Short Summary

• Surfer SEO is an AI-powered on-page optimization tool that provides data insights to help users improve their search engine rankings.

• Its features include Content Editor, SERP Analyzer, Content Audit, and Surfer AI for content creation.

• It offers a range of powerful features at different price points and can be integrated with other tools to expand its capabilities.

Understanding Surfer SEO

Surfer SEO is a robust on-page optimization tool that evaluates more than 500 ranking elements, providing data-driven recommendations for content enhancement. Why is it so popular among SEO professionals? The secret lies in its ability to analyze the top-ranking pages for a given keyword and offer actionable insights to improve your content’s SEO performance. In this surfer seo review 2023, we will explore the features and benefits of Surfer SEO. In our surfer seo review conclusion, we aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of the tool’s capabilities.

While there are surfer seo alternatives in the market, such as Page Optimizer Pro, Frase, and Scalenut, Surfer SEO stands out with its ease of use, content structure assistance, LSI keyword analysis, and the ever-evolving Grow Flow feature.

However, it’s important to note that the tool is not without its drawbacks, such as the less-than-optimal AI writing capability.

What is Surfer SEO?

Surfer SEO is a powerful SEO tool designed to optimize your content for improved search engine rankings by providing insights based on the analysis of top-ranking pages. Among various SEO tools, this one evaluates more than 500 on-page signals, including on page seo factors, such as:

• TF-IDF

• Meta titles

• Alt tags

• LSI

• NLP

These insights help users identify the best target keyword to focus on for their content using the Surfer keyword research tool. Whether you’re a data-driven content creator or a professional working on scalable content, Surfer SEO is an ideal choice for you.

One of the most popular features of Surfer SEO is the Content Editor, which allows users to import content from a URL, create documents, and write pieces while following the formatted guidelines and terms provided by the tool. The AI-powered Outline tab in Surfer’s Content Editor generates sections of content based on competitors’ content, making it easier for users to create SEO-optimized articles.

How Surfer SEO Works

Surfer SEO works by evaluating multiple on-page elements, such as keyword utilization, meta tags, and backlinks, to provide actionable insights for content optimization. The tool analyzes various on-page factors and helps users enhance their website’s performance on search engine results pages (SERPs). One of the features of Surfer SEO is the Domain Planner tool, which helps users identify quick wins and missed SEO opportunities by displaying metrics like Content Score, monthly search volume, traffic, ranking position, and impressions.

To edit a page in Surfer SEO’s Content Editor, users can follow these steps:

1. Click the purple icon next to the page in the Domain Planner report.

2. Make necessary alterations based on Surfer’s recommendations.

3. Republish the page in their content management system (CMS).

The process is designed to be user-friendly and efficient, ensuring that your content is optimized for both humans and search engines.

Key Features of Surfer SEO

Surfer SEO offers a range of features to help users optimize their content and improve their search engine rankings. These features include:

• Content Editor

• SERP Analyzer

• Content Audit

• Content Planner

• Surfer AI

Each of these features serves a unique purpose and adds value to the overall user experience.

In this section, we’ll explore each of these key features in detail and discover how they can help you create data-driven, SEO-optimized content.

Content Editor: The Heart of Surfer SEO

The Content Editor lies at the heart of Surfer SEO, providing comprehensive real-time feedback, keyword analysis, and content optimization suggestions. By offering insights into how your content is performing and how to optimize it for SEO, the Content Editor becomes an invaluable tool in your content creation process. The interface is intuitive and straightforward, similar to creating content on Google Docs or MS Word, ensuring a seamless user experience.

As you write your content, the Content Editor provides you with a list of relevant keywords and phrases to include, which can help in optimizing your content for search engines. By following the recommendations provided by Surfer SEO’s Content Editor, you can ensure that your content is not only engaging for your audience but also optimized for search engine rankings.

SERP Analyzer: Competitive Analysis Made Easy

Understanding your competition is crucial in the world of SEO, and Surfer SEO’s SERP Analyzer tool makes this task easier than ever. By analyzing the competition for a given keyword, the SERP Analyzer provides insights into on-page factors that contribute to high rankings, such as:

• keyword usage

• meta tags

• backlinks

• average word count

• the number of H2 tags of ranking pages

• using a keyword research tool

The primary output of Surfer SEO’s SERP Analyzer is a graph illustrating the correlation between word count and average position over time. This data can help you identify the optimal content length and keyword distribution for your content, ensuring that you stay ahead of your competition.

The new feature in Surfer SEO’s SERP Analyzer that displays common backlinks for the SERP being analyzed provides further insights into the backlinks that contribute to high rankings.

Content Audit: Reviving Old Content

Reviving old content is essential for maintaining a strong online presence, and Surfer SEO’s Content Audit feature helps you do just that. The Content Audit enables you to:

• Detect and rectify issues with your existing content

• Receive data-driven recommendations for improvement

• Identify obsolete data

• Improve formatting

• Avoid keyword stuffing

By utilizing the Content Audit feature, you can ensure that your content is up-to-date, well-optimized, and engaging for your audience.

As a result, you can boost the overall quality of your content and make it more appealing to search engines.

Content Planner: Strategic Planning Assistance

The Content Planner in Surfer SEO is designed to assist users in planning and strategizing content creation based on keyword research and search intent. By providing preliminary data such as monthly search volume and keyword difficulty for each cluster of related content, the Content Planner allows you to make informed decisions about which topics to cover in your content strategy.

This helps you focus your efforts on the most promising content opportunities, ensuring that you get the most out of your content creation efforts.

Surfer AI: AI Content Writer

Surfer AI is an AI-driven content writer that helps users create SEO-optimized content quickly and efficiently. By using natural language processing and machine learning algorithms, Surfer AI analyzes the content of a website and creates SEO-optimized content, along with recommending keywords and phrases to be incorporated in the content.

While the produced content may not be as original or imaginative as content composed by a human, Surfer AI’s efficiency and speed make it a valuable tool for those looking to create content at scale.

Surfer SEO in Action: Real-Life Results

When it comes to real-life results, Surfer SEO has proven its effectiveness in improving search engine rankings and driving organic traffic. Authority Hacker, a well-known digital marketing company, reported double-digit growth in traffic after optimizing pages with Surfer SEO. This is just one example of how Surfer SEO can help businesses and content creators achieve their goals.

Another case in point is Surfer SEO’s Grow Flow, an AI-driven assistant that provides practical steps to enhance SEO visibility. While it’s not perfect and cannot substitute for quality tools and expertise, the Grow Flow feature can still offer valuable insights and recommendations to help users improve their website’s performance.

These real-life examples showcase the potential of Surfer SEO in helping users achieve better search engine rankings and increased organic traffic. By leveraging the tool’s powerful features and data-driven recommendations, content creators can ensure that their content is optimized for both humans and search engines, resulting in a winning combination.

Pricing and Plans: Is Surfer SEO Worth the Investment?

Surfer SEO offers four core plans:

1. Essential: Pricing starts at $59/month and includes access to the Content Editor, SERP Analyzer, and basic keyword research.

2. Advanced: Priced at $99/month, this plan offers additional features such as the Content Audit and Content Planner.

3. Max: Unlock Surfer AI and other premium features with the Max plan, priced at $199/month.

4. Enterprise: For businesses with unique requirements, the Enterprise plan offers custom pricing and includes personalized training, a dedicated customer success manager, and premium support.

Note: Annual discounts are available for all plans.

While Surfer SEO might be more expensive than some of its competitors, the tool’s robust features and data-driven recommendations make it a worthy investment for those looking to improve their website’s search engine rankings and drive organic traffic. By choosing the right plan based on your needs and budget, you can ensure that you get the most out of Surfer SEO and its powerful capabilities.

Comparing Surfer SEO to Competitors

When deciding whether Surfer SEO is the right tool for you, it’s essential to compare it to its competitors in the market. Some of these competitors include Content At Scale, Frase, and Scalenut, all of which offer similar features but differ in terms of pricing, capabilities, and user experience.

By comparing these tools, you can make an informed decision about which one best fits your needs and budget.

Content At Scale Overview

Content At Scale is an approach to creating a large volume of content in an efficient and effective manner, often leveraging AI-powered tools. This method can be utilized for marketing, product development, and social media management. Content At Scale provides a range of features, including AI-powered content creation, content optimization, and content analysis, as well as tools for content planning, scheduling, and tracking.

When comparing Content At Scale to Surfer SEO, it’s worth noting that both tools emphasize content creation and optimization but have distinct features and capabilities. For example, Content At Scale focuses on creating content at scale, while Surfer SEO’s primary focus is on competitive analysis and content audits. By considering the unique features and capabilities of each tool, you can determine which one is the best fit for your needs.

Surfer SEO’s Strengths and Weaknesses

Surfer SEO offers numerous strengths, including:

• Its ability to provide superior data and recommendations for on-page optimization compared to other tools like Website Auditor

• The tool’s user-friendly interface and well-designed dashboards make it easy to navigate and use, even for those who are new to SEO

• The Content Editor, SERP Analyzer, and other features make Surfer SEO a comprehensive solution for content creators and marketers looking to improve their search engine rankings.

However, Surfer SEO is not without its weaknesses. While it is more affordable than Clearscope, starting at $59/month, some users may still find the cost prohibitive. Additionally, certain features like the Surfer AI may not be as advanced as those offered by competitors, leading to content that may not be as original or imaginative as content composed by a human.

It’s essential to weigh the strengths and weaknesses of Surfer SEO when deciding whether it’s the right tool for your needs. While the tool offers many benefits, it’s crucial to consider its limitations and compare it to other solutions in the market to make an informed decision.

Integration Possibilities: Expanding Surfer SEO’s Capabilities

One of the advantages of Surfer SEO is its ability to integrate with other tools, such as SEMrush and Writesonic, allowing users to benefit from enhanced capabilities and improved user experience. By integrating with other tools, you can streamline your SEO workflow and make the most of your content creation efforts. For instance, the Google Docs integration feature enables writers to view all of Surfer’s suggestions directly within the Google Doc, making it easy to optimize content in real-time.

Surfer SEO provides a public roadmap of their ongoing projects, which can be found on their Trello page. This transparency allows users to keep track of upcoming features and improvements, ensuring that they can make the most of the tool as it continues to evolve. By integrating Surfer SEO with other tools, you can unlock its full potential and take your content optimization efforts to new heights.

Summary

In this Surfer SEO review 2023, we’ve explored the various features, strengths, and weaknesses of the tool, as well as its pricing and integration possibilities. Surfer SEO is a powerful on-page optimization tool that can greatly benefit content creators and marketers looking to improve their search engine rankings and drive organic traffic. Its user-friendly interface, comprehensive feature set, and data-driven recommendations make it a valuable resource in the ever-changing world of SEO.

While Surfer SEO may not be perfect, its strengths far outweigh its weaknesses, making it a worthy investment for those looking to up their SEO game. By choosing the right plan based on your needs and budget, and leveraging the tool’s powerful features, you can ensure that your content is optimized for both humans and search engines. So, are you ready to unlock the full potential of your content and reach new heights with Surfer SEO?

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Surfer SEO easy to use?

SurferSEO makes it easy to generate a report and optimize content with detailed recommendations, so it is easy to use.

By using SurferSEO, you can quickly and easily create a report that provides detailed recommendations for optimizing your content. This makes it easy to make changes and improve your content quickly and efficiently.

Does Surfer SEO work?

Surfer SEO is a comprehensive on-page SEO optimization tool, complete with features like keyword research, content planner, content editor, SERP analyzer, and SEO audit. Its features make it an effective tool to optimize website pages and improve rankings.

Confirming that SEO works.

How does Surfer SEO work?

SurferSEO provides data-driven insights into a website’s on-page optimization, allowing users to compare and analyze their pages against what currently ranks on SERPs. It offers an accurate assessment of missing elements, allowing website owners to make more informed decisions.

What’s a good score in Surfer SEO?

A score between 67-100 is considered optimal for quality and relevance in SurferSEO, while anything below 33 may suggest low-quality or irrelevant content.

34-66 indicates decent quality and relevance.

What are the key features of Surfer SEO?

Surfer SEO provides powerful features such as Content Editor, SERP Analyzer, Content Audit, Content Planner, and Surfer AI, allowing users to analyze their website’s performance and create effective content.

These features help users optimize their website for search engine rankings, improve their content quality, and increase their visibility online. With these tools, users can easily identify areas of improvement and create content that is tailored to their target audience.

Surfer SEO also provides detailed reports.

The post Surfer SEO Review 2023: A Comprehensive Look Into the On-Page SEO Tool appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

What is Ecommerce?

Ecommerce is a shortened version of the phrase “electronic commerce” which essentially describes any type of exchange of currency for goods or services online.

Ecommerce is an umbrella term that covers everything there is to do with buying or selling online, and can sometimes be otherwise written as “E Commerce,” “e-commerce,” or “eCommerce.” Any variation of the spelling is correct, and it all describes the same act of performing business via the internet.

Since the definition of ecommerce is so open-ended (it literally includes any type of buying or selling of goods or services online) there are so many different types of ecommerce businesses that exist. In this article, we dive deeper into the different types of ecommerce businesses that ecommerce business owners can run.

What is an ecommerce store?

An ecommerce store is a website that accepts payment for selling goods online. An example of an ecommerce store is Amazon, which allows you to buy products ranging from books to clothing using your credit card or other payment methods.

What is the difference between ecommerce and ebusiness?

The difference between ecommerce and ebusiness is that ecommerce is one type of ebusiness. Ecommerce focuses on online sales only, whereas ebusinesses generate revenue in multiple ways including ecommerce but also through offline transactions.

The Types of Ecommerce Business Models

First things first, when you ask yourself, “What is ecommerce?” the best way to begin to describe different ecommerce businesses, and the different types of ecommerce businesses, is to break them down into the types of ecommerce business models that exist.

Ecommerce business models can be differentiated into three main categories:

• What types of products are sold
• Who the products are sold to
• Where the products are sold on

Let’s look into these three identifiers further:

What Types of Products Are Sold?

Every ecommerce business can be differentiated by the types of products that it sells. There are four types of products that any ecommerce business can sell and they are:

• Physical Products: clothing, dinnerware, picture frames, etc.
• Digital Products: ebooks, music, online courses, etc.
• Services: coaching, cleaning, tutoring, etc.
• Affiliates: digital products, physical products, services, etc.

Every single ecommerce business online can fit into one or more of these categories, and this basically just tells you what type of products they sell to their customers.

Some ecommerce businesses sell physical products which means that the business has actual tangible products that they ship to their customers, and when their customers open the shipping package there will be a physical product they can touch, feel and see.

Conversely, digital products are a type of product that ecommerce businesses can sell online without shipping a product physically but digitally. Digital products can be instantly downloaded by customers so there’s a sense of immediacy with this type of product. It also helps to satisfy impulse shoppers since they get to dig into their new purchase right away rather than wait for their item to ship for a couple weeks.

Businesses can also provide digital or in-person services that their customers can purchase online. These services can include anything from design services or streaming services (both are digital services) to home improvement services or dog-walking services (which are in-person services). Any business that provides a service, rather than a physical or digital product, can be included in this category.

Finally, ecommerce businesses can also earn commissions via affiliate links which pay them a portion of the revenue for facilitating a sale. Ecommerce businesses that earn affiliate commissions could be blogs, influencer websites, or even websites like Canopy that curate products sold online for consumers. If you’re interested in creating your own affiliate ecommerce store, check out our Beginner’s Guide to Creating an Affiliate Ecommerce Store article.

Who the Products Are Sold To

Ecommerce businesses differ from each other based on who their target market is or who they sell to. A customer can be a person, a business, or a government. Let’s take a look at the three types of groups of that ecommerce businesses sell to:

These are the three main categories that ecommerce businesses sell their products or services to:

• B2B: This stands for Business-to-Business. Ecommerce businesses that sell physical or digital products or services to other businesses fall under this category. For example, this could include manufacturers or suppliers that provide materials or products for other businesses. Shopify is a B2B business as it sells ecommerce subscription services to other businesses.
• B2C: This stands for Business-to-Consumer. Ecommerce businesses that sell physical or digital products or services to consumers fall under this category. This includes retailers or ecommerce retailers that sell products to the end consumer. Amazon is a B2C business that sells various physical and digital products to consumers.
• B2G: This stands for Business-to-Government. Ecommerce businesses that sell physical or digital products or services to government institutions or agencies fall under this category. For example, this could include businesses that create specialized software, office furniture, uniforms, etc. Mark 43 is B2G business that specializes in providing technology for police.

While most businesses generally sell their products to one of these categories, it’s entirely possible for ecommerce businesses to sell to more than one category of consumers. It’s important for ecommerce businesses to understand who exactly they sell their products to because it impacts important decisions such as their marketing, their branding, their shipping procedures, their markup, etc.

Where the Products Are Sold On

Finally, ecommerce businesses can also be differentiated based on the way they sell their products to their customers. These options are:

• Branded Ecommerce Stores: These are ecommerce stores that are owned and operated by the founder(s) or creator(s) of the store, and they sell their own products on their own terms to their customer base. These types of stores are generally built on ecommerce platforms such as Shopify or BigCommerce.
• Ecommerce Marketplaces: Ecommerce businesses can also sell through online marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay or Etsy. Each platform will have its own terms and conditions you’ll need to abide by to prevent being kicked off the platform. Certain products may be prohibited from different platforms. You might also need to keep a merchant review score to maintain your ability to sell on the platform. Also, some ecommerce marketplaces compete with their sellers, which might make it harder to sell your products on their website. Ultimately, you give up a bit of control when selling on ecommerce marketplaces.
• Conversational Commerce: With social media being a major part of consumers’ daily routines, social media platforms are making it easy for consumers to shop through the posts on their newsfeed. Instagram Shop, Facebook Marketplace, Pinterest Shopping, and TikTok all have conversational commerce options that ecommerce brands can sell their products through.

