Picture a thriving Shopify store. You’re probably imagining a website filled with products that cater to a wide range of shoppers. Such a store must be the key to success in the digital world. However, a growing number of e-merchants are proving that simplicity can also be a winning formula.
Brands like Crocs and Spandex built their empires by focusing on just one product, and are still renowned for the item that started it all. With Shopify making entry into eCommerce a breeze, creating a one product store could be your ticket to notoriety. In this article, we’ll give you the lowdown on one product stores and provide a guide to building one on Shopify.
Why Create a One Product Shopify Store?
As the name implies, a one product Shopify store is an eCommerce site that features a single product available for purchase. The product can come in different variations such as color and size. The simplicity that comes with this kind of e-store presents a range of benefits for both e-merchants and shoppers.
You’ll avoid choice paralysis
A study found that an abundance of product choices can negatively affect consumers’ likelihood to buy. In fact, when they are presented with fewer options, the chances of them making a purchase increase 10-fold. Thus, featuring just one product in an eCommerce store could skyrocket your chances of making a sale.
Marketing is simpler
A single product focus also makes it easier to conduct marketing activities. As there is just one thing, you can identify your target audience effortlessly. You can then really dig into the types of messaging they prefer, as well as the channels and methods they use for research and shopping. You can conduct tests and align all of your marketing efforts towards them without breaking a sweat or the bank.
Your branding will also be a lot stronger with a singular focus. It’s clearer to see what your brand is about and who the product is for, thus construct a store and marketing plan centered around that.
Fewer resources are required
Getting an eCommerce store up and running requires a fair amount of manpower, budget, and time. But it doesn’t take much to set up and run a one product store. All the activities center around just one thing. You most likely won’t even need much of a team or budget to bring your ideas to life. This makes creating this type of eCommerce quicker, cheaper, and easier to bring to market.
What Products Work Best For One Product Stores?
With only one product on a Shopify store, the pressure is on to find something worth its own dedicated site. Not all products can produce the intrigue and desire necessary for a single product store to be successful. To boost your chances, your best bet is to consider one of the following to be the star of your store.
- A niche product: You need a product that is unique enough to warrant its own space for you to shout about it. Items that appeal to a specific market with a very particular need are an excellent choice.
(Source: Dryrobe)
Take Dryrobe as an example, created by seasoned surfer, Gideon Bright. He spotted a need within the water sports community for something to keep enthusiasts warm and dry, and assist in changing between surfs.
Since devising this concept and building a Shopify store for it in 2010, Dryrobe has turned over more than £2 million and supplied their product to Team GB water sport athletes.
- A digital product: Seeing as the digital product space is expanding with the advent of Web 3, this option is great. Products in this realm include digital art like NFTs, online courses, software programs, or even services people can subscribe to such as a gym training program.
(Source: Boost Commerce)
Here at Boost, we are a one product Shopify store. Our product filter and search app is the shining star. Trusted by 12,000+ Shopify stores and big players like Boeing, Mavi, and Ford,
We’ve become the number 1 collection filter and smart search app in the Shopify store.
- An everyday item with a unique feature: You could also consider sourcing a product that consumers use often, but has a special feature that sets it apart or brings additional value. These types of items are great as they can tap into a wide audience.
(Source: Attipas)
Attipas sells podiatrist-backed shoes for toddlers, designed to mimic barefoot walking. Sourced from a Korean manufacturer by an Australia-based mom, the company leveraged the power of word-of-mouth and social media to build a cult following. It now fulfills orders of around 35,000 pairs a year.
A Guide To Creating A One Product Shopify Store
There are some key steps you need to take so your store and its product reach their full selling potential.
Decide on your product
Let's say you want to start with a skincare product Shopify store. Summer Fridays - a popular skincare brand, only started with
First and foremost, you’ll need to land on a product that you believe hits the jackpot. The best way to do this is to identify your target market and figure out their problem.
A quick look at Snowboarding Forum gives instant inspiration for product ideas.
You can find this out by searching through Facebook groups and forums, looking at Pinterest boards that are popular among them, and reading blog posts to see what they’re talking about.
What types of products do they get excited about? What criticisms do they have of existing products? What needs of theirs aren't currently being met? Answering these questions will help you nail down the product that will take center stage in your Shopify store.
Figure out your branding
Now that you’ve decided on your one product, it’s time to start working on your branding. The research you did into your target audience is a great stepping stone for this. Use that information to draw up a full buyer persona for your product. Consider the following as you do this:
- Demographics: identify their age group, gender, location, and income.
- Interests: what are they interested in and what things do they derive value from?
- Buying motivation and concerns: what’s the reason for them purchasing this product? What are some red flags that would cause them to avoid buying it?
- Messaging preferences: how do they like to be communicated to and interact with brands? What channels are they using for that? What kind of personality do they seek out from brands? Do they want them to be professional or relatable?
Your branding should completely revolve around the buyer persona you create. Use it to come up with the core value of your brand and its identity, one that will wholly resonate with them. This should then be reflected in your logo, tone of voice, colors, and design style.
Get all your content ready
With your brand identity figured out, the next step is to get all of your content ready. This includes visuals, the written content for your store, your store structure and layout, and plans for blog posts and advertising. Let’s dissect each of them one by one.
