cooked meals delivered or enjoyed in a communal setting. You’ll typically set your own prices per serving, and earnings can range from $20 to $50 per meal. In most cases, you’ll cook in your own kitchen, but some platforms offer the option of cooking in your client’s kitchen.

For more experienced home chefs, catering small events or offering private chef services can be lucrative. Chefs can set personalized menus, cook on-site or off-site, and potentially command premium rates, depending on the occasion and number of guests. Private chef services can range from $75 to $200 per person for a multicourse meal. Local regulations and licensing may apply, so be sure to research the requirements in your area.

Overall, being a home chef offers the flexibility to work on your own terms and share your passion for food. However, it requires planning, marketing, and ensuring compliance with local regulations.

17. Tune pianos

Effort: Medium

Leverage: Medium

Startup costs: 💸💸💸

Potential earnings: Around $37,000 per year.

Pianos are unique in that they’re one of the few instruments that most players cannot tune themselves. That makes piano tuning a viable profession in a way that, for instance, a professional guitar tuner would not be.

Becoming a piano tuner requires training and equipment. The Piano Technicians Guild offers certifications that demonstrate your skills and knowledge, potentially increasing your earning potential and attracting a wider clientele.

The exact income can vary depending on factors like your experience, location, and clientele. On average, piano tuners in the United States earn around $37,160 per year, with a range stretching from $24,420 to $59,120. This translates to roughly $18 to $50 per hour.

There are a few routes you can take to find work as a piano tuner. One option is to build a client base through word-of-mouth recommendations and by partnering with piano stores, music schools, and concert venues. The rise of online platforms has also opened doors for tuners. Websites like Thumbtack and Handy can connect you with clients in your area who need piano-tuning services.

18. Babysitting

Effort: Medium

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: $10 to $25 per hour.

There is an unmet need for babysitting in the United States. For generations, parents entrusted teenagers (often neighbors) to look after their young kids, but attitudes have changed, and contemporary parents show hesitancy to let children mind other children.

This means there’s an uptick in babysitting work for adults. In fact, recent studies by Zippia have found that the average age of babysitters is 37 years old.

So, depending on the area where you live and your experience, it’s not uncommon to charge anywhere from $10 to $25 per hour, per child. If you’re able to get Red Cross certifications in First Aid, CPR, and advanced child-care training, that will make you an even more attractive option to parents.

Now, you no longer have to be referred by word of mouth in your neighborhood. There are all kinds of apps and websites where you can sign up to be a babysitter. Here are five that can get you started:

19. Join clinical trials

Effort: Low

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: $50 to $300 a day or visit.

A clinical trial is a study that asks volunteers to come forward to test a drug or hypothesis. That means people who fit specific parameters are asked to commit to a specific regimen or test period.

To participate in a study, you first need to apply. The more involved the study, the more complicated the application process. Once you’re accepted, the people conducting the study will outline the guidelines and how long the study will last. Usually, you’ll only get paid if you complete the trial by following all the guidelines to the end.

The most common type of trial is a new drug that helps treat a disorder or disease. But there are also other types of trials that are less invasive and could even be quite fun, like this trial from 2019 that tested how effective Wii Heart Fitness was in improving physical activity and health in people of all ages.

How much you get paid will depend on a few factors: how invasive the study is, how much time you must commit, and whether it may be dangerous to your health. You can find all the different kinds of clinical trials outlined by the FDA on its website.

20. Flip furniture

Effort: High

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸💸💸

Potential earnings: $50 to $500 per month.

According to the EPA, more than 12 million tons of furniture have been thrown out every year since 2015. Not only does that hurt our environment, it’s also a wasted opportunity. If you’ve got time, can transport furniture, and don’t mind a little bit of elbow grease, this is a great way to make money from home.

There are several ways to flip furniture. One is to find high-end pieces online or at flea markets and upsell them in your own store, like the way Flippers does. You can also buy worn-out furniture and spruce it up for resale.

You’re going to need a bit of money to start out. You’ll either need a bit of money to buy the high-end pieces you want to flip and a place to store them or tools, supplies, and a workspace to fix up pieces that need work. The upside is, in most areas you can find cheap furniture. And if you’re willing to give it a clean and a paint job, you can sell those pieces for hundreds of dollars.

21. Become a fitness instructor

Effort: Medium to high

Leverage: Medium

Startup costs: 💸💸💸

Potential earnings: Average $20 to $50 per hour.

The American fitness, health, and gym club industry is projected to be worth more than $147 billion in 2024. While a lot of that revenue goes to nationwide health club chains, plenty of it makes its way to individual trainers offering fitness classes.

These days, you can teach classes in person or online. And if you want to turn this into a full-fledged business, you can do both.

If you want to teach in-person fitness classes, the first thing you’ll need is the necessary certifications. Check with the gym or fitness center you want to apply to and see what certifications they require. Certification exams can cost anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to thousands of dollars. So make sure you know which exams your employer requires.

Some gyms pay by the hour, others by the head (how many people sign up for your class). It’s important to create your own style of teaching. If you create a following of loyal students, the gym will be more likely to ask you to come back and maybe even add more classes to your roster.

A great way to build a following is also to take your workouts to the web, like @MrandMrsMuscle. They put short workout teasers on their Instagram page, have video workouts available, make extra income from YouTube, and have developed their own fitness app.

All of this has earned them more than 1.5 million followers and a steady stream of passive income as they add new workouts every week—they’re even adding meal plans to their services.

Learn More: Building a Multimillion-Dollar Fitness Brand Without Paid Marketing

If you’re someone who enjoys working out, this is a great side hustle to get paid while you sweat. And if you turn it into a full-fledged business, you can make some real money.

22. Organize other people’s things

Effort: Medium

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: Professional organizers make an average of $72,000 per year.

If Marie Kondo taught us anything, it’s that sometimes all we need is a little help organizing the things in our lives. If you’re someone who has a knack for organization and likes to help people, this might be the side gig of your dreams.

On average, a professional organizer makes about $50 per hour in the US. This can involve more than just putting a bunch of stuff in boxes. It means understanding your clients and finding an organizational system that works for them and their lives.

Professional organizers are hired for more than organizing items in a house. You can also help with restructuring a business, digital information organization, time management, and even feng shui.

You can sign up on contractor sites like Thumbtack and Westtenth. From there, you can specify what your skills are and your rates. Then get to organizing!

23. Become a translator

Effort: Low

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: Professional translators make an average of roughly $4,700 per month.

The world is becoming more and more connected, so if you’re fluent in more than one language, you can use that to make some extra money.

With sites like Translate.com, Unbabel, and even Fiverr, it’s easy to find gigs asking for translation services. Some sites require you to take a test to show your fluency level and then base your pay rate off it.;

There are sites that specialize in blog posts and proofreading, and sites that only do mobile apps or web comics. If there are words involved, you’ll most likely find a translation gig as well.

Here’s a shortlist of five sites to get you started:

If you have specialized knowledge in another language, that’s a whole other avenue you can delve into. For example, under the Affordable Care Act Section 1557, all hospitals are required to offer competent translators for their patients. And because you’d be offering a specialized type of translation, you can charge more per hour for your services.

The great thing about this gig is you can make your own hours and set your own rates. You also can help people who otherwise would feel lost in legal or medical situations. On top of that, if learning languages is something you enjoy, you can get paid to continue your studies.

24. Become a mystery shopper

Effort: Low

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: Mystery shopper salaries vary by region. Some Florida mystery shoppers report making around $17 per hour, while others in New York City made over $28 per hour.

If you like shopping, why not get paid to do it? Mystery shoppers are hired to report about their experiences in specific stores. They’re usually called in when a complaint or concern has been raised about that store.

Because of that, your duties can include anything from taking pictures of the storefront to buying a specific item and recording your shopping experience from start to finish. How much you get paid for each job depends on what it is you’re asked to do. 

While this gig won’t replace your day job, you can make some extra cash while you’re out and about. With sites like Bestmark and IntelliShop, it’s easy to find the mystery shopper gig right for you.

But be careful: there are mystery shopper scams out there. You should never have to pay to become a mystery shopper. Also, keep in mind, many times your travel costs are not included, so factor that into the jobs you accept.

How to make money in real life and online

Instead of following conventional advice, these offbeat money-making ideas make it more likely you’ll find a side hustle where passion and profit overlap—without too much competition.

Whether you’re selling your art, offering a niche skill, or simply renting something you own that people want, remember that a new income stream typically takes time to build momentum. It’s worth building for the long term—potentially with the plan to quit your day job and take on your new venture full time—when you find an idea that you enjoy.

These creative ways to make money are different from your typical money-making tasks, but they all need a creative person to do one thing: connect the dots between what people want and outside-the-box solutions you can use to give it to them.

If Shopify is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Shopify has just about everything you need if you're looking to sell online. It excels with unlimited products, user-friendly setup, and 24/7 support. It offers 6,000+ app integrations, abandoned cart recovery, and shipping discounts up to 88%. Plus, it allows selling both online and in-person, scaling as your business grows.

Having a viral moment on social media is amazing, but can you build a successful company around it? The answer is yes—if you make the right moves.

When Kheris Rogers was getting bullied in school for her dark complexion, her sister decided to empower her by posting photos of her online with the hashtag #FlexinInMyComplexion. The posts ended up going viral on Twitter. Two days later, thanks to self confidence and the support of her family, Kheris began selling Flexin’ In My Complexion t-shirts, selling out in less than 10 minutes.

Ahead, Kheris shares four tips that helped her build her business after going viral.

 

How to turn a viral moment into a business 

When an unexpected viral moment happens, you don’t have long to capitalize on it before the moment is gone. Don’t let a surge of fame pass you by—if you have a business idea, be ready to act when the time is right.

1. Don’t be afraid to take a risk

After her hashtag started gaining popularity, Kheris wanted to seize the opportunity. Even though she was still in elementary school, she dreamed of creating a business that inspired people to feel confident. 

“When you have an idea, no one can stop you but yourself,” Kheris says.

If you can capture the attention of people online, take it as a chance to fearlessly lean into what’s already engaging them. While it was a bold choice, Kheris decided to take the leap because she wanted to inspire even more people with her brand’s message.

2. Ask for help

After you commit to your idea, you’ll need people who can help you get your product into customers’ hands. “It was really a family and friend business at first,” Kheris explains.

Her mom contacted a friend who made t-shirts, while her sister designed a website. “Everything was so spontaneous, and it was a company literally in the span of two days,” Kheris says. 

If you can work with people who have your back, your company will take off and be able to sustain long-term success. “There’s nothing wrong with asking for help,” Kheris says. “A lot of people are too scared, but when you need the help, go get it.”

3. Make public appearances

“I was doing so many interviews and photoshoots and traveling so much that it was keeping us relevant,” Kheris says.

After going viral, Kheris shared content with her new audience to keep them engaged and extend Flexin’ In My Complexion’s momentum. The surge of coverage online and in the news brought in new customers as well. “Consistency is key, so keep having those creative photo shoots and doing things to keep people engaged,” she says. 

4. Get your priorities in order

Kheris gave up time with her friends, staying home and getting ahead on schoolwork to make time for her business. “At the end of the day, there are people that are out there wanting their orders, and there’s a lot of sacrifices that come with that,” Kheris says. 

More than seven years later, those sacrifices have all paid off. Kheris has inspired hundreds of thousands of people with her motivational fashion, while creating her dream career. 

Gaining viral views can pay off if you embrace your self-confidence, get motivated, and aren’t afraid to ask for help. If you can follow Kheris’s advice, your viral moment has the potential to spark a new business idea. 

Learn more about Kheris’s founder story and hear her social media tips in the full Shopify Masters episode.

If Shopify is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Shopify has just about everything you need if you're looking to sell online. It excels with unlimited products, user-friendly setup, and 24/7 support. It offers 6,000+ app integrations, abandoned cart recovery, and shipping discounts up to 88%. Plus, it allows selling both online and in-person, scaling as your business grows.

If Shopify is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Shopify has just about everything you need if you're looking to sell online. It excels with unlimited products, user-friendly setup, and 24/7 support. It offers 6,000+ app integrations, abandoned cart recovery, and shipping discounts up to 88%. Plus, it allows selling both online and in-person, scaling as your business grows.

If Shopify is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Shopify has just about everything you need if you're looking to sell online. It excels with unlimited products, user-friendly setup, and 24/7 support. It offers 6,000+ app integrations, abandoned cart recovery, and shipping discounts up to 88%. Plus, it allows selling both online and in-person, scaling as your business grows.

When Tom Petty sang, “The waiting is the hardest part,” he probably wasn’t picturing the delivery of his latest online order. But in ecommerce, the feeling of anticipation is a powerful lever.

Preorders give customers the thrill of anticipating a new product arriving at their doorstep. For merchants, preorders transform potential sales into purchases, boosting revenue and improving customer relationships.

In this guide, learn how preorders work and how to use Shopify to enable preorders for your customers.

What does preorder mean?

Preorders allow customers to order products before they are released or restocked. Full or partial payment is taken at the time a preorder is made, but the order only ships once it becomes available.

Whether a product is out-of-stock or soon to be launched, preorders act as a reservation that guarantees a customer access at the earliest possible availability.

When a merchant accepts a deposit for a preorder, they often charge the remaining amount using a customer’s stored payment method.

💡 Check out Shopify’s collection of preorder apps.

Why preorders make sense for your business

Preorder selling provides significant advantages, positively impacting your revenue, operations, and customer loyalty.

Increase sales

Customers have more options when shopping than ever before. Ecommerce has effectively put the entire world at their fingertips, and any product—from one-of-a-kind custom crafts to high-end premium luxury goods and electronics—is available with a single tap.

For retailers, this means competition has never been more fierce. If your product is unavailable or out-of-stock when shoppers want it, they’ll simply move on to the next store.

Preorders give you an edge, allowing you to lock-in more sales whether the merchandise is ready to ship or not. You have the power to never say “no” to a customer again, because now, when they’re ready to buy, you’re ready to sell (even if you’re not ready to ship).

Plus, preorders give you the flexibility to take payment in the form of a deposit, upfront, or once the item ships. This makes it easy to shape your strategy to fit your unique cash flow needs.

Forecast demand by meeting it

Preorders help turn uncertainty into insights by providing data about concrete demand that businesses can trust.

Selling a physical product inherently comes with risks. Whether you’ve invested in the research, design, and manufacturing of your products or you simply purchased inventory, retailers have a serious financial interest in understanding exactly how much demand exists for each product they offer.

If you’re a merchant looking to fine-tune and make final adjustments to your product before bringing it to market, preorders can help you understand exactly what customers prefer before your production run concludes. “Gut feelings” may work for some business geniuses, but for the rest of us, preorders provide a fantastic realistic picture of which sizes, colors, and options you should produce in order to meet existing customer demand and be able to ship within a reasonable timeframe.

The past few years have highlighted how supply chain issues can cause major problems for even the most established businesses. Preorders allow you to effectively forecast minimum product quantities required to fulfill your orders, helping reduce the risk involved with managing uncertain supply chains and storing idle inventory. You should also factor in this kind of large scale delay when estimating your shipping timelines.

Generate excitement and drive growth

Between targeted ads and the dozens of screens the average shopper sees each day, it can be hard for a retailer to break through the noise and grab their attention. This makes driving awareness and excitement about a new product release—or the return of a fan-favorite—especially difficult.

Just as movie trailers create a slow burn of hype before a film’s release, preorders can serve to build excitement and anticipation for a product before it hits the shelves. Successful preorder marketing campaigns follow many of the same cues as regular marketing campaigns, including:

• Creating professional product imagery and copy. You can leverage factory samples, and even professional retouching services to create product imagery if none exists yet.
• Offering preorder incentives. Limited-time discounts, early access to release news and other products, and free customization are great ways to boost preorder sales while generating excitement.
• Promoting on paid and social media. Whichever digital platform your target audience uses the most, be sure to fill it with news about your preorder.

In addition to generating buzz, offering exclusive preorder access to customers on your mailing list or through a member loyalty program not only boosts the odds of these repeat shoppers converting, but also helps build brand loyalty and shows that you appreciate their business and understand what they want to buy.

Preorder methods

Pay now

Pay now is the most common type of preorder. The full sales price of the item is due at the time of the preorder, and payment is collected like a normal purchase. You can almost think of it like a standard sale, but with an extended fulfillment time.

With preorders the customer will receive information explaining when they can expect the shipment.

Pay now preorders are great for businesses that want to:

• Get paid up-front. If cash flow management is important to you, pay now helps ensure you always have the cash you need on hand.
• Capture customers in the moment. Worried about missing out on a sale because an item is out of stock? Pay now lets you make the sale whenever shoppers are ready to buy.
• Automatically update out-of-stock products. Many preorder apps can be set to automatically accept preorders whenever a product goes out of stock, so fewer customers move on to a different seller.
• Keep customers informed. Pay now preorder site messaging can be customized to display additional information, like expected shipping dates.

Pay later

The other type of preorder is pay later. This method lets customers make either a deposit or a payment-free “reservation” on a product, and then be billed for the remaining or full sales price once the item ships.

Pay later preorders are ideal for businesses that want to:

• Capture orders for upcoming products that may be delayed. Pay later gives you more fulfillment flexibility when informing customers that a product will ship later than intended.
• Test the market for new products. Pay later lets you gauge interest in a new product so you can produce the right amount.
• Charge customers at fulfillment. If you want to customize your cash flow, pay later gives you the ability to bill customers before or after you pay your suppliers.

How to set up preorders on Shopify

Preorders are complex, and there’s rarely a single way of doing preorders that works for everyone. So we’ve partnered with our app ecosystem, and made it easy for them to build the best preorder apps on our platform, ensuring that any preorder app you install will work seamlessly with Shopify.

Popular preorder Shopify apps

If you’re ready to start offering preorders, try one of these preorder apps available in the Shopify App Store.

PreProduct

PreProduct lets you accept preorders for upcoming product launches at any point in the product cycle. Choose between pay-later and deposit-based preorders, and only charge customers when you’re ready, by payment link or deferred payment.

Endless Blading Co. makes precision, multi-setup inline skate frames. It uses PreProduct for preorders, making it easier to forecast demand and place orders with vendors.

Pre-Order Manager

Pre-Order Manager makes it easy to automate preorder dates and enable them based on stock levels.

EarthBits, a zero-waste store for makeup and cleaning products, uses Pre-Order Manager to sell preorders when one of their hundreds of products goes out of stock.

They say Pre-Order Manager has “eliminated a huge amount of customer service,” as the customer is fully aware they are ordering a product that is out of stock and what date it should come back into stock.

Purple Dot

Use Purple Dot to set up 100% Pay Later terms. Customer cards are saved at checkout and charged when the product is ready to ship.

Menswear brand SPOKE uses Purple Dot for preorders, allowing them to flexibly launch products on schedule—some in stock and some on lead time.

SPOKE say that preorders helped them “achieve a 400% higher sell-through than we expected if we had had to wait to sell.”

💡 Each app integrates seamlessly with Shopify, so choose the one that’s best for your business. For more options, check out Shopify’s preorder app collection.

Build your own custom preorder solution

For established merchants with complex needs can build their own preorder flow in Shopify, with preorder APIs. This tooling makes it easy for partners and developers to build new preorder experiences directly within Shopify Checkout.

Sell anticipation

By offering preorders, you’re not just selling a product; you’re selling an experience. Beyond a transaction, preorders are all about creating excitement, giving customers something to look forward to, and making them feel that they’re part of something exclusive.

If Shopify is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Shopify has just about everything you need if you're looking to sell online. It excels with unlimited products, user-friendly setup, and 24/7 support. It offers 6,000+ app integrations, abandoned cart recovery, and shipping discounts up to 88%. Plus, it allows selling both online and in-person, scaling as your business grows.

Avid readers know that there’s nothing like curling up with a good book. The heft of its pages, the crack of the book spine the first time you open it, and the anticipation of being transported into another world. Have you ever imagined a life where you could be surrounded by books every day, delivering your love of reading to the masses?