The Different Ecommerce Platforms

Every ecommerce business needs an ecommerce store, which is essentially just a website where their customers can come to browse, learn about, and purchase their products.

Ecommerce businesses have different options when it comes to the ecommerce platforms they use to sell their products online, as we discussed in our Ecommerce Platforms: The Best Software, Reviews & Comparisons article. No matter whether a store wants to sell on marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, or Etsy they should also have an ecommerce store set up so they aren’t selling all their products through a middleman. Creating a self-branded store on an ecommerce platform is the only way to get full control over your ecommerce business, and it’s the best way to get full say on branding, marketing, customer experience, and revenue.

We discussed the Top 10 Ecommerce Platforms in great detail in this article, so for anyone interested in becoming an ecommerce business owner, that’s the most in-depth guide on ecommerce platforms we can recommend. For those who just want to get started on the best ecommerce platform in the industry, we recommend building on Shopify. We’ve discussed why they’re the most highly recommended ecommerce platform in our Shopify Review, so if you’re interested to learn more about the features and services they offer, check that out. We update it regularly as they come out with new features and services.

If you require specific features from your ecommerce platform or just want to get a personalized recommendation based on your unique situation and circumstances, check out our Personalized Ecommerce Platform Recommendation Tool. No matter where you are in the process of building, launching, or growing your ecommerce business, this tool can recommend the best ecommerce platform for you.

Who Can Start Their Own Ecommerce Business?

Anyone can start their own ecommerce business. Anyone can go from asking themselves, “What is ecommerce?” to building their very own ecommerce business in the span of weeks by dedicating time to learning and testing out ecommerce platforms to get the hang of it. Some commerce businesses are easier to start than others. Some ecommerce business owners can learn quickly even if they’re beginners. Anyone can build, launch, and grow their own ecommerce business if they have some time, energy, and resources and they’re ready to put in the work.

Some benefits for new ecommerce business owners is this:

• There’s a Low Barrier to Entry: To start a brick-and-mortar business in the past when online business wasn’t an option, entrepreneurs had to get a bank loan to rent out a store and purchase inventory and equipment upfront before they could even get started selling to customers. They had one shot to succeed and if they failed, they would be out a huge sum of money and they’d repel any other bank they approached in the future. Today, you can start your own business without carrying inventory, or you can run your business online for less than your monthly cell phone bill. Signing up to start your own ecommerce business only takes a few minutes and there are no prerequisites needed to get started. So, after you finish reading ‘what is ecommerce’ you can start experimenting by building your own ecommerce store today.
• Unlimited Audience Reach: New ecommerce entrepreneurs can sell to anyone in the world, whereas brick-and-mortar businesses can only sell to those who live locally. The main benefit of being able to sell anywhere in the world is that it opens up your chances of generating sales. The more people you can reach, the more likely you are to land sales. As a result, it makes it easier for anyone exploring ‘what is ecommerce’ to actually build their first ecommerce business.

We truly believe that with the right resources, everyone and anyone can become an ecommerce business owner. You don’t have to quit your day job if you don’t want to, we just highly recommend that you start something. Building an ecommerce business teaches so many valuable lessons and even if you’re not quite ready to start your own fully-fledged ecommerce business yet there are still steps you can take to get something on the go! Check out our How to Start an Ecommerce Business When You’re Not Ready to Start an Ecommerce Business article to learn more.

It’s common for those starting their first ecommerce business to struggle with Imposter Syndrome, the feeling of not being good enough to start your own business. Push past those feelings and to start your own ecommerce business anyways. Starting your own ecommerce business is about so much more than just being successful or earning lots of money. It’s about the journey from turning nothing into something and turning ideas, resources, and inspiration into something tangible.

In our manifesto, we discuss the 7 traits of successful entrepreneurs, so if you’re just getting started in ecommerce we recommend having a look over that article. You may not have all the industry knowledge or the time and money to get your ecommerce business started but if you have any of those 7 traits, you can still be successful.

The Pros and Cons of Starting Your Own Ecommerce Business

Taking the first step to in learning how to start an ecommerce business, you’ll begin to think about what the advantages and disadvantages of ecommerce are. In the early stages, you asked yourself “what is ecommerce?” whereas now you might be wondering “is ecommerce worth it?” or “what are the advantages of ecommerce?” So, let’s dig into the pros and cons of starting an ecommerce business to help you decide if this is the right path for you.

Pros of Starting Your Own Ecommerce Business

• Building Something from Nothing: With ecommerce, you have the ability to take ideas, knowledge, and inspiration and use them to build your own business from scratch.
• Earning Money At Any Time: There’s no set 9 to 5 business hours when it comes to ecommerce business. You can earn money at any time, day or night.
• Connecting with Your Audience All Over the World: You’re not limited to one area or region when it comes to the customers you can sell to; you can sell to customers all over the world.
• Lower Overall Costs: Compared to a brick-and-mortar business, there might be no rent, storage, or even employee costs in the early stages of your ecommerce business depending on the business model you choose.
• Being Your Own Boss: When you build your own business you can be your own boss and have the autonomy to bring the vision of your business to life.
• Selling Everywhere: You’re not restricted to where you can sell. You can have a brick-and-mortar business and an online business, you can sell at pop-ups, festivals, markets, shows, conferences, online marketplaces, etc.
• Working from Anywhere: As long as you have a wifi connection and some of your systems and processes automated, you have the freedom to work from anywhere at any time.
• Making it Your Full-Time Job or Part-Time Hobby: You don’t have to go all-in on your ecommerce business if you don’t want to; it can be your side hustle. But, you make the rules so if you want to make it your full-time job and get out of the rat race you can do that, too!

Cons of Starting Your Own Ecommerce Business

• No Physical Storefront: You can get a ton of foot traffic from having a physical location from people who live locally. Most people are more likely to shop in-person than online, despite ecommerce’s growing popularity.
• No Face-to-Face Time with Your Customers: You can build meaningful relationships with customers when they visit your brick and mortar store. While it’s possible to build relationships online, the path to doing so takes a bit longer and more effort.
• Competition & Standing Out from the Crowd: There’s a lot of competition online, and differentiating your ecommerce businesses from others can be a challenge. To stand out from the crowd your ecommerce business needs to offer something that other ones don’t, whether that’s based on service, selection, price, variety, brand, or something else.
• The Learning Curve: Starting a business, making a website, creating a brand, building a customer-based, etc. takes time and effort to learn how to do properly so at first, it can definitely be a bit of a learning curve. We suggest looking to reputable sources of information online such as our blog, the Shopify blog, and Skillshare to get started learning about “What is ecommerce?”

How to Start Your Own Ecommerce Business

Starting your own ecommerce business has never been easier, which is good news if you’re asking yourself, “What is ecommerce?” and want to get started with building your own ecommerce business as soon as possible.

There are so many resources out there to help you learn what is ecommerce and to start your own ecommerce business. These are a few places we recommend checking out first to get you started:

• Find a Product Idea: As you learn what is ecommerce, you’ll quickly realize you need something to sell to start an ecommerce business. You can sell physical or digital products, services, or even other brands products through affiliate marketing. To get started, you might want to check out our trending products post to discover the popular products people are buying right now. You can also download our guide on 500 Niches to help you determine which category to start a business in.
• Plan Your Business: The next step is to start formulating a plan. When you’re new to ecommerce, there might be some aspects of building your ecommerce business that you may not know to consider, so this One Page Ecommerce Business Plan has been specifically created to help budding ecommerce entrepreneurs identify any advantages or disadvantages they may face when building their business, plus other aspects of building an ecommerce business that are important to consider.
• Sign Up to an Ecommerce Platform: Once you’ve found a product to sell and planned your business out thoughtfully, your next step is to sign up to an ecommerce platform so you can start working on the website you’re going to call your online store. When you sign up to an ecommerce platform like Shopify you’ll be able to pick your business name right away and your domain name, then you can start customizing your website with a theme, fonts, and colors to make it personal to your brand. It’s super easy, and it’s fun to see your website start to take shape!

Then when it comes to learning about how to actually design your ecommerce business’ website, such as your theme and branding, we recommend checking out these resources:

• Ecommerce Branding Guide: Build a great brand from the beginning so you can connect with your customers and get them engaged with your ecommerce business.
• 50 Beautiful Ecommerce Website Designs: Check out what other ecommerce businesses do to not only make their website beautiful but also functional for their visitors.
• How to Come Up With a Business Name: Your business name is likely going to be the first thing people hear about your brand, so you want it to be representative of what they can expect from you. Come up with a killer business name thanks to the tips and advice in this guide.
• Create a Beautiful Company Logo: Your logo is the face of your brand, so make sure you make the right impression with a beautiful company logo. This guide will help you get the best logo created for your business that you possibly can, no matter what your budget is (even if you don’t have one!).
• The Best Shopify Themes: In today’s online world a website is judged by its cover, so you have to make sure your store’s theme reflects your brand’s personality and values while still being functional and easy to navigate. With an ecommerce platform such as Shopify, however, creating a beautiful and functional online store is as easy as browsing through all the available Shopify themes and we’ve rounded up the top ones in this article.

What Kind of Ecommerce Business Can You Start?

It’s time to move on from asking yourself, “What is ecommerce?” and to start asking yourself, “What kind of ecommerce business can I start?” Since you’ve read this article up to this point you already know that anyone can start their own ecommerce business and that anyone can be you.

When it comes down to it, you can start any kind of ecommerce business you want as long as you:

• Have something you can sell to consumers whether it’s a physical product, digital product, service, or affiliate link. If you don’t have a product to sell yet, you can browse the Shopify App Store for dropshipping apps and wholesale apps so you can find products to sell for your ecommerce business.
• Have somewhere online you can sell your product from, like the ecommerce platforms we’ve discussed earlier in this article. You can build your ecommerce business on Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, or any other popular ecommerce website builder.

As long as you have a product to sell and somewhere to sell it you can start your own ecommerce business.

To get started, check out these articles to get step-by-step instruction on ecommerce businesses you can start from scratch:

• How to Start a T-Shirt Business: Learn to start an ecommerce business in the most popular niche: fashion. With print on demand, dropshipping, and wholesale, you’ll quickly learn there are many ways to start a t-shirt business.
• How to Start a Clothing Line: Take your business to the next level by starting an entire clothing line. You can sell all types of apparel, such as leggings, dresses, ties, suits, and much more.
• How to Start a Phone Case Business: Phone cases are a great business to start due to the low wholesale cost and good markup for retail prices. Since it’s a small item to ship, it’s easy to start an ecommerce business selling phone cases.
• 31 Ecommerce Products You Can Make Yourself: If you’re passionate about product creation, you can choose to make your own ecommerce products. As a maker, you’ll be able to sell original products for your ecommerce business giving you a competitive advantage.
• How to Start 11 Different Types of Ecommerce Businesses: Discover the types of ecommerce businesses you can start and pick the type that suits you best.

Then, check out these ecommerce business case studies to learn how other ecommerce business owners have built, launched, and grown their own ecommerce businesses:

• Ecommerce Business Case Studies
• 7 In-Depth Case Studies on Starting an Ecommerce Business from Scratch

Finally, if you just want some more general knowledge that takes your what is ecommerce query to the next level, such as what product markets are trending at the moment or ways to find great product ideas, check out these resources:

• Reverse Engineering the Perfect Ecommerce Product
• Instant Product Evaluator Tool

Where to Source Products for Your Ecommerce Business

Sourcing products for your ecommerce business is going to be the next most important step when starting your own ecommerce business, and it depends largely on which ecommerce business model you choose to sell through.

There are 4 main ecommerce business models and each one dictates the way you’ll source your products. You can:

• Make your products
• Manufacture your products
• Wholesale your products
• Dropship your products

Make Your Products

If you choose to make your products, you’ll be in charge of sourcing all your materials so you can bring your products to life. The main challenge with making products for your ecommerce store is the time it takes to make your products, the cost, and difficulty incurred with sourcing materials to make your products, and how difficult it may be to scale your business should demand for your products increase. Another challenge with making your own products is that there’s no proof of concept that it’ll sell well. However, if the hard work pays off, you’ll be the exclusive owner of that product giving your ecommerce business a competitive advantage.

Manufacture Your Products

If you choose to get your products manufactured, you’ll need to source a manufacturer that can make your products. To do this, you could consult online directories such as our Manufacturer Directory to find a curated list of reputable manufacturers capable of making a range of different products, you could use a third-party manufacturer sourcing service such as Sourcify to help you find the perfect supplier for your products (the founder of Sourcify wrote two articles for our blog, check them out here: How to Source Products from Chinese Manufacturers and The Untold Secrets to Cutting Manufacturing Costs & Lead Times) and you could also find a manufacturer via an online manufacturer marketplace such as Alibaba or Maker’s Row. If you’re interested in sourcing your products from Alibaba, we highly recommend checking out our Guide to Sourcing Products from Alibaba so you can source your products as safely and securely as possible.

The main advantage of working with manufacturers to create your products is that you can custom-build products, you can get your products created exactly how you want them and you can keep your costs to a minimum. The biggest disadvantage of working with a manufacturer, however, is that you’ll very likely have to meet the minimum order quantities of your manufacturer which can be a major upfront cost.

Wholesale Your Products

When sourcing your products from wholesalers, you’ll be able to purchase your products in bulk without having to manufacture them yourself. Check out online wholesale directories (like our Wholesale Suppliers Directory!) to find wholesalers that sell products you’re interested in selling on your online store, or you could even source products in wholesale via AliExpress or these AliExpress Alternatives. You can also check out Handshake, a wholesale platform created by Shopify.

Dropship Your Products

If meeting upfront minimum order quantities sounds daunting or you just want the flexibility of not having to store inventory or ship products, then dropshipping may be the ideal business model for you. To source your products from dropshippers, your best bet is to check out an online dropshipping directory or even a roundup of the best Dropshipping Apps to Acquire Inventory for Your Business that integrates directly with Shopify stores, should you choose to start one. One of the advantages of dropshipping businesses is that you can sell best-selling items, quickly and at their peak. The downside is that other businesses might be selling the exact same product as you making it a more competitive space.

How Much Does It Cost to Start An Ecommerce Business?

Ecommerce businesses can be built on any budget. As we discussed in the “What is Ecommerce?” section of this article, ecommerce businesses are so vast and varied, they’re nearly impossible to define by any other identifiers rather than simply, “ecommerce.”

Since each ecommerce business is solely up to the entrepreneur(s) starting it, ecommerce businesses can truly be built on any budget. If your an entrepreneur building your first-ever ecommerce business and you only have a small budget to work with, start a dropshipping business, and pay attention to money-saving resources such as blogs dedicated to helping ecommerce businesses save money such as Bootstrapping Ecommerce, and keep your eye out for discounts on services to help you build, launch and grow your business such as our own Exclusive Offers page or AppSumo.

In any other case, your budget is entirely dependent on what you have to work with and how you want to allocate your finances. Work with an accountant or a bookkeeping team like Bench to keep your finances in check and use handy resources such as a Business Loan Calculator or a Profit Margin Calculator and even our PayPal Fee Calculator & Stripe Fee Calculator to make sure you’re keeping an eye on your budget in the places that matter most.

How to Buy & Sell Ecommerce Businesses

If you’re not completely interested in starting your own ecommerce business from scratch, it is possible to purchase ecommerce businesses that ecommerce entrepreneurs have already put time, effort, and money into growing to where they are today.

The best place to look for ecommerce businesses to buy online is Shopify’s Exchange Marketplace. Exchange Marketplace is a marketplace where Shopify store owners can go to list their businesses for sale or to purchase existing Shopify businesses, and the businesses available there are listed at a variety of prices depending on their traffic, customer base, revenue, etc.

If you’re interested in starting an ecommerce business and the idea of not having to completely start it from scratch is appealing to you, then check out Exchange Marketplace and see what’s on the market!

No matter when you’re starting your ecommerce business, though, it’s imperative to have an exit strategy sorted out so that if and when the time comes to sell your business or shut it down, you and any of your potential partners or investors know what the procedure is. Having an exit strategy in place can also help you make better decisions for your business throughout the years of its existence and it can help make investors keener to jump on board with your business. Learn more about crafting an exit strategy in our How to Sell a Business: Why Ecommerce Entrepreneurs Need to Have an Exit Strategy article.

How to Grow Your Ecommerce Business

Once you’ve gotten past the “What is ecommerce?” stage and you move onto building your ecommerce business, the final step and the step that’s going to take up the majority of your time as your business ages and scales, is how to grow your ecommerce business.

There are many ways to grow an ecommerce business but two of the main ways are through traffic and conversions. The more traffic you get coming to your ecommerce store the more conversions you’re likely to make which means more revenue and thus, more profit.

Traffic + Conversions = Revenue & Profit!

There are an endless amount of ways you can increase your store’s traffic, which we discuss some of in our How to Increase Website Traffic article, but one of the most successful ways is to treat your customers like people, not just numbers. If you focus too much on the numbers and how much revenue you’re making, you can lose sight of the most important aspect of your ecommerce business that makes everything worthwhile, and that’s your customers.

Obviously getting traffic to your store quickly helps keep you afloat when you’re new and just finding your footing and for that, we recommend checking out an article like our How to Get Your First 100 Sales article, but beyond that, take into serious consideration how you can add value to your customer’s lives so they’re more likely to purchase from your site again and spread the word about your company with their peers and social following.

To quickly bring traffic to your ecommerce store and generate buzz about your products or your store launch is to partner with influencers on platforms like TikTok. Partnering with the right influencer will allow your products to be positioned in an exciting way that helps generate tons of sales. You can also run paid ads on any social platform. Video ads tend to convert better as they have a loopable replay value that keeps people hooked.

Finally, if you’re looking for more in-depth ways to grow your traffic and conversions, we’ve created a 52 Week Marketing Plan to guide you through the process of growing your new business step by step. We created this guide because we noticed that growing a new business was such a daunting prospect for so many new merchants and we constantly receive questions from entrepreneurs asking us for our advice and recommendations. So, we put everything we know into one guide with the intention of helping as many new entrepreneurs as possible.

