IN THIS CHAPTER

Setting the ecommerce scene

Seeing how Shopify can help you plan for success

Getting ready to build a user-friendly online store

Managing inventory and fulfilling orders

Marketing your online business

Ecommerce is a wonderful vehicle for positive change in so many ways. I’ve been lucky enough to witness many people make successful careers out of both starting an online store, or working in ecommerce. I’ve also seen the undeniable positive impact that trading online can have on the environment, and society in general, by giving wider reach and accessibility to promote good causes or raise money. For me, ecommerce is not only a career but a passion, and I take great pride in the ecommerce community as it continues to evolve into what surely must be the future of commerce.

In this chapter I introduce you to some ecommerce essentials, including looking at the inception and history of trading goods and services online. I then go on to introduce you to Shopify, the ecommerce platform that is the subject of this book, as I explain all the areas that I drill deeper into throughout the book.

My goal in this book is to help you understand Shopify’s place in the ecommerce ecosystem, and to hold your hand as you build your own Shopify store. I aim to help you build more than an online store that just goes live — my goal is to help you build a thriving, sustainable online business using the brilliant platform that is Shopify.

Shopify is for everyone, and with the right guidance and learning, you can make Shopify work for you in ways that may change your life forever. It takes patience and hard work, but it can be done — and in this book I aim to show you how.

Explaining Ecommerce

So, what is ecommerce, aside from a fancy name for selling stuff online?

Well, ecommerce is exactly that — the electronic sale of goods, both physical and digital, hence the name ecommerce, which simply means electronic commerce.

Drilling down further, ecommerce involves selling goods and services via an online store or any other online sales channel, such as a marketplace (think eBay and Amazon).

Although it could be claimed that ecommerce in its earliest forms (such as the introduction of electronic funds transfers) dates back to the late 1960s and 1970s, in this book I focus more on products being sold online (rather than the transmission of data, such as electronic lodgements of tax and other information).

In the 1980s and early 1990s, companies such as the Boston Computer Exchange created online marketplaces for people to sell their old computers. Fast forward a few years to 1995, and you saw the launch of the online marketplace Amazon (which you’ve probably heard of — and if you haven’t, I suggest you put this book down and google it!). In 1999, another giant was founded: the enormous Chinese online marketplace, Alibaba. The two founders of these companies, Jeff Bezos and Jack Ma, sit high in the rankings of the wealthiest people in the world. So, you’re in good company.

Whether you’re a multinational or global business, an experienced retailer with multiple stores, a ‘Ma and Pa’ style business with a local store, or a first-timer; whether you’re selling bohemian crystals, heated dog mats, shoes or all of the above, there has never been a better time to try your hand at ecommerce, and in this book I’m going to show you how Shopify can help you succeed.

Introducing Shopify

‘How do I Shopify?’ ‘I’ll take three Shopifies please.’ ‘John, please can you pass me the Shopify?’

These are all things that don’t make sense. I am going to assume, though, that you have zero knowledge of what Shopify is, so I start from the ground up. Even if you’re already selling online with Shopify, you may discover something you didn’t know.

Shopify is an ecommerce platform, and an ecommerce platform is the software that an online store uses to sell goods and services online. An online store needs a back end to hold stock, images, product info and data, and it needs a front end — a virtual shopfront where people can browse and transact. Shopify provides that platform — think of it as the engine that powers your online store.

Shopify is a Canadian company, founded by Tobias Lütke and Scott Lake, two snowboarding enthusiasts who had been trying to build their own website, Snowdevil. When Snowdevil morphed into an ecommerce platform, it was called Jaded Pixel (before it became known as Shopify). From their experiences selling snowboarding gear, the guys realized that the platform had the ability to be something that other ecommerce merchants could use and benefit from, and so Daniel Weinand was brought in to help build up what is now known as Shopify, which was officially launched in 2006.

By 2008, Shopify had taken its first investment round from John Phillips, who injected $250,000 (Canadian dollars) into the business, at a valuation of $3 million dollars. At this point, the platform was heavily focused on helping first-time online sellers navigate the complexities of selling online; however, its cost-effective solution attracted heavyweights like Tesla, which proved that Shopify could be just as attractive at both ends of the market, from start-ups to global enterprises.