Clever founders who discovered a gap in the market and a unique value proposition have found success in the book industry—even in the shadow of massive retailers. That’s because niche online bookstores offer something their large competitors can’t: personalized customer experiences.

Ready to turn your reading hobby into a business by selling books? Start your own online bookstore or bypass publishers to sell your own story directly to your fans. This guide will take you through everything from how to source books to where to sell them online.

How to start an online bookstore

In this guide, we’ll focus primarily on the steps to opening an online bookstore. We’ll look at the process of selling books online through multiple online business models, from resale vintage to subscription boxes. But, there’s something here for everyone, including authors looking to self-publish and those considering a brick-and-mortar book business.

We spoke with successful booksellers and a self-publishing expert to get their advice on everything from working with publishers to providing winning customer service.

Getting started: first steps for booksellers

“My learning curve was everything!” says Dominique Lenaye, who owned a Wisconsin bookstore called Itty Bitty Bookstore. She, like many entrepreneurs before her, started her business with little more than a dream and a lot of ambition. Though she says networking and community building were among her skills, the rest was a mystery. “I had no idea how to open a bookstore.”Google became Dominique’s best friend as she built her business. We’ll save you the searching with this step-by-step guide on how to start a bookstore business. First, let’s decide what corner of the book market you’re going after and how you can differentiate yourself.

Business ideas for booksellers

Aside from the traditional bookstore model, where many genres are represented with a little something for everyone, there are many other ways to launch a business in the book space. 

Here are a few: 

• Write and self-publish your own book, selling to your fans directly.
• Sell used, vintage, rare, or out-of-print books online.
• Offer a specific type of books (e.g., text books, comic books, coloring books).
• Build a business around a specific theme (e.g., food, sea life, outdoor living).
• Sell ebooks or audiobooks online as digital products.
• Cater to a niche audience (e.g., children, LGBTQ+, Black women).
• Focus on a niche genre (e.g., romance novels, Afrofuturism, nonfiction).
• Start a book-themed subscription box or bundle.
• Consider a book-adjacent business (e.g., book tote bags, library themed fragrances).

Kerrie Hansler, who founded a subscription book brand called Sweet Reads Box, carved out a niche by focusing on Canadian-made items and handpicking the box contents to match the theme of the book—something she says other subscriptions boxes don’t do as consistently.

Dominique chose to focus on books by and about underrepresented people. “I am continually on the hunt for new books, new authors, new series, and new characters that bring joy into the Black and brown communities,” she says. In staying true to this niche, she’s built a loyal customer base of those looking for a curated experience. 

Similarly, mothers Sadaf Siddique and Gauri Manglik launched their own online bookstore, KitaabWorld, when they noticed a lack of representation of South Asian characters and authors in the US market.

“Amazon is a jungle,” says Gauri. “Until you know something exists, it’s not always that easy to find it.” The women would later become ambassadors for book diversity, working to bring South Asian stories to libraries and classrooms, and eventually published books of their own.

Competing with massive booksellers

“I don’t want my books to come with my toothpaste,” says Kerrie. There’s no question that Amazon is a convenient solution for consumers who want a one-stop shop for books and pretty much everything else. 

While it’s tough for small businesses to compete on price and shipping speed, those who want to succeed in the market need to stop considering massive retailers as direct competition. “Honestly, I pay them no mind,” says Dominique of the likes of Amazon.

Instead, like Dominique, lean into what makes you unique—especially if it’s something the massive retailers could never achieve:

• Differentiate your brand. Work on having a solid brand story, mission, and set of clear values that attract customers looking to support businesses that care about the same things. Consumer trends during the pandemic saw a shift in favor of brands with a social mission.
• Be hyper focused. A bookstore that offers everything for everyone often lacks depth on one particular genre or theme. By sourcing rare and independent titles and staying in your lane, you can build customer loyalty.
• Offer a curated experience. For online businesses this may include niche book collections that go beyond genre, quizzes, or tools to help recommend books based on interests, or 1:1 virtual shopping consultations. Physical bookstores can offer a warm experience with community-focused spaces and events.
• Focus on customer service and relationships. Small businesses benefit from having a small pool of loyal customers with whom they can build relationships. Offer loyalty perks like exclusive events and invest care in a customer service strategy.
• Build community. Connect with your biggest fans by building online communities, running in-store events, and hosting virtual book clubs.

“I choose every day to focus on my shop, my community, my employees, and my readers’ experience, without comparison,” says Dominique. “I strive to curate the best collection I can and I stay humbly honest about what our store provides and stands for.”

What’s an ISBN? (and other publishing terms you should know)

As you begin your bookselling journey and start your own business, you’ll encounter some trade terms that you should become familiar with before we proceed.

💡 Tip: When setting up your business, check with local governments to see if there are any legal requirements. This could include a federal tax ID number, permit, or a business license.

Developing your book brand

Establishing a clear message, story, and visual treatment of your brand is important in any industry. Your book brand should take a unique perspective that answers the question: Why should customers buy from you?

Once you’ve honed in on your business model and your niche, do the exercise of writing your brand story. This should include your personal journey to entrepreneurship, your “why” for starting your business, the values that guide you, your mission statement, and the value you bring to the industry, your customers, and the world.

Also consider bringing your ideal customer persona into sharp focus. Honing in on what makes your potential customers tick helps you build your brand around their needs. This also connects your personal “why” to a real audience, helping you translate your brand in a way that resonates with others. When your values match that of your ideal customer, it’s a win-win.

Your brand “bible” will be developed through this exercise and should include clear guidelines around voice and tone, marketing strategy, hiring practices, and a visual system for your branding.

Branding comes next. This is where you’ll develop a logo, design packaging, produce visual assets, and establish the elements like fonts and colors that will be consistent across websites, social media, and anywhere your brand is visible.

📚 Read more:

What does it cost to open an independent bookstore?

The cost of starting a book business will vary considerably depending on your business model. Opening a bookstore in a physical location could require significant funding upfront, while self-publishing and using a print-on-demand model allows you to start a book business on a very low budget.

For authors looking to self-publish, costs for editing and cover art should be factored in. “Costs depend on the experience of the author, as well as the genre and length of the book,” says bestselling author and entrepreneur Joanna Penn. Shorter nonfiction books may only cost around $1,000 for editing and art, she says, but longer fiction books may require additional editing steps, and the total cost may be several thousand. Other costs include website fees and a marketing budget.

Itty Bitty Bookstore started small in a 120-square-foot office space that I turned into a bookstore. If you are looking to go all in right away, you should set aside $20,000 to $30,000.

Dominique Lenaye

If you are looking to start an online bookstore that sells a variety of titles from other authors, you’ll need to consider the cost of inventory. Luckily, most publishers don’t have minimums for orders, so you can start small with a few copies.

On the other end of the spectrum, opening a brick-and-mortar bookstore will come with the highest startup costs. “Itty Bitty Bookstore started small in a 120-square-foot office space that I turned into a bookstore,” says Dominique. She has since upgraded to a large storefront. “If you are looking to go all-in right away, you should set aside $20,000 to $30,000.”

Funding options and business plans

How you decide to fund your business will depend on your budget and needs. Consider bank loans, VC funding, grants, or crowdfunding. “Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms allow for special fan-funded print runs,” Joanna says of self-publishing. You may also qualify for Shopify Capital after you launch your online business, to help you with ongoing costs.

A business plan is a great tool to help you answer the questions that you might expect from lenders and investors. 

Pricing books

Generally, new books bought from a publisher will have a set list price (or retail price). Your profit margin will depend on how much you paid for the book—and this number can vary. Large retailers and chains can win business this way because they enjoy volume discounts. 

A small business shouldn’t try to compete on the best price. Big-box stores often offer discounts on bestsellers and new releases—sometimes resulting in retail prices lower than a small business’s cost for the same book.

“I tend to shy away from trendy or most popular lists, so I don’t usually have the same books that people see in Barnes & Noble,” says Dominique. If she does carry a hot book, she reads it herself so she can provide knowledgeable service. “That experience alone makes my customers willing to pay to purchase from me rather than a big-box store.”

When pricing used or vintage books, list price is no longer a factor. Your retail price may be much higher or lower than list depending on a number of things: age of the book, condition, demand, rarity, out-of-print status, and cultural relevance.

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Bookselling business models explained

While there are a number of ways to open a bookstore or sell books, we’ll look at two options and specific advice for each: self-publishing to sell your own books, and selling used and vintage books.

Self-publishing and selling your own books online

“The independent creator community is increasingly empowered, as more opportunities emerge to reach readers and make an income,” says Joanna. Authors can circumvent traditional publishing channels and produce and sell books via print on demand or in digital formats. 

While going the traditional route has its advantages—like leaving the business tasks of publishing and marketing to the pros—many tools have emerged to help authors navigate the process seamlessly. Influencers, journalists, and other creators who have built audiences on social media platforms can monetize those relationships through self-publishing and selling on an owned channel.

If you’re successful with your first self-published book, publishers will be more eager to work with you on either expanding your reach or backing your next project. Keep in mind, though, that publishers will take a cut. “If you publish as an independent author, you can earn a higher royalty percentage,” says Joanna. “For example, 70% for ebooks and up to 90% if you sell directly from your own site.”

The independent creator community is increasingly empowered as more opportunities emerge to reach readers and make an income.

Joanna Penn

Author, activist, and artist Vivek Shraya circumvented traditional publishers for her book God Loves Hair and other projects, and she believes that self-publishing is helping to elevate diverse voices. “Getting published in any genre is a huge challenge, especially for writers of color,” she says.

About selling used and vintage books

Thrift businesses have increased in popularity as more consumers become conscious of waste and sustainability. Though audio and ebooks have emerged to address some of this issue of consumption, many people still prefer the feel of a paper book.

Used and vintage booksellers will need to contend with a very high number of SKUs and product listings, as each item will be one of a kind. Online booksellers, therefore, may choose to hone in on a specific corner of the market and seek out rare or unique titles within a genre or time period.

Used and vintage books can be found through a number of sources, including:

• Thrift stores
• Library clearout sales
• Garage sales or estate sales
• Local buy-and-sell listings
• Other used bookstores
• Online marketplaces

Unless the used book is rare, vintage, antique, or out of print, it would generally retail for less than the listed price on the book. As such, you may want to be selective about the used books you carry, especially if you’re selling online. Consider the effort required to list the book (a one-of-a kind item) on your website and storage. If the book is easy to find elsewhere or doesn’t have much demand, your retail price may be too low to justify carrying it.

💡 Tip: Books should be stored away from high humidity, out of sunlight, and in a manner that prevents them from warping or bending. When listing used or vintage books for sale, be sure to include additional information about the edition, including print date, condition, and any damage.

Sourcing books from publishers, distributors, or wholesalers

If you’re planning to sell new books, you’ll need to find a supplier. You may choose to work directly with a number of publishers or buy books from a wholesaler or distributor. In some cases you may even get better prices on books, and you’ll save the hassle of managing multiple relationships.

While you may find that, as a newcomer to the space, it’s easier to work with one wholesaler, Kerrie found that, in Canada, it was simple to set up accounts with publishers directly. “I literally just called them and asked who their sales reps were in the area and then connected,” she says.

Managing publisher relationships

As you build relationships with publishers, you will begin to get more flexibility. As Kerrie’s business grew and she proved herself a valuable client, the publishers would send ARCs earlier and earlier.

While some publishers may have minimums, many do not. “I think it would be really common for a small, independent bookstore to only order five copies of a book,” says Kerrie. She adds that it’s possible to order as little as one copy of a book, say, in the event that you get a customer request.

Through the publisher, authors will write a custom letter to our readers. They wouldn’t offer that up as a new client, but we’ve built relationships over the last four years.

Kerrie Hansler

Quantities and terms of the order do affect the cost to you as a customer, however. If you have asked for the copies of the book to be returnable to the publisher, for example, you will pay a higher cost for each book. There has been some flexibility, though, says Kerrie. “We buy them as non-returnable to get the bigger discount, but then we’ve been able to return some with special permission.”

Publishers may also provide you with little extras, like signed bookplates and letters from authors, as your relationship grows. “Through the publisher, authors will write a custom letter to our readers,” says Kerrie. “They wouldn’t offer that up as a new client, but we’ve built relationships over the last four years.”

Setting up your store and selling books online

It’s never been easier to sell books online with tools and platforms that make setting up your own store a painless process. Social sales channels, print-on-demand tools, and commerce platforms like Shopify help you get set up in minutes.

Set up your online store

Now that you’ve done your branding exercise and honed in on your business model, you can set up a Shopify store and website even before you’ve bought inventory. There are a number of benefits to getting a website and social pages live pre-launch. You can build excitement for your brand, get early feedback, and grow your audience and email list so you have eager customers waiting once you officially launch.

Plug your logo, visual assets, and copy into a theme that complements your brand. Many are fully customizable, allowing you to update colors and page elements to suit your layout.

Here are a few preset themes we’ve picked for booksellers:

Remember that beyond tweaking the themes yourself, you can also hire a Shopify partner to help you build additional customizations.

💡 Tip: Need help picking the right template for your store? Take our theme-picker quiz.

You can also power up your online bookstore with apps that integrate seamlessly with your online platform. Here are a few Shopify apps designed for online booksellers:

• Lulu Direct is a print-on-demand service for books.
• Kodbar: Barcodes & Labels will generate bar codes for products and is compatible with ISBNs.
• Crowdfunder lets you run a pre-order crowdfunding campaign to self-publish your book.
• Easy Digital Products is perfect for those looking to sell digital book formats like ebooks, PDFs, and audio books.

Other bookselling sales channels 

Alongside your own website, you should consider additional sales channels to expand your reach to more customers. Depending on your niche and genre, there are multiple options:

• Online vintage marketplaces (for vintage booksellers). Handmade marketplace Etsy also supports vintage resellers. If you sell vintage or antique books, this channel has a built-in audience looking for this type of item.
• Bulk sales (for self-publishers). “This can be a profitable model for entrepreneurs and nonfiction writers, where books are sold in bulk to companies and sometimes specifically branded for the client,’” says Joanna. “A good example of this is Honoree Corder, who sold her books to lawyers.”
• Crowdfunding sites (for self-publishers). “A lot of authors are selling print books directly from Kickstarter now—basically raising the money to do a print run,” says Joanna. “Many also include ebooks and audiobooks as part of that bundle.”
• Bookshop.org. “Bookshop is a nonprofit that supports indie bookstores by paying us a commission of book sales on their site,” says Dominique. “This gives bookstores the ability to stick to our niche and curate our collections around a store’s mission, but serves as a way for our customers to order books that we do not currently carry in-store.”
• Pop-ups, markets, and retail. If you operate online only, there are ways to dabble in retail to see if IRL selling is worth it for your business. Pop-up shops and applying for a table at a local market are low-cost and low-commitment options. Tip: You can use a pop-up as a great grand opening idea for your online store launch, too.

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Marketing for online bookstores

Marketing continues to be reported as the biggest mystery for new business owners. It’s no wonder—with changing algorithms and trends around how customers find and interact with brands, it can be difficult to keep up.

As with any other business, it’s important to find out where your ideal customer is hanging out. Facebook ads might be best for you if you cater to older customers. TikTok is a great place to invest if your book business caters to a Gen Z or Gen Alpha audience.

With zero budget as a new bookstore owner, start with a marketing plan that employs organic marketing tricks to help you build buzz and an audience for your business:

• Set up social accounts and post consistently with content that brings value to the reading community.
• As you build a social audience, push them to a landing page or your website homepage and offer a perk or discount for subscribing to your email newsletter.
• Invest in learning SEO and content marketing. If you can establish yourself as an expert on a subject (through a blog or other content on site) and rank for key terms, you can push that organic traffic toward purchases. “A free ebook that provides excellent and useful content encourages readers to try your other books,” says Joanna.
• Run free virtual or IRL events like author readings, book clubs, speaker series, or children’s story time. Dominique also says it’s important for local business owners to be visible in the community. “I make it a priority to travel to venues and events around Madison to reach more and more people,” she says.
• Start a loyalty program on your website that includes incentives for referrals to have your best customers become ambassadors for your brand.
• Leverage influencer marketing. Top influencers will be out of your league in the early days, but emerging niche influencers in the book space may have affordable rates or be willing to shout out your brand in exchange for product. “To help market the first box, I sent a preview box just to influencers I knew,” says Kerrie.

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Back office for booksellers

The logistics of opening and running your own bookstore will vary depending on what you sell and how you sell it. 

A common challenge among booksellers, though, is inventory. Book businesses (unless you are self-publishing one book and printing on demand) generally carry a large number of SKUs and have a ton of inventory to contend with. “Without a solid grasp on inventory,” says Dominique, “things can get out of control quickly.”

We went from packing boxes in our basement to our living room to a friend’s basement and then to a warehouse in town. We’ve now moved to a 3PL for packing.

Kerrie Hansler

Shopify allows you to sync your inventory across sales channels, and there are several inventory management apps like Stocky and Thrive by Shopventory that integrate with your store to simplify your operations.

As you scale, consider outsourcing warehousing, packing, and shipping to a third-party logistics (3PL) company. “We went from packing boxes in our basement to our living room to a friend’s basement and then to a warehouse in town. We’ve now moved to a 3PL for packing,” says Kerrie. That move also helped Sweet Reads Box enter the US market. “We can get help with the customs clearance because they can clear a whole shipment.”

Sweet Reads Box also brought on more help to manage the back end of the business so that Kerrie could stay connected to sourcing the products. “Mark’s daughter was our first employee,” she says. “We’ve since hired employees that help us manage customer service emails, ordering, shipping, and the behind the scenes.”

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Start a new chapter in the story of your life

As you start your journey as a bookseller, both Dominique and Kerrie suggest sticking to your plan. If you build your business on a unique niche or format, that’s what’s going to win you loyal customers and help you stand out. “It is so easy to get sidetracked without a business plan and mission,” says Dominique. Your business plan and brand exercise will become the basis for how you move forward.

“Be true to what you love,” adds Kerrie. “I’m not a sci-fi reader. We could do sci-fi boxes, but I wouldn’t know what to put in it.” For both women, their passion shines through, and that resonates with customers looking to cut through the noise of massive retailers with millions of books.

With new tools emerging every day, there’s never been an easier time to be an online independent bookseller. Find your niche, wield the power of storytelling, and build a future by spreading the magic of reading.

Feature image by Pete Ryan

If Shopify is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Shopify has just about everything you need if you're looking to sell online. It excels with unlimited products, user-friendly setup, and 24/7 support. It offers 6,000+ app integrations, abandoned cart recovery, and shipping discounts up to 88%. Plus, it allows selling both online and in-person, scaling as your business grows.

Creating a home-based business or finding profitable online business ideas can be challenging. There are thousands of possible choices, yet everything seems like it’s been done thousands of times before. So with all these choices, where do you even begin digging to find the gold?

If you’re looking into how to start your own business, below are lists of opportunities you can take advantage of today to grow a profitable business in 2024 and beyond.

Online business opportunities

Dropshipping business

Dropshipping is a business model that lets you buy products directly from a supplier or manufacturer and ship them to your customers.

Compared to other ecommerce business opportunities, dropshipping is low cost to start. You don’t have to worry about carrying inventory or buying products in bulk. You don’t even have to worry about shipping products because your supplier handles that for you.

Since you don’t have to buy the items you sell, you can offer a variety of different products. Dropshipping business opportunities are near endless. If a dropshipping supplier stocks a product, you can list it on your online store at no additional cost.

Need some product ideas? These are the top five shopping categories worldwide in 202r:

• Electronics
• Fashion
• Food
• Beverages
• DIY and hardware store

Print on demand

Whether you’re an artist, designer, or ecommerce brand, print on demand offers a great potential business opportunity for online clothing retailers. Printing on demand involves working with a supplier to customize white-label products—such as tote bags or T-shirts—with your own designs.

The best part? You don’t have to pay for the product until after you sell it. Similar to dropshipping, you don’t have to hold or manage any inventory or buy in bulk.

Resources:

Handmade products

If you always enjoyed making and building stuff, selling DIY and handmade items can be a great business opportunity to monetize your creativity. Even if you have the will to create something new but lack the know-how, there’s a way to make it happen.