Once you start bringing more traffic to your ecommerce store then your conversion rate should grow organically from there but if you want to try out some other methods to get more visitors purchasing your products, check out our guide to Conversion Rate Optimization and this article on Conversion Rate Optimization for 1st Year Stores.

Conclusion

While you may have come to this article wondering “What is ecommerce?” we hope all the information provided in this comprehensive post has given you a thorough insight into what ecommerce is and what options are available to you to start your own ecommerce business.

Starting an ecommerce business really is accessible for anyone, so take the information, knowledge, resources, and guides provided throughout this article and start something for yourself. Now that you know “What is ecommerce?” you’re well equipped to build, launch, and grow your own ecommerce business and start the entrepreneurial journey for yourself.

The post What is Ecommerce? appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

In this post, we’ll show you the best t-shirt templates as well as t-shirt mockup generators for your clothing line. We’ll also provide you with a tutorial to show you exactly how to use Photoshop for t-shirt templates.

Note: Are you in the process of getting your t-shirt line started? Don’t forget to check out our article on How We Started a T-Shirt Business in 24 Hours with 24 Dollars and our video webinar walking you through How to Start a T-Shirt Business from Scratch. Plus, if you’re totally new to the clothing industry and aren’t sure what next steps you should take, check out our How to Start a Clothing Line post and our corresponding How to Start a Clothing Line Video Webinar for all the information you need. You can find icons to use on your t-shirt design on Noun Project.

The Best T-Shirt Mockup Generators

Mockup generators are usually online services that make customizing t-shirts and adding your t-shirt design as simple as selecting a shirt color and uploading your image. The tradeoff when using a pre-made template rather than a software program like Adobe Photoshop is that t-shirt mockup generators are usually less customizable. This can make it difficult to get your image exactly like your final printed t-shirt and, in general, gives you fewer options on your final design, especially when it comes to clothing tags, fabric texture, the background, etc.

Placeit

Placeit has a wide variety of apparel for creating mockups including t-shirts, tank tops, polo shirts, and activewear for both men and women. Generating images is as simple as selecting a blank t-shirt apparel template and uploading your design. The generator will take care of the rest, including applying all shadows and curves.

The wide variety of images and scenes makes Placeit a noteworthy option for creating your clothing mockups.

This paid tool is free to try out and includes a variety of designs for t-shirts all on one platform.

Check out Placeit’s T-Shirt Template & Mockup Generator

Printful Clothing Mockup Generator

The Printful clothing & apparel mockup generator is definitely one of the best, especially if you plan to use Printful as your clothing printer. Not only will Printful easily create a great-looking product image with your designs on it but it will also properly prepare the print file which your printer will need to actually print your designs. The biggest benefit of using free t-shirt templates like Printful is that you can make alterations to the custom t-shirt design to ensure it looks flawless.

The Mockup Generator from Printful allows you to choose from t-shirts, sweatshirts, posters, tote bags and many more different types of products. To learn more about Printful’s entire product selection and the other features and services they offer merchants, check out our Printful Review. The stock images are all high-resolution. It also includes various print on demand products beyond t-shirts.

There are many print on demand services available, such as Custom Ink, Printify, Gooten, and more that allow you to try out their free tshirt mockup generators.

CHECK OUT PRINTFUL’S T-SHIRT TEMPLATE & MOCKUP GENERATOR

InkThreadable Mockup Generator

You can find the InkThreadable Mockup Generator where you’ll be able to add and save logos or designs on t-shirts. If you’re on Shopify, the InkThreadable app can be installed on your store for free. The mockup tool allows you to choose different brands of t-shirts and change the color with ease. If you’re looking for resources that allow you to sell the t-shirts you mock up, InkThreadable is one of the best print on demand tools in the world. The app is free so you won’t need to pay for a subscription, however, you’ll need to pay for the cost of goods and shipping. Your creativity can go far with this all-in-one print on demand service.

The Best T-Shirt Templates for Photoshop

T-shirt templates are different from mockup generators as they require a bit more work on your end, but are usually much more flexible and customizable. This customizability allows you to adjust texture, color, typography, and placement of your design.

USING ADOBE PHOTOSHOP

Most (nearly all) t-shirt templates require Adobe Photoshop or an equivalent image editing app that can handle PSD files with layers. Adobe Photoshop can seem complicated to many new users, but it’s actually really easy to use with t-shirt templates. It’s usually as simple as opening the file, double-clicking the layer where you need to add your design and then clicking save.

With Photoshop you can add your t-shirt design to a free stock photo and make it look like the person is actually wearing your clothing. You can generate many lifestyle images to add some personality to your business and ensure the mood and tone of your business is accurately represented.

WHERE TO GET PHOTOSHOP

You can view all the plans for all Adobe programs here, however, the only plan you need is the Creative Cloud Photo Bundle which is currently available for $9.99/month. This bundle comes with Adobe Photoshop CC, which you can read more about here. Photoshop also comes with a free trial so you can get familiar with it.

BONUS: Get your free trial of Adobe Photoshop CC. Click here.

HOW TO USE ADOBE PHOTOSHOP WITH T-SHIRT TEMPLATES & CLOTHING TEMPLATES

Where to Find the Best Clothing Templates for Adobe Photoshop

By far, Creative Market is the best marketplace to find t-shirt templates that are editable with Adobe Photoshop. They feature many different styles and all are very high-quality. Below, we list several of the best templates for each different style — like t-shirts laying flat, 3D models, t-shirts isolated on white backgrounds, people wearing them, etc. — but it’s also worthwhile to conduct your own search for “t-shirt templates” or “clothing templates” on Creative Market.

The Best Flat T-Shirt Templates

This is our favorite template and the one used in the 24 hour t-shirt business. It comes with a white t-shirt template but the files also have an additional 8 colors you can easily switch to. The design is clean, simple, and easy to use which is why its a favorite.

CHECK OUT THE REALISTIC TEMPLATE ON CREATIVE MARKET

Best Clothing Mockup Resources

If your business sells more than just t-shirts, you can also browse apparel mockups that you can add your designs to. You won’t need a team of people to help you add your designs to these items. You can do everything yourself and from scratch. Bring your design to life on any clothing item you can imagine. You’ll have access to over 3,500 mockups with this set, which includes t-shirts, hats, tote bags, tank tops, sweaters, and more. You’ll also find various brands including American Apparel, Anvil, Bella + Canvas, and much more. This comprehensive set of mockups includes everything you’ll need if you’re looking for flat mockups.

CHECK OUT CLOTHING MOCKUPS ON CREATIVE MARKET

The Best Hanging Shirt Template

The Majestype Mockup is easily one of the best hanging shirt templates. It has a lot of depth created by the highlights and shadows which gives it a very realistic look. This template also features the ability to remove the hanger, the tag on the back of the shirt, the ability to change the color of the neckline and it comes with 4 different stylized backgrounds. This template allows you to change colors, remove the hanger, and even change the background.

CHECK OUT THE MAJESTYPE T-SHIRT TEMPLATE ON CREATIVE MARKET

The Best Ghosted Template

Name: Ghosted T-Shirt Templates

These ghosted black & white t-shirt templates are super high-resolution and include both men’s and women’s shirts (6 unique shirts in total). Like the previous example, you can also add this ghosted t-shirt to a hanger. This style is available in both men’s and women’s t-shirts so you can design your clothing for anyone in the world.

CHECK OUT THE GHOSTED T-SHIRT TEMPLATE ON CREATIVE MARKET

The Best Model Shirt Mockup, Isolated

This is a great template if you’re looking for images that have a model in but with no background. This template features both crew and v-neck shirts and the skin color of the man is interchangeable between light-colored skin and dark-colored skin. This t-shirt template comes in both men’s and women’s versions. You can change and choose the shape of the neck collar on this t-shirt. Also, you can choose between loose and fitted t-shirt designs.

Men’s: Men’s Template

Woman’s: Women’s Template

CHECK OUT THE MEN’S T-SHIRT TEMPLATE ON CREATIVE MARKET

T-shirt Design Templates with Models

You can create a custom t-shirt design with professionally designed templates that include models. Bella + Canvas has new templates with lifestyle photography that you can customize. People will likely wear a t-shirt that they can visualize what it looks like on or with a pair of jeans. Lifestyle photos create the ability to help people envision your custom t-shirt on. With t-shirt design templates like this one, you get photos in a beautiful outdoor setting that truly looks social media ready.

CHECK OUT THE BELLA + CANVAS MOCKUP ON CREATIVE MARKET

Professionally Designed Templates with the Same Model

A blank canvas allows you to add your own images onto a t-shirt. However, customers love seeing your designs worn by models. In design templates like this, you’ll be able to customize the t-shirt while also benefiting from having the same model in different styles. Brands often hire a model for more than one item so it’ll help you establish your brand in a fun way. You can add your logo or design for this model to wear in six different photos. This PSD mockup can be edited in Photoshop.

CHECK OUT THIS MOCKUP IN MOKKA COLORS ON CREATIVE MARKET

Outdoors Lifestyle Design Templates

If you’re selling a lot of t-shirts in your collection, you might want to mix it up by adding some adventure photos, especially if you’re in the outdoors business. You can purchase or design logos, fonts, or typography from Creative Market to create one-of-a-kind pictures that highlight your brand’s style. You don’t need many tools for this mockup, all you need is Photoshop. You can add filters to your design or use the design as is. With Photoshop and a bit of creativity, you can do anything. This set includes 25 unique images you can download in the outdoors category. You’ll be able to choose from three colors: black, white, and heather grey. The designs include both the front and back of t-shirts.

CHECK OUT THIS ADVENTURE TEMPLATE ON CREATIVE MARKET

The Best Comprehensive Clothing Template Bundle

Name: Storefront Apparel Mockups Bundle

At $79, this is by far the most expensive clothing template bundle, but for good reason. This bundle has over 120 clothing templates and includes both men’s and women’s versions of t-shirts, long-sleeve shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, tank tops and much more. If you’re looking for a full range of blank clothing templates that all match, this is the bundle for you.

CHECK OUT THE COMPREHENSIVE T-SHIRT TEMPLATES BUNDLE ON CREATIVE MARKET

Conclusion

Choosing images for your apparel brand can be challenging. Not only do you have to pay attention to the style, texture, and details of the template, but you also need to consider your brand and the image you are trying to portray to visitors and customers. This guide should have given you a better idea of the available t-shirt templates and styles that are available and will hopefully make your choice easier!

The post 10+ Best T-Shirt Templates & Mockup Generators appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

Ready to start online selling? Read on.

What is an Online Marketplace?

An online marketplace is an ecommerce store where multiple sellers can sell goods or services to customers. Examples of online marketplaces include Facebook Marketplace, Amazon, Etsy, Airbnb, and eBay. These online stores are considered to be online marketplaces because there are many merchants (hundreds of thousands, in fact) who can sell their products to the customers that browse the online shopping website.

Traditional ecommerce stores sell the goods and services of one brand, but not ecommerce marketplaces, which have many marketplace sellers who sell online on their site. They have a greater product offering which can draw more visitors to browse the website. One of the main advantages of online marketplaces is that they draw in lots of digital foot-traffic, which can mean greater exposure for the merchants on their site.

What unites all the online sellers together is that there’s one checkout process. When customers shop on an ecommerce marketplace, they don’t need to click away to different websites to complete the transaction, they can purchase from many different merchants on the marketplace at once, even if the merchants aren’t associated with one another.

When customers make purchases from sites like Facebook Marketplace or Amazon, the merchants they purchase from get a notification that someone has purchased their product, and then each online seller can individually ship and send the customer the products that were ordered from them.

This means that although a customer can complete just one transaction when purchasing from multiple different sellers, their products will be shipped from each seller individually meaning they’ll receive a shipping package from each merchant they ordered a product from.

Essentially, for online shoppers the experience is like shopping from several different online sellers at once, while being able to pay all the merchants in one transaction rather than in many transactions.

Another thing that unites online marketplaces together is that they usually are focused around one particular niche. Amazon, for example, started as an ecommerce marketplace of booksellers. Airbnb started as an online marketplace to rent rooms in San Francisco. Facebook Marketplace started a profile for users, which eventually lead to building a big userbase, which made online shopping possible. When they center around one niche, it’s likely to become successful because it gives consumers a reason to shop there and when they do shop there, they know what to expect from the online sellers.

It can also referred to as a “Collaborative Economy” or a “Sharing Economy” because it’s usually made up of merchants who work together to share or sell their idle assets on a community-accessible marketplace.

Why You Should Create an Online Marketplace

One of the main reasons to start an online marketplace is to either help third-party sellers sell more product and to help shoppers get access to goods or services more easily.

Online marketplace sellers benefit from you creating a place where they can sell goods, spaces or services online at a cheaper price, better quality, or in a more convenient way.

Starting online marketplaces is great because you don’t have to own any inventory to run one. This makes them an attractive option for entrepreneurs who want to provide a service or solve a pain point without investing a lot of their own capital into the business. Since merchants sell or rent their goods or services on ecommerce marketplaces, they source the inventory.

“Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate.” – Tom Goodwin

How to Create an Online Marketplace

There’s plenty of online literature documenting how ecommerce entrepreneurs can start their own online businesses, but those online businesses tend to focus on solo entrepreneurs who are interested in selling their own products on their own websites. That’s not how online marketplaces work, so another approach must be taken.

1. Building Online Marketplaces

The best online marketplace platform we’ve come across, and the one that we recommend building yours on, is Sharetribe.

Sharetribe is well-recognized in the ecommerce industry as being the most reliable, user-friendly and cost-effective way for entrepreneurs to start their own online marketplace. With their software, any entrepreneur will be able to build a well-designed online marketplace in the most efficient and secure way possible.

Creating one from scratch with a team of web developers would cost you thousands of dollars, but Sharetribe doesn’t cost nearly as much and you’ll be able to have your site up and running faster than if you were to completely have it built from scratch. Keep things simple, streamlined and efficient by starting your online marketplace on a hosted platform like Sharetribe.

2. Ecommerce Marketplaces Niche

Honing in on one particular niche will ultimately lead to greater success. Select a niche market that your online marketplace will cater to.

This is an important step in the process of starting an online marketplace because it will impact what you sell on your website, the merchants who sell there, and the customers who are online shopping.

Note: Need help finding a niche? Check out our free downloadable guide of 500 Niches. It lists a variety of niches in a range of different industries and it can help you think outside the box and really focus in on a niche for your online marketplace.

3. Determining Your Minimum Viable Product Category

With Facebook marketplace and others in the world, it can be easy to get wrapped up in thinking about how you’ll scale yours to service millions of consumers right away. We encourage you not to get caught up in this way of thinking, because it takes a long time to grow one as big as Facebook Marketplace, and you can still build a successful one without being a giant in your industry.

When you’re just starting out, we suggest focusing on your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and creating that. Don’t get caught up in thinking about how you’ll create the biggest ecommerce marketplaces, just focus on creating an one that a small subset of your niche market really believes in, and start from there.

By thinking too big too soon, you’ll likely cause yourself to feel overwhelmed in everything you have to do and accomplish to get there. However, by zoning in on creating your MVP, you’ll be more likely to stick with it for years to come and that’s how you’ll grow.

Create something that at least 10 or so users can be interested in and use their feedback and experiences to grow from there. Like we mentioned earlier, Facebook Marketplace and Amazon started small too, and so can you.

4. Establishing a Budget for Online Sales

Just like any ecommerce business, starting an online marketplace will take some funds to get going. Fortunately, you don’t have to purchase or create an inventory for online selling to happen, which is pretty light on the budget. The main aspects of your budget will likely include:

• The Cost of the Ecommerce Platform: Using a hosted online marketplace platform like Sharetribe will require monthly or yearly payments.
• The Cost of Advertising to Online Sellers: You’ll need merchants with products to sell to set up shop on your online marketplace, and when you’re just starting you’re going to need to reach out to a lot of sellers to get some to actually start selling on your site. This means plenty of outreach which likely means you’ll need some cash to spend on advertising. Whether it’s advertising on social media, influencer advertising, print advertising, etc. it’s likely that you’ll have to spend money on some form of advertising to get sellers on your ecommerce marketplace.
• Cost of Advertising for Customers: Customers will not come running before they know you exist. You’ll likely have to spend some money on advertising to get customers to start online shopping on your site.

Don’t spend too much in the early days when you’re still learning. It can be tempting to pump as much capital as you have, but remember that it’s going to take some time to grow.

In the beginning, focus instead on hustling to get free advertising whether it’s through SEO or your own social media. Let your online marketplace generate its own revenue before you invest too much more into it. Even if it’s slow growth, it will help to validate your online marketplace idea.

5. Knowing Your Value

Finally, when it comes to creating an online marketplace, don’t forget to focus on the main outcome of the online marketplace. Ask yourself, what are you aiming to achieve with your online marketplace? How does it add value to those in the niche market it services.

The goal of any online marketplace is to connect merchants and customers within a niche to sell or rent goods or services, so think about how that actually works and how you want to bring that to life.

Types of Online Marketplaces

There are several different types of online marketplaces, and although they all run in a similar fashion, there are slight differences to them which can impact the shopping experience, the types of products that are sold, the customers that shop there and the service that the online marketplace promises to fulfill.

1. Physical Products

Some online marketplaces focus on selling physical products only. This means that the merchants create or supply physical products that must be shipped to the customers who purchase them.

When you have an online marketplace that sells physical products, customers will receive shipping packages from each merchant they order a product from, which can impact their user experience. It means that they’ll be receiving multiple different packages, which can be confusing for them if they don’t know to expect that. Be upfront with customers who shop on your online marketplace—if it’s a physical product online marketplace—that even though they may be completing one transaction, the products are sourced from individual merchants and the products they’ve ordered will be arriving individually from each separate merchant.

