Sell Your Products with This All-in-one Platform

Selling physical products, whether your own or those of other manufacturers & suppliers, offers the most profit potential offline as it does online. But thriving with this business model requires the right tool-set, especially in the case of solopreneurs & small teams.

Not so long ago, individuals entering into the world of e-commerce had to stitch together several digital elements to make the entire experience work. Hosting often required a dedicated server with higher security levels to match those of static websites (because processing orders is natively more dynamic, demanding regular interaction between merchants & customers as opposed to simply displaying content for visitors to see). A payment gateway needed to be established & synced (to your banking information, a usually-complex CMS, the Web host, etc). It was a challenge, to say the least.

The headaches literally started before even adding products to an also-complicated and not-so-powerful e-commerce platform (which, in most cases, was entirely separate from the CMS). Eventually, a handful of Internet-based solutions simplified the bridging of selling products, receiving payment, and following up with clients post-purchase. But while these tasks were by that point unified, the system was far from perfect.

Only recently could a website publisher properly & effectively manage inventory, track orders, print shipping labels, and deliver relevant bits of information (such as upsell offers) as potential, active and returning buyers move through their cart, and ultimately, checkout. Today, you can visually display product options such as color variants, personalize the customer journey, and basically modify your online store to very granular depths — relatively easily.

For all of the above, a single platform tailoring to both non-techies and busy entrepreneurs (whether a high-volume seller, side hustler, digital nomad, or work-at-home mom/dad) comes to mind. It’s Shopify.

While we may be compensated for referrals to this e-commerce platform, there are valid reasons for why we’re willing to attach our name to Shopify’s product:

For one, it has optional POS software & hardware for users that equally sell offline (enabling you as their customer to accept payments [from your customers] from a mobile device like a tablet or smartphone).

Secondly, it has built-in tax & shipping rates calculators, so that you can accept full payment (naturally upon order confirmation) from your customers without having to send any follow-up invoices or messages.

Thirdly, your customers can enjoy an unbranded (or branded-as-your-own, rather) checkout experience. This means that they remain on your website (and domain name) throughout the entire buying process. Shopify doesn’t impose its brand so only yours can shine.

Fourthly, beautiful & flexible website/storefront templates are included. There’s a design/layout for any type of merchant, retailer, distributor, or manufacturer… regardless of your company’s industry & target market. While most are available at cost, a handful of their best themes are free; they’re also highly customizable, allowing for custom colors, fonts, etc.

In sum, there’s a ton to explore about Shopify and where it can take a business that sells physical products. They have a marketplace of third-party plugins & services (such as drop-shippers) that directly connect to Shopify stores to further streamline their business. And you can even sell the products of others under your brand (i.e., white/private label products) if you’d like to exclusively focus on marketing and customer support, with simple one-click integrations to do so. No other platform offers this level of dexterity.

All of the powerful features combined with their simple-to-use interface (and accompanying guides) make Shopify our top choice for setting up a shop online.