“Can I sell services on Shopify?”
Yes, you definitely can.
Some people might only know that Shopify is a product-based eCommerce solution. In fact, it doesn't matter if you are selling physical items, virtual products or services on this platform.
After all, what Shopify does is to bring your business to the web in order to reach a greater number of customers and reach higher sales and revenue.
Perhaps you’ve heard about the popular freelance service marketplace called Fiverr. If you are a copywriter, designer, accountant or even a joke writer, you can easily set up an account and make money as a freelancer on the site.
But what if you want to have your own website in the long run? Or what if you want to provide a more professional online service and grow your business? Well, Shopify could be the choice to consider.
That's the reason why in this article, we are going to give you an overview of how Shopify can help with your service business and a tutorial video about setting up a good Shopify service store.
What Services to Sell on Shopify?
As mentioned earlier, people can sell almost anything on Shopify. So, if you have an incredible service and want more people to be aware of it, why don’t you go ahead and create an online store?
Here are some examples of the services:
- Appointment Booking - It’s common to see service businesses like spas, hair salons or medical clinics with the online booking appointment. However, there are more and more clothing, jewelry shops and so on that have recently grown into this kind of in-person service to better engage with their customers.
- Consultations - This kind of service encompasses many industries like business (finance, law consultation, etc.), health care, education (training or guidance) and beyond.
Credit: Tooth Doctor
- Event Support - Businesses like food catering for events, parties or equipment supply for sport events are some of the examples here.
- Classes, Lessons and Courses - During this pandemic time, you will find tonnes of online courses and tonnes of ways to migrate your course online. There are many famous platforms that you might recognize in this field, such as MasterClass or Skillshare.
- Home services - This could be cleaning, gardening, pet caring services, etc.
Check out types of services to sell on Shopify
How to Sell Services on Shopify?
Sell your service as a product
You can think of it this way: you’re selling an “intangible" product. You can add your service on Shopify as a product, but you uncheck the box labelled “this is a physical product" in the “Shipping" section.
For the “product description”, you should pay attention to the value of your service. The benefits and outcomes that customers will gain during and after using your service is important.
You are selling promises, so having a compelling description is an essential factor that affects customers’ decision-making process. People will come to use your service when they find the potential value that matches theirs.
Credit: Petco
Set variants and options to personalize booking experience
You can't miss the variants and custom requests part. The flexibility of your service is one of the reasons why customers choose you. You can offer them different booking times, locations and service types.
Also, for each variant, you can set up a certain price. For example, you have 2 types of training lessons: 60-minute ($65) and 90-minute ($75) courses. You can set up the price changing on the product page when users choose different courses.
Another thing to remember is that you can add more fields and forms for customers when they have custom requests.
Utilize booking apps
One great thing about Shopify is that it has a huge ecosystem of app providers. When you sell services on Shopify, you can make use of the great form builder and booking apps for personal service requirements.
For the custom product builder, you can use Product Personalizer by Zepto to add more fields for custom requests.
Credit: Product Personalizer App
Otherwise, there is another popular app: Form Builder App by POWR.io. It lets you create order forms, wholesale quote forms and more. Also, this app offers a free plan, so you don’t have to worry about monthly-charged fees for your store.
In terms of appointment booking apps, a couple of quick searches on the Shopify App Store reveals multiple options for you. Some recommendations are:
- Booking App by Webkul: This app can help create flexible booking schedules and allow admin as well as customers to manage their rescheduling and cancellations easily.
- Tipo Appointment Booking: This is a free app that allows clients to book a course, sport, service, and so on, with 24/7 availability.
- Sesami: Appointment Booking: This app offers you booking experience on any device that Shopify runs (web, apps, POS), and it also has a free plan.
Put a Service Shopify Store into Practice
Get a proper theme to set up your store
There are many ways to find a suitable theme for your service store on Shopify. You can get one in the Shopify Theme Store, or from theme marketplaces like MOJO or Themeforest.
Or, you can refer to these themes below. We’ve hand-picked 5 examples of Shopify themes (both free and paid) that are fitting for services.
The Boost Theme in the Bloom style, priced at $320 and updated in August 2023, is a playful yet powerful choice for dog or pet service businesses using Shopify. This theme offers a range of features, including EU translations, store locator, color swatches, quick view, and in-menu promos, all designed to enhance customer interaction and brand visibility. It's equipped with tools for SEO, performance optimization, flexible sections, and advanced product filters, making it competitive with larger retailers. The theme also boasts over 10 years of development experience, ensuring it's packed with effective e-commerce strategies.