2. Digital Products

Another type of online marketplace that exists is digital product marketplaces. These online marketplaces sell digital products that can be downloaded to computers or smart devices immediately after purchase which means that customers don’t have to wait for their products to be shipped and they won’t be receiving products one-by-one from each separate merchant they order from.

An example of a digital marketplace is Creative Market, where designers and creators sell digital assets like stock photos, logo templates, graphic designs and more. We wrote a complete Creative Market Review, and we’ve even rounded up some of Creative Market’s Best Instagram Templates, which we highly recommend checking for your online marketplace.

3. Property and Spaces

Another type of online marketplace is one that rents or sells property, rooms, event spaces or locations to customers. A great example of this type of online marketplace is Airbnb, which is an online marketplace for property owners to rent out rooms, apartments, houses or properties all over the world.

This type of online marketplace comes with its own unique set of challenges, such as government regulations, property insurance, and booking confirmations that must be adhered to and organized in order to be viable and successful.

4. Services

Other online marketplaces can sell services to their customers, where merchants can rent or sell their own specialties to the marketplace. These types of online marketplaces can provide digital services that can be carried out online, such as website development services, or they can provide services that take place in-person, such as painting and restoration work, for example. For example, Fiverr is one of the top online marketplaces to sell services on.

The Challenges of Starting an Online Marketplace

Building online marketplaces is quite different from building online stores. Here are a few of the top challenges you can expect to face when starting an online marketplace:

1. Convincing online sellers and online shoppers to choose you

When you first start an online marketplace, attracting both merchants and customers to use your marketplace is going to be your biggest challenge. Because you’re new, you’re going to have to build trust within merchants to sell on your site and you’re going to have to make sure customers know your marketplace exists so they even think to shop on it.

It will be challenging for you to convince merchants to come sell on an online marketplace if there aren’t customers already shopping there, and it won’t make sense to attract customers to your online marketplace if there aren’t any merchants selling their inventory there yet.

By reaching out to suppliers first before attracting customers to your online marketplace, you’ll also build the inventory supply that your marketplace has to offer which is crucial for customers when they start landing on your online marketplace. Without any inventory, there’s no incentive for your customers to shop on your marketplace at all, so secure the goods and services before you start reeling in customers.

In order to start finding merchants to sell goods and services on your online marketplace, consider reaching out to merchants who are already selling on Amazon, eBay, Facebook, or Etsy. This shows that they’re already comfortable selling on online marketplaces and if you give them a good enough reason to sell on yours too, they might be interested. Look for merchants that sell products that align with your online marketplace’s focus niche.

Sharetribe’s article on How to Build Supply for Your Marketplace can be an invaluable tool to help you attract merchants to your online marketplace when you are first getting started.

2. Providing a useful service

Online marketplaces can only be successful long-term if they solve a real problem for both merchants and customers. This is why it’s so important when starting your online marketplace to make sure that you validate your idea beforehand so you don’t find yourself months or years later with a failed marketplace because it didn’t provide value to merchants or consumers.

Like we mentioned before, take your time building your online marketplace and don’t invest too much capital upfront just in case your online marketplace idea isn’t something that can withstand the test of time. It’s better to grow your marketplace slowly so you can adjust and adapt to merchants’ and consumers’ needs as you go which can result in you creating an online marketplace that provides value to those merchants and consumers and thus, becomes a successful online marketplace long-term.

Focus on solving a problem for both the merchants and the consumers, and you’ll be more likely to provide a useful service for both parties.

3. Dealing with competition

Even if you think you’ve come up with a great idea for an online marketplace, it’s likely that someone else has already thought of it, too. Competition can be a hindrance to starting and growing your online marketplace, however, it shouldn’t completely deter you from pursuing it, either.

If there’s already an existing online marketplace, then you have to find a way to compete against them. Try competing on price, selection, quality, choice, the number of merchants, the geographic area or something else that gives your online marketplace an edge over any others.

If you aren’t sure whether there are any existing online marketplaces that are in direct competition with your online marketplace idea, then be aware that there probably is someone else also working on the same idea and you will eventually have competition. If this is the case, your only option is to execute your online marketplace idea better or faster than anyone else starting a similar online marketplace, so consider how you can make that happen.

4. Marketplace Costs

Every marketplace needs to earn revenue and profit to survive, so you’ll need to determine a viable strategy to ensure that your marketplace earns the revenue and profits that it needs to last without eating away at sellers margins and scaring them away. Here are some tips on managing the costs:

• Funding needs to come from the community you’re serving, so consider how your users will fund your online marketplace
• You need to “own” each transaction which usually means you charge a commission on every transaction you facilitate. This helps you generate revenue for your online marketplace. On average, top online marketplaces charge around 20-30% commissions as seller fees.
• Focus on how many transactions occur on your online marketplace, not users. Your online marketplace exists to facilitate transactions, and that’s likely how you’re going to be earning your revenue, so that’s the most important metric to keep track of.
• Think about how you will pay your merchants and how they will earn revenue from providing your online marketplace with inventory. You also need to consider when to move each transactions’ money from the customer to the merchant. It generally makes sense to only transfer the money from the customer to the merchant when you’re sure the customer will be receiving the goods or services they paid for, without any issues, such as refunds.

For great information on financing your online marketplace, check out this article on How to Design Your Marketplace’s Transaction Flow.

How to Run a Successful Online Marketplace

1. Select An Online Marketplace Business Model

Your online marketplace business model will impact how you will earn revenue and profit and how your merchants will earn revenue and profit, as well. It’s a fundamental aspect of every online marketplace and one that you should decide on before you launch.

The different types of online marketplace business models you can choose from include:

• Commission-Based Business Model: This is the most common type of online marketplace business model and means that you will earn a commission from every transaction that takes place on your online marketplace. It’s an ideal business model because you’re guaranteed to earn revenue from each transaction and it builds trust within merchants and customers because they know that facilitating successful transactions is important to you because you have a stake invested in it.
• Membership/Subscription Fee Business Model: This business model sets up your online marketplace so that each merchant or customer pays a membership fee in order to sell or buy on the online marketplace. Using this business model ensures that you get a consistent amount of revenue monthly but it can also deter merchants and customers from using your online marketplace.
• Listing Fee Business Model: By using this business model your online marketplace will charge merchants a fee for listing their goods or services on your online marketplace. The listing fee could be based on a flat-rate amount or a percentage of the value of the good or service, and it’s typically used when there’s value in how many listings a merchant has posted on the online marketplace.
• Lead Fee Business Model: This business model is more common in Business-to-Business (B2B) industries, as there’s often a lot of value at stake. When using this business model, the customer posts a good or service they’re looking for and merchants pay a fee in order to bid for the work. This isn’t a very common online marketplace business model, but it can work well for some industries.
• Freemium Business Model: This is a great business model for online marketplaces that facilitate sales of low-cost items. When using this business model, merchants and customers can use the online marketplace for free, and the online marketplace will offer other services to the merchants and customers can purchase that boost the value of the online marketplace. These types of services could include providing insurance, vetting services or delivery options.
• Featured Listing & Ads Business Model: When using this business model, merchants can often list their goods or services for free on an online marketplace but in order to promote their listing to a viable audience, a fee must be paid. This ensures merchants use the marketplace but the online marketplace can still earn revenue from merchants who are eager to sell their goods or services.
• Any Combination of These Business Models: Oftentimes, these business models are combined together to create more favorable conditions for merchants to sell their products and for online marketplaces to earn consistent revenue.

2. Create a Positive User Experience

A large part of creating a great online marketplace includes creating a great user experience. If merchants can’t run their online business or customers can’t do their online shopping the way they want to, then they’ll simply go elsewhere.

Make it as easy as possible for customers and merchants to connect with one another so a transaction can take place. There are some important aspects you can integrate into your online marketplace to help make this as efficient as possible:

• Have a Smart Search Function: When customers come to your online marketplace with a purpose, a search function is going to be instrumental to their success. Make sure you have a smart search function embedded onto your online marketplace so customers can use it to find exactly what they’re looking for as quickly as possible.
• Make Your Marketplace Browse-able: Some customers may come to your online marketplace knowing exactly what they’re looking for, while others may not. Customers who aren’t sure what they’re looking for need a way to browse through your marketplace, so make your online marketplace friendly for browsers. This could mean using categories, filters, and menus to help browsers navigate around your marketplace.
• Use Systems: If you’re providing services, in particular, or if your online marketplace is focused more on renting items rather than selling them, you may need to use certain systems to ensure that everything operates smoothly. These types of systems could be calendars, booking systems, maps, etc. and could be essential to how your online marketplace operates.
• Merchant & Customer Profiles: It’s likely that merchants and customers will need to create profiles on your online marketplace to ensure that they can create listings, access their purchase history, manage their orders, etc. so your online marketplace will need to be equipped to handle these profiles and define how they’re able to interact with one another. Keep in mind that most people prefer to check out as Guest, so don’t forget to add that as an option for customers.
• Mandatory Listing Information: It will be useful for you to determine upfront what kind of information merchants on your online marketplace will have to include in their listings so it can remain consistent across all merchants. Having consistent information across all third-party sellers will help customers make informed purchasing decisions which can drastically affect their experience on your online marketplace.

Best Practices for Launching Online Marketplaces

When it comes to bringing your online marketplace to life, your launch will play a role in how your marketplace continues to progress over the course of its lifetime. Utilizing promotion channels like an email list, advertising, press, influencers and online communities such as Product Hunt to get the attention of people who might be interested in what your marketplace has to offer.

No matter how you choose to draw attention to your online marketplace when it launches, it’s arguably most important to build trust within each and every user that enters your website as soon as you launch. No matter how many people your promotion tactics bring to your website on launch day, focus on building trust within them as they experience your online marketplace.

Tactics to instill trust in visitors to your online marketplace include:

• Create a Good First Impression: How your website looks, the types of products you sell, the quality of your merchants and their products, your FAQ Page, and your About Page can all affect a visitor’s first impression so put in the work to make it a great impression.
• Have Inventory Ready to Sell: Make sure there are products ready for your customers to purchase. You don’t want to be driving visitors all the way to your website with nothing for them to actually buy.
• Be Transparent: If there is still room for improvement on your marketplace, let customers know that you’re working to make things run more efficiently and that you’re putting in effort behind the scenes to make it the best possible online marketplace experience for them. Customers appreciate transparency, so if you experience any hiccups throughout your launch, be sure to let customers know what’s going on.
• Be Honest: No matter what your online marketplace promises customers, make sure you deliver on it. Don’t make claims you can’t fully commit to.
• Allow Reviews: Customer reviews help all websites build credibility, so leave a place on your online marketplace for customers to leave their thoughts and feedback. Customer reviews are generally non-biased in favor of the brand, so other customers are more likely to trust what they have to say. You may not have any reviews when you first launch but as your brand grows you’ll be able to accept reviews as they come.

Note: Need more help with launching your online marketplace? Check out our downloadable Ecommerce Launch Checklist to ensure that you cover all your bases.

Conclusion

You’re now well-equipped with the knowledge to start your own online marketplace. Remember that choosing the right niche will be what sets your website apart from other marketplaces in the industry. Focus on getting suppliers for your marketplace first and then instill trust into every visitor that lands on your online marketplace after launch day. Have a good online marketplace idea? Get started!

The post How to Start an Online Marketplace appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

How to Choose a Domain Name For Your Ecommerce Business

Once you’ve decided you’re going to build an ecommerce store, it’s time to figure out what you’re going to sell. If you’re selling trending products on a general store, you’ll want your domain name to be generic. If you’re planning on sticking with a singular niche, you might want to include it in your domain name, such as beauty.

You can do a domain name search on Shopify where you test out different names to see which is available. Since most .com domains are usually registered, a .store domain will likely have an available custom domain for you. The domain registration process isn’t hard, but finding a free domain name can take some time.

You also need to choose a domain registrar. In ecommerce, some people choose Shopify, but there are many other options to choose from too. Namecheap is a popular domain registrar that specializes in domain names, that you can keep all your domain names on.

Once you’ve decided on your business name, you need to pick a domain name to begin domain registration. This consists of a domain name and a domain extension.

abetterlemonadestand.com
[domain name].[domain extension]

Domain Name vs Domain Extension: What’s the Difference?

A domain name is what comes before the period in a domain name. It’s the name that you choose for your website address.

A domain extension is what comes after the period in a domain name. The technical name for it is a “top-level domain” (TLD).

Originally there were only a few domain extensions, including .com, .net, and .edu. There were also country-code domain extensions, like .gb for Great Britain or .es for Spain.

However, over the last few years, descriptive domain extensions have become available, including .store, .tech, and .online.

It’s important to consider what your domain name and domain extension express about your brand separately, and what they convey when paired together.

When choosing a domain name, it’s best to make it match the name of your business as closely as possible.

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to secure a domain name that matches your exact business name if you want a traditional domain extension like .com. A lot of names are already in use (or preemptively purchased by a company that wants to sell it to you at a ludicrous mark-up).

While the same domain name can be registered with various domain extensions, duplicate domain names cannot exist. There can only be one, yourbusinessname.com. But, yourbusinessname.net or yourbusinessname.store may still be up for grabs.

But before you can decide on a domain name — you need to start with a brand name.

How to Pick a Name for Your Business

A business’ name is more than just a name. It plays an important role in marketing, brand recognition, and search engine optimization (SEO). The right name can make it easier for you to sell more products, while the wrong name can confuse customers.

When you’re deciding on a name for your company, consider these popular business name types:

• A Descriptive Name: A business name that describes what your business does or sells is simple and powerful, like General Motors, MailChimp, or Burger King.
• An Emotive Name: Some brand choose a name that makes you feel an emotion, like Hugo Boss or Triumph Motorcycles.
• A Person’s Name: Many companies are named after a person. This can be based on someone’s first name, last name, or a nickname, like Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s, or Tesla.
• An Acronym: You can turn a descriptive name into a memorable acronym. Did you know that CAPTCHA stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart?” Examples of this include H&M, AMC, and KFC.
• A Simple, Modern Name: Your business’ name doesn’t have to have anything to do with the products you sell. Instead, it can just be catchy and memorable, like Zoom, Google, or Tumblr.
• A Compound Name: You can combine two or more words that describe what you sell or do, like MySpace, Facebook, or WordPress.
• A Playful Name: Brands with tons of personality sometimes choose to register a domain name that has nothing to do with their business, like Frozen Lemons, Dynamite, or Smashbox.
• A Metaphorical Name: Brands who want to have a special meaning behind their brand name will typically choose a metaphorical name, such as Nike, Jaguar, Amazon, and Target.

Sit down and brainstorm ideas for your business’ name. When you’ve come up with several options, answer the questions in this checklist to narrow down your options:

• Is the domain name general enough that it doesn’t limit your ability to expand your business in the future? For instance, a name like “Just Sneakers” tells customers that you only sell one type of footwear
• Is the domain name simple? Remove any extraneous words
• Is the domain name memorable? If not, try making it more memorable by using alliteration or repetition, like Lululemon
• Is the domain name unique? Do an internet search to make sure your name doesn’t infringe on any copyrights or trademarks
• Have you incorporated an SEO keyword into the name? Let’s say your name is Sarah and you specialize in selling vintage Persian rugs. Rather than choosing a generic name like Sarah’s Rugs, pick something more specific, like Sarah’s Persian Rugs or Sarah’s Vintage Rugs. Keywords are descriptive, help with marketing, and boost SEO efforts. You want it to be easy for people to find your ecommerce business through an online search

After you’ve chosen the perfect name for your company, it’s time to select the perfect domain name. Choosing a domain name for your ecommerce business shouldn’t be an afterthought. A domain name search will help you find an available domain you’ll love. So, let’s move onto the domain name registration process.

How to Buy a Domain

1. Make it easy to remember

Domain name registration is important because while you can always pick another domain name, it’s better to get it right the first time around. You want your domain name to be memorable so that it comes top of mind when someone wants a product from your website.

For instance, let’s say you want to name your business Kathy’s Super Duper Delicious Fudge Brownies.

Before you register your name with any legal entities, think about how difficult it would be for customers to remember. Consider how annoying it would be for them to have to type kathyssuperduperdeliciousfudgebrownies.store into their browsers.

However, something like Kathy’s Brownies or Brownie Heaven is much easier to remember.

2. Register a short domain name

If you can take a word or more out of your business’ name, do it.

Instead of Kathy’s Super Duper Delicious Fudge Brownies, consider shortening your business name to simply, Kathy’s Delicious Brownies. Then, you can buy the sweet and simple domain name, kathysdeliciousbrownies.store.

If your business’ name is long, figure out if it could be turned into a memorable acronym. If that’s the case, you can use the acronym as your domain.

Say your business is called Beach Umbrellas For the Sun. You could turn that into the acronym BUFTS (which is short and easy to remember) and buy the domain bufts.store.

If possible, avoid having and in your acronym. For example, if you want to type in the domain name for H&M, you might not be sure whether the domain name is just the letters hm.com or handm.com. So, think through your acronym carefully before domain registration.

3. Avoid adding words that aren’t in your brand name

Adding extra words could make it easier for you to get a traditional domain extension, but it hurts branding.

If your company is called Bloom Flower Delivery, but bloomflowerdelivery.com isn’t available, you may be tempted to buy inbloomflowerdelivery.com.

But, will your customers be able to remember that domain name when they think of your company’s name? Probably not.

So, consider using a new domain extension, like .store, instead. However, if you’re set on domain registration of a .com, then you’ll need to do some more domain name searches until you find something catchy and available.

4. Avoid dashes

Let’s say that your ecommerce business is called The Best Soap Company. Don’t include “The” in your domain name.

If bestsoapcompany.store isn’t available, don’t add hyphens to make it best-soap-company.store. Come up with another alternative.

5. Choose the right domain extension

If your company’s name is Online Cheese Store, consider registering onlinecheese.store rather than onlinecheesestore.com. However, if you are going to add the word store in the url, you should only do this for .com domains.

Factors to Consider When Choosing a Domain Extension

When it comes to domain registration, choosing your domain extension is just as important as choosing your domain name. With new extensions appearing daily, your options are growing. The domain extension “.store” is an optimal choice for ecommerce businesses, particularly when the .com is unavailable.

