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.

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

Credit: Original article published here.

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

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

Credit: Original article published here.

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

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

Credit: Original article published here.

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

Entrepreneurs can find themselves hitting a brick wall when it comes to sourcing products. Whether you plan to manufacture something of your own or find suppliers to purchase from wholesale, good products aren’t always easy to identify.

Sourcing a supplier for your next project includes finding a manufacturer, deciding whether it’s better to work with manufacturers near you or abroad, and evaluating if a manufacturer is legitimate. It’s also essential to ask suppliers certain questions when developing a product for your ecommerce business.

What is a manufacturer?

A manufacturer is any business that produces finished goods from raw materials. They sell these goods to consumers, wholesalers, distributors, retailers, and other manufacturers wanting to create more complex items.

Manufacturers typically stick to one type of product. For example, you could work with a glassware manufacturer who creates glass bottles and jars. You could work with one manufacturer for cardboard boxes and another for plastic or natural products. 

Retailers often work with multiple manufacturers at once to create an inventory for their store.

Is a manufacturer a supplier?

Suppliers refer to anyone who can provide you with products and inventory. This encompasses manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors.

There are a ton of helpful resources online that you can find through Google. But before you begin, there are a few things you need to know and decide.

You should figure out what type of supplier you’re looking for, which could depend on your ecommerce business model. This will help determine the terminology you need to use in your research. There are several supplier options, the most common being:

• A manufacturer that produces your product idea
• A supplier (who may also be a manufacturer), wholesaler, or distributor who purchases already-existing brands and products
• A dropshipping company that supplies products and fulfills orders of already-existing brands and products

Domestic vs. overseas suppliers

If you plan to manufacture or wholesale, when looking for suppliers you’ll need to decide whether you want to source domestically or from abroad.

It’s a good idea to secure two manufacturers: one domestic and one foreign. Your local manufacturer can be used as a backup. If international orders are late or incorrect, you can fall back on your local supplier. Domestic suppliers are often more expensive, but it’s better to keep products stocked and customers happy instead of waiting for delayed shipments.

It’s often cheaper to source your products overseas, especially in Asian countries, like India, China, and Vietnam, which ranked as the three countries with the cheapest manufacturing costs, according to U.S. News & World Report.

How to find a manufacturer in 6 steps

Manufacturers can make your product ideas a reality. Follow these six steps to find the best manufacturers and suppliers for your business.

1. Research your options
2. Outreach and collect information
3. Communicate your designs
4. Order samples and compare
5. Negotiate
6. Place your order

1. Research your options

Finding the right manufacturer for your product is crucial to your success. Manufacturers can play a role in determining your product’s cost, quality, packaging, and shipping. You can use tools to help you find suppliers:

Google

To find manufacturers near you, do a Google search for “manufacturers near me.” Check out their websites, customer reviews, and product specialties.

Many suppliers’ websites are old, sparse on information, and have poor search engine optimization. This means you may have to use a variety of search terms to find what you’re looking for. For example, words such as “wholesale,” “supplier,” and “distributor” may be used interchangeably, so you should search for all of them.

Make yourself familiar with Google’s advanced search features to improve the quality of your results.

Referrals

Some of the best leads can come from referrals. Ask your professional networks if they have supplier recommendations or if they know someone who might. Look for individuals who’ve found success in an area you’d like to pursue and see if they’re willing to share their contacts. Join Facebook groups and other online ecommerce communities to see if there are helpful reviews.

Even if a supplier isn’t the right fit for you, ask them if they can point you in the right direction. Being in the industry means they’ll likely have contacts to refer you to that could be better fits.

NAICS codes

Another way to look for product suppliers is searching for your products by their code in the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

The NAICS classifies manufacturers and products with codes, making some manufacturers and suppliers easier to find, especially in professional directories. Here’s the link for the United States’ NAICS code and the link for Canada’s NAICS code.

You’ll need to vet your potential manufacturer. Once you’ve narrowed it down to a few possibilities, continue your research to make sure they’re credible. Check the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to see if there have been any complaints filed and browse the manufacturer’s customer reviews.

Alibaba

Alibaba connects you with manufacturers from China. It’s a popular marketplace to find existing products, but you can also use Alibaba to connect with manufacturers to create custom products. Search for the products you’re looking for and browse through the various suppliers and manufacturers.

It’s easy to safely buy from Alibaba. The marketplace lets you vet manufacturers upfront to get the best products at a fair price. When researching manufacturers on Alibaba, make sure they have the following qualifications:

• Gold supplier, which means they pay for their Alibaba membership.
• Verified, which means a third-party evaluation services company or Alibaba has visited their manufacturing facility.
• Trade assurance, a free service that protects your orders from payment to delivery. 

You can continue to search by applying filters. You can sort by certifications (such as SA8000, which ensures humane working conditions) to find a manufacturer that aligns with your business values.

You can also make sure your manufacturer is not a trading company. A trading company is a liaison and won’t be able to produce your products.

Directories

Another place to research manufacturers is in an online supplier directory. These directories act as manufacturer catalogs that contain profiles for thousands of manufacturers, wholesalers, and suppliers. A few of the most popular ones for domestic and international suppliers are:

Online domestic directories

Online overseas directories

2. Conduct outreach and collect information

Once you’ve got a few manufacturers on your radar, you’ll want to get quotes. Aim to get a minimum of three quotes to compare options. For local manufacturers, you can also reach out to organize a tour of their facility or a visit to their office.

In addition to pricing information, you’ll want answers to the following questions:

• Can they accommodate custom orders? Assess if the supplier or equipment manufacturer can create the product you want. Do they have the skills and resources? Do they have automation features?
• What are their lead times? How long will it take to produce and ship items? You don’t want to work with manufacturers who take three months to deliver your products. If a product goes out of stock, you don’t want to leave customers waiting to receive their orders.
• What are shipping costs? Shipping makes up a massive portion of small business expenses. Learn a manufacturer’s shipping costs to determine how it’ll affect your bottom line.
• What are their minimum order quantities (MOQs)? Don’t lead with this question, because it might deter manufacturers from working with you. However, you’ll want to know the minimum amount of items you have to order before they start producing your product. This is often negotiable. 
• What is the cost per unit? While you’re negotiating MOQs, you’ll also want to negotiate cost per unit. The larger the order, the lower your cost per unit can be. 
• Can they grant you exclusivity? If there’s tooling involved (i.e., you buying a tool for them to manufacture your product), make sure they aren’t allowing others to use it. You can also ask for territorial, market, or total exclusivity. Some service providers may even offer private label goods.
• Are there setup fees involved? Sometimes manufacturers will charge a fee to get equipment ready to produce your goods. 
• What’s their defect policy? Find out who eats the cost for incorrect or defective items. Who pays for the shipping and duties?
• Is the manufacturer sustainable and ethical? Find out about the factory conditions, and see how they impact the environment and those who work there.

Negotiating minimum order quantities

If you’re looking for a supplier for the first time, you’re going to quickly learn about MOQs. It’s not uncommon for a manufacturer to require a commitment to purchase hundreds or even thousands of units for your first order, depending on the product and manufacturer.

MOQs make it difficult when you have limited funds or want to start small and test the market before making larger purchases. MOQs are almost always negotiable.

Before you negotiate, understand why the supplier has imposed a minimum. Is it because there’s a lot of work upfront? Is it because they prefer to work with larger buyers? Understanding the reasons for the minimum will help you better understand their position and allow you to negotiate and propose the best counter offer.

Discussing payment terms

Many suppliers will require new businesses to pay for a full order upfront. This is important to know, since inventory is a major cost for ecommerce businesses. You should also ask if they provide payment terms on future orders.

Suppliers get bombarded with email quote requests all the time from flaky buyers, so it’s not unusual for suppliers to ignore your request. Suppliers’ lack of responsiveness is a common complaint from new ecommerce entrepreneurs.

So how do you ensure you’re not ignored? There are a few things you should do when you reach out to suppliers for the first time:

• Focused emails. Your first email to a manufacturer should be clear and concise. Avoid telling too much about your story and background. The first email should purely assess potential fit at a high level. Focus on what suppliers care about the most, like the details of what you’re trying to source. 
• Asking for what you need. Requests aren’t always easy for the supplier to satisfy. It’s important to ask about pricing for multiple quantities, but avoid asking for too much or too many quotes. Stick to what you absolutely need to know to assess fit between you and the supplier.
• Prepare. If you’re unsure about your request, consider giving the supplier a call or send a one-question email. For example, you might want to know the supplier’s minimum order because if you ask for a quote that’s well below their minimum order, you might not receive a response.

Many good manufacturing suppliers will be open to negotiating payment terms. One payment strategy you could propose would be to pay for 50% upfront and 50% after you receive the shipment. This holds both parties responsible for the order and doesn’t leave too much risk on either side.

Communicating with manufacturers and suppliers

Chances are you won’t use a manufacturing manager when starting your online business. You’ll have to communicate with suppliers on your own. You can do this via phone, email, or text. When working with local manufacturers, you can also do in-person meetings.

Look for companies that are responsive and eager to work with you. If someone is slow to respond to emails and send samples, you may not want to trust them with your business.

3. Communicate your designs

Once you talk with a potential manufacturer, ask if they can create your design. Some manufacturers have a product development process with prototyping and 3D modeling—but it can get expensive. 

As an alternative, communicate your ideas with them through: 

• Sketches
• Instructions
• Reference photos 

If they don’t do design, you can use Fiverr or Upwork to find freelancers to create drawings for you. Look to hire:

• Indstrustial designers
• Product designers
• Computer-aided design (CAD) experts

Another option is finding a local designer. You can work with them to develop prototypes and custom molds. It could be more affordable than going through a manufacturer.

4. Order samples and compare

Get samples to test before going into production. Once the sample is to your standard, you should date and sign the sample. Save one or two for yourself. These are called your control samples: forensic samples used to assure quality and get consistent consumer products.

For example, you open a package from a manufacturer and find your products’ colors are completely wrong. You can reference the control sample to indicate the products you received are not what was previously agreed upon.

5. Negotiate

Between the time you get a sample and when you place your order, it’s still possible to negotiate terms on payment or MOQ. When negotiating, put yourself in the manufacturer’s shoes. The goal isn’t to exploit your manufacturing partner to get the best price. It’s to work together so both parties profit and are happy. It’s the only way to build a long-term, healthy relationship.

6. Place your order

After completing a quality control check to make sure every product meets your standards, you can place your order and get the production process started.

Moving forward with your supply partners

Sourcing suppliers and manufacturers is one of the costs of starting a business. Partnering with suppliers that are good fits is a critical decision for your new business, and they aren’t always easy to find.

It’s easy to get frustrated when you hit dead ends or brick walls, but in most cases, it just requires a little more patience and perseverance to find the perfect partner for your new venture.

Illustration by Pete Ryan

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

Credit: Original article published here.

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

The marketing landscape is ever changing. Digital advertising costs are rising and there are more restrictions to access customer data. How can businesses navigate these realities and reach their business goals? 

In this episode of Shopify Masters, Eric Seufert, founder and partner at Heracles Capital, and Andrius Baranauskas, director of product at Shopify, uncover some of the answers. 

From pivoting your marketing strategies to using the latest Shopify tools, Eric and Andrius share their marketing tips for entrepreneurs.

 

Pivoting from paid ads to creating organic content 

For brands, organic content shouldn’’t be an afterthought. In fact, Eric believes it should be at the center of your marketing efforts. “Creative should lead marketing activities, because that’’s really the biggest lever we have to differentiate, [and] because we’’re able to apply it to all of these surface areas that were totally off limits to us before,” explains Eric. Some of these surfaces can be new channels, such as producing your own podcast to reach new audiences. 

Leveraging Shop Campaigns on the Shop app

The Shop app is a marketplace for consumers to discover Shopify stores and their products, track their packages, and enjoy a fast one-tap checkout. Being on the Shop app not only allows brands to reach customers in a new channel, it’s also a place to market to them through Shop Campaigns.

“On the Shop app, business can set up campaigns much like those on social media ad platforms. “Shopify optimizes the creative, chooses the perfect placement either in Shop or beyond, targets the best audience, and then brings you customers that convert,” says Andrius. “You pay only for the customers that convert and you get full access to that customer’s data. ” 

Saving customer acquisition costs with Shopify Audiences

Businesses today are facing rising acquisition costs. Shopify Plus merchants are reducing these costs by close to 50% by using Shopify Audiences. 

“Merchants get their ads in front of the most interested buyers with custom audience lists that we generate,” says Andrius. “They’’re powered by the algorithms and the millions of insights that we have here at Shopify.” 

Shopify Audiences allows merchants to use those insights to acquire customers at lower costs on platforms like TikTok, Meta, Google, Pinterest, Snapchat, and more. 

“For example, Happy Hippo makes bath products that are safe for kids and fun to use,” Andrius says. “They reached 70% lower cost to acquire new customers by leveraging the Shopify Audiences.” 

To hear more about the latest Shopify tools and how to update your marketing strategies, listen to the full episode 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.

Houseplants have a chokehold on a generation of homeowners and apartment dwellers not quite ready for pets or kids. Legions of plant parents are investing their instinct to nurture in a hoard of foliage. It’s unsurprising: Raising plants has physical health benefits, mental health benefits, and a very low barrier to entry.

Searches for “buy plants online” surged in the spring of 2020, just as retail businesses and greenhouses everywhere were shutting their doors against COVID-19’s first wave. Unspent going-out funds collided with a collective need for at-home joy.

More online plant stores sprung up from garages and garden sheds to answer the demand—a demand that doesn’t show signs of slowing. Your green thumb could be worth more than you think. If you’ve ever thought of selling plants online, now is the time. 

In this beginner’s guide, explore the steps to starting your own plant selling business and consult experts to bring you tips on how to succeed. Learn everything from planting the seed to cultivating your brand to nurturing your customers.

And, hear from plant experts Mignon Hemsley and Danuelle Doswell, founders of Grounded, and the plant queen of TikTok, Partly Sunny’s Sonja Detrinidad. 

How to get started selling plants online

Yes, you can ship live plants in the mail! In fact succulents, cacti, and even delicate hanging plants can arrive safely at your customers’ homes in a cardboard box. Ready to propagate this trend and grow your own plant selling business? Let’s dig in.

Finding your niche

There are more ways to get into the plant selling business than simply shipping houseplants in the mail. How you decide to define your own offerings may depend on the climate where you live, your access to wholesale greenery or space to grow, and how much you’re willing to invest upfront.

Here are a few ideas to get you started selling plants online:

• Houseplants. Will you specialize in succulents, cacti, or air plants, for example? What can you reliably grow or buy wholesale where you live?
• Outdoor plants. Consider seasonality not just where you live but also where you sell to. Will you run a seasonal business or sell all year round?
• Seeds and bulbs. West Coast Seeds doesn’t sell live plants but it does ship seeds, bulbs, and growing supplies across Canada.
• Plant care products. Think soil, fertilizer, growing medium, and grow lights. These items can also be sold in tandem with live plants and work well with an upsell strategy.
• Home decor. Decorative plant pots, trays, and hanging planters can be sold as a business on their own or sold alongside the plants that fill them.
• Terrariums and kits. Sell a combination of live plants and supplies to build terrariums at home.
• Plant-derived products. Grow your own plants and create products derived from them. The founders of Terre Bleu grow lavender on their farm and sell lavender-based soaps, sprays, and salves online.
• Plant subscriptions. Both Grounded and Partly Sunny guarantee repeat business by offering recurring plant shipments through a subscription program.
• Think outside the pot. Why not start a service-based business to supply plants for events and corporate clients? Or try “planterior design,” a term Grounded uses to describe its private client consultation service. Sonja started her business at first as a personal plant shopper doing one-on-one consultations and purchases based on customer requests. 

Should you grow your own plants or source them?

Growing your own plants to sell is possible if you have the right space and conditions to do so. If you’re starting small, you can grow plants in your own backyard garden or create a DIY greenhouse—but do consider space limitations if you plan to scale. Growing your own plants on a larger scale will require a lot more space and specialized plant know-how. There are plenty of free online resources to teach you the production side of the business.

For the purposes of this guide, we will focus on the business of selling plants online by working with a wholesaler, greenhouse, or nursery. Note that you will still require sunny space to store and care for the plants on their brief stop between their origin and final destination, but this method is much easier for new plant entrepreneurs.

When I asked Sonja if she’d ever consider scaling her business to grow her own, she reminded me that in California, she didn’t need to. “I have growers that have been growing certain varieties of plants for 40 years,” she says. “When I’ve got this guy, literally three blocks away from me, I could just buy his product.”

Sourcing plants

Many local greenhouses, nurseries, and plant suppliers offer a wholesale program. Look for details on their website or inquire directly. There are generally a few requirements to become a registered reseller, including purchase minimums.

