Entrepreneurship takes many forms, and Shopify has worked to prove that more than any other e-commerce brand. When you’re starting as a brand, getting the message out there can be difficult. In the same regard, creating a fresh idea to even start your business is hard in and of itself.
Many niches are often overused and unauthentic, which causes many potential customers to turn away. Many small businesses try their hand at social media by marketing to a digital audience. Others try a more old-school approach by connecting with customers face-to-face.
Regardless of the method you choose, you’ll find that launching a business isn’t as easy as you may think. But that’s where e-commerce start-up businesses like Shopify come in. No matter what products you’re selling, Shopify can help you get your store up and running.
Today, thousands of entrepreneurs use Shopify stores, many of which credit Shopify for their ongoing success. A significant number of those stores have even generated six, seven, or even eight figures in revenue since using Shopify.
Whether you’re a planner or a risk-taker, a dreamer or a doer, the ingredients to success largely remain the same. But various factors can determine your success. Here, we’ll touch on some of those factors as we uncover real-life Shopify success stories to keep you motivated:
- The MoMeMans
Sometimes, the best ideas start by accident …
For Monica Escobar Allen, that’s precisely what happened. As she sat through meeting after meeting at her job, Monica occupied herself by doodling little characters to pass the time. Then, after losing her job and giving birth to her daughter, Monica’s amusing doodles suddenly sparked an idea for a new business.
She took each character and created stories and songs for each, developing them into designs for kids’ products like pillows, bedsheets, mugs, and more. Using her experience in marketing, Monica launched her business, MoMeMans, on Shopify.
Since then, she’s expanded her line to create decor for nursery and kids’ rooms, t-shirts, leggings, baby blankets, and pencil pouches. Today, Monica still looks for new and original ways to market her products.
- Leesa
The idea for Leesa began with a problem that desperately needed a solution: David Wolfe was having trouble sleeping at night, largely due to his uncomfortable mattress. After testing out various mattresses—all of which claimed to improve the sleeping experience …
David decided to take matters into his own hands.
Upon meeting Jamie Diamonstein — someone who worked in the mattress industry — the two worked together to design a portable, three-layered foam mattress that could roll up into a box about the size of a large suitcase.
David knew he was going up against a sizable industry, so he strove to build a product that was both high-quality and simple. Many other big-name mattress companies were adding various unnecessary and overly complicated materials to their mattress, which caused them to be higher in price, but not necessarily quality.
In an interview with Shopify, David says, “We wanted to create a simple luxury product and sell it for one-third or one-half the price of equivalent mattresses.” With Leesa, David designed a basic but effective product.
After launching their company on Shopify in 2014, Leesa gathered $800,000 in sales in just one month, and David owes Shopify for their ongoing success. “Without Shopify, we would’ve run out of money before launching,” Wolfe says. “Instead of selling mattresses we would have been fixing bugs but Shopify fixed the bugs for us.”
After just one year in business, Leesa gained $30 million in sales.
- BestSelf Co.
After meeting at an education and business-oriented group called The Foundation, Allen Brouwer and Cathryn Lavery decided to go into business together.
Lavery, the design genius, and Brouwer, the content distributor, began bouncing ideas off one another until finally settling on the concept of creating tools to help people boost productivity, establish meaningful connections, achieve greater goals, and ultimately become their best selves.
Hence, their business name, BestSelf Co.
The duo got straight to work in launching a Kickstarter campaign, drawing up email lists, and creating engaging content. The company began creating and selling products like specialized journals, detailed planners, and other helpful writing tools.
Soon, Lavery and Brouwer quick built a community that supported their products and ideals. In less than a month, they raised over $300,000, and after 12 months, the brand generated $2.4 million in sales.
- Ambrosio Jewelry
Born in Argentina, Nicholas Ambrosio moved to New York to pursue his dream of becoming an entrepreneur. He began designing and producing hand-crafted jewelry for men and women.
It all started with his passion for traveling. Throughout his life, Ambrosio had the opportunity to travel the numerous different countries, gaining inspiration from a whole host of ethnic cultures and their artistic history.
Then, he came up with an idea: what if there was a way to capture these experiences and transform simple objects into fashionable, wearable items that reminded one of those experiences?
After launching Ambrosio Jewelry and joining Shopify to consolidate his online presence, Ambrosio began selling custom pieces of jewelry that stood out from other dull brands. So far, he’s established an e-commerce website, various sales channels and platforms, and marketplace listings to attract customers to his products.
- Quadlock
Avid cyclist Chris Peters was new to the Sydney, Australia area when he came up with his brilliant business idea. Before each cycling outing, Chris liked to use Google Maps on his iPhone to set navigation routes.
But after looking at the available options on the market, Chris was both surprised and disappointed when he discovered there were no secure, sturdy, and lightweight iPhone mounts for bikes.
In 2012, Chris decided to design his own mount and began his Kickstarter campaign. Soon after, he established manufacturing partnerships with China and Germany and launched Quadlock on Shopify.
Chris saw a gap in the market and sought to fill it with his original product. Now, he’s established a simple e-commerce website, built a successful email list, and shipped products to over 4,000 cities in 100 countries.
Image Credit:
- Featured Image, Unsplash