While selecting the domain extension for your ecommerce website, consider the following factors.

1. Domain Extension Availability

Traditional domain extensions, like .com or .net, have been around for years. This means the chances are higher that the domain name you want won’t be available with one of those domain extensions.

With a domain extension like .store, however, you likely won’t encounter the frustrating “that domain name is already taken” message since it hasn’t been around as long as .com or .net.

2. Domain Extension Cost

Traditional domain extensions tend to be the most expensive.

If the domain you want has a traditional domain extension and is available on the marketplace, you’ll likely have to drop a pretty penny for it.

If it’s not available and you desperately want it, you’ll have to negotiate a price with the current owner. Some domains can go for thousands or even millions of dollars.

3. Domain Extension Marketing Power

A traditional domain extension is generic and doesn’t tell website visitors anything about what they’re going to see.

A .store domain extension, however, is descriptive. It tells people that they’re going to end up at an online shop.

4. Domain Names SEO

A common misconception is that a new domain extension is bad for SEO.

However, Google has stated that they treat new domain extensions the same as traditional domain extensions. So don’t fret about your domain extension hurting your SEO.

The most important factor in determining SEO rankings is the quality of the content on the website.

A new domain extension like .store is a great option for ecommerce businesses. Not only is it more likely to be available.

Ultimately, you need to build brand trust. If you’re creating content, adding new products often, and getting backlinks to your .store domain names then you will have no problem with SEO.

Best Practices for Registering a .STORE Domain Name

Before you finalize your domain name registration and other concerns around how to buy a domain name, follow these final tips.

1. Avoid .Store Domain Name Lawsuits

Do your due diligence to avoid registering a domain name that is copyrighted, trademarked, or belongs to a well-known brand. A proper domain registration process will require you to do a domain name search for any trademarks or brand names under other domain extensions. By making sure no one else has your domain name, you’ll be able to prevent lawsuits based on domain names.

2. Protect Your .Store Domain Privacy

Anyone can look up the name and address of the person who has registered a domain name. If you run your ecommerce business out of your home, anyone can find your personal address.

If you want to avoid creepy solicitations from strangers, consider purchasing domain privacy from your domain registrar. You may also want to look into setting up a P.O. box to use as your address where required in business communications (like mass email sends to customers).

3. Keep an Eye on .Store Domain Name Renewals

When you register a domain name, you don’t own it.

Rather, you pay for the right to use it over a certain period of time. When this period ends, your access to the domain name gets revoked.

Take worrying about how to buy a domain name (in terms of domain renewals) off your plate by maximizing your registration time (you can register a domain name for up to 10 years at a time) and signing up for automatic renewals through your domain registrar.

After you’ve made sure that your domain name won’t trigger any lawsuits, you’ve protected your personal contact information, and you’ve automated renewals, you’re ready to lock down that perfect domain name by registering it.

How to Build an Ecommerce Website

Once you have a business and domain name, it’s time to build your online storefront. You have several options depending on how tech-savvy you are.

If you know how to code, you can develop an ecommerce website from scratch. If you’re not so savvy or don’t have the time, you can hire a web developer or website designer instead. These are professionals who can create your dream website from the ground up.

Keep in mind, website design services (especially for ecommerce) can be very expensive, depending on the skill and experience level of the person or firm you hire.

If you’re short on both time and financial resources, you’re in luck. There are a variety of excellent ecommerce platforms on the market that can help you build and launch an online shop quickly, easily, and on a budget. Shopify (Shopify Review), WooCommerce for WordPress, and BigCommerce are all popular options.

If you create your own site, make sure you create product pages with detailed product descriptions and high-quality images. You should also make sure you have a homepage, About page, and a Contact page.

How to Market Your Ecommerce Business

If you build it, they will come… right?

Wrong.

Once you launch your ecommerce website, the real work begins. Invest time into marketing your business. Read books and articles that will teach you how to reach your target audience and identify your ideal client.

Investigate companies and resources that can help you in your marketing efforts. You’ll need to put time and money into making sure potential customers can find your online shop and choose to buy your products.

For ecommerce stores, digital marketing tactics can work best. Focus your efforts on SEO, social media, email marketing, and digital advertising.

You can implement marketing tactics on your own, or hire a marketing expert to do it for you.

Note: Not sure how to start marketing? Check out the 52 Week Marketing Plan. It guides you through 52 weeks of marketing ideas so you can test out different strategies in your first year of business to find what works best for you.

Final Thoughts

Choosing a domain name for your ecommerce business shouldn’t be an afterthought. It’s an important decision to make while launching your company. It should factor into the name you ultimately choose for your business.

Your domain name will be an integral part of your brand identity when your business operates exclusively online and a new domain extension, like a .store domain, can help you get a domain name that matches your business’ name as closely as possible. It can also work wonders for your company by bolstering brand recognition and driving people to your website.

Are you ready to take the next steps? Search for a .store domain extension and lock in your perfect .store domain name!

The post How to Buy a Domain Name in 2022: The Ultimate Guide appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

Shopify Review: History

Shopify was founded in 2006, its headquarters are based in Ottawa, Ontario and they reportedly support over 1,750,000 merchants with their hosted ecommerce platform software. This ecommerce solution makes it easy for people who know nothing about programming, coding and web development to run their own online store. They do this so entrepreneurs can focus on building the aspects of their business they excel at without having to worry too much about the technical stuff.

Who Is Shopify For?

When doing your own Shopify review, it’s important to know whether or not Shopify is a good fit for you. Shopify has the unique capability to support both small businesses run by sole-proprietors just starting out and large corporations that achieve high traffic and revenues. No matter the specific needs of the business, the fundamental ability of Shopify to just work translates itself effectively to any business, large or small. The biggest benefit of Shopify is that you can scale your pricing plan to reap more benefits as your business grows. That means, your Shopify account will grow with you, so you don’t need to replatform in a few years when your business become a large company.

1. Small Businesses

Shopify is a great ecommerce solution for small businesses. If you woke up today thinking about side hustles and wanting to take the plunge into entrepreneurship, you can literally start a Shopify store in the next few minutes. Shopify has pricing plans for businesses of all sizes. The Basic Shopify plan starts at $29 USD/month. This is the most popular entry-level plan for new store owners. With it, you can browse the Shopify App Store to find apps that’ll allow you to find products to start selling, such as Spocket, Printful, or Gooten. Depending on the app, you’ll find products that you can design yourself or that are ready to ship. With a little time spent on store design and a bit of time spent on designing or importing products, you can have a ready-to-go website by the end of today.

Knowing marketing will be important to get sales rolling in, though. So don’t expect to run your first ad and become an overnight success. However, a lot of the tools professional marketers use for their website are actually free, such as social media, writing your blog content, optimizing your website for SEO, and more.

These days, most Shopify apps automate order processing and shipping, which makes Shopify a great choice for store owners with 9 to 5 jobs, side hustlers, people just starting out, or people looking to put their retail business online.

2. Large Companies

Since Shopify is so efficient at handling things from their end, corporations have migrated their businesses over to Shopify so they can handle the technical stuff and the corporations can focus their attention elsewhere. It’s the same as it is for small businesses, just on a larger scale. Companies like Red Bull, Kylie Cosmetics and Gym Shark operate via Shopify Plus, which is a subset of Shopify’s ecommerce platform made for high-volume and fast-growing merchants. If it works for them, it can work for you too. For more examples of Shopify stores, check out our list of 50 successful Shopify stores and what you can learn from them. Shopify is a great platform for large companies due to its reliable uptime during peak seasons like Black Friday weekend.

Shopify Review: Easy-to-Use Interface

One of the highlights of this Shopify review, is the fact that Shopify’s interface is user-friendly and so easy to use. This ecommerce solution is no-code friendly so you can develop your own unique ecommerce store. You can customize any aspect of your online store, too. They give you options, you pick what you want, fill in the blanks and you get your own customized store. Of course, if you’re completely new to using Shopify there will be a bit of a learning curve figuring out exactly where everything is located on the backend, but everything is laid out in a completely accessible way so you can just move step by step making adjustments as you go.

Following is an overview of how the Shopify administration dashboard is set up.

HOME

Get an overview of what’s going on with your business. See today’s sales and visitors, view recent activity, and get an overview of Shopify announcements.

ORDERS

Manage, track and view orders that have been made and draft up orders for customers who place them over the phone.

PRODUCTS

Add your products into this section, import your existing product inventory, manage inventory transfers, enable inventory tracking, organize products through collections and sell gift cards.

CUSTOMERS

Whenever a customer places an order this section will show their details and their purchase history.

ANALYTICS

Get an overview of your store’s sales, refunds, taxes, payments and view your dashboard that details your visitors over time, your conversions and other specific information.

ONLINE STORE

Make adjustments to the look and feel of your store by editing pages, navigation, and customizing your theme.

APPS

Access Shopify’s app store for tools that will help you manage aspects of your online business such as marketing, sales, social media, shipping, inventory, accounting, customer service, and more.

SETTINGS

View your store details, payment gateways, checkout settings, shipping preferences, tax settings and more.

Shopify Review: Hosting

When setting up a website for your ecommerce business there are essentially two choices: Set up a self-hosted website, or set up a hosted website. All websites are hosted by a hosting provider, but some platforms include hosting in their subscription fees whereas others don’t. What does this mean?

• Self-Hosted Websites: These websites are entirely managed and maintained by the creator of the website. All upkeep, troubleshooting, and security systems are implemented by the creator of the site and it’s their responsibility to keep them up to date, secure and working properly. People who want to use their own hosting provider will typically self-host their website. WordPress and WooCommerce are two platfoms which use self-hosted websites.
• Hosted Websites: These websites have all the maintenance managed by an experienced and expert third party that handles the upkeep, troubleshooting, and security for the people who create websites via their service. Shopify is an example of a hosted website that includes hosting in the monthly subscription fee.

For people who aren’t super savvy with technical computer and programming skills, it’s highly recommended that you build your website on a hosted platform. Starting a business has a learning curve. With self-hosting websites, you’ll need to spend time fixing technical issues occasionally when you could be working on other aspects of your businesses instead. When your business grows, you might lose your hosting for a couple days until you upgrade your plan as there are typically caps on how much traffic your site gets. That’s why most people prefer self-hosted ecommerce solutions.

These are the advantages of using Shopify’s platform to build your ecommerce business:

• You have nothing to set up
• You don’t have to worry about your customers’ or your own security
• You don’t have to monitor your website’s up and downtime
• You can host a new or existing domain through them
• Your customers can load your website quickly no matter where they are in the world
• You have unlimited bandwidth on all of Shopify’s plans
• Your store’s data is automatically backed up
• You don’t need to know how to code
• You don’t have to worry so much about the technical side of running a website
• You won’t need to upgrade your plan as your site grows unless you want to

It really just saves you stress and frustration from dealing with complex technical issues that are better left to an expert team so the security and reliability of your ecommerce website will never be compromised. Shopify’s hosted ecommerce service gives that peace of mind.

Shopify Review: Shopify App Store

Due to Shopify’s popularity, there are thousands of apps created by third-party developers to simplify aspects of running an online store. This means that Shopify’s App Store has the most up-to-date and innovative tools available to help you run your ecommerce business more efficiently.

Shopify’s app store offers all types of different services you can use to amplify your Shopify store’s abilities. You’ll find apps for Shopify features, such as product sourcing, marketing, sales, social media, shipping, inventory, customer service, accounting, reporting and more, there’s an app to help make your business better at anything.

If you ever think to yourself, “I wish my website had [fill in the blank],” consider searching for it on the Shopify App Store first. You’ll likely find an app that allows you to add an email pop-up, find products to sell, or even add sales badges. There’s literally an app for everything.

BOLD Apps and Out of the Sandbox both create apps exclusively for Shopify stores and they’re renowned for their quality, so they’re worth checking out.

App integration capability may not sound like a make-it-or-break-it reason to choose an ecommerce platform to build a business on, however, it means you’ll always have access to the most up-to-date tools you can use to operate your business in the best way possible. If you’re just starting out this may not seem like a big deal but, further down the line, you might find you need a tool to help you run your business better and if you have easy access to it, like you will through Shopify’s app store, then your problem can easily be solved. Not all ecommerce platforms have app stores. Shopify even has some exclusive apps you won’t find anywhere else, so if you’re interested in having access to the most relevant and innovative app integrations, Shopify is the easy choice to make.

Shopify Pricing

Shopify pricing is one of the most important parts of a Shopify review, so let’s talk numbers. Shopify has three core pricing plans: Basic, Shopify, and Advanced. There’s also two less common Shopify plans: Shopify Lite and Shopify Plus.

Shopify’s Basic Plan gives you access to all of their security and updates plus most of their features for $29 (USD) per month. For better credit card rates and access to more features, their Shopify Plan is priced at $79 (USD) per month. Finally, they also have an Advanced Shopify Plan aimed towards providing advanced features for scaling businesses which is priced at $299 (USD) per month. Shopify Lite is only $9 (USD) per month, however, it’s for people who want to sell without a Shopify website. Shopify Plus starts at $2,000 (USD) per month and is most commonly used by large corporations.

For most new businesses just starting out, the Shopify Basic Plan is usually the best option. It gives you access to all of the most important features at a very manageable monthly price.

Shopify Supports Many Types of Business Models

No matter what kind of store you’re running, or want to run, Shopify can handle it. Whether your business model is based on dropshipping, subscriptions, affiliates, occasional in-person sales, “Buy Buttons” embedded into blog posts, selling on Facebook, or any combination of these options, Shopify supports it all.

1. Dropshipping

Dropshipping is a popular business model where you sell a manufacturer’s products on your website, and the manufacturer creates the inventory, stores it, and ships it to your customers on your behalf, while you focus on marketing and customer support.

Creating an online store with Shopify and pairing it with a dropshipping app on the Shopify App Store is easy to do and you’ll have the ability to run it completely autonomously. This way you won’t have to forward orders to your dropshipper every time you receive one, it just happens automatically. Read more about how Shopify supports dropshipping business models here.

2. Subscription Models

With one simple app integration, you can turn your regular Shopify store into a subscription service so your customers can have recurring orders placed automatically with no fuss. While Shopify doesn’t inherently offer subscription model pricing capabilities, the ReCharge App is your best option if you’re looking to operate a subscription service.

3. Blog Post Buy Buttons

Monetize your blog without having to create an entirely separate platform just by adding Shopify Buy Buttons to your blog posts. You’ll be able to access all the usual Shopify features such as your order history, customer contact information, tracking information, sales analytics and Shopify Apps, but the entire shopping experience can take place on your blog so your customers don’t have to be re-directed anywhere else. For more information regarding blog or website buy buttons, check out this page. You can use Shopify Lite, the most affordable Shopify plan if your blog is hosted on outside of Shopify, so that you can sell products using Shopify on your blog.

4. Selling on Amazon

Believe it or not, those who have their own Shopify store can actually start selling on Amazon from their Shopify account. On Shopify, you can find Amazon as a sales channels. You’ll need to create an Amazon seller account to sell on Amazon using Shopify. Considering Amazon is one of the biggest online stores you’ll find, it’s a great place to sell more of your products. So, the thing to realize is that the Shopify platform isn’t only for selling products on your own website. You can sell on countless popular websites, social media sites, and more using sales channels on Shopify. That’s what makes Shopify one of the best ecommerce platforms you’ll find online. The Shopify plan is loaded with much more than just a simple website builder for ecommerce platforms.

5. Selling on eBay

With eBay’s massive active customer base of over 180 million people, don’t count it out as a viable and valuable sales channel for your Shopify store. Shopify’s integration with eBay makes it easy to sell your products directly to eBay customers through your Shopify dashboard as you can manage listings, track inventory, reconcile your revenue, communicate with customers and more, all within your Shopify dashboard. Save time, sell to a larger customer base and earn more revenue seamlessly within Shopify. Learn more about how to sell on eBay with Shopify here.

6. Selling on Facebook

Similar to how you can monetize your blog with Shopify Buy Buttons, you can sell just as easily on Facebook so your customers don’t even have to switch platforms. You have access to all the Shopify features that you normally would but you don’t have to redirect your customers to another website, let them shop right on Facebook. By selling on Facebook you’re also exposing your business to an online area with lots of organic foot-traffic that you can take advantage of to grow your reach. For more information regarding selling on Facebook with Shopify, check out this page. Plus, as more social media sites become popular, you’ll find sales channels added for them, such as Instagram, which is also available on the Shopify platform.

7. Affiliates

Similar to dropshipping, if you’re interested in selling online without investing a lot of time and money into it, running an ecommerce store selling products via affiliate links can be an attractive option.

If you’re new to selling via affiliates and want to know more about how it works, we wrote a blog post all about how to set up an affiliate store for beginners that discusses how to set one up on Shopify, so we recommend checking that out. Shopify supports affiliate stores through simple app integrations that allow you to promote a product from another store, like Amazon, and link to it via your affiliate link.

8. Shopify Channel Integrations

If you’re selling your products across multiple channels such as your online store, POS system, buy button, Facebook, and more, Shopify makes it easy to house all your information and data on one unified platform. You’re able to keep track of sales and inventory easily so you don’t make mistakes, and when it comes time to measure analytics and accounts, all the necessary info is in one spot. Shopify currently integrates with popular channels such as Amazon, Pinterest, Facebook, TikTok, Walmart, Google, and many more. For more information regarding Shopify’s Sales Channel Integrations, check out this page.

Shopify Plus

If your Shopify store gets a high volume of sales, Shopify Plus offers a scalable ecommerce platform that can fit your individual business’ needs. Shopify supports high volume businesses by providing the same hosted service they do for every other business, just on a much larger scale, making it a much simpler process to manage. Shopify also places an emphasis on partnering with Shopify Plus merchants to help them better strategize their growth and maintain their competitive edge. For more information regarding Shopify Plus, check out this page.

