Shopify

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.

It’s 1960. A couple walks into their local furniture store and buys a complete living room set, right off the showroom floor. Twenty-five years later, their children inherit that same set for their first home. For many years, these were the only two options: shop at a physical store or get a hand-me-down. 

In the past two decades, technology has helped brands replicate the in-person shopping experience online, paving the way for even more furniture businesses—and more choice. And there’s still room in the market for those looking to launch a furniture business, selling directly to consumers without the showroom. 

Ahead, hear from experts in the home goods industry to learn how to start a furniture business of your own—everything from sourcing products to managing inventory to marketing your brand. Transform your idea into reality with this step-by-step guide to building your own online furniture store. 

How to start a furniture business in 12 steps

1. Choose your business model
2. Finance your furniture business
3. Build your furniture brand
4. Source furniture (for designers and resellers)
5. Set up shop (for furniture makers)
6. Manage furniture inventory and storage
7. Learn to photograph furniture and home décor products
8. Set up your online furniture store
9. Expand your selling channels
10. Market your furniture business
11. Set up shipping, returns, and customer service
12. Read the fine print

There’s plenty of competition in the furniture market, especially if you factor in the giant share of affordable global chains. That’s why it’s important to differentiate your products, find your unique selling proposition, and build a memorable brand. 

Let’s walk through the first steps to launching your furniture brand and starting a business online.

1. Choose your business model

There are multiple ways to launch a furniture business and sell home goods online and in-person. The avenue you choose will depend on a number of factors, such as your skill level, startup budget, and storage availability. Before you develop your business plan, let’s review the different business models.

Furniture maker

This type of business involves designing and building furniture by hand in your own workshop. You may choose to build and sell a limited number of styles by keeping inventory on hand or adopting a made-to-order model. Or you may offer a custom service that allows your customers to request specific dimensions and features. A furniture maker business requires that you have technical skills, specialized tools, and a dedicated workshop space.

Furniture designer (working with a manufacturer)

Rather than actually building the furniture on your own, you can choose to design it and work with a builder or manufacturer to create the products for you. You may require some specialized drafting skills and an understanding of materials and construction so you can communicate effectively with factories.

Curator and reseller

In this model, you would sell a number of items from different brands or makers, curating collections that are unique to your brand. While you aren’t designing and making the items on your own, there is a need for creativity in building a cohesive brand and for using storytelling, photography, and customer experience to sell products. In this case, you would purchase items wholesale from other brands and ship them directly to customers. An understanding of trends in the furniture industry would be essential for success. 

Dropshipper

This method is the same as the one above, but is a hands-off option if you aren’t able to store or ship the items yourself. Look to work with makers and brands that are willing to ship directly to your customers on a dropshipping model, cutting yourself out of the supply chain.

Vintage reseller

This is another curator/reseller model that focuses on one-of-a-kind vintage or antique pieces. We’ve listed this as a separate category because the sourcing methods are quite different. You’ll need a knowledge of the vintage market to identify what pieces have resale value and what’s in demand. It’s also helpful to have skills in furniture repair and refinishing to be able to restore vintage finds. Generally, vintage and antique furniture dealers will require a significant amount of space for inventory, unless you opt for a consignment model.

💡Tip: Many vintage resellers get their start by finding and reselling used furniture through marketplaces or even local buy-and-sell sites. This is a great way to try your hand at selling furniture as a lucrative side hustle before you expand to a full-time furniture business.

2. Finance your furniture business 

How much does it cost to start a business selling furniture online? Well, that answer depends on what business structure you choose. 

⬇️ On the low end: It’s possible to get started with a few hundred dollars if you plan to dropship, as there is no need to hold inventory. A custom or made-to-order furniture business can also have low startup costs—that’s if you already have a hobby workshop. This model will allow you to buy materials as you go, so there’s no need to invest much upfront.

⬆️ On the higher end: If you don’t already own the necessary tools and equipment to start a maker business, expect to spend tens of thousands of dollars to set up a workshop. Also consider the cost of space rental (if applicable), utilities, and safety equipment (like proper ventilation). Resale businesses can also be costly to start, as you will be required to buy and hold inventory.

It’s possible to start a furniture business from home if you have a suitable space (basement or climate-controlled garage) for storage, but forecast out what the costs might be to scale to a dedicated space or work with a warehouse partner.

Financing options for furniture sellers

As with any small business, there are several funding options. If you don’t plan to bootstrap (that is, reinvest profits into the business), you may need to find outside funding. Crowdfunding is a popular option that allows you to pre-launch your furniture business and seek funding from potential customers. Bank loans, small business grants, and venture capital firms may also be sources of funding for your business. A solid business plan will help you secure funding from investors.

3. Build your furniture brand

It’s important that you define your brand at this early stage. Answering a few questions will help you tell your brand story, carve out your visual aesthetic, capture your mission statement, and more clearly envision your ideal customer. 

Now that you’ve decided whether you will make or resell furniture, pick a lane for your furniture business. Will you only sell sofas and go deep on one product? Are you interested in jumping on a hot trend? Do you plan to focus on well-built minimalist pieces for small spaces? What about tapping into the growing number of people working at home and selling unique office furniture?

Consider the following when picking a business model or angle (with examples):

• Category/use: office furniture, outdoor living, home accents
• Product: sofa beds, dining tables, nursery items
• Style: midcentury modern, minimal, rustic
• Customer: students, apartment dwellers, cottage owners
• Niche: “smart” furniture, modular pieces, furniture made from recycled materials
• Cause: fair trade, handmade locally, sustainable
• Price: low retail/high volume, high end/bespoke

When Chris Hughes launched his brand Timberware, the possibilities in woodworking were infinite. “We hadn’t found our niche yet, so we just built a bit of everything,” he says. Chris found that trade shows really helped him hone his offering. Trucking heavy furniture back and forth from these shows wasn’t easy, but the exercise helped him understand the market and find his focus.

Your branding exercise would start with market research that examines the following:

• Your target customer profile. Where do potential customers already shop? What social channels do they frequent?
• The local market. If you plan to sell locally or open a brick-and-mortar store, understand the furniture landscape in your area.
• Competitors. What features does your brand offer that your competition does not? You can attract customers with a unique selling proposition. 
• Trends. Examine furniture design trends, home trends, ecommerce design, and any other trends that may impact branding design decisions. 

Once you’ve conducted market research and honed in on a niche, put it to paper. Make a clear statement about what you have to offer, then layer on your mission, brand values, and brand promise. Now that you have clear brand guidelines, you will continue to reference them as you design your site and curate your collection. 

For home and furniture company GOODEE, establishing brand values was something that evolved out of founders Byron and Dexter Peart’s previous business, fashion brand WANT Les Essentiels. “It was really about this balance between things that mattered and what people really wanted,” says Byron. 

Through experience, the brothers found that people felt torn between two choices: luxury or sustainability. “We wanted to build GOODEE as a response to that,” says Byron. The brand takes a clear stance: the two are not mutually exclusive. Dexter and Byron leveraged their business and design experience to curate a collection that delivers on their solid brand values.

4. Source furniture (for designers and resellers)

How you source suppliers or manufacturers depends on the type of furniture business you plan to start.

Designers

For furniture designers who do not plan to make the furniture themselves, look for a trusted manufacturer. “The closer you are to your production and your supply chain, especially in the beginning,” says Dexter, “the easier it will be to build and forge partnerships with whoever’s making your products.” 

When you’re getting started and you don’t have familiarity with manufacturing, it’s recommended that you find a manufacturer that will allow you a lot of oversight and who will work with you as a partner in your business. 

Resellers

If you’re looking to resell products by others, you can hit the pavement and approach makers and brands to ask about wholesale pricing and terms. There are also wholesale marketplaces that allow resellers to browse vendors who are actively looking for retail partners. 

Vintage sellers

Vintage sellers source furniture in a number of ways. Due to the nature of the business, you’ll need to be consistently on the hunt to ensure you have inventory. Here are a number of sources to get you started:

• Auctions. Sign up to receive notifications for auctions in your area. Some of these take place in person, but there are several online auction sites like eBay and MaxSold that allow you to browse and bid on your own time from home.
• Estate sales. These can be a goldmine for a lot of vintage items in one place. Stay on top of upcoming sales by getting on the email list of local estate sale management companies. 
• Online marketplaces and classifieds. Sites like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace might turn up some treasures, as well as listings for yard sales, moving sales, or estate sales. 
• Flea or outdoor markets. Showing up early means first dibs, but you’ll get the best deals at the end of the day and the end of flea market season, when dealers are looking to unload stock.
• Collectors. Private collectors may be interested in working with you to unload some of their stock. These are people you may meet as you start building contacts in the vintage community. 

Dropshippers

Furniture dropshippers can browse a number of dropshipping suppliers and directories, like AliExpress. It’s also possible to set up dropshipping terms on an individual basis with select furniture brands. For example, GFURN has a dedicated page highlighting its dropshipping program.

5. Set up shop (for furniture makers)

For furniture makers, starting a furniture business can be costly if you don’t already own tools or have a dedicated workshop. Like Chris, you can start with the basics and expand your toolbox as your business grows.

Chris’s advice for setting up your own furniture workshop:

1. Keep your workshop tidy. “A clean and organized shop is a safe and productive shop.”
2. Consider workflow. “What tools do you need to have in order to accomplish what you want to do? What order will they be used in? This will help you figure out the layout for each main piece of machinery. From there, you just find the best place for the smaller stuff.”
3. The table saw is the heart of your workshop. “Make sure you have enough space around it to make the cuts you need.”
4. Manage dust. “Where should your ducts be run for maximum efficiency?”
5. Light it up. “For lighting, go bigger than you think you need. You can never have too much light in the shop! I recommend going with LEDs everywhere.”

Don’t forget that your workshop will likely be a work in progress. “Start with what you can afford and slowly grow your tool arsenal,” says Chris. He started his business with savings and bootstrapped, upgrading as he grew by reinvesting profits back into his workshop. “Be patient and don’t overextend yourself.”

6. Manage furniture inventory and storage

If you’ve decided to make or resell furniture and are not dropshipping or making to order, be sure to consider your space needs. As we mentioned in the financing section, this could account for a considerable chunk of your startup costs. 

“In the earliest stages, warehousing is in your garage. It’s in your bedroom,” says Byron. “That’s the natural way for a business to start.” He says it’s important for new business owners to be close to the full supply chain in the beginning. 

Only after managing this aspect yourself can you understand what you’re looking for in a warehouse partner. One who, as Byron says, “will share your values with the same rigor and discipline as you would yourself.”

When deciding how and where to warehouse or store your products, consider the condition of the space. Many materials like wood and natural fabrics are susceptible to extreme temperatures, pests, and fluctuations in humidity. If you live in a cold climate like Canada, for example, your home’s unheated garage might not be the best long-term solution for inventory storage. 

Warehousing and storage solutions for furniture:

• Dedicating a room inside your home for this purpose
• Renting a climate-controlled storage space (best for overflow inventory that you don’t need to access regularly)
• Working with a warehouse partner who also handles shipping and order fulfillment 
• Renting/buying your own dedicated office and warehouse space

7. Learn to photograph furniture and home décor products

As with clothing, furniture is very personal. Without a fitting room or showroom, it’s up to online businesses to replicate as much of the in-person buying process as possible. Scale and size, texture, and detail are all important aspects to capture when photographing furniture and home accents. 

Photography is key for a curated brand like GOODEE. “There’s something very democratic about us curating and finding these beautiful objects,” says Dexter. “And then showcasing them in the same way.” Photography, owned by GOODEE, creates consistency across the brand’s website.

When you’re starting out, you can shoot your own product photos using a DSLR (or even a smartphone) and simple lighting kit, or work with a professional photographer.

Photography tips for your furniture store:

• Scale is important. Aside from providing detailed measurements in the description, be sure to capture the piece within a space, next to other familiar and commonly sized décor items. 
• Zoom in. Detailed closeups will help your customers “feel” the product without touching it. Try to capture texture in fabric and the detail of wood grain.
• Light it up. Lighting is critical to capturing detail and color accurately. A simple lighting set-up can be achieved with diffused natural light or a lighting kit.
• Tell a story. Beyond the product description, your visuals should also tell a story: Who is this for? How should it be styled? What are some other products that complement it? Do this by including lifestyle photos along with those against a plain background. Stage it in a room and provide style ideas that inspire customers to envision it in their own space.

In the following photos of a dining chair by GOODEE, the first image is staged in a living space to offer suggestions for how it might be styled. In the second, the close crop allows customers to see the chair’s detail.

💡 Tip: For vintage furniture resellers, shooting product photos is an ongoing task. Refer to our guide for selling vintage clothing for tips on how to set up a photography workflow.

8. Set up your online furniture store

Before you actually launch your furniture business to the world, take time to play around with your online store builder. Launching a simple landing page at this stage, along with your social accounts, can help you build an email list so you can make a big splash at your official grand opening.

Design and themes for online furniture stores

As with any store you launch on Shopify, you can do it with little to no design skill. Shopify themes have multiple layout options that let you plug in your images, text, and customizations to create your own branded site.

If you have the budget but not the visual skills, consider hiring a designer or agency to help you put together a branding package. Shopify experts are vetted professionals who have experience working with brands of all sizes.

Product pages for furniture stores

GOODEE’s product page design is a winning example to aspire to as you set up your store. We’ve dissected one of its pages to explain why it works and how to implement some of its brilliance in your own product pages:

1. The primary image is a clear product photo with a solid background, showing the entire chair, uncropped and without distractions.

2. Additional views of the chair including alternate angles and the product placed in a scene.

3. Prominent Add to Bag button with an option to Add to Favorites—this is a helpful feature that allows customers to think and come back later or compare multiple products side by side. Read on for suggestions on how to achieve this with an app.

4. A single paragraph sums up everything you need to know about this chair: where it’s made, how it’s made, notes about its durability, suggestions for where and how it can be used, and how to style it. Storytelling language can transport your customer into the feeling you’d like them to have about a piece of furniture.

5. Secondary photos include lifestyle images that show the chair in a setting with other furniture and accents—ideally other items that can be purchased in your store. These images provide inspiration and show scale.

6. Detailed specs of the chair help customers understand if it will fit in their space. In this section you could include details like: weight, dimensions, care notes, material composition, origin, assembly requirements, etc.

7. If, like GOODEE, your brand is built around a cause such as sustainability or fair trade practices, here is another opportunity to be transparent about your commitment.

8. GOODEE’s founders believe in the strength of story, and it’s woven into the brand’s site in multiple places. On each product page, the maker of the product is featured in a dedicated section with a short description and link to view other products. This can also help with cross-selling (featuring pieces within the same collection, for example).

9. At the bottom of the page, customers are invited to review the product. Completed reviews appear in this section, offering future customers additional peace of mind from real customer testimonials.

10. A related products section can help your customers compare similar options or view complementary products.

As you build your product pages, think about what you want it to achieve. “If you can’t explain to your customer why that product needs to exist in the first place and why they should bring that into their home or give it as a gift,” says Byron, “then I think you failed that customer experience.”

About, Contact, and FAQ pages for furniture brands

Byron and Dexter made the choice to put their faces—as well as the faces and stories of their artisan partners—at the front of their brand. The investment in GOODEE’s story that finds balance between design and positive impact resonated with customers as buyer trends shifted. 

Your story can set you apart from massive competitors. In this arena, small and human-backed businesses always win. Your About page can tell your origin story, highlight your brand values, share some of the faces of those on your team, and find common ground with your customers. 

For furniture designers and builders, this is also the place where you can invite your customers behind the scenes to take a peek at your process and inspiration. 

Your contact information and FAQ are also important pages. FAQ pages are useful for furniture businesses, especially for shipping and returns information. Due to the large size and weight of many furniture pieces, shipping may be more complicated and returns may not be possible. 

Clearly communicate your shipping and return policies here. And allow customers to easily contact you with follow-up questions. Bigger purchases often require additional support.

💡 Tip: When building all pages and navigations on your site, consider search engine optimization—or SEO—which helps search engines like Google rank your site. Ranking near the top of search results could earn you valuable organic traffic.

Ecommerce apps for your furniture store

To meet the specific needs of your business, here are a few select apps from the Shopify App Store to help you sell furniture online:

9. Expand your selling channels

Other than your online furniture store, consider additional sales channels to get your products in front of customers in a crowded market. If you’re a maker or designer, can you reach other geographical markets by wholesaling your products? If you’re an online-only furniture brand, this may be an easy way to dabble in retail. 

Pop-up retail is a great option for vintage furniture resellers, designers, or makers. Think local outdoor markets or trade shows. Often, larger retailers will open in-store pop-up spaces for emerging brands that complement their offerings.

Also consider if any social sales channels or online marketplaces are right for your audience. As a furniture maker or vintage reseller, you can integrate your Etsy sales with Shopify to get the best of both worlds: your own dedicated site and access to potential buyers on marketplaces. What other sites—think home goods resellers—can you explore?

10. Market your furniture business

As part of your business plan, a marketing plan lays out your marketing approach and core channels.

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to marketing for furniture businesses. A good rule of thumb is having the right message in the right place at the right time. Those factors will depend on who your customer is and where they hang out. Is it more worth your time and money to invest in email marketing or in Facebook ads? Should you try content marketing or Google Ads? Testing is your friend at this stage.

When you launch a furniture business, consider that your product will be subject to taste and may require guidance for those less design savvy. Content can be very powerful for this reason. Build an audience on Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok by offering home design advice and tips. These can be tools to drive traffic to your store and establish yourself and your brand as a credible expert in this space. 

GOODEE uses Instagram to humanize the brand and take users behind the scenes:

In the end, your marketing content will come across most authentically when you work within mediums and platforms that come natural to you. “We’re a little old school, in that we still get most of our clients by word of mouth,” says Chris. “With that being said, Instagram is a great tool for us.” 

11. Set up shipping, returns, and customer service

“Shipping is a massive challenge,” says Chris, who admits he hasn’t quite perfected it. “We have shipped 800-pound dining tables across the country. It’s nerve-wracking!” For GOODEE, inventory management, fulfillment, and shipping are handled by the brand’s warehouse partner. 

When you’re just starting out, you may be managing order fulfillment and shipping yourself. For you, Chris has advice from his own experience:

1. Work with the right partners. “Find a shipping company that has good reviews and build a relationship with them. Make sure you can get quick quotes based on weight and dimensions ahead of time so you can factor that into your price.” 
2. Invest in packaging. “Package or crate your product really well. This way you have the peace of mind that your beautiful dining table looks as it should when it reaches your customer.”

Returns can be very tricky when you’re dealing with oversized items. Be sure that your return policy is very clear. If you do not accept returns, this information should be clearly presented to the customer at the checkout stage and even on the product page. If you’re willing to accept returns, establish the terms with your shipping partner upfront and let the customer know who will be responsible for the return shipping charges—which may be substantial.

GOODEE’s founders share that the brand’s return rate is less than 5%. They achieve this through detailed product pages and stellar customer support, but also by making the decision to (almost) never run sales. “By having a site that’s not on sale,” says Byron, “you’re not really trying to use all of these other techniques to get someone just to buy.”

💡Tip: Determine your shipping strategy as early as the business plan stage, as this may impact your costs and financial planning.

12. Read the fine print

Before you start selling furniture online, check in with legal and insurance professionals to see if your business requires any additional protection due to the size and price of the items you’re delivering. 