Here are some tips for working with nurseries, greenhouses, and plant wholesalers:

• Form a relationship with the supplier. Repeated business and a positive business relationship could help you get the best stock or advance notice on supply.
• Shop around. Some suppliers may have lower minimums than others—perfect if you’re starting small. 
• Opt for local suppliers, if possible. Pick up wholesale orders if you can to minimize cost and reduce the amount of stress on the plants.
• Understand seasonality. Which plants will be in stock at which times of year? This will help you plan campaigns and inventory.
• Don’t put all of your seeds in one basket. Source multiple suppliers if you can to ensure that if one is out of a popular item, another may have it in stock. Some suppliers or growers may also only operate seasonally. Sonja frequents several greenhouses in her area and even scours local buy-and-sell groups for rare finds.
• Develop a pricing strategy that accounts for fluctuating wholesale costs by season.
• Try online wholesalers. If you live in an area that doesn’t have a reliable source for wholesale plants, look for online suppliers like Gro ‘n Sell.
• Dropship. Short on space? Some, like House Plant Wholesale, will even dropship! Currently, Grounded works with several greenhouses that ship to them before they ship to customers. “I think, eventually, we’ll cut ourselves out as the middleman and ship directly from the greenhouse,” says Danuelle. “That’s definitely a long-term goal.”

Cultivating your plant brand

Don’t skip this step. Differentiating your business from another website selling plants relies heavily on brand. And we’re not talking about your logo—that’s branding. For plant selling businesses, your brand should achieve the following:

Take a stand

What are you about? Decide what you will and will not sell and establish quality standards. Create a cohesive set of brand guidelines that you will use to make decisions across the business and help maintain consistency, even as you scale.

Grounded’s brand is rooted in the power of plants to bring peace and mindfulness to daily life—a mission clearly captured on the site’s About page and throughout its branding and marketing copy. The founders also want to expand on their plant education focus to launch a sister non-profit to invest in community gardens and gardening education for youth.

Establish trust

You are shipping live plants—your messaging should reflect that you are knowledgeable and have high care for your shipping process and after-purchase customer support. Using education as part of your brand and content strategy will foster trust. Sonja provides consistent content like plant care tips to build trust with an audience before converting them to customers.

Help you stand apart

What makes you unique? Tell your brand story on an About page, on social, and even on packaging. Outline your values, share information about any charitable partnerships, and let customers peek behind the curtain. “People buy from people they like,” says Sonja.

Now, you can use your clear vision for your brand to help you develop branding assets and a visual identity for your business.

Pricing plants to sell online

You can follow standard pricing models for pricing most goods for online sale. To find a retail price for your plants or plant accessories:

1. Add up your variable costs per product (cost of goods sold, packaging, shipping, etc.).
2. Add a profit margin (consider the overall market).
3. Don’t forget about fixed costs (overhead expenses, like rent).

Even if we’re paying a little more wholesale than usual, we’ll still keep it at that price point just to remain consistent.

Mignon Hemsley, Grounded

There are a few other factors to consider when pricing plants: 

Seasonality

Seasonality can affect pricing. For example, if you choose to sell a specific plant in a set number of sizes because you have a reliable supply chain, factor in fluctuations to the wholesale cost of the plants (nurseries may adjust prices seasonally). If you want to be consistent with pricing on your site, consider the highest possible cost when calculating retail price. “Say if we sell a golden pothos for $20, we’ll keep it at $20 across the board,” says Mignon. “Even if we’re paying a little more wholesale than usual, we’ll still keep it at that price point just to remain consistent.”

Market price

Market price is important to keep in mind. While your brand may be very different from another brand, a snake plant is still a snake plant, and you should price within an acceptable range based on the market. 

Customer preferences

Who is your customer and what do they expect to pay? “We strategically put our price points at a place that is affordable and accessible to most people,” says Mignon. “We want everyone to be able to experience having plants and being able to take care of something.”

Labour costs

Consider labor when calculating your fixed costs. Even if you’re not paying staff to help grow and care for plants, your effort should factor into the overall cost. 

Inventory and plant care

While I fancy myself quite the green thumb *gazes with motherly pride over a brood of tomatoes,* there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to cover water and sunlight needs for every species of plant. Once you decide what you will sell, research each variety to understand its specific needs. 

Generally, you will need enough climate-controlled space to adequately care for your plant inventory before it ships to your customers. Sonja, who has had to hire staff to manage the volume of orders pouring in, still uses her home’s garage as her headquarters, but has recently announced a move to a dedicated greenhouse space. 

For plant businesses, managing your inventory tightly is critical. Developing a relationship with reliable suppliers will help you plan ahead. You should also ask yourself:

• Will your offerings change seasonally based on greenhouse supply? 
• Will you run pre-sales for upcoming varieties? 
• Should you build in a buffer in case some of your inventory is damaged or dies? 
• If you go away for several days, what is your plan for plant care? Automated irrigation systems and timed grow lights can bridge the gap if you don’t yet have staff coverage.

As you are running a business that may have items going in and out of stock seasonally, create a system for yourself that helps you identify and manage inventory within your Shopify store. A consistent naming/numbering convention along with grouping plants into standard sizes can help you keep inventory organized. For example, if you are selling a variety of houseplants, you may want to establish a SKU system as follows: three letters representing the category, three letters representing the plant type, and two letters representing the size.

Example: SUC-ALO-SM could represent a small aloe plant in the succulent family. Define what “small,” “medium,” and “large” mean to you for the purposes of pricing and inventory, as plants will come in a range, usually measured in inches by pot/plant diameter.

Photography for online plant businesses

For any business selling physical products, it’s important to invest time and care into photography. You can either hire a professional or DIY your photography needs. Either way, follow the basic principles of product photography that exist across all product categories.

The last thing you want to do is use filters, because it’s not the reality. It leads people down the road of having unmet expectations of what their gardens should look like.

Sonja Detrinidad, Partly Sunny Projects

Photography tips for online plant brands:

• Your product page should feature a variety of shots to help your customer see the product from all angles.
• Include close-up detail shots that illustrate texture.
• Show your product in a scene (also called a lifestyle shot) that provides inspiration to your customer for styling or placing the item in their own space. These are also great photos to use on your homepage as well as on social media.
• Consider getting your products shot in 3D so customers can use AR technology to place the item in a room.
• Your smartphone is perfectly capable of capturing great behind-the-scenes shots, plant care tutorial videos, and other images for use on social media.
• For greenery, you’ll want to shoot it in the most natural light possible so your customers have realistic expectations for the plants you’re selling.

“The last thing you want to do is use filters, because it’s not the reality,” says Sonja. “It leads people down the road of having unmet expectations of what their gardens should look like.”

Start selling plants online: build your online store

The best way to sell plants online is through your own website. Sonja started her business by taking orders through a WhatsApp group chat and invoicing each customer. When too much of her time was spent making invoices, she opened a Shopify store. The switch allowed her to spend less time with paperwork and more time building her brand.

Shopify themes for plant sellers

Shopify is designed to make starting a business simple, even if you have no coding or design skills. Use one of the preset themes in the Shopify Theme Store, then customize with your own branding, fonts, colors, and unique layout. 

A couple of themes we recommend include the Cascade Theme, which is great for plant sellers who have a strong brand story, and the Editions Theme, a simple theme with lots of white space that lets your brand shine.

As you grow, you can continue to customize your online store. Shopify can help you improve the design and function of your store if you’re much better with plants than computers.

Shopify apps for selling plants online

Layering apps onto your Shopify store increases functionality and allows you to customize your site to your—and your customers’—individual needs. Browse the Shopify App Store for apps that plug in to your site and make it easier for you to sell plants online.

A few highlights:

• Offset is an app by Shopify that neutralizes your shipping emissions. With each order, you are investing in sustainability initiatives to counteract your impact on the planet.
• Route offers additional protection and tracking for your packages—especially important when shipping live plants.
• Smart Tabs adds product page tabs so you can nest important care instructions in each product page without crowding the selling features or overwhelming your customers.

Product pages for plants

Your product pages should include standard information like plant species, description, and size, along with clear product photos. Consider also using this space for education. You’ll want to ensure that your customers are equipped to care for their new plants indefinitely. After-care customer service is important—and we’ll cover that later—but you can minimize the burden on your customer service team (or you, if you’re a team of one) if you provide helpful care instructions upfront.

The product page is a perfect place to include plant education. Use tabs to keep the page uncluttered or link out to the resource elsewhere on your site. West Coast Seeds packs each product page with useful info like hardiness zone, difficulty level, ideal pH for growing conditions, and detailed planting instructions.

As you sort products into collections, you can organize by species, size, or, like Grounded, helpful categories such as “pet friendly” and “beginner friendly.”

Alternate sales channels

Consider gaining more exposure for your brand and accessing new audiences by selling plants through online marketplaces or finding local retail opportunities. Beyond opening your own brick-and-mortar store, there are many affordable ways to add in-person selling to your mix:

• Open a booth at a weekend farmers or arts market.
• Run a pop-up event. 
• Partner with an established retail business to sell plants from their space. They benefit from the decor upgrade and take a commission for each sale.
• If you grow your own plants or work from a dedicated facility, offer limited hours for customers to browse your inventory in person, say through a monthly event. 

Marketing and social media for plant brands

Good news: with the rise in searches for plant content online, there are opportunities to grow your audience with the right mix of search optimization, social media, and content marketing paired with a unique and cohesive brand.

Content and social marketing

If you’re starting out with a limited budget, grow your social audience and email list organically with consistent posting and incentives for those who sign up. You can add value through social media or a blog by establishing yourself as an expert, sharing free advice about plant care. Invest time in a content marketing strategy and learn how to optimize content to rank. Content that lives on your site can help drive organic traffic that you can convert into sales.

Sonja has positioned herself as a subject matter expert on TikTok and has found that she doesn’t need to lay on a heavy sales pitch. “Make yourself valuable on the platform as a source of information, then do a little sidestep like, ‘Oh, by the way, here’s the link to my website,’” she says. “And they’re going to trust what you’re putting out there because they’re seeing results from the things that you’ve advised them to do.”

Getting press

As Grounded was gearing up for the big launch in 2020, it struggled to get initial traction on social and with its newsletter. “Danuelle made her dad an Instagram so he could be our hundredth follower,” says Mignon. Then Danuelle wrote a press release and shopped it around to local DC publications. One picked it up and their follower account surged to 8,000, and 700 people signed up for their newsletter.

The press release caught attention because it highlighted the brand’s subscription program—a feature that was different from other businesses in the area—and tapped into the need for joy in a world entering a long pandemic lockdown.

Loyalty

Take it from me—buying one plant is the gateway to a house full of them. While you absolutely want to attract new customers to your site, don’t forget about your existing customers. These are easier sales to make because they already trust you, you’re top of mind the next time they’re looking for plants, and you have direct access to them via email, mail, and/or social.

Consider loyalty programs that give your customers even more incentive to come back: points programs, referral rewards, and exclusive discounts or promotions for those already on your subscriber list.

Grounded recently ran an experience survey to gain valuable feedback from their loyal customers. The partners use data to drive decisions around marketing and other aspects of the business.

Subscription boxes are an easy way to guarantee future purchases and continued engagement with your loyal customers.

Shipping and packing plants

“Imagine that your package is going to be in a rugby match until it gets to its destination,” says Sonja. “You have to do everything you need to do in order to protect it.” Packing your plants for shipment is extremely important to ensure their survival—and customer happiness. “The plant community will tear you apart if your packaging is not up to par,” she says.

There are many factors to consider depending on shipping location and method, climate, and hardiness of the plant. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you determine your packing and shipping processes:

Shipping soil and organic matter

There are laws that govern how soil and organic matter can travel over international borders. For example, Canada allows imports of soil from the US if accompanied by the correct certificate/documentation but will not allow imports from other countries.

Shipping to—or from—areas with extreme climate

If your plants will be subject to below freezing temperatures in transit, consider adding heat packs to the packaging and/or only shipping express methods to ensure plants aren’t exposed to cold for too long.

Cutting down on shipping costs

Soil can add a lot of weight to a final package. Some plants can be shipped without the soil (bare root), then planted in soil by the customer.

Ensuring plant survival

Minimize messy soil spillage by wrapping a cardboard collar or wood excelsior around the base of plants. This will also provide some stability to the plant. Ensure the plant has adequate water for the trip and wrap the entire plant and pot in bubble wrap or something similar. Nest wrapped plants in a box with plenty of packing material (newsprint paper or biodegradable packing peanuts).

Choosing a carrier

Work with carriers that deliver seven days a week to avoid weekend interruptions, and consider offering only express methods for locations beyond your local area.

“This is kind of embarrassing, but at the beginning, we did not have packaging for the dirt specifically,” says Danuelle. “I remember hearing the dirt sliding around inside of the boxes when USPS came to pick them up. I would pray over each packet like, ‘This is in God’s hands now.’”

Grounded’s founders learned from their early mistakes and now secure the soil as well as the pot and plant so customers don’t open a box full of loose dirt. “That can be overwhelming, especially if you’re a new plant parent.”

Customer care for plant brands

Like plants that need adequate sun, water, and nutrients to thrive, your customers require care before and especially after their purchases. As we discussed in our content marketing section, customer education is a huge opportunity for plant-selling businesses to gain exposure and establish trust.

People can sign up for free Zoom office hours. It’s easier for us to assess the issue with the plant through video and help bring it back to health.

Mignon Hemsley, Grounded

But beyond marketing benefits, education ensures that your customers are equipped to enjoy their plants for a long time—and even become repeat purchasers.

Customer service tips for plant brands:

• Explicitly communicate your refund policy and guarantee. Give customers peace of mind in ordering from you by letting them know you stand by your plants arriving safe.
• Include clear plant care instructions in order confirmation emails, in the shipping box, on packaging, and/or in a reference guide or blog on your site.
• Pack your FAQ page with common plant care concerns and troubleshooting tips.
• Make yourself available: be sure customers know when and how to contact you with plant concerns. As you scale, hire or outsource customer care to knowledgeable people.

“We have a plant specialist who speaks with our customers whenever they have an issue with their plants,” says Danuelle. Grounded mitigates customer disappointment by investing heavily in education and customer support. “People can sign up for free Zoom office hours,” says Mignon. “It’s easier for us to assess the issue with the plant through video and help bring it back to health”

Meet the experts

Danuelle Doswell and Mignon Hemsley, Founders, Grounded

Danuelle Doswell, a marketer and brand strategist, and Mignon Hemsley, a graphic designer, photographer, and DJ, met and bonded over their lifelong love of food. But it was another part of their similar upbringings that inspired their business called Grounded. “My mom would always encourage me to keep a garden at the house,” Mignon says. “We would grow strawberries and tomatoes and peppers.” And Danuelle recalls the houses of all of her relatives being filled with plants.

When Danuelle noticed how many fellow millennials owned plants, the two paired up to serve that audience. Grounded now sells houseplants and accessories from their Washington, DC, headquarters to customers across the country, and offers services like “planterior design” to corporate clients.

Sonja Detrinidad, Founder, Partly Sunny Projects

Sonja Detrinidad started dabbling in plants as a distraction from her stressful career in the mortgage industry. When she discovered her knack for sourcing greenery and inspiring audiences with her straight-shooting plant content, she quit her job and her California-based plant business exploded. The bulk of Sonja’s sales and traffic come from TikTok, a platform she uses to share humorous and helpful plant advice to more than 450k followers.

Read more about how Sonja discovered the formula for succeeding at TikTok for business.

Propagating success

For those looking for a more hands-on business to nurture, selling plants is a rewarding one. Studies show that plants reduce stress and increase productivity, counteracting the hectic pace of being a new business owner.

Feature illustration by Pete Ryan

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

Credit: Original article published here.

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

Many people have hobbies—pastimes where you dedicate some of your spare hours to activities they find fun or fulfilling.

While you probably didn’t get into your favorite hobby to make money, you can still turn it into a side hustle or thriving business that generates a stream of income. Depending on how you direct your talents and interests, you can make anything from extra spending money to a full income through an online business centered around your hobby—all by doing something you might have done anyway.

This guide compiles a list of common lucrative hobbies that can make money.

12 profitable hobbies that make money

1. Writing
2. Creating illustrations and designs
3. Making music
4. Cooking
5. Gardening
6. Doing photography
7. Producing DIY crafts
8. Performing comedy
9. Drinking (and knowing about) coffee
10. Caring for pets
11. Brewing beer
12. Gaming

1. Writing

Writing and publishing online can offer you a lot of practical value outside of being a mere hobby. You can use it to further your career and establish yourself as an expert on a topic. You can build a social media following for sharing your ideas. If you have the discipline and know how to write a good blog post, you can create your own business as a blogger by picking a niche and building an audience over time.