Shop Pay & Shopify POS

Use Shopify’s convenient payment processing system, Shop Pay, to help your customers check out faster. Using this secure system all shoppers will have to do is enter their email and an expirable 6-digit verification code to make a purchase, which shortens the checkout process from several fields down to two. No longer will your customers have to fill out repetitive information like their shipping and billing information, Shop Pay will have the necessary information pre-filled so all it’ll take is a couple of clicks or taps to completion.

As a merchant, this will make your checkout completion time lower which will help to increase your conversion rates as customers have a limited amount of time to exit out of the shopping cart. It also gives your customers a better experience as they can use Shop Pay across all Shopify stores, so checking out will be a lot less hassle for them, too, and it works on any device or browser.

For more information regarding Shop Pay, check out this blog post.

Shopify POS System

Suppose you want to hold a pop up shop, or maybe your store has a booth at an event or festival where you want to sell your products in person. Or maybe you own a brick and mortar shop and need to upgrade your POS system. Shopify’s POS System makes it possible to integrate your ecommerce sales with your in-person sales easily and efficiently with their special POS software.

With this system you can accept credit card payments anywhere, on any device, your inventory is updated in real-time and your data is stored online just as it normally would be. This way your business can move with you wherever you go and support you and your customers wherever it’s most convenient.

For a seamless on-the-go payment experience, use Shopify’s wireless Chip & Swipe Card Reader to sync effortlessly with your Shopify store when you’re selling in person. It has certified EVM chip technology, industry-leading encryption, and accepts all major credit cards. You’ll need to pay for the equipment, which varies in price depending on the model you choose. However, Shopify POS as a service is bundled into the cost of your monthly subscription.

For more information regarding Shopify’s POS System, check out this page and for more information about the Chip & Swipe Card Reader, check out this page.

Shopify Blog, Support & Experts

Shopify recognizes how powerful their ecommerce software can be when their customers know how to properly use it, so they focus on educating Shopify users through their blog and support pages and offer additional assistance through their Shopify Experts directory.

For any and every ecommerce related topic or question, Shopify has most likely covered it on their blog. With everything from knowledge, inspiration, announcements, and updates to case studies, analytics, experiments and how-to’s, there’s something on their blog to pique everyone’s interests.

Their support pages give detailed instructions to help any Shopify user with even the smallest amount of computer know-how create their own store on Shopify. This is the best place to get answers to any technical questions that occur when setting up a store and it’s a great place to browse around as you’ll likely to find tips, tricks, and solutions for design and development preferences you hadn’t yet considered. You really can take your store to the next level with the Shopify support pages and Shopify provides instructions so you can do it all yourself.

To make changes to your store that are more complex and you either can’t find your questions answered on the Shopify support pages or it has been listed as an advanced procedure, you can make use of the Shopify Experts team. These experts are, well, experts in their field and, for a fair price, they can help you solve any technical issues to turn your store into what you want it to be, or to fix any issues you might be having. These experts are super handy to have around as they make the experience with Shopify an even higher caliber.

To solve any setup, design, development, marketing and photography problems you may have, check out the Shopify Experts Directory. For even more Shopify specific help, check out Carson.

Shopify Burst

Burst provides free stock photos for either personal or commercial use that you can use on your Shopify store. Considering that there are so many stock photo resources available on the web, some are free and some you need to pay for, some of the images can be used for personal and commercial use, some only for personal use, etc. so it can get a bit confusing. Shopify Burst makes finding stock images a little less confusing and a little more accessible for businesses and entrepreneurs to use on their websites as you can use any photo in any way, for free.

Check out their various collections of images ranging from coffee, fitness, flowers, food, flat-lays, and more. Beyond that, Shopify Burst also profiles trending business ideas and provides case studies on each idea that include supplier information, marketing tips, business model insights, and free images. It’s definitely worth checking out!

Shopify Exchange

Shopify also has an ecommerce store marketplace known as Shopify Exchange where you can buy or sell Shopify stores. You can sell your Shopify store at any stage: whether you’ve just finished designing it or gotten your first few sales or even generated over $1,000,000 in sales.

If you’re looking to purchase a store just browse on the Exchange website, speak directly with sellers and get access to the revenue and traffic data that’s available to Shopify. To sell your store on Shopify Exchange simply download the Exchange app to your store and wait for buyers to contact you. Even though this marketplace has just rolled out we already anticipate it being one of the most trusted ways to buy and sell Shopify stores.

Conclusion

There you have it, our comprehensive Shopify review detailing the reasons why we think Shopify is the best ecommerce platform for any entrepreneur to use, no matter the business model, size or experience level. It’s inexpensive, easy to manage, hosted, and supports startups, large companies and every kind of business in between.

Their blog provides thorough support for users, plus they have a dedicated team of Shopify Experts available for hire to help you with various tasks related to your business. Their app store boasts the most innovative, relevant and up to date apps available for ecommerce stores, and they’re easy to integrate into all Shopify stores, making them operate more efficiently and effortlessly. Shopify is our preferred ecommerce platform, but don’t just take our word for it, try it out for yourself.

The post Shopify Review: Is Shopify Still the Best Ecommerce Platform to Use in 2022? appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

Instagram templates are pre-designed Instagram posts that can be edited to suit your brand’s Instagram feed. They’re a way to create an inviting and aesthetically pleasing Instagram feed that’s professional, high-quality and consistent so visitors get a positive first impression when landing on your Instagram feed.

As an entrepreneur, you’re likely wearing many different hats in order to run your ecommerce business but Instagram templates can help you out by making it easier to create great content for your Instagram feed. Use the templates either to completely make up your entire feed or use them in conjunction with posts you already put out; this way you’ll always have fresh content ready to post that’s optimized to engage your followers and entice likes and comments.

The biggest advantage of using pre-made Instagram templates is that you can edit them to change any colors, images, and text to match your own branding. In order to do this, you’ll need to work with editing software. Most of these templates require Adobe Photoshop in order to edit, but some can be edited with Canva as well. We’ll clearly mark which type of software each Instagram template is compatible to be edited with.

In terms of price, each Instagram template is priced differently depending on how many templates it comes with, what type of templates it includes and the style of the design, so we’ve included a range of templates at various price points to suit bootstrapped and professional entrepreneurs alike.

We’ve sourced these Instagram templates from Creative Market, a design marketplace that makes it easier for ecommerce business owners to manage all of the design demands of their business without having any formal graphic design training. We highly recommend Creative Market as a resource for all ecommerce merchants to use and have an entire Creative Market review dedicated to the service for those interested in learning more about the features and services Creative Market offers.

If you’re interested in elevating your ecommerce business’ Instagram feed and creating beautifully branded content to entice followers, likes and comments, then read on to discover our top 25 Creative Market Instagram templates.

Video Overview of the Top 25 Instagram Templates

Creative Market Instagram Templates

Minimalist Instagram Templates

These elegant minimalist Instagram templates are a great option for businesses looking to curate a clean, crisp and stylish Instagram feed. This pack includes 20 templates that can be edited to change any text, images, backgrounds or colors so you can make each post as on-brand as possible. These Instagram templates are also animated, meaning they show as a video on Instagram which can help make your feed more dynamic and engaging. The animation process is completely pre-formatted so you won’t have to make any special changes or adjustments to get the animations going, it’s all ready to go! Alternatively, if you don’t want the images to play as a video on your Instagram feed simply save them as a JPG file and they’ll show as a static image instead. This sophisticated set of Instagram templates is the perfect option for a beautifully curated Instagram feed.

Entrepreneur Quotes Instagram Templates

These Instagram templates are perfect for entrepreneurial accounts looking to motivate and inspire their audience. The pack includes 540 quotes in total and each one is targeted to the business and success niche. The topics covered in this set of quotes range from money, the entrepreneurial lifestyle, no excuses motivation, success, hustling, business and never giving up. Use these Instagram templates solely to build up your entire feed, or use them periodically throughout your posts to get the most mileage out of the pack. The Instagram templates are ready to go as is, so there’s no editing required if you don’t want to spend time making them your own. If you’re interested in just getting your feed up and running with Instagram templates you don’t have to edit in Photoshop then this is the option for you.

Playful & Bright Instagram Templates

These Instagram templates are brightly colored and made of fun, bold and playful designs. They’re optimal for the ecommerce business that wants to curate a bubbly Instagram feed that’s sure to catch the attention of their followers. This pack includes 20 Instagram templates that can be edited to include your own text, images, and colors, and they’re animated as well so each post you put up will be eye-catching. If you’re a playful brand that wants to create a unique Instagram feed then these Instagram templates are for you.

Clean & Modern Instagram Templates

This social media bundle pack includes several different size variations to ensure that these Instagram templates can be used for multiple purposes. The 16 design variations are each created in square, rectangle, and vertical post templates so they can be used for Instagram, Instagram stories and even Facebook banners. The design variations are very clean and modern and can be edited to change images, text, and colors as needed. For brands wanting to showcase images like product photos as well as text-based posts like quotes, this is a great pack that includes multiple options for either type of Instagram template.

Business Instagram Templates

These Instagram templates are quirky and stylized versions of modern Instagram post designs so it’s a great option for brands with a unique personality. This pack includes 25 design variations in three formats which are optimized for Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, making this a multipurpose pack that brands can utilize for posts across all their social media platforms. For brands looking for variation in design with plenty of style, these are the Instagram templates for you.

Fitness Instagram Templates

For merchants looking to grow their fitness brand, these are the Instagram templates for you! Specifically created for businesses in the fitness industry, these Instagram templates are optimized to showcase lifestyle images, inspirational quotes, food posts, exercise instructions and much more. This pack includes 20 Instagram templates that can be edited to change the images, fonts, and colors so you can make each post your own. If you’re building your fitness brand’s presence on Instagram these are the ideal Instagram templates to get started with so you can create a high-quality and professional feed from the beginning.

Instagram Template Bundles

A versatile set of Instagram templates, this bundle of social media packs can be used for all types of businesses. There are 2000+ animated templates and 2000+ static templates, so it’ll cover nearly every base when it comes to creating images for your social platforms. Each collection has a unique aesthetic, so you have the option to stick to using one of the collections for your social platform or interchanging between all of them! For entrepreneurs looking for a wide selection of Instagram templates to alternate within their Instagram feed, this is the bundle to pick.

Whitespace Instagram Templates

This is the ultimate bundle of light, modern and minimalist Instagram templates as it includes 75 unique templates. The style of these Instagram templates are very linear and clean, sometimes including geometric elements, so they can be edited to fit the style of many different types of branding. If you’re looking to curate a feed with a whitespace aesthetic, this bundle of Instagram templates gives you a huge library of options to choose from. You’d be able to create a long-lasting feed of images for your Instagram without repeating the same style of image for a while.

Dynamic Instagram Templates

Create beautiful animated Instagram content for each post, ad or call-to-action that you publish to your feed. This set of 20 animated Instagram templates features a variety of options for text and image placement so no matter what kind of content you want to post, there’s a template ready and waiting to be edited to fit your brand. For businesses looking for a set of Instagram templates that can seamlessly display both their visual and written content in conjunction with one another, these are the Instagram templates to work with.

Instagram Templates for Thought Leaders

Not only is this a bundle of Instagram post square format templates, but this pack also has Instagram post portrait format templates and Instagram Stories templates. There are 50 designs for each type of template (so there are 150 design files total!) making this a well-rounded set of Instagram templates. Each of the designs is versatile for all different types of businesses so if you’re looking for a set of templates that can work across not only your Instagram feed but on all your social platforms, then these are the social media templates for you.

Promotional Instagram Templates

This is another multipurpose social media templates bundle that focuses not only just on Instagram templates but other important templates that ecommerce merchants will need across all of their social channels. Focusing on the promotion aspect of social media, these templates are optimized to promote sales, webinars, announcements, workshops and more. If you want a cohesive promotion style spread across your social platforms, these templates are worth checking out.

Golden Themed Instagram Templates

Embodying elegance and style, these Instagram templates are perfect for fashion and lifestyle brands. Featuring a stunning gold accent color, these Instagram templates are as beautiful as they are eye-catching. Not only does this bundle include 28 Instagram post templates but it also includes 28 Instagram stories templates, 28 horizontal templates, and 28 vertical templates so you can get the most use out of this bundle on all your social platforms. This pack also includes free images that are available for commercial use, so you can use them directly on your social feeds as well.

Fresh & Floral Instagram Templates

If you’re not a Photoshop expert or don’t want to use it to edit your Instagram photos then an alternate option is the service Canva. Canva is also a photo editing software like Photoshop, but it’s more user-friendly for individuals who need more beginner-level software. These Instagram templates are designed specifically to be edited on Canva so you can edit the photos as quickly and easily as possible. The minimalist design makes these Instagram templates an excellent choice for many ecommerce businesses, so if you want to start creating a beautiful Instagram feed but don’t have Photoshop knowledge, then try out these Canva social media templates.

Stylish & Elegant Instagram Templates

For a sleek, chic and stylized look, this set of Instagram templates is optimal for ecommerce businesses that want their Instagram feed to primarily be image-based. This pack includes 30 Instagram post templates, 30 vertical Pinterest templates, and 30 horizontal Facebook banner templates so this bundle can be used across a wide variety of social platforms. If you want Instagram templates that will showcase your product and lifestyle images in the best light, this is the pack for you.

Mystic & Modern Instagram Templates

This is the perfect set of Instagram templates for a niche ecommerce brand that identifies with the aesthetic of this bundle. The images are included with the bundle, meaning that you can use them on your social feeds, and this pack even comes with a bonus set of geometry icons that can be used either for your Instagram posts or for your saved Instagram highlights. This bundle is packed with content, including 32 design variations in square, rectangle, and vertical post templates as well as document templates. For a bundle that has all the necessary design assets included, this is a great option to pick.

Travel Instagram Templates

If travel is your niche, these Instagram templates have been designed specifically for you. The 15 designs have been thoughtfully created to showcase both image and written content, so if sharing both of those types of content is important for your social feed then this bundle is a great option. It includes the 15 designs in Instagram post templates, Instagram stories templates, Facebook posts, and Pinterest posts, so these templates can be used across all your social platforms. It’s important to note that the images are not included with these templates, however, the creator has provided the links to download the royalty-free images if you’re interested in using them.

Green Space Instagram Templates

For a fresh and earthy Instagram feed, this set of Instagram templates has been created with exactly that in mind. Not only does this set come with 15 Instagram templates but it also comes with both horizontal and vertical templates for Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and blogs. Its versatility doesn’t stop there, though, as it comes with 20 lifestyle images and a brush font style created specifically for this bundle. For a fresh and minimalist earthy aesthetic that you don’t have to create your own images for, these Instagram templates are ideal.

Ready to Launch Instagram Templates

The Launch social media pack has been designed specifically for creators to promote their work across all social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and Pinterest. It comes with 20 designs in 3 different formats (square, horizontal and vertical) so you can use it not only for your Instagram feed but across many of your social platforms. The designs are minimal yet stylized so they would suit a variety of different niches, and they’re great Instagram templates to showcase product or lifestyle images with minimal amounts of writing.

Clean & Crisp Instagram Templates

This is a very neutral set of Instagram templates that can be used across several social media platforms and re-used regularly thanks to their classic design. Great for creating social media posts that feature both images as well as writing, this bundle includes 40 Instagram post templates, 40 Pinterest templates, 40 Facebook banner templates all in 5 pre-made colors. Of course, if the colors don’t suit your brand then you can easily change them. It’s important to note that the images are not included with these social media templates, so you’d need to add your own. This pack of templates is perfect for the ecommerce merchant who wants lots of variety and versatility with their social posts and wants them to be created in classic styles.

Infopreneur Instagram Templates

For Instagram templates that have been designed with entrepreneurs in mind, look no further. This pack has been created for entrepreneurs who want to promote and sell their products through Instagram effectively without spending too much time designing the posts. With 20 Instagram templates included in this pack, they’re easy to edit so you can quickly get them up and running on your Instagram feed. There is a nice mix of templates to showcase both images and written content, so if that’s how you envision your Instagram feed to look, this is a well-rounded pack of Instagram templates.

The Ultimate Bundle of Instagram Templates

With over 50 Instagram post templates and Instagram stories templates, this is the ultimate bundle for any business’ social media feed. Created with a very minimalist and clean design, it can be edited to easily work for many different types of brands. Not only does this bundle include 15 Instagram post templates and 24 Instagram stories templates, but it also includes 6 animated Instagram post templates and 6 animated Instagram stories templates so there’s plenty of content variety for any business’ social feed. All the images are included with this bundle as well, so you can use them directly on your feed if you wish.

Bold & Vibrant Instagram Templates

Leaving minimalist Instagram templates at the wayside, this set of Instagram templates has been designed with bold shapes and vibrant colors to stand out on your follower’s social media feeds. This particular pack is focused on product marketing, so each post template has been created to showcase a product image with a minimal amount of copy to hopefully grab your audience’s attention. This pack includes 15 designs in sizes optimized for Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter so you can maintain consistent branding across all your platforms. If you’re looking for a stylish way to stand out from the crowd on your follower’s social feeds, this is the pack for you.

All-Animated Instagram Templates

Create more interactive Instagram posts with animated text without having to learn any animation! Leave static images in the dust with this pack of 16 completely customizable animated Instagram posts. Editing these posts is easy: Just place your image, change the text and save it! It doesn’t get easier than that. And if you want to use these animated templates on other social platforms the 16 designs come in both square and rectangle sizes so they can work for more than one social media platform. Get started with beautiful and engaging animated Instagram posts with this easy-to-use pack of templates.

Geometric Instagram Templates

For funky Instagram templates with geometric accents, this pack has 40 templates you can choose from. The designs have a vast range of styles and formats, so if you want your Instagram feed to look as varied as possible, these templates can help you achieve that look. The designs focus on showcasing images more than text, so if images are your strong point this pack would be a good fit for your brand.

