If you’re ready to add additional revenue streams to your business as a Showit User, I got you! I built my Showit shop from the ground up and am excited to teach you today how you can generate income right on your website through products and offerings! Let’s learn how to add a shop to your Showit 5 Website!

 

FYI: This post contains affiliate links. I only share about things that I actually use and support! 

 

 

This tutorial is for you if:

 

1. You have a Showit 5 Website and want to sell *products and accept payments straight from your site. I’ll teach you how to integrate a cart like Shopify Lite or ThriveCart into your Showit 5 website. *Products refers to anything you want to sell online. Physical products, digital products, workshops, courses, and etc!
2. You have a smaller number of products to sell. Think about 20-30 tops.
3. You want complete control over how your collection pages, product pages, and other shop pages look and feel. Thank heavens for Showit!

 

This isn’t a great fit for you if:

 

1. You are a retailer or plan to have a large number of products. If you are trying to grow an e-commerce shop with many products, I would not suggest using Showit. (As much as I love it!) Retailers are much better served using a Shopify Online Store.

 

If this sounds like a good fit for what you are trying to accomplish with Showit 5, let’s do it!

 

 

How to add a shop to your showit 5 website

 

01 | Pick a Cart

 

The first thing you need to do is pick a cart software to process payments for your products. Do this before you build your Showit shop because it will determine the entire structure. For example, if you choose to use Shopify Lite, you don’t need to create a cart page in your Showit Website, but if you go with an option like ThriveCart, you may want to create a branded cart page for the checkout experience.

 

Note: As of January 2019, I use both. I use Shopify Lite right here in the MMC main website (and shop) to allow customers to add more than one item to the cart and checkout all at once. I use ThriveCart when creating sales funnels that lead to specific products and offerings like special one-time offers.

 

Pros of Shopify Lite:

 

1. Add Multiple Products to Cart for increased cart average
2. Many e-commerce stores use Shopify and customers are used to its checkout experience.
3. Lower cost barrier to entry. At $9 a month (using their Buy Buttons embedded in your Showit Website), Shopify Lite is extremely appealing for business owners who are just getting their feet wet with selling online!
4. Hundreds of apps can be integrated into your Shopify account to enhance your customer experience, increase conversions, and automate some of the backend work of running a shop.

 

Cons of Shopify Lite:

 

1. The Cart Toggle (aka the icon that appears after someone has added a product to the cart) is pretty much what you see is what you get unless you do some developing work to change it. The default toggle appears on the right-hand side of your screen on both desktop and mobile, midway down. This is an unusual location for a cart icon in an e-commerce store, but I assume they chose it so it wouldn’t interfere with your pre-designed navigation. My suggestion? Make the toggle background color really POP on your site. You want it to be obvious for your customers where to go to complete their order. That is why mine is red!
2. The checkout cart pops up in a new window. This may be a personal preference thing, but the cart popup is not a perfect scenario in my opinion. Especially due to the actual size of the new window. It is quite small. I would much prefer the checkout cart to open in the same window I’m shopping in like a traditional e-commerce store, but I digress. It works for now!

 

Pros of ThriveCart

 

1. Built for conversion. ThriveCart was originally built for online marketers who create sales funnels. Aka people who realllllly care about conversion.
2. Currently, ThriveCart is a one and done fee with lifetime access to the cart and all new features as they roll out. This makes ThriveCart a winner over similar competing carts like SamCart and Clickfunnels in my book!
3. Built-in payment plan options. This is a fabulous feature for higher priced products and offerings!
4. Built-in affiliate program. While some of the set up is a little clunky, ThriveCart’s built-in affiliate program is a huge plus for growing your sales and expanding your reach with affiliates.
5. ThriveCart gives you a lot of flexibility in terms of checkout page design, upsells, and downsells to increase conversions and revenue.

 

Cons of ThriveCart

 

1. ThriveCart is not a traditional e-commerce software meaning it does not allow for customers to add more than one product to their cart at a time. While that might sound like a DUH, remember, ThriveCart was built for sales funnels. Sales funnels perform best when they point to one single product or offering (a bundle still counts as one offering!). If you have a small number of products or have a collection of higher priced products, this method still may be a good idea for you!

 

My Suggestion? Start with Shopify Lite. Figure out what products best resonate with your customers and get your bearings! But if you know you’re in the game to build sales funnels or need the higher functionality that ThriveCart offers, go for it!

 

 

 

02 | Watch this training!

 

In this video, I’m breaking down step-by-step how to connect your Showit Shop to both Shopify Lite and ThriveCart so you can pick the option that is best for you!

 

 

Mentioned Products to help you make it happen

 

Showit Shop Add On Template: Need a shop template to add to your Showit 5 Website that is built to be both stunning and convert? Check out our exclusive Showit Shop Add On Template!

 

Want to learn more about how to fully customize your product page for Shopify Lite and my workaround to make Shopify Lite fully functional on every single page of your website, no matter where your customer clicks? Get access to my signature Showit Off! Master Class with 20+ tutorial videos covering getting started with the Showit 5 platform to custom styling your newsletter opt-in forms to everything you need to know about adding a shop to your Showit 5 Website and more!

 

Related: Why I switched from WordPress to Showit 5 and LOVE it!