Shopify pioneered the path for many full-time sellers leveraging the power of online stores. What started as a snowboard-selling venture in 2006 now serves 4.4 million websites globally as of 2023. Iconic figures like David Beckham, Kylie Jenner, and Adele use Shopify to sell their brand online. Customizable themes and the availability of applications in the Shopify app store make them an inevitable force in the e-commerce business. 

E-commerce is not an industry; e-commerce is a tactic.

- Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke.

What is Shopify?

In simple words, Shopify is a user-friendly e-commerce platform allowing anyone to build an online store to sell their products. You can also use Shopify to sell your products on social media and third-party marketplaces. 

From shipping discounts, payment processing, and inventory management to even offering loans to a few sellers, Shopify is one wholesome e-commerce solution for your business. And, if you want to integrate your e-commerce store with QuickBooks, watch this video.

How is Shopify different from Amazon?

A natural question might arise for those new to this e-commerce space. Most sellers know about Amazon Marketplace, but is Shopify the same as Amazon? The quick answer is no! 

The main difference is that Amazon is an online marketplace while Shopify is an e-commerce platform. While Amazon Marketplace is a ready-made space, Shopify is one big customization giant that lets merchants sell their products through their website, store, and on social media. 

According to TrueList, 81% of Shopify traffic comes from smartphones. A good reason to optimize your Shopify website for a mobile-friendly layout.

Pros of using Shopify over Amazon

While it might look like Amazon’s easy for beginners, building an online store in Shopify is simple too. And the good part about creating a Shopify website is that you don’t have to wait for approval from e-commerce giants like Walmart or Amazon.

As you own the website on Shopify, you cannot be driven out of the platform easily. Moreover, you get a bunch of customizations to make your website different from your competitors. The idea of remarketing to your customers is possible with Shopify, as you get the contact information of your purchasers. Building a loyal customer base is easier on Shopify than on Amazon. You can run Google, Instagram, and Tik Tok ads to drive website traffic and use social media to accelerate product sales. 

With the internet possibilities, marketing your product on different platforms is easier with Shopify than with Amazon.

One good thing about Shopify is that you can utilize your Amazon FBA inventory to fulfill your Shopify orders. You don't have to ship and store your products by yourself. As a Shopify user, you can use Amazon’s Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) via Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).

Stat to Note: 75.5k Shopify stores sell clothing, making it the most popular industry according to The Social Shepherd.

How to find the best products for Shopify?

One of the biggest challenges of any entrepreneur is to find profitable products to sell on Shopify. But there are numerous ways to find winning products as a Shopify seller. For example, you could solve a customer's pain point or sell products related to a specific hobby, or as most successful sellers do, you can sell products that are related to your passion. 

You might also look at your professional experience and turn that specific industry expertise into product selling. You can even read customer reviews on best-selling existing products to understand your potential customer’s expectations. And, as Jack Ma said, you don’t have to be the best in a business; trying to be the first will also work. For everything mentioned above, you might first need to start with your niche market.  

How to find your niche market? 

The success rate of Shopify stores is only around 5% - 10% out of the 4.4 million stores available in 2023. Because most sellers rush to fit into a niche, you have three amazing tools to find the winning products for Shopify. 

1. Amazon Best Seller List: Find unbranded products to sell with a high-profit margin. For example, say you’re searching for watch brands; you might find an unbranded watch selling great with good reviews. You need to cross-verify the product in your dropshipping app like AliExpress. If you find one that fits your niche, it’s all about writing a good copy afterward. Use Google Keyword Planner to find relevant keywords and name your product like you name your baby. 

2. Koala Inspector: Find the best sellers of any store that sells for Shopify. Use this Google extension to find your competitor’s best-selling products in descending order. You can search for the best-selling products on your competitor’s website. However, you can’t determine the volume of the best-selling product. 