You’ll want to protect yourself from loss, such as items damaged in transit. But you should also consider protecting your customers. Will you sell extended warranties? Do you need commercial insurance? There are several types of business insurance, so it’s important to do your homework to ensure you’ve put the right protections in place before you start selling. 

The future of selling furniture online

The gradual shift to online shopping was accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Emerging technology is making it easier for furniture stores to offer the showroom experience online.

Using 3D and video file types, you can give your customers a 360-degree view of your product or show the product in motion or in context. For example, a video of a person sitting down on a sofa would demonstrate the level of cushion firmness—something that can’t be captured in a photo. 

Getting your products shot in 3D may be a big upfront cost, but these versatile image types have shown to increase conversion rates by up to 250% when they appear on product pages.

Also consider how AI tools can help you run your furniture business more efficiently and improve customer experience. AI chatbots can reduce customer service load by handling common customer questions on your website, such as furniture care instructions or shipping information. Shopify Magic can make easy work of detailed product pages by writing AI descriptions based on keywords.

Successful furniture business examples

Meet the founders behind the two successful furniture businesses featured in this article. 

GOODEE

When fashion industry veterans and brothers Byron and Dexter Peart were considering their next venture, they reflected on their upbringing in a house filled with pieces from their parents’ home country. What they remember is that each item told a story. Their brand, GOODEE, is a furniture and home décor business aiming to elevate the stories of the makers behind each product they sell. 

Timberware

“I’ve worked with my hands for as long as I can remember,” says founder Chris Hughes. Chris worked as a welder’s apprentice and a general contractor before launching Timberware, his second business. Building homes developed in him a love for woodworking. His own business allows him to focus on that craft, making custom wood furniture and home décor pieces for his clients. 

Get a seat at the table

Whether you’re planning to build or curate furniture to sell online, it can be a rewarding and creative business. 

Dexter and Byron made the move from fashion to furniture because they found beauty in the way that home unites people. “There’s no gender, there are no sizes,” says Byron. “We all have a connection to these emotional moments that we share together in the comfort of home.” 

For Chris, the reward comes from working with his hands, doing projects that excite him. He says that identifying those are the key to a successful business. “If you are passionate about what you’re building,” he says, “that will come through in your work.” 

What are you passionate about? What gap exists in the furniture market? At the intersection of these answers is a business opportunity in the furniture industry waiting for your unique idea.

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.

Product packaging—everything from garment hang tags to shipping boxes—serves a number of functions, such as identifying product details and providing protection during shipping. It’s also one of the most overlooked marketing opportunities for online brands. 

By 2027, nearly 23% of consumer purchases are expected to happen online. This growth has coincided with an increased focus on improving the packing and shipping processes to recreate the personal touch of in-store shopping.

While most packaging is designed to protect or identify your products, taking a purely functional approach means you might be missing out on its full potential. Ahead, learn how to use packaging to deliver your products safely while creating a positive customer experience.

Streamline and save with Shopify Shipping

When you ship with Shopify Shipping, you get access to pre-negotiated rates with carriers in the US, Canada, and Australia and you can manage your entire shipping and delivery process in one place.

Get started with Shopify Shipping

What is product packaging?

Product packaging refers to the physical materials that house your product. Its main function is to protect products, and can contain usage information, help your product stand up on a retail display, and maintain its contents’ shelf life. But it’s also a company’s chance to delight customers and build brand loyalty through a memorable branded experience.

Product packaging for ecommerce includes both the product packaging itself (say, the glass bottle that contains body cream or hang tag on a sweater) and the outer packaging (box and tissue) that gets that product to its final destination. Both of these types of packaging can be branded and customized to deliver impact.

A holistic branded packaging experience is a set of thoughtful design choices and selection of shipping and packing materials. Its purpose is to provide additional value for your customer and your business by way of creating a positive first impression of your brand identity—ideally, one that’s memorable and shareable.

What is product packaging design?

Product packaging design refers to the phase of brand identity design where you apply logos, branded graphics, and copy to product and shipping packaging. In some cases it refers to designing custom packages from scratch for your unique product. Packaging design applies to any primary packaging that comes into contact with your product (like blister packs) and secondary packaging for shipping purposes. 

The packaging design process often involves working with standard size templates from a digital printing company. You can use a tool like Adobe Illustrator to design your product’s packaging or outsource to a professional designer.

The importance of product packaging 

Online stores have fewer direct touchpoints to deliver delight compared with physical retail. While there are many advantages to ecommerce for both seller and buyer, the tradeoff is a lack of direct connection between them. When ecommerce shoppers interact with your package after delivery, it’s your first chance to make an impression through a direct touchpoint.

Adding brand value

Product packaging can become an extension of your brand. The choices you make can reflect your brand voice, aesthetic, and even values. For example, Seed, a direct-to-consumer retailer selling probiotic supplements, uses simple branded packaging made from biodegradable sachets and paper foam inserts. This reinforces Seed’s brand values and increases customer satisfaction among its target audience of eco-conscious buyers. 

Creating a sharable experience

A great experience is worth sharing. If you deliver a delightful experience from the first website interaction to the moment your customer opens their package, they’ll be more inclined to share it. User-generated content and word-of-mouth marketing are both valuable forms of organic marketing that can benefit brands.

Building loyalty

A positive unboxing experience can also increase customer loyalty and affinity with your brand. Building a long-term brand means bringing customers back time and time again. Investing in retention can move you off of the acquisition treadmill, giving you more time and money to improve your brand experience for your biggest fans.

Growing sustainably

Demand for sustainable options has meant that companies are popping up everywhere to meet it. It’s easier than ever to walk the walk and truly be a sustainable brand, from manufacturing all the way to shipping. When Hero Packaging ran Google Ads for its biodegradable shipping supplies, the response was overwhelming. “In a week, we got a thousand people signing up [for a free sample], and that was the first sign where we said, ’People are really interested in this,’” says co-founder Anaita Sakar.

Types of ecommerce product packaging

Product packaging refers to both the packaging in direct contact with the product and the packaging used for shipping. Both types can be customized through a digital printing company that specializes in custom packaging. Before you dive into packaging design, let’s look at the different types of packaging you can customize.

Primary packaging

Product packaging that is in direct contact with your product is called primary packaging. This refers to the packaging of the product itself, before it’s placed in a shipping box with added materials. Examples of primary packaging include:

• Blister packs
• Hang tags
• Glass or plastic bottles and jars
• Shrink wrap
• Stickers and labels
• Resealable pouches 
• Drawstring fabric bags
• Bundling cord or tape
• Air-tight wrapping
• Clamshell packaging
• Paper bands
• Cardboard or plastic tubes
• Shoe boxes
• Jewelry boxes
• Cans
• Paper labels

Secondary (shipping) packaging

Before you can ship your products, you’ll need to package them for safe transport. Most products will require some type of box or envelope to protect the order for safe transport, as well as a cushioning material.

Corrugated boxes 

Cardboard boxes are the most common type of product packaging used by online retailers. They’re sturdy, don’t add a ton of weight to packages, and can be recycled. Double-walled corrugated boxes can provide extra strength and durability for heavier weight items. Many cardboard boxes are also made from recycled components for a sustainability factor.

Padded mailers

These packages are best for shipping smaller, flat, or delicate items such as jewelry, handcrafted goods, or books. Many of these mailers are made from a polyethylene and contain a cushioned or “bubble” insert. In recent years, more companies have switched to eco-friendly versions made from biodegradable materials or paper.

Bags and envelopes

Unpadded polyethylene mailers, Tyvek envelopes, or sustainable alternatives are great solutions for soft items that don’t require impact protection—a perfect packaging solution for apparel companies. Bags and poly envelopes are inexpensive, lightweight, strong, and self-sealing, adding efficiency to your shipping process.

Custom product packaging

All packaging types described above can be customized with your branding and to your product’s specifications. For specific primary packaging, you may need to work with a manufacturer to design and produce your packaging from scratch. But many standard shipping products can be customized using a company like Hero Packaging or Better Packaging Co.

There are many options for printing and customizing everything from tissue and gift wrap to jewelry boxes and shipping envelopes. Branded outer packaging makes an impression the second it lands on your customer’s door stop.

11 ways to create a custom product packaging experience

Decide which small business packaging options deliver the best experience and most value for you and your customers. Strategically investing in a few of these product packaging supplies can go a long way to creating an unboxing experience that cements your brand’s identity in the minds of customers.

1. Choose the right packaging

The most significant element to consider is your ecommerce shipping container. Depending on your product, this might be a box, bag, or poly mailer. White and brown corrugated packaging options once ruled as the sole option because they’re cheap, sturdy, and get the job done, but they may not create the first impression you’re looking for—or be the right fit for your product.

Do you own a sustainable company? You can opt for biodegradable packaging alternatives made from compressed coconut fibers or compostable mailers made from corn rather than plastic.

2. Add branded tissue paper

Wrapping your products in tissue paper adds an extra level of luxury, creating anticipation during the unboxing experience. It can also provide protection for delicate items. Custom-printed tissue is another opportunity to add your brand aesthetic to the experience.

3. Consider filler

Traditional filler includes Styrofoam packing peanuts, foam inserts, air pillows, and bubble wrap. Many brands are meeting customer demand for sustainability and opting for eco-friendly alternatives like recycled crinkle paper (colored or brown), excelsior (wood fibers), and biodegradable packing peanuts made from wheat or cornstarch. The type you choose depends on your product and brand values (i.e., sustainability).

4. Brand with stickers

Using stickers on a plain box or bag is a versatile and fairly inexpensive alternative to designing other custom packaging. A branded sticker can seal tissue paper or brand the outside of your packaging. You may also want to include a few extra stickers in the package as a way to thank your customers for their purchase.

5. Tuck in promotional material

Business cards or postcards can be added to packaging to tell customers more about your brand, thank them for their purchase, and even offer a discount on a future purchase. Use QR codes to link customers to a special landing page that you can update more easily than a printed card. You can also send other types of packaging inserts such as newsletters or a branded magazine. This unique packaging idea serves as reading material that deepens the brand’s relationship with customers.

6. Add a packing slip

It’s standard to include a receipt or packing slip in your package, but many businesses don’t use this as a branding or marketing opportunity. Add your logo and on-brand messaging. Then, place the receipt and packing slip in the package at a point that makes sense—not at the top of the box where you want to make the biggest splash.

💡 Tip: When you print a packing slip on Shopify, you can customize its contents and product packaging design by adding or removing elements like your logo or product images. You might also consider including a coupon code on your packing slip to encourage repeat purchases.

7. Write a custom note

Though handwritten notes may be tricky to scale, new businesses are fighting to earn every customer. Connecting through a personal note can show customers there are real people powering your brand.

8. Include educational materials

If you sell products that require assembly or instructions for set up and use, add educational materials to your packaging. Sharing educational materials like usage instructions shows that you care about their experience, builds trust, and ensures that customers have a positive initial experience with your product.

9. Consider custom tape

Like stickers, branded packing tape can be added to a plain box at a lower cost than customizing the whole box. It comes in a variety of colorful options off the shelf, too. 

10. Design seasonal packaging

To improve customer experience during the holidays and seasonal events, consider limited edition packaging design that maintains your recognizable brand identity with a festive flair. For more tips, check out this holiday shipping guide to survive and profit during the seasonal rush.

11. Add a free sample or gift

Surprise customers with a free sample or gift with purchase inside the packaging. This tactic can help you cross-sell by introducing a customer to new products. Choose an item your customer is likely to be interested in to encourage them to purchase the full size at a later date. 

Product packaging costs

A downside to a custom-branded packaging experience can be the associated cost. You’ll need to decide based on your average order size and profit margins what options are financially feasible, along with which present the greatest value to your business and customers.

Unbranded packaging

Unbranded packaging is the cheapest solution with many options available off the shelf in a number of quantities and colors. If you go this route, you can always add inexpensive customization with branded tape or stickers. Custom stickers can cost between 10¢ and $2 each, depending on order quantity and size.

Branded packaging

Custom boxes and mailers tend to be the most expensive solution. 

To create your own custom printed boxes, you may be looking at a minimum order of 250 and a cost of $2 to $25 per box. Some printing companies have no minimums—but you’ll pay for it. For example, Packlane will print 15 standard boxes for around $6 each, but if you order 10,000, your cost per unit drops to just over $2 each. On top of that, consider that ecommerce boxes will add more total weight to your shipment than a poly mailer.

Poly mailers will average 40¢ to $3 per printed mailer, depending on your order size and material—but you can order as few as 25 at a time with some suppliers (at a cost). Remember that the weight of this solution is low and will keep your shipping rates lower, too.

Tips for keeping packaging costs low

• On sites like AliExpress, unbranded colored and patterned boxes can be purchased with a minimum order of 50 units for less than 40¢ each (depending on size), with free shipping to most countries.
• The greater your order size, the cheaper the cost per unit. Strategically plan which items you will use and place larger orders to bring costs down.
• Consider the impact of weight when looking at the overall cost of your packaging. Higher weights mean higher costs to ship, which can impact your shipping strategy as a whole.

Best product packaging design examples

To improve your ecommerce packaging design, we’ve highlighted some creative ideas for shipping you can borrow from these best-in-class online businesses. 

Caraway

Caraway Home is a direct-to-consumer retailer that sells non-toxic ceramic cookware in unexpected colorways. To convey its values, the brand uses recycled materials with zero-plastic bags, low-impact print dyes, and biodegradable or recyclable inserts to package and ship goods.

Caraway also includes a welcome booklet with orders, made from recycled paper, along with messages printed directly on the packaging that improve the unboxing experience.

Overall, what stands out about Caraway’s ecommerce packaging is how organized and true to its brand aesthetic it is. Because this is a premium product (with a premium cost) little touches like this go a long way to assuring the customer they’ve made a smart purchase.

Otherland

Otherland is a brand known for its beautifully packaged and fragranced candles. Otherland’s founder, Abigail Cook Stone, is a former art buyer for Ralph Lauren stores and therefore understands the importance of aesthetics at every stage of a customer’s interaction with a brand.

Whether a customer purchases a limited edition seasonal product or items from the core collection, the experience is familiar and consistent with pops of color and beautiful branding.

Allbirds

Allbirds is an ecommerce brand selling shoes made from sustainable materials, like tree fiber and sugar cane. This commitment to the planet extends to packaging that’s recycled and printed with soy inks.

Clever details in Allbirds packaging reflect the brand’s personality and focus on creating a seamless experience from the moment the package arrives. It’s playful and functional—just like the Allbirds brand. 

Wild Deodorant

Wild is a pioneer in personal care, tackling one of the biggest issues in the category: plastic waste. The brand solved this problem with product packaging. The packaging design process is at the heart of brand identity for Wild, as it serves as the brand’s unique selling proposition.

“Everything from shampoo, conditioner, shower gel through to toothpaste and deodorant, people’s bathrooms are absolutely packed full of plastic,” says co-founder Charlie Bowes-Lyon. “Not only did we want to reduce that problem, but we felt we could remove plastic and single-use materials completely.”

Clever packaging means that customers buy a reusable applicator once, and refill with a product that uses much less waste than conventional deodorant. The refill packaging is made from a compostable bamboo pulp.

Notice Hair Co.

Notice Hair Co. sells sustainable products for your hair, body, and home, with a mission to get as close to zero-waste as possible. It goes against the grain to offer packaging that is minimal and compostable to align with its values. The brand’s signature conditioner and shampoo bars also come wrapped in compostable paper, so there’s virtually no waste.

The brand continues to seek out fulfillment centers that commit to its zero-waste and no-plastic policies to lower the brand’s carbon footprint.

Create an unboxing experience worth sharing

Customized packaging that reflects your brand’s voice and values can give you the competitive edge to not only generate repeat customers but also attract new ones. Consider the customer’s experience from the first visit to your website to the moment their purchase lands on their doorstep. A thoughtful approach to packaging can create a memorable impression that turns one-time buyers into lifelong brand advocates.

Feature illustration by Gracia Lam

Additional research by by Thea Earl

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.

Sabai Design founder Phantila Phataraprasit is part of a young generation of consumers that wants to support companies making an impact. When she couldn’t find an affordable and sustainable furniture company, she launched one herself—fresh out of law school and with no connections in the industry.

Using customer research, Phantila says it wasn’t hard to find people that felt the same way about looking for a more sustainable solution to “fast furniture.” She and her team conducted interviews to understand purchasing behavior and ran fake ads to see whether sustainability messaging resonated with people. “We wanted to create a solution that spoke to those values, but then also took into account accessibility and budget as well,” Phantila says.

Ahead, Phantila shares how Sabai Designs built its brand around sustainability from the beginning.

 

5 ways Sabai Design built a sustainable brand

Phantila says the key to Sabai Design’s direct-to-consumer success was designing the entire business model to be more thoughtful about the environmental impact. “If you aren’t thinking about that in the beginning, it’s really hard to address problems retroactively,” Phantila says.

Here are some tips for building your own sustainable brand with lessons learned from Sabai Design’s successful launch.

1. Creating a domestic supply chain

In the early stages of launching Sabai Design, Phantila and her team focused on creating a domestic supply chain, because it would cut down on the environmental impact of shipping across long distances. She also wanted the manufacturer to work on a made-to-order model, so that the company wouldn’t be creating unnecessary waste.

After a lot of cold outreach and recommendations from other manufacturers, Sabai Designs finally found their perfect manufacturing partner — a small minority-owned factory in North Carolina that could ship products directly to customers. 

It was fortunate timing. Sabai Design launched in July 2019, so Phantila says the company was insulated from the larger global supply chain disruptions that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Because our supply chain was so localized, we weren’t experiencing those massive delays,” Phantila says.

2. Designing components that are replaceable

Finding a manufacturer that could work with a made-to-order model was also important because Phantila already had plans to launch a “Repair, Don’t Replace” initiative to help extend the life of the furniture. The products were designed in components from the beginning, so that individual pieces could be replaced if a customer breaks a leg of a sofa or a dog rips up the arm. The manufacturer could then produce whatever component is needed.

Sabai Design also started selling products to change the look of their pieces in case people want to keep the furniture, but change the style. The company’s line of slipcovers, for example, is another way customers can extend the longevity of their purchases. “It’s more economical for the customer, it’s producing less waste, and it’s another revenue driver for us as well,” Phantila says.

3. Facilitating resales

If customers do want to return a sofa or sell it when they move, Sabai Design also offers a secondhand marketplace run by a third-party provider. Customers can sell their used furniture to other interested buyers, rather than adding it to landfill.

The company is also testing an in-house customer-to-customer resale option. Sabai will facilitate the transaction by marketing used products to its email list, and providing shipping materials to sellers.“We’re really minimizing the amount of transportation that’s going on with these return or resale products,” Phantila says.

4. Expanding impact with new product lines

“We recognize that there are a lot of different types of people who care about their impact who have different aesthetics,” Phantila says. So this past year, Sabia Design introduced two new product lines to appeal to a new segment of customers with a different style.

Less than a year after their launch, these two new collections are already a hit. New influencers and content creators have started collaborating with the brand, and the company’s average order value has grown by $200.

5. Getting customers involved

Phantila says the biggest challenge for Sabai Design is communicating the company’s impact with customers. She says it requires transparency so that people feel they’re part of the decision-making when it comes to pricing increases or pursuing new initiatives. “If you’re communicating that to your customers, you’re all kind of on the same side,’” Phantila says.