For example, take Izabela “Iza” Ersahin, founder of handcrafted toy company Bebemoss. Iza started her company after becoming a new mother who found it difficult to find cozy dolls with a positive social impact. She engaged a diverse network of mothers in Istanbul to crochet the dolls. Iza seamlessly blended her passion for social entrepreneurship with creating family-friendly soft toys that inspire imaginations and joy.

If you’re not sure what to sell, start by browsing around your house. What’s missing that you wish you had? Is it a concrete pot? Colorful artisan bed covers? Do some online research to see what’s selling. Are big stores like Target, Amazon, or West Elm selling similar items?

Once you’ve decided what items to make and sell and what seems to be trending, start creating!

Resources:

Digital products

E-learning is a growing industry. Some studies show that the industry will be worth around $325 billion by 2025, making digital products one of the best online business opportunities for creators and educators alike. Music, videos, ebooks, and online courses are a few examples.

Digital products also make for great business opportunities because they’re inexpensive to create and distribute. You can make it once and sell it repeatedly to different people without restocking inventory or talking with suppliers. If you consider yourself an expert on a particular topic, you can package that information up and sell it for a one-time fee or as a subscription. 

Resources:

Photography

There are numerous business opportunities to sell photography online. You can sell photos on numerous stock image sites—such as Getty Images, Shutterstock, iStock, 500px, and Stocksy—or wherever the demand for your type of photography exists.

To succeed in selling photos online, make sure to cover three important things:

1. Find your niche. Whether it’s flowers, travel, buildings, landscapes, or fashion, choose your niche and stick to it.

2. Build an audience. Selling photos isn’t a passive business opportunity. It’s a good idea to promote your photos on social media for your business and build a following to sell more.

3. Create multiple revenue streams. Don’t just sell on one site. Sell on as many as you can manage to create various streams of income.

Whether you’re a hobby photographer or it’s your full-time job, selling photos is one of those business opportunities that can help you earn cash online—and in person—if you put the time into it.

Resources:

Video games

Building a video games business is possible with commitment and the right resources. Today, there are many opportunities: You can earn degrees, get sponsorships, and even become a professional gamer.

As an industry estimated to be valued at nearly $257 billion by 2025 (and growing), video games can be one of the more profitable business opportunities. Revenue doesn’t come only from playing professionally, however. You can earn money livestreaming on a platform like Twitch, start a YouTube channel, or even sell game-inspired merchandise.

Self-published author

Do you love to write? Have you ever thought about publishing your own book? Well, consider becoming a self-published author.

Self-publishing just means that you don’t work with an established publisher to manage the editing, design, and production processes of making a book. Instead, you do it on your own. There’s also plenty of space for you to make and sell an ebook or audiobook and turn a profit.

Pet products

An online pet store business is one of the most fun business opportunities because you can sell a huge variety of products. Many people treat their furry friends like children and are willing to spend money to make sure they are well taken care of. For example, you could sell everything from organic foods to luxury accessories, beds, and apparel.

Whether you want to run it as a dropshipping business or sell homemade treats, the pay can be good and the work rewarding. And since people are unlikely to stop spoiling their pets, there’s a greater chance of job security.

Resources:

Thrift clothes

Did you know the secondhand apparel market is valued at $248 billion in 2024, and expected to grow to 351 billion by 2027? This makes it a prime business opportunity if you have some old clothes in the back of your closet and want to make some extra cash.

With so many apps and other technology available to help you sell your vintage clothing, you can turn selling unwanted clothing into a profitable online business opportunity.

Resources:

Freelancing

Freelancing is one of the most common online business opportunities. Being a freelancer means you’re self-employed and not committed to a long-term employer. It allows you to take your office wherever you go and essentially be your own boss.

With the rise in remote work, freelancing is an opportunity to have a successful online business. You can freelance across a variety of industries, and offer services and products based on your expertise. For example, you can turn skills like web design, SEO, marketing, copywriting, or app developing into a profitable, home-based business.

If you’ve got a way with words, here are three freelance writing jobs to consider:

• Proofreading and editing. With proofreading and editing services, you are making sure text is free of errors and easy to understand.

Keep in mind: Freelance pursuits can be competitive. However, if you have a solid skill set developed over the years (or even one you want to learn), there’s money to be made. Your rates will depend on various factors including your level of expertise and years of experience. Check out sites like Freelancer or join LinkedIn, for example.

Selling on Amazon

If you’re a business owner looking to get your company and your products in front of a large audience, using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a great solution. In December 2023, Amazon had 2.7 billion visits across its website—that’s just one month.

Not only will FBA get your products in front of Amazon’s more than 310 million customers, it also takes care of all the logistics for you. For about $40 per month, you get access to Amazon’s entire logistics infrastructure. That means Amazon will take care of:

• Receiving
• Packaging
• Shipping
• Returns
• Customer service

Resources:

Selling on Etsy

Don’t let anyone tell you your dog collars or vintage doll dresses can’t make you money. Weigh your options and consider Etsy, an online marketplace with billions in annual revenue.. Etsy gears itself toward creative business owners just like you.

The way the business relationship works: Etsy lists your products on its website and mobile app (and will even create ads for your products). In return, Etsy takes a commission off of every sale you make. This allows you to spend more time being creative instead of spending time trying to find your customer base.

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Virtual assistant

The work of an assistant has also gone virtual. Many companies and individuals hire virtual assistants to save money. This way, they only have to pay someone a few hours a day (instead of paying a full-time salary) to do some simple day-to-day tasks.

Most virtual assistant gigs require at least a high school education and attention to detail. You can find listings for virtual assistants on sites like Upwork, Fiverr, and Ovdym. The best part is, with sites like these, you get to make your own hours.

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Gig work

The growing gig economy opens the door to many business opportunities. Gig work typically differs from freelancing in that it’s not necessarily a career pathway or strategy for strengthening your resume. Still, it can be a great side option since that allows you the flexibility to take a short-term job and earn extra money. Consider sites like Upwork, GigSalad, and TaskRabbit, to find work.

Frequently, you get to set your rates, and can set your own hours—whether picking up a rideshare gig or side hustle delivering meals or groceries. For skills such as plumbing or tutoring, expect sites to ask for proof of qualifications—and be ready to explain your expertise. But if you’re just looking to do some simple tasks like picking up dry cleaning or helping someone move, you won’t need to show proof of experience.

Online recruiter

As an online recruiter, you help companies find the right people for the right jobs. For companies without an HR department, hiring can be a significant time investment—contracting this duty out to online recruiters can help.

If you’re someone who’s good at matching people up with opportunities based on skills and understanding the needs of a company, this can be an excellent business opportunity for you. And through freelance sites like ZipRecruiter, Indeed, and Glassdoor, you can find those gigs (and your hirees) with just a few keystrokes.

Remote business opportunities

Tutoring

Globally, online tutoring is expected to be a nearly $20 billion business by 2030. That means if you have a knowledge base to teach, you can make significant money. How much you earn will depend on what subject you’re teaching and your expertise. With sites like Paper, TutorTap, and Superprof, you can set your own hours and rates, and your potential students can find you. And with software like Zoom and Google Meet, you can tutor from the comfort of your own home and help students from all over the world.

Home-based child care

If you’re willing to childproof your house and you love kids, opening up a small home-based child care service could be a great business opportunity. Not only that, but you could be a resource for friends and neighbors.

Check out your area’s zoning laws and state’s regulations related to opening up a child care business in your home. Many local zoning ordinances put a cap on the number of kids you can take care of in a private residence.

Pet sitting

Pet owners are projected to spend more than $150 billion on their pets in 2024. For many, pets are very much part of the family. So, finding a reliable person to take care of beloved fur babies is important.

If you’re a pet lover, you can earn money by starting a pet sitting business. With sites like Rover, you can set your hours, rates, and even establish if you’d like to board the pet in your own home.

Website design

Ecommerce is on the rise: In 2023, retail ecommerce sales amounted to nearly $5.8 trillion globally, with expectations of reaching about $8 trillion by 2027. And remember, with every ecommerce business, there’s a website.

If you’ve got a knack for design or have some expertise on a particular platform like Shopify or WordPress, you can turn that into a profitable website design business. If you have programming skills, then you’ll likely be in even more demand for your services. And finding customers is made easier with sites like Upwork and Fiverr.

Resources:

Virtual event planner

The popularity of virtual events continues, with the market forecast to be $366.5 billion by 2027. There are many types of virtual events, including virtual weddings, baby showers, and birthday parties. A virtual event planner can assist in organizing these events.

As the virtual event planner, you are in charge of the following responsibilities:

• Picking and sending out invitations
• Setting up the virtual meeting space (like creating the Zoom room link)
• Creating the event itinerary
• Choosing party favors
• Determining visuals, such as a group shot or videorecording of event
• Creating the gift registry for a wedding or baby shower

If you’re organized and love bringing people together, this can be a great way to make some money from home.

Buy an ecommerce business

If you’re flush with cash and don’t want to go through the hassle of starting a business from scratch, consider buying one. With sites such as Flippa, for example, you can buy an already established ecommerce business.

This can be one of the best business opportunities for someone who loves the process of growing a business. The best part is, it doesn’t matter where the ecommerce business is started. For example, you could live in San Francisco and buy an ecommerce business that started in Hoboken, New Jersey—and you can do all of this from your couch.

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Ethical hacker

An ethical hacker is someone that cyber security firms hire to test out the weak points in a client’s cyberwalls. In layman’s terms, they’re paid to hack into a secure system by the owner of the system so that the owners can find any weak spots and fix them.

With personal and brand identity theft increasingly common, cyber security is one of the main concerns for any organization doing business online. A report released by Gartner stated that spending on information security and risk management technology surpassed $188 billion in 2023.

If you have an expertise in coding, networks, and databases, this can be a very lucrative industry to get into.

Social media influencer

Ever imagine turning likes and follows into dollars and checks? Now’s a good time to leverage your reputation as a social media influencer. While it might sound like one of those far-fetched business opportunities, it’s not—and can become a lucrative venture for people across industries, including gardening, fashion, food, travel, and even parenting.

It may take time to build your reputation online, but if you have a topic you’re passionate about and like to talk about, you can make money by growing an engaged audience on social media.

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Business opportunities for entrepreneurs

Sell coffee

Running a café is not your only option if you want to explore all your coffee business opportunities. You can sell anything from beans to roasters to cups to other coffee-related products.

Since coffee is one of the most consumed beverages in the world, there are plenty of potential customers ready to buy your coffee online. Your target audience already wants your coffee, they just need to know where to find you.

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Rent your unused space

Renting your unused space is one of the easiest passive income opportunities in the self-storage industry, which is valued at about $58.3 billion. With sites like Neighbor, you can easily rent unused space in your home to people who need more storage.

Basically, you become a storage unit for someone who lives near you. Instead of going to an expensive storage facility, they come to your house to store and retrieve their stuff.

Security

Security is extremely important in government-owned buildings and facilities. From single-guard to multi-state operations, there are dozens of security contracts you can bid on.

Examples include entrance security, armed patrol, after-hours patrol, and camera installation and monitoring. You’ll likely be competing against some big corporations, but there are business opportunities even for smaller service providers. For instance, for some federal government contracts, there are set-asides for small businesses. You can bid for direct contracts, or in some cases, as a subcontractor.

Construction

Whether it’s new construction, electrical work, or roadwork, you can bid on contracting business opportunities with the government. This includes providing supplies and materials for new buildings and roads, or even renovating old ones. These business opportunities would go through the standard bidding process, but you can also find less intensive jobs like custodial work through sites like Indeed.

Equipment maintenance

Operations and maintenance spans a variety of categories, from facilities, roadway, parking, and electronics to public safety, food services (such as vending machines), and office equipment to keep agencies and institutions running smoothly. 

Why do you want to start bidding on government contracts for maintenance? Many of these maintenance contracts run on a multi-year basis, which means stable long-term work for your business. 

3D printing

You can 3D print toys, tools, or even prosthetics. 3D printing has many uses and has gained popularity over the years, presenting many opportunities for anyone choosing to start a 3D printing business. In 2023, the 3D-printing market was valued at more than $20 billion.

And 3D printers can be reasonably affordable. You can buy one on Amazon starting at less than $200, making it easier for starting a 3D printing business. Here are some ways you can make money using your 3D printer:

• Make prototypes for brands/companies
• Make jewelry
• Make costume or cosplay pieces
• Sell your 3D printed art on Etsy
• Sell your 3D printer designs
• Rent out your 3D printer

How to identify new business opportunities

Keep these tips in mind when looking for new business ventures:

• Look at industry trends and insights. Continually educate yourself on industry trends by subscribing to niche publications, joining relevant associations, and following experts on social media.

• Do competitor research. Conduct a competitive analysis to see what similar companies are doing. This will help you identify key business opportunities to expand your market reach and create better products and services.

• Listen to your customer base. When your customers talk, listen to them. How do they talk about industry products and services? What frustrations and feedback do they have? Use this insight to tailor products for the right audience.

• Collaborate and network. Collaborating with other businesses and networking will help you better understand which ideas work and which ones don’t.

• Find a mentor. Look to connect with someone as a mentor in your industry who has achieved more than you. They will help you get better and identify more key business opportunities.

• Keep an eye out. Business opportunities can pop up out of nowhere, often as a result of your hard work. So be ready to take advantage of an opportunity at any time. 

Finding the right business opportunities for you

Whether you’re looking for dropshipping business ideas or want to become a reseller online, you can find business opportunities to meet your future goals. While you’re exploring all your options, be sure to check out our list of low-investment business ideas to find the best biz opportunity for you!

Illustration by Martina Paukova

If Shopify is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Shopify has just about everything you need if you're looking to sell online. It excels with unlimited products, user-friendly setup, and 24/7 support. It offers 6,000+ app integrations, abandoned cart recovery, and shipping discounts up to 88%. Plus, it allows selling both online and in-person, scaling as your business grows.

Let’s talk about product data, and more specifically, product taxonomy, a critical part of selling products online, but something you may not have thought much about before. 

Product data takes many forms, from the names, descriptions, and images of your items, to classification data like the product’s category, options like size or color, and all the different variations your products may come in.  A product taxonomy is the underlying model that ties a lot of this data together.

Product data is an integral part of your Shopify store, woven throughout every aspect of your shop, and has a big impact on buyer conversion, playing a major role in how customers find and interact with your products. It powers everything from on-site search and filters to how items are displayed on platforms like Google or our Shop app. It’s why getting it right can really make a difference.

If you’ve been managing product creation in Shopify, you’ve likely noticed that it involves some manual input, such as entering size options like “small” or “large” and color values like “red” or “blue.” While this process has been somewhat time-consuming and prone to human error, it has also been an essential part of the setup. Additionally, Shopify has historically provided default options like size and color for all products. However, we recognize the challenge in capturing the diverse and unique attributes of the millions of products sold online, which previously required manual effort to set up.

At Shopify, we know how important it is to have accurate and comprehensive data associated with each of your products, so over the last few years we’ve been investing heavily in some major updates of our product model. With that in mind, we’re thrilled to introduce Shopify’s Standard Product Taxonomy and the associated concept of product attributes, available now by default on all Shopify stores. Our standard product taxonomy improves and speeds up the way you create and classify products, makes it easier to sell cross-channel, and most importantly, drives more discoverability of your products.

What is Shopify’s Standard Product Taxonomy?

Shopify’s Standard Product Taxonomy is a giant library of product data across more than 26 business verticals that maps over 10K product categories with over 1K associated product attributes. Here’s a look at the full and expanded taxonomy.

In a nutshell, every product maps to a specific product category in the taxonomy. For example, let’s say you’re selling a chair, which under the taxonomy is classified in the specific hierarchy you can see below (Furniture -> Chairs -> Kitchen & Dining Room Chairs).

Shopify’s Standard Product Taxonomy is a public repository, allowing us to collect critical input from our merchant and partner community to continually refine our standard product categories and associated attributes. We’ll also continue to monitor how our merchants are using and customizing attributes in their stores, layering in some of these important trends and changes back into our taxonomy.

These refinements are always backwards compatible, ensuring that any updates to the taxonomy model will not interrupt the merchant experience, and merchants will be able to benefit from any new product attributes as soon as they are added.

Creating products using Shopify’s Standard Product Taxonomy

When you create a new product in Shopify, by default, it automatically leverages our new taxonomy. Let’s walk through an example to see how this works.

After clicking “Add product” on the Products page in Shopify admin, you’ll enter a name, description, and add the images that you’d like to highlight on your product details page. And this is where AI works hand-in-hand with our taxonomy to help you classify and store the most important, relevant data on your product.

With the help of Shopify Magic, our algorithms can now use your product name, description and images to suggest your product category, which you can see in the Category card directly below your product images.

You can automatically use the magic-selected category, or you can refine the category (and remember, you want it to be as specific as possible to ensure you have the most accurate associated product attributes), Shopify’s Standard Product Taxonomy surfaces your list of default associated product attributes that come with your product category. You can see them listed in the Category metafields card (Category metafields is how we refer to product attributes in Shopify admin). 

Product attributes are a brand new concept that are launching for the first time along with Shopify’s Standard Product Taxonomy. Product attributes are implemented as category-specific product metafields in Shopify, and are accessible in the same surfaces as all other product metafields.

While the concept of the product category existed before we launched our new taxonomy, a pivotal upgrade in our model is the introduction of these category-specific product attributes and predefined values. Each category triggers a relevant set of attributes, tailored specifically for that category. Now, each product isn’t just categorized—it’s richly detailed and perfectly aligned with what your customers seek.

In our example above, Shopify Magic detected some predefined attribute values: color, seat type, and chair features based on product description and uploaded images. 

You can even create your own custom color names, depending on your preferences. All of these attribute values are saved for you, so you can re-use them when creating or updating other products, and even edit them in one central place, saving time and minimizing any manual data entry. 

Product attributes and attribute values can also be used to power your product options – standardizing how variants are managed across all your products. This not only creates consistency across your product storefront experience, but also provides the flexibility to choose, on a per product basis, which attributes differ by variant, and which stay consistent. Let’s take an example. 

A bar stool may sell in a single white finish, but multiple height sizes, while a chair in your store may sell in varying colors, but a single size and material composition. With product attributes, you can, on a per product level, decide where this information is most relevant. 

New: Native support for swatches

Now that you’ve set up your products using Shopify’s Standard Product Taxonomy, let’s take a look at your buyer-facing product details page. One of the exciting updates shipping along with our taxonomy is Shopify’s native support for swatches. Once you’ve set up your color attributes in Shopify, if you’re on version 14 or above of a first-party Shopify theme (such as Dawn), you’ll see that swatches will automatically render for you on your storefront, without any additional effort involved.

You’re also able to leverage Shopify’s native support for swatches even if you’re on a custom theme. Learn more about this here.  

The benefits of Shopify’s Standard Product Taxonomy

Streamlined product creation and classification

With Shopify’s Standard Product Taxonomy now equipped with AI-enabled recommendations, creating and managing your products becomes faster, more efficient and less error-prone. 

At each step of your product creation process, Shopify will surface product data suggestions that stem from both our taxonomy and Shopify Magic – whether it’s your product category, the category-specific product attributes, or the associated attribute values. This dramatically speeds up the process to create a product, eliminating the need for manual data entry, and ensuring the data you save is standardized across your entire product catalog. Creating product variants is now a breeze too, with the ability to quickly create your options and variants directly from your product attributes.

You can also rest assured that your products are being classified according to a world-class taxonomy model that offers the most relevant attributes for all your products. What’s more, the model will continue to be updated as industries evolve, ensuring that your products will always be supported by the most up-to-date product information.

Better product discoverability

Shopify’s Standard Product Taxonomy, and especially product attributes, make a big impact in driving better visibility for your products.

Pre-packaged product attributes help you to immediately understand the type of information that buyers are looking for when searching for your products, leading to a more consistent shopping experience that increases buyer confidence over time. 

Additionally, Shopify’s Standard Product Taxonomy will enable your buyers to experience more accurate and relevant in-store search results than ever before, powering the future of Shopify’s storefront search.