Customer feedback on the Boost theme is largely positive, with an 88% positive rating from 68 reviews. Customers appreciate its aesthetics, speed, and responsive support team. One user noted it as their favorite theme for its great look and fast performance. However, some users reported issues with specific functionalities and customization, highlighting the importance of considering your store's specific needs when selecting a theme. Overall, the theme is praised for its flexibility, scalability, and ease of use, making it a solid choice for pet service stores looking for a versatile and efficient online presence
The Taste Shopify theme, released in October 2023, is a free and versatile choice for business owners focusing on service stores. It features a spacious design with bold headlines and industrial fonts, supporting specialty products and strong branding. The theme offers enhanced product merchandising with high-resolution images, galleries, and video support. Marketing tools include blogs, cross-selling, and promotional banners. For customer convenience, it facilitates easy product discovery and streamlined checkout with features like enhanced search, mega menus, and quick buy options. Additionally, it is fully compatible with the latest Shopify features, speed-tested, and comes with free updates, ensuring a reliable and current platform for building a service store.
The Publisher theme for Shopify, launched on October 31, 2023, is a free, avant-garde template that caters especially to service-oriented businesses. Its design is inspired by independent studios and publishers, featuring a moody, progressive aesthetic. This includes subtle gradients, contemporary typography, and immersive product cards with dark imagery. The theme emphasizes minimalist navigation, allowing businesses to weave their brand narrative seamlessly into the user experience with contextual links to products and categories. Moreover, its advanced customization options offer flexibility in design without requiring coding expertise.
For business owners, the Publisher theme is a toolset for effective e-commerce. It facilitates quick setup and is designed for visual storytelling, crucial for engaging customers in today's market. The theme supports enhanced product discovery through features like mega menus, sticky headers, and advanced filtering and sorting options. Marketing and conversion tools include blogs, cross-selling, FAQ pages, and promotional banners. The theme also excels in merchandising with high-resolution images, image galleries, zoom features, lookbooks, and product videos, ensuring that products are showcased in the best light. Additionally, the Shopify Theme Store promise of compatibility with the latest features, speed testing, free trials, and regular updates make Publisher a reliable and future-proof choice for service stores.
The Colors theme, particularly the Pastel style, updated in August 2023, is priced at $240 and integrates the latest Shopify features. It's known for its ease of customization, allowing quick setup for a visually engaging online store. The theme supports various storytelling and merchandising techniques, making it ideal for service-oriented businesses. User reviews highlight its unique design, comprehensive features, and exceptional support, indicating a high level of customer satisfaction and effectiveness in meeting the needs of Shopify store owners..
Customer feedback for the Colors theme is overwhelmingly positive, with 93% of the 101 reviews being positive. Customers praise its unique design and rich feature set, finding it superior to many other paid themes in terms of features and attention to detail. The support team is commended for their quick and helpful responses, often resolving issues within the same day. Users also appreciate the frequent updates and new features added to the theme, keeping it relevant in the fast-evolving e-commerce environment. This level of customer satisfaction highlights the theme’s ability to meet the diverse needs of Shopify store owners
Garden Center is a “green" choice for your “green" service. If you are operating a landscaping service or selling gardening equipment, the theme is a decent one. There are many content sections on the homepage where you can add big images and blog article previews, which help you to advance the visual storytelling aspect of your service.
The Exhibit theme in the Art style, priced at $350 and updated on October 19, 2023, is a gallery-style theme created by Switch. It's specifically designed for showcasing creative works, making it ideal for businesses in the arts or related fields. Key features include color swatches, quick view, stock counter, mega menu, and sticky header. The theme emphasizes visual storytelling, allowing businesses to display their work through versatile grids, carousels, slideshows, and video integration. Additionally, it includes a hero logo section to make a prominent branding statement on the store's homepage.
Customer reviews of the Exhibit theme are unanimously positive, with three reviews all praising its quality. Users highlight the theme's customizability and the responsive support team, noting the theme's effectiveness in bringing aesthetic visions to life. The support received on adjusting stylistic concerns is particularly commended, with the team being patient and thorough. These reviews suggest that the Exhibit theme is not only visually appealing but also backed by a strong support system, making it a reliable choice for service-based businesses looking for a distinctive online presence
5 Steps to Building a Shopify Service Store
Now you’ve settled on a theme, let’s get down to business.