Once you have some experience writing, you can make money by selling your skill on sites like Upwork or Fiverr, or by reaching out directly to blogs for paid gigs. Great bloggers with niche expertise are usually in demand, and even a few clients can turn your writing hobby into a full-time business. You can also leverage professional social networking sites like LinkedIn for writing opportunities, or consider making money as a copywriter.

For more inspiration, check out:

• How Best Self Co. used blogging to sell its productivity tools
• How Wait But Why built a business around Tim Urban’s humorous and insightful content

2. Creating illustrations and designs

Illustrations and graphic design are creative money-making hobbies you can do at home on a freelance contract basis. Fiverr, in particular, features many newer artists with a variety of illustration styles. Potential clients post projects for which they need to hire artists, whether for marketing projects, custom portraits, or anything in between.

If you want more control, you can put your art on products—from t-shirts to posters to canvases—and sell those items instead. It’s important to understand that to turn your art or graphic design into a product, you’ll need to cater to a specific target market or build a unique brand. Hatecopy is an excellent example of a business that was started by an artist putting their work onto items people can buy.

With this type of small business idea, you don’t need to front the money for inventory, either. Print-on-demand services offer a low-risk way to take advantage of your graphic design hobby. You just need to create mockups of your products to list and sell online.

Once you make sales and know which designs have the most demand, you can consider investing in your own inventory.

To learn more, check out the following resources:

3. Making music

While there are a whole range of ways to make money as a musician, one of the more interesting ways is by creating beats and samples. Beats are short hooks composed from different sounds and meant to be a background for a musician, while samples are a portion of a sound recording to reuse elsewhere.

List beats on third-party sites—such as Airbit and BeatStars—that work similarly to stock photo sites. Essentially, people purchase your music to use in their own content. Airbit artists have earned more than $50 million in all, and BeatStars has paid out over $200 million to creators.

You can also set up your own site to sell samples to other artists directly. Samples by Vanity is an online business that sells samples for artists to remix and splice together to create their own music.

You can make your audio exclusive or non-exclusive. There’s more money to be made when you sell exclusive rights, but you need to produce high-quality work. SoundOracle is an example of an online sample library with an excellent reputation—and its sounds have been featured in more than 20 Grammy Award–winning songs.

4. Cooking

Cooking is one money-making hobbies you can share with the world in a variety of ways, from starting a blog, YouTube channel, or Instagram account to diving head first into a business with your own food or cooking products. You might even take your favorite hobby on the road with a food truck business.

For inspiration, check out:

5. Gardening

Gardening is a hobby that can make you happier, healthier, and, perhaps, even a higher earner. As with many of the other hobbies on this list that make money, there are multiple ways to make your gardening hobby profitable. If you’re an avid indoor gardener, you can earn money selling mature indoor plants from your own home. Leaf & Clay, for example, sells succulents, both as one-time purchases and on a subscription basis.

Alternatively, you can also sell products and accessories to help your customers connect with their own gardening hobbies. Technology seller ēdn introduced an indoor garden to its product line, enabling customers to grow herbs and other plants in a compact space with artificial light.

Finally, you can make good money as a gardening influencer or teacher by setting up your own channel on social media, with tips and resources for the tens of thousands of users searching for good gardening content.

6. Doing photography

If you own a high-quality camera and know how to use it, you have options to turn photography from a fun hobby to a profitable side hustle.

While a side job as a freelance photographer is possible, this can restrict you to shooting local events. For a more scalable gig, sell your shots as stock photos or prints online. You can also use your photography skills to grow an Instagram following and monetize it. You need to pick a niche to serve or a style you want to capture in your photos.

Check out the how to sell photos online guide for a more detailed look at how to monetize your photography skills.

7. Producing DIY crafts

If you enjoy working with your hands, there are plenty of crafty things to make and sell: candles, bath bombs, jewelry, soap, and more.

“Handmade” communicates a certain quality, care, and uniqueness that department store alternatives often don’t offer. You can test the market for your products by selling them on a smaller scale to friends and family, at flea markets, or on Etsy, and then think about scaling into a full-fledged business as you rack up customers.

If the idea of crafting the goods yourself isn’t striking a chord, you can also make money selling kits that allow customers to flex their own maker muscles at home. Create DIY kits for fun projects, like FlowerMoxie’s DIY bridal bouquets.

Here are a few more inspiring stories about DIY businesses, and resources to show you how it can be done:

8. Performing comedy

Are you good at making people laugh? Do you know what the hottest memes are right now? Why not take that sense of humor and use it to build an audience on the internet? Comedy is one of the more creative ways to make money from a hobby.

You can probably think of several Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter accounts that amassed large audiences simply by curating memes and viral videos, or by tapping into a niche of humor that no one else was serving.

Once you have an audience, you can partner with brands to do sponsored posts or turn your best running jokes into t-shirts and other products.

Examples of comedy as a side hustle that makes money include:

9. Drinking (and knowing about) coffee

Selling coffee online is a great way to turn a common hobby into a business idea that generates extra money.

Globally, people drink more than 400 billion cups of coffee every year, fueling an industry worth $60 billion annually. And as coffee drinkers have become accustomed to brewing their caffeine fix at home, it’s a prime time to capitalize on this opportunity. If coffee is one of your own passions, it could be next on your list of lucrative hobbies.

Globe-trotting creatives Jeff Campagna and Tania LaCaria found that coffee mixed well with one of their other passions: motorcycle travel. They opened up their own bike garage, Steeltown Garage Co., complete with coffee shop and merch for sale, and they’re cultivating a whole community through their hobby-based business.

Check these out for more inspiration for your coffee biz:

10. Caring for pets

Do you love taking care of your pets, watching funny videos of animals online, or giving back by fostering or donating to animal-related charitable causes? If so, your love of pets can also be a profitable hobby that enables you to earn money in your spare time.

Transforming your pet hobby into a pet business can take a variety of forms. With Supakit, for instance, owners Leili Farzaneh and Kevin White turned a personal pet story into their own shop selling cat accessories.

If you have a unique pet story or extensive experience taking care of animals, you can turn your expertise into extra cash by starting a YouTube channel or social media presence devoted to pet-related content, including an online course or funny videos.

Alternatively, you can concentrate your money-making hobby closer to home by starting a pet-sitting or dog-walking business. Depending on where you live, even a local pet-sitting business can generate a surprising amount of extra money.

11. Brewing beer

Homebrewing, or making your own beer at home, is trending upward—with the global market for using machines to produce at-home brews at 41.2 million.

While brewing beer at home is legal across all 50 states, laws vary. Consider contacting your local jurisdiction or state’s alcohol beverage control agency, for example, as you may be required to obtain certain permits, licenses and approvals from federal, state, and local authorities. However, if you love sampling or making craft brews, there are a variety of ways you can translate that into a money-making endeavor.

Brooklyn Brew Shop, for instance, sells homebrew kits and accessories so its customers can enjoy the hobby themselves.

If you have experience making unique or award-winning beers, you can set up your own online store selling supplies and recipes to adventurous homebrewers, create an online course, or create your own YouTube channel discussing the finer points of the craft.

Finally, homebrewing is a technical hobby with lots of equipment requiring careful setup and maintenance. Still, you can build and sell brewing and kegging setups, or tutor budding brewers directly (in person or virtually).

12. Gaming

You might question the notion of gaming as a moneymaker, but even this hobby has the potential to earn you extra cash. Here are a couple ways:

• You can livestream and play video games on Twitch and make money by becoming an affiliate, a partner, or sponsored. You can also monetize gaming by posting playthroughs to YouTube and earning ad revenue.

• Invite one-time donations from your community of viewers. A perk of this strategy is that it’s relatively easy to implement—you can start making money even in the early development stages of your audience.

• Offer subscriptions to your followers, but keep in mind: Since your audience can fluctuate, this means the amount you earn through live streaming can vary greatly.

While the amount of commitment needed to make a significant income might turn gaming into work, you can still have fun if you choose to stream a game you love, are good at it, and bring your personality to the screen.

If you’re an avid gamer who understands the needs of the market, you already have an advantage as an entrepreneur in this space. You can consider building a business of your own to cater to the needs and interests of gamers. Look for inspiration from the following:

How to make money from a hobby

To start a business based on your hobby, take the following steps:

1. Validate your business idea. Do some market research to make sure there’s demand for your offering.

2. Find a business name. Develop a business name that gives your business a unique identity.

3. Make a plan. Create a business plan to keep you on track to meet your goals.

4. Understand business finances. Set up business accounts, funding sources, and other money matters. (An accountant can help you with these tasks.)

5. Develop your product or service. The product development process is where you turn your hobby-inspired offering into something customers are willing to pay for, whether it’s a physical or digital product, a consulting service, an online course, or a membership.

6. Pick a business structure. Legitimize your business and protect your personal assets by picking the best business structure that meets your needs.

7. Research licenses and regulations. Do your due diligence to ensure you’re conducting business lawfully, or retain the services of a lawyer or legal consultant.

8. Select your software systems. Build your website, set up accounting software, and get the rest of your tech stack up and running.

9. Find a business location. Determine where you can operate your business, whether it be from home or elsewhere, online or a brick-and-mortar store—or both.

10. Plan workload and team size. Bootstrap or hire help, depending on your business plans.

11. Launch your business. Let the world know!

When will I make money from a hobby?

Turning your favorite hobby into a side hustle or full-time job has its perks: You’ll be your own boss, work on your own schedule, and set your own prices—all while doing work that you love. Nevertheless, it’s important to have realistic expectations about the time and work that entails.

To start, you’ll need to build a marketing strategy to let the world know about your side hustle. That strategy may begin on social media, a freelance marketplace, or a full-fledged Shopify store.

When you start making sales, it’s key to keep track of the incoming and outgoing cash. This makes tax time easier, simplifying the process if there’s an audit and helping protect your personal assets. Additionally, tracking your revenue and expenses helps to ensure that your money-making hobby becomes profitable. It’s a good idea to get set up with accounting software to manage your books.

Even with all of these preparations and more, achieving financial independence or a full-time income from your favorite hobby may take months or even years.

Make money from your hobbies today

In many cases, when it comes to discovering a profitable hobby, it’s what is done for free and fun that hints at the kinds of businesses to pursue—with passion and interest as the fuel.

If you have the urge for new pursuits but don’t know where to start, ask yourself what you’re already good at or know about.

What do you already do in your spare time that could turn into something 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.

Businesses have long used social media as a marketing tool. Each has its own benefits, depending on your brand, audience, and goals. Instagram in particular is an ideal platform for gaining brand awareness—but with a business account, you can do so much more.

Users increasingly turn to Instagram and other social networks for product and brand discovery. Instagram is no longer a place to scroll idly past beautiful imagery—it’s a powerful tool for surfacing products to eager buyers. 

Ahead, learn how to set up an Instagram business account, choose the right account type for your brand, and leverage features to help run your business. 

What is an Instagram business account?

An Instagram business account is a type of professional account on the Instagram platform designed for use by brands and businesses. It operates like a personal account, allowing the user to post content and engage with other users. The distinction lies in the features available to business users.

Business accounts on Instagram have access to insights, Instagram’s ad platform, and shopping features. Creator accounts, another type of professional account designed for artists and influencers, have their own suite of features, including Instagram Subscriptions. 

3 types of Instagram accounts

It’s important to understand the difference between the three types of Instagram accounts and choose the right one:

1. Personal account. Most users have personal accounts, which is the default account type for individuals.
2. Creator account. Influencers and content producers can switch to a creator account to access business features designed for their needs. 
3. Business account. Brands and companies selling products or services can use a business account to access insights, ads, and shopping features.

Which Instagram account type is best?

If you already have a personal account, you can convert it to a business account. This may be an ideal move if you already use that account for business, or if you’re the face of your brand. Creators who have personal brands they want to monetize may also switch their personal account to a professional one.

However, some brands benefit from having a distinct branded account separate from its founder. Creating a new account allows you to focus the content and maintain your personal account. You can use your personal account to nudge your followers over to the brand’s account.

In this example, creator Cassey Ho built a strong following for her personal brand, Blogilates. But when she launched her activewear brand, PopFlex, she set up a separate account. This allowed her to keep distinct branding between her two accounts. 

In another example, influencer Katie Sturino launched her brand Megababe under a separate business account. This allows her to continue to post a diversity of body positive content on her creator account and dedicate Megababe’s account to brand content.

How to create an Instagram business account 

Now that you’ve decided which method and account type will work for you. Follow the instructions in the relevant sections below to set up your account. 

Switching to a business profile from a personal profile

If you plan to convert your personal account, these simple instructions allow you to get a business account right inside your account settings.

1. Tap the menu in the upper right corner in your Instagram profile.
2. Tap “Account type and tools.”
3. Tap “Switch to professional account.”
4. Tap “Continue.”
5. Select a category for your business and tap “Done.”
6. Select Business and tap “Next.”
7. Complete optional steps or tap “X” on the top right corner to return to your profile.

Creating a business account from scratch 

Businesses looking to create an account from scratch can follow the same steps for creating a personal account before switching the account type in settings.

1. Create a new Instagram account from scratch by navigating to the Instagram app and following the signup flow.
2. Choose your username and password and enter your contact details.
3. Set up the account (it will automatically be created as a personal profile).
4. Once you have set up your account, follow the steps in the previous section to switch to a business account.

Access your professional dashboard directly from your Instagram business profile. Within settings, you’ll see new options like Insights, which allows you to track account performance.

Switching to a creator account

If you’re a creator with a business account, consider switching to a creator account. This is similar to a business account but offers unique features such as subscription monetization and access to some commercial audio that’s usually restricted for businesses. 

1. Go to your profile and tap the menu in the upper right corner.
2. Select “Business tools and controls.”
3. Select “Switch account type.”
4. Select “Switch to creator account.”
5. Select “Switch.”

Note: You can also switch from a creator account to a business account following the same steps and tapping “Switch to business account.” 

Adding a new business account to Accounts Center

If you already have a personal account and have created a new business account, you can link these accounts, making it easier to toggle between them.

1. Tap the menu in the upper right corner in your Instagram profile.
2. Tap “Accounts Center.”
3. Tap “Add or remove accounts from this Accounts Center.”
4. Follow steps to link your accounts.

You can also link your Meta Accounts Center with Facebook pages and profiles. This allows you to easily toggle between without logging in and out.

If you change your mind about switching your personal account to a professional account, you can easily change it back in your settings. Take note of the warning before you make the switch back—you’ll lose access to business features when you do.

The benefits of a business account on Instagram

Switching to a business account is a no-brainer for brands. You can convert your account in seconds, and it’s free to do. And, you can access features that super-power your Instagram efforts, from ads to insights to monetization.

Get deep insights

Instagram Insights gives you a snapshot into your audience and content performance. This data can be adjusted based on timeframe to help you zero in on your most successful content. As you grow, audience insights will tell you more about your followers and the content they prefer.

Sell directly to followers

With Instagram’s in-app shopping features, your audience can browse and buy products without ever leaving the app, reducing friction and increasing conversion. You can pair your ecommerce store with your Instagram account using the Facebook and Instagram app for Shopify.

Run ad campaigns 

Instagram ads can expose your brand to new followers and potential customers through powerful targeting capabilities. Analytics built into the ad platform help you keep tabs on what’s working so you can double down on your most successful ads.

Ads like these above from Knix and Casper look like regular posts in users’ feeds, with the exception of a small “Sponsored” tag and a direct link to the advertisers’ store.

Add more details to your profile

Switching to a business account means you can super-power your profile with more information and more ways to get in touch. Add a retail address, contact options, and, for creators, a subscribe option.

In the example above, The Herbivorous Butcher and Revol Cares both took advantage of extra features of professional accounts, adding buttons and dropdown options like Shop, Email, Sign Up, and Order Food.

4 tips for making the most of your Instagram business account 

Brand your profile

Like your website or a store display, Instagram is an opportunity to surface your brand to new eyes. Use a branded profile photo or logo and other identifying elements (slogan, brand voice) that help new visitors understand your brand values and aesthetic. 

In this example, Frank Darling not only used a branded profile picture (its own logo), it also created a set of matching icons that serve as covers for its Story Highlights. 

Take advantage of the available features

Business accounts get more out of Instagram bios, with the ability to add location, address, and type of business without taking up precious character count. Also, try adding Instagram shopping and, for creators, Instagram Subscriptions.

Plan your content

While it’s tempting to jump on every Instagram trend or share every exciting moment in your entrepreneurial journey, consider the overall story you are telling. Edit your content down to the types of posts that resonate most with your target customer. And, consider the overall vibe of your content grid. Is it cohesive? Does it reflect your brand?

In the above examples, brands Freedom Moses and SuzyQ Doughnuts both consider the overall feed aesthetic when posting content. Consistent type treatments and color palettes make these brands feel professional.