Visuals
These should be of high quality and give a well-rounded view of your product. Get images of your product from different angles, or better yet use a 360-degree photo. Shopify has built-in support for 3D models, you can find out more about that here. It’s also a good idea to demonstrate the usage of your product in your media.
Death Wish Coffee uses big and bold visuals to convey their daring identity.
All your images and video content should convey your brand’s persona. Is your brand all about quenching a thirst for adventure? Then you’ll need action-packed visuals. Are being bold and brave central to your image? Then you’ll want larger-than-life, dynamic imagery.
Written content
Again, this should clearly depict your brand image, so make sure this content is written in the tone of voice you decided on. Identify the key bits of information your customer needs to see so they are convinced that this is the right product for them. Write a unique and captivating product description that will completely win over visitors to your store.
You should also think about search engine optimization (SEO). Carry out keyword research to ensure your store appears in relevant searches.
Read more:
- SEO Checklist For Shopify: Get Your Store In Top Shape With These Vital Tasks
- Shopify SEO Tips For Beginners: All You Need To Know To Rank Higher in Search Engines
Store structure
Decide on the sections of your store and the content each one will feature. As you only have one product, the structure of your store doesn’t need to be complex. It can simply be the homepage, product page, about us, blog, reviews, and FAQs.
Advertising and blog plans
Map out a timeline for blog posts and ads. Make sure you’ve decided on the topic for each blog post, and the focus of your ads.
Choose a Shopify theme
The theme you select for your one product Shopify store should be minimalistic and image-focused. This will help put all the attention on your product and also ensures that your store doesn’t look empty.
Shopify has tons of free and premium themes that work great for one-product stores. Here’s a selection of our favorite ones.
Debut
This free Shopify theme was designed for small stores. It has a polished look that shows off your brand beautifully. The homepage slideshow allows visitors to your store to get a feel for your product instantly. Alternatively, you can use this section for a homepage video. Other notable features include customer testimonials and pickup availability.
Narrative
This theme is commonly used for one product stores, and it’s easy to see why. Made specifically for brand and product storytelling, this free theme is great for building a well-rounded picture of your product. It has a wide layout which is great for high-quality images, a fullscreen hero video can be included, and elements such as quote slides can be added to enhance storytelling.
Startup
Startup is also popular among one product store merchants thanks to its simplicity and optimizations for small catalogs. It supports large images, can help you build trust with customizable reviews, and has tons of useful features like quick buy, international selling, and FAQs. This premium theme costs $220 which you only have to pay once you’re ready to publish.
Start building your store
Now that you’ve done all the necessary leg work, it’s time to bring your store to life.
Start off with your homepage. For your hero media, select images or videos that showcase your product best and give an immediate impression of its value. Further down the homepage, provide different visual perspectives of your product. This should be accompanied by text that summarizes different aspects of the product. Be sure to include strong and clear calls-to-action.
Next, move on to your product page. Incorporate a variety of images and videos that show product usage. Drop in your product description, add FAQs, and include reviews from customers and industry professionals once you have them. If you’ve selected a theme that doesn’t have FAQs or reviews, try Stamped Product Reviews & UGC, Judge.me Product Reviews, or Easy FAQ.
Smoovii includes visual customer reviews on its product page.
Customers can be your best friend when it comes to spreading the word about your product. Encourage them to do so by giving them referral codes, or offering them a discount on their next purchase to embolden them to give it as a gift. Yotpo Loyalty & Rewards and Discount Ninja can help you along with that.
Design specific pages for customer reviews, FAQs, shipping and returns information, and customer support. Should your store lack this capability, page-building apps like Gem Pages and PageFly can help you set these up instantly.
You should also aim to create a checkout experience that is simple and fast. The best way to do this is to build a one-page checkout. Make sure all the steps needed to complete a purchase are consolidated to a single page and don't require much scrolling. A good rule of thumb here is to limit the number of fields to 7.
Finally, if you’ve decided to sell internationally, you’ll need to equip your store for this. Ensure all your content is translated into the languages of the markets you want to operate in, enable currency conversion, and set up country-specific domains. Fortunately, you can do all this plus more with Shopify Markets.
Find out more: Shopify Markets: All You Need To Know
Tell the world about your store
Once your store is up and running, you then need to get the word out about it.
Look at the social media platforms your target customers use and create social media ads on them. If these platforms include Facebook and Instagram, you’ll need to install and set up Facebook as a sales channel. This can be done in Shopify admin. For TikTok, install the app, go to your admin page, and connect the app to your store.
Pebbl markets its portable chair as a wellness product. They frequently collaborate with figures in the industry to get their product in front of the right audience. (Source: Instagram)
You can also post in the groups that you joined during customer research. Partnering with micro-influencers is a great option as they’ll likely have a loyal following in the very market you are trying to enter.
As you wait for your SEO efforts to blossom, make use of Google Ads. You should also reach out to relevant blogs and websites and ask them to promote your product.
Final Thoughts
The success one product stores are finding makes it an enticing venture for aspiring e-merchants. In comparison to traditional eCommerce stores, there’s much less that needs to be done. This means that you can really zone in on and perfect all the vital steps involved in creating an eCommerce store. You can nail down your positioning, polish your brand identity, and construct your store in a way that utterly resonates with your target audience.
Shopify has plenty of features and tools to get you on your way to building a successful one product Shopify store. So if this article has piqued your interest, there’s no time like the present to get your one product store off the ground.
