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Why Shopify?
Shopify is an e-commerce platform often used to sell physical products. But did you know you can use it to sell digital downloads too?
Recently, one of my favorite bloggers, Jennifer Maker, did an experiment. She split tested her tripwire between SendOwl and Shopify to see which was a better performing platform.
I followed along as she shared her results in her Facebook group and was surprised at how definitive the results where. Take a look at her post linked above to see what she found out.
Her results made me take a chance and start my own Shopify store. I’m using it to sell digital downloads as well as a few dropship products.
I’m so glad I made the switch!
If you are considering selling digital products yourself, check out all the reasons to use Shopify and make your life easier.
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6 Reasons use to Shopify to sell digital downloads
Ease of use
Shopify was incredibly easy to set up. Basically, just open an account with a 14-day free trial and you are ready to get started.
If you already use WordPress there are some similarities. You need to choose a theme to customize the look of your site.
Shopify has a very robust Help Section that answered any question that I had while getting started.
RELATED POST: How to Sell Digital Downloads on Your Website with Shopify
Customization
This is where it gets pretty great. As I said, you can choose a theme for your site and make it look exactly as you want.
But even better, you can then make it a sub-domain of your current site. My site is emmaleebate.com and my store is shop.emmaleebates.com even though it is hosted on Shopify.
They also allow you to have multiple sales channels. So in addition to a store, you can sell on places like Facebook or Instagram (physical products only) and create buy buttons to put elsewhere on your website.
Apps
I love that Shopify has a huge selection of apps or plugins. You can add so many cool features. Many are free but some do have a small monthly fee.
Some of my favorites are:
- Checkout Boost – add a pop-up that offers a discount in exchange for a social share.
- Quick Announcement Bar by Hextom – add a bar to the top of your site with an announcement or even a coupon code!
- Digital Downloads – a super easy app that allows you to sell your digital downloads for FREE!
- Product Reviews – let your customers leave reviews on your products for more social proof.
Using apps you can integrate with other services too. I use an app to integrate with ConvertKit for email marketing.
Customer Service and Education
Unlike DIY options for hosting your store, Shopify has actual customer service! Like, an actual phone number! That people answer!
They also have a great help section with FAQs.
And, they have an Academy where you can take classes on different aspects of building and running an online store.
Between these three things, you can solve any problem you run into with your store.
Speed and Security
One of the downfalls of hosting your store on your established website is that all those images can slow your site down. Even just a few extra seconds and you’ll lose people.
Shopify is super fast! They are able to handle even the most
Shopify is also very secure. One of the best features, in my o
This means your customer is never going from your store to a separate site to pay. Their entire transaction is on Shopify, which helps to keep every very secure.
Plus, they are constantly monitoring their site for issues and can deal with them 24/7. This means you can relax and just sell your products.
Free Trial
Lastly, they offer a 14-day free trial. This means you can build your entire store without paying a cent.
After that, the Basic Plan is only $29 a month for unlimited products.
So, what do you have to lose? Sign up for your free trial here and start building your digital products empire!