Consider your target audience

With a personal account, your posting habits are often related to what you like. Business accounts should consider, however, the content their target audience likes. If the goal of your Instagram account is to increase brand awareness, grow your audience, or drive sales, consider what content will help you achieve that. 

One study found that certain content types perform better overall than others, with funny, creative, and informative content taking the top three spots. 

However, this data represents Instagram users overall and may not match your target audience’s preferences. Test content types and formats, and analyze which resonates best with your followers. 

How to grow your business account 

With your business account set up and a plan for moving forward, you can start to consider the bigger picture: how will you grow your account to help meet business goals? Alongside monitoring your insights and adjusting your content strategy accordingly, there are more ways to grow your business on Instagram.

• Try Instagram ads. Instagram ads look like organic posts and appear with them in the feed. Ads can get you more reach and help you target specific audiences by demographic and interests.
• Use relevant hashtags. Research hashtags that are trending at the moment or in your industry and use only those that match your content and brand. This can attract more Instagram followers by giving your content more reach.
• Engage in partnerships. Partnering with other complementary brands can be a win-win for both brands. Choose partners wisely and ensure you share similar audiences to gain reach with the right people. Run a co-hosted giveaway or launch a collab product. 
• Leverage the power of influencers. Even smaller influencers can give your brand a boost. Find those that are genuinely excited about your brand so that the partnership feels genuine.

Building an Instagram business from the ground up 

Now that you’ve set up your new professional account, it’s time to put its features to work! Instagram can be a valuable tool for brands that take advantage of its power to build awareness, foster connections with users, and drive sales.

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.

Crafting the perfect pitch to deliver to investors can be time consuming. And, if you don’t have the right resources, understanding the venture capital world can be intimidating. That’s why tapping into others’ expertise can be valuable.

Elly Truesdell spent nearly 10 years at Whole Foods, sourcing new brands as global director of product innovation, before starting her venture fund, New Fare Partners. The fund has backed powerhouse brands such as Omsom, Midday Squares, and chef Bobby Flay’s premium cat food line, Made by Nacho.

Elly has experience both pitching investors and receiving pitches from founders. Ahead, she shares her strategies for pitching and actionable tips for aspiring business owners. 

 

Drafting short and organized emails

Investors have limited time on their hands and receive a large number of pitches. If you can break your cold email into small digestible sections and clear objectives, it’s more likely someone will get back to you. “Length is so important. Keep it tight and make your point quickly,” Elly says. 

Adding a personal touch 

Having a personal anecdote will go a long way. “I need to know why you, as a founder, have gone out and put your life on the line to build this business, not just that you’re chasing opportunity,” Elly says.

Making your brand as personal as possible will help convince investors to take a chance on you. It’s best to have a few stories that explain the larger impact of your business, what it means to you, and why the connection is so strong. “Get me excited and interested beyond you just making money,” Elly says. 

Find out what is going to tie that fund, angel investor, or high net worth person to your business. Story will go a long way to making this connection. “There needs to be something tangible and more personal to you and them, because I need to know no one else could do it the way you’re doing it,” Elly says. 

Knowing your audience

Find personal anecdotes that connect you to each fund and thoroughly research each investor you pitch. Check in with other founders who can give you first-hand advice, improving your chances of securing funding. “Know their past investments and motivations to set yourself up for success, and talk to those other founders, because they will be honest,” Elly says.

Putting yourself in a good position to pitch your brand in a way that’s suited to an investor is key. “We try to keep very up-to-date notes with specs on investors, with their website, key players, typical check size, their stage, and current portfolio, so that we’re walking into the conversation as if we’re a student of the fund,” Elly says. 

As important as it is to research funds, it’s important to know your competitors as well. “It’s tough when I get pitched a product that says they’re the only person doing X … and I, just off the top of my head, know three or four other brands who are doing it,” Elly says.

Practice makes perfect

Going through the pitching process isn’t easy. As difficult as it is to put yourself out there in front of investors, you’ll get better at it over time. 

“In my early days of Made by Nacho, we had a couple sample pitches on Zoom calls with funds and people that we knew either wouldn’t invest or were not people that we really wanted to invest, just to practice,” Elly says. If you can do so without wasting anyone’s time, use your connections to work out your pitch and practice feeling confident. 

Doing a few test runs is important. It will be even more helpful if you have other people that you’re raising money with, because there needs to be a bit of choreography to your pitch. 

As a founder, you’re going to face many rejections, but it shouldn’t stop you from pushing onward. 

Discover more of Elly’s fundraising tips and hear how she developed her career on the fullShopify 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.

You don’t need a revolutionary new product idea to sell things online. In fact, you don’t even have to manufacture your own products to start your own ecommerce business.

Various business models put product development, manufacturing, and order fulfillment into the hands of others—and profits into yours. One of these models is the resale business model.

Becoming a reseller is a great way to launch a small business and quickly start selling online. Read on to learn how to become a reseller, and get some tips and ideas for running a successful reseller online shop.

What is a reseller? 

A reseller is a business that purchases products from manufacturers, liquidators, or other retailers and then sells them to its own customers. A reseller business permit—also known as a resale license, resale certificate, or tax exemption certificate—allows resellers to purchase certain items free of sales tax, including:

• Items to sell at wholesale
• Items to sell at retail
• Ingredients or components to manufacture and sell things

The reselling business model makes it easier for the average consumer to find and purchase products.

Many resellers also provide a value-add for the customer experience. For instance, buying directly from a supplier isn’t necessarily easy, and often requires minimum purchase quantities. By contrast, resellers can sell items individually to customers (at a markup), as well as create a branded customer experience. Those elements may be as simple as in-depth product descriptions and reviews, a customer loyalty program, and customer support.

A reselling business has a number of benefits and can be a profitable business model, especially if you have niche expertise. You can launch an ecommerce store faster when you don’t have to go through all the steps of product development and building an audience.

Reselling is also a viable business pursuit for people who like and have success with marketing. If you can plan and execute effective marketing strategies, your reselling business is more likely to achieve success.

Straight product reselling is great for someone who has specific expertise or knowledge of an industry or demographic. For example, someone who knows a lot about vintage apparel could create a reselling business around vintage concert t-shirts.

How to become a reseller

1. Register your business
2. Research state laws and regulations
3. Gather your application materials
4. Get a resale permit

1. Register your business

Get a business license where your business operates and/or is incorporated. In states outside of where a business is registered, you’ll need to have foreign qualification.

2. Research state laws and regulations

Many states will let you use an out-of-state reseller’s permit to avoid paying sales tax on resale items. However, some won’t honor out-of-state permits. Research state law before buying across state lines, both for in-person and online sales.

3. Gather your application materials

Once you know what you need to register and submit your application, prep all the necessary documentation for your reseller business.

4. Get a resale permit

File for a reseller business permit in each state where you buy and sell goods. You might also have to pay associated fees.

Sales tax laws vary by state, and each state has its own sales tax rates. In some states, local sales taxes must be collected, too. According to the Tax Foundation, 45 states and the District of Columbia collect statewide sales taxes, and 38 states collect local sales taxes. To find out your specific requirements, it’s best to check with your local jurisdiction.

In the United States, a business with a reseller permit doesn’t pay sales tax on the products it purchases for sale. However the reseller does have to collect sales tax from its customers and send it to the state.

Like a business license, you take out a resale permit wherever your resale business operates. So, if you incorporate in Florida, but have an online store, shipping location, or factory in Delaware, you’ll need a Delaware reseller’s permit. If you buy and sell goods in multiple states, you’ll need a valid permit in each.

How to find suppliers for your resale business 

To find a supplier for your resale business, start with identifying what types of products you want to sell and what kinds of customers you want to sell them to. Then you’ll need to determine if you want to find a supplier that operates like a distributor, providing wholesale products to you, or like a dropshipper, supplying products and handling order fulfillment.

To search for reseller business suppliers, you can browse online directories, do a Google search, or ask for referrals from within your network. Here is a list of product sourcing apps perfect for Shopify merchants. Each serves as a directory that makes it easy to find products to sell online. You can access a variety of products across all kinds of categories, such as electronics, toys, and cosmetics.

You can also start a reselling business by partnering with well-known dropshipping websites like Worldwide Brands, SaleHoo, Doba, and AliExpress (see our complete guide to AliExpress). Browse their websites to see what kinds of products are available for resale.

Five reseller business ideas

Reselling opens the doors to a lot of new business opportunities, as you don’t have to invest in product development and manufacturing. These qualities also make reselling a great home business or side hustle, which you can eventually turn into a full-time job.

Here are five ideas to get you started with a reselling business.

1. Dropshipping business

You can start a dropshipping business, which gives you the ability to offer a wide range of products without stocking any inventory. In a dropshipping business model, the products that you’ll resell are all fulfilled by the supplier—all you have to do is market and sell the products. Your dropshipping supplier handles everything product-related, from product development to warehousing and tracking, and even through to order fulfillment.

Dropshipping is a low-risk business model because it doesn’t require investment in inventory, not to mention the costs associated with storing that stock. Plus, the supplier handles the fulfillment process for you, so you don’t need staff or a space to ship goods to customers.

2. Sneaker business

Shoes offer resellers a wide range of niches—from athletic shoes to stylish heels to trendy sneakers and everything in between. People always need shoes, and you can keep things fresh by launching seasonal designs. There’s ample opportunity to resell shoes and make a tidy profit doing so.

New Jersey–based Shopify merchant Packer Shoes started as a small neighborhood custom shoe shop. The company has grown since its humble beginnings in 1907, largely thanks to its omnichannel approach. Now, in addition to reselling sneakers from household name brands like Adidas, Packer Shoes offers its own designs as well.

3. Vintage boutique

If you’re thinking about how to start an online boutique for reselling, you’re on the right track. The used goods resale industry is huge: in the US alone, there are more than 20,000 stores that sell used goods, amounting to a combined annual revenue of about $17.6 billion. A vintage boutique is a great way to take advantage of this reselling business opportunity.

When sourcing vintage goods for your reseller business, you can go by the traditional definition of goods that are older than 50 years and younger than 100, or you can take inspiration from vintage trends. COAL N TERRY does the latter with its vintage clothing collection.

You can resell vintage clothing, antique furniture, or any knick-knacks you can find at garage sales, yard sales, thrift stores, or donation centers. The key to a successful vintage reselling business is to learn what items people look for, and the price points they’re willing to pay. For example, vintage Corningware is in high demand for a niche market of customers.

4. Consignment 

If an online business selling vintage goods sounds appealing, consider taking this idea to the next level by opening a consignment shop. Consignment shops sell upscale or luxury used goods, and not everything is antique or vintage—some items are newer.

Love that Bag etc, for example, is a Shopify merchant that operates a consignment shop from its online store. Though Love that Bag etc is selling high-quality designer bags for less than they cost brand new, they’re more expensive than bags you might find at a vintage shop.

5. Subscription box

The subscription box reached peak popularity with brands like Birchbox, and remains a flexible business model for a reseller looking to establish a more predictable revenue stream. You can curate an assortment of goods and package them into a single box.

To start your own subscription business, first determine your target market and then look for goods that fit their wants and needs. You can assemble the goods in themed boxes and launch a new one each week, month, quarter, or whatever cadence you want to hit.

Start your reselling business today

Now that you know how to become a reseller, consider starting your reseller journey today. Because you don’t have to invest in product development, upfront inventory, or fulfillment, this business model is a low-risk way to dip your toes into operating an ecommerce business and owning your own shop.

Illustration by Gracia Lam

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.

There are hundreds of places to sell things online. Some sites are focused on specific niches, like video games and tech. Others allow retailers to sell anything from clothing to books to furniture and beyond.

While there are benefits to selling online through marketplaces, it’s important to consider factors such as commissions and transaction fees to find the best platform for you.

This article contains some of the best online selling sites, the benefits of starting your own online store, and how using both approaches can boost sales.

Building your own store

Starting an online store can be rewarding and, when done right, bring in more profit than is possible with a marketplace. The drawback of creating a website is that you have to market your business and get people onto your site. Building a brand can also take time. 

When you run your own ecommerce store, you don’t pay fees on each sale or have to abide by third-party rules. If this sounds interesting to you, here’s what you can do to build your own website from scratch. 

Shopify

Shopify is the easiest way to create your own store. As an ecommerce platform, Shopify allows sellers to get up and running with zero tech skills and low costs. Shopify powers millions of businesses and is known for its affordable prices, professional designs, and useful marketing tools. 

If you want to use a website builder to build a website, you can choose from over 100 templates with built-in features. With Shopify, you get your own website, blog, SSL certifications, abandoned shopping cart recovery, and many other beginner-friendly marketing tools. You can sell stuff on your website, across multiple marketplaces like Amazon or eBay, and create personalized shopping experiences that lead to more sales.

Top websites to sell products online in 2024

• eBay
• Bonanza
• Ruby Lane
• Etsy
• Chairish
• Swappa
• Poshmark
• Decluttr
• Amazon

eBay

eBay is one of the original destinations for people who want to sell merchandise online, having been around since 1995—and it’s still thriving. The marketplace has over 1.7 billion listings and 135 million users worldwide.

You can sell anything on eBay, from everyday items like shoes and watches to weird stuff (yes, that’s a product category) like popcorn-scented pillows, bottles of air, and vintage ’70s giant-hand chairs. There’s a continuous flow of motivated customers and easy ways to integrate eBay as an additional sales channel for your online store. 

eBay fees

If you plan to sell on eBay, take the online selling site’s fees into consideration. It charges a non-refundable listing fee for each product and another insertion fee if you list the same items in two different categories. It also charges a final value fee (usually between 10% and 12%), calculated as a percentage of the total amount of the sale, including any shipping costs and handling charges. 

Bonanza

Bonanza is an online selling site that’s growing in popularity as an eBay alternative. You can sell pretty much anything on the platform, and it receives nearly two million monthly visits to its website.

Think of Bonanza as the middle ground between the online selling sites Amazon and eBay. There are more unique and handmade items for sale on Bonanza than on eBay, but fewer branded names than on Amazon. For example, you can sell the latest Nike Air Max model or a handmade copper necklace and find active buyers for each. Buyers can add products to their cart for a set price or negotiate an offer with you through the platform.

Bonanza fees

Bonanza charges you nothing to list your products on its site. It takes only a small percentage of your final sale price after you sell. And since many Bonanza sellers also have their own online stores, you can integrate Bonanza with platforms like Shopify to manage and sell products more easily. 

Ruby Lane

Ruby Lane is an online marketplace for vintage and antiques. Selling on Ruby Lane gives you access to highly targeted buyers for categories like antiques and collectibles, vintage and art, dolls, and jewelry.

Whether you’re an antiques and collectibles store owner or just want online selling sites, Ruby Lane is a good place to connect with passionate buyers. 

Ruby Lane fees

Fees and payments for Ruby Lane are straightforward. It’s free to set up and list your products. But you need to pay a monthly maintenance fee of $25. In addition, Ruby Lane charges a 9.9% service fee based on total purchase order, which is capped at $250. 

Etsy

Etsy is a selling site for handcrafted and vintage items. In 2015, it began including maker-developed manufactured goods, but only for select accounts on the marketplace. Currently, there are over 95 million active buyers on Etsy, making it a potentially lucrative way to start selling online.

If you’re new to online selling sites, Etsy provides access to an active buyer network, a pop-up storefront, and tools to help market your business on the platform.

Etsy fees

You’ll be charged a $0.20 listing fee for each item you sell on Etsy. Listings expire every four months. So if your item doesn’t sell and you renew the listing, you’ll be charged an additional additional $0.20. When you make a sale, you’ll be charged a transaction fee of 6.5% of the display price, plus the amount you charge for shipping and gift wrapping.

Chairish

Chairish is an online consignment shop made for high-quality home decor and furniture. It takes minutes to list an item (for free), and depending on your seller plan, between 70% and 80% of the selling price goes back to you.

If you have design-oriented furniture or home decor to sell online, this is a relevant online selling site. It can quickly land your business in front of ideal customers.

Chairish fees

Chairish has free and paid plans, with differing commission rates depending on product type and plan tier. When you list your items, Chairish’s curatorial team reviews your listings to ensure they meet the marketplace’s standards. They also handle shipping, so you never have to worry about logistics when selling on Chairish.

Swappa

Got an old iPhone sitting around that you want to get rid of? Or a Nintendo Switch you don’t use much anymore? Turn your tech into cash on Swappa, a buy-and-sell website for phones, laptops, cameras, and more.

Swappa vets all the products that get sold on its marketplace, so everything you submit must be in good working condition. Payments are protected by PayPal. 

Swappa fees

There are no fees to create a listing, but you can choose to have your items featured for $5. When you make a sale, you pay a 3% fee, along with the buyer.