Coming soon, product categories and their attributes will work seamlessly with the Shopify Search & Discovery app, enabling merchants to create storefront filters for their buyers that leverage attributes like material or size and categories like televisions or candles.

Product categories and their attributes will also soon be able to facilitate the creation of automated collections, making it faster than ever to spin up collections of products based on attributes like color or age and categories like snowboards or tableware.

Easier cross-channel selling

Already selling or looking to sell your products on sales channels outside of Shopify? A big benefit of Shopify’s Standard Product Taxonomy is that it makes it easier to sell on additional channels. 

Like Shopify, sites like Google and Instagram all have their own respective product taxonomies. With our new standardized taxonomy, marketplaces and search engines will more clearly understand and recognize product data coming from Shopify, streamlining the synchronization of this data and facilitating a smoother integration.  

What’s more, this tighter alignment between our categorization data and other sites’ requirements means less data entry and reduced duplication of efforts when publishing cross-channel.  As a result, your products will perform better on these channels due to more seamless data syncing.

We’re currently working with Google to improve the cross-channel selling experience with Shopify’s Standard Product Taxonomy, and we’re actively working to extend this seamless integration across other sales platforms such as Shop, Facebook, and Instagram. Keep an eye out for these improvements, which will further simplify managing your multi channel presence.

How to get started using Shopify’s Standard Product Taxonomy

Moving forward, all Shopify merchant stores were enabled with Shopify’s Standard Product Taxonomy, which means that any product you create is now powered by our taxonomy and uses product attributes. 

For products that were already created on Shopify, you’ll need to set your category and attributes in order to receive all the benefits of Shopify’s Standard Product Taxonomy. Learn more about updating your existing products here.

If Shopify is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Shopify has just about everything you need if you're looking to sell online. It excels with unlimited products, user-friendly setup, and 24/7 support. It offers 6,000+ app integrations, abandoned cart recovery, and shipping discounts up to 88%. Plus, it allows selling both online and in-person, scaling as your business grows.

Your product images can make or break the success of your jewelry business. Visually capturing the essence and details of a piece of jewelry can help customers feel more confident in making a purchase, so it’s vital that your jewelry photography accurately and beautifully represents your products.

But photographing jewelry can be a challenge: You need to avoid reflections and smudges, manipulate lighting, and set your camera’s shutter speed and aperture to capture the jewelry in a flattering way.

With this guide, you’ll learn the ins and outs of how to take jewelry product photos that are so good, it’ll seem like you hired a professional—but at a fraction of the cost. We’ll walk you through essential DIY jewelry photography tips, including lighting, positioning, and editing photos.

Jewelry photography equipment

The photography equipment you use will depend on your budget. You can keep costs minimal if you buy a few of the items below. Or you can buy more expensive gear like lighting or displays for your jewelry.

Here are some of the pieces of basic jewelry photography equipment you’ll want to have:

Camera

You don’t need an expensive camera to take photos of your jewelry. New jewelry store owners can use an iPhone or Android, too. If you have a smartphone handy, use it. If you already own a DSLR with a nice camera lens, you can use that.

Tripod

If you take freehand photos, it won’t matter what lighting setup you use. Holding your camera or smartphone with your hand will often result in camera shake.

Always use a tripod. Tripods are cheap, effective, and improve both quality and consistency. When your camera is held steady by a tripod, you can use optimal aperture and ISO settings. Mark a spot on the floor for your tripod and it will be easy to replicate your setup, even when photographing on different days.

Lighting

Light is necessary to take photos of your jewelry. A room with windows next to a wall is a good option. The bigger the window, the more light you’ll get. If you don’t have natural lighting, you could buy artificial light sources, like a softbox.

You can find photography lighting kits online. Keep your setup simple at first. After you’re familiar with the camera, you can try different lighting tactics, such as reflectors and LED lights.

Table

A standard folding table works best. Look for one with a width between 24 and 27 inches.

White background

There are different ways to create a white background for your images. If you plan to take a lot of different photos, consider buying a white paper sweep.

Paper sweeps are big rolls of paper you use to create a white or colored background. If the sweep gets dirty, simply cut the dirty piece off and roll out a clean section. An alternative to sweeps is poster board.

Foam boards

When photographing your products, there will be a shadow side opposite the side of the product that your light hits directly. It’s usually too dark. But you can place a white foam board to reflect light back into the shadow side to brighten it.

Clamps or tape

You’ll want tape or clamps to keep your foam boards and sweeps in place when using a table.

How to photograph jewelry

Now that you’ve got your gear, let’s walk through how to photograph your jewelry and get it ready to showcase in your ecommerce store.

1. Set up your table
2. Position your lighting
3. Style your jewelry
4. Prepare your jewelry
5. Set your camera
6. Take the photo
7. Retouch and finalize

1. Set up your table

Find the space you want to use as your photo studio. If you’re near a window, set up your table 90 degrees to the right or left of it. The closer you are to the window, the softer the light will be.

Once your table is placed, you’ll want to set up your sweep. There are different ways to do this, but the goal is to have your sweep vertical. If you’re next to a wall, you can tape your sweep to it. If you’re not, you’ll need to make a stand or surface to which you can secure the back of your sweep.

Place your tripod in front of your setup. If you’re using a smartphone with a short tripod, you can place it directly on the sweep. You should have enough space for your jewelry if you’re using a large enough table.

2. Position your lighting

If you’re photographing with natural light, you’re already set with lighting from your window.

But if you’re using artificial lighting, your setup will look a little different.

Place one light source and softbox or umbrella at a 45-degree angle to the product. This will keep the lighting soft and even. Keep your camera directly in front of the jewelry piece. If your product is placed near the back of your sweep, you may see some shadow. Move the product closer to you to get a white background.

3. Style your jewelry

If you’re new to jewelry photography, starting with a white background can help you establish a standard. Once you get more experience, you can add variables to your staging.

To make your photos more interesting, place your jewelry on props or in front of alternative backgrounds, such as:

• A marble slab background
• Simple textured backgrounds
• Ring holders or stands
• Group photos with other pieces of jewelry

You can also use models to show what your jewelry looks like when someone wears it. Aether, for example, uses a mix of plain white backgrounds and models to promote its diamond jewelry.

Styling really comes down to how you want to present your products. There’s no one way to do it. Start simple, then add and test different things over time.

4. Prepare your jewelry

It might go without saying, but your jewelry should be clean and polished because of the high level of detail captured by a DSLR camera and proper lighting setup. The final image will often be blown up several times the jewelry’s actual size. Details invisible to your naked eye will be revealed when photographed.

Once polished, place your jewelry in the center of the flat part of the sweep. Leave some room to sneak your white reflector card in later.

Wipe down your jewelry every time you touch it. Wearing cotton gloves may save you time and reshoots.

5. Set your camera

Don’t take artsy low-aperture photos of your jewelry that focus on only one part of the product. High aperture, full-focus photography will create a sharp image your customers trust.

Your customers want to see every detail. Give it to them with aperture settings of f/11 or greater, and set your ISO as low as possible—preferably ISO 100.

Ensure your white balance is set accurately so you capture your jewelry with your desired colors. Either set it manually or use your camera’s automatic mode and double check the results.

6. Take the photo

Position your camera on its tripod so your lens points slightly down at the product. Position your lights (with diffusing umbrellas) above your product on either side, angle each down at the product, and set them to the same power. This setup should fill the frame with even light without creating ugly bright spots on your product.

7. Retouch and finalize

After taking your pictures, you’ll want to prepare the images for your online store. Post-production processing involves making photos look professional and beautiful.

The easiest route is to hire a professional editor to retouch your images. This can save you time and money if you’re learning how to edit photos from scratch.

If you prefer to do it yourself, choose a free online photo editor and learn the photo editing basics. The basic photo editing techniques available are enough to help you enhance your photos and make them shareable across all your marketing and sales channels.

Reach customers everywhere they are with Shopify

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Jewelry photography on phones

Remember, you don’t need a DSLR camera to take product photos of your jewelry. You can take product photos with your smartphone, as long as it’s a modern one with a decent camera.

Here are some things to keep in mind when taking jewelry photography on your smartphone:

Use a mini tripod

Just like with a DSLR camera, you’ll want a smartphone-compatible tripod to keep the camera steady and photos consistent.

Check out portrait mode

Portrait mode can help you focus in on the jewelry details and automatically blur the rest of the image.

Use the rear-facing camera

Most smartphones have a front-facing, or selfie, camera with fewer megapixels than the rear-facing camera.

Get the right white balance and exposure

On some smartphones you may be able to set the white balance and exposure before you capture your image. On others, the settings could be altered when editing the photo.

Lock your camera settings

Once you’ve nailed your settings, lock them in place. This will prevent the camera from adjusting the settings when you take more photos, allowing you to capture consistent jewelry product photos.

Read more: 11 Product Photography Tools for Your Ecommerce Images

Jewelry photography tips

Whether you’re a new jewelry business or working on your fifth store, keep the following jewelry photography tips in mind:

Take consistent photos

Consistency is key when it comes to the product photos on your website. They should be staged and photographed similarly to create a cohesive experience for online shoppers.

Develop a photography style guide for your jewelry photography and follow it. Consistency is key in ecommerce photography and variations from product to product or photo to photo will distract your customers. Document everything: camera settings, lighting, background, and equipment position. Make sure you can resume taking pictures on a different day without any noticeable changes.

Take photos from different angles

It’s satisfying to click on a product on a category page and find there are more images of it on the product page. The diverse images can help answer shoppers’ questions or reveal details that make your products stand out.

You’ve prepped your product, lighting, and camera: Don’t stop at one or two images. Build trust by showcasing every aspect of your jewelry. More images lead to more sales, so capture as many angles of your product as possible.

Retouch your photos

Few things kill a sale as quickly as a bad Photoshop job. Poorly retouched photos feel fake and destroy a customer’s trust in the product image, and therefore in the product. Either invest the time to become skilled in photo editing software or hire a professional.

Common photo edits you’ll need to make include:

• Correcting colors with hue and saturation
• Sharpening to bring out details
• Adding a drop shadow to give white background images dimension
• Retouching unintentional lighting or glares and other imperfections such as scratches or dust
• Manipulating exposure and white balance to create a realistic look

In addition to retouching, you should create templates that consistently crop, set margins, and align your product images. Remember: consistency is key.

If you don’t have the time or skills to fix your images, consider hiring a post-production processing company.

Common mistakes to avoid

Many merchants fall victim to some common jewelry photography mistakes. Knowing what they are can help you avoid the same pitfalls.

Too many reflections

You want your customers to look at your jewelry without the distraction of a reflection. They might wonder if a reflection is the photographer mirrored in the jewelry or a flaw in the product.

The presence of gemstones and metal creates a technical challenge for jewelry product photography. It’s difficult to capture highly reflective objects without distracting reflections. Follow this guide to photographing reflective products and try a double overhead light for metallic jewelry.

Getting too creative with backgrounds

Some inexperienced retailers look at a white background and think “boring,” or “missed opportunity for branding.” They try to differentiate themselves with colorful, active backgrounds. That’s a mistake.

There’s a reason Amazon, eBay, and many other marketplaces require or recommend a white or neutral background. A plain white or light gray background keeps the focus where it should be: on your product.

White backdrops are cheap and easy to create, and you can easily edit out the background of your photos. You can use seamless white paper, create a lightbox, and even photograph white products on white backgrounds. If your stand-in background has blemishes or anything else you need to fix, you can also use free photo editing software to fine-tune it during post-processing.

Black is also popular in jewelry photography, but, be aware, you may have difficulty submitting black-background images to some marketplaces. They might work better for your own Shopify store.

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Distracting with too many props

Distracting with too many props is a mistake based on the same “keep your focus” principle we discussed earlier. Props are a distraction you may not need.

Most props draw attention away from your product. There are times where it’s appropriate to use stylish props, models, and interesting locations in images that include your product. Those are editorial images meant for branding. They belong on magazine covers, as hero images on websites, and as banners in emails. They don’t belong on product pages.

Remember, when it comes to your website, you want your jewelry photography to be consistent and focused on your product. Most props create inconsistency and distraction.

Start taking beautiful jewelry photos today

The best online jewelry stores all have one thing in common: gorgeous product photos. By following this tutorial, you’ll create compelling images that sell and build your brand. As you gain experience shooting jewelry photography, you can add in elements to your shoots and get creative with your images.

By investing in high-quality photos and showcasing your jewelry the right way, you’ll soon see the benefits through higher sales and revenue.

Photographing jewelry FAQ

What is the best way to photograph jewelry?

The best way to photograph jewelry is with a mirrorless, DSLR camera. You’ll need a tripod to avoid camera shake, and to make sure your jewelry is lit evenly and consistently. Set your camera to the correct aperture and make sure your product is in focus. Then take the photo.

How do you photograph jewelry at home?

1. Set up your table and sweep.
2. Position your lighting.
3. Style your jewelry.
4. Prepare your jewelry.
5. Set your camera.
6. Take the photo.
7. Retouch and finalize.

What is the best lighting for jewelry photography?

Soft lighting works best for jewelry photography. You can take photos next to a window, or diffuse artificial light to get the highest-quality photos for your brand. Avoid on-camera flash because it’s too bright and will not compliment your jewelry well.

How do you photograph jewelry in natural light?

Find a space to photograph your jewelry that’s near a window. Place your setup 90 degrees to the right or left of the window. Direct sunlight can cause harsh shadows. You can soften them with a diffuser. If you don’t have a diffuser you can use a common household item such as a frosted shower curtain, parchment paper, or a thin sheet.

If Shopify is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Shopify has just about everything you need if you're looking to sell online. It excels with unlimited products, user-friendly setup, and 24/7 support. It offers 6,000+ app integrations, abandoned cart recovery, and shipping discounts up to 88%. Plus, it allows selling both online and in-person, scaling as your business grows.

You don’t need to be a very technical person, nor do you require a lot of money, to learn how to start a podcast. 

This guide will be your A to Z step-by-step walkthrough on how to get started with your first podcast. We’ll cover everything from the very technical to the abstract of podcasting concepts. 

As a business owner, learning to start a podcast is something you should consider to help you reach this growing audience and expand your business through content marketing.

How to start a podcast in 11 steps

1. Identify a podcast theme
2. Decide on a format
3. Create your podcast brand
4. Choose your podcasting equipment
5. Get recording software
6. Outline your first episode
7. Record your podcast
8. Record an intro and outro
9. Edit your podcast
10. Decide on podcast hosting
11. Market your podcast

1. Identify a podcast theme

The first thing you need to do to start your podcast is identify a theme. It’s important that when you do this you stress test your idea by writing out at least 20 episode topics, including what you would discuss and who you would interview, if your podcast will include interviews.

A stress test is critical, because if you can’t think of 20 episodes, you’ll probably run out of ideas before your podcast ever picks up steam. You need to make sure your idea has a good foundation. 

For example, The School of Greatness by Lewis Howes has more than 1,600 episodes. Great podcast themes have longevity. 

When choosing your podcast theme, take this into consideration: ill you be happy and satisfied making new episodes on this topic two years from now? Choose something you’re passionate about. Your passion will be your greatest motivator to keep you disciplined when things get difficult. 

Once you decide on a theme, ask yourself the following questions:

• What’s the goal of your podcast? Some reasons include generating leads for a business, building authority on a topic, and earning passive income.
• What’s the “why” behind your podcast? Marry your practical reason with an intrinsic purpose to stay motivated. What is the message or mission you want to share with the world? 
• Who is the show for? Create an avatar of your target audience. It’ll help you better understand how listeners think and feel, so you can address them directly. It also helps create a more intimate feel for your podcast that connects with listeners. Consider their interests, beliefs, and lifestyle.
• How will your show stand out? What are the notable things about your podcast that would cause people to talk about it? A simple way to stand out is to find a niche that is an inch wide but a mile deep. Niches help you eliminate perceived competition. Another way to stand out is through your style and personality. 

Consider how your podcast will help your listeners. If you can create educational material that is also entertaining, you’ll foster more enthusiastic and excited listeners who will tune in weekly to your show. 

2. Decide on a format

The next important component is the podcast format. What will your podcast be like and how will it be structured? Here are some ideas:

• Interviews. These podcasts feature a single host who interviews individuals who fit with a particular theme. Think The School of Greatness. 
• Scripted non-fiction. Typically, these podcasts have a single theme for the entire season. Think Serial. 
• News. These podcasts give you the news in a super digestible format. Think NPR’s Up First.
• Educational. These scripted non-fiction podcasts primarily seek to teach something. Think Creative Class. 
• Scripted fiction. These podcasts are similar to radio dramas and are often scripted and highly produced. Think Limetown.

Once you’ve chosen a format, ask yourself:

• Are you going to do interviews? 
• Will there be a co-host?

All of these formats can make great podcasts. It’s important to have a format nailed down, because it impacts the type of equipment and software you need to invest in to produce your show.

When it comes to format, two of the most common questions beginners have are:

• How long should my podcast episodes be? Episode length depends on how long you need to give your audience value, but not longer. 
• How often should I publish my podcast? Consistency, not volume, is the key. No one wants to subscribe to a podcast that is unpredictable. Choose a publishing schedule that will be easy to maintain. You can always scale up later.

3. Create your podcast brand

Next, let’s talk about developing your podcast brand. You want to put some care into your branding because it’s the first impression new listeners have of your podcast.

Name your podcast

Don’t underestimate the power of a name. Your podcast title should speak to you and your audience. Listeners should know what the podcast is all about from just the name alone. 

Here are a few guidelines for choosing a popular podcast name:

• Make it four words or less.
• Keep it succinct and intriguing.
• Make it easy to spell and pronounce. 
• Decide on a name you enjoy saying out loud.
• Make sure it’s not taken by another brand.

A lot of podcast platforms include a “hook” or short description along with the podcast name. However, don’t get too hung up on this. Make sure to include keywords that make it easier for people to find your podcast, but avoid keyword stuffing or you could be penalized. 

Choose your category

There are many podcast topics to choose from: news, arts, culture, and much more. Podcast listeners browsing these categories for new shows will do so by interest, so it’s important to choose a category that accurately represents your podcast. 

If your show is listed in a category that’s completely irrelevant to its content, you run the risk of being removed from some directories. 

In 2023, the most popular podcast categories were:

• Comedy
• Society and culture
• Lifestyle and health
• True crime
• Educational

Episode descriptions

Take writing your podcast description seriously. It’s the thing that potential listeners read that will help them decide whether to listen to your podcast or not. 

Each podcast app gives you a different character limit. For example, Apple Podcasts gives you 4,000 characters (which is a lot of words), but between 400 and 600 is the sweet spot. 

Take The Unofficial Shopify Podcast, for instance. The description is around 480 characters and tells you exactly what to expect: 

• New episodes every Tuesday
• Answers to your burning growth questions
• Insights from ecommerce and Shopify experts

When writing your podcast description, be sure to:

• Make it engaging
• Ask a question
• Describe what you’re about
• Include your podcast’s value proposition

Remember that podcast platforms are search engines also. You’ll want to include relevant keywords so people can find your show when searching for new podcasts. 

Podcast cover art

As your first impression, your cover art needs to be beautiful, stand out, and visually communicate your subject. 

Here are some best practices:

1. Your cover art should be a minimum of 1,400 pixels by 1,400 pixels and maximum of 3,000 pixels by 3,000 pixels. 
2. Compress files to optimize for mobile use. 
3. Don’t use too many words in your podcast artwork.

You can easily create cover art for free using Canva. It even has templates you can use to speed up the process. If you lack an eye for design, you can find highly skilled designers on Fiverr or 99designs. 

4. Choose your podcasting equipment 

Now that we have your podcast’s brand down, let’s discuss the tools you’ll need to start. Truth is, if your podcast doesn’t sound great, nobody is going to listen for long. 

Most people listen to podcasts in headphones—bad sound quality isn’t just distracting, it’s uncomfortable. So having the right podcast equipment isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have. 

First let’s talk about microphones. When it comes to mics, there are three major categories.

