You might think that you need products to start a Shopify store, but you’re wrong! In this post I’m going to show you how to sell on Shopify without inventory. I’ll also share some key resources on getting an ecommerce business off the ground cheaply and successfully.
A revolution in ecommerce
In recent years, a revolution in ecommerce has opened up online selling opportunities to a wide audience — not just rich people and big corporations. The availability of easy-to-use ecommerce platforms like Shopify, combined with affordable advertising platforms like Facebook, TikTok and Google means that these days anyone — in theory at least — can start a successful online store and start selling things.
And possibly the most exciting and interesting aspect of all this is that you can technically build your Shopify store without any products — making startup costs and risk even lower.
But how?
Let’s find out.
Option 1: use a print-on-demand service
The first option for selling without inventory on Shopify — and arguably the simplest — is by using a print-on-demand service. There are quite a few of these to choose from, with popular options including Printful, Printify, and SPOD.
To sell products via print on demand (POD), you create a design, upload it to your chosen POD service and apply it to a product.
(Typically, POD services have very wide ranges of products that you can sell, including clothing, home goods, wall art and stationery).
You’ll then be given a digital mockup of your product that you can add to your Shopify store, along with a description for it.
📚 Related resources: What is Print on Demand? | Printful vs Printify | Printful vs SPOD | Guide to Shopify print on demand
When somebody buys that product from your store, the POD service will print the relevant design on your product, package it up, and ship it to your customer.
To connect a print-on-demand service to Shopify, you’ll need to use a print-on-demand app that works with the platform. To get one, you simply go to the Shopify app store, locate the app for your preferred service and install it on your store (you’ll find a full set of instructions how to do this here).
Typically, POD apps are free to install and use, but you will be charged every time a product is printed and fulfilled. Your profit lies in the markup that you apply to that product.
In our tests of print-on-demand apps, we found that Printful and Printify were typically the easiest to integrate with Shopify (Printful especially so).
Download our free Shopify Startup Kit
Our free Shopify Startup Kit is a must for anyone thinking of building an online store with Shopify. Containing a comprehensive e-book on starting a Shopify store, video tutorials, PDF cheatsheets and much more, it’s packed full of practical advice on how to get a Shopify business off the ground. It’s available for free to Style Factory readers — but for a limited time only.
Option 2: Dropshipping
The other way to sell on Shopify without inventory is via dropshipping.
Dropshipping is a business model where you don’t manufacture, purchase, store or deliver any products. Instead, you promote somebody else’s goods on your online store and, every time an order for a product is made, you pass this on to that supplier. The supplier then charges you — and ships the goods to your customer.
As with print-on-demand selling, you make your profit by marking up on the cost of the product charged by the dropshipping supplier.
But where do you find these suppliers?
Well, one option is to simply work with a local business whose products you want to sell. You can get some product photos from them, put them on your store — along with descriptions of the goods — and then email any orders onto them manually for fulfillment.
This approach can work well, but it involves quite a lot of administration. And things can get rather tricky if your online store starts getting popular and your local supplier can’t keep up with demand.
Accordingly, most Shopify merchants wishing to start a dropshipping business turn to dedicated dropshipping suppliers and dropshipping apps.
Dropshipping apps simplify the whole process by:
- letting you choose from a wide range of products manufactured by large, established suppliers
- letting you import all the relevant product details onto your site easily
- notifying your dropshipping suppliers automatically every time there’s a sale.
There are lots of Shopify dropshipping apps available, and you can access these in the Shopify app store. Once you find one you’re happy with, it’s a simple case of adding it to your store and picking the products that you’d like to list.
For a step-by-step overview of how dropshipping works on Shopify, we have a video guide to getting started with it — see below.
📚 Related resources
👉 Learn how to start a Shopify trial here
👉 Access our Shopify dropshipping guide here
When choosing a dropshipping app / supplier for a Shopify store, you should try to ensure that:
- the dropshipping supplier is reliable
- the goods you’re dropshipping are ethically produced
- the shipping costs are not going to be excessive
- delivery times are quick
- the cost for using the app is not excessive.
Dropshipping apps on Shopify come with a ‘support’ section where you’ll find a link to the supplier’s website, along with some FAQs about their services (see my screenshot below for an example).
You can use these contact details to carry out the above due diligence on a particular supplier.
What about multi-level marketing and Shopify?
Another way to sell products online with Shopify without keeping inventory is by teaming up with a multilevel marketing (MLM) company.
MLM companies sell various items like makeup, jewellery, accessories, and more; and, as a Shopify website owner, you can sell these. But instead of providing you with the products to store yourself, the MLM company keeps the inventory in its own warehouse. You can either collect the products and ship them to customers, or have the MLM company send them directly to paying customers.