To learn more about how Sabai Design incorporates sustainability into different aspects of its business, listen to Phantila’s full interview on Shopify Masters.

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 starting a new business or scaling an existing one into another market, your marketing strategy may be based on some assumptions. Until you put it into action, you aren’t exactly sure how your target audience will respond. A trial-and-error approach can help companies dial in to the best channels and strategies for their brands.

But before you make an investment in marketing, there’s a wealth of knowledge online that you can use to strengthen your efforts. Case studies, podcasts, and articles by founders and marketers can become reference points for your business. What has worked for other companies? Are there new trends in marketing worth taking advantage of?

Ahead, find 18 of the best marketing articles, covering everything from SEO to market research to technologies like generative AI. These articles have been recommended by marketing experts at Shopify as essential reading for aspiring entrepreneurs and marketing executives alike.

18 marketing articles you need to read today

1. Insights into the Turbulent Landscape of 2024 Advertising
2. How To Write and Promote Your First Newsletter
3. It’s Goog Enough!
4. How To Market Sustainable Products
5. Your Blog Is Not a Publication
6. How Great Leaders Inspire Action
7. Millennial vs Gen-Z Marketing: 7 Key Differences Marketers Should Know
8. Good Slides Reduce Complexity
9. How Generative AI Can Boost Consumer Marketing
10. Quitting a Manager Role for an Operational Role
11. Read This Before Starting a Brand Community
12. 21 Real Life Examples of Successful Affiliate Marketing Websites
13. How 16 Companies are Dominating the World’s Google Search Results
14. 5 Tips To Write More Like a Human
15. Digital Marketing and Measurement Model
16. How To Write a Persuasive Sales Page
17. History of Google Algorithm Updates
18. How Shopify Built a Strong Social Identity

1.“Stability With Transformation”: Insights into the Turbulent Landscape of 2024 Advertising

Source: Digiday
Topic: Advertising trends
Recommended by: Ben Mouncer, content manager, Shopify

This article guides readers through the turbulent landscape of advertising in 2024. It asserts that despite factors like job cuts and ambitious tech initiatives, ad spending continues to hold firm. Using proprietary insights, this piece explores the current state and future trajectory of the ad industry. Get insights on what to expect for your marketing efforts in the coming year.

2. How To Write and Promote Your First Newsletter

Source: Inbox Collective
Topic: Email marketing 
Recommended by: Josh Rosenblat, senior editor, Shopify

Just getting started with email marketing? This article is a complete guide to launching, writing, and distributing your first newsletter. Learn secrets to creating compelling content and writing engaging subject lines. And, once you’ve created your masterpiece, get practical tips to help you build an audience and promote your newsletter.

3. It’s Goog Enough!

Source: Blind Five Year Old
Topic: SEO
Recommended by: Kyle Risley, SEO lead, Shopify

This article is “one of the better looks at what’s been going on with Google SERPs over the last few years,” says Kyle. Within, you can expect to find the evolution of Google’s search algorithm and its impact on search results. The author expands on the complexities of SEO and the power of brand recognition.

4. How To Market Sustainable Products 

Source: Harvard Business Review
Topic: Marketing and sustainability
Recommended by: Dayna Winter, lead writer, Shopify

If you’re starting a sustainable business or selling sustainable products, this article from Harvard Business Review is a must-read before you build your marketing strategy. The authors explain how a product’s benefits to the purchaser often trump benefits to the environment. Learn how to overcome this challenge and tailor your marketing strategy to different consumer segments, focusing on the purchasing motivations of each. 

5. Your Blog Is Not a Publication (But It’s Not Just a Library Either)

Source: Animalz
Topic: Blogging
Recommended by: Derek Gleason, content marketing lead, Shopify

If you’re looking to invest in content marketing, this article is essential reading before you publish a blog. “It does a great job of debunking one of the primary myths about blogging that, left unchecked, leads to a lot of underwhelming results,” says Derek. This insightful piece challenges traditional blog models, exploring the pros and cons of publication and library approaches. And, it contains practical advice for building a loyal audience and balancing evergreen and timely content.

6. How Great Leaders Inspire Action

Source: TED
Topic: Leadership for marketers
Recommended by: Shuang Esther Shan, senior producer, Shopify

Author and business expert Simon Sinek uncovers what sets the best leaders apart from the rest. Find out how figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Wright brothers applied a leadership style that helped them sell an idea and achieve greatness. Learn how to use these basic principles to grow your own business. Note: While not a marketing article, this TED Talks video has a transcript if you prefer a written version.

7. Millennial vs Gen-Z Marketing: 7 Key Differences Marketers Should Know 

Source: Mention
Topic: Audience demographics
Recommended by: Mai Le, lead editor, Shopify

This article covers two influential generations and their differences, for the purpose of marketing to them. “It addresses an additional POV that marketers need to take into account when planning a strategy,” says Mai. Understand the distinct characteristics of Gen Z and millennial consumers including their shopping habits and marketing responses. Learn to craft campaigns that resonate with each generation of potential consumers.

8. Good Slides Reduce Complexity

Source: SEO MBA
Topic: Pitching ideas
Recommended by: Derek Gleason, content marketing lead, Shopify

Derek describes this article as “a blueprint for understanding how to present ideas to senior stakeholders.” As a business owner, you’re not only marketing your brand to consumers—you apply the same art of persuasion to get buy-in from stakeholders and investors. Drawing from his experience at Google, the author shares five lessons that will transform your slide decks from visual aids into powerful persuasion tools. 

9. How Generative AI Can Boost Consumer Marketing

Source: McKinsey & Company
Topic: AI marketing
Recommended by: Dayna Winter, lead writer, Shopify

Using proprietary data, this article explains the potential of generative AI in the marketing world. Learn how it can support automation, power hyper-personalization, and aid in idea generation for marketers. Integrating generative AI into your marketing strategy means increasing efficiency and delivering better recommendations to your customers. This article also presents use cases for the technology and a road map for getting started.

10. Quitting a Manager Role for an Operational Role (with Alice Roussel)

Source: Women in Tech SEO
Topic: Marketing careers
Recommended by: Arthur Camberlein, senior SEO specialist, Shopify

“Listen to Alice speak about the evolution of her role and how she went from a manager to an IC role to keep her craft at the highest standard possible,” says Arthur. Learn about this growth marketing manager’s unconventional career path and how a perceived step back was actually a step forward. Note: While not a marketing article, this podcast has a transcript if you prefer a written version.

11. Read This Before Starting a Brand Community

Source: Link in Bio
Topic: Social media 
Recommended by: Leah Mennies, editorial lead, Shopify

“Link in Bio is an amazing resource for brands that want to better understand the nuances and trends in social media strategy more broadly,” says Leah. In this interview between Rachel Karten and Topicals community director Natalie Brown, understand how private brand communities can bring deeper customer engagement with insights into Topicals’ own strategy. And, learn about the importance of authenticity in marketing and the future of brand communities.

12. 21 Real Life Examples Of Successful Affiliate Marketing Websites In 2024

Source: Authority Hackers
Topic: Affiliate marketing
Recommended by: Joe Hitchcock, senior content marketer, Shopify

This article highlights the properties of effective affiliate marketing websites with real examples and screenshots. Learn from sites like Wirecutter and Clever Hiker to help improve the success of your own affiliate marketing program. And, gain actionable advice on everything from driving traffic to earning more revenue. 

13. How 16 Companies are Dominating the World’s Google Search Results 

Source: Detailed
Topic: SEO
Recommended by: Kyle Risley, SEO lead, Shopify

“This is a frequently updated article about the big brands that control most of the larger information publishers,” says Kyle. “It highlights unique things these brands do to help differentiate.” Learn how 16 companies dominate Google search results, and get ideas you can use to help your own pages rank. Find out AI’s impact on the future of SEO and how these companies are evolving their strategies.

14. 5 Tips To Write More Like a Human (And Less Like an AI Bot)

Source: Inbox Collective
Topic: Email marketing
Recommended by: Josh Rosenblat, senior editor, Shopify

Josh describes this article as “a quick and dirty list of tactics to improve your email copywriting and distinguish it from AI-generated text.” Get actionable strategies to incorporate into your own email marketing program and tips on writing authentic and engaging content to attract customers in the AI age.

15. Digital Marketing and Measurement Model

Source: Avinash Kaushik
Topic: Marketing analytics
Recommended by: Derek Gleason, content marketing lead, Shopify

This article aims to help readers develop their own effective marketing and measurement model. Inside, find a step-by-step process to identify the true purpose of your campaigns and how to measure their success. Through real examples, learn to identify business objectives, set goals, determine key performance indicators, and define targets. With this roadmap to marketing success, you’ll be able to focus your efforts for the highest impact.

16. How To Write a Persuasive Sales Page (Even if You Hate Selling)

Source: Enchanting marketing
Topic: Copywriting for marketing
Recommended by: Jenny Potter, senior editor, Shopify

In this beginner’s guide to crafting an effective sales page, learn to connect with customers, explain your offer, back your claims with proof, answer potential questions, and nudge readers to take action. Within, the author emphasizes the importance of honesty, clarity, and staying true to your voice. This article is a must-read for anyone struggling to strike a balance between persuasive and pushy with their sales pages.

17. History of Google Algorithm Updates 

Source: Search Engine Journal
Topic: SEO
Recommended by: Joe Hitchcock, senior content marketer, Shopify 

“If most people find your website through Google, keeping up with the latest changes to the search engine’s algorithm will help you create content that ranks,” says Joe. This is a living document of Google’s algorithm changes, updated each time a change is shipped. Bookmarking this article will keep you informed and allow you to adjust your SEO strategy accordingly.

18. How Shopify Built a Strong Social Identity

Source: Link in Bio
Topic: Social media and branding
Featuring: Saad Khan, brand social lead, Shopify

In this interview with Saad Khan, brand social lead at Shopify, get the secret to the brand’s creative strategy on social media. Explore how Shopify’s nimble and experimental approach has contributed to its distinct brand identity. Expect insights into the brand’s audience-focused philosophy, its unique approach to content creation, and the importance of adaptability in an ever-changing online landscape.

Shopify marketing articles for every stage of business

At every turning point in your company, you’ll be looking for new ways to reach your target customer, promote new products, and increase revenue. The Shopify blog has insights for every stage of your growing brand, from marketing trends and tools to how to conduct market research.

“I read a lot of the Shopify blog posts and they really helped me get my social media off the ground,” says Ocean View Woodworking founder Allan Maxwell.

Marketing articles for starting up

Articles on setting up and using marketing channels

Advanced marketing articles for your growing business

Marketing articles about tracking your results

Learn from marketing experts to scale your business

Whether you’re a marketing executive at a large company or a ceramics maker turning your hobby into a small business, you can always learn something new about marketing. Consumer trends, algorithms, and marketing technologies seemingly change by the minute. Stay on top of what’s happening in the world of marketing by bookmarking your favorite sources for trends, data, and industry news.

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.

Katherine Heigl has had many memorable roles, from her Emmy Award–winning portrayal of Izzie Stevens on Grey’s Anatomy to cult favorite leading ladies in the cinematic romcoms Knocked Up and 27 Dresses. 

Now, Katherine is taking on a new role as founder of New Lane Road Mercantile, a project that merges her lifelong passion for animal advocacy and conscious consumerism. 

While browsing social media, Katherine saw an ad for creating a business on Shopify and decided to build an online store. “I was on my iPad on a couch in my living room,” Katherine says. “I took a full Saturday to do it.”

More than a year later, Katherine has curated products from more than 50 artisans that produce everything from homegoods to skin care items. Proceeds from sales support other small businesses, as well as the Jason Debus Heigl Foundation, an animal advocacy organization started by Katherine and her mother, Nancy Heigl. 

In the latest episode of Shopify Masters, Katherine shares how, with New Lane Road Mercantile, she has built the shopping experience of her dreams.

 

Testing and evolving the business 

Beyond acting, Katherine enjoys expressing her creativity through visual arts—and her art was the seed for her entrepreneurial journey. 

Katherine was already creating paintings, drawings, and digital art when the idea for a business struck. “I thought, wouldn’t it be great if I could sell some of these designs on a t-shirt or a hat and help raise funds for the foundation,” she says. 

Katherine then experimented with Shopify and print-on-demand apps to create a store that allowed her to sell her designs printed on merch. Even though this version of the business was easy to build, it wasn’t the business she wanted to keep running. 

Realizing she was spending more time keeping up with creating designs, Katherine pivoted to a business that would become New Lane Road Mercantile. “I switched to being a supplier for other vendors because I love to curate … all the beautiful things online that I might love to have in my home,” she says. 

Working with partners that align with brand values 

The main reason Katherine took the road to entrepreneurship is to support the Jason Debus Heigl Foundation, which Katherine has run and funded with her mom since 2008. To supplement donations, Katherine intended to use 100% of the proceeds from her new business. “It’s kind of like consumerism that cares, consumerism with purpose,” she says.

This pillar of purpose translates to Katherine’s curation strategy for New Lane Road Mercantile. “I wanted to work with vendors who also were giving back in some way, either socially or environmentally conscious,” she says. 

Curating products—and moments 

Once Katherine had her list of artisans and business owners she wanted to work with, she took a different approach to curation. Instead of just selecting products she liked, she was building special moments for her customers. “I wanted to take that concept [of moments] with my own spin on it and create an online shopping experience,” she says.

Whether it’s creating a cozy reading moment by the fire or a reflective journaling session, New Lane Road Mercantile is working with artisans to sell a lifestyle while inspiring conscious and thoughtful consumerism. 

In her second act, Katherine has used her influence as a Hollywood powerhouse to do good. Her inspiring journey to a new, unknown career demonstrates that entrepreneurship truly is a space for everyone.

To hear more on Katherine’s business journey, check out the full interview on Shopify Masters.

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 you want to process online payments through your ecommerce store, you need a payment gateway. It’s the technology that securely collects a shopper’s financial information and passes it onto the processor that transfers money from their account to yours.

There are many payment gateways to choose from—each has its own advantages and disadvantages. 

If you’re stuck on which one to choose, we’ve done the hard work for you. This guide rounds up the best payment gateways ranked by their use case, pros, cons, and pricing so you can choose the right one for your business. 

What is a payment gateway? 

A payment gateway is a type of technology that helps retailers process payments from their customers. The gateway securely transmits and encrypts payment information, such as a customer’s credit card number and billing address, which is passed from the customer’s browser to your ecommerce website. 

How do payment gateways work?

Payment gateways might sound technical, but we can break down their role into a few key steps:

1. A customer initiates payment on your website (usually on a checkout page).
2. The customer enters their payment details into the payment gateway. This step can take many forms, including manually entering their details or using a mobile wallet like Shop Pay, Google Pay, or Apple Pay. 
3. The payment gateway encrypts the data your customer has entered so hackers can’t intercept it. 
4. The gateway securely forwards this information to the payment processor or acquiring bank, who then sends an authorization request to the customer’s card network, such as Visa, Mastercard, or American Express. Then, the card network routes it to the customer’s issuing bank.
5. The issuing bank approves or rejects the request and sends this response back to the payment gateway. You’ll see this in your ecommerce platform for either outcome. 
6. If the payment is approved, the payment processor facilitates the move of money from the customer’s account to your merchant account. If it’s denied, the payment gateway shows the reason why. Insufficient funds, fraud risks, and invalid cards are common culprits. 

The 6 top payment gateway providers

1. Shopify Payments
2. Stripe
3. PayPal
4. Adyen
5. Authorize.net
6. WorldPay

1. Shopify Payments

Best for: Shopify merchants

Shopify Payments is Shopify’s own payment gateway that allows ecommerce merchants to process online and in-person payments through a single platform. Shopify Payments complies with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) to protect your customer’s data.

Shopify’s payment gateway is compatible with a variety of sales channels, so you can take payments through Facebook, Instagram, and Google. In addition, current Shopify Plus merchants can take advantage of lower payment fees for transactions completed through Shopify Payments, leaving more profit in your pocket.

Pros of Shopify Payments

• No extra software required to process online payments
• Competitive payment processing fees 
• PCI DSS compliant to protect sensitive financial data 
• Accept multiple payment methods, including credit cards, digital wallets, Shop Pay, buy now, pay later, and PayPal
• Process international payments in your customer’s local currencies 
• Intuitive financial reporting tools baked into your Shopify dashboard
• 24/7 customer support available 
• Automatic deposits to withdraw money from your Shopify admin to your business bank account

Cons of Shopify Payments

• Only available to Shopify merchants
• Extra fee for transactions made through third-party payment gateways for merchants that are not using Shopify Plus

Pricing: Shopify’s payment processing fees differ depending on your plan. This varies between 2.9% and 2.4%, plus a 30¢ fee per transaction.

2. Stripe 

Best for: Merchants offering subscriptions

Stripe is one of the most popular payment gateways because it’s not tied to a specific ecommerce platform. It allows merchants to accept credit card payments and mobile payments, and is easy to integrate with most websites and mobile apps.

It offers advanced customization and is highly flexible, but also requires more technical knowledge to configure and use. Stripe also includes features for invoicing, subscriptions, and international marketplaces. 

Pros of Stripe’s payment gateway

• PCI DSS compliant 
• Customization features to brand the payment experience 
• Supports a large number of countries and currencies
• Automatic currency conversion to process international payments
• Subscription billing features to process recurring payments and safely store card details 
• Comprehensive financial reporting tools 

Cons of Stripe’s payment gateway

• Requires more technical expertise for setup and usage
• Support documentation is very technical 
• High chargeback fees if a customer disputes their payment 

Pricing: Stripe has a standard payment processing fee of 2.9% + 30¢ for transactions made using cards and wallets. There are extra fees for manually entered cards (0.5%), currency conversions (1%), and international cards (1.5%).

3. PayPal

Best for: Businesses with a global customer base who have PayPal wallets

PayPal is another popular payment gateway that allows anyone to process payments over the internet. It’s a well known name in the world of online payments and has protection programs to insulate both buyers and sellers from fraud. The biggest downside is the fact that it’s more expensive than other payment gateways, especially if you’re processing payments at scale. 

Pros of PayPal’s payment gateway

• Popular and reliable service; the globally recognized brand might influence customer trust and conversion rates
• Invoicing capability 
• Buyer and seller protection programs to prevent fraud 
• One-touch checkout to improve the customer experience
• Supports international payments in a range of currencies 
• Customers can use money in their PayPal account to pay for their orders 
• No setup fees

 Cons of PayPal’s payment gateway

• Separate setup and checkout process required
• Customer support is not the greatest
• Charges additional transaction fees 
• Higher transaction fees than alternative payment gateways 
• Some merchants report that PayPal has unexpectedly locked their accounts and frozen their funds 

Pricing: PayPal takes 3.49% of the transaction, plus a 49¢ fee. Merchants processing international payments are subject to another 1.5% fee on top of the basic transaction fee, plus a set cost for the particular currency. 

4. Adyen 

Best for: Large online businesses

Adyen is a global payment gateway that allows merchants to process payments in various currencies and countries. It’s a good option to consider if subscriptions and international payments are important to you. 

