Can You Use Shopify for Services? Complete Guide

Studying Time: 15 minutes

“Don’t use Shopify for providers, it’s just for ecommerce.” You’ve most likely heard that one. However the reality is, the identical options that make Shopify nice for ecommerce additionally make it excellent for promoting providers, subscriptions, digital downloads, or any mixture of merchandise and repair packages.

Shopify handles funds, advertising and marketing, and shopper administration higher than WordPress and Wix out of the field. You’re capable of construct “merchandise” as providers, skilled touchdown pages, and add an electronic mail advertising and marketing app for viewers progress.

What began as a pure ecommerce platform is now appropriate for promoting providers and even constructing informational B2B web sites for lead era.

This text is an entire roadmap for promoting providers on Shopify, together with setup, prices, optimization, and advertising and marketing that can assist you determine if it’s proper for your online business.

What makes Shopify ideally suited for promoting providers?

Shopify is a cohesive ecosystem for promoting providers, removing the plugins and cobbled-together method different platforms require to construct working paid providers web sites.

With Shopify, you possibly can join, add a theme to your web site, add merchandise as providers, activate funds, and begin promoting instantly. Even when you’re an entire newbie, the training curve is virtually non-existent throughout its normal options.

As an illustration, yoga instructors can take funds for bookings, and Shopify will mechanically ship affirmation emails with reserving particulars to clients.

Or let’s take the instance of a bookkeeper. They will bundle and promote subscriptions for Xero account administration, win gross sales with out pitching, and see their clients of their dashboard.

These eventualities are the place promoting on Shopify is sensible:

• Service packages and bundles
• Appointments
• Bookings
• Digital merchandise and downloads
• Subscriptions and memberships

In case you plan to bundle providers and promote them, or in any other case take funds for providers, you’ll get the performance wanted. Moreover, as a result of Shopify supplies internet hosting and funds, it’s safe by default and with world requirements compliance.

That’s why Shopify is appropriate for promoting providers, however its intensive App Retailer is what places it forward of the likes of WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace.

The Shopify App Retailer accommodates 8,000+ apps for each method of performance you want, from scheduling, reserving, and managing appointments and providers, to establishing recurring billing.

Highlights embody Omnisend for email marketing automation, Choose.me for critiques, Apntly for calendar bookings, Sky Pilot for digital downloads, Recharge for subscriptions, and a whole lot of extra apps competing with these.

Sure, different web site platforms have plugins, however Shopify’s App Retailer has constantly high-quality apps, serving to you create higher buyer experiences, construct belief, and develop gross sales.

The right way to arrange your service enterprise on Shopify

Configuring your Shopify retailer, choosing a theme, and establishing your advertising and marketing channels correctly the primary time will prevent time and supply a crash course in studying the fundamentals. 

Observe these 5 steps to promote providers on Shopify:

Step 1: Account and plan choice

Head over to the Shopify pricing web page and evaluate its plans. The most affordable possibility is the Primary plan at $39/month or $29/month with an annual cost, and it’s most likely all you want for now.

The Develop plan is the following step up, nevertheless it’s considerably costlier at $105/month and solely is sensible when you want as much as 5 employees accounts. 

Step 2: Including providers as merchandise

After creating your account, you’ll have entry to the Shopify dashboard. Search for the sidebar, and choose Merchandise to open the choices:

The Merchandise dashboard encompasses a black button labeled “+ Add product.” Click on it, and also you’ll redirect to the product editor, which is the place you’ll add a service:

You must fill out these sections:

• Title (add your service identify)
• Description (add your service info)
• Media (add photographs)
• Worth (embody all vital taxes)
• Stock (deselect Stock tracked)
• Delivery (deselect Bodily product)
• Search engine itemizing (add a web page title, meta, and optimum URL deal with)

After including your info, click on Save. Wish to preview your product? Click on Preview (the button is subsequent to Duplicate on the prime) to see it:

Step 3: Checkout configuration

Shopify supplies a typical checkout structure, and a few of your checkout is now pre-configured following the deselection of Bodily product and Stock tracked in your product settings.