3. Monitor High-performing Ads: If you want to be a highly profitable seller, stop skipping and scrolling past ads. You have found a winning product if the advertisement you saw is appealing and has garnered many comments, likes, and engagement. You could create a similar ad with a relevant product, but targeting the right audience is essential. 

It all ultimately comes down to running successful ad campaigns and doing a ton of product research. You can start with Google searches and slowly build your business using the tools mentioned earlier. When you find your niche market, you can narrow down your product research which is getting started for running a successful store on Shopify. 

How to do Shopify Product Research? 

Don’t play the guessing game if you want to become a successful seller on Shopify. You should ask yourself these ten questions to validate your product idea.

1. What is the potential size and demand for my product?
To answer this question, you can use a service like BuzzSumo to find how many people are talking about your product daily. Google Keyword Planner is the most used tool at this beginning stage. Once you gain confidence with this essential product research, you can move to the following stages of your product search journey. 

2. Who are all my competitors? 
Spend significant time researching your competitors to support your product idea. Know the areas of your competition! Who is leading the market? Is there enough room for non-branded sellers? What keyword has high potential and yet is underutilized by the competitors? Answering these questions will improve your chances of selling the product. 

3. Which direction is my niche market going?
Your product might fall under the trending segment, a flat line, get an upward momentum, or a downward trend depending upon the time of the year, demand in the market, and various other factors. Use tools like Trend Hunter to know where your product is heading!

4. Can my potential customers collect the product locally?
This is a must-ask question for any new seller because if your customers can get the product from a brick-and-mortar store, for example, they would not search for it online mostly. Try to sell products that are hard to get offline so that people flock together to your online store.

5. Who are my target customers?
If you can’t ship to a specific location of your customer, and if you only find it during the logistics process, you could have wasted a lot of time. Investing some time in a tool like Alexa can help you determine the demographics of your target market. 
You can simply use Twitter to research your product-related keyword and then find who’s using the keyword. What gender uses your target keyword the most? What age group are they? And, using Google Trends, you can know where they live in the US region. 

6. What is my potential selling price?
Most of the best-selling e-commerce entrepreneurs agree that products between $50 and $150 make a great profit. Comparing at what price your competitors are selling is a good starting point. Based on your pricing strategy for your product, you’ll be able to know your profit margin. 

7. How many types of SKUs can I stock?
From sizes, colors, and materials, having multiple Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) for your product will take a toll on your inventory management. Additionally, the possibility of delivering the wrong product is high as you ship the product. It is good to start a product that has one SKU.   

8. What are my product’s dimensions?
If your product is too bulky and super heavy, it will increase your shipping costs. To calculate the shipping cost of your product, use Retail Postage Price Calculator, and you’ll arrive at a conclusion soon. 

9. How durable is my product?
If your product is made of glass, it is more likely to face return issues. Although packaging has a significant role, it is always good to go with a durable product rather than experimenting with a fragile one.

10. What problem does my product solve?
It all boils down to this question. Do people find my product valuable throughout the year, like hair oil, or is it just serving the needs of my customers during the season, like a Christmas tree? Will customers return to purchase my product? Can I offer subscription services to my product to build a loyal customer base? Answering these questions will help you become a great e-commerce seller.

Why is Product Sourcing Important? 

Product sourcing is identifying potential vendors to buy quality products. The idea behind product sourcing is to find the best products for a reasonable price. Additionally, to maintain your inventory and build a reliable supplier network, product sourcing is important. Here are 5 product sourcing apps to build your dropshipping and print-on-demand store in Shopify.

1. Shapeways 

As a 3D printing and fulfillment service, Shapeways lets you create customized gaming toys, furniture, or jewelry designs. The more personalized and appealing your brand is, the more sales it can generate. Materials used for 3D printing in Shapeways include plastic, gold, steel, and aluminum. Use Shapeways to create unique and on-demand products.

Helpful Read #1: How to get your products featured on Shapeways?