Fast forward seven years and Shopify had continued its exponential growth, going public in 2014 with a valuation of $1.3 billion (CAD). By 2020, Shopify was powering over a million merchants and had global sales of more than $1.35 billion (CAD) going through the platform. These days, it’s fair to say Shopify is more than just an ecommerce platform — it has thriving POS (point of sale) software and is growing in popularity among wholesalers for its easy-to-use wholesale application, which allows wholesale customers to place online orders from suppliers.

I love using Shopify because the barriers to entry are lower than you may think. You don’t need a fancy degree or a million dollars in your bank account to get started. The average cost of fitting out a nice retail store in a good location can cost in excess of $100,000 — before you have even bought your stock or hired your staff. A savvy operator can open their online store with Shopify or a similar platform for free, only paying a monthly fee if they decide to continue past the free trial.

In my ecosystem, as an adviser and owner of online businesses, Shopify is by far the preferred platform for online retailers of all sizes. I’ve seen incredible success stories through Shopify, including a story I heard recently when I had lunch with a guy I have known for about five years. He had been struggling with his online business for years, after pouring all his money into building a brand. He was always on the cusp of success, but he couldn’t quite make it work. However, when we met for lunch he told me the good news that he was on track to turn over $7.8 million dollars (AUD), with a 19 per cent profit margin! I was buzzing for him, and we spoke about the role Shopify had played in reducing his barriers to success.

If he had required a developer during those tough years, he may well have given up, but Shopify’s usability meant that he could power through, making small changes at a minimal cost until his online store was thriving. To me, that epitomizes the nature of Shopify’s platform, and I have plenty of stories like that — Shopify has helped make more millionaires than any other product I know.

Shopify is unique — I’ve never seen a platform or tool that can literally change someone’s life so quickly, without them needing to spend millions or have in-depth web development skills. If that hasn’t whetted your appetite, you may want to check your pulse, because I’m excited for your journey ahead with Shopify. It won’t always be easy, but if you add the right elements, like great products and great people, there’s no reason you can’t be another Shopify success story.

Planning for Ecommerce Success

Throughout this book, I write a lot about good planning being one of the cornerstones of a successful business, and in Part 1 I take you right to the start of what you need to do to get started with Shopify.

As well as finding your way around how to use Shopify (getting to know its features, including your Shopify admin — which you can think of as the engine that powers your Shopify store), I also consider how you get started with ecommerce in chapters 2 and 3 — how you source your products and what prices you sell them at, as well as where you sell them and how you can make a profit along the way.

If you’re not sure which sales channels you can use to sell your wisely sourced products, I introduce you to some options, including familiar marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon — or you can simply fly solo and only sell through your online store. The choice is yours, and the options are many and varied!

Getting Creative: Setting Up Your Shopify Store

When you come to build your online store, you have plenty of opportunity to start getting creative. Sounds like fun, right?

This stage of building a business through Shopify is crucial to get right, even if it can be a lot of fun. You need to consider the user experience as your site develops — for example, how easy is it to navigate, and can your customers find what they are looking for? Are you showcasing your products in all their glory or forgetting to add key information (such as colors, sizes, dimensions)? Does your site look the part as well as deliver on the details?

You can preview your store as you build it and add new features, and it is incredibly motivating to see the progress as you go. It also gives you the chance to check that the way you present your products works well in reality on your site.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a creative bone in your body — with Shopify, you get plenty of help with what to include on your site and where. In Chapter 4, I show you how you can use Shopify to create images, banners and videos that make your store look amazing.

Chapter 5 gets straight into creating products inside your store, including naming, pricing and describing your products, as well as publishing them across one or more sales channels. I also show you how to add products to your store that have variants, such as different colors and sizes.

The fun doesn’t stop there though! In your online store, you can group your products together in collections, which are like categories. In Chapter 5, I also show you how to create collections of your products so you can showcase them in different ways.

Sadly, the fun takes a brief pause in Chapter 6, where I look at some of the inevitable admin that comes with running an online store using Shopify — this includes tax and shipping, though it also rather excitingly includes receiving payments.

Shopify is a global platform, and I’d love to see your store go global as well, so in Chapter 6 I also show you how to accept foreign currencies and how to set your store up to ship orders both domestically and internationally, with some advice around how to price your shipping (such as when to offer it for free).