You can also make extra checkout configurations by navigating to Settings within the sidebar (there’s a settings icon on the backside) and choosing Checkout from the choices:

The obtainable settings embody a number of preselections, and the varieties of adjustments you may need to make are subjective. Take into account these adjustments when utilizing Shopify for promoting providers:

• Requiring clients to check in to their account earlier than checkout (checkbox)
• Including buyer choices for firm identify, delivery telephone quantity, and deal with line two (checkbox)
• Present tipping choices at checkout (checkbox)
• Advertising and marketing choices, with E mail preselected and SMS non-obligatory (you’ll want an SMS app if you’d like the SMS performance to work)

Step 4: Important pages and insurance policies

Navigate to On-line retailer underneath Gross sales channels within the sidebar and choose Pages to view all of your revealed pages. By default, Shopify supplies these pages:

Nonetheless, when you click on any of those default pages, you’ll discover that the content material is clean. That’s as a result of Shopify doesn’t assume what your insurance policies and providers are, so it’s as much as you so as to add every part wanted in your Shopify service enterprise.

The picture beneath reveals the web page editor:

The web page editor is admittedly sparse, however that’s the purpose. Your pages are supposed to be information-rich with out distractions. Add your content material, click on Save, and click on View on the prime to see a reside model of your web page.

If you want to add a brand new web page, head again to Pages underneath On-line Retailer and click on the Add web page button on the prime to create it. 

Because you’re utilizing Shopify for providers, you may need to create a Service supply web page and take away the Delivery and Return coverage pages.

Step 5: Advertising and marketing automation setup

If you wish to make serious money on Shopify, you want automations.

Shopify handles some buyer notifications by default. Head to Settings > Notifications > Buyer notifications and also you’ll see this display:

Its choices embody:

• Order processing (order affirmation, draft order bill, delivery affirmation)
• Native pick-up (prepared, picked up notification)
• Native supply (you possibly can deselect all these checkboxes because you’re promoting providers)
• Present playing cards
• Retailer credit score
• Order exceptions, together with order bill, order edited, order canceled, order cost receipt, order refund, order hyperlink
• Funds, together with errors, successes, and reminders

Extra choices embody returns (irrelevant for providers), level of sale, and accounts and outreach, similar to account invitations and welcome emails.

Nonetheless, Shopify’s built-in notifications have limitations:

• They don’t cowl your full buyer journey
• They don’t embody advertising and marketing eventualities
• They don’t enable flow-building
• The e-mail templates aren’t branded or skilled

To do all these items, you want an extra app, similar to Omnisend.

Omnisend is an improve in your electronic mail advertising and marketing actions, offering a extra intuitive third-party dashboard and new capabilities to create one-time and scheduled campaigns, multichannel automations, and section your viewers for concentrating on.

To begin utilizing Omnisend:

• Create a free Omnisend account
• Full the fundamental setup steps in Omnisend and keep logged in
• Log in to Shopify
• Seek for Omnisend within the prime search bar
• Click on Set up on the app web page
• Assessment, affirm set up, and connect with Omnisend in your backend

And, you’re in!

Head again to Omnisend and also you’ll see your dashboard Overview:

From right here, you possibly can navigate to Campaigns, Automation, or Kinds within the sidebar to start out constructing your first Omnisend ingredient. Alternatively, you can go to Viewers to import a listing, view contacts, and construct segments.

Beginning with Automation is the logical first step in your Shopify providers. Click on Automation within the sidebar after which click on + Create workflow to view all pre-built automations:

Click on Customise workflow on any automation to open the movement builder. The picture beneath reveals the movement builder, on this case, for a Welcome collection:

Edit the movement to fit your necessities and click on Begin workflow to launch it or Save & shut to put it aside for modifying later.

General, Omnisend supplies a way more intuitive automation expertise than Shopify E mail, Shopify Flows, and different apps.

Which Shopify themes work greatest for providers?

Any Shopify theme that reduces your reliance on costly apps and might show service packages as fantastically as merchandise is value contemplating. Nonetheless, you’ll want completely different options when you use Shopify for subscription providers and bookings.

Search for these options in Shopify providers themes:

• Calendars
• Reminders
• Earlier than/after galleries
• Age verifiers
• Badges
• Assortment pages
• Cross-selling
• Banners and popups

Listed below are 4 high-quality themes to contemplate:

1. Avante (Panorama model)

The Avante Shopify theme contains the Panorama preset, a providers theme demo with appointment-friendly options, together with pre-order performance, in-store pickups, customizable contact varieties, FAQs, and data shows.

