Usually, when people talking about a “product”, they will think about something tangible such as a T-shirt, a smart device, etc. However, in this post, we will not discuss these physical products. Besides physical products, many Shopify merchants also sell experiences, courses, rentals, and digital products, and even make a huge profit from these intangible products.
For this reason, if you are just starting out on your ecommerce business on Shopify, and still haven’t decided on a product to sell online, you should consider the intangible, too.
Shopify recommends for you the list below:
- Services (appointments)
- Memberships
- Consultations
- Digital products
- Event support
- Experiences
- Classes, lessons, and workshops
- Rentals
- Installations (and quotes)
- Donations
- Event tickets
- Digital gift cards
Services (appointments)
Traditionally, appointments are just used for sales in spas and salons, but some stores like clothing, jewelry, furniture have also begun to adopt these in-person sessions to better connect with their customers and craft the desired products.
For example, Toufie, a women’s shoe designer, sells handcrafted shoes customized to fit each customer. They use this method to have a customer’s measurements in person. “Appointment bookings are one of the integral components to a risk-free customer shopping experience at Toufie,” says Meliza Salim, co-founder of Toufie. “And thanks to the Appointment Booking app, booking for a 30-min fitting appointment is seamless and convenient. A hassle-free process for us and our customers.”
Suggested app: Appointment Booking, it allows you to add a dynamic calendar to your store. That means your customers can book preferred time slots with real-time availability.
Memberships
Organizations like the California Native Plant Society can offer memberships to customers on Shopify using a simple app. Similar to subscription box businesses. memberships reply on a recurring payment setup.
Suggested app: Bold Memberships allows you to run any type of membership on your store and charge a recurring membership fee for it.
You might also like Shopify Chat: A Better Shopping Experience with Real-Time Conversations
Consultations
When you already have a certain success in a field, you can think about selling your time in the form of training or guidance. Whether you are an interior designer or a fitness trainer, you can use an ecommerce site to book and sell online or in-person consultations.
Healthy Habits Living is an example, originally, it just sells nutritional supplements via its online store. But the owner Carly Neubert also offers personalized nutritional assessments for purchase on the site.
Suggested apps: Sufio helps manage to invoice for service-based businesses. Also, try Shopify’s Free Invoice Generator tool.
Digital products
If I Made, launched on Shopify last October, selling digital courses to creative professionals. Founder of If I Made, Emily Newman said, “Wedding Styling 101 was an in-person workshop curriculum. We then took that content and brought it all online to make it more portable and accessible. Our courses are a combination of worksheets, PDFs, and video.”
Besides, digital products can also refer to music files, fonts, or other design elements. Recognizing that many photographers spend a lot of time on editing, Pretty Presets solves that problem with pre-made alterations for Lightroom that cut photo editing time in half.
Suggested apps: Some instant file delivery apps such as Sky Pilot, SendOwl, and Digital Downloads or apps like Easy Video to add video previews or free content to product pages.
Event support
The Mobile Locker Co. rents and delivers mobile banks of lockers for marathons and outdoor events. Event organizers arrange lockers with the company, then the company will use ecommerce functionality to let runners book individual lockers (listed by event) through the site.
Parthenon Foods specializes in gourmet imported ethnic foods from over 45 countries from around the world. If you are sourcing foods for events, there are over 4,000 products and you can discuss directly with Parthenon Foods through the chat app installed on their website.
Suggested apps: Try installing a booking app Powr Form Builder or a chat app like Tidio, and BookThatApp.
Experiences
There is a wide range of experience-based businesses from travel and adventure to wine tastings and hands-on workshops. For example, Aspen Expeditions Worldwide sells rock climbing adventures, international guided trips, and camping expeditions through its ecommerce store. It organizes the information by adding tabs to the product description.
Suggested app: Use Powr Form Builder to create robust and customizable forms.
In order to make it easier for readers to follow, we devise this article into two parts. So let look forward to the second part to have further information about the top 12 best products to sell on Shopify.
