10 Online Business Ideas to Use in Your Shopify Store

Even if you already run a successful Shopify store, the best online business ideas can help you expand, branch out or set up an additional store to increase your profits.

Rest assured, there’s never been more choice of products to sell in your Shopify store and, while the worldwide economy may have taken a few hits recently, ecommerce is set to grow and play an increasingly important role in people’s lives.

Practically anything can be sold online but ecommerce does lend itself more to some products than others. Additionally, some products require significant investment upfront while other products can be sold from home. Knowing which types of products have the largest markets, biggest demand, and lowest investment requirements can save you a lot of headaches.

Getting your Shopify store right — starting with the products you sell — can set you up for life. With this in mind, we’ve dug into our resources and come up with 10 of the best online business ideas to help you choose the types of products around which you can build your Shopify store…

Fragrances

With fragrances, people usually know what they like — and the potential for repeat orders is huge.

Even if shoppers don’t know what they like, they can test the fragrances in a brick-and-mortar store and then order what they want online. It could be perfumes, colognes, home fragrances, or any niche type of fragrance.

This Shopify store specializes in vegan all-natural fragrances, including a roll-on fragrance:

The online fragrance market is a great one to tap into — and North America is the largest global market for fragrance products.

It used to be the exclusive domain for celebrities and “superbrands” but, these days, smaller fragrance brands are emerging, opening up many possibilities for an online business to be competitive.

Main challenge:

Delivering some fragrances internationally may pose some problems with restrictions in some countries on shipping perfumes/colognes by air.

Sunglasses

Much like fragrances, sunglasses and glasses are high-value/low-bulk products for an online business idea. They are quite easy and inexpensive to source and economical to store and ship.

Also, like fragrances, many smaller brands now release lines of sunglasses that you can sell online in your Shopify store.

Simply offer the coolest frame designs for your target market and make sure that you’re selling to a market where the sun shines a lot!

Or do like Diff Charitable Eyewear, which gives back to the community from the profits made from its Shopify store:

Sunglass sales in the spring and summer may dominate in your home market but if you branch out worldwide like many sunglass stores, you can take on the world! If you can’t do that, find some other accessories to sell in the autumn and winter (skiing glasses?)

Main challenge:

Selling all year round, as sunglasses may be a seasonal product depending on your target market.

Haircare products 

Haircare products are another online business idea that is great for repeat orders. 

Once people get into the habit of using a particular haircare product, they often stick with it. They don’t need to go into a store to buy it — re-ordering the same product again and again online is just a lot easier (and cheaper).

Customers are becoming more aware of the types of products/ingredients that they’re using in their haircare routines, so natural products might be worth considering. You might also “niche” with haircare products and specialize for people with particular hair types, e.g., color-treated hair, curly hair, hair loss products, etc.

Curlsmith, for instance, sells haircare products for those who love curls:

Another great haircare product idea to sell online is hair extensions. You can earn a good profit margin with these and help to market your store with videos on how to use extensions creatively.

Main challenge:

Ensuring that if you aim for a particular niche, you have a big enough target market to generate sufficient sales.

Watches and jewelry

Watches and jewelry are sold in a lot of online stores, which is why niching out is so important if you want to go down this road.

Fortunately, both watches and jewelry products offer a lot of scope for niching and creating a target audience that is driven to purchase from you — because your store will be unique if you source (or make) the right products.

Kingice specializes in designer streetwear jewelry in its Shopify store:

The business can be run from home, as watches and jewelry are usually low-bulk/high-value items, which also helps to keep shipping and storage costs low.

Main challenge:

Some areas of the jewelry and watch markets are saturated with competitors so choose a well-defined niche.

Belts, hats and other accessories

Accessories are a major sector to have benefited from ecommerce — especially as many stores now allow you to return products with a full refund if you change your mind or they don’t fit.

As an online business idea, consider belts, hats or socks, for instance. They are low bulk, which keeps shipping and storage costs down and are an evergreen product that people need all year round.

Although there are plenty of stores that focus on these accessories, if you can niche out and create or distribute unique high-quality products, you may be onto a winning idea. Print-on-demand hats or customized socks are good ideas (especially strong sales around Christmas time).