1. USB mics

USB mics are the most accessible for people starting out, as you just need to plug them into your computer’s USB port and open your recording software and you’re good to start recording. They are the most affordable and easiest to work with, but have the worst sound quality compared to other mics. 

Popular USB mics include:

2. Dynamic mics

These mics reject background noise well and, as a result, are a great choice when you have two people speaking. They are also durable and don’t require external power. Dynamic mics are often used by radio announcers, broadcasters, musicians, and podcasters.

One con to dynamic mics is that their lack of sensitivity means you need to keep your mouth close to the mic to ensure consistent recording levels.

Popular dynamic mics include:

3. Condenser mics

Also known as capacitor microphones, these mics are known for excellent audio quality and sensitivity. These mics require 48V phantom power or batteries to operate. Condenser mics are much more suited for quiet, sound-treated spaces, as they are a lot more sensitive.

Popular condenser microphones include:

Can you start a podcast with just an iPhone?

The short answer: yes. Since iPhones have microphones, they have everything you need to record audio. However, the audio may not be as clear or as professional sounding as you’d like.

That being said, there are several apps you can download that will turn your iPhone into a podcast audio recorder. Podcast hosting services, such as Podbean and SoundCloud, also offer in-app podcast recording capabilities. 

Many of these apps are available for Android devices, too:

Podcast recording equipment to improve quality

Beyond microphones, here is some other gear that can boost the quality of your production. 

Pop filter (typically $5–$20): Pop filters help keep the clicking noises your mouth makes when speaking close to the microphone from being recorded. It prevents the sound of plosives, which are really harsh consonant sounds like p’s or b’s.

Desktop microphone stand or boom pole: Boom arms help keep your podcast microphone in front of you, hands free. They also allow you to easily adjust the height and distance from your mouth on the fly, so you can move around while you podcast or simply keep your mic out of sight when you’re not recording. This is handy if you’re recording at your home office desk.

You can pick up a Neewer Broadcast Studio Mic Boom Arm for under $50.

Over-the-ear headphones: Unlike earbuds, over-the-ear headphones offer noise rejection, better sound quality, and more comfort. 

Two solid options are:

1. Sony ZX series stereo headphones. A good pair of headphones is important if you’re interviewing guests. You don’t want to have their speech come through your speakers and get picked up by your microphone, which would cause echo.
2. Sony MDR7506 professional headphones. If you have a bit more in your budget, these headphones are an industry standard and ideal for monitoring recording and listening back to audio when editing. 

Shock mount: This tool suspends the microphone and prevents vibrations. Most microphone brands offer their own compatible shock mounts. There are some universal microphone shock mounts, like Rycote, that allow you to easily attach microphones of different shapes and sizes easily.

XLR connections

If you’re opting to use a USB microphone, then an interface isn’t something you’ll need. Simply plug your microphone directly into a USB port on your computer and select your microphone as your audio input in your recording program settings. 

But if you are using a condenser or dynamic microphone, these require an XLR connection. 

For this, you have three options:

1. An audio interface like the Focusrite Scarlett series. An interface is a piece of hardware that expands and improves the sonic capabilities of a computer, giving you the ability to connect professional microphones. They act as a middle man, allowing sound to go in and out of your computer. 
2. Hook up your XLR microphone to an external audio recording device. This means you can record independently of your computer and can host a podcast episode anywhere. External audio recorders will save your audio to an SD card that you can upload to your computer later when you start editing. 
3. A podcast machine. Companies like Rode have created standalone podcast machines that give you recording, effects processing, and an intuitive console to control it all. These are typically on the more expensive side and are a better option for upgrading to later than starting out with. 

5. Get recording software

Once you have all the hardware, you’ll need to use software for recording and sound editing. Some people use Zoom, but you can use different tools to record also.

Audio recording software

The software recommended in this section will allow you to record the audio from your microphone and save it as an MP3 file. The following software will also let you edit your recordings.

Adobe Audition (PC/Mac; $22.99 per month). If you want really powerful podcast editing software with all the bells and whistles, Adobe has it with Audition. It might be more than what you’ll need to edit your podcast, but if you’re using a mixer and high-end equipment, it could be a good idea to look at Adobe Audition as well.

Audacity (PC/Mac; free). Audacity is a great alternative to paid premium audio-editing software. It’s easy to use and there are a lot of tutorials available online to help you.

GarageBand (Mac; free). GarageBand comes with all MacBooks and is good enough for most of your audio editing needs. GarageBand allows you to record the audio from your podcast microphone and save it as an MP3.

Remote recording software

If you plan on conducting interviews for your podcast, you might want to use software that records your calls. If you’re using a mixer that records all sound from your computer, this software won’t be required. 

However, if you’re using a basic setup and a tool like Skype or Google Hangouts to conduct interviews, here are some recommended call recording tools:

• Zencastr (PC/Mac). Record remote interviews in studio quality by sending a link and receiving a separate track for each guest. 
• Dialpad AI Meetings (PC/Mac/iOS/Android). The free conference call software allows participants to join the call via desktop or phone, and the moderator can record the calls.
• Callnote (PC/Mac). Callnote records Skype, Google Hangouts, Viber, FaceTime, Facebook, GoToMeeting, and WebEx conversations.

6. Outline your first episode

No matter how good your recording is, there is no substitute for great podcast content and a confident performance. Your podcast can’t just sound great, it needs to be worth listening to. 

A key to making this happen is creating an outline.

Unless your podcast is meant to be scripted, you don’t need to script the entire show. You just need to create an outline based on the transformation you want your audience to have. 

Start with the end in mind. What’s the purpose of this episode? What’s the take away that you want your listeners to have? Picturing your listener avatar while creating an outline can be incredibly helpful. 

A good outline includes a hook to grab the audience’s attention, introductions for guests, interview questions, talking points, transitions, and closings. These not only help make the podcast go smoother, but also show your guests that you came prepared. 

Here is a generic episode structure you can use to fill out your outline: 

• Hook (teaser)
• Intro
• Welcome/episode overview
• Ad spot
• Interview
• Call to action
• Outro

No matter how good your recording is, there is no substitute for great content and a confident performance.

7. Record your podcast

Recording a podcast seems a lot more complicated than it really is. It takes the following series of steps to prep and manage an effective podcast recording. 

Find a room with solid sound

Try and choose a space with minimal noise. Think about things in your environment that might make noise. Is there a fan on your computer? Refrigerators? Cellphones? Cats? Dogs? A television? A cleaner recording will be easier to handle later on in the process.

If you have hardwood floors or rooms with a lot of windows, try and minimize echo. While it is most effective for professionals, you don’t need to spend a bunch of money on sound treatment right off the bat. Echo can be really easily reduced with movers blankets. Soft objects absorb sound and help create a cleaner recording.

Adjust your systems

Adjust system preferences to make sure that sound from your microphone is going into the computer. If you’re using a condenser microphone, ensure that phantom power is running. 

Open software and change bars and beats to time. Since you’re recording a podcast, not music, we don’t need bars and beats. 

Set a conservative recording level

Set a conservative recording level. Never record audio that is too loud. You can always make things louder later on, but if you record too loud, your recording will sound distorted. 

To set a good, modest input level, speak at a normal-to-loud speaking voice, and aim to make this level around -20 dB, or about halfway up (yellow) on most meters.

Then test with a hearty laugh or emphatic phrase to make sure the level never peaks above 0 dB or goes “into the red.”

Record a high-quality audio file 

Compression artifacts, which are noticeable sound distortions, compound over time. So make sure your initial recording is a high-quality WAV or AIFF file. Resolutions of 24 bit, 48 kHz are great. Even though you’ll probably be uploading your podcast as an MP3 or AAC for distribution, you want to start off with a high-resolution format.

Be consistent with your mouth placement and tone

Pay attention to where your mouth is in relation to the microphone. You don’t want to have wide-ranging volume levels. Try setting your microphone up slightly to the side so those bursts of air don’t go directly into the diaphragm. 

Don’t set it up at too extreme of an angle or you will be working against the pickup pattern of directional microphones.

Make a test recording 

When setting up your podcast recording environment for the first time, it can be helpful to listen to a test recording in comparison to other podcasts’ quality. Try listening to your test recording through headphones, car speakers, cellphone speakers, a laptop, etc.

Always record 30 seconds of silence

This helps you capture the noise print (kind of like a sonic fingerprint) of the room and will be helpful in post-production

8. Record an intro and outro

Having an intro and outro for each episode of your podcast adds flair and personality. Usually, they are short voiceovers with intro music that covers the podcast, the episode number, the host(s), and the “hook” or tagline of the podcast. These intros/outros are also sometimes called bumpers.

A great podcast intro will hook your listeners and give them a glimpse into the value your podcast is going to deliver. It should tell listeners: 

• Who you are.In one sentence, introduce yourself, highlighting your experience and why your perspective matters. 
• What your podcast is about. In one or two sentences, state clearly and concisely what your podcast’s purpose is. 
• How they’ll benefit from listening. This is the most forgotten, yet most important, part of a great podcast intro. You need to tell the listener how your podcast is going to improve their life.

An excellent podcast outro thanks listeners for tuning in, includes your tagline, and gives them something to do next. This is called a call to action and really helps to develop a deeper relationship with your audience. 

Here are some example actions you might want your listener to take: 

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 
• Join your email newsletter
• Support your show on Patreon
• Follow you on social media 

If you’ve got the chops, you can record these yourself. Alternatively, you can hire someone with a great voice to record your intro and outro for you. You can use Fiverr to find the right fit.

9. Edit your podcast

Editing your podcasts allows you to add your intro and outro, stabilize the volume, and remove gaps of dead air and any mistakes you might have made. Any of the software recommended above (e.g., Adobe Audition, Audacity, GarageBand) should do the trick.

For a lot of people, editing is the less appealing part of podcast production. But it’s not an optional part of the process. 

The reasons for this are simple: 

• Conversations can result in tangents. Less is more. Cut the fat and only keep the good parts.
• Poor quality audio can result in listener fatigue. This is when the act of listening takes too much effort and focus, causing the listener to get tired and exit early. 

The most common editing mistakes: 

• Music is too loud. Make your music softer than you think it needs to be. Then listen to your intro in a variety of environments and with several different devices (car stereo, headphones, in the kitchen, etc.) to hear how it will sound to your listeners.
• Intro is too long. Your intro should move at a quick pace, roughly 20 to 30 seconds in length. Don’t let it overstay its welcome.
• Use of copyrighted music. Unless you get permission from the artist and the recording label to use a track, you can’t use it.

However, there are plenty of royalty-free music options that easily solve this problem:

• YouTube Audio Library
• 909 Music on Soundcloud
• The Free Music Archive
• Epidemic Sound 
• Soundstripe

When editing, your first pass should be to edit the content to make a cohesive and engaging podcast. Your second pass should be to clean up the audio. 

Some pro tips to make your audio sound more professional: 

• Remove gaps of dead air, as these will be highly noticeable to a listener. 
• Crossfade between tracks to avoid any jarring transitions.
• Use noise reduction to filter out any unnecessary background noise. 
• Use a high-pass filter to let sounds above a certain frequency to pass through while everything else is filtered out. Because most speaking voices don’t generate any fundamental frequencies below about 85 Hz, you can set a high-pass filter around 80 to 100 Hz to help remove rumble and plosives that your listeners won’t want to hear anyway.
• Use equalization to compensate for certain frequencies that might seem to stick out in the recording. Don’t cut or boost anything more than 6 dB, as you want the recording to sound natural. 
• Add compression to even out your sound and ensure that the loudest parts are closer to the average volume of the recording. While this is a really helpful tool, don’t use it in extremes. Start with a ratio of 2 to 1.
• Use a de-esser. A common problem you may run into with vocal recordings is the harsh presence of “s” and “t” consonants in words, called sibilance. A de-esser gets rid of this unpleasant sound and makes the voice easier to listen to for longer periods of time. Again, less is more. 
• Master your audio to bring your podcast to a loudness range that is similar to other podcasts. Peak level represents the volume before the sound starts to distort. Generally, a peak level of -1 dB is good for podcasts. Your RMS level is the average level of your signal. An RMS level around -16 dB to -12 dB is a great range. 

If you don’t have time or interest in editing your podcast, don’t let that stop you. You can hire someone to edit your episodes for you. There are freelancers on Fiverr and Upwork. There is even a professional service for this very purpose called We Edit Podcasts. 

10. Decide on podcast hosting

One common thing people misunderstand about podcasts is that you don’t upload them directly to a podcast platform like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. Instead, you’ll need a separate host for your audio files.

Do to this, you use a podcast hosting platform, like: 

Once you have your podcast hosted, submit an RSS feed. A podcast RSS feed is a standardized way to syndicate content to podcast directories.

It ensures that your episodes are automatically placed on a specific podcast directory, adding the necessary code to ensure that your listeners see all the proper titles and descriptions and hear the right audio file. 

If you’re using a hosting site like Transistor, then you can submit your podcast to all of the major directories directly from your dashboard. It’s that simple.

There are many directories where you can list your podcast. Here are some of the most popular, but you can distribute your podcast across as many channels as you’d like. You’re going to be asked for your podcast’s name, description, category, artwork, etc.

• Apple Podcast (formerly iTunes)
• Stitcher
• SoundCloud
• YouTube
• Spotify
• Google Podcasts
• Deezer
• Amazon Music 

11. Market your podcast

When you launch, there’s an opportunity for you to be featured in the New & Noteworthy section on Apple Podcasts. Just imagine how much this could grow your podcast in a short period of time. This would give your new podcast a lot of traction.

To get noticed by Apple Podcasts and increase your chances of being featured, you’ll want to launch your podcast in a way that you receive some listens and reviews immediately. This is going to put you in the position to be featured. While it still isn’t guaranteed, launching your podcast this way will help you grow organically, too.

To do this, make the launch of your podcast an event and generate buzz around it. Create a podcast website to let people know what you have planned. This site should also give people the chance to opt into a mailing list, which you can use to reach out on launch day.

The day you debut your podcast, you should launch it with a few episodes, ideally three. This is a good number of episodes to have your audience listen to immediately without overwhelming them. If you launch with just one episode, you likely won’t get the listen numbers you need to get noticed by Apple Podcasts.

You also need to show your listeners that you’ll be putting out content regularly, and that there’s something to subscribe to. Having multiple episodes at launch (i.e., showing episode #1, episode #2, etc.) implies that there’s much more to come.

Announce the launch to your email list, and ask them to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review after listening. It’s really important that you encourage your subscribers to leave a review, as having reviews (and subscribers) the first day can help you get noticed by Apple Podcasts, increasing your odds of getting featured.

Some other simple marketing ideas include:

• Use tools such as repurpose.io and wavve.co to create little snippets of your audio in video format and publish it on social channels. 
• Create show notes of your episodes to improve your SEO and get found through Google.
• Leverage your guests’ audience to spread the word about new episodes.
• Be a guest on other people’s podcasts.

How to make money from your podcast

There are different ways to monetize your podcast. Your focus first should be to build your audience and their trust. Then you can think about monetization.

Aside from ads, there are other ways to make money podcasting:

• Sponsorships. This is when the podcast promotes a sponsor during the show. How much you make from sponsorships depends on how many downloads your show gets. Sponsors typically pay on a cost-per-1,000 (CPM) basis, with rates ranging from $18 to $50 CPM.
• Direct support. Direct support is when a podcast host asks listeners for money to support the show. If people love your content, they’ll likely throw some money your way to help keep the podcast running.
• Affiliate sales. Podcasters can also earn money from affiliate marketing. Rather than make money per download, you will typically make a percentage of what you sell for the company you’re promoting.
• Selling products. One common way podcasts make money is by selling products that complement the show. This can include merchandise, consulting services, books, live events, courses, and more.

After you have a few podcast episodes launched and have begun to build an audience, you can begin to think about monetizing your podcast. 

Benefits of starting your own podcast

Here are some of the many advantages to making a podcast:

• Creating a podcast lets you reach a brand new target market: people who might otherwise never find or consume your long-form content because they prefer the audio format.
• Statista reports that podcasts will reach over 100 million listeners by 2028.
• You don’t need to be an established content creator or have a blog to become a successful podcaster. 
• A podcast is an excellent way to build an audience from scratch and position yourself as an authority in your industry.
• Podcasts are a popular content platform because they’re easy to consume. People can listen to podcasts on the go, in the car, at the gym, and even at work.
• Most podcasts are free. They’re free to create and free to listen to.

Create the best podcast for your brand today

You can create a successful podcast today. Begin with the podcast listing information and start looking on Apple Podcasts or Spotify for podcasts that are doing what you want to do. If you already have an external microphone, record a short episode today, introducing yourself and your podcast idea. 

When diving in, get comfortable talking into a microphone for a long period of time and then listen to yourself afterward. You don’t have to upload the episode you record today, but it’s good to get some practice and familiarity with the process.

If Shopify is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Shopify has just about everything you need if you're looking to sell online. It excels with unlimited products, user-friendly setup, and 24/7 support. It offers 6,000+ app integrations, abandoned cart recovery, and shipping discounts up to 88%. Plus, it allows selling both online and in-person, scaling as your business grows.

Your logo is more than just a group of symbols, letters, and colors. It’s the first thing customers recognize about your business. It can be one of the driving forces behind the success of your business, or a bad logo can limit your marketing and sales efforts.

And yet, despite its importance, as a new business owner, it can be hard to cough up the money to pay for a professional logo designer. If you have little to no design experience, creating the perfect logo can seem like an impossible task.

If this sounds like you, don’t sweat it. This article will walk you through the best logo makers, plus a few affordable options if you have a little extra room in your budget. 

Why a professional logo is important to your brand

When it comes to your brand, first impressions matter. And the quality of your logo will ultimately determine the first impression you give off. A well designed logo can build trust and authority among your customers. A bad logo, on the other hand, can leave customers choosing to go with your competitor.

The effects of a low quality logo can be amplified across different channels—like social media, web, and print—if the colors or layout are done poorly. 

You may have the best product or service in your industry, but an amateur looking logo can turn people off from giving your brand a try.

On the flip side, a well-designed business logo can:

• Grab potential customers’ attention. People have short attention spans. A great logo can attract the eye and communicate your brand values quickly.

• Make you recognizable. Logos are the foundation of your brand identity. It can differentiate you from competitors and help people remember your business across any channel.

• Build customer loyalty. A professional logo can help you build trust with people before they even interact with your brand. While a logo won’t do the job of your products and services, it will serve as a reminder for those who have had a good experience with your brand.

A small business might not get far without a good logo. It can make you memorable, express your unique selling proposition, and connect with your audience, which can lead to better retention and sales over time. 

Let’s look at some of the best paid and free logo makers to start designing your logo now. 

Best free logo makers: apps and generators

Coming up with a well-designed, unique logo can be challenging. It can feel like you don’t know where to start and you’ll have to hire a professional designer to get the job done. 

To help you find the perfect logo (without breaking the bank), we’ve put together a list of the best free logo makers online so you can make sure your branding design is memorable and differentiates you from the competition.

1. Shopify Logo Maker
2. Canva
3. Logo Maker by Ucraft
4. Squarespace

1. Shopify Logo Maker

If you’re looking for the best free logo maker online, Shopify has got you covered. As a mobile app for iOS and Android it helps you build a brand from scratch, right from the palm of your hand. It’s also trusted by 140,000+ business owners.

Just answer a few questions about your business and our logo maker will suggest logos from hundreds of available templates. From there, you can take advantage of the following benefits:

• Save time and money. The logo maker is free to use, so anyone can create incredible branded logos in minutes. 

• Hundreds of templates. Choose from hundreds of distinct logo templates designed by professionals—all for free.

• Full brand packages. Your logo is just the starting point. Download your brand assets for Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube to grow your brand on social media. Want to be able to download your logo as JPG? You got it. 

• Intuitive design studio. Customize colors, add icons, edit layouts, and more to build a unique brand. 

• Tailored for your industry. Discover logos specifically for your industry. Provide us with your brand values and the tool will take care of the rest. 