Step 1: Add your services as products on Shopify
This first step is important because it makes it more convenient when you build your homepage later, which needs to showcase the services on the main site. You can add services as normal products, with descriptions and images.
Go to Products > Add product > Change the title, description and add media
Showcase the most stunning photos of your service and add a detailed description with valuable information to attract your customers.
Also, remember to uncheck the box “This is a physical product" in the “Shipping" section.
Step 2: Using variants and third-party apps to customize your service
If you are selling courses, how many types of lessons can you offer your customers? If you open a hair salon or spa service, what specific time can customers book appointments? And what service types can you offer them?
There are likely many variants that you can think of. The good news is, you can create and manage them easily on Shopify.
Flexibility is also important for a Shopify service business. People like unique things, and they might want a diverse service capability from you. For this, having a form or a field to fill in custom requests is essential.
To this end, installing an app is the perfect solution. For example, you can use the Product Personalizer by Zepto to add fields or form boxes in the product details for more requests.
Step 3: Build a compelling homepage
When you sell services on Shopify, it pays to have an immediately convincing homepage. Obviously, it still has to be responsive and user-friendly, but the key point here is to show what value customers can get from a quick look at the homepage.
Two of the elements that can help reinforce customer trust are testimonials or reviews on the homepage. After reading all the introductions of your service, people will want to see some previous outcomes. They want to know if it is worth spending the money on your service. Additionally, having a clear and accessible Shopify contact us page can further build trust, giving customers a direct way to reach out with questions or concerns.
Credit: Garden Center Theme
Step 4: Get an attractive ‘about us’ page
Why? Because the About Us page is the place for your story to shine. This page is where you can add more information about your business so that people can learn and understand your missions and values.
Helpful text and images on the page are great, but adding team members’ images and some brief descriptions about them gives a natural and friendly feel to your store.
Credit: Engine Studios
If you want to customize the About Us page, you can choose a page builder app like PageFly to make it look more interesting and responsive. PageFly gives you tons of cool templates for your About Us page, and you can easily customize it with the drag-and-drop tools on the app's simple and clean interface.
Step 5: Check your store on mobile
Since more than 60% of internet users (source: Oberlo) use shopping apps on their mobile devices, you should keep an eye on the mobile version of your website. You need to check the loading speed and also the responsive looks as well. Believe us, you don't want to miss any opportunity of getting more sales with the great number of potential mobile-loving customers.
Shopify Service Store Examples
This is a food delivery and catering service store using Shopify. You can pick the menu with its seasonal dishes and easily place your order to get the food delivered to your front door every Sunday or Monday.
In one of the more recent Shopify articles, Spencer, the restaurant owner, shared his thoughts about the importance of an attractive online store to gain more customers for a successful business:
“Felix: What are the most important pages or parts of your website for getting conversions, whether that be the first time customers or returning customers?
Spencer: All comes down to the menu, and a lot of it honestly is just photography. Your eyes have to have a response to the way the menu items look because we're introducing a lot of new items and if those items don't look great, we're not going to receive orders even if they taste great. So our menu pages, we've got a handful of menu pages. We've got our regular breakfast, lunch and dinner menu, which is our highest converting page. But we also have built your own options where customers can pick the protein and the two sides they want for their meals. We've got family-style options, we've got kids options, bulk options. So all of those pages really convert well. But it's all on the main menu page and then the sub-menu pages are where all the conversions happen.”
Engine Studios is a web service company that helps build your own website and also gives you consultations for eCommerce problems.
They have been working with so many popular brands such as DHL, MTV or FOX International Channel.
Fitzroy
Fitzroy is a rental service. People can rent a dress from normal to designer brands in a certain number of predetermined days. There are many variants on their product pages for customers to choose from, such as sizes, number of rental days or which date to get the dress.
Conclusion
As a reputed eCommerce solution, Shopify can be a platform that helps merchants sell both physical and non-physical products. As you’ve seen, selling services on Shopify is totally possible and might be a great choice for some people if they know how to take advantage of it.
So, if you come up with an idea of launching your service online at the moment, why don’t you try to set up a store on Shopify or migrate your current store to Shopify first, and then decide whether or not to keep running your service store with the eCommerce solution?
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