Pros of Adyen’s payment gateway

• Lots of payment options to process international payments, including digital payments, local payment methods, and all major credit cards
• Omnichannel support to take payment across multiple regions via a single integration, online or offline
• 24/7 customer support
• Create branded physical and digital cards
• Option to create a test account before committing to its payment gateway
• AI-powered risk analysis system to protect your business against fraud
• Support for subscriptions and recurring payments
• Process secure transactions anywhere, including online, through a mobile app, and in-store, with tokenization
• Fixed payment processing fees for each payment method 

Customizable dashboard to track payments across all channels Cons of Adyen’s payment gateway

• Not the best option for smaller online businesses
• Limited customization features
• Pricing model is more complicated than other payment gateways 

Pricing: Adyen doesn’t charge monthly fees, but the cost of its payment gateway depends on your customer’s issuing bank. This ranges from 3% to 12%, plus 13¢.

5. Authorize.net 

Best for: Retailers with a Visa merchant account. 

Authorize.net could be an option if you need a payment gateway that is compatible with your Visa merchant account. The software is owned and operated by Visa, which makes it easy to sync your payment gateway with your Visa merchant account.

Pros of Authorize.net’s payment gateway

• High uptime rates
• Very user-friendly and good for non-technical merchants
• Accept payments through credit or debit card, checks, PayPal, and Apple Pay
• Advanced fraud detection to block fraudulent online transactions
• Option to send invoices to customers using the same payment gateway 
• Customizable payment forms

Cons of Authorize.net’s payment gateway

• Monthly subscription required
• The interface looks outdated compared to other gateways

Pricing: Authorize.net’s pricing depends on whether you want to use just the payment gateway or its merchant account, too. For just the payment gateway, you’re looking at a $25 monthly subscription fee plus a 10¢ + 10¢ daily batch fee.

6. WorldPay

Best for: Merchants thatprocess international payments. 

WorldPay is a payment service provider that has its own gateway. The biggest pull is that WorldPay Connects with a variety of global banks and partners to process international payments. However, this is reflected in its transaction fees.

Pros of WorldPay’s payment gateway

• Suitable for businesses of all sizes 
• Very customizable and flexible 
• Excellent security features, including OmniShield, to protect payment information
• Accepts over 300 payment methods and multiple currencies
• Connects with a variety of global banks and payment partners to process international payments
• 24/7 customer support
• No monthly subscription fee 

Cons of WorldPay’s payment gateway

• Pricing information is not transparent for issuing card networks like American Express and Discover

Pricing: WorldPay’s pricing depends on the payment method your customer has chosen. This ranges between 0.75% and 2.75%.

How to choose an online payment gateway provider

Payment processing fees

Before selecting a particular gateway, evaluate the processing fees for different types of transactions. This includes:

• Different payment methods
• The customer’s issuing bank (American Express tends to have a higher fee) 
• International payments and currencies 

Small fees can add up over time. If you’re processing $50,000 through the payment gateway per year, for example, a 2.4% fee would total $1,200 in transaction fees. If you go to the upper end and commit to a 3.49% fee, that’s an extra $545 you’ll spend on payment processing over the entire year. 

Payment methods

Did you know that 11% of online shoppers have abandoned their online shopping carts because the retailer didn’t accept their preferred method of payment? By choosing a gateway that accepts a variety of payment options, you could reduce cart abandonment and close more sales. That includes:

Some payment methods are more popular than others in specific countries. If you’re selling in China, for example, make sure that your gateway can process WeChat payments. Some 920 million people in China use this payment method to buy products online. 

Security

Payment gateways handle sensitive financial data that you don’t want falling into the wrong hands. Check that your shortlisted payment gateway is PCI DSS compliant and has security features like encryption and tokenization. These industry standards set the tone for payment security and protect both yours and your customer’s data when processing online payments.

Integrations 

Running a business is hard enough already. Instead of putting pressure on yourself to get your systems integrated, let them do the hard work by choosing a payment gateway that integrates with your existing tech stack. This includes:

• Your ecommerce platform
• Point of sale software if you also sell in-person
• Inventory management systems
• Subscription management apps
• Accounting software
• Analytics apps 

Reliability 

A reliable payment gateway keeps you open for business whenever your customers want to buy. Before committing to a payment gateway, check their uptime reports. The higher this percentage, the better. 

If your gateway is repeatedly experiencing technical difficulties, you’ll not only lose money, but you’ll deliver a negative customer experience. This alone can deter people from returning: 86% of people will leave a trusted brand after a single poor experience. 

Customer experience

Customers will be interacting with your payment gateway every day. The more pleasant that experience is, the more likely they’ll be to complete their purchases, and also continue placing orders with your business.

A great checkout experience involves:

• Accepting a variety of payment methods
• Functioning well on all devices, including desktop, mobile, and tablet
• A recognizable payment gateway provider they know and trust
• Security or trust signals, such as PCI DSS compliance logos 
• Reliable customer support

Choose the best payment gateway provider for your business

Choosing a payment gateway for your online business is a big decision. Not only is your customer experience at stake, but payment processing fees can quickly eat into your profit margins. 

If you’re already running your business on Shopify, the platform’s own payment gateway is a no-brainer. There’s no need to find a third-party provider that connects with your store, nor compare payment processing fees. You can do it all in one place.

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.

British clothing company Belstaff recently hit its 100-year milestone. The next challenge? Preparing for another 100 years in business—while also staying true to the brand’s heritage.

“We’re not a fashion brand. We’re a functional menswear brand, and that’s a really clear and very important distinction,” says chief brand officer Jodie Harrison. She explains that fashion brands create new pieces to follow trends, while Belstaff’s new products maintain a connection to the brand’s iconic designs.

As part of the Belstaff’s centennial, Jodie led an initiative to collect vintage Belstaff products for the company’s archive, which designers use as inspiration for new products. “We have thousands of pieces now at our headquarters, some of them dating back to the early 1930s,” she says. 

Here’s how the company is modernizing for the next century.

 

A return to its roots

Belstaff’s ownership changed hands several times throughout its first 100 years. Though the company was started in Stoke-on-Trent, UK, it also had German and Italian owners at different points in its history. Josie made it her mission to return the brand to its UK roots. “I was quite keen to bring back that lens of Britishness that I think had been dissolved over the years,” she says.

Part of that initiative meant integrating Stoke-on-Trent into the renovation of Belstaff’s flagship store. The floors have tiles made in the region, with some featuring the brand’s iconic phoenix logo. “We’ve made sure that we use materials that hark back to where we’re from, but at the same time make it very contemporary,” Jodie says.

Consistent brand experience

Along with redesigning the store, the company also embarked on a massive IT transformation, including replatforming to Shopify. “It was a really key project to ensure that when customers come to belstaff.com, that they’re getting the same feeling across all different touchpoints,” Jodie says.

Navid Jilow, Belstaff’s director of technology, says the IT project helped the brand move toward an omnichannel approach. “We really found the proposition where you can combine your point-of-sale and your ecommerce platform under a single platform very appealing,” he says.

With Shopify, Belstaff can gather more robust customer data based on both their online and in-store purchases. “That helps us build that customer profile up rather than having some of these bits missing in our data,” Navid says.

The company also worked with an agency to create an engaging customer experience on the front end that was as seamless and easy to navigate as the in-store experience. Navid explains Shopify’s headless setup allowed Belstaff’s developers to create a unique look for the website.

Old is new again

Lastly, Belstaff is embracing its longevity with the mantra “old is good.” In the current era of fast fashion, Jodie’s prediction is that people will buy less in the next 100 years, and will turn to brands that deliver quality craftsmanship. That’s why the brand is also focusing on sustainability and exploring ways to help customers repair their used Belstaff products. “Being able to buy a coat, wear it for 50 years, and then pass it on to your son is actually a really lovely part of what makes Belstaff special,” Jodie says.

To learn more about what Belstaff is doing to celebrate its 100 years in business, listen to the full interview with Jodie and Navid on Shopify Masters.

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.

“Net 30” is a common payment term you might see on an invoice. It simply means buyers have 30 days after receiving an invoice to complete their payment. Buyers typically receive their goods in the interim. Net 30 is popular among buyers that purchase products from wholesalers because it gives them enough time to sell the products before paying for them.

For some merchants, the idea of waiting 30 days for payment is risky. How will they operate in the meantime? Is there any guarantee that your customer will settle their debt, or is there a risk of them going silent before the payment term expires? 

These are all valid concerns, but there are steps you can take to insulate your business from bad debt if you’re offering a net 30 payment. Here’s how to protect your business and allow customers flexible payment options.

What is net 30?

Net 30 is a payment agreement in which a customer pays for their order within 30 days of receiving the product. It’s most often used in business-to-business (B2B) commerce, where buyers pay for inventory once they’ve sold it.

How do net 30 days payment terms work?

Net 30 days payment terms mean that the buyer has 30 days from the date of receiving the invoice to settle the payment in full. Some buyers opt for these terms because it gives them extra time to improve cash flow. During the 30-day period, the buyer can confirm the products meet their expectations, and sell it to their own customers (if this is the purpose of the sale). 

If the buyer hasn’t paid for the goods when the 30-day period expires, the outstanding amount may be subject to late fees or penalties.

An example of net 30 payments

Let’s say a small business owner purchases inventory from a wholesaler that offers net 30 payment terms. Upon receiving the products, the wholesaler issues an invoice dated March 1, stating that payment is due within 30 days. The wholesaler also offers an early repayment discount of 10% if the buyer pays within 15 days. 

The small business has until March 16 to claim the discount, with a final deadline of March 31 to make the payment in full. This is enough time to inspect and resell the products before settling the sales invoice within the agreed timeframe.

If the small business doesn’t make payment within 30 days, the wholesaler will likely issue a new invoice with an additional late payment fee. 

How to manage net 30 payment terms

1. Create an agreement

A contract is a legally enforceable agreement that protects you if a customer doesn’t pay within 30 days. To make the agreement watertight and let the buyer know what’s expected of them, you can include the following elements in your contract:

• The start date and end date of the agreement
• Products or services provided
• A discount offer for early payment
• Penalties for missing the payment date
• How returns are handled

Alongside the contract, prepare an invoice, a document that explains what you’re selling and for how much. This should include an invoice date, your agreed net 30 payment terms, what you’re selling, and instructions on settling the debt. 

To do this from your Shopify admin, create a draft order and select the “Payment due later” option. Here, you can set your payment terms. Choose “Within 30” days for net 30.

2. Consider an early payment discount

If you’re offering net 30 payment terms to your customers but would rather not wait a month for the money to hit your bank account, you can offer early payment discounts to incentivize people to pay earlier.

Early repayment discounts are typically written in the following format: [discount]% / [number] days. For example, 5% / 15 days net 30 means customers get a 5% discount if they settle their invoice within 15 days (before the net 30 deadline). 

3. Send regular payment reminders

Your customers might be busy people who forget about their upcoming payment deadline. Instead of waiting for the deadline to pass, you can send regular reminders to people who’ve agreed to a net 30 payment term. Here’s what that might look like:

• 23 days after invoicing: One week left to complete their payment 
• 29 days after invoicing: Final reminder with warning of a late payment fee
• 31 days after invoicing: New invoice with a late payment fee 

Shopify can send automatic payment reminders for you. Go to Settings and choose “Notifications.” Select “Customer notifications” and find the payment reminder section. You can edit what the reminder email looks like and choose how often you want to send them. 

Advantages of net 30 terms

Net 30 payment terms are popular among ecommerce retailers because they offer the following advantages:

• Incentivize new customers. Net 30 can help customers improve their own cash flow if they don’t have to pay for their goods until 30 days after receiving them. This removes any concern about trying new brands.
• Competitive advantage. If a customer is choosing between two merchants, the one offering net 30 payment terms could be the best choice for a customer who prefers a longer payment period, such as small business owners.
• Encourage customer loyalty. Offering net 30 payment terms is a sign of trust that can solidify strong relationships. This can build loyalty, because it’s easier for people to stick with a brand if they feel a strong connection to it.

Disadvantages of net 30 terms

Despite the advantages that net 30 can provide, there are some disadvantages to consider before you offer these payment terms to your customers: 

• You’ll need more working capital. You won’t recoup the cost of producing a product until 30 days after you’ve sold it. That means you’ll likely need a lot more working capital to operate your business in the interim. 
• Unpredictable cash flow. When people take you up on your net 30 offer, you trust that they’ll pay within 30 days. If they fail to do so, your business can experience cash flow management problems. 
• You may need to manually approve net 30 requests. Customers with poor personal or business credit scores might be more likely to default on their payments, and approving these people in advance takes time.
• You’ll need to remind people of upcoming payments. This is made easier with software that can send deferred payment reminders, such as Shopify.

Alternatives to net 30 payment 

If you’re not set on the idea of waiting 30 days to receive payment, consider these alternatives:

• Net 0. Also known as payment on receipt or immediate payment, net 0 means that payment is due immediately after placing an order. It’s most commonly used in direct-to-consumer (DTC) ecommerce, where orders are processed at scale.
• Net 15. A customer has 15 days to make their payment. Some retailers find the shorter payment window is a good middle ground between flexibility and waiting for money to hit their bank account. You’ll most often find net 15 terms offered by wholesalers to smaller businesses. 
• Net 60. This payment term gives customers more time—60 days—to pay for their order. The longer window is more attractive to customers with cash flow problems, but you’ll need substantial working capital to operate in the meantime. Net 60 isa popular arrangement between wholesalers and larger businesses. 
• Net 90. This tends to be the maximum payment term that businesses offer. Again, you’ll need a lot of working capital to operate while waiting. You’re most likely to find these longer payment terms in government contracts with longer sales cycles and approval processes.

Accept deferred payments with Shopify

Getting paid is a key part of selling online, so take some time to determine whether net 30 terms are right for you. Does the potential of converting more customers balance the risk of late payment?

If you’re not sure yet, you could also try offering net 30 payments to specific customers. You might contact existing customers you already know and trust to explore the idea of net 30 terms. Once you’ve got the hang of it and feel more comfortable accepting deferred payments, you can open it up to more customers. 

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.

Solvency, just like profitability, is a financial metric every business owner should be familiar with. 

Financial solvency is required for long-term survival. If a business is insolvent, it can find itself filing for bankruptcy and going out of business. 

To keep your ecommerce business financially sound, learn what solvency means, how it works, and some practical strategies your business can use to improve its financial solvency.

What is solvency in simple terms?

Solvency is a financial metric that evaluates a company’s ability to meet its long-term financial obligations. In business, debt is often a double-edged sword. While it can be an exceptional financial catalyst, it can also lead to a business’s downfall if poorly managed.

But solvency is sometimes confused with liquidity. While the two are similar, they are not the same. 

Liquidity vs. solvency

Liquidity measures a company’s ability to pay its short-term financial obligations. Solvency measures a business’s ability to meet its long-term financial obligations.

A liquidity problem occurs when a company cannot pay its short-term liabilities, like employee wages or supplier invoices, using cash on hand and outstanding customer receivables. Liquidity can easily become a concern for an ecommerce company. 

For example, assume a company makes large inventory purchases in Q1 to prepare for a busy summer selling season. The company may face liquidity issues in Q2 because a large chunk of its cash is tied up in inventory that won’t sell for several months. This leaves little cash coming in to cover ongoing expenses like rent, wages, or order fulfillment.

On the flip side, a business experiences a solvency problem when it can’t pay its long-term liabilities, like loans and mortgages, even if it sells all of its assets. 

When the total of a company’s current assets (e.g., cash, inventory, receivables, equipment, etc.) is less than its total liabilities, the business has a solvency problem. While a liquidity issue can be frustrating and can slow down operations, a solvency problem can be dire. 

Here’s how to visualize the difference between liquidity and solvency.

How does solvency work?

Because solvency is a key financial benchmark, merchants need to know if their businesses are solvent. But how?

The easiest way to determine if a business is solvent is to sum up its total assets and total liabilities and then subtract its total liabilities from its total assets. To calculate solvency, use this formula:

Solvency = Total Assets – Total Liabilities

For instance, suppose an ecommerce store’s assets include:

And assume its liabilities are:

Since the company’s assets exceed liabilities by $350,000, this company is solvent since it has an extra $350,000 to cover its total liabilities.

It also helps for business owners to understand these three solvency ratios.

Debt-to-equity ratio

The debt-to-equity ratio measures how a company finances itself with debt (loans and payables) compared to its own money (equity). It reflects the company’s leverage. In this calculation, debt is the numerator and equity is the denominator. To calculate debt-to-equity, use this formula:

Debt to Equity = Total Debt ÷ Total Equity

A higher ratio, typically over 2, should be a concern to an ecommerce entrepreneur. A debt-to-equity ratio of 2 means that for every $1 of equity, there is $2 of debt. This is when you can creep into solvency issues.

The ideal debt-to-equity ratio varies widely by industry. For example, businesses in capital-intensive industries, such as airlines, have higher debt-to-equity ratios. But technology and healthcare companies have lower debt-to-equity ratios. 

Let’s look at an example from popular ecommerce company eBay’s December 31, 2023 balance sheet.

Ignore all the words and numbers. Only look at the items blocked in red and blue. These are the two numbers needed to calculate eBay’s debt-to-equity ratio. 

As of December 31, 2023, eBay had a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.38 ($15,224 ÷ $6,396). As an established ecommerce company, this ratio wouldn’t raise solvency concerns. But for newer ecommerce businesses, this would warrant ongoing monitoring.

Interest coverage ratio

Another way to know if your business is solvent is to calculate its interest coverage ratio.

The interest coverage ratio measures a company’s ability to cover its interest expense on its debt. It tells you how easily the company’s current earnings can cover the interest expense; hence the term “Interest Coverage.”

You can calculate your interest coverage ratio by dividing your company’s earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) by its interest expense. Use this formula to calculate interest coverage ratio:

Interest Coverage Ratio = EBIT ÷ Interest Expense

EBIT shows you how much profit your business made from its core operations before considering extra expenses like income taxes and interest.

A low-interest coverage ratio suggests a company may have difficulty paying its interest expense. But a higher ratio means the business has more wiggle room to pay its debt obligations.

What interest coverage ratio should ecommerce businesses aim for? A company with consistent revenues should aim for a minimum interest coverage ratio of 2. 

Let’s look at another real-world example from the ecommerce brand Etsy. Again, ignore all the words and numbers. Only look at the items blocked in red and blue. These are the two numbers needed to calculate eBay’s interest coverage ratio. 

As of December 31, 2023, Etsy’s interest coverage ratio was a solid 19.9 ($279,841 ÷ $14,042). This is a strong financial position because it means that for approximately every $20 Etsy makes, it spends only $1 on interest. 

Equity ratio

Another financial metric you use to evaluate your company’s solvency is the equity ratio. 

Business owners and analysts can evaluate a company’s solvency by analyzing its debt using the debt-to-equity ratio or the interest coverage ratio. But you can also evaluate a company’s solvency by reviewing its equity level.

Equity is how much of your business you own after deducting what the company owes to others. The idea behind the equity ratio is that if equity is high, then debt will correspondingly be low. The formula for the equity ratio is total equity ÷ total assets. 

Let’s go back and look at eBay’s balance sheet and calculate its equity ratio. Remember to only look at the items blocked in red and blue. These are the two numbers needed to calculate eBay’s equity ratio. 

As of December 31, 2023, eBay’s equity ratio was 0.295 ($6,396 ÷ $21,620).

