In the previous part of the article, we have gone through the 6 best products to sell on Shopify (rather than physical products), and in this part, we will discuss the rest. Now let’s continue.
Classes, lessons, and workshops
Not only physical products but intangible products also can sell well on Shopify or even better than physical products. And Buti Yoga is an excellent example of this case. The company combined yoga and cardio heavy dance into calorie-burning classes that can be taken in-person and online. In this way, customers will be more flexible in working out at home. Customers just need to follow videos or they can travel to destination retreats, or attend their annual convention. Plus, participants can also get fully certified to become an instructor.
Besides the above case, art, music, language schools also sell class passes or memberships online. These types of businesses often use customer accounts to manage member information.
Suggested apps: Appointment Book app is recommended for customers to book their own lessons and class passes. Also, Recurring Memberships is a great option for gyms and fitness studios.
Rentals
This type of business is quite common, it makes physical products available to customers for a predetermined amount of time. When customers use this service, they do not have to pay to own the product and all of its associated costs.
For example, Mannequin Madness sells retail props to other shops through its online store but also rents them temporarily. In an interview with Shopify, the owner of Mannequin Madness, Judi Henderson-Townsend told, “I am an accidental entrepreneur. I saw a mannequin on Craigslist and was going to buy it for an art project. When I discovered that the person selling the mannequin operated the only mannequin rental company in town and was leaving the state, I bought his entire inventory of 50 mannequins.” Even the company has provided the online catalog on its website, it still uses a contact form to assess customer needs before processing the rental.
Besides Mannequin Madness, Fitzroy is also a rental business, which offers hundreds of beautiful sample of dresses. However, it takes a different approach by asking customers to select a rental period and check out online by using a date selector variant available on their product page. By using a simple app and a clear FAQ page, Fitzroy makes the rental process smooth for customers and relatively hands-off for their staff.
Suggested apps: You can take a try on Powr Form Builder for manual rental requests and BookThatApp to add a calendar to product pages.
Installations (and quotes)
Some physical products are so complicated to install because of the custom nature of the product and the additional work involved in the installation. For example, GoGreenSolar.com, it sells and installs solar energy solutions for homeowners. If customers have some problems in the installation process, they can request done-for-you quotes and expert advice through the contact forms available on its site.
Suggested app: There is a tool to help you gather customer quote requests from your store. It is Quick Quote, this app also lets you track the quote status and chat with customers.
Related: Top 12 Best Products to Sell on Shopify
Donations
If you are a charity organization or a non-profit organization, you can consider Shopify is a useful channel to sell products to raise funds. Charities and non-profits also use an ecommerce site to “sell” one-time and recurring donations.
In fact, there are some organizations, who have done that and the Calgary Public Library Foundation is one of them. They use Shopify to sell merchandise and accept donations online to support their libraries.
Suggested apps: Some apps that will be helpful for these types of organizations are ReCharge, Tax Receipts and Share The Love.
Event tickets
Undertow, a Shopify store that works with select artists to sell tickets online for music events throughout the US. They use a paperless delivery method that sends downloadable PDF tickets to customers.
Suggested apps: Events Calendar will help you to keep customers and fans in the know about upcoming events. In addition, you also can use Sky Pilot or SendOwl for the ticketing process.
Digital gift cards or Personalized gifts
This is the simplest of non-tangible goods to add to any website. If you are using the Shopify plan or higher, you can enable gift cards for your store. They work for both product and service-based businesses if redeemed online.
Suggested apps: Shopify offers you with its own free template.
Whether you want to sell physical products or non-physical products, at first, you have to pay close attention to why customers buy your products today. Then, try to make it faster or easier for them to get the outcome they want. Such as personalized gifts for dog lovers , customized pet T-shirts and so on.
And in the case that you are not shipping physical products from your Shopify store, you may need to disable shipping settings and configure email templates to suit your business.
