If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em: Getting into E-commerce With Shopify

Wow, it's been a while. A lot has changed in my life in the past month: winter turned to summer (what no spring???), I decided I better stop eating so much butter (sad face) and I cut the cord on "being an employee". So you know, life is scary/exciting right now and that's just how I like it.

Being your own boss has it's challenges. There's isn't that fear of being side-eyed for wearing hole-y socks or walking in 15 minutes late, so I'm still trying to get out of my p.j.'s and actually make down to my office by 9 am. It also has it's rewards. I've had the opportunity to work on some pet projects and have learned a bunch in doing so.

One of the projects/learnings was setting up a Shopify store. I have been dabbling in Shopify for a few months now, but it kept getting pushed to the back burner. I applied to become a Shopify Partner, someone vetted by Shopify as a person who could work with their customers, either building a site for them or helping with e-commerce activities like marketing and sales, and was accepted. I've been slowly going through their Partner training and started making a practice site. It was a mock up of a farm store selling produce, which is one of my dream jobs, but without the actual product it wasn't very inspiring. I got busy with stuff, so I put it aside.

I've Got To Get Rid Of My Stuff! Shopify to the Rescue!

Then my work life collided with my home life. I am slowly trying to get rid of a lot of my stuff. Things just sitting around collecting dust that I have hoarded over the years. A lot of these things can be donated or given away, but I have a lot of inherited jewelry and knick-knacks that are a little too valuable to donate. I was about to set up an E-bay account and had a bright idea: set up a Shopify store instead!

So between client work, my other business project, Artemis Media, another secret project you'll hear about by the end of June and getting my garden in, I've created a Shopify store called "Buy My Story". I just started out with a free template and customized it a bit to fit the brand I wanted to create.

This Builder is Badass

Shopify is another one of those builders that I wish was around when I was running my past multimedia business. The interface is intuitive and powerful, the dashboard has a ton of information, and whatever style of business, whether brick-and-mortar retail or pop-up shop or even a service by appointment business, it could be accommodated. There are multiple ways to get payment, including POS systems. Inventory is tracked, customer databases are created and you can easily set up multiple sales channel integrations, including social media and E-bay. There is also a migration system, so that if you are already using an e-commerce app you don't have to start from scratch to switch over.

Scale-y

Shopify scales from someone running a home based drop-shipping situation to large enterprises like Tesla, Budweiser, the Economist and Lady Gaga. They have packages ranging from a sale button for your Wordpress site up to the Shopify Plus for high volume enterprise. Each package has it's own level of customer service help, beginning with live chat and email up to having your own Shopify manager. They provide free or purchased templates, which a business owner could set up themselves, or a fully custom site could be built, but that might have to be done by a professional, like me!!! Hint, hint!

Here's Your New Side Hustle

They also accommodate something called drop-shipping. Yes I mentioned it above, but if you don't know what it entails, the basics are you set up an e-commerce business, but instead of purchasing and managing an inventory, you curate the items you want to sell from various wholesalers (Shopify can hook you up with them too). They take care of the inventory and shipping, you take care of the customer care and marketing. Sounds like a great side-hustle to me!

So if you are a brick-and-mortar business and you're tired of being beat by online competition or you're looking for a part-time home based biz, maybe it's time for you to get into e-commerce. With Shopify, I'm confident that if your product can be sold online, you could grow your business and maybe not beat Amazon, but join them and your customers in the e-commerce space. If you are interested, and want to learn more or need help setting up, contact me. I would absolutely love to build more Shopify sites!!! You can check it out for free, so click on the graphic above find out more.

Take a look at "Buy My Story" to see my Shopify development site. Pick up a bauble or tchotchke while you're there too!