Rustic Instagram Templates

This set of 16 Instagram templates is an ideal option for businesses looking for a simple pack that can help them easily get started with some of the basic Instagram posts for businesses. The pack includes 8 text and image templates with phrases such as “Special Promotion,” “We Are Hiring” and “Join Our Mailing List” already formatted. It also includes 2 moodboard templates that are perfect for creating image collages to share on your social platforms or blog and 6 image display templates so you have a range of options when it comes to showcasing your product or lifestyle images on your social platforms.

Bonus! 10 Creative Market Instagram Stories Templates

With Instagram stories now becoming another way for brands to communicate with their following, these ephemeral posts are something brands should be taking more seriously. Like Instagram posts, Instagram stories can be photos or video, but they have two main advantages that Instagram posts don’t have:

• They appear at the header of a user’s Instagram home feed, meaning that if a brand is regularly updating their Instagram stories they’re more likely to appear first at the top of a user’s screen.
• Instagram stories can link out to other web pages from the Instagram app, which means that businesses can link to their websites, blogs, product pages, etc. Instagram doesn’t allow links with normal posts, so this is a huge advantage.

With both these points in mind, remember that you’re more likely to have better engagement when you create better content. To create better content, these Instagram stories templates can help you get your stories looking more professional and high quality without having to do more work.

Here are the top 10 Instagram stories templates on Creative Market:

Clean & Modern Instagram Stories Templates

These 16 templates give you the option to use them either as static images or animated videos so you can post the type of stories that appeal best to your audience. Since they’re fairly neutral designs, many different types of businesses could successfully use these templates to promote their products, make announcements, showcase blog posts, or just to share content. For beautiful and easily customizable Instagram stories templates, this is the pack for you.

Minimalist Instagram Stories Templates

For a sleek, whitespace aesthetic, go with these Instagram stories templates. These templates also offer you the option to use them as static images or animated videos, so you can use them and reuse them how you wish. There are 20 design templates included in this pack with a good balance of choices between image-based templates and text-based templates so you can create both types of content for your stories.

Geometric Instagram Stories Templates

This is an excellent entry-level template pack for entrepreneurs looking to get started with something small, as they include just 10 high-quality Instagram stories templates at a lower-end price point. Change the colors, fonts, and images to suit your own branding and the geometric designs will help give some added interest to your content.

Sophisticated Watercolour Instagram Stories Templates

This is a beautiful set of Instagram stories templates that feature soft watercolor designs that add a touch of elegance to whatever images or text is paired with it. These templates are also offered as animations so you can bring your content to life for your audience to enjoy. Included in this pack are 20 templates, 25 watercolor textures and 3 high-resolution photos as a bonus so you can make the most of the watercolor designs and choose from plenty of options.

Travel Instagram Stories Templates

Focused in on the travel niche, these animated Instagram stories templates are a great fit for businesses or entrepreneurs in the travel market. The designs are very modern and minimalist so they’ll work well for most brands, and with 20 templates there’s plenty of choices to choose from. These templates enable you to show your travel route on a world map, share the location of where you’re going to next, highlight your favorite places that you’ve been to and even add overlays to your stories with animated rain, snow, a rising sun, moving clouds and glowing stars. There’s lots of fun to be had with this pack so if it’s relevant to your niche it’d make a great addition to your Instagram profile.

Luxury Business Instagram Stories Templates

For a stylish brand looking to exude elegance within their Instagram stories, this is the ultimate set of templates for you. It includes 20 templates to choose from that are easy to edit, and the design focuses primarily on showcasing the main image with only a small amount of text to accompany. For businesses looking to make their images the main focal point of their stories with little-to-no whitespace, check out these Instagram stories templates.

Bright & Modern Instagram Stories Templates

A bright and fun set of Instagram stories templates, these are designed specifically for businesses to help them promote products or sales directly from Instagram stories. The 16 templates offer lots of variety in their style, so for businesses looking to change up their stories often and make sure no post feels the same, this is the set to choose.

Whitespace Instagram Stories Templates

For fun Instagram stories with a modern Scandinavian-inspired twist, these Instagram stories offer a minimalist feel while still being interesting. Including color-blocking features and lots of shapes to draw the audience’s attention to central focal points, these 16 templates favor style and flair. If you’re interested in building very curated Instagram stories for your brand with lots of personality, check out this set of templates.

Light & Bright Instagram Stories Templates

This is another set for lovers of the clean whitespace aesthetic, however, with lots of added interest in terms of geometric shapes and linear designs. This is another great option for brands wanting to cultivate curated Instagram stories with personality, and since this is a bundle of over 100 templates, there are so many options to choose from. For bigger brands that post frequently and want to keep their stories fresh, this bundle is a great option.

Hand-Drawn Instagram Stories Templates

Don’t just let the template designs do the talking, with this set you can upgrade your Instagram stories by using the included hand-drawn elements to make your stories unique every time you make a new one. These 30 editable templates have a modern aesthetic to them and they’ve also been created to be animated as well so they can really engage your following and capture their attention.

Conclusion

If you’re interested in checking out all the Instagram templates that Creative Market offers, view their complete library of Instagram templates here. When your choosing which templates to get, remember to select the pack that has the right ratio of image-to-text designs that suits the type of content you put out. If you’re mostly going to post images of your products, then choose a template pack that’s designed to showcase image-based posts. If you’re going to post mostly written content, find a template pack that supports that. Keep in mind that all of these template packs allow for the images, text, and colors to be edited so you can always change those elements of the design to match your brand.

With so many different Instagram templates to choose from, there’s bound to be one that will work for your brand! To curate a beautiful and professional Instagram feed that will entice your audience, then all you have to do is choose the right template pack for your brand and get posting!

The post 25 Gorgeous Instagram Templates for Your Online Business (+ 10 Bonus Story Templates) appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

Stay tuned to the end of this article for a word of warning about MOQs so you can safeguard yourself from potential consequences.

Let’s jump into it.

Video Overview of MOQ

MOQ Meaning (Minimum Order Quantity)

MOQ stands for “Minimum Order Quantity” and refers to the least amount of products or units that a supplier is willing to produce at one time. MOQs are set by suppliers to cover their cost of production and ensure that they make a profit off of each production run.

MOQs are sometimes negotiable, within reason, but it’s up to a business to be able to meet a supplier’s MOQs or negotiate a reasonable MOQ in order to do business with them.

MOQs differ from supplier to supplier. Some suppliers will have large MOQs such as 100,000 units, other suppliers may have low MOQs such as 100 units. Occasionally, suppliers that produce custom orders or bespoke products may even have MOQs as low as 1 unit.

What is MOQ

MOQ is a supplier’s Minimum Order Quantity which is defined by the minimum amount of units they’re willing to produce (or sell) at one time. MOQs are most often defined by the amount of units produced in a production run, such as 100 units or 10,000 units, for example, but sometimes MOQs can be defined by currencies as well, such as $1000 or $10,000 of product.

MOQ is calculated by each supplier independently and depends on what it costs them to produce each unit. MOQs cover the cost, effort and energy it takes to produce a production run and ensures that the supplier will be able to earn a profit as well.

Why MOQs are Important

MOQs are extremely important for suppliers because it determines which businesses they’re willing and able to do business with. By setting MOQs, suppliers can easily communicate with businesses how many units it takes for them to be able to work together.

Some businesses operate on a small level and need a very low amount of units produced. These businesses need to find a supplier that can comfortably match their low MOQ requirements. Other businesses operate on a large scale and need hundreds of thousands of units produced. These businesses need to make sure they find a supplier that can meet their demand and have the materials, machinery and personnel available to product the amount of units they need.

Why Suppliers Operate with MOQs

Suppliers set Minimum Order Quantities because it costs them a certain about of money to produce a production run, and the MOQ they set ensures that they’re able to cover all the costs of production, plus make profit. If suppliers were to produce fewer units than their MOQ they may not be able to cover the cost of their production, or make a profit.

Another reason why suppliers set MOQs is because the amount that they set may actually be the fewest amount of units they can produce in one single production run. Since manufacturers produce items in bulk, they purchase their materials in bulk as well. It may not be time or cost effective for them to set up their materials and run their machinery unless they’re guaranteed to be compensated for a certain amount of units their production run produces. Because of this, they set their MOQ to match what it’s worth for them to set up a production run both time and cost wise.

Advantages & Disadvantages of MOQs

The biggest advantage of MOQs is that they give you the best possible price per unit available. Oftentimes, the more in bulk you buy from a supplier, the more it drives down the cost of each unit. This means you’ll be paying less per unit that gets produced so you can maximize the profit you earn when you actually sell that product.

The biggest disadvantage of MOQs is the upfront cost required to be able to get your units produced. For example, 1000 units at $10 per unit means that the production run will cost $10,000 upfront, which, if you’re a new business may be intimidating or impossible to meet. This cost also doesn’t cover other costs related to doing business with your supplier such as the cost of shipping the products to you once the production run is over, or the necessary paperwork required to get the products through customs, etc. It’s just the cost of actually producing the items.

How to Meet MOQs

If you’re just starting out as a new business, meeting MOQs can be frustrating. Oftentimes as a new business you only need a small amount of units produced and can’t meet the MOQ requirements of many manufacturers. If this is the situation you’re in, your best option is to communicate very directly with manufacturers about the amount of units you need and what you can afford. If you can’t meet a supplier’s MOQ requirements and they’re not able to negotiate down to the amount of units you need, then your best option is to move on and find a different supplier with MOQs that fit your requirements.

There are plenty of suppliers who offer low, or no, MOQs, it’s just a matter of finding those suppliers. Do lots of research and investigate into the depths of Google and supplier directories to find suppliers who can meet your MOQ requirements. Depending on what products you’re looking for, another option may be to source wholesale products that you can purchase unit-by-unit so you don’t actually have any MOQs to meet. AliExpress is a great resource for this.

This may be a less cost-friendly option in the long run but it means that you can purchase products as and when you need them instead of buying lots of products upfront that you then have to then figure out how to sell.

Check out our supplier directories to find suppliers with MOQs you can meet:

• Manufacturers Directory: The manufacturers listed in this directory have a diverse range of MOQ requirements ranging from one unit to thousands of units.
• Wholesale Directory: The wholesalers listed in this directory also have a diverse range of MOQ requirements, ranging from one unit to thousands of units.
• Dropshippers Directory: The dropshippers in this directory are a great option for business’ who are having trouble meeting MOQs as they often don’t have MOQs at all. If you’re new to dropshipping, check out our Guide to Dropshipping to learn more about dropshipping as a business model and why it’s so advantageous for new businesses.
• Clothing Manufacturers Directory: This directory is tailored specifically to help businesses looking to start a clothing line find the right suppliers, and it features clothing manufacturers with MOQs as low as one unit and as high as the hundreds of thousands of units.

Exceeding MOQs

MOQs are set by suppliers to define the minimum amount of units they’re able to produce at one time, but that’s just their minimum. If you want to produce more units than a supplier’s set MOQs, usually it will be no problem for the supplier to accommodate your requirements.

Communicate exactly how many units you’re interested in producing with each supplier you’re considering working with to make sure they have the materials, equipment and personnel to make your production run happen. Depending on the supplier, they may have a maximum amount of units they can produce at one time if they’re not a large factory, so make sure they have the resources to complete your production run if you want to produce more than their MOQ.

How to Negotiate MOQs

If you’re having difficulties meeting supplier MOQs, these tips may help you out:

1. Pay the MOQ price but ask for the specific number of items you need. This option won’t save you money, you’ll still have to pay the full price of the supplier’s MOQ upfront, but you’ll get your preferred amount of units which can save you from managing inventory you don’t want or having more products than you’re able to sell. With the leftover inventory that the supplier produces you can tell them to do what they want with it (they can sell it, offload it to a wholesaler, keep it, or throw it away). This option may not make sense for every business, but it may be worth keeping in mind.
2. If you’re having trouble meeting a supplier’s MOQ because you can’t store that amount of inventory at one time, you can’t pay for it all upfront, or you just don’t need that amount of inventory all at once, see if the manufacturer will produce the entire production run and give you half of the products first and then the rest in a few months. Not all manufacturers may be open to this idea, some may not have the storage space for it, but others may be willing to help you if they know you’re serious and you’ll become a regular customer of theirs.
3. See if there’s a lower quality material that can be substituted for the materials they would originally use so you can drive the price of production down, and thus, the amount of the MOQ.
4. This is less of a negotiation tactic and more of a strategy on how to meet MOQs if you don’t have the budget available to meet a MOQ upfront. Crowdfunding and selling pre-orders is one of the best ways to acquire funding for your products upfront so you can meet the MOQ of your supplier without having to fork over the cash straight from your own pocket, and it means that you’ll order the appropriate amount of product that you have demand for. Orchestrating successful crowdfunding campaigns like those on Kickstarter or Indiegogo takes a lot of effort and isn’t for the non-serious or unprepared business person, so make sure you have the know-how and resources to be able to pull this off for it to be a successful means to meet MOQ requirements.

A Word of Warning

It may be tempting to drive supplier’s down to the lowest MOQ they’re willing to go, and some suppliers may want your business so much that they’re willing to drive down their MOQs just to keep you as a customer, but this may come at a cost to you. While low MOQs may seem like a great situation for you, it’s very important to consider the potential consequences:

• By driving down supplier MOQs too low, you may force suppliers to compromise on the quality of the products they produce. In an effort to meet the low MOQs while covering the cost of production, they may use the lowest quality materials so they can still afford to complete the production run and make a profit. This can make your products seem low-quality or make them less durable.
• If you drive down the MOQs too far and it cuts into the supplier’s profit, they may resent doing business with you which may make them less likely to work with you in the future, or else they may just not prioritize your business over other clients. Remember that suppliers also need to make a profit and MOQs are put in place to cover their own costs, so try to be understanding of that, even if it’s less favourable for you in some ways. Relationships in business are paramount, so compromising your relationship with your supplier because of MOQs may come with more consequences in the long run, so take that into consideration.

Conclusion

MOQs are put in place for a reason, so it’s important that you abide by them and negotiate reasonably with suppliers if you do feel that you need to negotiate. While it may be frustrating for you to meet MOQs, or flat out impossible if you’re just starting your business, remember that MOQs are put in place by suppliers to cover their own costs of doing business, so if you can’t meet a supplier’s MOQs then you need to find a different supplier or make other adjustments. In any case, find a supplier’s MOQ which you are able to meet, and if there’s none, try sourcing your products through wholesale or dropshipping so you can purchase products one-by-one, as you need them.

The post MOQ Meaning: What Is MOQ & What You Need to Know appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

In this Printful review we’re going to discuss what Printful does, the products and services they offer, what makes them so good at what they do, and whether they’re worth all the hype that they get.

Let’s jump into it.

What Printful Does

Printful is a dropshipping service provider of apparel, accessories, and homeware goods such as t-shirts, hats, posters, throw pillows, mugs, jewelry, tote bags, stickers, phone cases, and much more. Their service is ideal for several reasons:

• They don’t require any minimum purchases (MOQs), meaning you can order as little as one item at a time
• You don’t have to purchase any inventory upfront or manage any inventory (no printing machines, no products, etc.)—Printful handles it all for you
• Printful ships products straight to your customers so you don’t have to manage the shipping process
• There are no monthly fees (unless you opt into Printful Pro)
• Items ship, on average, within 3 days
• Printful ships items again in the event that they are lost or damaged in transit
• They offer personalized branding options such as adding logo stickers to packaging or custom packing slips

Printful provides the products, prints on the products, packages, and fulfills the order, and sends it directly to your customers—all you have to do is send orders to them with the order’s details and they’ll handle the rest.

To learn more about how their process works, check out the Printful Print Order Lifecycle.

They’re in the business of helping you create products for your business, and they provide all the necessary tools and resources to help you easily integrate the dropshipping process into your ecommerce website so you can provide a seamless experience to your customers.

Printful also offers plenty of ecommerce platform integrations so you can connect your Printful account directly to whatever website you use to sell your products on, whether it’s Shopify, BigCommerce, Etsy, WooCommerce, Squarespace, Amazon, and more.

Printful is also transparent about their product and shipping prices so you can easily understand their costs and decide on your product markups. They also provide design, photography, and branding services so your products have the best chance of looking their best and what’s more—Printful has warehouses around the world so products ship quickly to your customers and even bypass shipping and duty fees on locally available items.

And, if you’re a business that has its own inventory separate from Printful, you can use Printful’s warehousing and fulfillment services to stock your products in their worldwide warehouses so your products can be shipped, stored, and fulfilled more easily and inexpensively than if you were to do it all yourself.

We’ll cover all of these points in more detail down below, so keep reading!

Who Printful is For

Printful is for ecommerce entrepreneurs who want the ease of selling dropshipping products without losing quality or their branding in the process.

Whether you’re looking for a way to sell your own designs to your customers be it on custom t-shirts, canvases, phone cases, pillows, and more, or if you’re interested in starting any kind of product-based business without the hassle of owning inventory or production materials, then Printful is for you.

Printful is for Businesses that Don’t Want to Compromise

Printful wants to make their merchants happy, so they continually add new products to their catalog so merchants can add new products to their stores often. As a merchant, this is great because it means you can keep your store fun and exciting by bringing out new products without having to source them from anywhere else.

For businesses that don’t want to compromise on their product quality, shipping speed, profit margins, and product selection, Printful is one of the best choices on the market. Why?

• Printful doesn’t compromise on quality just because they offer dropshipping products—they keep things high quality
• Printful has warehouses located all around the world so products get to customers fast
• Printful is transparent about their prices and suggests RRPs so merchants know what their profit margins are before they sell a product
• Printful adds new products all the time, so their product selection keeps growing

Printful’s efficiency, transparency, high-quality product offering, and varied selection are part of the reason why they’re so successful, and their ability to work with businesses to help them provide the best services for their customers is what keeps them growing.

Printful is for Business Owners with No Experience

Best of all, you don’t have to have any prior business experience if you want to source from Printful.