2. Spocket

Spocket allows you to add product items from dropshipping suppliers in the EU and US. With just $19 per month, Spocket’s starter plan is all you need to start buying wholesale products for a 30-60 percent discount. Sports equipment, jewelry items, and clothing can be sourced through Spocket. While dropshipping is known for dragging the shipping time, Spocket fastens the shipping time with a more significant profit margin. 

Helpful Read #2: What kinds of drop shipping products are trending on Spocket?

3. Printful

This print-on-demand company uses the same methods as dropshipping. Printful allows the printing of logos and customized designs on anything. There are many print-on-demand services, but the product offerings of Printful are plentiful. You can print your personalized designs on anything. from hoodies, bottoms, and leggings to jackets. However, get sample printings for a discounted cost before printing in bulk and sending it to your customers.

Helpful Read #3: How to sell T-shirts on Amazon and make profits?

4. Lulu Express

For print-on-demand books and calendars, Lulu Express is an excellent product-sourcing app. Installing is free; fees are collected only when an order is placed. Your books or books from other authors can be sold through this platform. The products that work well on Lulu Express include novels, journals, notebooks, hardcover photo books, comic books, and poetry books.

Helpful Watch #4: How to start a print-on-demand business on Shopify?

5. Oberlo

The most important product-sourcing app in this list is Oberlo. It is the perfect den for drop shippers to find products, add them to the store, and drop ship to the customers. If you want to become a full-time drop shipper or do a passion project or excel in your side hustle, Oberlo is the perfect tool available in the market for Shopify users. 

You can source products from any niche, as Oberlo can be treated as a virtual warehouse. From fashion, electronics, beauty, and toys to smartphone photography gear for travelers, you’ll find millions of products on Oberlo. Sellers get insights about each of their product’s performance to help you find the winning dropshipping product formula. 

Helpful Watch #5: Everything you want to know about dropshipping with Oberlo

10 Best Products to Sell on Shopify

1. Mobile Cases

According to Adoric, as of 2020, the phone case market was valued at around $10 billion. The market is projected to grow at 7.5% yearly growth and will reach a market value of $35.5 billion by 2025. As you know, there are more mobiles than human beings on earth right now. Producing phone cases for Samsung and iPhone mobiles will take your profit margin to the moon. All you have to do is to get creative with your case designs.

2. Shoes 

According to Grand View Research, the market size of global e-commerce footwear was valued at USD 99.1 billion in 2021. It is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.8% from 2022 to 2028. Shoes are always trending, but only the sellers who go with a specific niche will be able to distinguish themselves from this competitive market.

3. Tote Bags

As far as the green economy is concerned, tote bags are growing at a CAGR of 6.37%, and customized tote bags are driving demand like never before. You can rely on Printful to leverage your tote bag sales as they are experts in personalization in Print-on-demand products. Hire a freelance photographer or learn effective photography tricks from YouTube tutorials for picture-perfect product photography. 

4. Coffee Mugs

One of the best products in the print-on-demand segments is coffee mugs. With people becoming more conscious about climate change, there is a definite upsurge in the global mug market due to its reusable nature. According to Data Bridge Market Research, the mug market was valued at USD 21.39 billion in 2021. It is expected to reach a value of USD 44.21 billion by 2029. 

5. Sunglasses

Good news for US e-commerce sellers as the most revenue from sunglasses was generated in the United States ($5,036.00m) in 2023, according to Statista. Although it is a saturated market, the term “Sunglass” is garnering more than a million views per month, and during the summer months, beach vacationers will be on the hunt for stocking up different shades of sunglasses with UV protection. Using keywords effectively and honing your copies during the product listing phase will help you attain a decent profit margin.

6. Skin Care Products

Nothing sells like skincare products all year round! Since winter gives you dry lips, summer makes way for acne and rashes. Similar to sunglasses, according to Statista, the most revenue for skin care products was generated in the United States ($21,090.00m) in 2023. This high-demand product requires a high amount of effort from a Shopify seller to make their product stand out from all the heat.