An equity ratio below 1.0 is worthy of attention because it means the company has more debt than equity. While this might not be a problem, it’s worth monitoring.

Factors influencing a company’s solvency

Monitoring your company’s solvency helps ensure its long-term survival and provides peace of mind to you as a business owner.

Factors that affect solvency can be broken down into three categories:

• Financial management
• Market factors
• Operational issues

Financial management

Poor financial management can lead to insolvency, and inefficient inventory management can drain cash flow. Overstocking slow-moving products ties up working capital, but understocking can lead to lost sales. 

Keeping a close watch over sales trends, including seasonality and customer purchasing patterns, can help with under or overstocking. Solvency can be traced back to profitability. A company consistently generating healthy profits has a greater ability to meet debt obligations and remain solvent.

Market factors

Economic conditions beyond your control can lead to solvency problems. For example, the government can change its tax regime, import or export policy, or regulatory requirements.

Staying ahead of the competition, identifying changes in customer preferences, or recognizing industry trends can help your business stand out and attract new customers and increase sales. 

Operational issues

Your ecommerce company’s operations are the backbone of your business. Slow order fulfillment and unreliable shipping can damage brand loyalty and lead to lost sales and reduced cash flow.

Ensure your marketing campaigns are designed effectively. A poorly designed campaign that cannot generate a good return on investment can eat into cash flow. Rapid expansion of product lines or entering a new category space that is not well thought out can also quickly deplete cash.

Other factors that can affect solvency include technological changes, natural disasters, and poor leadership.

Strategies for improving solvency 

Solvency is often a life-or-death issue for a business. That means scrutinizing your solvency metrics can be life-saving. 

If you’re worried about solvency and want to shore it up a bit, consider the following strategies. 

Improve your profits 

There are two ways you can increase your profits: increase sales or reduce costs. Typically, you will start by reducing costs because it’s the easiest and can give you results in days. 

Consider negotiating better prices with suppliers and shipping vendors. But don’t overlook the need to increase sales. Cutting costs can only do so much to improve a company’s financial health. Consider dynamic pricing models where prices adjust based on demand, competition, and customer behavior.

Restructure your debts 

Before risking default, consider restructuring your debts. 

Restructuring debts that lead to lower interest rates or extended repayment schedules can give business owners breathing room as they figure out how to put their business operations on a more sustainable track.

Manage inventory efficiently

Review your inventory management techniques to avoid over- and under-stocking. If you haven’t already, create procedures to prevent product damage to reduce waste and shrinkage. Ensure you are completing regular inventory audits to identify any issues with inventory storage.

Securing your future as a business owner

While you should know whether your company is earning profits, you should also assess whether it will continue to make profits for the foreseeable future. That’s why solvency, which measures whether a business can meet its long-term financial obligations, is crucial. 

The debt-to-equity ratio, interest coverage ratio, and equity ratio can help entrepreneurs evaluate whether their companies are solvent or not. 

And if you find your solvency metrics aren’t stellar, you may want to explore restructuring your debts and cutting unnecessary costs.

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.

Entrepreneurs need good business ideas. Successful entrepreneurs take those ideas, scale them by using the right tools and their organizational skills, and build a brand. 

Raven Gibson’s journey is the perfect example of this. She took her passion for graphic design and her love of her natural hair to create Legendary Rootz, a fashion and accessories brand dedicated to empowering and uplifting Black women. Legendary Rootz started as Raven’s side hustle while she was still a college student. Despite never having previously run a business, her designs can now be found at Target. 

To grow her business, Raven uses a set of tools to capture her creativity and provide a great shopping experience for her customers.

3 tools and tips to help you run your business 

When it comes to staying organized so she can bring her ideas to life, Raven relies on specific tools:

1. Bulk import on Numbers

With so many different touchpoints for her brand, Raven uses bulk import to track data. “You can export and import your CSVs, filter by tags, collection, and visibility,” Raven says.

She uses bulk import on her Numbers spreadsheet to visualize all of her orders and customer profiles at once. This helps her ensure everything is in order on the back end of her website and aligns with the customer’s order.

2. Zendesk

For customer service management Raven recommends Zendesk. “With Zendesk I can pull up an email, the customer’s information, their orders, and shipping information all at once,” she says. Having this information in one place helps the team quickly fulfill orders, or solve problems when they arise. “It’s helped us streamline the process so we can help customers faster.”.

3. Notion 

When it comes to keeping track of creative ideas, Raven relies on Notion to stay organized. “Ideas spark, and instead of rushing into it, I take note of it in Notion. I have a database where I keep track of all my ideas, who I envision the design on, and how I want to market it.”

Notion allows Raven to conceptualize the roadmap for each product before rushing into production or prematurely marketing a design. Having tools to organize your creative process allows you to follow the muse when it hits, without worrying you’ll lose any of your great ideas.

To learn more about how Raven organizes her business, and to discover her tips for staying positive during stressful times, tune in to 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.

Brightland is frequently cited as a direct-to-consumer success story. In under five years, Brightland’s photogenic olive oil bottles have not only become a hit on social media, but also with food editors, and even Oprah herself.

Founder Aishwarya Iyer never expected to go into the food industry. She had built her career in beauty, tech, and startups doing PR and communications. “I never thought that I would build a business in food and I never thought I would actually be an entrepreneur,” she says.

Aishwarya grew up in a family of home cooks, but it wasn’t until she rediscovered cooking as an adult that she became obsessed with olive oil: how it tastes, how it’s made, and the history behind it. 

She noticed how confusing it is for many grocery shoppers to differentiate olive oils. “There’s got to be something here where we can build a brand that people feel really excited by and people want to put it out on their countertop,” Aishwarya says.

Here’s what Aishwarya did to create one of the most-loved olive oil brands and how she’s expanded the product line to include honeys and vinegars.

Taking a risk and showing herself compassion

Aishwarya was apprehensive at first about starting Brightland because she didn’t have a background in food or an MBA. But ultimately, she decided to be compassionate with herself and listen to the “inner child” that helped steer her toward pursuing her passion for food.

She also got comfortable with redefining success and the risks involved with entrepreneurship. Her thinking was Brightland “could either turn into something huge or maybe I can sell a thousand bottles in eight months and I’ll be really proud of myself.”

Learning about the olive oil industry

Before she launched her olive oil, Aishwarya took classes at the UC Davis Olive Center. She wanted to be educated on what made a good olive oil. And, to learn about the local olive oil industry, she spoke to small, family-run farms around California. 

That’s how she learned most people didn’t know what good olive oil tasted like, because most olive oils at the grocery store are fairly old. The olive oil most consumers were used to, “may not have the bright tasting notes that a real fresh extra virgin olive oil actually has,” Aishwarya says.

The realization olive oil didn’t have to taste neutral helped Aishwarya hone in on the product she wanted to bring to market. She describes Brightland olive oil as, “really pungent, peppery, and grassy, and it tastes like something that’s alive.”

Expanding the product line

Brightland brought its mission of creating fresh, great-tasting pantry staples and working with high-integrity, small farms to create new products as well. The company found honey and vinegar producers in the US to complement its existing olive oils. And Brightland put a new spin on its hero product by creating a pizza oil that Aishwarya says it can’t keep in stock.

She explains the key to Brightland’s success has been forging its own path and tuning out the noise about when and how to expand. “I didn’t look at what other entrepreneurs who were ahead of me were doing,” she says. “I’m a big believer that silence and stillness actually give clarity.”

To learn more about Aishwarya’s journey to becoming an entrepreneur, listen to her full interview on Shopify Masters.

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.

Do-it-yourself content has turned TikTok creators into overnight stars. A quick YouTube search uncovers craft tutorials for everything from embroidery to woodworking. And despite more competition, Pinterest is still growing. The DIY movement is having a moment (again). 

Studies show that working with your hands offers many mental health benefits. Crafting diversifies your brain activity, especially for those who do computer work, helping to increase creativity. And the sense of accomplishment in creating something from scratch can decrease stress and anxiety. 

Better yet, exploring your creativity may even spark a business idea. If you’re looking for a hobby you can monetize, let’s get crafting! Ahead, explore trending crafts to make and sell, with ideas for every skill level. Learn how to diversify your income and turn your passion into products to sell online, at craft fairs, and everywhere in between.

12 crafts to make and sell

1. Tufted rugs and mats
2. Paper flowers
3. Textile dyeing
4. Home fragrance products
5. Ceramic or clay plant pots
6. Needle felted goods
7. Vintage upcycle
8. Tote bags
9. Woven and knotted home décor
10. Handmade beauty products
11. Resin and polymer clay jewelry
12. Disco ball art

This list of crafts to make and sell is based on popular products sold by online retailers, predictions from crafting sources, and trending craft topics on social media. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. Browse craft fairs and social media for DIY crafts that may spark an idea for something completely new. Anyone can sell crafts online once you find the right idea.

1. Tufted rugs and mats

One trend that’s still going strong is rug making, using a hooking or tufting method. Whether you hook by hand with a punch needle or use a mechanical/electric tufting gun, you can create unique rugs, mats, or textile wall art based on your own designs. The top creators are often fetching hundreds of dollars for one two-by-three-foot rug. It can be a lucrative business if you find your niche.

One brand that rode the wave of this trend when it first surged was Mush Studios. Founder Jacob Winter picked up tufting as a hobby during the pandemic, documenting his process on TikTok. When those videos went viral, he launched his successful brand. 

🧶 Tips:

• Offer a custom or made-to-order service, creating tufted rugs to your customers’ specs.
• Starting out in this space will cost you a few hundred dollars for materials, especially if you opt for the tufting gun method. Try a class, if one is offered in your area, to see if you enjoy it before investing.

2. Paper flowers

Paper flowers are simple crafts to make and sell, and potentially can be a fruitful small business idea. The wedding services market, though hit hard by the pandemic, is bouncing back and expected to be worth upward of $414 billion by 2030.

Marketing paper flowers as statement-making décor for weddings and events could score you a piece of that very big pie. Tons of free online paper flower tutorials and templates make it easy to get started. Better yet, paper flowers are among the easiest crafts to make and require very little upfront cost to get started.

Brittany Watson Jepsen built her career as a blogger and content creator for a decade before scaling her brand, The House That Lars Built, to include an ecommerce business. Brittany’s handmade paper flower tutorials were a particularly big hit among her followers. Now, she sells kits to help others easily make them from home. 

🧶 Tips:

• Find or create designs that can fold down and be unfurled by your customer to save on shipping costs.
• Why not try making and selling craft kits for kids or adults, assembling and cutting elements of paper flowers that customers can assemble at home?

3. Textile dyeing 

Tie-dye cycled back into popularity in ’90s, popping up in fashion retailer collections on everything from sneakers to underwear. Tie-dyed goods are easy crafts to make and sell from home, requiring very few materials and skills. 

You can buy and dye bulk blank t-shirts or tie-dye fabric to sew into one-of-a-kinds products, depending on your skill level. Also try traditional Japanese shibori, a trending method of resist-dyeing using natural indigo dye. 

Or, make your own fabrics to sew onto one-of-a-kind DIY crafts or handmade clothing—another trending craft for 2024. 

🧶 Tips:

• Fabric dye, both synthetic and natural, can be purchased commercially. You can also experiment with making your own dyes with ingredients from your pantry, like avocado skins, turmeric, or teas.
• Tie-dyeing typically can be done using string or elastic to resist dye. But anything can be used for this purpose—try bulldog clips, clothespins, or a wax-resist method like batik.

4. Home fragrance products

One of the easiest crafts to make and sell online, home fragrance products like candles require no prior crafting experience. And, they’re in demand. Candle making continues to trend and the home fragrance market is expected to reach $9.2 billion by 2026. 

You can purchase a basic candle-making kit to experiment with the process of adding essential oils to melted wax. But the possibilities are endless: Get creative and stand out with unique containers/shapes like those by Yui Brooklyn, great branding like Boy Smells, a niche audience like Scent & Fire, or unusual scent combinations like Frostbeard candles. 

In a crowded market, what’s your unique selling proposition? 

Young brothers Austin, Collin, and Ryan Gill started their candle brand as a home-schooling activity with the help of their mom, Celena. Frères Branchiaux started out selling at craft fairs and is now a seven-figure business with products sold in Macy’s and Whole Foods. 

🧶 Tips:

• Other home fragrance crafts to make and sell include room and linen sprays, custom essential oil blends, and natural diffusers.
• If you plan to make and sell candles online, be mindful that they are products susceptible to breakage and melting. Factor this into your packing and shipping strategy.

🎨 Learn more: How To Start a Candle Business (Guide and Examples)

5. Ceramic or clay plant pots

The plant-parent population grew like a weed at the onset of the pandemic, and businesses selling plants and plant accessories harvested the benefits. And, with plant care being a long-term commitment, tangential businesses will see benefits for years to come.

There is often a higher barrier to entry to pottery due to the need for specialized ovens (called kilns) to fire the clay. These are often cost- and space-prohibitive, but you can generally find community centers or clay studios that rent kiln time. 

Pottery-like plant pots can also be made from air clay or cement (poured into molds) and do not require firing. 

Rachel Acosta made a “radical career change” when she quit her job as a data scientist to pursue her pottery hobby as a career. Her brand Glaze Me Pretty sells ceramic plant pots and vases alongside a number of fired goods like dinnerware and soap dishes.

🧶 Tips:

• Take a pottery workshop or class to learn how to work with clay and get access to a kiln. 
• Consider other plant accessories like garden markers, hanging planters, watering spikes, or window boxes that can be made from a variety of materials.
• Since pottery is one of the more challenging crafts to make and sell, it’s less saturated than some of the other DIY ideas. It’s still important to find your own aesthetic to stand out from the crowd. 

🎨 Learn more: The Ultimate Guide To Selling Plants Online

6. Needle felted goods

Martha Stewart magazine named needle felting as a trending craft to make and sell for 2024. Needle felting is a sculptural wool craft made using a long, thin needle with a series of notches at the tip. This needle is poked into the wool, tangling it as it’s extracted. As the crafter continues this process, the wool becomes more dense and can be shaped into a number of finished products.

Once you get a hang of the technique, this is one of the many easy crafts on this list. Consider making and selling anything from felted wool dryer balls like those in the example from The General Bean, above, felted soap casings, ornaments, pet toys, and more.

🧶 Tips:

• With trending crafts, you’ll find a ton of competition in the market. Consider what you can create that differs from what you see from competitors.
• Felted goods make great gifts. Create product collections around gifting holidays like Mother’s Day or graduation and attend local craft fairs during busy shopping seasons.

7. Vintage upcycle

If you’re looking for a sustainable idea for a craft you can do from home, vintage upcycling might be for you. The process involves sourcing vintage or used clothing—maybe pieces that have rips, stains, or dated shapes—and repurposing parts into new products. 

Upcycled materials from a torn maxi-skirt could become a tote bag; a faded vintage sweatshirt could be cropped and re-dyed; an old t-shirt could be reimagined as a baby hat. The possibilities are endless for this DIY trend.

Frankie Collective upcycles vintage sports jerseys and other goods, mostly from the ’80s and ’90s, into other clothing, like shorts and crop tops.

🧶 Tips:

• You don’t need to have sewing skills or even a sewing machine to upcycle vintage clothing. Try distressing denim or cropping and dyeing tees.
• Consider what’s in demand. Which fashion trends from the past have cycled back? How can you convert less-desirable cuts into modern silhouettes?

🎨 Learn more: How to Sell Vintage Clothing Online: The Ultimate Guide

8. Tote bags

This is one of the most versatile craft ideas on our list, with options for every level of skill and creativity. At the low end, you can buy blank cotton tote bags and personalize them with silkscreening, beading, hand painting, textile dyeing, or embroidering. 

For more advanced crafters, sew tote bags from scratch from your own pattern—add pockets, closures, and other details to make yours unique.

Also consider other types of bags you can make. Take this example from upcycle brand Psychic Outlaw. The team turns vintage quilts into a number of accessories, from cosmetic pouches to fanny packs.

🧶 Tips:

• As a sustainable option, upcycle vintage clothing or fabric into a usable tote bag. Consumer trends continue to tip toward brands with sustainable business practices.
• Consider finding a niche in this crowded market. What about tote bags just for wine bottles, totes that convert to backpacks, bags that fold up to fit in a pocket, or totes screen printed with memes and pop-culture references?
• If you truly don’t have a knack for crafting, consider uploading your designs to a print-on-demand partner and have them shipped directly to your customer.

9. Woven and knotted home décor 

Woven and knotted textile art has made a big comeback in tandem with midcentury home trends. These home décor crafts have a range of options for every skill set. Macramé is a knotted technique popularized in the Victorian era and revived in the 1970s that can be used to make belts, textile art, and hanging planters.

Searches for “hanging planter” spiked in 2020 and have had sustained interest since, peaking during each spring gardening season. Even better, if you’re looking for easy crafts to make and sell, this craft is perfect for beginners.

Other textile crafts like hanging wall art can be made with a weaving technique using a loom—these can range from a simple wooden frame or hand loom to large electrical power looms. 

Obakki works with artisans in Mexico to produce handcrafted home décor like this textile wall hanging, made to order in custom sizes.

🧶 Tips:

• A beginner weaving kit can cost as little at $30 and contains all of the supplies you need to weave a trial project.
• What other woven crafts can you make and sell? Consider placemats, bathmats, soft baskets, throw pillows, DIY rope bowls, or jewelry.
• Follow trends in home and décor when planning your collections. Etsy identified curved shapes, boho details, and wiggle patterns as décor trends for 2024.

10. Handmade beauty products

DIY beauty products can be easy crafts to make and sell—even if you’re not very creative. Dabble with testing simple products (like DIY bath bombs) in your spare time before progressing to more complicated craft ideas like nail polish or lotions. 

Once you’ve perfected your product and start to see some success with your business, consider upgrading to working with a lab or factory to produce your products. 

That’s what Melissa Butler did when her handmade lipstick line—created in her kitchen—started to take off. Now The Lip Bar products are sold in WalMart, CVS, and in the brand’s own flagship store.

🧶 Tips:

• As handmade beauty products make great gifts, consider building your collections around gift-giving occasions. Gift sets are a great way to bundle products and make shopping simpler for your customers. 
• When you’re just starting your craft business, you can save on overhead costs by using upcycled materials like Mason jars for product packaging. Local thrift stores are often good sources for these ideas.

🎨 Learn more: How To Start a Makeup Line in 5 Steps

11. Resin and polymer clay jewelry 

Both resin and polymer clay jewelry creations began trending a couple of years ago but are still popping up all over the web because of their versatility and appeal as DIY crafts. Martha Stewart magazine names resin art as one of 2024’s trending crafts.

Resin jewelry is often characterized by items like dried flowers “preserved” in a hard, clear substance, while most common polymer clay jewelry is composed of opaque geometric shapes in bold colors. 

Both require some upfront investment for materials but have a low learning curve with plenty of online tutorials. Great as a hobby, jewelry is also an easy craft to scale into a side gig, as you can produce multiple pieces in each batch.

🧶 Tips:

• Resin jewelry is slightly more complicated, since it involves mixing chemicals and can be messy. Trial and error will help you avoid bubbles in your creations.
• Polymer clay jewelry can be made by cutting freehand shapes or using mini cookie cutters, then assembling the pieces with jump rings. Invest in a rolling pin designed for this purpose for a more professional finish.
• Consider how this medium can be used beyond jewelry. Think: holiday décor like Christmas ornaments or picture frames.