This logo maker is free to use, whether you’re a Shopify merchant or not. There are premium logo templates you can buy within the app if you want something a little more professional. That said, you’ll only be charged if you decide to download them. Overall, it’s a handy tool if you’re looking to create a DIY logo for free.

2. Canva

Canva is probably the most hands-on logo designer on the list and can be great for beginners. Canva also has a fairly intuitive design process making it easy to get started. The templates are broken down by niches such as badges, art/design, fashion, sports, food and drink, automotive, and more. 

Some of the logos in this creator are clever and fun, but you’ll have to do the editing on your own. Canva’s design tool makes it really simple and there are support articles to help if you get stuck on anything. Once you finish your design, you can download a high-resolution logo for free and use it as you please.

If you’ve ever used Canva for other design work, you’ll have no trouble getting up to speed quickly. It has become an incredibly popular logo creator tool for good reason.

3. Ucraft Logo Creator Tool

Logo Maker by Ucraft is a free logo generator that helps you create a professional logo in just a few clicks. You’ll find a selection of icons, fonts, and shapes to use for designing a logo from scratch. Then, you can export your new logo in PNG format for free or in SVG or EPS format for $7.

The result? You’ll get a high-resolution PNG file, so you can reuse it everywhere—and it’s completely free.

4. Squarespace

Website building platform Squarespace also has a free logo creator that makes high-quality logos from scratch. While they don’t have as many options as some of the others options listed above, their logo builder gives you enough to get started.

You do have to sign up for a free account, but can download your created logo up. If you use Squarespace for your website, it can be helpful to keep all your assets and branding under one roof. The logo editor also gives you the ability to easily see how your logo will look on business cards, your website, and even clothing apparel.

Best paid logo creator tools online

The following online makers are free to try. Some of them will allow you to download a low-resolution JPEG of your logo, but you’ll have to pay to download the vector files.

1. Looka
2. Tailor Brands Logo Maker
3. Logomaker
4. Designhill
5. BrandCrowd
6. GraphicSprings Logo Creator
7. Placeit

1. Looka 

Looka is an interactive, AI-powered online logo design tool. When you visit Looka’s website, you enter your company name and click Get Started. You’re then prompted to type in your industry, be it consulting, restaurant, beauty, etc. 

Once you input your industry, you’ll choose five or more logos for Looka to use as inspiration for your own. You can then pick your favorite color palette and give a little more information about your company. Lastly, you’ll select symbols for your logo, or you can have Looka pick the best symbols for you. Design using artificial intelligence continues to grow in popularity, as there are plenty of options to choose from spanning a wide range of creative styles.

The tool suggests 12 logos at first, but you can load more ideas. Once you choose a logo you like, Looka will take you to an editor where you can make any last minute changes before downloading it. You can download the logo for $20 or pay for an entire brand kit subscription (with letterheads, social media icons, invoices, etc.) for $96 per year.

2. Tailor Brands Logo Maker 

Tailor Brands Logo Maker offers a great free online logo creator. It asks you to enter a logo name (or any business name idea) and a tagline that describes your brand. You’re then prompted to give more information about your business including:

• What you’re offering
• Your industry
• A business description

It then asks you a few questions about your style preferences. You’ll be asked to choose which logo types and font styles you prefer. By answering these questions, you’ll have a more targeted list of logos to choose from. It’ll also display your logo on business cards, social media profiles, t-shirts, and other branded assets. One thing to note: you’ll have to sign up for Tailor Brands’ email list to see your logo options. 

3. Logomaker 

Logomaker allows you to make a logo online in minutes and is especially well known for the platform’s ease of use. Simply select your industry and add your brand name on the first screen. Then click Make A Logo, and you’ll be prompted to choose logo types, font styles, and layouts. Then you’ll see a list of logo design ideas you can edit and save to make it your own.

If you want to own the copyright and download the vector files, you’ll have to pay a fee.

4. Designhill

If you’re looking for premium logos, this online logo design tool will give you dozens of high-quality options to choose from. Designhill asks you a series of questions about your brand, then provides tailored options based on your answers. You can tweak colors, slogans, symbols, and other customization options to determine which style best fits your brand. 

Designhill offers different payment options for your company logo, too. You can buy the logo file for $20, or you can buy logo files to use when building your website, social media, print, packaging, and branding for a $65 one-time payment. 

5. BrandCrowd 

BrandCrowd is another logo creation site for business owners. This one gives you logo ideas once you enter your business name and click Make Logos Now. You can also browse BrandCrowd inspiration before giving away any information. Once you find the perfect logo, you can personalize it in BrandCrowd’s editing tool. You’ll be able to tailor the layout, colors, text, shadows, and other design elements to fit your brand.

When you’re happy with your design, you can buy it for a fee and get high-resolution files and multiple logo variations.

6. GraphicSprings Logo Creator

If you’re looking for a powerful do-it-yourself logo design software, GraphicSprings is a good choice for you. You just have to enter your business name and tagline (optional) and an editor will appear. You’ll have access to a library of logos to start from, then you can customize any part to make it your own.

One of the great features it has is the ability to break down logo types depending on your business. Here are some examples:

• Food and drink

• Abstract

• Letter-based

You can also hire someone from the GraphicSprings team to create a totally custom logo for you, if you aren’t satisfied with its logo creator. The logo generator is free to use, but you’ll need to pay $19.99 to save the design files.

7. Placeit 

Placeit offers over 13,000 different logo designs for you to choose from. All you need to do is enter your business name and industry into the generator and a list of cool logos will appear. Each logo has its own color scheme and aesthetic. 

They’re also fully customizable. Simply click the logo you want and you’ll end up in Placeit’s editing tool. You can change text, symbols, color schemes, and more to create the best logo for your brand. Once you’re finished with the design, you can download that logo and others for $9.99 per month.

Free logo design templates

A free logo design template can help build a memorable logo in minutes. Shopify’s pre-design templates include all the color schemes and design elements you need to create a professional looking logo in minutes. 

There are hundreds of templates and designs that fit any brand. You can access all of them for free, letting you create beautiful logos that stand out and connect with potential customers. Even if you don’t have design experience, you can still build a business logo you can be proud of—Shopify makes it super easy.

Logo design tips

When it comes to designing a logo, there are a few universal rules that can help your brand resonate with customers. Your logo should reflect your brand and what it stands for. It needs to be memorable, simple, and versatile. These five tips can help you:

1. Establish your brand values. Without determining your identity, your design process may lose focus.
2. Don’t rely on just one idea. Your first design might not be your best.
3. Learn about color and shape psychology. It’s important to understand why you’re making certain design choices.
4. Avoid falling for trends. The best logos feel timeless.
5. Utilize audience feedback. Rely on your customers and outside experts for critiques before settling on a final design.

Common mistakes to avoid when designing a logo

Here are some common mistakes that we’ve come across when digging through thousands of ecommerce logos. Be sure to avoid these critical design errors when using one of the above online logo designers:

• Avoid using unattractive clip art.
• Don’t make your logo overly complex.
• Make sure it looks good in black and white.

If you’re ever in doubt when creating your logo, you can always hire a graphic designer to help. Head to the Shopify Experts to find one and make your business stand out.

Once you have the perfect logo, check out our hand-picked list of some of the best ecommerce website designs to inspire you!

Design your own logo today

Now you have a great idea of where to get started with designing your brand’s logo. With all of the logo design tools and resources above, you’re well on your way.

Illustration by Rose Wong

If Shopify is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Shopify has just about everything you need if you're looking to sell online. It excels with unlimited products, user-friendly setup, and 24/7 support. It offers 6,000+ app integrations, abandoned cart recovery, and shipping discounts up to 88%. Plus, it allows selling both online and in-person, scaling as your business grows.

Selling on Amazon can be valuable to many business owners, whether you’re a small business launching its first product line or an established company seeking global expansion.

As the world’s largest online marketplace—with more than 200 million Prime members and hundreds of millions of active customer accounts—Amazon has extraordinary brand recognition, and its onboarding process for businesses is relatively easy. Still, you might have some questions before creating your Seller central account, which gives you access to a suite of tools and resources to manage your business.

This guide offers tips and strategies for building a successful business on Amazon.

How to sell on Amazon for beginners

1. Conduct market research
2. Choose a selling strategy
3. Write a business plan
4. Create an Amazon seller account
5. Decide which fulfillment option to use
6. List your first product

1. Conduct market research

Use market research and competitive analysis to help you decide what to sell on Amazon. You’re looking for products that are trending and have a good profit margin in a space with relatively weak competition. There are a few ways you can assess the current market landscape on Amazon and decide which products to prioritize:

Review Amazon bestsellers lists

Amazon’s bestsellers page is a great place to find product ideas based on what’s selling well right now on the site. Although it takes time for a product to attain Amazon bestsellers rank (it’s based on sales volume), you can still get a sense of what consumers are buying. Can you offer a version of a popular product that serves a specific niche or satisfies an unmet need?

Use keyword research tools

Jungle Scout is a popular keyword research tool that can narrow down your list of ideal products to sell. When you use a keyword research tool like this, you make decisions based on data. The search volume of a product helps you determine consumer interest.

Read Amazon reviews

When customers review products, they may unwittingly reveal gaps in the market. Take a look at Amazon product reviews to determine what customers like and dislike about specific brands and products. You may be able to find a consistent problem with competitors’ products that your product can solve.

Check for restrictions

After deciding which products you are going to sell, check Amazon’s list of product restrictions to make sure you are in compliance. Items like fine art, surveillance equipment, and recycled electronics are among the products not allowed. Certain products must go through a preapproval process before you can sell them. Read the overview of product categories before setting up your account.

2. Choose a selling strategy

Depending on the product you’re selling and the amount of capital at your disposal, you’ll likely choose one or more of the following ways to sell on Amazon:

• Retail arbitrage. If you buy something below market value and sell it at a higher price while profiting off the difference, that’s retail arbitrage. Amazon sellers can search for products on sale or clearance at places like Target, Best Buy, and Big Lots, then sell them on Amazon for a higher price.

• White labeling. Generic products with your own brand name or logo added are known as white label products. You don’t need to have any manufacturing or product design experience to sell white label products—your focus is primarily on sourcing quality products and creating appealing branding. 

• Private labeling. Private-label products are produced by a third-party manufacturer based on retailers’ specifications. Retailers then market and sell those products under their own brand. You can find private label products through marketplaces like Alibaba and Thomasnet.

• Dropshipping. When dropshipping on Amazon, you never keep products in inventory. When someone purchases a product, the order goes to a third party. The third party then fulfills and ships the product to the customer.

3. Write a business plan

Draft a strategic business plan that details elements that are crucial to business success. Action items can include the following:

4. Create an Amazon seller account

To create an Amazon seller account, you must first decide what type of seller plan you need: individual or professional. The main difference between the two depends on your projected volume of sales.

The individual plan is a pay-as-you-go plan that gives you access to basic listing and order management tools. Individual sellers pay a $0.99 seller’s fee every time they sell an item. If you sell fewer than 40 products per month, the individual plan may be for you. Once you sell more than 40 items per month, the individual plan becomes more expensive than the professional plan, so you may as well upgrade.

The professional seller plan is a $39.99 monthly subscription service that offers a suite of tools and benefits, including global selling programs, advanced business reports, and eligibility for Amazon’s Featured Offer position.

Once you’ve selected a plan, it’s time to set up your new Amazon seller account. Collect the following information and enter it on the Seller Central signup page:

• Business email address
• Bank account number and bank routing number
• Active credit card
• Government issued national ID
• Tax information
• Phone number

Once your Amazon seller account is approved, you’re ready to get your products listed and start selling.

Read more: Is selling on Amazon worth it for you?

5. Decide which fulfillment option to use

As a seller, you have two fulfillment options: fulfillment by merchant and fulfillment by Amazon:

Fulfillment by merchant (FBM)

With FBM, you fulfill orders directly to customers and manage shipping, returns, and customer service. This is a good option for made-to-order products or for products that require a longer lead time for processing.

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)

With FBA, you send inventory to an Amazon warehouse, known as an Amazon Fulfillment Center (FC). These fulfillment centers ship products and manage returns from customers. You control inventory levels and pay storage fees for the product, in addition to a fulfillment fee for every unit sold to customers. Keep in mind, you still own the inventory until a customer receives it.

In this model, Amazon handles payment from the customer and, in turn, pays you. You get access to Amazon’s customer service team that handles questions, returns, and refunds.

6. List your first product

There are two ways you can list a product on Amazon: The first is for products already for sale on Amazon—these products have an existing Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN), and your listing will be combined with the product detail page for all other sellers offering this product. The second is for new products (private label products) that you’re listing on Amazon for the first time.

Let’s consider the initial example: Say you’re selling travel mugs you bought at wholesale prices, and there’s already a listing on Amazon for that exact product.

1. The first thing you’ll need to do is copy the ASIN from the “product details” section of the existing listing.
2. Next, navigate to Seller Central, click Catalog and select Add Products. This brings up a search bar where you can paste the ASIN. Doing so will bring up the product listing. Use the dropdown to describe the condition of your item (New, Used – Like New, Used – Very Good, etc.)
3. Click “Sell this product,” set your price, select your fulfillment options (FBM or FBA), and follow the subsequent prompts. You have the option to enter a SKU for your item, after which you can click the “Save and finish” button. You can view your listing in the “Manage inventory” page of your Seller Central account.

Now let’s look at the process for listing a product that has never been sold on Amazon, like your own line of emu leather platform clogs. Here’s how it works:

1. From the Seller Central dashboard, you’ll again click “Add a product” followed by “I’’m adding a product not sold on Amazon.”
2. Choose your product category from the list, then enter all relevant information about your product (title, price, details, photos, fulfillment options).
3. Once you’re done with this, simply click “Save and finish” and your product will be submitted for approval. Once it’s approved, Amazon will assign it an ASIN and list it for sale. You can access the listing via your “Manage inventory” page.

Once your product detail page is live, shoppers can discover your product by searching on Amazon. If your product has appeal and you use effective marketing strategies, soon enough the orders will start rolling in.

How to create successful product listings on Amazon

1. Write a targeted product title
2. Upload clear product images
3. Write thorough product descriptions
4. Include product variations

The product detail page of your product listing is where the sales happen on Amazon. The information you put on this page helps customers decide whether or not your product meets their needs. Candle brand Homesick has a stellar example of a product page. Let’s look at why.

1. Write a targeted product title

Your product title should capture shoppers’ attention and tell them they are in the right place, and a good one can improve your click-through rate in search and improve your SEO ranking within Amazon’s platform.

Product titles have a 200-character limit, but you’ll want to keep your title between 60 and 80 characters. Why? An Extensiv study of more than 3,000 high-ranking Amazon listing titles found 33% of them fell between 60 and 80 characters, and the Amazon Seller Central guidelines recommend keeping titles in this range.

Every word in your product title is searchable, so aim to include vital information. For example, Homesick uses its brand name (Homesick), the product line (Scented Candle), the style (Hawaii), features (Scents of Pineapple, Coconut), and the container size.

2. Upload clear product images

Your main photo should clearly show what the product is. Additional photos can provide other angles of the product and, if relevant, lifestyle imagery.

You can also add video to give shoppers a more in-depth look at your products. Shoppers can scroll through your media to assess if the product is a good fit for their needs. Take care that your images are high quality so that shoppers can zoom in to see the finer details of your product.

3. Write thorough product descriptions

Product descriptions list the specifications and benefits of your product. Homesick uses bullet points for its descriptions, highlighting key information potential buyers look for in a candle, such as burn time, scent notes, and type of wax.

4. Include product variations

Variations let you easily display the same product in various sizes, colors, and styles. While each version of a product has its own unique ASIN and detail page, variations give customers the ability to quickly switch between options.

Cost of selling on Amazon

When you start selling on Amazon, there are some fees you should be aware of because they’re frequently charged and can impact your Amazon channel’s return on investment (ROI). The following fees aren’t the only fees, just the common ones:

• Referral fees. Amazon charges a commission for selling on the platform. It’s different for each category. The average referral fee is 15% but can range from 8% to 45%.

• Closing fees. This is a $1.80 fee taken from each unit sold for products in media categories (books, DVDs, music, software and computer/video games, video game consoles, and video game accessories).

• FBA fees. If you use Fulfillment by Amazon you’ll pay a fee that covers picking, packing, shipping, and customer service. The exact cost depends on your product’s category, size, and weight, but it starts out at just a few dollars.

• Additional Amazon fees. Amazon will also charge you storage fees for inventory in its fulfillment centers, with additional fees for aged inventory that has been in storage for more than 181 days. You may also have to pay fees for unsold inventory that Amazon returns to you, discards, or liquidates.

For an in-depth look at all possible fees, read the selling on Amazon fees guide.

Tips for selling your products on Amazon

Amazon gives ecommerce businesses a unique opportunity to sell products to a wider audience, helping improve brand awareness in the process. Here are key tips for getting there:

Encourage product reviews

Reviews can be the deciding factor in a purchase, even if the product has a higher price than competitors’ offerings. One way to encourage reviews is to send a follow-up email after a customer purchases your product.

Amazon sellers can send customers automated follow-up emails that are related to a specific order. The guidelines are here but, in summary, you may not:

• Send emails with marketing or promotional messages.

• Include links to websites other than Amazon.

• Request or incentivize positive reviews.

You can, however, send emails that ask the customer to leave a review—so long as you don’t specifically request that the feedback be positive.

There are ample best practices for email marketing out there, but aim to send no more than two emails: one during the order confirmation or delivery phase and one post-purchase email after the customer receives the product.

Run sponsored product ads

Amazon has a robust ad platform that lets you market your products to Amazon customers. Amazon Sponsored Product Ads is a PPC (pay per click) model that lets you promote your Amazon products. Ad placements on desktop can be above, alongside, or below search results for related search terms, as well as on product detail pages.

A few things to keep in mind when running Amazon PPC ads:

• Start with automatic targeting. This allows Amazon to use its powerful search algorithms to automatically discover and suggest an exhaustive list of potential keywords for you. You can begin by selecting a flat default bid across all keywords, but your eventual goal is to get data on how various keywords perform and target the ones that are most effective.

• Evaluate your automatic targeting campaign. Assess your automatic targeting campaign once you have at least a few weeks’ worth of data to determine which keywords performed the best. You want to transition those over to a manual campaign, where you can focus on only the most relevant keywords. With a manual campaign, you have the ability to adjust bids by keyword.

• Continue to iterate your manual campaign for keywords and bids. Different bid amounts can yield various placements and results, so continue to test until you find a strategy that works well for you.

• Use insights to optimize product details pages. As you refine your PPC strategy, you’ll gain a better sense of which keywords are relevant to your product. You can add those keywords to your product detail pages to help you capture more organic traffic without having to pay for ads.

Take advantage of promotions

Leveraging promotions can help you generate sales and increase brand awareness. A popular type of promotion on the Amazon platform is Lightning Deals. These deals are flash sales featured on the Amazon Deals, one of the most frequently visited pages on Amazon.

Lightning Deals can help:

• Increase discoverability of your product, especially during big events such as Prime Day and holidays.

• Lead to more online reviews due to greater product reach and sales.

• Trial new products and win new customers for future purchases.

Lightning Deals appear in the “See All Recommendations” section of the screen on Seller Central. Lightning Deals run across many different categories, including health and personal care, home and kitchen, consumer electronics, fashion, grocery, and much more.

Drive external traffic

Many brands reserve their external marketing channels to point to their ecommerce store. While there is value in using ads to direct traffic to your own site, those same tactics also work to promote your Amazon listings.

If you collaborate with bloggers and influencers, you can expand your reach through programs like Amazon Associates and Amazon Influencers—as well as external platforms for connecting with influencers, such as Shopify Collabs.

Additionally, you can create discount codes to share externally, such as on your social media channels, to encourage customers to buy on Amazon.

Get your pricing right

Finding the right pricing strategy for your products is especially important in Amazon’s marketplace, where you compete against other sellers. Here are some key considerations when aiming to hit the right pricing:

Amazon Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy

According to the Amazon Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy: You can’t set a price “that harms customer trust.” Amazon offers some examples of pricing practices that raise red flags, including pricing a product significantly higher than recent prices offered on or off Amazon, selling bundles of multiple units for a higher price per unit than if sold individually, and adding excessive shipping fees. Avoid a potential account suspension by pricing your products fairly.