Poshmark

Launched more than a decade ago, Poshmark is one of the most popular social commerce marketplaces for users who want to sell clothing and lifestyle accessories.

With more than 80 million registered users, sellers on the platform benefit from a large community of eager buyers. Poshmark sellers can also share their items on social media.

Poshmark fees

As stated in its FAQ, sales under $15 accrue a flat commission of $2.95. For sales over $15 Poshmark’s commission is 20%.

Decluttr

Decluttr is another platform that focuses on electronics, but it’s also a selling site for books, game consoles, and other home entertainment items.

Decluttr fees

Unlike some of the other marketplaces on this list, Decluttr buys your electronics directly. Using their app, scan the barcode of the items you wish to sell for a quote. Decluttr handles all shipping costs and pays for your items as soon as they’re received. 

Amazon

Amazon pioneered the concept of online marketplaces and continues to reign supreme.

As global ecommerce sales continue to grow, Amazon remains the go-to selling site for many. It’s reported that Amazon sells over 4,000 products per minute, providing sellers with an active, built-in audience. 

Amazon fees

The cost to sell on Amazon depends on your plan, product category, fulfillment strategy, and other variables. At minimum, you’ll pay $39.99 per month for a Professional Seller plan.

Local online selling sites

If you plan to sell in your community, here are the top online sites to sell stuff locally for free:

• Facebook Marketplace
• Craigslist
• Nextdoor
• VarageSale
• Offerup

Facebook Marketplace

Facebook Marketplace from Meta is an online selling site where individual people can discover, buy, and sell items on Facebook. More than one in three people in the US use Marketplace each month, offering a huge opportunity for sellers to reach an active audience. It’s free to list and Meta takes no fees, but there are guidelines you need to follow to sell on the platform. 

Meta has also partnered with platforms like Shopify to let merchants show their inventory, advertise items, and find new customers for their business.

Craigslist

Craigslist is one of the earlier online selling sites. Started in 1995 by Craig Newmark, it began as an email distribution list between friends featuring local events in the San Francisco Bay Area. It quickly became a web-based marketplace and, over the years, expanded into 700 cities across 70 countries. It’s free and pretty basic but definitely not the best online store to sell items at scale. It’s essentially a big local forum with a lot of stuff.

Craigslist is a higher-risk online marketplace. Because of the platform’s “hands-off” approach to buying and selling, scams can happen easily, and if they do, you don’t get any help from the company.

Nextdoor

Nextdoor is similar to Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist in that it’s focused on community selling. Nextdoor also enables the “friendly neighbor” feel by letting people post about what’s going on in their neighborhood—whether it’s traffic delays or restaurant recommendations. It acts as the hub for any given area.

Nextdoor also offers a free forum to sell your items online. It’s similar to Facebook Marketplace: there are no listing fees and you’ll have to meet buyers in person. It feels a little safer too, because you need to make an account before you can access the platform.

VarageSale

VarageSale is a virtual garage sale buy and sell app. It was started in Canada by an ex-elementary school teacher fed up with scams and fake listings on other classified sites. VarageSale user profiles are based on real identities—everyone goes through a manual review process before you’re allowed to buy or sell.

Buyers can browse seller ratings and message sellers to connect before making the sale. They can ask questions and schedule pick-up in the app. People sell everything including furniture, clothing, shoes, and more on VarageSale. It’s also free for members. 

Offerup

Offerup allows users to browse electronics, clothing, and even automobiles based on ZIP code. Interested buyers can contact sellers through the app to negotiate price and set up a location to meet.

Like VarageSale, Offerup has procedures to ensure the safety of users. Before you agree to meet up, you can browse user profiles and read a seller’s reviews. Offerup uses TruYou to verify identities of their users helping to further increase safety. They also recommend community meetup spots to make the transaction as reassuring as possible.

Best global online selling sites 

Want to sell to an international audience? Here are the best sites to sell online around the world:

• AliExpress
• Taobao
• OTTO
• Rakuten
• Mercado Libre
• Flipkart
• MyDeal

AliExpress

Founded in 2010, AliExpress is Alibaba’s cross-border ecommerce marketplace, with nearly 20 million daily visitors. Users of the platform can sell to individual people or businesses, whether they are manufacturing products or adding an AliExpress dropshipping model to their online store.

AliExpress takes between 5% and 8% of commission fees for each transaction, depending on your product category. Otherwise, there are no overhead or arrangement fees to sell on the platform.

Taobao

Taobao is an online selling site founded in 2003 that has grown to become the largest online marketplace in the world by gross merchandise value.

OTTO 

Otto is based in Germany and has a focus on fashion and lifestyle products. It grew from a post-war mail-order company selling shoes to a business with 11 million active customers.

Today, over 90% of OTTO’s products are sold online, including branded products and goods from third-party retailers.

Rakuten

Rakuten is a large marketplace based out of Japan that provides ecommerce, banking, communications services, and more. Similar to marketplaces like Amazon, you can sell in endless product categories, including clothing, books, sports, subscription boxes, and more.

Businesses who want to sell on Rakuten need to be registered in the United States or Japan, or use a service partner.

Mercado Libre

Mercado Libre is the most popular ecommerce marketplace in Latin America, serving over 18 countries. Sellers on the platform sell many types of products from 20 main categories and 123 subcategories.

Flipkart

Flipkart started as an online bookstore in 2007 and has become the largest online selling site in India. Retailers can sell anything on Flipkart, including consumer elections, fashion, home essentials, groceries, and lifestyle products. An Amazon competitor, Walmart-backed Flipkart continues to lead ecommerce market share in India. 

MyDeal 

MyDeal is an Australian marketplace offering more than one million products across 3,500 categories, welcoming over four million visitors per month. It’s strictly a marketplace, meaning it doesn’t sell products of its own, only those from third-party sellers.

While you can sell products in various categories, the platform tends to focus on furniture, homewares, and other big items. MyDeal doesn’t offer any fulfillment services, so sellers must coordinate their own shipping or use an outside logistics company.

Find the best online selling site

Every online business owner should explore different online selling sites, regardless of whether you’re running a dropshipping store or selling custom products. Sometimes they can help new businesses get off the ground with a built-in audience of active buyers and marketing opportunities. 

Regardless, it’s important to not rely only on online marketplaces. You’ll want to create your own online store to build your brand, connect with shoppers, and retain more profits. With a digital home base, you’ll stop paying out commissions and fees to each online selling site and grow your business for the long term. After all, the best sites to sell online are the ones you own. 

Illustration by Rachel Tunstall

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.

Every day, millions of people use Shopify to power their businesses. From online side hustles and neighborhood shops to global retail giants, Shopify makes commerce better for every store.

So what is Shopify, and how does it work? Ahead, explore Shopify’s store management software and selling tools. Learn how to customize Shopify for your needs, and why it might be the right platform for your next business idea.

What is Shopify?

Shopify is a complete commerce platform that lets anyone start, manage, and grow a business. You can use Shopify to build an online store, manage sales, market to customers, and accept payments in digital and physical locations.

Shopify’s reputation as a commerce leader comes from listening to the experiences of millions of business owners. By supporting solopreneurs and enterprise brands, Shopify has built the features and products that power today’s businesses and will shape the future of commerce.

How does Shopify work?

Shopify bundles commerce activities into a single platform, with one admin to monitor the entire sales process, from receiving an order to post-sale analytics.

With Shopify, business owners can sell in multiple places, including on their website, on marketplaces and social media, and in person through brick-and-mortar locations. Inventory and customer information can be synced across channels for simple management.

Shopify is a secure, cloud-based and hosted platform, which means you can safely access your data from any compatible device with an internet connection. This gives you the flexibility to run your business from anywhere.

Commerce businesses require an array of tools to manage tasks like inventory management and shipping. Connecting these systems can cost business owners time and money. That’s why Shopify bundles technologies to create a complete picture of your business activity: your Shopify admin.

What’s included with Shopify?

Shopify is a buildable product that includes a core offering across several plans. Store owners can stack additional products on that base layer, customizing components and integrating apps to create a personalized experience for their business’s needs.

Base layer: Shopify’s core product

Every Shopify plan* comes with everything you need to turn your idea into a business and start selling: an online store with customizable templates, tools to sell across channels, Shopify’s fast and secure checkout, and built-in marketing features. This is the foundation upon which Shopify’s other products and applications are built.

Here are some of the features included with your Shopify subscription:

• Customizable themes. Shopify’s free online store themes have built-in support for animations, including dynamic scrolling and hover effects.
• AI features to help you get more done. Generate on-brand content, set up auto-reply, and write product descriptions with Shopify Magic.
• Access to millions of mobile shoppers on the Shop app. Personalize your mobile store and extend your brand in a matter of clicks. Shop Stores includes customizable collections, categories, and navigation—just like your online store.
• The world’s best checkout. Shopify plans come with the world’s highest-converting one-click checkout that’s trusted by the biggest brands.
• A custom domain on Shopify. Select and host your domain securely with Shopify, with full control and configuration to customize easily.

*The Shopify Starter plan is designed for social selling and may not include some of the base features described above.

Layer 2: Shopify’s additional products, plans, and services

Every independent business is unique. And as your store scales, its needs evolve. That’s why Shopify offers powerful upgrades that can be added to your admin—many for no extra cost. Whether it’s access to capital or accelerated payment options, Shopify-exclusive products can be stacked within the admin.

Shopify POS

You can sell in person with Shopify POS, using plans and hardware that let you sell on the go or across multiple brick-and-mortar retail locations. Shopify retail plans include everything you need to sell online, too—and all your retail and ecommerce sales are synced in Shopify.

Shopify Plus

Ready to level up? Shopify Plus is a customizable enterprise solution, featuring a scalable, powerful platform for high-volume businesses. Join some of the world’s best brands, including Ruggable, Knix, and Magnolia and sell everywhere with one platform, packed with powerful insights and automations. Sell more, move faster, and unlock strategic partnerships.

Features exclusive to Shopify Plus include:

• Customizable checkout with app integrations. Extend your checkout in a way that’s app-based, upgrade-safe, higher converting, and integrated with Shop Pay.
• B2B process automation. Get more from your existing apps using Shopify Flow.
• Custom audience lists. Using Shopify Audiences you can fine-tune customer acquisition, thanks to smart algorithms that predict relevant customers.
• Duties and import taxes calculation. Sell across borders through your online store with Shopify Markets.
• Plus,24/7 dedicated tech support.

💡 Learn more: Shopify Plus Pricing, Features, and Resources

Commerce Components

Commerce Components by Shopify (CCS) is a modern composable stack for enterprise retail. With this solution, the world’s largest retailers like Mattel and Glossier can integrate components of Shopify with their own systems. CCS provides access to Shopify’s foundational features—like a checkout that converts 72% better than the average checkout—plus flexible APIs to build dynamic customer experiences that integrate seamlessly with preferred back office technologies.

And many more

Other Shopify products available as add-ons for most plans include:

• Shopify Collabs. Get matched with the best influencers and affiliate marketers to represent your products and push traffic to your online store.
• Shopify Inbox. Turn online store browsers into buyers with the power of chat marketing.
• Shopify capital. Access the cash flow you need to scale your business.

See all Shopify products and features.

Layer 3: Apps built by trusted partners

Shopify’s App Store features thousands of apps built by third-party developers to customize your online store.

Need a particular function for your business? There’s likely an app that can help make it a reality. Whether it’s a smart SMS app, custom size charts, online store recommendations powered by AI, or apps to streamline social ads, just check the app store.

If you can’t find the app you’re looking for, there’s also a marketplace of Shopify Expert Partners you can hire to build custom solutions for your business.

The fine print: Shopify pricing and plans

Shopify plans range from the Starter plan, perfect for creators selling on social media channels, to Shopify Retail plans for brick-and-mortar, to enterprise solutions for high-volume global brands. These include Basic Shopify and Advanced Shopify plans for every level.

Shopify pricing for plans ranges from $5 per month for the Starter plan to upward of $2,300 per month for Shopify Plus.

Three core Shopify plans for online stores are:

• Basic Shopify plan: Perfect for small businesses.
• Shopify plan: Ideal for growing businesses.
• Advanced Shopify plan: More functionality for medium and large businesses.

There are no transaction fees for stores using Shopify Payments. However, if you choose a third-party payment provider, there will be additional fees.

Shopify plans include a free trial.

Additional plans include:

• Shopify Starter: Made for creators and those selling through social and messaging apps (without the need for a dedicated online store).
• Retail Plan: For retail stores and in-person sellers (Shopify POS).
• Shopify Plus: A solution for enterprise Shopify merchants.

✏️ Note: Check the pricing page specific to your region for accurate pricing information.

7 reasons to choose Shopify

When starting a business from scratch or looking to migrate to a new commerce partner, there are many solutions on the market. Is Shopify right for your brand?

Consider the unique benefits below, then compare Shopify with other commerce platforms to discover which is right for your business.

1. Shopify supports you across the ecommerce ecosystem

Online, offline, and everywhere in between, Shopify is home to a large, diverse set of entrepreneurs, store owners, developers, and commerce partners.

2. Shopify takes you global

Shopify empowers entrepreneurs around the world to build, connect, and scale their businesses. With businesses in more than 175 countries, Shopify provides entrepreneurs everywhere the platform, building blocks, and tools needed to sell locally and across international borders.

3. Shopify empowers creative expression

Shopify believes there should be diverse voices, stories, and experiences in commerce. That’s why the product is designed with the greatest amount of extensibility, flexibility, customization, and freedom of expression.

4. Shopify lets your brand shine

Your brand is the star. That’s why Shopify works hard in the background of your branded ecommerce website. Tell the story of your brand and products using themes that support customization, video, and other features to bring your store to life for stand-out buyer experiences.

5. Shopify is the most integrated commerce platform out of the box

Shopify not only centralizes entire commerce businesses but also offers access to the widest set of commerce integrations built using a shared technical framework. This ensures Shopify has breadth and depth across themes, apps, channels, products, and experiences.

6. Shopify eliminates unnecessary complexity

Independent business owners wear many hats, especially in the early days of starting a business. That’s why Shopify offers a simple and accessible platform that seamlessly integrates tools and channels in one place. Business owners opt into only what they need, eliminating clutter and streamlining operations.

7. Shopify is built to grow with you

No matter your technical maturity, growth, size, complexity, or location, you will never lack access to technology and features to build your business. Shopify offers plans and products that flex with you as you scale or evolve.

Surface your brand everywhere, sell anywhere

Shopify helps you transform your brand vision into a real commerce experience, so that you can sell to the right customers in the right place—online, offline, and everywhere in between.

Sell through an online store

Sell to customers browsing on desktop or mobile through a dedicated online store, customized with your branding. Personalize the front end of your website with custom storefronts to create a unique, seamless online shopping experience for your customers.

Sell across social sales channels and marketplaces

Promote and sell your products across multiple channels from one centralized place—Shopify. Grow your audience by selling where your potential customers shop, across social media and popular marketplaces including Facebook, Walmart, and more. Integrate sales channels with apps that sync inventory and data.

Sell in the Shop App

Make it easy for customers to quickly check out, track orders and shipment details, and discover your business with Shop App, a digital shopping assistant powered by Shop Pay.

Sell in person with retail tools

Sell in person, backed by data you need to sell online, with Shopify’s all-in-one POS system. Provide customers with a frictionless shopping experience, manage staff, track inventory, and more. From full POS solutions for multi-location brick-and-mortar stores to on-the-go hardware for selling at markets, Shopify has you covered.

Make customer connections with Shopify

Insights built into Shopify’s admin help you understand your customers to deliver timely and marketing messages.

Shopify gives business owners opportunities to build and own long-term customer relationships through a suite of built-in features, app integrations, and automations. These include:

• Shopify Markets. Expand your reach by selling to customers around the world. With Shopify Markets, you can go global and sell to customers anywhere—all through a single online store.
• Customer engagement and marketing tools. Reach the right person with the right message at the right time using Shopify’s customer engagement and marketing tools. Leverage segmentation, email marketing, automation features, and more to drive relevance and engage your audience.
• Messaging tools. Talk to customers and manage conversations from anywhere with Shopify Inbox. Create automated messages and get insights to focus on chats that convert.
• Powerful marketing insights and analytics. Make informed decisions for your business and understand customer behavior using marketing insights and data provided by Shopify’s reports and analytics.
• B2B on Shopify. Deliver customized experiences your B2B customers will love. With Shopify, you can manage both your B2B and DTC customers, orders, storefronts, and inventory, all from one place.
• Shopify Forms. Use this free email capture app that works seamlessly with the rest of Shopify—think discounts, Shopify Email, marketing automations, segmentation, and more.
• Customer segmentation. Group customers based on their unique behaviors and characteristics, such as how much they’ve spent or where they’re located. This lets you personalize your messaging and drive revenue.