2. Votto

Votto is a single-product Shopify theme, excellent when you intend to promote one service, subscription, or bundle. It contains 14+ pre-built layouts, every themed for product niches, however all you want to do is exchange the content material along with your service providing.

3. Grove (Aircon)

The Grove theme contains the Aircon preset for Shopify providers, with fast order lists for packages, FAQ sections for service particulars, in-store pickup choices that double as appointment confirmations, and promo tiles for highlighting completely different service packages.

4. Zeexo 4.0

Zeexo 4.0 is a multipurpose Shopify theme with 113 pre-built demos and a just lately added bundle template. It helps you improve gross sales with carousels, labels, badges, timers, and regularly purchased collectively sections.

What apps do service companies want on Shopify?

Shopify’s default configuration is for promoting merchandise, which you’ll repurpose for promoting providers, however you’ll want apps for service subscriptions, bookings, appointments, bundles, digital deliveries, and different promoting sorts.

The identical applies to advertising and marketing automation, since Shopify solely handles fundamental confirmations and electronic mail invoices with none SMS or push notifications.

Fortunately, Shopify’s app ecosystem spoils you for selection in all classes and supplies free and paid options for all of your service enterprise challenges.

Listed below are our prime suggestions:

Scheduling and reserving apps

Appointo provides native scheduling popups to your Shopify service merchandise with automated reminders, Google Calendar sync, and helps group appointments for courses or workshops.

For tools leases and workshops, BookX is a best choice as a result of it treats multi-day bookings as a single block, not forcing clients to pick Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (or every other days) individually like most reserving apps.

If in case you have walk-in purchasers and have to take on-line bookings, Tipo connects to Shopify POS and supplies you with real-time availability for all orders.

Digital supply apps

For digital supply in your Shopify service enterprise, you’ll need BIG Digital Downloads Products for its limitless storage and computerized electronic mail supply after buy, dealing with PDFs, movies, and license keys effortlessly.

Alternatively, Digital Downloads PDF Pendora presents prompt success with customizable obtain limits and built-in analytics, excellent for promoting programs or guides.

Advertising and marketing automation apps

Omnisend handles your electronic mail, SMS, and push notifications, letting you construct one-time or scheduled campaigns and multichannel flows that set off with section exercise and buyer actions to create an entire model expertise.

The picture beneath reveals Omnisend’s movement builder, on this case for a reserving affirmation:

There are pre-built flows for confirmations, reminders, and post-purchase suggestions requests, plus you possibly can construct your listing with popups and varieties, create segments for concentrating on, and cross-sell and suggest providers in emails to extend buyer lifetime worth.

Different advertising and marketing apps to contemplate embody Dondy for WhatsApp advertising and marketing and chat, and AdRoll for serving advertisements on associated web sites/apps.

Different useful Shopify service apps

The OrderEditing.com app lets your clients self-edit and alter their service orders and supplies one-click upsell alternatives within the backend. 

Ought to your theme lack appropriate demos and customization choices, PageFly and Ecomposer allow you to construct skilled pages simply.

How do subscription providers work on Shopify?

Shopify helps subscription providers, serving to you generate recurring income with specialised apps that add recurring billing options to your common merchandise.

Cost and checkout are nonetheless the remit of Shopify, however billing cycles, buyer subscription portals, and the automations that make subscriptions work require an app.

Take a look at these Shopify subscriptions apps for starters:

• Subi: Offers recurring funds and memberships for providers and digital merchandise, loyalty perks and rewards, thriller packing containers, and a buyer portal.
• Recharge: Permits you to construct dynamic bundles, tiered reductions, A/B check subscriptions, and supplies churn and progress instruments.
• Seal: Helps magic hyperlinks for patrons, white-label branding for customized domains, auto-charging, and tiered subscription reductions.

These apps are appropriate for on-line programs, month-to-month teaching, conferences, consulting packages, ongoing upkeep, and the rest you need to promote on subscription.

Whichever app you decide, its configuration will observe the same course of:

• Construct subscription merchandise
• Add billing frequencies
• Set any trial intervals
• Add up-to-date cancellation insurance policies
• Model your buyer portal (if related)

Nonetheless, that isn’t the tip of your buyer expertise since you want a approach to affirm their actions, observe up, and retain them.