The services they offer are accessible to both seasoned entrepreneurs and new business owners alike, so if you’ve never started your own business or haven’t sourced products from a dropshipping supplier before then you can still give Printful a try! There’s no minimum order requirement, no monthly fees (unless you choose to opt for Printful Pro), and you only pay for orders as your customers make them so it’s a low-risk way to start your own business.

You don’t have to have any prior business experience if you want to source from Printful. The services they offer are accessible to both seasoned entrepreneurs and new business owners alike

Let’s learn more about Printful’s features and services.

Printful’s Features & Services

What Printful provides sellers extends far beyond just their product offering and standard dropshipping services. Those things are a huge part of what makes Printful so valuable—but they also offer so much more.

Printful offers a wide range of features and services like tools that enable sellers to get their stores set up easily, resources that help sellers create more beautiful products, and additional services that enable merchants to use Printful’s services to their fullest extent.

Let’s get into everything that Printful offers.

Print-on-Demand Products

Printful offers one of the biggest catalogs of print-on-demand dropshipping products on the market, and they’re constantly growing their product offerings.

Their products fall mainly within the apparel, homeware, and accessories categories and every product they offer can be printed, and/or embroidered, and/or engraved.

Their product offering currently includes:

• T-Shirts/Tops
• Hoodies
• Sweatpants
• Jackets
• Leggings
• Shorts
• Underwear
• Skirts
• Dresses
• Swimsuits
• Sports Bras
• Kids Clothing
• Baby Bodysuits
• Baby Bibs
• Posters
• Canvases
• Coffee Mugs
• Hats
• Beanies
• Throw Pillows
• Tote Bags
• Phone Cases
• Socks
• Aprons
• Blankets
• Duffle Bags
• Jewelry
• Laptop Cases
• Facemasks
• Keychains
• Backpacks
• Notebooks
• Stickers
• Fanny Packs
• Flip Flops
• Water Bottles
• Postcards
• Towels
• Bean Bags
• Pet Tags

And more. For information about their products and product pricing, check out Printful’s Custom Products page. They also listen to their sellers and they add new products regularly, so if there’s a product you want to see just let them know via their New Feature Requests page (note that you must sign in to your account with Printful to access their Feature Requests page).

Printing, Embroidery & Engraving Options

There are several different printing methods out there, but the one that Printful primarily sticks to is Direct-to-Garment (DTG) printing. This is Printful’s printing method of choice because it’s a cost- and labor-effective way to print single-order items and the reason why they don’t require minimum orders. They also offer all-over sublimation printing for some clothing items, screen printing in some cases (for large orders only), embroidery for hats and apparel, giclée printing for art, and engraving for jewelry and metal items.

When it comes to printing, Printful makes it easy for you. You don’t have to worry about picking the best printing method for the item you’re printing on—every product offered on their website is printed in the way that best suits the product. Check out Printful’s Printing FAQ page for more information and answers to commonly asked questions.

Dropshipping: Picking, Packing & Shipping

Since Printful provides a dropshipping service, there’s no need for you to ever handle or manage any of your products or inventory, and you don’t handle the packaging, shipping, or fulfillment aspects either. Printful stores, prints, picks, packs, ships, and fulfills every product—so you never have to.

This is why dropshipping is such an attractive business model for entrepreneurs who are starting their first store or don’t have a large budget to invest in product inventory or manufacturing tools. It provides a low-risk way for sellers to provide great products to their customers, and it allows sellers to focus on other aspects of their stores such as the designs, branding, customer service, or marketing without having to worry about the technical side of things like printing products and shipping them.

Currently, Printful dropships from their warehouses in:

• Charlotte, North Carolina
• Los Angeles, California
• Dallas, TX
• Toronto, Ontario
• Tijuana, Mexico
• Riga, Latvia
• Barcelona, Spain
• Birmingham, UK
• São Paulo, Brazil
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Amakusa, Japan
• Melbourne, Australia
• Brisbane, Australia

This does, of course, mean that you’re paying for Printful’s services and for them to warehouse, ship, and fulfill your products for you. While you don’t pay for their service in monthly fees or minimum orders, your profit margins will be affected and will be smaller than if you were manufacturing products yourself. This disadvantage is not exclusive to Printful, it applies to the dropshipping business model as a whole. It is, however, an important aspect of dropshipping to keep in mind so you can prepare your margins accordingly.

Warehousing & Fulfillment for Ecommerce Stores

Printful also offers a warehousing and fulfillment service where they store, pick, pack, and ship products on behalf of merchants—even if they aren’t Printful products!

Printful has a sophisticated network of shipping, fulfillment, and logistics solutions that they hire out to merchants who need access to these resources. With this service, you can store your products in their warehouses and they’ll fulfill your orders and ship your products as your orders come in. Your products will ship directly to your customers (they won’t be shipped to you first) and they’ll also be shipped with your own brand packaging so you won’t lose out on your brand experience.

Currently, Printful’s warehousing and fulfillment services operate out of a selection of their globally-dispersed warehouse network, including:

• Charlotte, North Carolina
• Los Angeles, California
• Toronto, Ontario
• Riga, Latvia
• Barcelona, Spain

This is an ideal option for ecommerce merchants who don’t want to handle shipping and fulfillment themselves or don’t have the resources to operate a shipping warehouse, or even don’t have the expertise to create an efficient and cost-effective global shipping strategy.

If this sounds like a service you need, learn more about Printful’s warehousing and fulfillment services for ecommerce stores here.

Branding Services

Beyond offering great dropshipping products and a fulfillment service, Printful also offers design and branding services to help take businesses to the next level.

Usually, one of the biggest problems when dropshipping is that your branding becomes compromised. Since dropshippers send orders to many different customers on behalf of many different brands, they can’t create a unique branding experience for every package so they typically ship everything in plain packaging. This means that small but important touches like branded packing inserts and branded receipts aren’t used, which causes brands to lose out on important touchpoints.

Printful recognized this hardship and offers a few branding options to make it more personable between brands and customers.

Opt to use one of Printful’s branded pack-in options, like:

• Flyers and coupons
• Business cards
• Branded stickers
• Postcards
• Handwritten thank-you cards

And, you can even make use of Printful’s white-label services to make each product more on brand. Printful’s white label services include:

• Branded inner labels
• Branded outer labels
• Branded embroidered labels
• Branded packing slips
• A customizable return address

These options help to maintain brand consistency between your website and the products your customers receive so you can continue to build on the experience. To learn more about the branding services Printful offers, check out this page.

Design Services

Printful’s experienced team can also help you with the design requirements you might need to get your ecommerce store off the ground.

Not only can they help you prepare print files for Printful products, but they can also help you with any other design needs like redesigning logos, creating sublimation print files, color-matching print files, making minor adjustments to print files, creating new graphics, creating custom artwork and more.

Plus, you can even get Printful to provide product photography services and video production services for your business as well.

This is an ideal service for the ecommerce merchant who has an idea of what designs they want to print on their products but aren’t sure how to bring it to life, or the store owner who wants to outsource the artwork creation process so they can free up some time to handle other aspects of building their business.

With Printful’s dedicated design team, you’re in good hands. They can take the reins on your designs so you can focus on doing the things you do best. If this is a service you might require, check out Printful’s Design Services page here for more information.

Ecommerce Store Setup Services

Want to start an ecommerce store and sell Printful products but don’t have the time or tech skills to get it up and running. Yep, Printful can do that for you too.

They’ve got plenty of experience starting and running ecommerce stores, so they can get one set up for you while you sit back and relax. They’ll build your store from scratch, connect it to Printful, and add all the finishing touches you want.

Printful sets up Shopify and WooCommerce stores for merchants so if you’re interested in their services, learn more here.

Ecommerce Platform Integrations

Printful integrates with the most commonly used ecommerce platforms, and installation for most of these platforms is easy and fast.

Integrating Printful with your ecommerce store means that you don’t have to manually handle each customer’s order and submit them to Printful yourself. When you integrate Printful with your ecommerce platform, every time your customers place an order it automatically gets sent to Printful so you don’t have to handle it at all. This means that orders get sent to Printful immediately and there’s no chance of losing the order or making a mistake on the order details throughout the transition.

This is great news if you want to run an automated dropshipping store that you don’t need to be hands-on with at all times.

Printful integrations are available with these ecommerce platforms:

• Shopify
• BigCommerce
• WooCommerce
• Squarespace
• Wix
• Amazon
• Etsy
• eBay
• Wish
• Square
• Magento
• Big Cartel
• Storenvy
• Gumroad
• Webflow
• Prestashop
• Ecwid
• Weebly

Or, you can connect your store to Printful via an API integration.

For more information about the platforms Printful integrates with and for comparisons of each one, check out Printful’s Ecommerce Drop Shipping Integrations page.

Helpful Tools & Resources

As we’ve mentioned before, what makes Printful such a valuable service to use is that they’re committed to not only providing great service through their product offering and fulfillment capabilities, but they also go the extra mile to help sellers use Printful to its fullest extent.

The tools and resources Printful provides to help their merchants sell better include:

• Printing Tips: They provide plenty of articles that are easily accessible through their homepage to help sellers understand the different printing advantages and disadvantages such as DTG print file transparency, fabric facts, sublimation printing facts, garment printing facts, and information on how to create embroidery files so merchants can get the best possible print on their products.
• Mockup Generator: Use their mockup generator to apply your designs digitally to their products to get a sense of what the finished product will look like or to create product images for your ecommerce store.
• Printful App: Keep an eye on your store while you’re on the go with Printful’s app.
• Printful Pro: Get even more out of Printful with a Printful Pro subscription. Access their background removal tool, 400+ exclusive clipart images, the keyword scout for Etsy, additional premium images at no extra cost, and get embroidery files digitized for free.
• Getty Images Integration: Pick from 80 million Getty images to add to your Printful designs. Learn more here.
• Profit Calculator: As we’ve mentioned, the dropshipping business model inherently means you’ll be working with slimmer profit margins, so use their profit calculator to determine exactly what your margins will be for each product so you can budget your markup accordingly.
• Samples: In order to sample items for yourself or to test out Printful’s products, they provide discounted sample products and shipping prices to sellers.
• Checklist: Check out their checklist to help you set up your store with Printful in the quickest and most prepared way possible.
• Printful Lessons: Kick your ecommerce store up a notch with the help of Printful Lessons. They have videos covering all types of content including business-building advice, marketing techniques, design and style trend reports, and guides to getting started on Printful.
• Blog: Printful’s blog is a valuable resource to go to if you’re interested in learning more about their products, services, integrations, or how to actually build your store the way you want it. They’re experts on their products and services, so if you need any more information about what they do, check out their blog posts.
• YouTube Channel: For video walkthroughs and demonstrations, check out their active YouTube channel to learn more about their products, how their products are created, new product or service offerings, and more.
• Sustainability & Responsibility: Printful understands the role it plays in the larger conversations of sustainability and responsibility. Check out their sustainability and responsibility efforts here.

Pros & Cons of Printful

While Printful offers many different services, resources, and tools that are valuable to their sellers, there are still some aspects of their services that they are working to improve. Let’s dive into the advantages and disadvantages of using Printful as a dropshipping service provider.

Pros:

• USA-based & European-based warehouses, therefore products are easily accessible to major consumer markets
• Low-risk business model sincere no upfront purchase of inventory is necessary
• High-quality products
• High-quality printing capabilities
• A large variety of products to choose from
• No minimum orders requirements
• No monthly fees to use their service (unless opting into Printful Pro)
• No import fees on locally available products
• Transparent shipping prices
• Products ship out products to customers, on average, within 3 days
• Customizable branding options
• Re-shipments for lost or damaged products
• Plenty of online resources for guidance on their products and services
• Automate your business with their ecommerce platform integrations

Cons:

• At this time, their product selection is composed primarily of apparel, accessories, and homeware goods only
• Typically there are slim profit margins for dropshipped goods (this is true for dropshipping as a whole—it’s not exclusive to Printful)
• Their branding options are limited (you can’t use your own boxes, poly-mailers, tissue paper, or anything beyond what customizations they offer)
• Some products, such as the framed posters or canvases, may not ship everywhere

So, is Printful worth the hype?

Ultimately, Printful offers the best dropshipping service when it comes to apparel, accessories, and homeware printing and distributing. They have a large offering of high-quality products, and they strive to get it right every time. They also work with their sellers to continuously improve the products and services they offer whether that’s getting new types of products in, or adding more selection to what they currently offer.

Their drive to offer high-quality products and services and to constantly improve their products, tools, and resources is why so many sellers choose to work with them and continue to sell with them.

Printful is essentially a full-service ecommerce dropshipping solution, and that’s hard to find anywhere else at the same scale that Printful offers.

Printful’s Pricing

Printful’s pricing varies for each product they offer, so for all the information regarding their product’s pricing, refer to their Products & Pricing page. Printful also does not require any minimum orders or monthly fees (unless you opt into Printful Pro), so you only pay for their products when your customers order them from you.

Printful FAQs

What is Printful?

Printful is a dropshipping supplier that offers a large range of high-quality products in the apparel, accessories, and homeware niches. They integrate directly with ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce so merchants can source and sell dropshipping products directly to their customers without having to purchase inventory upfront or handle any part of the shipping process. They print merchant’s designs on all of their products so every business owner can sell unique items, and Printful ships all over the world from their globally-dispersed fulfillment warehouses.

Is Printful Worth the Hype?

Ultimately, yes. Printful is worth the hype. They do dropshipping so well that it’s hard to find any other dropshipper offering the same services that Printful does as well as Printful does. If you want to create custom designs and print them on dropshipping products, Printful should rank high on your considerations list.

Is Printful Easy to Use?

Overall, yes, Printful is easy to use. There may be a bit of a learning curve to figure out if you’ve never created design files before, but Printful is used to working with brand new entrepreneurs so their customer support team is always ready to help. Plus, if you’re really lost you can check out Printful’s Help Center to find your answers, or reach out directly to the Printful team to get clarification.

Why is Printful Better than Other Dropshippers?

Printful is one of the best dropshippers on the market because they make dropshipping easy for merchants. They offer a wide range of high-quality products, there are no minimum order requirements, they ship worldwide, they have fulfillment centers in many different countries, and they really listen to merchants and keep expanding their services to make them even better.

How Much Does Printful Cost?

Printful is free to use—you just have to purchase from Printful once one of your customers purchases a product from you. There are no monthly fees (unless you opt into Printful Pro, but you don’t have to) and there are no minimum order requirements.

Where Does Printful Ship From?

Printful ships from their warehouses located in Charlotte, North Carolina, Los Angeles, California, Dallas, Texas, Toronto, Ontario, Tijuana, Mexico, Riga, Latvia, Barcelona, Spain, Birmingham, United Kingdom, São Paulo, Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Amakusa, Japan, Melbourne, Australia, Brisbane, Australia.

How Much Does Printful Charge for Shipping?

How much Printful charges for shipping depends on where they’re shipping from, where they’re shipping to, and which product(s) is being shipped. You can find Printful’s shipping information here and their very helpful article The Beginner’s Guide to Ecommerce Shipping Pricing here.

How Much is Printful Per Month?

Printful is free to use and they don’t charge a monthly fee for their regular services. Printful only charges you if you order a product from them. Printful Pro is an option for merchants who want to access more features, and it costs $49/month or $539/year.

With Printful Pro you can:

• Customize 250+ products
• Integrate with 15+ ecommerce platforms
• Create product templates
• Create designs in the Design Maker
• Download mockups and print files
• Use 700 clipart images
• Use the background removal tool
• 400+ exclusive clipart images
• Promo Maker
• Keyword Scout for Etsy
• Use Premium Images at no extra cost
• Get embroidery files digitized for free

Is Printful Legit?

Yes, Printful is legitimate. Printful has been around since 2013 and they’ve grown massively since then, and they’ve continued to expand their services and product offerings. We’ve personally used Printful to start businesses like the t-shirt business we mentioned in our How to Start a T-Shirt Business post and it’s one of the main dropshipping suppliers we always suggest to new entrepreneurs because it’s so easy to use and they offer so many products.

Is Printful Worth It?

If you want to start a dropshipping business, Printful is definitely worth checking out. They offer a lot of great products and their product range is constantly expanding, plus they offer great printing and fulfillment services so they’re a great dropshipping supplier to work with.

Does Printful Ship Worldwide?

Yes, Printful ships worldwide, however, there are a few countries that Printful doesn’t ship to, including Cuba, Iran, Crimea, Syria, and North Korea.

Some products may not be available in all regions and some products may not ship to all regions, but for the most part, everything is accessible worldwide. If a product is not available or doesn’t ship worldwide for any reason, Printful will make it clear on their website.

How Does Printful Work?

Printful works like a dropshipping supplier. The full explanation of how Printful works can be found here.

Does Printful Ship for You?

Yes, Printful ships for you. They’re a dropshipping supplier, so once they have your customer’s order they pick, pack, and ship the order straight to your customer but they make it look like you sent it.

Is Printful Good Quality?

One of the best things about Printful is that their products are high-quality. Many dropshipping suppliers get a bad reputation for having low-quality products, but not Printful. Their products and printing are high-quality so they’re worth what merchants and customers pay for.

Does Printful Automatically Ship Orders?

When Printful is integrated into your ecommerce platform (like Shopify or BigCommerce—see Printful’s full list of ecommerce integration partners here) your customer’s orders will automatically be transferred to Printful and they’ll automatically print, package, and ship the order directly to your customer. You don’t have to do anything on your end—it’s completely automated!

Conclusion

Printful provides one of the best apparel, homewares, and accessories dropshipping services in the world. Their high-quality products coupled with their valuable printing, shipping, and fulfillment services make them an easy choice for sellers who want to start their own business without the risk associated with purchasing large quantities of products or expensive equipment upfront.

Printful goes above and beyond simply offering a dropshipping service as they aim to improve sellers’ experiences with their services by offering useful tools and resources to help them provide a better experience for their own customers. If you’re interested in starting your own ecommerce store via the dropship business model, we highly recommend checking out Printful.

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