The tools you need to grow and thrive

Shopify Shipping and other built-in features streamline your online store operations.

Shopify helps accelerate entrepreneurs’ journey to success through features that help manage inventory, streamline shipping, and achieve business goals. These include:

• A central admin. Manage your business, orders, and customers across all sales channels and store locations in one place.
• Shipping and fulfillment tools. Centralize everything required to manage fulfillment, inventory, shipping and more with Shopify. Leverage Shopify Shipping to get preferred carrier rates, print labels, and streamline order management.
• Financial products. Manage your business financials with Shopify Balance, Capital, Bill Pay, and Credit.
• Shop Pay. Enable customers to checkout quickly using encryption to save their details and use a fast one-click checkout. Delight your customers by offering flexible payment options like Shop Pay Installments.
• Mobile app. Use the Shopify app to run your business wherever you are. With it, you can manage your Shopify store on the go, respond to information in real time, check insights, and more.

With millions of independent businesses selling every type of product in markets around the world, solving for each of their needs is a tall order. Cramming every possible feature into one platform only makes the product harder to use for the majority of business owners.

Instead, Shopify prioritizes making the platform flexible with the ability to add functionality to address the unique complexities of each business. Optional Shopify products and sales channels can be layered on directly from the Shopify admin. And, developers around the world are invited to build apps, themes, and other integrations specifically for Shopify’s platform.

A flexible commerce platform for any business

With millions of independent businesses selling every type of product in markets around the world, solving for each of their needs is a tall order.

Instead of cramming every possible feature into a confusing platform, Shopify prioritizes flexibility. You can add the functionality you need to address the complexities of your business.

Optional products and sales channels can be layered directly from the Shopify admin. Plus, developers around the world are invited to build apps, themes, and other integrations specifically for Shopify.

If you want to dabble with the code yourself, Shopify makes it possible to:

• Personalize your theme or build a new theme from scratch.
• Build custom apps for your store using developer tools and Shopify’s APIs.
• Use APIs to power custom experiences, like selling your products in a video game.

With Shopify, you don’t have to trade ease-of-use for advanced features. Get your store and campaigns up and running quickly, while creating rich experiences that can compete with big brands.

Get started with Shopify today

Shopify is an all-in-one commerce platform and a rich ecosystem that connects sellers, developers, business experts, and shoppers in the shared pursuit of making commerce better for everyone.

Shopify makes entrepreneurship more accessible to anyone seeking independence—from self-made TikTok stars to innovative product developers. Whether you’re a creator looking to monetize your personal brand, a scrappy trailblazer finding your footing, or a heritage brand reaching customers around the world, Shopify is built for you.

Ready to start a business? Getting up and running on Shopify begins with a free trial so you can explore everything the platform has to offer. Build your brand, develop your products, and start reaching customers and making in-person and online sales today.

Feature illustration by Núria Madrid

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

Credit: Original article published here.

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

You’re working hard to market your company. You’re writing your product descriptions, optimizing your images, and mastering most of the other elements of effective search engine optimization (SEO).

Still, if you’re like many business owners, one aspect of ecommerce SEO could be giving you trouble: meta descriptions. This guide covers what meta descriptions are, and how to write compelling meta descriptions and optimize your site for search engines.

What is a meta description?

A meta description is an HTML tag that summarizes a webpage’s content. It’s the snippet of text, often around 160 characters long, that appears under your page title in search engine result pages.

In the screenshot below, the meta description reads “Try Shopify free and start a business or grow an existing one. Get more than ecommerce software with tools to manage every part of your business.”

Importance of meta descriptions for SEO

Search engines show it in search results when the meta description also includes the keywords being searched.

Unlike the page title, meta descriptions aren’t an SEO ranking factor, but they do entice search engine users to click through to a page and are part of effective on-page SEO. You’ll see them in a page’s code as .

A meta description is the promise you make to searchers. Among a sea of competing webpages, it calls out to them and says, “This is the page you’re looking for.”

When you type a search query into Google—let’s use “temporary tattoos” as an example—the algorithm displays results on the search engine results page (SERP).

This page is extremely complicated, but for now let’s ignore all the shopping ads, images, and videos in favor of the more traditional organic search results.

The blue words at the top are the “title tag.” They’re the title of the webpage. Below them you’ll see a page description of no more than 155 characters. This is the meta description.  It’s responsible for higher click-through rates to your web page and can indirectly impact your SEO rankings. 

Does Google rewrite meta descriptions?

Yes, Google rewrites meta descriptions. So, why bother writing unique meta descriptions if Google will display whatever it wants anyway?

The ultimate reason is the correlation between higher search volume keywords and lower rewrite rates. Kim Herrington, an SEO & SEM consultant, has particular expertise in writing meta descriptions for ecommerce businesses, as well as with optimizing their stores for search.

Through Kim’s own experience, she’s learned that if stores target high traffic keywords, your original meta description is more likely to appear as you wrote it on your website. “SEO can be time consuming and expensive for ecommerce stores with a high volume of products,” Kim says. “Approaching your meta descriptions knowing they’ll be rewritten can free up resources.”

Much more productive, she suggests, is focusing on writing really good meta descriptions for your highest volume keywords, because Google is more likely to use them: “Focus primarily on your bestsellers and category page meta descriptions rather than every single item you sell.”

Focus on the most trafficked pages. The ones that get organic traffic from search engines. Take your top 20 pages and ask, “Are we really selling the product here, or is there a way we can improve the click-through rate?”

Meta description examples

Homepage

Reading other people’s meta descriptions will make the process look deceptively simple, but that simplicity is the very thing that makes it so hard to write. The rough 160-character limit means the meta description should be longer than a sentence or two.

Good descriptions give you a brief overview of what the site is about, as well as a compelling reason to click the title tag. It all happens so quickly and painlessly, many searchers won’t even notice themselves making a decision. They’ll simply click on the link, satisfying their curiosity without having to think about it.

Here’s an example of a relevant meta description:

Clever naming helps Death Wish Coffee pack a punch here. With the first three words, “Death Wish Coffee,” you already get an idea of what the company sells (coffee) and its defining brand feature (hardcore, but tongue-in-cheek about it).

Death Wish then says it’s “here to fuel your passion.” With these words, it positions itself as motivating. The words “highest quality arabica + robusta” lets readers know the brand sells good coffee products.

Product page

Writing meta descriptions for your product pages is a little easier than writing them for your homepage, because your product pages aren’t supposed to speak for your business as a whole.

Instead, they’re speaking for something that offers a tangible benefit to shoppers:

• Selling spatulas? Let the reader know that this spatula will make cooking so much easier.
• Selling lawn mowers? Have the reader imagine a fast and easy journey through the grass.

For a good example of a persuasive meta description, let’s check out the search result for So Worth Loving stickers:

Immediately, and in all caps, the description makes you realize that a lot of stickers don’t last as long as you want them to. Then, SWL promises its stickers solve that problem.

Capitalizing the meta description is a bold move, and no one would recommend capitalizing the whole thing. But here it works, because the capitalization doesn’t seem like it’s there just to grab attention. It also does the work of separating the note from the rest of the text. After the note, this description works well because it keeps the focus on the reader.

You do need to give some idea of what differentiates the product. So Worth Loving does this by emphasizing durability and by letting its site name suggest its stickers are going to be really, really cool. But after that, it’s all about letting the customer visualize themselves with the product.

The description suggests the joy a buyer might get when they see the sticker as a “best little reminder,” offering various ways the sticker could easily fit into their life: “Stick them on your car, laptop, water bottle, wherever you want to see them.”

The ending, in particular, works beautifully. It starts the sentence by suggesting the product will make you feel some powerful emotion, but then it makes you click the title tag to find out what that emotion actually is.

Though some SEO experts will tell you to make sure your meta descriptions all finish with complete sentences, a half-sentence can do wonders for your click-through rate (CTR).

If you’re going to use this strategy, it’s good to get your meta description as close to the rough 160-character limit as possible.

Category pages

The next meta descriptions to focus on are your category page, or collection page, meta descriptions. The purpose of this page is to group similar products together for customers to browse. Collection pages can show up for broad, high-volume keywords, like “women’s shoes” or “men’s sandals.”

Your category page meta description should draw people in by showing relevant information about the collection, like how DSW lists out the different shoe types in its women’s shoes category.

It also uses simple action phrases like “Shop online for …” and “enjoy a large selection and free shipping …” to encourage clicks from browsers.

If you want to spice up your description, Doug Pierce, director of Hong Kong–based marketing agency Cogney, suggests using emojis. “A trick I like to employ is using check marks (✔️) to call out the sub-collections of products we have if it’s a product collection page,” he says.

Doug also suggests including numbers in the description (where relevant) and using power words like “free” or “exclusive” to grab people’s attention. And if your store is running any special offers—like free shipping, extended warranties, or sales—it can be good to include in a meta description as well.

Social media

Meta descriptions aren’t just for search engines. The text you use also shows up on social media sites like Facebook. Without your meta description, Facebook will pull whatever text they can find on the page. 

You can see this in a Facebook post from Moz, a software company. It’s Facebook post shows the meta description from the web page’s URL. 

How to write a good meta description

Now we have an understanding of meta descriptions, you’re probably wondering: What are the best ways to apply this knowledge?

1. Consider the customer mindset
2. Make it unique
3. Keep it at optimal length
4. Make it actionable
5. Add a call to action
6. Use your target keyword
7. Try to avoid meta description generators

1. Consider the customer mindset

First, focus on what would compel a searcher to click on your title tag. That requires answering two questions:

1. What are you offering?
2. Why should I buy from you?

For product pages, the first query has a simple response: you’re offering your product. The second will be resolved by the simple fact that you’re the one selling the product.

Meta descriptions for your homepage are a little trickier. As we saw in the Death Wish Coffee example, the best thing is to repeatedly emphasize your brand. That’s the one thing your whole store offers, and it’s the reason customers should buy from you.

Image: courtesy of Google

2. Make it unique

Let readers know what you do, tell them about your unique selling proposition, and convey this information multiple times, because the meta description isn’t a place for subtlety. Struggling to come up with an effective meta description for your homepage is common, so it’s best to be patient and think hard about your brand.

If you’ve been around for a while, what do returning customers say about your business? And if you’re new, what made you think this business would get customers?

The goal of your meta description is to get clicks, but it’s also a chance to show off your brand. “Think of meta descriptions as a continuation of your brand and an opportunity to clearly define your USP [unique selling proposition] using relevant keywords,” says Stephen Light, CMO and co-owner of mattress company Nolah. “They’re little ads and, though the character length can feel constraining, are excellent short bursts of promo.”

Talk to people about your business, formulate the description like you would an elevator pitch. You’ll probably want to go through a couple drafts. It’s important to get things right because this will be the first exposure many customers have to you and your brand. You also don’t want to have duplicate meta descriptions throughout your website, because it could harm your chances of ranking.

Image: courtesy of Google

3. Keep it at optimal length 

Stay between the 155- to 160-character limit when considering your meta description length. Google will likely cut off any text after that. Put your most important text in the beginning of your description, such as action phrases or a few words about your brand, like Fashion Nova does below. 

4. Make it actionable

Think of meta descriptions as the welcome mat to your ecommerce store. Make sure your description is clear, exciting, and actionable. Tell readers what they should expect on your page.

Avoid using too many adjectives or fancy words—while it’s tempting to write “awesome” or “showstopping,” it might detract searchers from clicking through. Using an active voice makes the text more direct and engaging, which can encourage them to click your link. If you do use creative copy, make sure it’s relevant.

This description below from Bonobos is a great example. It’s short and motivating, and it addresses the reader directly. You know you’re going to find a great pair of dress pants by clicking through.

Image: courtesy of Google

5. Add a call to action

A call to action in your meta description will compel people to click through to your page. They help readers understand what you offer and what to expect after clicking. For ecommerce stores, focus on different motivations behind their search.

If someone’s looking for a more broad search term, like women’s shoes, you’ll notice a lot of category pages ranking. People use category pages to browse, versus product pages where they buy. Reflect those intentions in your call to action.

Some call to action examples for ecommerce are:

• Shop now
• Explore the collection
• Discover new trends
• Browse our products

Image: courtesy of Google

6. Use your target keyword

Find a way to include your target keyword to help search engines rank your page. Make sure it sounds like a human wrote it. For example, stuffing all your target keywords into a meta description like “Buy Women’s Shoes, Women’s Tennis Shoes, and Women’s Shoes on Sale here!” is not a good look for your brand, because it feels forced and robotic.

Instead, naturally tie the keyword into your description, like the Shoe Carnival example below:

Image courtesy of: Google 

Be sure to check out the keywords your competitors are targeting as well.

7. Avoid meta description generators

There’s some debate about whether or not to use generators to write meta descriptions. Generators can produce descriptions that seem dull and lack personality. But they can work if you’re a brand with thousands of SKUs and not enough resources to write them.

As a small business, you’re better off writing meta descriptions manually—especially those for pages that get a lot of search traffic. Melanie Bedwell, ecommerce manager at drink brand Olipop, agrees.

“Meta descriptions should be one-of-a-hand. It’s easier to make them unique if you have someone on your team to write them,” she says. “The meta description is one of the best chances for someone to click on your search result. I believe it’s too important to leave up to an automated generator.”

These automated tools are a big reason why Google has started intervening and rewriting descriptions. The search engine is aiming to avoid low-quality boilerplate content that doesn’t satisfy search intent. You could argue it’s better to have no description than a poorly written automatically generated one.

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.

Operating a retail store requires a lot of money. Whether you’re paying the deposit for a new location or investing inventory that you plan to sell in-store, you don’t have to use your own money to finance the business. A retail loan gives you a chunk of money upfront that you can repay later down the line.

Searching for financing options can feel overwhelming, particularly if you’ve never borrowed money before. This guide shares the different types of retail loans you could consider, plus the top retail lenders you can use to secure financing for your business. 

What is a retail loan?

Retail loans refer to any type of business financing provided by banks, credit unions, or online lenders. Retailers can use them to run and grow their stores, whether that’s by purchasing inventory in bulk, paying the deposit for a new store lease, launching a marketing campaign, or paying staff salaries. 

Types of retail loans 

Personal loans

A personal loan is funding that’s made available to you personally, rather than the business. The interest attached to your personal loan is typically based on your credit score—the higher this is, the more banks will be willing to lend at a lower rate. 

The downside of using a personal loan for your retail store is that you’re personally liable for any repayments. If you’re unable to repay it, personal assets such as your home or car could be at risk of repossession. 

Business term loans

A business term loan is a lump sum of money that’s paid to your business from a financial institution. The lender will add their own interest rate. There are two types to choose from:

• Secured loans, which require collateral (such as inventory or real estate) that the lender can seize if you fail to make the monthly repayments. 
• Unsecured loan, which doesn’t have any specific collateral requirements. The lender can choose what to seize if you don’t repay the loan.

If you meet the eligibility criteria for a retail business loan (such as a good business credit score and a history of repaying loans), you’ll have a set repayment schedule of fixed monthly payments. Your payments will include the initial amount you’re borrowing plus interest. 

Credit card loan

Credit cards are a type of credit you can use to grow a retail business. These can either be personal credit cards in your name that you are personally liable for or business credit cards that are dependent on the business’s credit history. 

Credit cards are a good short-term retail loan option. Most lenders don’t charge interest if you pay off the full amount at the end of the grace period. If you need $500 to buy inventory that you’ll sell within the next month, for example, you could use a business credit card to improve cash flow. 

The downside of business credit cards is that interest can quickly rise if you don’t pay off the full amount. And if the card is in your name, you’re personally liable for all repayments. 

Merchant cash advance

If you need working capital to pay for expenses before you generate sales, a merchant cash advance is worth considering. It’s a type of retail loan that can get paid out quickly to use for retail expenses like salaries, inventory, or rent. You repay the merchant cash advance by automatically deducting a percentage of your sales to give back to the lender.

Line of credit

A line of credit is a flexible type of retail loan where you can borrow funds as and when they’re needed. There’s typically a ceiling on a line of credit. If your line of credit goes up to $5,000, for example, you could withdraw $1,000 per month for five months. 

The most attractive part of a line of credit is the fact you’ll only pay interest on what you borrow (instead of the whole credit amount). If you know your retail store will need to borrow a certain amount over the year, you can spread it out and only pay interest when you need to use the money. Most lenders also offer flexible repayment options on a line of credit. 