Omnisend is the optimum electronic mail and SMS app as a result of it allows you to create automations to cowl your buyer journey from preliminary signup to post-purchase.

For instance, when clients join, your welcome series will introduce your model and suggest a couple of subscriptions. As soon as a purchase order is made, your affirmation sequence may embody three emails over seven days:

• Your first electronic mail confirms the subscription
• On day three, your second electronic mail may present ideas
• On day seven, your third electronic mail may ask for suggestions

Your subsequent buyer touchpoint may very well be a month-to-month subscription renewal electronic mail that triggers a couple of days earlier than the following cost is due.

Constructing knowledgeable electronic mail expertise helps you enhance satisfaction, loyalty, retention, and cut back buyer assist requests. If all you do is configure a subscription app, you’ll go away cash on the desk and improve churn.

How must you market your Shopify service enterprise?

Creating your Shopify providers retailer is half the image. The opposite half is your advertising and marketing, or somewhat, your methods and channels for attracting and retaining clients. 

In case you don’t select the perfect channels, you’ll waste cash and generate much less income. The identical applies even when you decide accurately, however fail to at the very least gather buyer electronic mail addresses.

E mail is essentially the most essential advertising and marketing channel in your service enterprise as a result of it allows you to personal your buyer expertise and affect their lifetime worth. Beginning right here is the logical first step when utilizing Shopify to promote providers, given its high ROI.

E mail automation fundamentals

You construct electronic mail automations in an electronic mail app, similar to Omnisend, and configure them to set off when acceptable in your buyer journey.

Triggers usually embody section entry/exit and event-based actions like inserting orders, abandoning carts, viewing merchandise, clicking emails, or hitting milestone dates.

There are many eventualities the place electronic mail is helpful in your buyer expertise, and you should utilize Omnisend’s pre-built automation templates to cowl the commonest ones, together with:

• Welcome
• Deserted cart
• Deserted checkout
• Product evaluate
• Order confirmations
• Product abandonment
• Order follow-up
• Cross-sell
• Buyer reactivation
• Replenishment reminders

Omnisend’s drag-and-drop movement builder makes it extremely intuitive to edit bookings, subscriptions, one-time providers, and appointments. The picture beneath reveals the movement builder, on this case for a replenishment reminder, which you’ll edit for rebookings:

See the choices underneath Messages for electronic mail, SMS, and push notification? These allow you to create omnichannel automations to achieve clients at optimum moments.

It’s value contemplating including SMS to your flows as a result of 90% of SMS messages are read within three minutes, making them excellent for any time-sensitive communications.

Listing-building and lead era

And not using a listing, you possibly can’t ship emails to clients or leads. Some electronic mail addresses are mechanically collected in Shopify when clients make purchases, however in any other case, you want to have newsletter signup forms and incentives that encourage electronic mail handover.

Take into account constructing varieties for these eventualities:

• Free session presents
• Time-sensitive reductions
• Useful resource downloads
• Evaluation software entry
• Webinar dates
• Trials for subscriptions

Omnisend supplies popup, embedded, touchdown web page, and flyout single and multi-step type templates. Every of those may be set up for exit-intent, that means they seem simply earlier than your buyer leaves, somewhat than interrupting your buyer’s session.

There are 120 type templates you possibly can edit, with filtering choices for purpose, theme, sort, and type settings. The picture beneath reveals the drag-and-drop type editor:

Concentrating on choices allow you to present or not present varieties to visitors sources, present to all guests or solely non-subscribers, present or conceal the shape on URLs, and use UTM concentrating on.

Segmentation and personalization

Segmenting your list is the following step to convey order to your contact info and goal clients with contextual, customized content material.

The quickest approach to section clients is with Omnisend’s pre-built segments:

Take into account segmenting your Shopify service enterprise clients by reserving date, order worth, one-time and repeat clients, and passive browsers. These segments will present the fundamentals for separating excessive and low-value clients.

If pre-built segments don’t present what you want, use the AI section builder to explain what section you need, and let it construct it for you. The immediate beneath asks for a section containing new service clients who signed up within the final 14 days within the US:

You’ll be able to then click on View in section builder and begin modifying:

Upselling methods

Upsells move customers closer to purchase, assist them uncover essentially the most related providers, and improve common order values.

