Marc Hayes - Shopify: The Essential Guide to Effectively Plan and Market Your Shopify E-commerce Store

SHOPIFY

The Essential Guide to EffectivelyPlan and Market Your Shopify E-commerce Store

By Marc Hayes

Copyright 2016 - 2017 by Marc Hayes. Allrights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not bereproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expresswritten permission of the publisher except for the use of briefquotations in a book review.

The informationcontained in this book and its contents is not designed to replaceor take the place of any form of medical or professional advice;and is not meant to replace the need for independent medical,financial, legal or other professional advice or services, as maybe required. The content and information in this book has beenprovided for educational and entertainment purposes only.

The content andinformation contained in this book has been compiled from sourcesdeemed reliable, and it is accurate to the best of the Author'sknowledge, information and belief. However, the Author cannotguarantee its accuracy and validity and cannot be held liable forany errors and/or omissions. Further, changes are periodically madeto this book as and when needed. Where appropriate and/ornecessary, you must consult a professional (including but notlimited to your doctor, attorney, financial advisor or such otherprofessional advisor) before using any of the suggested remedies,techniques, or information in this book.

Upon using thecontents and information contained in this book, you agree to holdharmless the Author from and against any damages, costs, andexpenses, including any legal fees potentially resulting from theapplication of any of the information provided by this book. Thisdisclaimer applies to any loss, damages or injury caused by the useand application, whether directly or indirectly, of any advice orinformation presented, whether for breach of contract, tort,negligence, personal injury, criminal intent, or under any othercause of action.

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You agree thatby continuing to read this book, where appropriate and/ornecessary, you shall consult a professional (including but notlimited to your doctor, attorney, or financial advisor or suchother advisor as needed) before using any of the suggestedremedies, techniques, or information in this book.

Thank you for taking the first of manyinvestments youll be making into your future in the ecommerceworld. At this stage, you no doubt have some general understandingthat Shopify is one of the most trusted and well-produced onlinestorefront platforms available today. Despite being fairlyuser-friendly and having a great support staff, there is a lot thatgoes into opening and running a well-functioning and profitableonline ecommerce store. In this guide, well discuss therequirements involved, some legal considerations, how to find amarket and the products to sell, opening and handling your Shopifystore, and finally some marketing tips to help you succeed alongyour path. The focus of this guide is heavily on the marketing sideand how to find a niche that really works for you.

In this experience-packed guide, youll beencouraged to take your financial life into your own hands. It canbe risky at times, but with some guidance and determination, I knowyoull be successful. Heres to taking that first big step!

Unfortunately, you cant just log on toShopify and immediately expect to start selling things left andright. This is especially true if you dont have everything else inplace first. It is my advice to take the time to make sure you cantick off all these items before you even spend a ton of money on aproduct and opening your Shopify shop itself. These are many of thethings youll need to be successful.

While the initial investment may not be anunbelievably huge sum, youll need to spend quite a bit of timeproducing the copy and marketing your store. Time and money willalso be required to source new products (or make them yourself ifyoure going that route), and you spend both time and money onpackaging and shipping any orders (whether you handle it yourselfor pay someone else to handle it).

Because there is always the chance of anunexpected business expense, its a good idea to have at least alittle chunk of capital set aside. While the risks with a Shopifystore are much lower than a traditional brick and mortar business,there are still risks, and if quitting your day job now means youmay not pay the bills for at least six months, then I suggestkeeping the day job as you begin your ecommerce journey. Itll be alot of work after working all day, but it may be the only way tobreak free in the long run. Use your lackluster day job as amotivation factor and allow yourself to take more risk since youhave a safety net.

Motivation may be the only thing moreimportant than time or money. If you arent motivated, you will notproduce good results. Take the time to learn what is motivatingyour desire to run your own business. If its not enough to keepyou locked in to your goals, then it may be time to find bettermotivation or find something you can be more motivated about. Forsome, financial freedom is enough of a motivator. For others, thereasoning needs to be much deeper, such as, If I had financialfreedom, I would never have to miss one of my kids football gamesagain. This is not a motivational or goal-reaching book, but itsuffices to say that having a positive and motivated attitude goesan extremely long way in all areas of life.

You only need to understand the basics toopen and run a Shopify store. If you can handle email, basic webbrowsing, and online shopping, you should be alright. This isespecially true if you can afford to hire freelancers to help withthe more technical/creative stuff. If youre constantly lost whenusing the computer, you may want to begin by improving yourcomputer skills. Udemy.com offers online courses thatcan point you in the right direction.

There is no ecommerce store without somethingto sell and somebody to sell it to. These are two of the areas thatmost first-time ecommerce entrepreneurs struggle with. As such,well discuss these at greater length in forthcoming chapters. Fornow, it suffices to say that youll want a specific market andproducts that help to retain those customers.

You will of course need a store on Shopify.The reason I suggest Shopify over other options is for the powerfulinterface and user-friendly product listing and order managementsystems. It is a trusted and well-tested solution to ecommerce witha reliable support staff that ensures you get help when needed andthe service rarely, if ever, goes down for maintenance.Additionally, Shopify is designed in a manner that helps to makeyour store optimized for search engines, making it easier forpotential customers to find your store through search engines likeGoogle. Add in highly detailed analytic reports, top of the linesecurity, and relatively low costs compared to designing an onlinestore from scratch, and its easy to see that Shopify is an obviouschoice for the first-timer.

But before we can learn more about findingyour market, sourcing your product, and running your shop, weshould consider some legal issues first.

Let me begin this chapter by stressing that Iam not a lawyer, and nothing you read in this chapter should beconsidered as legal advice. I take no liability for your actions,and I present this information as oversimplification. That said,the following legal considerations should be taken into account.For more information, talk with your lawyer or tax preparer.