🎨 Learn more: How to Start a Jewelry Making Business: The Ultimate Guide

12. Disco ball art

One of the trendiest crafts to make and sell in 2024 is disco ball art or mirrored mosaic art goods. This mirrored effect is showing up on everything from bar carts to holiday ornaments.

You can find mosaic tile mirror sheets through many craft and online retailers to create the effect on goods to sell. This trend is especially popular for home décor crafts but can be applied to almost everything. Your imagination is the limit!

Manifestie is a festival wear brand that has gone wild with the trend, bedazzling hats and even decorative helmets with a mirrored exterior.

The disco ball trend has even made its may into makeup trends, with TikTok creators like Miryssa using peel and stick mirror sheets to create this look:

How to find trending craft ideas

When you’re looking for crafts to make and sell, the best place to start is with market research. This includes following trends in the industry. The niche craft communities on TikTok, Pinterest, and Instagram can be a goldmine for DIY ideas. As you engage with content, the algorithms will start showing you similar content, including viral trends within those areas.

Also consider investigating trends through the following sources:

Get creative and sell crafts online today

Arm yourself with a glue gun and your winning DIY ideas. It’s time to upgrade your skills from a side hobby to selling crafts with your own business. Before you jump into the craft world, though, remember to build a solid brand, write a business plan, and identify your target customer. 

Remember to follow trends in DIY crafts and consider seasonality. You’re ready to make and sell crafts from home via an online marketplace or your own branded ecommerce store. Or, meet your customers in person and start selling your crafts through retail stores and craft fairs.

Illustrations by Sophie Gullbrants

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.

Ever sit soaking in a bathtub, marveling at the products that make a bath so enjoyable? Bath bombs (otherwise known as bath fizzies) come in a rainbow of colors, scents, and shapes, providing an indulgent bath experience. And, as it turns out, they’re easy to make.

If you’re creative and looking to turn a hobby into a business, bath bombs are also inexpensive to make and sell. A bath bomb business is the perfect low-risk idea for the first-time entrepreneur. There’s a thriving market for at-home spa experiences and room for newcomers if you find your niche.

The global bath bomb market is estimated to be worth $133 billion and is expected to grow into a $189 billion industry by 2030. Bath bombs are so popular, in fact, that there are millions of Instagram photos dedicated solely to these colorful creations.

Here, you’ll learn the process of making bath bombs, sourcing ingredients, and building a profitable business selling bath bombs.

Why start a bath bomb business?

Starting a bath bomb business has a few major benefits—namely, that you can make them in your kitchen with inexpensive ingredients and no machinery.

They’re also hugely popular. Bath bombs have become a worldwide trend in the past few years, and a mainstay in people’s self-care routines. And they’re showing no sign of slowing down: based on Google Trends, queries for “bath bomb” and related terms have steadily increased over that past five years.

In addition to being a lucrative market with surging consumer demand, here are a few other reasons why you should consider making bath bombs and cashing in on this trend:

• Low start-up costs. Since you probably have most of the ingredients you need at home, starting a bath bomb business is extremely inexpensive.
• Don’t need a lot of space. Because bath bombs are small and compact, you can easily store additional inventory in your house without paying for extra storage.
• Easy to customize. We’ll introduce you to a simple bath bomb recipe below that serves as a guideline for creating your own, but you can switch out interesting or unusual ingredients to differentiate your products.

Bath bomb business licensing requirements

From a product standpoint, bath bombs fall under two broad categories: cosmetics and drugs. Navigating what your product falls under can be tricky, but it basically comes down to what claims you’re making about your bath bombs. If you make any claims about mental or physical benefits, then they’re considered a drug. Otherwise, they’re considered a cosmetic product.

Most of the bath bombs we list below are considered cosmetics and are treated like soaps or lotions by governing bodies. If you plan on marketing your bath bombs for their medicinal benefits, your products must be FDA approved for effectiveness as well as safety.

FDA approval can be a costly and time-consuming process, but there are third parties that will take care of the approval process for you for a fee. And with the global wellness industry worth $5.6 trillion, it may be good business sense to invest in this type of product.

Requirements vary from country to country, so consult your local government for more information on how to register your cosmetic bath bomb business.

FDA approval can be a costly and time-consuming process, but there are third-parties that will take care of the approval process for you for a fee. Getting audited by the FDA can have serious legal and financial implications—not the hot water you want to find yourself in.

Types of bath bombs

Now that you know this self-care trend has traction, let’s examine the common types of bath bombs that you can consider making, and the target markets you can sell to.

Classic ball bath bombs

Most people are familiar with the classic bath bomb. These products are traditionally spherical in shape and come in a variety of colors and scents. They are considered mass-market products, and have a broad demographic of customers.

Jewel bath bombs

As if the soothing oils and intergalactic waters weren’t luxurious enough, some brands like to spoil their customers even more by adding jewelry to their bath bombs. Popular brands like Charmed Aroma and Fragrant Jewels are well-known for these products, and are a great gift for loved ones. These bath bomb brands typically target women and girls aged 16 to 35.

Glitter bath bombs

For the folks who love baths that are as sparkly as they are relaxing, glitter bath bombs are the answer. The addition of glitter or even crystals into these products has caught the eye of consumers—especially the growing market of consumers who believe that crystals have healing powers. 

Once reserved for fringey New Age circles, crystal healing has become a billion-dollar mainstream business. Still, most of these products are sold to urban-dwelling women between the ages of 20 and 35, with a higher-than-average disposable income.

Shaped or themed bath bombs

Other brands have chosen to think outside the box (or ball) by designing products in a variety of shapes and sizes. 

Whether they’re intended as favors for a bridal or baby shower, a gift for a pastry lover, or fun bathtime for kiddos, there’s likely a themed product out there to meet any shopper’s niche demands. And from hearts to doughnuts to chill pills to Pokeballs, the only limit on the shape of your bath bomb is your imagination.

Aromatherapy bath bombs

These bath bombs have been formulated with therapeutic grade essential oils. Distilled from the leaves, flowers, and seeds of plants, essential oils are used in bath bombs to target various physical and emotional ailments, like stress, dry skin, and digestive issues.

With the global wellness industry worth $5.6 trillion, it may make good business sense to invest in this type of bath bomb product. These bath bomb products have the broadest appeal in terms of demographics and the most profit potential.

Since aromatherapy is a type of alternative medicine that claims to have therapeutic benefits, the use of essential oils classifies these products as a drug, not a cosmetic. In this case, if you plan on marketing your bath bombs for their medicinal benefits, your products must be FDA approved for effectiveness as well as safety. We strongly urge you to not bypass this step. 

How to make bath bombs to sell

Once you’ve settled on what type of bath bomb you want to make, it’s time to start making them.

Gather your ingredients and supplies

Bath bombs are surprisingly easy to make and require only a few essential items. While you can switch out some of these ingredients to customize your bath bombs, the basic recipe for one batch of bath bombs calls for:

• 1 cup baking soda
• ½ cup citric acid
• ½ cup Epsom salt
• ½ cup cornstarch
• ¾ tsp water
• 2 tsp essential oil (lavender, eucalyptus, rose, orange, and lemongrass are popular for the bath)
• 2 tsp carrier oil (jojoba, sweet almond, coconut, olive, or even baby oil)
• 2 tsp of shea butter for an extra moisturizing “butter” bath bomb
• A few drops of food coloring (make sure it doesn’t stain)
• Molds
• Optional: dried flowers, sugar cake decorations, sparkles, crystals, etc.

💡Tip: If you prefer unique shapes, you can opt to purchase silicone molds that are used for baking or for ice. These hold up well during the creation process, are easily cleaned, and silicone trays help you create multiple products in one batch.

How to make bath bombs: Step-by-step instructions

It’s time to mix up your ingredients. You just need to combine the wet and dry ingredients in separate bowls, then slowly combine them into a single bowl.

1. Mix dry ingredients

With the exception of the citric acid, mix the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

2. Mix wet ingredients

In another mixing bowl, pour all of the liquid ingredients and blend.

3. Whisk wet and dry together

Pour the liquid mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients, and whisk to meld together. Slowly add in the citric acid and continue blending. You’ll probably notice a slight fizzing reaction because of the citric acid. No need to panic—this is normal.

4. Mold and freeze

Pack the mixture into your chosen molds very tightly. You can overfill the molds slightly and use a spoon or glass to press the mixture in as tightly as possible.

5. Unmold and store

Pack the mixture with your favorite mold and place it in your freezer for an hour. Alternatively, you can immediately loosen the bombs from their molds onto wax paper and let them dry overnight. After drying or freezing, remove the bath bombs from the molds and ta-da!

If you choose to let them air dry, give the bath bombs a day or two to set completely before using them or wrapping them up. If you don’t plan to sell them right away, store them in airtight containers like plastic or glass Tupperware. Fresher bombs fizz and bubble more when dropped in a bath, so proper storage is integral to keep your inventory at its highest level of quality.

Note: Because bath bombs are crumbly in texture, molds with intricate designs and small pieces could break off. Testing and experimentation will help you figure out the best molds to use to achieve your desired results.

Sourcing ingredients 101

Now that you’ve perfected making bath bombs, it’s time to figure out your bath bomb formulations. Luckily for you, most of the ingredients you need can be bought at your local grocery store or in bulk online.

Questions to ask when choosing ingredients and formulations

Long soaks in hot water open up our pores, which allows more ingredients to absorb into the skin. But this also means more ingredients can absorb into your bloodstream. Because of this, you’ll also want to research your ingredients and your suppliers thoroughly—especially if you’re using essential oils.

Whether you’re re-creating popular bath bomb recipes or coming up with your own unique blends, you want to be sure you’re making truthful claims on your packaging, and that the ingredients you’re using are safe. Here’s what to consider when sourcing ingredients:

• Are the ingredients skin care grade and/or approved for use in skin care in your country? For example, coconut oil may be sold in both food-grade or skin-care-grade versions.
• Is the food coloring or soap dye you’re using FDA approved? Is it stain-free?
• Do you care about natural ingredients? How will you ensure that the suppliers’ claims are legitimate?
• Do you care about being eco-conscious? Are the ingredients you’re choosing biodegradable or will they clog up pipes?
• What preservatives will you use, if any? How will this affect shelf life?
• Will your products make organic claims? Be sure that the supplier possesses the appropriate certifications.These will differ from country to country.
• What are the labeling laws in your country and the countries where you ship?
• Are any ingredients or oils known as common allergens? For example, many people develop hives or blisters when exposed to bergamot oil.

These are just a few questions to help you get started. If you’re coming up with your own formulations, the learning curve will be steeper as you navigate how certain ingredients or additives behave together—especially if you’re using essential oils for aromatherapy bombs. In this case, you can hire a third-party to help you with the research and development process.

Choosing the right supplier of essential oils

All your ingredients should be sourced with care, but it’s essential oils that you should be most discerning about. Not all oils are created with purity in mind and they’re not regulated by the FDA, so you need to be your own advocate when it comes to sourcing the good stuff. 

Oils from disreputable sources may be cut with fillers, processed with chemicals, or just filled with “fragrance oils” that don’t have any plant benefits.

Here are a few things to look for when buying essential oils:

• Dark bottles. Since light and heat can damage oil, a quality supplier will sell their essential oils in a tightly sealed dark (usually amber) glass bottle. Never buy essential oil sold in a plastic bottle.
• Plant name. It should clearly state the common and the Latin name of the plant used to make the oil as well as what plant parts were used, how it was extracted (distillation or expression), and how it was grown (a.k.a. organic, wild-crafted, traditional).
• Source. If the label doesn’t outright mention country of origin, you might see a lot number which you can then look up.

If you plan on buying essential oils in bulk from wholesale suppliers, you have to be thorough with your research. Here are a few tips to help you assess an essential oil supplier:

• Check for certification and references. If you go the organic route, check for certification specific to your country. For US suppliers, look for a “USDA certified” label.
• Don’t fall for low prices. It’s natural to want to choose the most inexpensive product when you’re buying wholesale, but if the price is much lower than competitors, this is a sign you’re probably paying for fragrance oils with no medicinal benefits. 
• Talk to aromatherapy practitioners. These professionals can suggest oils, suppliers, and even help you come up with the most effective formulation for your bath bombs.

📚 Read more: How To Find a Manufacturer or Supplier for a Product

How to start a bath bomb business

Once you’ve mastered your formulations, it’s time to start selling bath bombs online. First, you’ll have to think through how you’re going to handle areas like production, inventory management, and customer service. You want to nail down all the logistics before you launch your bath bomb business.

Build an online bath bombs store

Once that’s all sorted out, your next step is to set up your store on Shopify. It takes only a minute to sign up for a free trial, and we’ll give you some time to play around before you commit. 

You’ll want to choose a Shopify theme that puts photos first and displays your colorful bath bombs directly on the homepage. We suggest themes designed for beauty brands like Sense, Broadcast, or Prestige.

Finally, you want to make sure your product photos really pop. Bath bombs are extremely photogenic, so you’ll want to show off their colors, textures, and shapes with high-quality photography. And since the real magic of bath bombs is in their activation, also consider including videos of your products in action on your product pages.

📚 Read more:

Labeling, packaging, and shipping bath bombs

Bath bombs are delicate and have a tendency to crumble if they’re not in the right conditions, so when you’re ready to package and ship your products, make sure you have the following:

• Shrink wrap
• Product labels and/or stickers
• Tissue paper or recyclable paper crinkle filler
• Boxes for shipping

Now, there are three things to keep in mind when labeling, packaging, and shipping your bath bombs:

• Avoid moisture. Any amount of moisture will make a bath bomb do what it does best—activate. Tightly wrapping the bath bomb will lock the moisture out.
• Be transparent in your labeling. No matter where you are, legal requirements ask that you list out all of the ingredients in your bath bombs— and full transparency will go a long way with your customers.
• Pack your products tightly. Finally, you’ll want to make sure your bath bombs can’t roll around in the box and bang up against each other. If they do, they’re more likely to break and crumble once your customer unwraps them. 

📚 Read more:

Marketing for bath bomb businesses

Competing for attention in the beauty industry is challenging for emerging bath bomb businesses. The type of brand you develop will impact your upfront costs, your prices, your target audience, and your marketing strategy.

Still, there are some general tips and advice for getting more eyeballs on your bath bomb products. For one thing, bath bombs were made for social selling, so channels like Instagram and Facebook Shops and TikTok are going to be key for you. 

Marketing ideas for bath your bomb business

You can use a variety of digital marketing tactics to drive traffic to your online store and specific product pages. Try some of the methods and tips below:

• Co-market with a complementary brand. Look to partner with other brands that align with your values. Consider creating a bundle of products to sell as a self-care package via social media, leveraging each other’s customer base.
• Influencer marketing. If you choose to partner with an influencer, opt for local, lesser-known creators with smaller but engaged audiences who will be affordable to work with.
• Giveaways and contests. Giveaways aren’t just great for the winner—they’re an opportunity for you to grow your bath bomb business. With a little bit of product as a prize and some marketing effort, an online giveaway can help your business acquire new customers.
• User-generated content. While your customers are almost definitely going to document their bath bomb experience anyway, encourage them to document it and tag it with your brand or a branded hashtag. This way, their followers can easily find you and become your customers, too.
• Push holiday sales and promotions. Bath bombs make excellent gifts. Get creative with colors and scents around the holidays, and play up seasonal motifs.

📚 Read more:

Selling bath bombs IRL

You don’t need to limit yourself to selling online—many makers also successfully sell IRL, too. Selling in person allows you to access a new audience and receive live feedback of your products.

In particular, market booths and pop-up shops give you the opportunity to have a temporary retail location without committing to high storefront rents and long leases. And selling alongside other talented crafters and DIY masters can serve up some serious inspiration for future products as well.

Why sell bath bombs in person

• Get a live product testing ground. You’ll hear direct feedback and questions from your customers. Addressing their concerns live gives merchants invaluable insights on how to improve products or answer customer pain points.
• Introduce yourself to potential wholesale clients. Other retailers attend markets and fairs on the prowl for new products for their stores. This is an ideal opportunity for smaller beauty merchants to connect for wholesale deals.
• Build an email subscriber list and social following from connections you meet at the fair, market, or festival.
• Connect with fellow entrepreneurs, makers, and business owners. It’s never a bad idea to build your network.

While selling offline may sound a bit intimidating, it’s simple to handle transactions while on-the-go by using a mobile point-of-sale system like Shopify POS. It syncs with your online store so your sales, inventory, and customer data is all up-to-date without any manual work on your end.

📚 Read more: Craft Fairs and Art Shows 101: Sell Products In-Person

Scaling your bath bomb business

The greatest thing about starting your own bath bomb business is how easy it is to expand your product line after your initial success. For budding beauty entrepreneurs, consider expanding from selling bath bombs to creating skin care, tinctures, soaps, and so many other lucrative products. 

You can upsell your existing customers based on the scents they buy often, create treatment-centric care packages, and grow your business to new heights.

Now that you have a viable business idea and guidance on how to execute it, you can work toward building a long-term, sustainable income in the bath bomb industry. 

Feature illustration by Alice Mollon
Step by step illustrations by Brenda Wisniowski

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.

With thousands of apps in the Shopify App Store, you have a lot of options when it comes to extending the functionality of your online retail.

Whether you want to add customer reviews, improve email marketing, publish your products to Facebook, or get in-depth analytics, there’s definitely an app for that.

But with so much to choose from, we thought it would be a good idea to highlight 21 of the best free Shopify apps (either completely free or that offer a useful free plan) that retailers and marketers can add to their store. 

21 best Shopify apps for your ecommerce store

If you’re just getting started with a new store or looking to enhance your existing site, then this list is for you.

1. Offset
2. Shopify Email
3. ReConvert Upsell and Cross Sell
4. BetterReplay
5. ESC ‑ Size Charts & Size Guide
6. Jebbit
7. PayWhirl
8. Tip Quik
9. Promo.com
10. Easyship
11. Pre-Order Alpha
12. Change Commerce
13. Shopify Local Delivery
14. Easy Digital Products
15. TikTok
16. Stocky
17. Printful
18. Gameball
19. Secommapp
20. PixPix
21. Smart SEO

Offset

If you want to neutralize your shipping emissions that contribute to climate change, use Offset. Offset is a Shopify app that calculates the total emissions generated by your shipped orders.

That number becomes your Offset cost. The cost is typically low—a few cents per order—and your payment goes toward forest protection initiatives. Offset offers a dashboard where you can see your environmental impact, such as how many trees you’ve protected, and share those statistics with your customers. 

 Shopify Email

If you want to promote your business with email, Shopify Email is a great marketing app for building an email list and managing your campaigns. 

With Shopify Email, you can send branded emails to subscribers from your Shopify admin dashboard in just a few clicks. The app has a variety of pre-made templates that pull your logo, product images, descriptions, and more from your store. You can also customize the text and buttons in minutes. 

Simply import your contact lists into Shopify. Create and send your campaigns, then track results like opens, clicks, add to carts, and purchases to further optimize your customer acquisition and retention campaigns. You get 10,000 emails for free each month then pay only $1 for every 1,000 emails you send after that. 

ReConvert Upsell & Cross Sell

Upselling and cross-selling to your customers is a great way to increase cart size and average order value. With ReConvert, you can build a custom thank you page (aka order confirmation page) that turns new customers into repeat ones.