The following Shopify store, Love Your Melon, donates 50 percent of net profit from the sale of all products to nonprofit organizations that lead the fight against pediatric cancer:

Also, consider working with local craftsmen if that is an option – leatherworkers or hat-makers, for instance.

Main challenge:

Online accessory stores are plentiful so you need to niche out and do something different.

Fitness wear/swimwear

Anything to do with health, keeping fit, and exercise is worth considering as an online business idea. During the pandemic especially, with people working out at home, online sales of fitness wear boomed. The trend toward keeping fit is not going to change any time soon. 

As well as gym wear, consider selling accessories such as fitness bands, mats, gloves, towels, water bottles, gym bags, and so on. These are quite easily sourced and distributed and it’s relatively simple to market them on social media as well as your Shopify store.

Swimwear sales may peak during spring and summer — but if you sell worldwide, that’s less of a factor. Also, consider selling complementary products during winter and autumn. 

Beefcake Swimwear uses its Shopify store to sell 1920s-inspired swimwear, made sustainably and ethically:

Choose products for a particular niche, with a certain customer demographic in mind. It could be swimwear for larger women or women who’ve just had babies, for instance.

Main challenge:

Fitness and swimwear are crowded markets that can see seasonal fluctuations but target the right audiences(s) and you can overcome these challenges.

Makeup

Selling makeup is a very popular online business idea and you shouldn’t go down this route unless you know what you’re getting yourself into.

The main positive is that the potential market is huge and, worldwide, the makeup industry is expected to be worth over $700 billion by 2025. The cake is big enough to get a generous slice if you play it right.

Most of the successful Shopify makeup stores have focused on educating their audiences with how-to guides and videos and hired celebrities to promote their brand.

The following Shopify store focuses on beauty and makeup products that are vegan and cruelty-free:

Another smart choice is to sell makeup kits and lip kits — and any other products that simplify the makeup processes.

Main challenge:

It can be expensive to stand out as most of the bigger brands use advertising and online influencers to spread the word via social media, YouTube, etc.

Skincare products 

Besides makeup, the potential market for skincare products is also huge. Whether you’re considering all-natural shampoos, lotions, and bathing products for men and women or you want to specialize in a certain niche, the potential shopper numbers are out there to help you be successful.

While it’s another quite crowded marketplace, finding your niche by sourcing products through manufacturing, private labeling, and wholesaling can help you stand out.

Meow Meow Tweet, for instance, is a vegan skincare company using Shopify to sell its products made from natural ingredients and with sustainable packaging:

Main challenge:

You must understand the regulations in your area so that you meet all the requirements for labelling products, shipping, etc. Skincare products are tightly regulated in some parts of the world.

Custom clothing

The online clothing market is huge and, as shoppers have become more accustomed to buying online and returning if the size isn’t right, it continues to grow.

Standing out is hard unless you can manufacture your own designs, source unique products from manufacturers or offer a special service like print-on-demand for t-shirts.

This Shopify store specializes in organic denim clothing:

If you can’t start a clothing line or open a boutique-style store, you can dropship clothing products such as t-shirts, dresses, shorts, etc. from established suppliers.

Main challenge:

If you are going to open a clothing store, it’s important to build trust and confidence with shoppers by having a clear returns policy. Shoppers have high expectations these days and don’t want to risk buying the wrong items.

Handbags, bags and backpacks

Handbags, bags and backpacks are easy to source, year-round products that shoppers are usually comfortable purchasing online. That makes them an excellent online business idea.

The incredibly varied array of brands, designs, and uses for these accessories means that it should be relatively simple to find a way into the market and offer your target audience what they want.

Here’s a good example from Satchel & Page, a Shopify store specializing in Italian leather bags:

Like with all the other online business ideas discussed here, you must know your audience, be specific, and home in on a particular demand that you have identified. Work with designers/manufacturers to sell your ideas or with suppliers of other products to sell them online.

Main challenge:

Selecting a well-defined product range from the vast array of products available.

Start a Shopify store with your online business idea

Hopefully, the above online business ideas have sparked a few of your own. If that Shopify store has been alive and well in your head for a few months (or years) but you’ve never taken the steps to get started, now’s the time to take the plunge.

Most of the online business ideas identified above are already quite competitive but the trick is to find a niche within the broader market where you can target domination.

Happy selling!