SBA loan programs

The US Small Business Administration (SBA) is a government agency that lends money to startup companies, including retailers. Popular options include:

• SBA 7(A) loan. This loan has a maximum amount of $5 million. Interest rates range between 7.5% and 10%, and you’ll need a credit score of at least 680. 
• CSC/504 loan. This loan is specifically for businesses that want to buy real estate. It’s a good option for retailers. You can borrow up to 50% of the money it’d cost you to buy a retail location. 
• Disaster loans. If you run into unexpected challenges and need money fast, this is a good one to consider. This type of SBA retail loan can protect you from natural disasters that have officially been declared by the US president, such as earthquakes or tornados that have damaged your retail store and are not covered by insurance.

Equipment financing

Most retailers need equipment to operate their stores or manufacture products. If that’s the case, and you don’t have a lump sum to buy the equipment outright, consider equipment financing.

You won’t own the equipment if you choose this type of retail loan. You’ll simply rent the tools, machinery, or vehicle from the lender and pay a fixed rate over a set period of time to use it. Once the agreement ends, most lenders offer the option of a balloon payment if you want to take ownership of the equipment.

Inventory financing

Inventory financing allows you to get a retail loan by using inventory as collateral. Lenders typically offer up to 80% of your inventory’s value in this type of loan, and if you can’t commit to the repayments, the lender can seize your inventory to claim the money back. 

Inventory loans tend to be riskier because valuations can fluctuate. If the market changes and inventory becomes less in demand, you’re at risk of paying back more money than you’ll make from selling stock. 

Advantages of a retail loan

Many retail store owners turn towards loans as a way to grow their business because it offers the following advantages: 

• Improve cash flow. When you secure a loan, you’ll have a lump sum upfront that can cover expenses such as rent, utilities, and inventory. This is useful if you’re going through a slow season and can’t generate enough turnover to cover your short-term expenses.
• Build business credit. Should you ever need to secure a bigger loan further down the line, a smaller retail loan proves you pay back your loans on time. This is evidence you can use to negotiate more favorable terms with future retail lenders. 
• Keep equity of your retail business. Unlike equity financing, retail loans mean you don’t have to give away equity in your business. You keep total control over your company.

What is a retail lender?

A retail lender is any financial institution that lends money to retail businesses. Unlike traditional lenders that borrow money from people or online stores, a retail lender has strict criteria, requiring only registered businesses with a physical location to secure the loan. 

Retail lenders to consider in 2024

Shopify

Shopify has provided over $5.1 billion of funding to merchants through Shopify Capital. It offers retail funding available to eligible merchants selling on the platform. Through Shopify Capital, eligible businesses can borrow up to $2 million and automatically repay the retail loan as a percentage of their daily sales.* 

Receiving financing through Shopify Capital means you retain complete control of business without giving away equity. The loan application process is simple, and if you’re approved (in as little as two business days), funds will be deposited directly into your account, ready for you to start spending. 

American Express

American Express offers retail loans to business owners. You can open a personal or business credit card with American Express and earn points on your purchases. So long as you pay off the balance in full at the end of each month, there’s no interest to pay.

If you need to borrow more money over a longer term, American Express also has a business line of credit. You’ll need a FICO credit score of at least 660, average monthly revenue of over $3,000, and the business needs to be at least one year old. 

Chase

Chase is one of the more traditional banks that offer retail business loans. Depending on your business credit score, how much you wish to borrow, and what you plan to use the funding for, options include:

Bank of America

Bank of America only offers loans to businesses, but you can choose from any type of retail loan you could think of. That includes:

• Business credit cards
• Lines of credit
• Term loans 
• Vehicle loans and auto loans
• Commercial real estate loans
• Equipment loans 
• SBA loans

According to Bank of America, You’ll need to have been in business for at least two years and have $100,000+ in annual revenue to apply for most of these retail loans. Most options also have a minimum FICO credit score requirement of 700.

Understanding retail loans for your business

If there’s one thing you should never rush into, it’s agreeing to a business loan. Make sure that you can pay back any money you’re borrowing—including interest. Just one missed payment can damage your credit score and make you less likely to secure funding in the future.

Take your time to compare your options and choose the type of retail loan that best suits your business. If that’s an online lender with a loan that you can repay as a percentage of your daily sales, consider Shopify Capital. 

* Shopify Capital loans must be paid in full within 18 months, and two minimum payments apply within the first two 6 month periods.

This article is focused on industry standards and descriptions are not specific to Shopify’s financial suite of products. To understand the features of Shopify’s lending products, please visit shopify.com/lending.

Available in select countries. Offers to apply do not guarantee financing. All financing through Shopify Lending, including Shopify Capital, is issued by WebBank in the United States.

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.

Imagine if when a customer gets to the checkout page of your ecommerce site, they had to email you their credit card number so you could process the transaction. That wouldn’t be very convenient for either of you. 

But thanks to payment APIs, checkout experiences are much safer and more efficient. A payment API is a more secure, practical interface that allows businesses to accept payments online.

This article explains the different payment APIs available, the factors to consider when choosing the right one, and the top providers in the market.

What is an API?

API, short for Application Programming Interface, is a piece of computer code that helps two software programs exchange information. 

Most commonly, APIs allow one program to work on another. For example, when you see a map of a company’s headquarters on their website, they might be using a Google Maps API to embed that map without you having to exit the site to visit Google Maps. 

Here’s another way to think of an API:

When you order at a restaurant, the kitchen staff is one software program, and you as the customer are the other software program. You don’t directly tell the kitchen staff what you want to eat, and they don’t follow up if you have questions about your order.

The waitstaff acts as the API to get the kitchen your food order and to deliver your food when it’s ready.

What is a payment API?

A payment API is a connection to a payment gateway and/or processor that lets apps and online stores accept and process payments. It helps you manage business transactions, accept various forms of payment, and automate the billing process, such as through subscription APIs. 

A payment API’s core function is to process payments efficiently and securely. Rather than having to visit a separate website to complete the checkout, a payment API can enable customers to safely transmit payment information and lets stores process those payments all within one interface.

A payment API that connects to a payment processor makes it easy for stores to accept multiple payment methods like credit cards, ACH transfers, and digital wallets. They are essential for ecommerce stores and other types of businesses that rely entirely on online payments.

How do payment APIs work?

Payment APIs provide a built-in interface on your website to capture customer payment information and transmit it for authorization and settlement, ensuring smooth and secure transaction processing. 

The specifics can differ a bit based on whether the payment API is for a payment gateway, a payment processor, or an integrated solution, but the process generally looks like this:

• Initial payment request: When customers make a purchase on a website or app, they enter their payment information (like credit card details) into a secure form provided by the payment API.
• Secure data transmission: The payment API encrypts and securely transmits the customer’s payment information to the payment gateway or payment processor. 
• Payment authorization: The payment gateway sends the payment details to the payment processor, who then checks with the issuing bank or card network (like Visa or MasterCard) whether there are sufficient funds and no security flags so the payment can be authorized.
• Transaction response: The payment processor receives a response from the bank or card network whether the transaction was approved or declined and generally passes that information on to the payment gateway.
• Communicate outcome: The payment API receives the response from the payment gateway and relays it to the website or app that notifies the customer whether the payment was successful.
• Funds settlement: Upon approval, the bank reserves the money in the customer’s account and then transfers it to the merchant’s account. This process can take a few business days.

Types of payment APIs

Payment APIs come in different shapes and sizes. The following are some common types:

• Transaction APIs
• Subscription APIs
• Tokenization APIs
• Payout APIs
• Preauthorization APIs

Transaction APIs

As the name implies, transaction APIs are used to complete payment transactions. They help customers make several payment-related requests, including:

• Initiating payments
• Refund requests
• Canceling payments

Transaction APIs are common for ecommerce payment processing. 

Subscription APIs

Subscription APIs help businesses automatically bill customers at regular intervals. 

The subscription API could initially capture the billing details and approve the subscription. It could then communicate with other types of operational APIs to handle future orders, such as to make sure your inventory reflects the next shipment for that subscription

For companies with recurring payments, subscription APIs are indispensable.

Tokenization APIs

Tokenization is the masking of data to create a disguised version called a token. 

Tokenization APIs disguise sensitive payment data, like credit card numbers, when transmitted to and from payment gateways and processors. A tokenization API can also be included in a transaction API.

Payout APIs

Payout APIs send disbursements to multiple payees at once to efficiently manage bulk payments, like to freelancers, suppliers, or payroll. 

Payout APIs handle the complexities of transferring money to different accounts, in multiple currencies, and in multiple regions while complying with financial regulations and security standards.

Preauthorization APIs

Preauthorization APIs temporarily hold funds on a customer’s card or account to verify a customer’s ability to pay before releasing products or rendering services. 

This is useful in scenarios where the final purchase amount might vary or if you need to verify the payment method is valid before doing work.

How to choose a payment API

Your payment API affects customer experience, cybersecurity, and overall operational efficiency.

Consider these factors when choosing your payment API.

• Security: APIs are often a common target of cyberattacks. Ensure the payment API complies with the highest security standards, including the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard). The API should include encryption, tokenization, and fraud detection to allow for secure payment processing.
• Payment methods: Look for an API that supports a wide range of online payment methods. If your customers can’t pay with their preferred credit card or digital wallet, for instance, they might abandon their carts, thereby costing you revenue.
• Ongoing technical support: A payment API should provide ongoing technical support, including dedicated support staff to help with troubleshooting and API updates.
• Fees and pricing: Understand the fee structure, including transaction fees, monthly subscription fees, and any hidden costs. While you might not want to make your decision on pricing alone, considering the importance of handling payments, you don’t want to overpay either.
• Integration and compatibility: Consider how well the API integrates with your current ecommerce platform and other systems like inventory management and accounting software. APIs should be convenient for both customers and store owners.
• Reliable uptime: Payment APIs should have minimal downtime and outages. Otherwise, you could miss out on sales.
• User experience: Think about how the API will impact your customers. Features like one-click payments, quick checkout processes, and reliability contribute to customer satisfaction.

Top payment API providers

1. Stripe
2. PayPal
3. Square
4. Authorize.net

1. Stripe

Stripe is another full-service payments provider. While often known for working with ecommerce companies and integrating with hundreds of applications and software, Stripe also offers in-person payment terminals that can be integrated with online sales. 

Top features:

Stripe accepts a vast array of electronic payment methods, such as major credit cards, Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, and multiple buy now, pay later options.

Plus, it was designed with developers in mind. To get the most out of Stripe’s APIs, businesses will need access to a team of developers. However, Stripe also offers no-code options for teams without coding experience and advanced security features, including the use of machine learning to spot fraud.

Pros:

• Strong international availability
• Lots of options for customization
• 24/7 support by phone, email, or live chat

Cons:

• Chargeback fees
• International fees
• Payouts can take longer than some competitors

2. PayPal

PayPal is a household name in online payments. But it’s not just a payment method, it’s also a processor. Through PayPal’s APIs, you can accept payments on your site through PayPal.

It integrates with many popular ecommerce platforms, such as Shopify, and other software like accounting platforms.

Top features:

PayPal supports over 120 currencies and allows merchants to accept PayPal payments alongside credit card payments. 

When PayPal is used as a payment gateway but transactions are processed outside PayPal, the payments company offers a number of other features, like accepting more payment types and offering enhanced security features.

Pros:

• Strong international availability
• Accepts crypto
• Offers option for seller chargeback protection

Cons:

• Standard transaction fees are higher than some competitors
• Payouts can take longer than some competitors
• May charge customer dispute fees

3. Square

Square is a payments service that acts as both a payment gateway and processor. The company also provides hardware, including card readers, which can be helpful for online stores that run pop-up locations. 

Top features:

Square offers both pre-built and custom payment APIs. Its APIs integrate with several ecommerce platforms, inventory management systems, and accounting software. 

The company also uses machine learning to help spot fraud and provides software tools for integrating online and offline sales.

Pros:

• No chargeback fees
• No direct international fees 
• Fast payouts

Cons:

• Limited international use. Currently only supports sellers in the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, the UK, Ireland, France, and Spain
• Limited alternative payment methods accepted through direct integration

4. Authorize.net

Authorize.net, now owned by Visa, is one of the oldest payment gateways in the ecommerce world. However, the company does not act as a traditional payment processor itself, but it works with others.

Top features:

Some of Authorize.net’s top features include easy support for recurring billing and storage of customer data to facilitate repeat purchases. The company also has a number of advanced fraud protection measures. 

Pros:

• Long track record
• Great for recurring billing
• Flexibility to choose your own payment processor, which could be helpful to some businesses

Cons:

• May need your own merchant account through another service, depending on the plan
• Limited international availability for sellers. Currently only available for merchants in the US, Canada, UK, Europe, and Australia.
• Pricing may not benefit all businesses, depending on the payment processor

Choose the right payment API for your business

APIs simplify payment acceptance and processing for ecommerce companies, ensuring smooth, secure transactions. Some payment APIs are pre-built, but others need to be customized to fit your site, so you need to pick the right one. 

Payment providers to which these APIs connect vary a lot based on things like payment methods accepted, fees, and payout processing speed. Get the right payment API for your ecommerce store that integrates easily, prioritizes security, and fits your budget.

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.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a business owner, or a casual internet historian, it can be useful to know how to dig into the history of a domain name—something that sounds more complex than it actually is. By typing a domain name into a text field, you can get a lot of insight into a business. Ahead, learn about how it works, and how to find a domain’s history for free.

Note: If you came to this article while trying to figure out what domain names are and what they actually do, we have a guide for that too, as well as one for how to register your own domain.

Why you might want to look up a domain history

The history of a domain name offers a lot of information that can’t be gleaned just from looking at an existing website.

Researching the competition

You can find out a lot about your competition by looking at the history of their domain and website. How long has it been around? Has the domain been sold before? How much was it worth? Answering those questions can give you great insight into the value of a particular domain.

From there, you can begin to formulate your own marketing and SEO strategies, while taking the strengths and weaknesses of the competition into consideration.

Buying an aftermarket domain

Maybe you want to buy a domain for yourself, but you know the one you have in mind is preowned. Looking up that domain’s history can tell you what sort of reputation the domain has with search engines and email services (which can affect your website’s discoverability and your communications, respectively).

Purchasing an existing website

Maybe you’re planning to buy a whole website. Looking into the history of the website that’s up for sale can give you a clear look at its past popularity, the number of times it’s been sold, and whether or not people have had good experiences with that domain in the past.

Contacting the website’s owner

There are times that filling out contact forms on a website results in a lack of response. When you need to make direct contact with a website owner—whether it’s about purchasing the domain or simply just getting information about a product you ordered from them—digging into the history of the domain can help you identify the right contact.

Ensuring security

Looking into the history of a domain name can help to uncover scammers, spammers, and fraudsters. If you’re considering doing business with a company, and have questions about their business practices, look into their domain to see if their website has been tied to any news of scams or overzealous marketing efforts.

How to find domain history with WHOIS

An important domain name history tool is the WHOIS lookup. In short, WHOIS is a system for finding the owner information of any domain name. By default, every domain name is automatically associated with the full name and contact information of the owner.

You can also find out which company the domain is registered with, which can be helpful in resolving domain-related disputes. (Incidentally, if you’re looking to buy a domain after you’re done here, check out this list of the best domain registrars.)

There are two main types of WHOIS lookups: basic lookups for nuts and bolts information, and history lookups, which provide more detailed information. A basic WHOIS lookup will only show you the domain’s current status, where it’s registered, what server it’s pointed at, and other relevant information tied to where it stands currently. A WHOIS history lookup, meanwhile, will show you all of that information, but it will also show you all past registrars, servers, and owners.

Basically, every major change to a domain name gets tracked in the WHOIS history, and you can see it all with the right tools.

How to perform a basic WHOIS lookup

A basic WHOIS lookup will only show you the current status of the domain, but it’s a helpful start. Here’s how to do it:

1. Find a WHOIS search service

You can quickly and easily look up current ownership data on Shopify.

2 Type a domain name into the search field

For this tutorial, we picked manitobah.com, an online store that sells Canadian Indigenous-designed footwear.

3. Check out the results

These results show the current status/registrar of manitobah.com, as well as the creation date of the domain, the name servers it’s connected to, and additional information you can see in the screenshot.

How to find the WHOIS history of a domain

A WHOIS history lookup requires a similar process. Try using whoisrequest.com for simple searches and Whoxy.com for when you need more advanced information. DomainIQ also provides some great-looking reports.

Note: WhoisRequest.com only offers 10 free lookups per day, but has the simplest UI. Whoxy.com offers unlimited free lookups and only charges if you want to integrate its service into an app of your own.

DomainIQ, unfortunately, offers only one free domain lookup per day. So if you really want a nice-looking report for one particular domain, use domainIQ to make it count.

Here’s the process:

1. Go to the site of your choice

Here are some easy links straight to the history search options:

2. Type in the domain name

3. Check out the info

If you don’t have an account with domainIQ, you may have to enter your email address to view the full report.