Making Friends with Your Customers

This section is all about two key groups: the customer and the user. A user is someone who visits and uses your website, and ideally, you want to convert them into a paying customer.

Part 3 is all about providing the user and the customer with the best possible experience — which, fittingly, is called the customer experience and the user experience. I look at good old-fashioned customer service in Chapter 7, and explore how Shopify can help you provide top-level service across a variety of customer service channels, including email, live chat, Facebook Messenger and the faithful telephone.

In Chapter 8, I deep dive into how the overall experience can be improved, from the way you serve your customers to trying to convert them into loyal customers through loyalty programs. I also tackle customer reviews and user-generated content, and how you can turn customers into brand ambassadors through encouraging positive reviews. In Chapter 9 I offer some tips for making your online store and user experience as user-friendly as possible, while in Chapter 10 I attempt to demystify machine learning and personalization when it comes to ecommerce.

Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t only for the big end of town, as you’ll discover. You’ll be able to curate a unique experience for each user, both on your website and in your marketing communications, using personalization techniques.

Taking Care of Business: Managing Stock Levels and Delivering Orders

In this book I get right into the nuts of bolts of what’s involved in building a beautiful and user-friendly Shopify store but also making it a successful online business, and that includes inventory management and logistics.

Inventory management is one of the most complex aspects of ecommerce, and in Chapter 11 I look at inventory by starting with the basics, from how to place purchase orders (POs) to how to receive products into your inventory in Shopify, make them available to sell, and accurately manage your inventory moving forward.

Order fulfillment (getting the order to the customer) and logistics can be the difference between getting a customer and keeping a customer. If you scroll through the reviews of some of your favorite online stores, you’re likely to see comments around the delivery experience and the returns experience. In chapters 12 and 13 I show you how to use Shopify to manage and fulfill your orders.

Shopify doesn’t just help you build good-looking websites — it’s got tools to help with the end-to-end selling experience, including fulfilling your orders and, when need be, refunding them quickly when things go wrong. It also offers Shopify Shipping, which is a great solution if you live in Australia, Canada or the Unites States, where it is available (I provide you with different shipping solutions that cover other parts of the world too in Chapter 13).

Growing Your Business through Marketing

Digital marketing is an essential part of growing your business and reaching your customers, and from the dark arts of SEO (search engine optimization) to using Google Ads and Facebook Ads, Part 5 of the book has your marketing needs covered. I show you how and where to spend your money, to gain sales — profitably!

In chapters 14–17, I look at how to optimize your online store so you rank highly in search engine results, and how to pay your way to the top, if that’s your modus operandi. I also show you how to use social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to gain new customers, considering whether or not you can still make money when using social media without paying for the privilege (spoiler alert, it’s getting harder).

Taking your ecommerce journey full circle and back to planning for success, I look at building a marketing plan and how to gauge your success after you launch. I unpack some of the key marketing metrics, like ROAS (return on ad spend), to help you determine what a successful marketing campaign looks like.

My aim in this part of the book is to help you acquire and retain customers profitably — without burning through too much cash, and as such I show you how to set up some clever marketing automations using Shopify’s inbuilt marketing tools, such as abandoned cart automations.

With an understanding of digital marketing taken care of, you’ll be getting very close to launching your online store but, importantly, you’ll have a realistic idea of what’s involved, including how much time and money you need to invest in your new business, and what sort of results you can expect.

Going Live!

By the time you’re approaching the end of this book, you’ll be itching to publish your store, or make it ‘go live’. However, before I set you off into the Shopify wilderness, I share some helpful tips and tricks to help you get off to the best possible start with your Shopify store.

In Chapter 18, I tell you all about my favorite Shopify apps and how they can help with the smooth running of your online store. In Chapter 19, I remind you how important it is to put the customer first, as well as sharing some tips on improving the customer and user experience.

Finally, in Chapter 20, I run through some final checks before you go live. Your last piece of technical homework will be to remove the password that stops the general public from seeing your store — therefore keeping it private (you’ll be asked to set up a password when you sign up to Shopify — for more on this, see Chapter 2). After you’ve set your store free, it’s time to knuckle down and put all the things you’ve learned to good use, setting you on the path to a promising new online business with Shopify.