How to Sell Courses on Shopify in 2022 | Step-by-Step Guide

2

Ways of Selling Courses on Shopify Go to the top

There are two main ways of selling your courses online:

1. Selling access to site content
2. Working with a third-party course management provider

Each has several pros and cons, and the option which is right for you will depend on your individual circumstances and goals. Let’s explore both of these avenues in more detail below:

Sell Via Restricted Access

Selling access to site content is by far the easiest way to monetize your courses with Shopify. You can do this by creating pages and blog posts – both of which can contain videos and audio files. You can then sell customers’ membership to access this content.

Although this method does offer limited functionality, you can leverage external tools to help create a more comprehensive course experience. For example, you may use Skype or Zoom for one-to-one sessions, or platforms such as SurveyMonkey so students can take tests and quizzes.

Pros of this method include:

• It’s easy to create, and relatively cheap
• It’s a simple way to test out your course’s popularity before investing more heavily in the content
• It’ll be simple to edit and update

Cons of this method include:

• You’re stuck with quite limited functionality
• You’ll remain entirely responsible for driving traffic and marketing the course
• It’s more difficult to sell multiple courses to different customers
• You’ll need to use external platforms to support course content

Creating an online course using this method is simple:

1. Create a Shopify store (if you don’t have one already)
2. Create your course content
3. Upload your course content to pages/blogs on your website
4. Place the course content within a members area
5. Charge customers to become members in order to access the course material

Partner With Third-Party Course Management Providers

Third-party course managers offer smart and advanced ways to sell your courses on Shopify. Some of these can be found within the Shopify App Store, but others are available externally, and can be plugged directly into your Shopify store.

Here are some popular third-party course managers (otherwise known as Learning Management Systems, or LMS) that can be used to sell courses on Shopify:

• Avizr (starts at $39 per month)
• TalentLMS (free version, then starts at $59 per month)
• Thinkific (free version, then starts at $39 per month)
• LearnWorlds (starts at $29 per month)

These platforms typically work as a ‘host’ for your course, providing you with advanced functionality such as automatic video transcription, the ability to add interactive elements to your videos, and advanced analytics on how learners are using your courses. They’ll also facilitate the smooth delivery of your courses across various different devices: including laptops, mobile phones, and tablets.

Once you’ve created your course with your chosen Learning Management System, you can usually opt to connect your course to your store as a product. Arguably, this offers a much smoother experience for your customers than the paid access option does.