Selling digital merchandise on Shopify: ideas and tips

The pace of e-commerce growth continues to accelerate: Between November and December 2020 alone, online sales in the U.S. will reach $189 billion, Adobe Analytics predicts. That’s a 33% increase over the same period last year. This kind of excitement is due in part to the limitations of the pandemic and the forced transition of many businesses to the online format.
In the new digital reality, other business processes, structures, and sales formats are emerging, one of which is the sale of digital products. Unlike selling physical products, there are a number of advantages. You don’t have to purchase the product from the supplier, store it and deliver it to the customer – everything is managed online.
What is a digital product?
A digital product is an intangible asset or content that is sold or distributed online. Such products have a number of advantages, especially for the entrepreneur who is marketing them:
A digital product is easier to distribute because you don’t need warehouses and vendors to store and deliver the product. The process actually happens in a couple of clicks;
Your customer receives the product almost immediately after ordering;
No additional costs for materials, packaging No additional costs for materials, packaging, assembly of goods and orders;
Rather high margins;
The digital product will always be available, so you can sell an unlimited number of items;
Digital merchandise is often sold in the online education niche, which in turn has high growth potential. By 2025, there will be $319 billion concentrated in the niche.
To summarize, the main advantage of digital products is that they are created once and can be sold hundreds of times without the need to restock the product.
8 digital merchandise ideas to sell online
The Shopify platform allows you to organize the sale of not only physical products, but also digital products and services. Digital products can come in a wide variety of formats (PDF, MP3, a variety of video formats, plugins, ebooks, apps, courses, etc.). We list the best ideas for products that you can sell in your Shopify store (to do this, you can contact the shopify development company for help. ).
- online course. We live in a DIY (Do it Yourself or DIY) culture. If you’re an expert in a field and want to share your knowledge with an audience, an online course is a great option. You create it once and then sell it an unlimited number of times. You can use your knowledge and talent by helping others and providing personalized coaching to people interested in a particular topic.
- Quick guide/guide/checklist. This is a good option for those who have experience and knowledge in a particular field and want to share it with others, earning from it. The goal is to allow the client to get valuable experience and “tips” faster without having to study long video courses or read books.
- Graphic templates/mockups. This kind of material is in high demand by those who work or study online. Your clients can use these templates for both website and clothing design – the choice is limited only by imagination.
- templates. You can offer different templates for emails, Google Sheets, text documents that are in demand and greatly simplify many processes. For example, “10 Examples of Successful Email Campaigns That Have Proven Effectiveness.” It can also be a blog article template where the recipient only needs to fill in the blanks to shorten the process of publishing the blog article.
- Apps, plugins and software. If you want to sell any software that involves downloading an installation file, you can easily do so with Shopify.
- Membership access to exclusive content or website. This is a website that only gives access to subscribed users. The content on the site is completely secure. Once a user logs in, they get access to exclusive content. You can offer either a permanent membership or a monthly/yearly renewable subscription.
- Access to a paid community (Facebook, etc.) for regular customers and people who want more insider information on a certain topic.
- Printables / printables. You can find many printables on Etsy. You will find many templates, stickers, invitations, schedules, planners, illustrations, scrapbooking materials, etc.