Automate pricing

Repricing tools like Amazon’s Automate Pricing on Seller Central help you to automatically make pricing decisions. With the free Automate Pricing tool, you can establish parameters for pricing products and specify how to automatically adjust product prices to a competitive level.

Complement your Shopify store by selling on Amazon

At first glance, Amazon can seem like a challenger to your ecommerce business: a global marketplace, a massive audience, a go-to destination for consumer search. However, when approached as a resource, Amazon can actually help entrepreneurs make money online. Under the right circumstances, selling on Amazon is worth it for Shopify store owners.

Your Shopify store is your home base, and Amazon’s global marketplace is your opportunity to reach massive new audiences. Strategic planning, experimentation, and some hustle will get you a long way to successfully selling on Amazon.

If Shopify is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Shopify has just about everything you need if you're looking to sell online. It excels with unlimited products, user-friendly setup, and 24/7 support. It offers 6,000+ app integrations, abandoned cart recovery, and shipping discounts up to 88%. Plus, it allows selling both online and in-person, scaling as your business grows.

In the competitive beauty industry, standing out requires more than just talent and creativity—it also demands a robust network. Etienne Ortega, founder of makeup line ORTEGA, embodies this combination of artistic flair and entrepreneurial acumen. From transforming his passion for makeup into a career to launching his own brand, Etienne’s path highlights the importance of networking, particularly in the beauty industry.

“You have to build a strong foundation to grow a clientele,” Etienne says. “For me, I always found myself to be disciplined in my workspace. Like the importance of just simply being on time, giving 150% effort, even when I had no celebrities or even a full clientele, that was my pattern. I was showing up on time, being responsible and always being respectful.”

On the Shopify Masters podcast, Etienne shares his strategies for aspiring entrepreneurs eager to turn their passions into thriving businesses.

 

Early inspirations and networking beginnings

Etienne’s earliest memories include watching his mother apply makeup, which sparked his interest in beauty. He spent his formative years not only perfecting his craft but also building connections. “I was just drawn to [makeup] and found myself getting more involved in beauty,” Etienne recalls.

As a teenager, Etienne started offering his services for proms and other events, quickly realizing the importance of word-of-mouth referrals in expanding his clientele. “I had to be scrappy and make sure that I was making ends meet to balance all those responsibilities,” he explains. His commitment to his work enhanced his skills and grew his professional network, which was crucial for his career development. His ability to connect with clients and exceed their expectations led to increased demand for his services and more opportunities.

The pivotal role of relationships

While working at a bustling barbershop at age 18, Etienne observed and interacted with various stylists, including one named Hilda, whose work ethic and client interactions influenced him. These early experiences highlighted the benefits of being part of a community where skills can be shared and opportunities can flourish. “I just don’t have any secret sauce for you, because there’s no shortcuts or cheating. I’ve just done the work. I used to stay at the salon … two extra hours and take walk-ins and just say yes to everything,” Etienne says. “And the universe responds to that. The universe sees everything and gives back to you.”

It was his skill as a hair and makeup artist that initially caught the eye of actress Eva Longoria, who admired his work on a dinner companion 15 years ago. It’s his work ethic, however, that has maintained that relationship and opened doors for him since the initial connection. “Looking back, maybe I wasn’t ready to [work with celebrities], but I got the opportunity and I took it,” he says. “And, she loved me. I’m always going to be grateful for Eva because she opened a lot of doors for me.”

Establishing ORTEGA

Despite challenges related to starting a new venture, Etienne’s commitment to authenticity and quality remains steadfast. Each product released under his brand reflects his personal style and professional standards. The blue color that represents the ORTEGA makeup line pays homage to the agave in the Jalisco region of Mexico where he was born, and it’s also his younger brother’s favorite color.

After 17 years in the beauty business, Etienne knew the connections he had made—some he had worked with for more than a decade—would support his ventures. His business partner, ORTEGA CEO and cofounder Eric Kaufman, is a friend of 15 years whom Etienne admires for many reasons. “I reached out to him, you know, cause he’s a good guy and he’s a hard worker,” Etienne says. “And he was, you know, interested in this opportunity with me.” 

Etienne’s high praise for Eric is likely something his roster of clients, fans, and friends might remark about him as well. Those aforementioned clients, fans, and friends include the previously mentioned Eva Longoria, as well as Actress Salma Heyek, singers Lana Del Rey, Christina Aguilera, Karol G, Kali Uchis, and Demi Lovato, along with the Kardashian and Jenner family. All of whom expressed their readiness to support an ORTEGA makeup line.

The continuous importance of building connections

Even after launching ORTEGA, Etienne continues to stress the importance of enhancing his skills and networking. His collaborations with other artists and celebrities have increased his brand’s visibility and brought in diverse perspectives that enrich his product offerings. “I continue to exercise my craft all the time,” he says. “I never feel like I’m the best because makeup changes often and new trends always pop up. For me, it’s like a constant, ‘OK, I got to try this. I want to do that.’”

For aspiring entrepreneurs, Etienne’s journey underscores the critical role of building and maintaining a strong network. It’s not just about making connections but nurturing them into meaningful relationships that support and drive mutual growth.

Subscribe to Shopify Masters for more insights from successful entrepreneurs like Etienne and additional resources to help you start and grow your entrepreneurial career.

If Shopify is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Shopify has just about everything you need if you're looking to sell online. It excels with unlimited products, user-friendly setup, and 24/7 support. It offers 6,000+ app integrations, abandoned cart recovery, and shipping discounts up to 88%. Plus, it allows selling both online and in-person, scaling as your business grows.

Starting a business isn’t cheap.

Developing products, researching market trends, securing inventory⁠—there’s no shortage of costs for a startup business. But if you haven’t even started selling yet, where does the money come from? For up-and-coming entrepreneurs, securing business financing before having a chance to prove yourself can be tricky.

The application process for small business grants involves more than putting your name on a list and waiting for a deposit. Not every grant is right for every business, and understanding how grant-issuing organizations evaluate applicants is crucial to securing the financial assistance you need.

If you plan on investing the time and energy into applying to a small business grant program, it’s important to understand the available options. Here’s a list of resources to help you pick the right grant for your business.

Federal SBA grants

The US Small Business Administration (SBA) is a federal government agency that provides support for small businesses (based on certain size standards), with the goal of strengthening the nation’s economy.

The SBA has Small Business Development Centers across the country and offers a wide variety of federal grants, loans, and other programs that help connect small business owners with funding opportunities from federal, state, and local governments. Here are some SBA grants and programs that can help support your small business:

State Trade Expansion Program (STEP) 

The State Trade Expansion Program (STEP) offers federal small business grants throughout the US to assist existing businesses in expanding globally, offering funds for foreign-market trade shows and expansion opportunities. 

Veteran assistance programs

The SBA offers a number of veteran assistance programs that provide grant funding for veteran-owned businesses. 

Women-owned Small Business Federal Contract program

The Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal Contract program offers funds specifically to women-owned businesses, with the goal of leveling the playing field for women entrepreneurs.

HUBZone program

The HUBZone program provides assistance to small businesses with the aim of fueling growth in historically underutilized business zones. 

Natural Resources Sales Assistance program

The Natural Resource Sales Assistance program prioritizes small businesses and assists them in securing federal government contracts through a bidding system. Eligible industries include timber and forestry products, minerals, coal, oil, gas, and real estate.

Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs

The SBA coordinates both the Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR). SBIR is aimed at businesses conducting innovative research and development projects with commercial potential. There are 11 participating agencies including: 

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• Department of Agriculture (USDA)
• Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
• Department of Education (DOE) 

The Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR) is designed to encourage joint research and development projects between small businesses and research institutions.

Other federal small business grants

Apart from the SBA, there are a number of other federal agencies offering grant programs for small businesses in the US.

National Institutes of Health

The National Institutes of Health continues to offer a variety of funding grant opportunities for businesses developing biomedical research related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

USDA Rural Business Development Grants

USDA Rural Business Development Grants (RBDG) are offered by the US Department of Agriculture to help with technical assistance and training programs for small rural businesses. Funds are also given for non-technical uses, such as entrepreneur training and long-term business strategy planning. The business must have fewer than 50 new workers and less than $1 million in gross revenue. 

US Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency

The US Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) has a wide variety of small business programs intended to assist with the growth and development of minority-owned businesses throughout the United States. 

US Department of Energy clean energy grants

The US Department of Energy clean energy grants are offered to businesses that have previously received SBIR or SBTT funding to assist in creating clean energy and to fund companies whose goals are to combat climate change.

US Department of Agriculture’s Rural eConnectivity program

The US Department of Agriculture’s Rural eConnectivity Program is a grant program offering federal small business grants to companies and projects that assist rural communities (particularly in disadvantaged communities) or that help to mitigate the effects of climate change within rural areas.

Grants.gov

Grants.gov offers tons of federal small business grants—primarily for organizations and not individuals—from various federal agencies, like the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the US Department of Commerce.

State and local grants

Many local and state agencies also offer small business grants. These grants can be industry-specific or focus on broader economic development goals. To find state and local grant opportunities, visit your state’s economic development agency website or contact your local chamber of commerce.

Non-government grants for small businesses

Government agencies aren’t the only source of small business grants and financing: Many private corporations and nonprofit organizations also offer private grant programs designed to help small business owners start and expand their companies.

Comcast RISE

The Comcast RISE Investment Fund offers assistance to help independently owned businesses grow by providing funds for advertising, marketing, business consultations, entrepreneurship education, commercial creative production services, and other technical assistance.

Patagonia

Activist-minded outdoor brand Patagonia offers funding for small businesses seeking to address the core causes of climate change and confront environmental injustice.

National Association for the Self-Employed

The National Association for the Self-Employed is an organization that provides a broad-range of assistance programs for small businesses to help them be successful and competitive in the marketplace. The NASE offers growth grants of up to $4,000 for small businesses with the potential for growth. The grants can be used for business purposes including marketing, hiring, and technology equipment.

500 Global Flagship Accelerator Program

The 500 Global Flagship Accelerator Program provides $150,000 in seed capital and mentorship for fast-growing technology companies with the goal of promoting technological innovation.

Halstead Grant

The Halstead Grant offers a top prize of $7,500 in startup capital, as well as smaller grants to businesses innovating and advancing the artistry of the jewelry industry.

StartOut Founders Program

The StartOut Founders Program aims to provide resources that include its startup accelerator Growth Lab for LGBTQ+-owned businesses at every stage of development, from aspiring founders at the ideas phase to established companies looking to grow.

Second Service Foundation

The Second Service Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the growth of veteran-owned businesses through access to coaching, financing, and educational resources. Its grant program, the Military Entrepreneur Challenge, awards capital grants to eligible businesses based on factors such as positive social and community impact. The amount of the small business grants vary by event.

Corporate grants

Corporations, or their foundations, also provide small business grants. You might want to consider a corporate grant if your business closely aligns with the corporation’s goals and mission. These types of grants may also offer more flexible eligibility compared to federal grants. Examples of corporate grants include:

FedEx Small Business Grants Program

The FedEx Small Business Grants Program is open to businesses with fewer than 99 employees and that have been in operation for at least six months. FedEx awards more than $225,000 in grants to small businesses, including $500 in FedEx print credits to awardees.

Venmo Small Business Grant

With the Venmo Small Business Grant, 20 small businesses are awarded $10,000 in grant funding and free promotion on Venmo’s social media accounts. Plus, you get access to free technical resources and mentorship. To qualify, you must have a US Venmo account and valid business profile. You also must have less than $50,000 in annual sales and 10 or fewer employees.

Grants for women-owned businesses

Some small business grants focus on women in business. Here are a few examples:

Cartier Women’s Initiative Regional Awards Program

The Cartier Women’s Initiative Regional Awards Program offers grants up to $100,000 to entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses in their initial stages of development that are working to meet one of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

IFundWomen grants

IFundWomen, a marketplace for women-owned businesses to network and secure partnerships and financing opportunities, has partnered with brands like Adidas, Caress, Botox, Visa, and more to offer grants to women-owned businesses. Apply to the Universal Grant Application Database to qualify for future partner grants. Grant amounts vary by partnerships.

Foundation for a Just Society

The Foundation for a Just Society (FJS) offers grants to local, national, regional, and international organizations that work to advance the rights of women and LGBTQ+ people. The FJS focuses its efforts in Francophone West Africa, Mesoamerica, South and Southeast Asia, and the US Southeast, as well as some areas of New York City. Grant amounts range from $50,000 to $500,000.

WomensNet’s Amber Grant

WomensNet is a community of entrepreneur-minded women supporting businesses led by women starting their entrepreneurial journey. The organization awards monthly Amber Grants of $10,000 each and additional $25,000 end-of-year grants to women entrepreneurs.

Stacy’s Rise Project

This Hello Alice and Stacy’s Pita Chips partnership gave rise to a program supporting women entrepreneurs through $25,000 business grants, mentorship, and other resources. Requirements for the Stacy’s Rise Project include being a small business selling consumer packaged goods and $25,000 to $1 million in annual sales.

Restaurant Disaster Relief Fund

Hello Alice, in partnership with DoorDash, offers $10,000 grants via its Restaurant Disaster Relief Fund, with the goal of assisting restaurants in recovering from natural disasters such as fires and floods.

Grants for BIPOC-owned businesses

There are numerous grants geared toward helping Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) start and grow their businesses. Here are a few to consider:

BOSS Impact Fund

The BOSS Impact Fund focuses on financially elevating Black women entrepreneurs with $10,000 Invest In Progress grants. The program, a partnership between Hello Alice and The BOSS Network, also provides mentorship opportunities.

Founders First CDC grant programs

Founders First bills itself as “the largest national platform for growing businesses led by diverse founders.” In addition to providing coaching and accelerators, the org offers a variety of grant programs for founders who identify as Latinx, Black, or Asian. Grants are available to residents of Southern California, Chicago, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and Texas with a $100,000 pool divided among 25 recipients in each area.

Coalition to Back Black Businesses grant program 

The US Chamber Foundation, in collaboration with American Express, launched its grant program as part of a multiyear initiative to support small businesses owned by Black entrepreneurs. Recipients receive $5,000 grants, mentorship, and opportunities for future financial support. The latest cohort was eligible for an additional $25,000 Enhancement grant.

Other funding for small business owners

Aside from small business grants, there are other ways for a new business to secure the startup funds it needs to grow. If you’re looking for other methods of financing your startup, here are a couple of options to look into:

Small business loans

Small business loans are one of the most common ways that new entrepreneurs secure funding for their businesses. Unlike grants, loans need to be repaid, so it’s important to understand how much money you need, what it will be spent on, and how you plan on making the money to pay the loan back.

TIP: Want to know how much it will cost to take out a loan? Try our free business loan calculator.

Learn more: How To Get a Small Business Loan: 6 Steps To Take

Crowdfunding for small businesses

Crowdfunding has become one of the most popular methods of raising money for startup businesses, largely due to online crowdfunding sites that make it accessible to nearly anyone.

Rather than seeking a large sum of money from an organization or angel investors, crowdfunding involves collecting small sums of money from ordinary people that believe in the potential of your own business.

Learn more: How To Do Crowdfunding: With Expert Tips and Examples From Successful Campaigns

Equity crowdfunding for small businesses

Equity crowdfunding is similar to—but a little different from—ordinary crowdfunding. With equity crowdfunding, everyday people commit smaller sums of money to your business in exchange for equity.

Non-accredited investors can participate in crowdfunding within limits. Previously, new businesses could sell shares only to accredited investors, meaning there was strict net worth criteria that kept members of the public from being able to invest. The restriction also acted as a huge barrier to entrepreneurship, since newer merchants are less likely to have built a network of wealthy investors.

With equity crowdfunding, investment and entrepreneurship have become more accessible.

Learn more: Equity Crowdfunding: Definition, Advantages, and How To Do It

Capital investors for small businesses

Capital investors refer to both angel investors and venture capital funds. Accredited investors can help provide funding for your business startup in return for equity ownership or convertible debt (a loan that may be converted into equity in the future). For example, Backstage Capital is a venture capital fund that invests in underrepresented groups in entrepreneurship, offering funds for small businesses owned by women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ founders.

The biggest benefit of capital investors is that they can provide you with large sums of money in a relatively short amount of time. At times, they can also provide valuable mentorship as you work to grow your own business.

Learn more:

How to get a small business grant

1. Look for grants within your industry
2. Read the eligibility requirements carefully
3. Make sure your business aligns with the organization’s mission
4. Know what you’ll be spending the grant money on
5. Focus your pitch on innovation and expansion
6. Deliver on your promises

Small business grants are offered by all kinds of organizations to all types of businesses with a wide range of values, missions, and functions. If you’re starting out as a small business owner and looking to apply for small business grants for your startup, here are some key points to keep in mind:

1. Look for grants within your industry

Many small business grants are industry-specific, so it can help narrow down your search if you focus on organizations and research institutions within your particular industry. Focusing on one industry also builds buzz around your business and can help build connections with industry figures who may be able to offer guidance and investment opportunities.

2. Read the eligibility requirements carefully

It sounds obvious, but it’s not hard to overlook aspects of grant eligibility requirements and end up putting effort into applying for a grant you’re ineligible for. Read the requirements carefully and evaluate whether you qualify for the grant award. If you’re unsure whether you qualify, contact someone from the organization and ask.

3. Make sure your business aligns with the organization’s mission

Organizations that provide small business grants do so in the hopes of achieving a specific goal they care about deeply. Ask yourself how your business model helps contribute to achieving this goal. If the answer is hard to parse, you might want to consider applying for grants with another organization.

4. Know what you’ll be spending the grant money on

Some organizations stipulate allowable expenses for grant money. But even when they don’t, it’s still important to have an idea of how you plan to use the money. When an organization is determining whether to issue your business a grant, having a solid business plan and knowing how the money will be spent will help them understand more clearly how your business aligns with their mission.

5. Focus your pitch on innovation and expansion

Organizations that issue small business grants typically favor for-profit businesses that they see as innovative, forward-thinking, and on a path to growth. Focus your pitch on how you plan to scale, any new technologies you might be developing, and what your business can do to help the organization with its mission.

6. Deliver on your promises

Small business grants are not loans, so lenders aren’t expecting to be paid back. They’re not investment capital either, so issuers aren’t expecting to own assets of your business. But that doesn’t mean that small business grants don’t come with expectations and incentives.

Issuers still expect a return on investment, just not a monetary one. Instead, organizations that provide small business owners with grants want to feel confident that your business idea contributes to their organization’s mission⁠—whether it be a common good, an innovation in a particular industry, or economic growth in a specific community.

A small business grant isn’t necessarily “free money.” Grant issuers often have stipulations about how the money can be spent, sometimes even spending the money themselves on specific resources they believe will help your business grow.

Fuel growth in your startup with a small business grant

The first few months of running a business are often the most challenging. It takes time for a business to become profitable, but costs can add up quickly.

Small business grant programs can make a world of difference for a new small business owner. Not only do they provide a vital injection of funds, they can also help to establish connections and networking opportunities in your industry and meet your business needs early on.

If your business has the potential to innovate and serve the public good, chances are you’re a great candidate for a small business grant.

If Shopify is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Shopify has just about everything you need if you're looking to sell online. It excels with unlimited products, user-friendly setup, and 24/7 support. It offers 6,000+ app integrations, abandoned cart recovery, and shipping discounts up to 88%. Plus, it allows selling both online and in-person, scaling as your business grows.

Implementing a sales channel strategy has become a requirement for every business. The strongest brands use multiple sales channels to meet customers where they already spend their time. 

By providing convenient ways for customers to shop, you can increase your ecommerce business’s reach and brand recognition. Spreading your business across platforms also boosts resiliency, as you become less dependent on a single channel or market.

Here, learn about the different types of sales channels used by online businesses—and how you can leverage them.

What is a sales channel? 

A sales channel is a pathway that businesses use to reach customers and sell their products. Online marketplaces, retail stores, and social media accounts are all potential sales channels. Sales channels can be used to find and target different customer audiences, so most businesses consider multichannel selling a good idea.