In some respects this is like dropshipping, but there’s a key difference: with multi-level marketing, you generally purchase products BEFORE listing them for sale (even if you never end up storing or delivering them yourself). This upfront investment increases the risk to you as a merchant.
In fact, multi-level marketing (MLM) can be risky for a number of reasons. First, many people who get involved in MLMs end up losing money because they are encouraged to buy more products than they can sell. With many MLMs, sellers are pressured to maintain a certain “PV” (Personal Volume) to stay eligible for commissions.
Accordingly, for many Shopify merchants, dropshipping will usually be a safer method of selling online without inventory than MLM. While dropshipping brings its own challenges (like slim margins, high ad costs, and long shipping times), it doesn’t carry the “recruitment debt” or the social and financial stigma often associated with MLMs.
In dropshipping, if you don’t sell anything, you generally only lose the cost of your Shopify subscription and your time — not thousands of dollars in unsold inventory sitting in your living room.
Option 3: Shopify Collective
‘Shopify Collective’ is an interesting initiative from Shopify that lets you list products from other Shopify merchants in your own store.
Selling prices for Shopify Collective products are set by the Shopify store that supplies the product to yours, but these generally allow the store that is reselling the product to make a profit of between 20% and 40% on each sale.
When a customer buys one of these products on your store, your store processes the payment, while the supplier from the other Shopify store takes care of shipping the product to your customer.
You can learn more about Shopify Collective in the video below.
Option 4: sell services
So far we’ve looked at how you can sell physical items on Shopify without actually manufacturing or storing inventory.
However, it’s also possible to use the platform to sell less ‘tangible’ items — services being a key example.
Services that you can sell easily on Shopify include:
- teaching
- business consultations
- copywriting
- fitness training
- web design
and much more besides!
You’ll still need to give some thought as to how you present your services in “product” format — i.e., you’ll need good photography and well-crafted service descriptions to sell them effectively on a Shopify store.
But the point is that you can launch a Shopify store for a service-based business quickly and easily — and without any products.
📚 Related resource: 25 Shopify side hustle ideas
Option 5: sell memberships
My final suggestion on how to start a Shopify store without inventory involves selling memberships.
These memberships can involve real institutions — i.e., you can use Shopify to sell access to art galleries, clubs, gyms, etc. — or they can be designed to provide access to digital communities or content (typically via a gated area on your website).
To create the latter type of membership, you’ll usually need an app that facilitates this — Shopify doesn’t really provide this functionality out of the box. Popular options here include the Bold Memberships and Locksmith apps.
Now, if you’re creating a digital membership offering on Shopify, you may find that you will end up providing digital assets to your members — software, apps, PDF guides, eBooks, music, etc. And in this respect you may effectively end up needing to create products that you sell (albeit virtual ones). This can take you away from the ‘no inventory’ approach that we’re discussing here.
However, it is definitely possible to sell non-product based digital memberships, where the value to customers is provided in terms of access to a community or regular consultation services.
📚 Related resource: How to sell digital products on Shopify
Tips on how to make a success of your Shopify store
In this post, I’ve highlighted the key ways that you can create a Shopify store that doesn’t actually involve selling your own products.
However, it’s important to note that regardless of what you’re selling on Shopify, you’ll need to promote your store effectively to make it a success! Search engine optimization, online ad campaigns, digital marketing and email list building will all be part of that.
Video guide to Shopify SEO
Accordingly, I’d suggest checking out a few of our key resources on how to create a successful Shopify store. You’ll find these below.
Additional resources about Shopify and building an online business
Good luck with your ecommerce project, and if you have any queries about selling on Shopify without inventory, do leave them in the comments section below!
FAQs about selling on Shopify without inventory
Can you really sell on Shopify without inventory?
Yes — Shopify allows you to sell products without holding inventory by using business models like dropshipping, print-on-demand, Shopify Collective, or by selling services and memberships.
What is the best way to sell on Shopify without inventory for beginners?
For beginners, print-on-demand is usually the easiest way to get started. It requires minimal setup, no upfront stock purchases, and handles production and shipping automatically when a sale is made.
How does dropshipping on Shopify work?
With Shopify dropshipping, you list products from a third-party supplier on your store. When a customer places an order, the supplier fulfills and ships the product directly to them — meaning you don’t need to store or handle inventory yourself.
Can you make money selling on Shopify without inventory?
Yes, but success depends on choosing the right niche, pricing products effectively, and promoting your store well. Profit typically comes from the markup you add to supplier costs.
Do you need products to start a Shopify store?
No — you can launch a Shopify store without creating or holding products by selling services and memberships, or by using models like print-on-demand and dropshipping.
No comments