7. Books

Amazon’s brainchild and pioneer will always be in demand! Self-help books, novels, children's books, movie-related books, and e-books will always be profitable products to sell on Shopify. As the global second-hand book accounts for 15% of all the books sold, it is estimated that the used book market will grow to over $45 billion over the next ten years, according to WordsRated.

8. Clothes

According to Statista, the US’s revenue of the apparel market was valued at $312 billion U.S. dollars as of 2022. People will always need clothes for regular use, gyms, beach vacay, trips, weddings, newborns, gifts, Christmas, New Year, honeymoons, office, and riding. You have to conduct enough product research to land a high-demand product. Once your trial and error phase with the clothing niche is over, you’ll be able to garner a fanbase for your fabrics. 

9. Car and Bike Accessories

As more importance is given to family travel, weekend getaways, and work vacations following the pandemic, there is a definite priority given to improving the look and performance of a vehicle. Sellers can profit from automobile accessories like mobile holders, fog lights, headlamps, seat covers, car perfumes, and steering covers, as they are in high demand throughout the year. According to Verified Market Research, the car accessories Market size was valued at USD 498.9 Billion in 2022. It is projected to reach USD 821.7 Billion by 2030.

10. Yoga mats

Due to the rising popularity of Yoga, the global yoga mat market is at an all-time high! According to Markets and Markets, the global yoga mat market was valued at USD 8,984 million in 2020, while it is expected to reach USD 10,430 million by 2025. After the global Covid pandemic, the importance given to a holistic and healthy lifestyle has dramatically increased. If your pricing strategy is on point, yoga mats will be a beneficial product to add to your best products to sell on the Shopify list in 2023.

Frequently Asked Questions - Shopify

1. How to add products from AliExpress to Shopify? 

If you’re planning to drop ship from AliExpress, use DSers to import products from AliExpress to your Shopify store. DSers also make order fulfillment a lot easier once you get the sales. Like DSers helps import products from AliExpress, Saasant Transactions allows you to import thousands of financial transactions to QuickBooks to save you some precious time.

2. How to start drop-shipping on Shopify?

Consider these 12 steps before beginning your drop-shipping business on Shopify:

1. Choose your niche

2. Research suppliers

3. Create a Shopify account

4. Set up your online store

5. Import products

6. Set pricing

7. Configure shipping settings

8. Set up payment gateways

9. Create important pages

10. Promote your store

11. Track and optimize

12. Provide excellent customer service

Research each of these steps in detail to launch a successful drop-shipping business on Shopify.

3. How much does Shopify charge as fees?

Regarding transaction fees, Shopify levies a 2.9% + $0.30 fee per transaction for all online purchases conducted under this plan. Conversely, in-person purchases incur a 2.7% fee for each transaction. If a payment gateway other than Shopify Payments is utilized, an additional fee will be applied to every transaction.

4. What are some of the best integrations for Shopify?

1. Mailchimp: Sync Shopify customers, products, and purchase data to Mailchimp.

2. PayTraQer: Connect directly with your QuickBooks Online account to sync all your e-commerce payments in one place. 

3. Now Back in Stock - Track your inventory and alert customers when a popular item is back in stock.

4. Printful: Create custom designs for t-shirts, backpacks, mugs, tote bags, etc., to sell them on-demand on your Shopify store. 

5. Privy: Helps you improve your sales by generating mailing list pop-ups in your Shopify store, newsletter service, and sending follow-up emails for abandoned cart outreach. 

5. What are the best products to sell on Shopify in 2023?

You can sell both physical and digital products on Shopify in 2023 too. Take a look at this list of best-selling products in 2023 - Digital measuring spoon, heated gloves, car heater fan, hair blower brush, pet collar, microcurrent massager, magical printing pen, mini hair clipper, hot compress massager, and heated eyelash curler.