This particular domain has only had one owner, so that’s all that shows up here. This screenshot from Whoxy for cars.com, on the other hand, shows a few different owners in the domain history:

Use the Wayback Machine as an alternative

The Wayback Machine is a project from the Internet Archive. The Internet Archive is, as you might have guessed, an attempt to archive literally everything on the web—including old versions of websites. The Wayback Machine was designed to capture “snapshots” of entire websites at regular intervals. It won’t show you updates from every single day (and some older websites won’t look right at all), but it remains the single best visual history of just about every website.

You can use those old versions of websites to find content that isn’t there anymore, which can include contact information that may still be valid. You can also see if the same people/company were using the domain or if it changed hands a few times over the years.

For example, let’s take that online store, manitobah.com. This is what it looks like at the time of this writing:

And this is what it looked like on November 18, 2018, which is the earliest snapshot of the website that actually works.

How does this help me? Well, I can see that some years ago the exact same business was using the domain. Additionally, there’s some historical information on the old version of the site that isn’t on the new one—or at least it’s not as easy to find, such as the address of the manufacturing headquarters on the Contact page.

How to perform a Wayback Machine search

1. Go to archive.org

Specifically, go to web.archive.org, where you can easily search for the domain you want. You can also manually save pages and sites here as well, to create a record for the future.

2. Search for the domain you want to check out

3. Choose a snapshot from the calendar

Once you select a snapshot date, you’ll see an old version of the domain you’re interested in learning more about. You can explore what the old site looked like to find relevant information.

Other tools and tips

Short of hiring a dedicated researcher, there are a few easy and (mostly) free things you can do to analyze the history of a domain.

(For beginners, here’s a guide on how to choose a domain name.)

Start with Google (or your favorite equivalent)

You’ll find a lot of the information you need just by Googling (or using your search engine of choice). If the domain has a significant past, you’ll likely find mentions of it in reviews, website comment sections, forums, and anywhere else that people congregate to share their opinions.

Check your social media

You can also search for domains on social media sites like Twitter directly to see what kind of attention the site has gotten and what people think of it. Searching on these sites directly is especially useful because not all of them make users’ posts available to search engines.

Ask around in relevant communities

If the domain you’re looking to buy is part of an industry that lots of people are talking about, there are probably specific communities for that industry. Not all of those will be easily searchable sites, either.

Find a relevant Discord or Slack server and look into in-person and virtual meetups for your industry. Simply ask people what they think of the domain in question and collate their responses.

Search for the domain on Moz Domain Analysis

Moz Domain Analysis is a free tool that ranks domain names based on a number of metrics, including traffic, backlinks, and various SEO checks. It then gives the domain two highly relevant scores: Domain Authority, and Spam Score.

Domain Authority is a general indicator of how likely a website is to rank high on search engines based on the reputation of its content. The higher the score, the better.

The Spam Score is exactly what you think it is—and the lower the score, the better.

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Last but not least, check the website’s backlinks

Through backlinks, you can find reviews of the website (positive and negative). If most of the backlinks came from social media, that could have implications for your social media marketing strategy and show you what individual customers thought of the company. You can also gauge the SEO potential of the domain by seeing how many of the top links come from search engines.

Two tools that will let you see the top backlinks for any domain or subdomain are the SEO and engagement tracking platforms SEMRush and Ahrefs. (Note: You’ll only get to see the top 100 backlinks or so for free.)

Domain name history knowledge is power

While domain name history research can be time intensive, it yields helpful and important information—usually for free.

Even if you can’t necessarily find contact information for the domain’s current owner, you can assess how popular the site has been, what kind of content it has had over the years, and whether or not it has a good digital or human reputation.

That knowledge is useful whether you’re buying a domain for your business, researching your competitors, or just looking for ways to improve your website.

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.

Becoming your own boss is the ultimate dream for lots of people. Many crave the creative control, flexible hours, and freedom that comes with being an entrepreneur.

But there’s a lot of work involved behind the scenes, and much of entrepreneurship is about planning, strategy, and dedicated execution. If you’ve always wanted to get into the game but not yet taken the leap, here’s a seven-step guide on how to become an entrepreneur.

1. Find a profitable business idea

The product category you choose is at the core of your online business and will be one of the most important decisions you’ll make.

Although the “perfect” product may not exist, there are definitely ways to minimize risk by choosing a product and niche that have more working for it than against it. Use the criteria below as a guideline that can help you better understand the pros and cons of the product you’re considering—and hopefully increase your overall chances of success.

Does your product serve a passion or solve a problem?

It’s always an advantage to sell products that serve a passion or solve a problem. An additional benefit is that when you sell products that satisfy one of these requirements, your marketing costs tend to be lower since new customers are actively seeking out a solution as opposed to you having to heavily market your product to find them.

It’s always an advantage to sell products that serve a passion or solve a problem.

Is this a trend, fad, or growing product category?

Riding a fad can be dangerous. A trend can be lucrative. Stable markets are safe and growing markets are ideal. Understanding where your product and niche lay can play a huge role in your success or failure.

To better understand the differences, let’s look at the conceptual growth curves and then go through a real world example for each type.

Fad

A fad is something that grows in popularity for a very short period of time and fades out just as quickly. A fad can be lucrative if your entry and exit into the target market are timed perfectly, but this can be difficult to predict and a recipe for disaster—it’s better to build your business on a more solid foundation. Remember fidget spinners? The handheld spinning toys were all the rage in 2017, peaked in popularity, and then became irrelevant almost overnight.

Trend

A trend is a longer term direction that the market for a product appears to be taking. It doesn’t grow as quickly as a fad, it lasts longer, and it generally it doesn’t decline nearly as quickly. Trending products can sometimes also develop into long-term growing markets, although this can be difficult to predict.

Stable

A stable market is one that generally is immune to shocks and bumps. It is neither declining nor growing but maintains itself over long periods of time. Tea pots, for example, have maintained a stable level of popularity for the past 15 years.

Growing

A growing market is one that has seen consistent growth and shows signs of a long-term or permanent market shift. The athleisure market is a prime example: strong growth in the 2010s turned into accelerated growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the industry is now set to be worth $450 billion by 2028. 

What does the competitive landscape look like?

What does the competitive landscape look like for your selected product and niche? Are you first to market? Are there already a few competitors or is the market saturated with people selling the same product or targeting the same niche?

If you’re first to market, you’ll want to do a lot of market research to determine that there is in fact a market interested in your product. If there are a few competitors already in the space and they seem to be doing relatively well, this could be a good sign that the market has been validated.

If there are many competitors in the market, it’s also a sign that the market has been validated. However, you’ll likely have to determine how you can differentiate your brand and products from the sea of competitors in order to carve out your own spot.

2. Develop a product

Once you decide what you’ll sell, there are several options for product development. You can make your own products by hand, like the artisans at Heath Ceramics. Or you can find a manufacturing partner who will develop your product idea to your specifications, like the team at West Path does for their Mexican blankets.

You can also purchase wholesale products directly from independent brands. With this option, you buy ready-to-sell merchandise in bulk to resell on the retail market. Shopify has partnered with Faire, the leading online wholesale platform, to simplify this buying process, bringing together hundreds of thousands of independent brands and retailers from around the world. You can install the app, Faire: Buy Wholesale, to seamlessly sync products to your Shopify admin.

If you’d rather not hold inventory, you can look into dropshipping. Dropshipping is when a customer purchases an item from you and you, in turn, buy that item from a third party. The third party then ships the item directly to the customer so you never have to store, handle, or ship any products.

If you create your own designs for t-shirts, art prints, mugs, etc., a similar option is to offer printing on demand. Printing on demand is where you partner with a supplier to print your own designs on white-labeled items that are only created when a customer purchases them. This way you sell only as much inventory as there is demand for and never have to store or ship the products yourself.

3. Validate your product

The next step is to validate your product idea. This is the process where you figure out if you’re selling products that customers really want. Real product validation happens when you make your first few sales. So, before investing too much money or time into your new product line, it’s helpful to do a few low-cost tests.

You can build a coming soon page to drum up excitement. Or set up pre-orders to see if you get any interest. The owners of Jaswant’s Kitchen, a shop that sells natural Indian spices and cooking kits, validated their products by first selling at in-person shows.

Once you make a few sales, you’ll be better able to validate demand for what you’re selling.

4. Write your business plan

With some much-needed product validation, it’s time to write a business plan. A business plan is a document that outlines essentially everything about your business. Core ideas it will include are: who you can reach and market to, your business model, what you’ll charge for each product, the product lines you’ll start with, and your marketing strategy.

Though it may seem exciting to start with the fun stuff like setting up your social media accounts or creating your logo, a business plan ensures that you’ll stay on track and that you have a solid, well thought out strategy going forward. Use our free business plan template to guide you through the process. 

5. Secure funding

Businesses cost money, especially if you plan on selling your own product. While you can reinvest early profits back into your business, many businesses need cash flow of some kind. A few popular options include:

• Self funding. If you have the means, you can fund your own business. Just make sure that you’ll be able to shoulder the cost for a while. While some businesses become profitable quickly, depending on the business, it can take some a few years to see a return on investment.
• Take out a business loan. Another option is to take out a small business loan. Shopify Capital is an option for those who qualify, and it’s based on your sales.
• Get money from venture capitalists. Capital investment comes in the form of an angel investor or venture fund. These accredited investors provide funding for startups and early stage companies. In return for their investment, they receive equity ownership or convertible debt, which is a loan that can be converted into equity in the future.

Shopify research shows that in their first year of business, entrepreneurs spent the most amount of money on product costs (raw materials, inventory, supplier, manufacturing, patents, etc.).

Learn more: How to Write a Compelling Elevator Pitch That Sticks (Plus 3 Templates You Can Steal)

6. Launch your business

Don’t overthink things: you’ll become an entrepreneur through action and hard work. Set up a store launch checklist for opening day. You’ll also want to make sure any launch day marketing activities, like organic social posts, are set up and ready to go. And you should have a plan for customer support or at least an easy way for customers to contact you if they need help.

After that, spend all of your time and energy on getting your first sales. You can expand your acquisition efforts later.

7. Manage the business

You’ll learn more about business by managing a business than you will through any business class. But, successful business owners always become students of entrepreneurship.

The more time you dedicate to learning, especially from those who have blazed the trails before you, the more you’ll be able to avoid costly mistakes and innovate where others haven’t. You might choose to work with a mentor, read books for entrepreneurs, take courses, listen to business podcasts, or even subscribe to email newsletters. Choose whatever method works best for you, but just make sure that you never stop learning.

Where to find entrepreneurial support

The world of entrepreneurship can be tough. But there are resources and groups available to you to get the help, tools, and advice you need.

Resources

1. Shopify: Many entrepreneurs don’t have a formal education, they took the leap and made it up along the way. This is why it’s important to build intentional learning into your business practices. Shopify offers free entrepreneur resources, including courses and video resources, you can use to build your skills and knowledge and reach your goals.
2. Small Business Administration: Get information and resources to help start your small business. You can also find SBA-guaranteed loans.
3. SCORE: SCORE helps you find a mentor so you can get free counseling and advice, in person or online. Its mentors are successful entrepreneurs looking to help other small businesses owners become stronger and more successful.
4. Small Business Development Centers: Tap into the expert advisers for free at SBDCs to help you with starting and growing your business. Contact your local SBDC for no-cost business consulting and training.
5. Small Business and Self-Employed Tax Center: Can’t forget about paying taxes! Stay compliant with the IRS with the latest tax news and forms for your business.
6. FindLaw Small Business Center: Find legal forms, get answers to legal questions, and find small business lawyers on this site.
7. International Franchise Association: Entrepreneurs don’t always start a business from scratch. The International Franchise Association (IFA) helps you find franchises for sale.
8. SeedInvest: Find potential investors for your business using SeedInvest. You’ll discover angels who will invest in your business in exchange for equity.

Groups

1. Entrepreneur’s Organization: The Entrepreneur’s Organization is a global support network with over 14,000 entrepreneurs and leaders. The EO offers mentorship and networking opportunities perfect for new entrepreneurs.
2. Vistage: Founded in 1957, Vistage is a mentoring membership program for CEOs and business owners. It has 24,000+ members globally and offers coaching and peer advisory services to entrepreneurs.
3. Startup Grind: Startup Grind is a global community built to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs. The group hosts many events that bring over 3.5 million entrepreneurs together to connect, learn, teach, build, and belong.
4. Young Entrepreneur Council: This group offers support from vetted entrepreneurs aimed to help overcome challenges and grow your business. While it has tight restrictions to get into the community, it’s a good place to network and find potential business partners.
5. International Council for Small Business (ICSB): The ICSB was the first non-profit membership program dedicated to small business growth worldwide. It brings together educators, researchers, and practitioners from around the world to share insights through programs, workshops, training sessions, and more.

Becoming the best business owner you can be

Starting a business is not easy. Growing it is even harder. You may feel like you’re not ready to own a business, but if you’ve made it this far, you are. It all starts with an idea, one that you are connected with and passionate about. If you can turn that idea into something that solves real-world problems, you’re on your way to becoming a successful entrepreneur.

Illustration by Gracia Lam

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 it shows up in a list of search results, a website title acts like a mini billboard with one goal: pique viewers’ interest. Clear and descriptive website titles inform users about what to expect when they click on a search result.

Learn more about how a well-crafted website title can drive organic traffic to your website and how to write one that captures a reader’s attention.

What is a website title?

Website titles, or title tags, are the web page titles that show up on search engine results pages (SERPs) to give visitors an idea of what a page is about before they click on it. They’re concise and informative labels of about 60 characters. They serve two critical functions: providing users context and helping search engines rank your site.

Why are website titles important?

Website titles are crucial for search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines like Google use website titles to understand your content and decide how relevant the web page is to a search query. If your site title accurately reflects the content on the page and incorporates relevant keywords, you increase the chances it will rank higher in search results for those keywords. By writing a descriptive title that appeals to both humans and search engines, you can attract more organic traffic to your site.

Where to find a website title

You can find a website title in a few places:

Search engine results page

When a user performs a search, the resulting SERP contains a list of website titles. For example, the website title might be “5 wardrobe essentials: Items you need in your Closet.”

Web browser tab or window

You will usually find the website title at the top of your web browser tab or window, next to the favicon (the image or logo that represents your website). In the examples below, the website titles are “Our Story” and “Shop Bracelets and Anklets.”

Source code

For a more technical approach, you can find the website title by viewing the website’s source code. Right-click anywhere on the website and look for the words “inspect element” or “view page source.” The text between the opening tags is the website title.

Tips for writing the best website titles

Here are a few tips for creating a website title that will help you catch the attention of users and search engines:

Be compelling

Craft a title tag that entices users to click. Use strong verbs, action words, or intriguing questions or phrases to pique user interest and encourage them to visit your website over competitors’. For example, if you want to provide makeup tips, you can try: “5 makeup tips anyone (yes, even you!) can follow.” 

Be concise

Aim for a title tag of less than 60 characters. Titles that are too long appear truncated in search results, which can affect the clarity of your text. If your title originally says, “Backpacking tent vs. camping tent: Which tent is better for your camping trip,” you can shorten it to: “Backpacking tent vs. camping tent: Which is right for you?” Use a tool like Moz to ensure you stay within the character limit.

Aim to inform

While keywords are important, prioritize clarity. Your title tag should accurately reflect the website’s content, giving users a clear understanding of what to expect when they click. If you want to show readers how to organize their desk, you can try something like: “Desk organization tips to help you clear clutter fast.” Now a user knows to expect simple tips that can help them quickly regain control of their desks.

Stay relevant

Identify keywords and phrases that users are likely to search for when looking for information related to your website content. Incorporate the keywords that are relevant into your title tag and leave out the ones that don’t because it could hurt your ranking. If your web page explains different candle scents, don’t add keywords that promise to teach a reader how to create their own scents if the text does not cover that information.

Go for something unique

Strive to create unique title tags that stand out from competitors. Avoid generic titles that blend in with search results. A unique and informative title tag can grab user attention and encourage clicks.

Frontload the target keyword

To increase your chances of showing up at the top of SERPs, add the target keyword at the beginning of the title tag. For example, if you are targeting the keyword “waterproof picnic blankets,” a title like “5 waterproof picnic blankets for your family outings” might be more effective than “Make your summer better with these 5 waterproof picnic blankets.”

10 website title examples

1. Beat the heat: 5 must-have cooling products for your home

2. Upgrade your kitchen: Essential appliances for every cook

3. Organization inspiration: Storage solutions for studios

4. Fitness trackers vs. smartwatches: Which is right for you?

5. How to create a productive and comfortable home office

6. Level up with these essential camera accessories

7. Best mattresses for restless sleepers

8. 8 tips to make back-to-school shopping a breeze

9. Travel hacks for pet parents: How to travel by plane

10. Top-rated headphones and speakers for every budget

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.

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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.