You’ve gotten two alternatives in your buyer journey to upsell:

• Pre-purchase, in the course of the consideration section. As an illustration, when clients browse service one at $75/month, you suggest the $100/month service on the identical web page with advantages and a small low cost.
• Submit-purchase, in the course of the trial and discovery section. You’ll ship upsell emails to clients recommending the next tier or costlier service, a tactic that works in case your clients are nearing utilization limits.

Omnisend helps you goal each alternatives. Your pre-purchase upsells may be popups with service suggestions that set off in your cheaper service pages, and your post-purchase upsells may be in emails and SMS for time-sensitive presents.

Social proof integration

Including critiques, star scores, and belief badges from platforms like Trustpilot to your emails can improve gross sales in emails with buy intent.

One-time and scheduled social proof campaigns also can assist to unfold the phrase about your fame and affect buy conduct.

Take a look at the social proof electronic mail template beneath, in-built Omnisend:

What does Shopify price for service companies?

Upfront prices run $50 to $300 for any themes and customized domains you want. You’ll then pay at the very least $39/month for Shopify, plus a small share charge for any funds. That’s the naked minimal. Add premium apps, and you can simply add $50/month.

There are three classes of prices for Shopify:

• Platform price: A month-to-month or annual charge from $39 to $2,300/month for the costliest Shopify Plus plan. The plans:
  • Primary: $39/month, 2.9% + 30¢ transaction charges, as much as 77% delivery low cost, 24/7 chat assist
  • Shopify: $105/month, 2.7% + 30¢ transaction charges, as much as 88% delivery low cost, 5 employees accounts
  • Superior: $399/month, 2.5% + 30¢ transaction charges, 15 employees accounts, higher assist, native storefronts by market
  • Shopify Plus: $2,300/month (three-year time period), customized charges, limitless employees, absolutely customizable checkout, wholesale/B2B
• Card charges: As above. In any other case referred to as transaction charges, these go on to Shopify and vary from 2.9% + $30c to 2.4% + 10c per transaction, relying in your plan.
• App subscriptions: Solely related when you use paid apps, however you’ll most likely want a premium subscription, reserving, scheduling, or appointment app to promote providers the best way you need, plus an electronic mail advertising and marketing app for automations.

Shopify doesn’t have cheaper plans for service companies, and so the prices can balloon, however there are a number of issues you are able to do to maintain bills down:

• Selecting the correct Shopify plan is your most important cost-saving alternative. Your service enterprise will most likely get by with the $39 Primary plan, which drops to $29/month when paid yearly. Lower your expenses right here first.
• Shortlist your apps and evaluate their plans for the perfect worth. Don’t simply take a look at what you want now, but additionally what you can want, so that you aren’t lumped with an app that will get too costly. For electronic mail, decide apps with usage-based pricing, similar to Omnisend.
• Skip premium themes and use free Shopify themes, similar to Daybreak. These could be barebones, however you possibly can all the time add web page builders and subscription apps to create the service web site you need.
• Use providers with free eternally plans in areas of your online business that want automation, however aren’t anticipated to develop anytime quickly. As an illustration, Omnisend has a free eternally plan to deal with your electronic mail advertising and marketing for 250 contacts and 500 emails/month.

The desk beneath supplies a Shopify pricing comparability for service-based companies with small, medium, and enormous necessities:

Notice: Shopify Plus ($2,300/month) isn’t in our desk as a result of it fits enterprise service firms with advanced reserving wants, B2B contracts, and income over $800,000, not your typical service enterprise.

Begin your Shopify service enterprise at present

Shopify supplies the whole infrastructure you want to promote one-time, recurring, and dynamically-priced providers. Its default configuration is sweet for one-time choices, and you’ll set up apps for bookings, subscriptions, and every part else.

In comparison with WordPress/WooCommerce, Shopify has higher third-party apps and a decrease studying curve. The identical applies when evaluating it to Wix, besides Wix is neither nearly as good for promoting providers as Shopify nor WooCommerce, so Shopify is the best way to go.

Observe the setup steps on this article, and also you’ll give your online business the perfect begin in life. Add the advertising and marketing ideas, and also you’ve a confirmed blueprint for fulfillment.

FAQs about Shopify for providers