How to make money with Shopify (without starting a store)
When I first learned about the Shopify platform almost 2 years ago I was immediately hooked. A huge wave of excitement hit me. I couldn’t believe I didn’t discover it earlier. It seemed like this huge empire was slowly gaining size; quietly but quickly.
My initial contact point began when I signed up for that notorious Shopify 14 day trial. At that point I did not know anything about Shopify and it seemed like the most confusing platform I have tried to date. I went through all of the courses I could get my hand on (or my mouse on) but I still felt like something was missing, it just wasn’t “clicking”. I was going through this vast amount content but none of it seemed to really explain the basics properly like all of the other tutorials out there.
When I was learning React earlier that year, all of the tutorials and online videos were clear, concise, and explained everything very easily. This was not the case when it came to Shopify. It wasn’t until I actually started working with the platform through an agency that I began catching momentum with my learning. With the agency I was mostly working with the Liquid templating language, setting up/customizing themes, and working on Shopify public applications using React and Node.
After gaining and understanding of the platform and how everything works, I felt like I could explain the basics of the ecosystem better than the current (at the time) tutorials so I started a YouTube channel and released some Udemy courses to fill the education gap. The response was extreme positive and I have since had the privilege of working with over 2000 developers, designers, and freelancers of all kind in getting then up to speed with Shopify.
I have fine tuned my approach to to communicating all of the nuances of working with Shopify and how to simplify the learning curve.
While learning how to work with the Shopify platform is not difficult, it helps to be pointed in the right direction and where to find the information that you are looking for to save time.
When working with the Shopify platform, there are a few areas that you can specialize in:
- Developing stores/themes using Liquid
- Developing custom storefronts using the Shopify Storefront API
- Developing Public Shopify Apps for the Shopify Marketplace
- Setting up/customizing themes for clients
- Marketing and SEO (these could probably go in separate categories)
- Store management and administration (less popular but starting to gain momentum)
There could be more categories but these are the major ones that I have noticed to have a lot of demand.
2020 has brought a lot more attention to Shopify and the amount of jobs and freelance gigs for Shopify has substantially increased. All of the retail stores that were postponing opening e-commerce websites were pushed to do so and the existing Shopify stores received a lot more traffic. So the demand for knowledgable Shopify developers, designers, marketers, etc. increased dramatically.
Many of my long term clients saw incredible increases in traffic which ultimately resulted in higher sales, in many cases 2x — 3x their old revenue numbers.
Is it too late in 2021?
I get asked often, “Is it too late to learn about Shopify?” “But it looks like everyone is a Shopify expert now!”
My answer is, “It is not too late at all!” I believe e-commerce is just starting to grow. While it may not seem like it right now, we are still at the early stages of online shopping. Many online stores are slow, ineffective, and have terrible shopping experience. The Akamai study shows that every 100-millisecond delay in website load time can hurt conversion rates by 7% and that’s just the speed! Can you imagine what a bad user experience can do? Shopper’s expectations are rising and not all e-commerce websites are able to adjust. That’s where the new experts come in!
Why Shopify?
I believe Shopify has the highest potential and chances of becoming even better in the near future. They are the best funded company in the e-commerce space and are attracting the best talent. The companies that are able to attract the best employees ultimately end up winning. We have seen this with Google, Apple, Microsoft, and now with Tesla and SpaceX. Shopify, if not already, is on the way to becoming one of the top companies in the world with passionate employees. They have a proven track record of releasing some killer features and are continuously doing so. I have not seen this level of performance from any other platform right now. Due to this, they have and will continue to have the most opportunities for freelance and e-commerce related jobs.
Check out some of these awesome websites built on Shopify!
I hope you enjoyed this article and I wish you luck on your e-commerce journey!