Direct sales channels

Your business works directly with consumers under a direct sales channel strategy. For example, Apple sells its products through its own stores and website.

Indirect sales channels

Indirect sales channels use third parties, like distributors and retailers, to sell products to consumers. Olipop, for instance, sells its healthy soda pop through Whole Foods. Indirect sales channels can also include marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba.

Distribution channels

Distribution channels are how products move from the manufacturer to the consumer. Many companies use third-parties like dropshipping, print on demand, or 3PLs to manage fulfillment and keep costs low.

The 10 most important sales channels

1. Online store (direct to consumer)
2. Modern marketplaces
3. Traditional marketplaces
4. Retail
5. Wholesale
6. Resellers
7. White label
8. Mobile apps
9. B2B sales
10. Partnerships

1. Online store (direct to consumer)

An online store is the first sales channel many new entrepreneurs create—and for good reason.

When you design your own store, you get to decide how products are displayed. You also get a complete view of customer data and sell directly to consumers (DTC), meaning you keep all the profits. 

That direct relationship can be beneficial for your brand. Research shows that DTC ecommerce is growing across locations and industries, with most customers preferring to buy from independent stores over multi-brand retailers.

With Shopify, you can set up multiple sales channels and direct those customers back to your store.

Pros:

• Low startup costs. Build a store for free with Shopify’s free trial
• Use your store as a sales channel hub
• Use customer data to improve sales lead generation
• No third-party branding or product rules
• Take all the profits from your sales

Cons:

• Generating traffic can be difficult without a large marketing budget
• It’s up to you to manage orders (Shopify can help)

2. Modern marketplaces 

Modern marketplaces are content-driven platforms that enable commerce. This includes social media channels like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Pinterest. Increasingly, it also covers streaming sites like Spotify.

One of the reasons modern marketplaces are so successful as online sales channels is that buyers are already spending time there. Customers see products immediately, in a context they’re familiar with. Adding a Buy button to a social media post is often a natural next step.

On Instagram, for example, you can make posts and Stories shoppable. If a customer sees an item they like, all they need to do is tap the shopping bag symbol and they’ll be directed to a page where they can see more details, visit your store, and check out.

Spotify, the music streaming service, is another modern marketplace built for selling. Listeners can scroll a band’s profile to preorder albums or purchase vinyl records and merch. 

Data suggests customers increasingly prefer to make purchases on social media platforms. In 2023, global social commerce revenues were estimated at $570 billion and could reach $1.1 trillion by 2028.

Pros:

• Apps can help you track performance and optimize your posts
• You can collaborate with other brands and influencers to cross-sell and cross-promote
• Most social media platforms have useful templates for ads and post creation

Cons:

• Continuous content creation is required to stay visible
• It can be difficult to create content that caters to social media algorithms

3. Traditional marketplaces 

Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and Google Shopping are examples of traditional marketplaces. These channels feature a wide range of product offerings, and customers generally search by the product they’d like to buy rather than the brand they’d like to purchase it from.

While traditional marketplaces come with a preexisting customer base, these platforms require you to give up control of customer service and fulfillment, and force competition on margins.

Pros:

• Put your products in front of a large existing customer base
• Use established distributors and marketing channels

Cons:

• Pay commission on sales made within traditional marketplaces
• Strict terms and conditions for brand and product promotion
• Fierce competition, including from international sellers with lower prices

4. Retail 

The retail sales channel includes both permanent and pop-up shops, like a short-term rental in a mall, a booth at a craft fair, or a stall at a local market. Retail channels provide the opportunity to build relationships with your customers in-person and get live feedback. Retail is a powerful piece in the modern commerce playbook. 

Pros:

• Face-to-face contact with customers
• Direct-to-customer sales

Cons:

• Many added costs and a potential need for employees
• Expensive brick-and-mortar overheads

5. Wholesale 

Wholesale involves selling your products to other businesses who then retail them. Some businesses choose to make wholesale their only sales channel, others use wholesaling as one arm of an omnichannel sales strategy.

Pros:

• Move lots of inventory at once
• Retailers engage in marketing and sales for your products

Cons:

• Capital inventory funding required
• It can be expensive to store inventory that doesn’t sell
• No interaction with your customers 

6. Resellers

A reseller is anyone who increases the value of a product and sells it for a higher margin. Adding value to a product can mean affiliation with an established retailer, repackaging it, or even improving the product itself. 

Pros:

• Low overheads
• Upselling opportunities

Cons:

• Fluctuating price and availability depending on the items you’re reselling
• Inconsistent margins
• Required compliance with the original manufacturer’s reselling terms

7. White label

White-label products are generic products that can be customized with a brand’s logo or name. An example of this is the branded reusable bags that grocery stores sell at checkout counters. Trader Joe’s doesn’t manufacture its bags themselves, it simply buys generic ones and has its name printed on them.

Pros:

• Reduced cost of production 
• Ability to jump on trends, like the stainless steel water bottle trend
• Market-tested products

Cons:

• Lots of competition
• Prices dependent on the suppliers’ prices for pre-printed items

8. Mobile apps

By 2025, mobile commerce sales are expected to make up more than 10% of all retail sales in the US.

With consumers turning to apps to do their shopping, brands are responding by building out more capable apps. Brands offer filterable catalogs, gamified experiences, coupons, and special deals to people who download and shop through their apps. 

Pros:

• Users spend longer on apps than on websites
• Use your app to deliver special offers

Cons:

• Apps can be expensive to build
• Apps require constant updating as technology advances

9. B2B Sales

Business-to-business sales are when one business sells products or services to another.

Pros:

• Companies have more spending power than consumers
• Once you develop a good relationship with a company or business, you’ll have a repeat customer
• Sales agents can leverage their networks and expertise to find clients and close deals

Cons:

• Companies can take a long time to make a purchase
• Possible higher costs to create products or services for businesses

10. Partnerships

A sales channel partnership is when you employ a company or individual to act as an extension of your sales team. For example, when a company uses social media influencers to promote their products through influencer marketing, that is a sales channel partnership. The influencer gets a discount on those products or a commission of all the sales their posts generate, and the company gets the benefit of the influencer’s reach and audience trust.

Pros:

• Built-in consumer trust 
• Reach new customers
• Save on marketing campaign costs

Cons:

• Your partners can misrepresent you
• You won’t get as much customer data as direct sales
• You may have to sacrifice some of your own profits to make the relationship profitable for your partners

Examples of brands using multiple sales channels 

These sales channels each provide valuable ways to access customers. But if you only use a single channel, your business is limited by that channel’s reach and growth.

Harness several channels and you can distribute your resources to whichever channel is performing the best. Here are some examples of how Shopify merchants benefit from multichannel selling.

The Poster List—Ecommerce, retail, wholesale

Adam Luedicke, owner and founder of Long Beach poster store The Poster List, uses wholesale, in-person shows, and online sales as the main three channels for his business. 

Since starting the business in 2006, Adam found that some channels boom while others dip, often in response to unpredictable external factors like interest rate hikes and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Starting out, shows were definitely the majority of where the money was coming from, and then, 2010 through 2015, it flipped and it became more wholesale,” says Adam. “In 2017, the apparel space got soft at retail, and so we started doing shows again.”

By building out multiple sales channels, The Poster List was able to adapt quickly to the changes happening in the larger market. Meeting your customers at the channels relevant to your brand helps you build a more resilient business.

Abracadana—Marketplaces, ecommerce

Mary Helt is co-founder and owner of Abracadana, a store that sells screen-printed bandanas. 

“It’s good to have a couple of venues for selling,” she says. “Sometimes I feel like one is pulling me—like Etsy is pulling me away from Shopify. Or if I’m working on updating Shopify, I’m not paying attention to Etsy. And I think that’s OK. You can cycle it. But try a couple of channels to see what works. You can’t have all of your eggs in one basket, that’s for sure.” 

How to build a multichannel sales strategy

Your sales channels should work together and support your core product line.

For example, you might do the bulk of your business on your ecommerce website but then run flash sales on excess inventory via Instagram Stories.

When you started your business, you likely prioritized a single sales channel. Scaling by exploring new sales avenues can seem daunting—but it’s rarely as difficult as store owners think.

Here are five tips for managing multichannel selling:

1. Prioritize your channels based on profitability

Effective multichannel selling is about pinpointing the right channels for your business. To do this, think about:

• Where your target audience spends their time
• Which channels will have the lowest running costs
• Where your competitors are active 

For example, selling your products on a traditional marketplace like Amazon, Etsy, or eBay might be the best next step for your ecommerce business.

Once you see profitability through one sales channel, you can then prioritize other channels accordingly, moving to each new channel as you see success on the previous channel.

2. Create a different strategy for each sales channel

Each sales channel you add to your business will require a different strategy for success. For example, you’d take a different approach to sending customers to your online store than you would creating foot traffic in a brick-and-mortar retail shop.

Furthermore, you’ll need to tweak your product descriptions and marketing messaging on different sites. Your Shopify site might tout how quickly products ship, but Amazon shoppers are used to the speed, so you’ll need to find a different way to entice customers to make a purchase.

3. Manage inventory and fulfillment

As you expand to different sales channels, you need to have the proper processes in place for inventory management and order fulfillment. Increasing the number of ways you can make sales will—hopefully—increase your total number of sales. And you need to have the inventory to accommodate that increase.

More than that, you need to make sure you have the capacity to fulfill all of those orders—otherwise, you may look into hiring an assistant to help with fulfilling orders to help you keep up as you expand your business to even more sales channels.

4. Ensure quality customer service across sales channels

Growing your business means you might have more customer issues to deal with, so you need to keep up the quality of your customer service. Consider hiring customer service reps or checking out some of the customer service apps in the Shopify app store. 

Adding live chat to your Shopify website can be a manageable way to deal with customer service questions and complaints as you start to scale your business. Keep the app on your phone or your computer so you can quickly respond to anything that comes in.

5. Keep an eye on your sales and analytics

Pay attention to how many sales each channel is driving. It will likely take some time to build up a new channel, but you need to keep an eye on your sales to make sure the channel eventually starts paying for itself—and then generating extra profits.

If you discover a certain channel isn’t making enough sales, put together a marketing campaign aimed at that channel to help boost it. Perhaps all you need is a bit more brand awareness so your customers can discover your additional sales channels.

Why an online store should be your sales channels hub

You can think of each sales channel as a bolt with a different type of head. As you build your business, you might be tempted to craft one type of screwdriver to unlock one specific sales channel. But that’s only going to get you so far. 

Do you want to build a screwdriver or do you want to build a universal screwdriver? An ecommerce site like Shopify is the universal option, where you can remove and put in whatever kind of bit you need to unlock each channel individually. 

Starting out with an ecommerce site first allows you to establish your brand, find footing as you develop your products, and set up a mission control center before you accelerate your success through other indirect and direct sales channels.

If you’re already using another type of sales channel to sell, like a traditional marketplace or social media, here’s why it might benefit you to set up an online store as well. 

Ease of use

As you get started, especially if you’re still developing your product, it can be easier to build your business on an ecommerce site first and plug into different sales channels once you’re ready to grow your business. 

The biggest barrier to entry for traditional marketplaces in particular is that they require high-quality and accurate product information upfront, even if you’re still developing and iterating on your product. For example, to even be approved to sell on a marketplace, you need to provide detailed information about your products. This includes unique product identifiers like SKU or ISBN numbers.

Building within a siloed ecosystem 

Customers follow trends, both in regards to what products they buy and which platforms they purchase from. Third-party platforms are susceptible to these shifts: policies change, algorithms shift, and users move on. Because you can’t control these changes, it’s best not to over-rely on one platform to make sales.

Shopify lets you set up different entry points to your business via sales channels, but all roads lead to your Shopify headquarters. You maintain reach and ownership, which means you can sell to your target audience on whatever platform, channel, or marketplace they’re on. 

Seller restrictions 

When you sell through traditional marketplaces, those channels control branding and how you upload products, and they own the customer and your interactions with them. Customers will associate more with the product and the marketplace rather than with your brand, so it can be difficult to differentiate yourself from other shops that sell similar or the same products as you.

These marketplaces are built with buyers and sellers in mind. As a seller, you get a destination that buyers naturally want to visit, but you give up ownership over a lot of decisions. A marketplace might make decisions based on their average seller, or to improve the experience for buyers (at the expense of sellers), and you’re signing up for that in exchange for access to their audience.

Overall, your relationship with a traditional marketplace is one of tradeoffs. You might acquire a built-in customer base, but risk losing your identity as a brand if you don’t build your own online presence before diving in. 

Building a brand story 

While you can build a compelling brand on a social media platform or at a retail location, it’s not something you can do effectively on a traditional marketplace.

Mary built a separate Shopify store in order to differentiate her new brand from her pre-existing business, Maryink. “I wanted to break out of Maryink and develop a new brand that’s still associated with Maryink, but that brings about the imagery of a bandana,” Mary says. “So we came up with Abracadana, because we think bandanas are magical. They’re so simple and you can do so many things with them. We broke off and started our Shopify site, because you can do a lot more with the design, and that was important to us.” 

Your owned website is a blank canvas to help fully realize your brand. In a marketplace, your brand has to fit within the provided requirements. You’re limited in how you can express your brand—which makes it significantly harder to leave a lasting impression.

Building a resilient business

By creating a headquarters for your business with an online store, you set yourself up for success in a few ways. You’ll be able to develop a unique brand and maintain ownership of your customers and your data.

Your sales channels help your brand reach customers in the places where they already spend their time and focus their attention. With Shopify, commerce on these platforms can be more seamless, which is good for your customers. Plus, they’re integrated with your online store, so you maintain access to order data, customer relationships, and your brand identity. 

Customer needs, marketplaces, social media, and the greater commerce market are constantly changing. Building a centralized ecommerce shop will allow you to be a more resilient sales process and overall business.

Illustration by Mitch Blunt

If Shopify is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Shopify has just about everything you need if you're looking to sell online. It excels with unlimited products, user-friendly setup, and 24/7 support. It offers 6,000+ app integrations, abandoned cart recovery, and shipping discounts up to 88%. Plus, it allows selling both online and in-person, scaling as your business grows.

If Shopify is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Shopify has just about everything you need if you're looking to sell online. It excels with unlimited products, user-friendly setup, and 24/7 support. It offers 6,000+ app integrations, abandoned cart recovery, and shipping discounts up to 88%. Plus, it allows selling both online and in-person, scaling as your business grows.

Shopify is known for helping businesses get up and running with incredible ease and speed. And now, Shopify is going to help you grow and expand your business just as easily and just as fast.

Markets has been reimagined as a new, dedicated surface in Shopify admin that aggregates all of a business’s expansion activity into one central location, coming soon to all Shopify customers over the next few months.

What is Markets?

Markets, formerly known as Shopify’s cross-border selling solution, has evolved to become a one-stop shop for expansion on Shopify. Markets enables growth not only via international expansion, but also through retail and B2B (B2B is available on Plus plans only). 

What’s more, businesses will be able to customize everything from their catalog to their store’s theme, currency, and domains—all within a single shop—in order to create customized buyer experiences for each of their markets.  

What are the benefits of using Markets?

Markets is for businesses in every stage of growth, able to accommodate any expansion journey, whether you’re a brand new customer on Shopify looking to expand internationally, a scaling business selling B2B, or an enterprise already operating a network of retail stores.

Think of Markets as your command center for growth: the place to see all the markets you operate in, to compare their performance, and to expand your business to new countries or experiment with new business models. 

In a few months, if you’re already selling cross-border, B2B, or retail with Shopify, you’ll automatically start seeing your existing markets within the new Markets interface. And if you haven’t yet expanded your business and you’re not sure where to start, you’ll be able to jump into Markets and get started. 

Grow your business from one central place on Shopify

Previously, cross-border, B2B, and Shopify POS were spread out across Shopify’s platform. Markets aggregates all your growth into one location in Shopify admin. If you want to start selling to a new country, expand to a new B2B market, or set up a retail market, the process stays consistent: simply create a new market, make your customizations, and you’re ready to go.

Offer extremely customized buyer experiences

One of the best things about Markets is the customization it enables for your buyer experiences, all possible from one single shop. 

Markets lets you customize your catalog (the list of products and their associated prices), your store’s theme, currency, languages, content, domains and business entity,  to curate the exact shopping experience you want to provide for a specific buyer in a specific market.

This allows you to set up customized buyer experiences, ensuring, for example:

• Your D2C buyers in Japan see a specific list of products and associated prices, all in Japanese yen
• Your B2B buyers based in the UK see a version of your store theme especially customized with a special banner, just for them
• That you’ve stocked only your bestsellers at your New York flagship retail store

See a holistic picture of all your expansion

With Markets, you’ll be able to see all the expansion activity of your business at any given time, from the highest level of detail to the most granular.

From the Markets index, you can easily view all the markets you’re operating in, and compare their performance. Shopify pins your key markets at the top of the page for your convenience.

Markets also offers you a detailed summary of all the customizations you’ve made for each market—a great tool for bringing new employees up to speed.

The work you do to customize your buyer experience in Markets will also be reflected in the Products section of Shopify admin, enabling you to preview the exact list of products and prices, or the exact version of your PDP that a specific buyer in a specific market would see.

Simple, rapid growth

Expanding your business with Markets is easy: no long integration times, no repetitive processes, and no need to split inventory or keep data in sync between multiple stores. 

Markets also lets you quickly create new markets by tweaking to any of your existing ones, so you won’t have to waste any time creating each market from scratch.

How Markets works 

Let’s say you’re hoping to expand to the UK. To start, you’d create a new market and add the UK as a region.

You can then customize your catalog for your UK market, making sure that the products, pricing, and availability are what you want to surface to your UK buyers.

You can also customize your store’s theme to be tailored to your UK audience. 

Let’s say you start getting traction in the UK, and, because you are on a Plus plan, you decide to start selling wholesale in the region. Simply create a new market, and add your UK region and your UK B2B buyer company locations. 

Markets automatically inherits all your customizations from your UK market, and you can tweak your catalog and theme to be just right for your B2B buyers.

How Markets makes international, B2B, and retail selling easier

Already selling cross-border, retail, or B2B on Shopify? Once Markets rolls out in a few months, you won’t need to opt in—you’ll simply be able to access all your existing markets from the Markets interface.

Outside of this convenient aggregation for all your expansion activity, Markets will also add new features and capabilities to Shopify’s cross-border, retail and B2B selling solutions. You can check out more details in the section below.

Selling cross-border with Markets

Markets has now moved to the main Shopify navigation, and the experience has been redesigned to make it easier to see the customizations you’ve made for a specific market. 

It’s also now possible to create submarkets from an existing market. For example, if you have a market for Europe but you want to customize your online store specifically for Germany, you can quickly create a Germany submarket (automatically inheriting all the customizations you had already made for your European market) and then just customize your theme specifically for your German buyers.

For store owners based in the US, Shopify also offers Managed Markets—an evolution of the product formerly known as Markets Pro—which is fully integrated with the new Markets. Managed Markets simplifies international selling with an integrated merchant-of-record model that manages all the complexities of cross-border selling, including international payments, customs regulations, duties, shipping, and more.

Selling retail with Markets

Markets will enable store owners using Shopify POS to set specific catalogs to manage pricing and publishing for your retail locations, all from one shop. You can also customize the POS smart grid per market to adjust the in-store experience for different retail locations.

This would allow you, for example, to run all your POS locations in different countries, all from a single Shopify store. For example, you can have all your locations in your US retail market mapped to your US business entity and Shopify Payments account with a customized catalog and smart grid, while your Australia retail market can remain connected to your Australian entity and Shopify Payments account.

Selling B2B with Markets

When Markets launches, store owners on Plus plans will be able to customize their store theme for different B2B markets from a single store. Additionally, it will be possible to create unique versions of their catalog for multiple B2B markets, all from the Markets interface, enabling easy geographic expansion for wholesale businesses.

Getting started with Markets

Look out for Markets, becoming available to all Shopify customers over the next few months. 

If Shopify is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.