It allows you to customize your landing page with a drag-and-drop website builder and access features such as countdown timers, personalized recommendations, post-purchase surveys, and reorder buttons that help you automatically re-engage customers who just bought in your store. 

BetterReplay

Ever wonder why shoppers don’t convert on your website? BetterReplay provides live recordings of shoppers’ sessions so you can see how people interact with your Shopify store and what items they look at.

With this information, you can see and fix where shoppers get stuck and evaluate new ideas to improve conversions and lower abandoned carts in your store. 

The best part? The app is 100% free and records up to 5,000 sessions per month. No coding required.  

ESC ‑ Size Charts & Size Guide

A must-have for any fashion brand is an easy-to-read size chart. Size guides empower customers to confidently make purchase decisions, helping to recover sales that may have otherwise been lost.

They also help reduce the number of returns and refunds, since sizing issues are less likely to occur when customers know exactly which size fits their needs.

ESC’s size chart app helps merchants create size guides to match the look and feel of their store, and easily paste them into any page on their website.The app has a free plan that allows merchants to create up to three charts and a paid plan is available for merchants who need more.

Jebbit: Custom Product Quizzes

Jebbit helps you create beautiful quizzes that customers love to engage with. These match quizzes, also known as shoppable quizzes, can help people find the best fit products in your store to move them along the customer journey, increasing conversions and sales. You can build product match quizzes, personality quizzes, simple surveys, lead gen forms, and more. 

Jebbit’s visual builder lets you quickly map out and build these experiences. With no-code design elements and omnichannel distribution, you can meet customers where they shop and provide personalized product recommendations that drive sales for your Shopify store.

PayWhirl Recurring Payments

PayWhirl makes it easy to create, manage, and sell subscriptions through Shopify’s native checkout. Customers can set up their own accounts, see their billing history, and make changes to their payment plans any time.

They can also add new payment methods and information associated with their subscription, all without contacting your support team. 

Tip Quik | Tip Pop-up in Cart

Want to make both your employees and customers happy? Tip Quik gives customers the option to add a tip for workers before checkout. You can design a custom pop-up using Tip Quik, then install the snippet on your checkout page in minutes.

Your employees will be happier with more cash in their pocket, and your customers will have the chance to express their gratitude—win-win for everyone. 

Promo.com

Promo.com is a free Shopify app that helps you create product videos that drive sales for your store. Video creation requires little to no effort on your part. You just have to choose the type of video you need and product you want to promote. Then, Promo.com will pull all existing images and video on your website to create a promotional video for your business. 

Easyship

Easyship is an all-in-one shipping app that helps you reach customers around the world with lower shipping costs and higher conversion rates. Over 100,000 retailers use Easyship to save time and money for their delivery services.

When you use Easyship, you get access to pre-negotiated shipping solutions from couriers around the world through a single account. It also provides an intuitive dashboard where you can manage orders, including printing shipping labels, storing product dimensions, accessing invoices and receipts, generating return orders, and more.

Pre-Order Alpha

Pre-Order Alpha provides a fast and flexible way to sell pre-order, out-of-stock, and coming-soon products in your store. Using Pre-Order Alpha, you can highlight pre-order products with customized ribbons, add Pre-Order Now buttons to your product page, and automatically tag pre-order items in your admin, so you can stay organized and keep track of everything. 

Setup takes five minutes, and there’s an excellent technical support team to help you out along the way. 

Change Commerce

Change Commerce is a donation app that lets customers give to a cause, directly from your store. It supports over 1.5 million unique nonprofits. You can place your donation request widget on a product page, a shopping cart, or at checkout.

If a customer decides to donate, Change Commerce manages the entire donation process, giving you the opportunity to create a positive impact with little effort. 

Shopify Local Delivery

Consumer trends show that more people bought online and had it delivered locally during the first three months of the pandemic than ever before. Shopify Local Delivery is a free app that helps any brick-and-mortar business capitalize on this new behavior. 

You can choose your delivery area and price in your Shopify admin. Customers in your chosen area can choose local delivery during checkout. Shopify Local Delivery helps you manage the process by providing optimized routes, automated push notifications, and order status updates.

All delivery stops show up in a list on the app. After a delivery is completed, the upcoming stops get moved to the top of the list. 

Easy Digital Products

Easy Digital Products is a great free Shopify app to increase sales for infopreneurs, allowing you to sell digital products easily in your store. You can attach any files to your products or variants, upload them fast, and track all orders in the app. Simply customize the interface, buttons and text with one click. 

If you’re an Easy Digital Products user, you can import your own license keys or have the app generate unique ones for each order. 

TikTok

You’ve likely heard of TikTok, but did you know consumers spent $3.8 billion in the app in 2023? If you want in on the action, use the TikTok Shopify app.

With it, you can create video ads, track results, and manage all your orders inside Shopify. It’s a great way to reach a younger target audience and drive sales on TikTok.

Stocky

Smart inventory management is a big advantage to any brick-and-mortar or ecommerce business. If you sell out of in-demand products, it can lower sales—and if you keep too much inventory, you can drain your resources. 

Need a simple solution? Use Stocky by Shopify to optimize your inventory decisions. With one tool to manage and track your products, you’ll spend less time worrying about what to buy and more time increasing your profits with the best product mix for your store.

Printful

Printful is one of the best print-on-demand dropshipping apps for store owners selling print and embroidered goods like t-shirts and pillows. When a customer buys a product in your Shopify store, Printful automatically fulfills and ships it to them.

The company ships over one million items per month and handles all shipping, inventory, and production, so you can focus on building your business.

Gameball: Loyalty & Rewards

Gameball is a customer retention platform that helps you manage loyalty programs to increase referrals and sales. Customers can complete challenges, earn points, and level up through different tiers to earn rewards and discount codes. 

Gameball also lets you trigger pop-ups to encourage customers throughout their shopping experience to promote your program, interact with people, and create more loyal customers. The app offers a free forever version, with paid plans starting at $29 per month.

UpPromote Affiliate Marketing

If you want to run an affiliate marketing program for your store, you can create, manage, and track affiliates with UpPromote. When you install this free Shopify app, you get access to the UpPromote Affiliate Marketplace and find new affiliate marketers for your store. You can chat directly with influencers from the app, generate affiliate links, and track clicks and sales in one place. 

PixPix Image Editor

PixPix is an easy-to-use image editor with a ton of great features. The interface is lightweight and user friendly, so you can crop, resize, and adjust color and lighting issues quickly.

It also provides automatic alt text and optimized file names for search engine optimization. You can integrate PixPix directly into your product pages, giving you the ability to edit photos and get your products live and selling faster. 

Smart SEO

Ecommerce SEO is a challenge for many business owners. It can take time, resources, and money to build a website and rank it high in search engines. But with Smart SEO, you can automate SEO optimization and drive more traffic to your store. 

This free Shopify app automatically generates meta tags and alt tags, fixes broken links, and manages your sitemap to keep your pages Google-friendly. It also provides structured data to Google to boost your search results. All you have to do is choose a template and let Smart SEO do the rest. 

Visit the Shopify App Store for more apps

Shopify apps can unlock new functionalities that will optimize your site for a better customer experience and boost sales.

While the apps above are some of the best free apps available in the Shopify App Store, there are cart abandonment, marketing automation, Facebook Messenger, sales channel apps for Amazon, Etsy, and plenty more to leverage for your unique business and keep ecommerce website costs low. It all comes down to finding the best app and pricing that suits your needs.

Visit the Shopify App Store to browse even more apps by use case, and feel free to share your favorites in the comments. Happy selling!

Illustration by Alice Mollon

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.

It’s impossible to make sales through your online store if nobody is visiting it.

The problem: Entrepreneurs fall into the trap of thinking any website visitor is a good one. In reality, sending low-quality traffic—people with no interest in what you sell—dampens conversion rates.

So, how do you attract customers to your online store—those who will actually buy? This guide shares 17 strategies that work.

1. Optimize your social media bios

Social media is a powerful tool to drive traffic to your online store. The only problem? Most social media platforms don’t like when brands divert people off the platform.

Instagram, for example, only allows one link in your profile bio. There’s no way to divert people to a specific page on your ecommerce website, making it difficult to execute social campaigns that increase web traffic.

Work around this issue using Linkpop to create a landing page that diverts people to your most-viewed pages, such as:

• Product pages of bestselling items
• Popular item category pages
• Your brand story
• Lead magnet landing pages
• Other social media profiles

Pink House is one ecommerce retailer using this strategy. It uses Linkpop to explain the brand’s USP and divert people toward its newsletter sign-up page, other social media channels, and retail locations. Its bestselling product, the Face Fix Serum, claims the most real estate on the page—a tactic to drive social media users toward its online store.

2. Partner with creators and influencers

Run an influencer marketing campaign that leverages a popular social media user’s existing audience to drive website traffic. Research shows that 61% of consumers trust influencer recommendations (compared to just 38% who trust branded social media content).

The key is to find creators and influencers whose target audience overlaps your own. Find them on TikTok Creator Marketplace or Instagram search, and collaborate with them through:

• Sending free gifts
• Paid sponsored content
• Inviting them to be an affiliate

Richard Clews, founder of Pants & Socks, is one small-business owner using this approach to increase brand awareness. He’s partnered with several famous athletes, including Jason Roy, the famous England and Sussex cricketer, and world class boxer Nick Campbell.

“This is a great way for us to increase our reach, because although we are a specialized niche, our target audience is quite large—men 18+,” Richard says. “Sports has been a perfect way for us to reach different age groups in our target audience.

“With some of our partnered athletes, we have run a really cool campaign where we change the location of our logo on their gear or uniform, announce it on social media, and offer a 15% to 20% discount code to anyone who can identify the location in whatever game, match, or tournament they may be participating in.”

These influencer marketing campaigns generally net a conversion rate between 2.4% and 3.2%—much better than the 1.4% an average ecommerce store sees. But, Richard adds, “The couple of times we have tried this campaign, we have seen week-long increases as high as 7% to 8% conversion rate.”

Read more:

3. Run flash sales and promotions

Research shows that 37% of shoppers often look for coupons before making a purchase online. Use them as a hook to stand out from social media noise and give people an incentive to visit your online store. That could be:

• Percentage discounts
• Limited time sales, such as “30% off for the next 24 hours”
• Free shipping thresholds, such as “spend $50 for free next-day shipping”
• Product bundles, which combine two or more products at a lower price than buying each one individually

Create the coupon using discount apps like Daily Deals, MyBulk, or Wheelio.

Stephen Light, co-owner and CEO of mattress company Nolah, advises to then promote them in Facebook Groups: “Facebook is the home to thousands of private communities, each with niched members. It would be strategic to join a few of these groups dedicated to ecommerce customers in search of deals.

“You can super-charge your website traffic and sales by announcing your promotions within these communities,” Stephen says. “Since most of the members are actively seeking discounts on items, this technique is guaranteed to invite conversion-ready leads to your online store.”

4. Write optimized blog content

Did you know that 48% of shoppers start their shopping journey on search engines like Google? Search engine optimization (SEO) is a content marketing strategy that helps your ecommerce store appear in their search engine results page.

Write blog content that targets keywords your target audience is searching for. If you’re selling Apple Watch straps through your online store, for example, that could be “best apple watch straps for men” or “are apple watches waterproof.”

Follow SEO best practices to get your blog content to rank in search engines. That includes:

• Embedding the keyword in meta tags, alt text, and headings
• Building internal links that direct visitors to similar pages on your own website
• Using a short, clear, easy-to-read URL structure
• Actively distributing the blog post on social media channels
• Build backlinks to your website from external websites

Illuminate Labs, for example, publishes health-related blog posts on its website. President Calloway Cook says, “In July of 2021 we started content marketing as the core strategy to drive traffic to our Shopify store. We began to publish several well-researched articles per week to our company blog, Illuminate Health.

“That month, our site achieved 6,300 organic page views. One year later, in July of 2022, our site achieved 162,000 organic page views.”

5. Optimize your product descriptions

Product pages are existing pieces of content you can optimize to drive organic traffic. Write the product description with your target customer in mind, using the phrases they say, pulling on pain points they struggle with, and referencing keywords they’re searching for.

Take it from Kath Vaughn, owner of Milk Tooth, who says, “Organic search traffic is my number one generator of sales. My website ranks against other toy stores selling the same products as Milk Tooth because I don’t just copy the stock standard product descriptions that everyone else does.

“I take the time—and it does take time, don’t get me wrong—to write my own and, as a mother myself, try to provide information about the toy that would be helpful and appealing to a parent. I also try to upload unique product photos to sit alongside stock photos, although this is even more time consuming.”

Kath adds, “For the 12 months to August 20, 2022, organic Google traffic brought in just over 45% of total orders for Milk Tooth. I didn’t run a single Google ad during this period of time.”

6. Start a free quiz

People like learning about themselves. Personalize your content at scale using a free quiz. Not only do people have a reason to visit your online store, but you collect their email address for future retargeting. It’s a great way to turn first-time visitors into paying customers.

Take Wicked Edge, for example. The knife sharpening brand uses Octane AI to quiz people on which product they need. People are asked to select why they’re sharpening their knives, their use case, and knife thickness. They’re prompted to enter their email address in exchange for their quiz results.

Quiz takers see a list of personalized product recommendations after the final step, with a handy Add to Cart” button that instantly populates their online shopping cart with the recommended products.

Wicked Edge’s quiz does a great job of attracting customers to its online store—and most importantly, converting them. This simple widget boasts a 3.6% conversion rate (compared to the site-wide average of 1.5%). It also has a 67% higher average order value than visitors viewing standard website content.

But remember: while not all quiz takers will convert, you’ve already collected data to personalize future communication. The more specific you are with your quiz, the greater your chances at producing marketing campaigns that drive them back to your online store.

7. Create YouTube videos around trending topics

YouTube is the second-most-visited website in the world, with users streaming 694 hours of video every minute.

Take advantage of YouTube’s incredible potential by creating videos around trending topics. Do market research and uncover the topics your audience is interested in. Choose an engaging format to present your content—such as a “how to” guide or video tutorial—and upload it to your business’s YouTube channel.

YouTube is a search engine and social media hybrid. Increase the odds of your target market finding your videos by implementing the following YouTube SEO best practices:

• Upload a custom thumbnail that encourages users to click your video
• Add video tags to show YouTube which terms are relevant to your content
• Use callout boxes, playlists, and end screens to increase video watch time
• Write video descriptions that include keywords someone interested in your video would search
• Enable the Shopify integration to divert viewers toward products on your online store

Best Price Nutrition is one online store using this strategy to attract customers. Ecommerce manager John Frigo says, “We’re a vitamin and sports supplement store, so we often make videos announcing new brands, new products coming out, new flavors of existing products, as well as doing reviews of products.

“These videos tend to rank high in Google quickly. Everyone who lands on these videos is typically a very targeted customer.”

John adds its video marketing strategy drives results for the business: “We typically make at least two to three videos per week. Sometimes we do videos daily, and typically it drives $200 to $500 in sales per day.”

Read more:

8. Land press coverage

One way to get free online advertising is by landing press coverage on industry news sites.

Journalists are always looking for experts to contribute to their own content. Find requests from journalists looking for sources through a platform like Help a Reporter Out, Help a B2B Writer, or Terkel. Respond to requests with relevant stories featuring your brand.

Alternatively, get free publicity by pitching journalists directly. Shortlist the publications your target audience reads, and find journalists writing for the website. Email the journalist for a potential feature.

If you’ve got something interesting to say, such as a new product line or influencer collaboration, and the topic matches the site you’re writing for, there’s a good chance a journalist will cover it.

9. Build an email newsletter

The inbox is a direct line to your customers. Unlike social media channels, which have the power to tank organic reach instantly, email marketing guarantees a way to contact your potential customers.

But to email prospective customers, you first need them to opt into your mailing list. Do this by giving something away for free. Also known as lead magnets, place the following pieces of content behind an email opt-in form to grow your subscriber base:

• A free quiz
• A coupon code
• A checklist or downloadable PDF

Pearly Drinks combines this traffic-building technique with content marketing. The brand’s strategy is to create high-quality blog posts on the site, convert those visitors into blog readers, then convert them into customers. 

Filip is testing a handful of different pop-up boxes to maximize conversion rates—this one currently stands at 2%. But once a subscriber is on the list, Filip says, “We have a three-step email flow telling them about the contest, our brand, and our products with the goal of conversion.

“So far we are seeing very strong opt-in results for the popup on traffic that we normally get nothing out of. With our large network of articles, we’re able to get hundreds of signups every day, which we’ll turn into customers over time as we send them more educational content.”

Read more:

10. Use SMS campaigns

People have smartphones on them almost all of the time—86% of whom have SMS notifications enabled. If you have explicit permission to email your prospective customers, SMS is a superb marketing tool to drive customers toward your online store.

Start by collecting mobile phone numbers through touchpoints you already have with consumers. Add a phone number option to checkout forms, use pop-up boxes on popular pages of your online store, and ask email subscribers to opt into SMS marketing too.

Run SMS marketing campaigns that divert these subscribers back to your own website. That could be:

• Flash sales and promotions
• Subscriber-exclusive offers
• Text-to-win competitions
• New product or restock alerts
• Loyalty program invites

Not only is SMS a great way to drive website traffic, but it can provide excellent customer service to online shoppers still on the fence. Initiate quick text conversation that asks subscribers to share their biggest sales objection. Have your customer support team ease their pre-purchase anxiety to improve your website conversion rate.

11. List your store on free advertising sites

Advertising increases the odds of reaching your target customer. But you don’t need to invest cash into advertising to get started. Attract your target market by listing your online store on free advertising sites like:

Free advertising doesn’t drain an already-limited small business of its resources. Invest some time into creating a profile, uploading your product listings, and writing a description that encourages them to buy through your online website (instead of the free advertising site). You’ll reach the millions of people who search online marketplaces to discover new products.

12. Run Google Ads campaigns

We already know that 49% of people start their shopping journey on a search engine. Run Google Ads to reach them. They’re people already looking for products you sell, making them a fantastic source of potential customers.

Experiment with different types of Google Ads, including:

• Search ads, which appear in Google search results either as text-based or Shopping ads
• Display ads, which appear on sites in the Google Display Network
• Video ads, which appear on the Google-owned YouTube platform

Catherine Wilson, owner of Essential Derma, says, “We highly recommend boosting how well-known your brand is within your target market, even if this costs a large percentage of your budget.

“Once you become a genuine brand in your space, a Google Ads paid brand search campaign will bring spectacular results and help Google’s machine-learning algorithm find more customers similar to your converted customers. We average a 78¢ cost per conversion and a 31% conversion rate with our brand search campaigns.”

Read more:

13. Host a referral marketing program

It’s getting more expensive to acquire new customers. Take the pressure off and let happy customers do your marketing for you. They know what you offer, the type of person most likely to buy it, and what someone needs to hear before hitting Purchase, making them the perfect salespeople for your online store.

Build a referral marketing program using apps like Referral Candy, Yotpo, or Bloop. Reward your customer base with gift cards, store credit, or commission in exchange for every new customer they refer.

The best part about this marketing strategy is that you only pay for results. Instead of risking $1,000 in a new influencer program you’re unsure will pay off, you only pay for rewards once a new customer purchases.

