Create your printables in Adobe Illustrator then learn how to sell printables on Shopify to earn extra cash!
Want to set up your own store, but don’t know where to start? There are many e-commerce platforms and I will tell you about the three that I’ve tried, but I can tell you right now…You want to Sell Printables on Shopify. It’s such an easy platform to use, and it’s handy earning that extra income every month!
How to Sell Printables on Shopify
First of all, you’ll need to know how to design printables…and you can do that with my newly updated Printable Design for Beginners Course! I’m teaching you how to creating printables FROM scratch in Adobe Illustrator. I’m a self-taught designer and I’ve been designing for over 10 years…this course is EVERYTHING I wish I’d had when I started. Seriously would have saved me years of trial and error.
Sign up for the Printable Design Course
Next, you’ll need to open a Shopify Store. Not ready to do that quite yet? Read on and see why I chose Shopify for my Online Shop. You do get a FREE 14 day trial, so you’ll have time to decide if it’s right for you 😉
Sign up for Shopify HERE
Let’s start with some platforms I have worked with and why I’ll be focusing on my Shopify Store from now on.
Sell Printables on Shopify vs. Woocommerce
I was on Woocommerce for over a year. And it was okay, but I wish I had made the change to a Shopify Shop way earlier…like from the very beginning.
- Woocommerce is on your WordPress blog, so it’s nice that it’s on-site…but it will also slow down your blog.
- Shopify is built for e-commerce, so your shop will be really speedy!
- If you have ads on your Woocommerce site and shop, you won’t sell as many products. Ads are okay in articles, but you don’t want a similar product displaying on something you’re trying to sell.
- Woocommerce digital downloads were glitchy. I had someone emailing me almost daily that they didn’t receive their download. I’ve been on Shopify for over a year and I can probably count how many times that happened on one hand.
If you’re wondering if it’s really true that you’ll make more with Shopify…I can only tell you based on my experience. My monthly income doubled in one month with Shopify. I already had a really good sales funnel in place, so if you just opened your shop, you probably won’t see drastic results right away, but because I already had my sales funnels in place AND I led them all to my shopify store…it made it completely worth it to pay for Shopify’s services.
Sell Printables on Shopify vs. Etsy
- Etsy is a great platform to get started on. They do a lot of the marketing for you, and if you’re doing well with SEO on Etsy, you’ll be discovered on Google, too.
- Etsy can be distracting with all the other sellers…the market is quite saturated. They can recommend other shop’s products when a customer is looking at your listing. No bueno.
- The biggest drawback to Etsy is that Etsy controls your shop.
- Etsy isn’t as customizable as Shopify – obviously because you don’t own it.
All in all, I think having an Etsy shop AND a Shopify store is fine. I have both, but I don’t send anyone to my Etsy shop. Any sales I make there are from Etsy’s search engine. The reason? I was burned by Etsy a few years ago.
I used to make decent money selling party printables on Etsy, then they changed their algorithm. I literally went from hundreds of dollars a month to ZERO in one month. Something drastic could happen to Shopify, I’m not saying that…but Etsy has repeatedly changed policies and algorithms. I’ll have my shop there, but I won’t be sending anyone their way when I have a user-friendly shop that I’m in control of.
Shopify Apps
Another great thing Shopify has is the ability to add apps…much like plugins for WordPress. Many of them are free, but some are for purchase. I’ve used a few apps in Shopify and these are my favorites.
DIGITAL DOWNLOADS: This is a free app that sends out digital files after a customer purchases. It could be better, but it’s very reliable…I hardly have any customer complaints.
PRODUCT UPSELL: This is my favorite Shopify App. I was afraid to try it because it’s $25/month, but I at least make an extra $200 a month from this app. If you go to my printable shop and add a schedule to your cart, you’ll get a prompt to purchase more items. That’s all it does, but it makes a huge difference if you have many related products.
BUY BUTTON: This allows you to embed the buy now button on your WordPress blog. If you scroll down a little bit on my St. Patrick’s Day Lettering Sheets, you’ll see an option to add my Calligraphy Course or Worksheets to your cart. All of that without leaving my blog.
You have the option to include a button only, an image + button, or the whole listing and you can see I’ve used all of those on this landing page.
PRINTFUL: If you’re planning to do print on demand, it’s super easy to integrate this with your shopify store. I haven’t worked with it a whole lot because my readers are more likely to buy digital items.
SEO MANAGER: I haven’t worked a lot with this, but it looks the closest to Yoast, so I’m including it here for you to look at. I will be working on SEO this year, so I’ll keep you updated!
REFERSION: Affiliate tracking – this is if you plan to sell A LOT of products and you have affiliates lined up. It can be pricey, but affiliates can do wonders for product sales.
Shopify Themes
I absolutely LOVE Shopify themes. So much easier to use than WordPress and every one is beautiful and modern. You can use a free theme (which I did for a year) and when you’re ready, upgrade to one. Themes can run from $100 to $180 and you can easily change the colors and layout right in your Shopify dashboard. I love custom work, but I really feel like I don’t need it…so when you look at it that way, $180 for a theme saves you a bundle!
So, in case you can’t tell…I’m a fan of and why I Sell Printables on Shopify.
I think you will be, too….as soon as you learn how to design some printables!
Viktoria @ Awesome Alice says
I’ve used all the platforms you mentioned as well and I agree with you, Shopify is a game changer! Thanks for the tip about the upsell app, it sounds like something that can be worth the money 🙂