14. List your business on review aggregator sites

Some 93% of consumers actively look for reviews before trusting a new business with its credit card information. Join the more than 500,000 businesses listed on review aggregator sites like TrustPilot to reach customers actively looking for products you offer.

Platforms like Google Business, Trustpilot, and Yelp exist to roundup the best businesses for a specific industry or use case. If your online store sells home furniture, for example, collecting customer reviews would influence your position on Trustpilot’s roundup of home furniture brands.

New Era Factory Outlet has a brick-and-mortar store that runs parallel to its online store. Its marketing manager, Flynn Zaiger, says, “We make sure to ask for reviews on local review sites, like Yelp.

“This might sound counter-intuitive: why would local review sites for walk-in business increase Shopify website traffic? We’ve found that people looking for stores near them are interested in buying online, saving themselves a trip to the store once they’ve found that you have a Shopify store that makes things easy.”

Flynn adds, “Referral traffic from local sites like Yelp are often some of our best-engaged traffic on the internet. It typically outperforms organic search, and other more traditionally thought of as high-engagement sources of traffic. According to our analytics, the average site duration and pages per session are higher for Google than they are for organic search (Google, Bing, and Yahoo.)”

15. Go local

Experiential retail is a way to provide experiences to shoppers in-person. Almost a third of customers said they’re likely to engage with branded experiences, hence why 40% of brands plan to make it a top priority this year.

You don’t need a permanent brick-and-mortar store to take advantage of physical retail, though. Drive in-person shoppers toward your website by attending local events such as:

• Craft fairs
• Trade shows
• Local markets
• Pop-up shops
• Chamber of Commerce events

Hand out your business cards at each event or have people scan a QR code from your signage—ideally stamped with an incentive, such as “Get 10% off with this card at yourwebsite.com.” That way, you don’t need to carry or sell inventory in-person.

You can use physical retail as a way to get people into the top of your marketing funnel, and process all sales through your online store.

Read more:

16. Host a giveaway

Organic social media can sometimes feel like shouting into a void. The secret to attracting attention is to share something people want to engage with.

Competitions are a prime example. Instagram giveaways see 3.5 times more likes and 64 times more comments than standard posts because users are in with a chance of winning something for free.

Bundle your bestselling products and give them away to one lucky winner. To enter, have them do some form of marketing for your brand. That might be:

• Liking the post
• Following your business’s social media account
• Sharing the post to their own Stories
• Tagging a friend in the comments
• Subscribing to your email or SMS list

Granted, it might sound counterintuitive since people enter the giveaway to win something for free. But if you have email subscription mandatory for anyone who enters, you have potential customers’ details further retargeting once the competition ends.

17. Run retargeting campaigns

Once you implement these tactics to attract customers to your online store, don’t fall at the final hurdle. Do one last push to convince previous website visitors to return (and purchase) with retargeting campaigns.

Retarget website visitors who have:

Let’s put that in practice and say you’ve had 200 website visitors in the past 14 days, but only 20 have made a purchase. Upload your customer list to Facebook and create a Custom Audience to retarget them through the platform. Use the dynamic ads feature to promote the item they previously viewed on your online store.

Studies show three out of five online users notice ads showcasing products they’ve previously reviewed. They’re also 43% more likely to convert, which could result in extra paying customers from the same initial website visitor base.

I focused on making creative ads and hired a creative to help me come up with different angles for my marketing such as featuring my customer’s product reviews. Data to support the fact that it works: my Facebook ads have an average conversion rate of 5.4%, and I was able to earn 15% better traffic on my Shopify store, with 18,682 site visits.

Read more:

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.

Under certain circumstances, it’s possible to conduct business as a sole proprietor without registering your business. However, choosing to incorporate and register your business inspires more confidence in your customers and offers protections that a sole proprietorship doesn’t.

If you’re still in the planning stage with your business checkout our how to start a business guide to help you get off the ground.

If you’re ready to go, read on to learn how to register a business with state and local agencies.

How to register your business

1. Pick your business name
2. Choose a business structure to register
3. Register for an employer identification number (EIN)
4. Check requirements for each business location
5. Register for taxes
6. File for any trademarks

Whether you’re registering your business as a sole proprietorship or a different business structure, registering your new business is a fairly straightforward process. Nevertheless, it’s important to register your business properly in order to avoid complications down the road.

1. Pick your business name

It probably goes without saying that your online store needs a name, and choosing a legal name for your business that’s both available and on brand can be challenging. When brainstorming your business name, it’s best to cast a wide net at first, then hone in on your top ideas. (Need some help coming up with ideas? Consult Shopify’s business name generator).

Once you’ve nailed down a few favorites, you’ll need to check if they’re available. Conduct a search in your local jurisdiction’s business database to see if any other businesses have registered under a similar name.

Other important considerations when choosing your business name include:

• Social media. Are relevant social media handles available, or is someone else already using your chosen name?
• Domain name. Conduct a quick domain name search to see if your branded URL is available.

2. Choose a business structure to register

Before you can register your business, you need to choosing your business structure and incorporate as such. Popular business structures include limited liability company (LLC), corporation (including C corp and S corp), general partnership, and limited liability partnership (LLP).

For more on the most common business structures, read our guide, The 4 Most Popular Types of Businesses and How To Choose One.

Each business structure requires a different process for registration. Sole proprietors, for example, don’t need to do anything. Corporations, on the other hand, need to file articles of incorporation or similar corporate documents. Opting for an LLC? See our state specific guides for California LLC, Texas LLC, and Florida LLC.

3. Register for an employer identification number (EIN)

Regardless of business structure, an employer identification number (also known as a tax ID number) is critical. It protects your Social Security number (SSN) and establishes your business as a separate legal entity. This means your business can build credit and hire employees.

You can apply for an EIN on the IRS website.

4. Check requirements for each business location

Just as each business structure has its own registration process and requirements, each location has its own parameters as well. It’s important to check with federal, state, and local government agencies to find out what you need to legally register your business.

Additional steps may include permitting requirements, licenses, articles of incorporation, forms, and fees, among other things.

5. Register for taxes

In most places, businesses have to pay sales tax and potentially other applicable taxes or fees. Because sales tax varies by state, you’ll need to register in each state where you plan to sell.

Some states don’t collect sales tax, which means store owners do not have to register a business for tax purposes. These states include:

• Alaska
• Delaware
• Montana
• New Hampshire
• Oregon

For the remaining states, check with them directly to find out what the process entails.

Get started: Shopify uses default tax settings for your online store, but you can customize your sales tax settings in your admin dashboard.

Learn more: Basics of Small Business Accounting: 12 Steps to Get Your Company on Track

6. File for any trademarks

If you’re launching a brand or product with a unique name, logo, feature, or slogan, you may qualify for trademark protection. A trademark is “anything that’s considered a source identifier,” helping consumers recognize your brand or products.

While you can establish a trademark “unofficially” by doing business and establishing a reputation, the safer approach is to register with the corresponding trademark office, either on your own or with the help of a trademark attorney. This ensures that your trademark is protected from any other businesses that might seek to use your idea for their own benefit. At minimum, be sure to trademark your business name with both the state and federal government.

Tips for registering your business

As you proceed through the process to register a business, here a few things to keep in mind.

Get organized

Before you start filling out any application, create a list of what you need. This will include things like your basic personal and business information, EIN, forms, licenses, permits, fees, etc. Have this information handy so you can fly through the application process.

Hire help

For more complex business registration (e.g., for heavily regulated industries), you may want to enlist the help of an expert. Qualified tax professionals and business attorneys can guide you through the process, answering questions along the way and even taking care of some of the steps for you. Shopify Partners offers a directory of tax professionals who can provide assistance with US state sales tax and liability.

Stay up to date

It’s always best to check directly with official location- and industry-specific sources for the latest information regarding business registration requirements. Make it a habit to check on your licenses, permits, and registrations each year—for accountability and to help you remember, you might do it at tax time. Set up calendar reminders for any expirations or renewals as well.

Kickstart your business with Shopify

Now that you know how to register a business, you can begin thinking about how to run it. Shopify offers tools and integrations that make it easy to manage every aspect of your business. With thousands of third-party apps and integrations to choose from, you can build a virtual business command center.

DISCLAIMER: These guides are for informational purposes only and do not constitute professional legal or tax advice. Please consult independent legal advice and your own tax adviser for information specific to your country and circumstances. Shopify is not liable to you in any way for your use or reliance on these guides.

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.

This post is for information only. You are responsible for reviewing and using this information appropriately. This content doesn’t contain and isn’t meant to provide legal, tax, or business advice.*

There’s an abundance of information out there about how to start a business. Sometimes, all you need is a simple, straightforward step-by-step guide to take you from square one directly to your goal. That’s what we’ll do in this post: show you the six steps it takes to create an LLC.

How to start an LLC in 7 steps in 2024

1. Choose a name for your LLC
2. Choose a registered agent
3. Obtain your EIN and check tax requirements
4. Prepare an LLC operating agreement
5. Open a bank account for your LLC
6. File the articles of organization
7. Create and launch a website for your LLC

1. Choose a name for your LLC

The name of your LLC is the first contact many have with your brand, and you want it to make a good initial impression.

Naming your online store may take some time—the perfect name doesn’t come to everyone overnight. Sometimes it requires lots of brainstorming and even collaboration. There are also lots of free tools, like Shopify’s business name generator, to get your creativity flowing.

Once you’ve landed on a name, check to ensure someone else hasn’t claimed it first. Many states have business directories you can search. You’ll also want to look outside your state, especially if you plan to sell to a wide audience. Scan Google, social media, and available domain names to see what’s out there.

2. Choose a registered agent

The registered agent (also called resident agent or statutory agent in some states) is responsible for receiving legal paperwork for your business. You can act as your own registered agent in some states, or you can hire an entity to act as your registered agent for you.

What’s important is that they reside in the state you are registering your business in, and are available to receive documents on your behalf.

3. Obtain your EIN and check tax requirements

Your federal employer identification number (EIN) separates your personal identity from your business identity. It acts like your business’s social security number (SSN), so to speak. In other words, it’s a unique numerical combination the government uses to identify your LLC.

To get an EIN, go to the IRS website and fill out an application via online form. The process is free, takes under 15 minutes, and is completely online. You’ll get your EIN immediately upon completion.

You also need to inform yourself of any tax obligations. This includes income tax, sales tax, use tax, value-added tax (VAT), and other potential tariffs.

4. Prepare an LLC operating agreement

An LLC operating agreement is a written contract where members of an LLC can define specific responsibilities, compensation, equity, and more. Members of an LLC can customize various terms to be more specific to the needs of the business.

Some states require this document when filing your LLC. And even though it’s not mandated in every state, it can be helpful—particularly for multi-member LLCs. An operating agreement provides a clear approach to how profits and losses are handled, along with the rights of each member.

You can write the operating agreement yourselves or, better yet, start with a template or hire a registered agent service or attorney to do it for you.

5. Open a bank account for your LLC

It’s easier to keep personal and business finances separate. Separating your finances also provides more protection to your personal assets. You’ll need your business information, including your EIN, to open a business bank account.

Read more: How To Choose the Right Business Bank Account

6. File articles of organization

Articles of organization set out legal rights, capabilities, fiduciary duties, potential liabilities, and other official aspects of the relationship between each member of an LLC. The legal documents are filed with the state, and help create a public record of your business information and existence.

Depending on the location and nature of your business, you may have to file additional paperwork as part of your articles of organization. Additional LLC formation documents could include:

• Permits and business licenses, especially for food-based businesses
• Workers’ compensation if you’re hiring employees
• Insurance policies required to operate legally
• Your LLC operating agreement

7. Create and launch a website for your LLC

When you’re ready to share your new business with the world, you can launch and promote your online store. We’ve created an online store launch checklist to help you remember everything from marketing to inventory to fulfillment. Drive traffic to your site to make your first sale, and invest in small business loans to grow your business.

Register to do business in other states (if relevant)

Once you have your EIN and business name, it’s time to officially register everything. Registering your business is a fairly straightforward process, though there may be extra steps required for merchants operating in certain industries, like food and beverage or CBD. You may also need to get a business license, depending on your niche and location.

Why form an LLC: pros and cons

When it comes to sole proprietorships versus LLCs, sole proprietorships have an advantage of simpler tax filing over other business structures—owners pass business taxes through as part of their personal tax return, and income is only taxed once.

The downside of a sole proprietorship is that since the business and its owner are legally considered the same entity, owners are 100% responsible for any debts or lawsuits incurred by the business, potentially putting personal assets at risk.

Meanwhile, when comparing LLCs to corporations, both offer protections of owners’ personal assets. Corporations can offer public stock options as well as enjoy taxation flexibility. However, corporations are typically more complex to form and operate, as they have additional paperwork, a board of directors, and shareholder meetings.

Pros of starting an LLC

Some advantages of incorporating as an LLC include:

• Protection. Establishing an LLC creates a legal separation between business and owner, similar to a corporation—offering business owners a layer of personal asset protection.
• Convenience. It’s a relatively simple and inexpensive process to become an LLC.
• Validation. Starting an LLC can impact you as an entrepreneur, making it a great first step to making your ecommerce venture official. It also legitimizes your brand in the eyes of potential customers.
• Capital. Legitimizing your business can also boost your ability to secure outside funding, such as loans or investors—and even business partners down the line.
• Taxes. LLCs can choose how they want to be taxed. No other entity type comes with this choice. And—unless you elect to be taxed as a C corporation—your LLC is taxed as a pass-through entity, bypassing the federal corporate tax rate of 21%. So instead of paying corporate taxes and personal income tax, LLC members take profit shares and pay personal income tax on the earnings.

Cons of starting an LLC

On the other hand, there are also disadvantages to LLCs:

• Startup costs. Forming an LLC usually comes with a small incorporation fee. You might also have the expense of hiring a tax professional to handle the formation paperwork.
• Protection exceptions. While LLC members’ personal assets are considered to be separate from the business, and thereby protected from any litigation involving the business, a judge may rule otherwise. It’s important to separate personal and business finances and operations, as well as avoid committing fraud.
• Taxes. LLC owners are subject to self-employment taxes in addition to income tax. The federal self-employment tax rate for 2023 was 15.3%.
• Paperwork. Being part of a member-managed LLC partnership adds an extra layer of paperwork to your taxes. You’ll need to file an IRS K-1 form, and each member must file a Schedule K-1 (Form 1065).
• Dissolution and reformation. If you or a member moves states, you might be required to dissolve and reform your LLC. This requires paperwork and potential fees.

Different types of LLCs

Single-member LLC/sole proprietorship

Single-member LLCs and sole proprietorships have one owner. While single-member LLCs can hire employees, sole proprietors don’t have that option. Owners can avoid double taxation by passing business taxes through as part of their personal tax return. Sole proprietorships don’t offer any personal liability protection.

General partnership

A general partnership is an informal business arrangement where two or more people agree to own and operate the LLC equally. This means they evenly divide all profits and losses. Each partner is legally considered the same entity as the business, meaning there’s no personal liability protection in a general partnership—but partners can pass business through on their personal tax return.

Family limited partnership

Family limited partnerships, or FLPs, are formed by family members who combine resources to establish and operate a business. FLPs typically have two different types of owners—general partners and limited partners.

General partners are responsible for operation, whereas limited partners don’t have any management responsibility, but can still buy into the business to get income. These are a popular choice for families who want to pass down generational wealth.

Series LLC

A series LLC is a type of business structure that allows an owner to separate business assets and operations into different subsets, called series.

A series LLC allows each subset to function as a regular LLC while also protecting the individual series from any liabilities that another one might incur.

Not all states allow series LLCs, so be sure to check with your local legislature.

L3C company

An L3C, or low-profit limited liability company, is a hybrid structure that combines elements of an LLC and a nonprofit business. While L3Cs are allowed to generate a profit, this income must be used to benefit a charitable cause. Not all states recognize this business structure.

Member-managed LLC or manager-managed LLC

Member-managed and manager-managed LLCs, unsurprisingly, refer to how an LLC is managed. A member-managed LLC is when all owners, also called members, share responsibility for day-to-day operations. Member-managed LLCs are common with small to midsize businesses.

Manager-managed LLC structures are more common for larger-sized businesses, or with owners who want a less active management role. In this case, members might either designate one or more members to handle day-to-day activities—or hire employees to take on these responsibilities.

*Requirements are updated frequently and you should make sure to do your own research and reach out to professional legal, tax, and business advisers, as needed. Businesses outside of New York will have different steps and requirements. To sell products using the Shopify platform, you must comply with the laws of the jurisdiction of your business and your customers, the Shopify Terms of Service, the Shopify Acceptable Use Policy, and any other applicable policies.

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.

Do you know how many different ways there are to fund your company? Angel investors, crowdfunding, loans—the list goes on. It can be hard to decide what’s right for you and your brand. 

In Vicky Pasche’s case, she needed the money to fund Dapper Boi, a body inclusive, gender-neutral fashion brand. She and her co-founder, Charisse Pasche, turned to Kickstarter in 2015 to launch the company. Five years later, they raised $300,000 through equity crowdfunding alone. 

Whether you’re trying to secure your spot in the market or find the best way to bring your concept to customers, Vicky’s advice will help you fund your business. 

4 ways to fund your business

1. Run a crowdfunding campaign 

If you want to start a business but don’t have the capital, look for your ideal customer to help fundraise on a crowdfunding platform like Kickstarter. 

“When we went on Kickstarter, it was just about connecting and relating to people. We were solving a problem, so we had to find people that had the same problem,” Vicky says. Kickstarter allowed her to connect with people facing the same challenges, and they were excited about her solution. Vicky and Charisse raised $26,000 after their initial ask of $18,000.

Try using crowdfunding tools like Kickstarter to find like-minded people who will help you achieve your vision.

2. Take pre-orders

While a great business idea can be lucrative, you’ll need money upfront to get production started. A way to solve this issue and bring in capital is to take pre-orders. 

“At the start, we offered [pre-orders] with an intro price discounted by 30%, for three weeks only,” says Vicky. ”Customers went nuts.” The limited time pre-order model raised demand and brought in a quick influx of cash for the founders. 

The money from a pre-order campaign will fund product production and give you a positive runway to keep growing the business. 

3. Connect with investors 

Vicky recommends using LinkedIn, signing up for networking events, and taking courses to meet as many people as possible. “You need to connect early and often,” Vicky says. The odds of finding an angel investor is higher with each new person you meet and share your vision with. 

There is no shame in asking people for help or for an introduction that will result in you raising more money. Vicky asked a mentor for advice and ended up meeting Dapper Boi’s first investor, who infused $250,000 into the company. Meeting more people will raise your chances of finding the right person to invest in your brand. 

4. Open up equity crowdfunding 

Attracting the right angel investor can be challenging and take a lot of time. That’s why equity crowdfunding is a great option once you’ve found your target audience. Vicky and Charisse usedStart Engine to offer customers partial ownership of Dapper Boi.

This approach is debt-free and allows for an influx of cash into the business, without having to exchange physical goods. Contributors receive a financial stake in the business for showing their dedication and support of the company’s growth. 

It’s intimidating to allow one investor to own part of your business. This route will allow you to feel the support of the community while gaining cash for the company. 

To learn more about Vicky’s journey, and discover how the brand manages a 50% customer return rate, tune in to the full Shopify Mastersepisode.

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.