How to Sell Online Courses On Your Shopify Store (Guide)
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We have said it before and will say it again:
There is immense potential in selling online courses. Apart from the ability to educate other people through your knowledge, you also get to generate another stream of passive income at a low cost.
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Shopify merchants make $79.5 billion dollars in value, and a big percentage of those originate from digital products such as online courses.
Many eCommerce businesses and entrepreneurs decide to monetize their audience with online courses.
What’s great about this is that it’s easy to repurpose your content as an online course for product education. You can add valuable, gated course material or even blog posts as an upsell to your other products, such as tutorials, recorded webinars, or PDF guides Then, you can also include quizzes to create assessments and offer your learners a certificate of completion.
If you are wondering what and how to sell on Shopify, you have come to the right place. Let’s explore all the options.
Shopify is undoubtedly one of the best eCommerce platforms out there, given the simplicity of its use and value for money. With it, even if you are a beginner, you can easily set up your online store or eCommerce website, grow your business, and start selling a wide range of products worldwide.
The best thing about Shopify is that it works for any business and industry you are in, allowing you to sell many types of products – from physical to digital goods, and other services, including the following:
Type #1: Online courses
It is possible to sell online courses on Shopify as products and then connect them to an online course platform to deliver the courses. LearnWorlds & Shopify can be directly integrated directly. In fact, you can sell online courses directly from LearnWorlds with Shopify using payment processing.
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See the example of Supakit on selling courses with Shopify and find out how they deliver them through LearnWorlds.
Type #2: Digital downloads
Shopify allows you to sell digital downloads, including ebooks, email templates, videos, songs, and graphic art. To do this, you first need to download the ‘Digital Downloads’ app inside Shopify and then add your products. Shopify offers a step-by-step guide on how you can go through this here.
For example, a good example of digital products would be marketing ebooks.
Type #3: Memberships
One of the things Shopify is proud of is the ability it offers to its customers to sell memberships and subscriptions. So let’s say if you are a life coach and you want to share gated content with your clients, you can choose to offer access only to recognized members or subscribers.
LearnWorlds offers a robust community along with the course player, and you can then enroll the users by adding a membership fee via your shopping cart to your LearnWorlds community.
Type #4: Services and consultations
Spotify provides the possibility to offer your services or consultation. If you are a financial advisor or a career consultant, you can sell your services online and encourage people to book an online or offline one-to-one appointment with you.
Type #5: Experiences
If your business or online store is offering an experience, e.g., a trip or adventure, a spa therapy, a wine tasting, or hosting a networking event, you can sell tickets to that event through Shopify.
Remember that experiences are very popular on social media channels, so make sure to inform your social media followers about your offerings.
How to add digital products to Shopify
Here’s a mini step-by-step guide on how to add a digital product to your online store:
If you offer multiple files, you will need to create an archive file, e.g., a .zip.
For more complex products like online courses, it’s better to use a learning management system like LearnWorlds to offer a great learning experience to your learners.
Watch the below tutorial from Shopify on how to add digital downloads as products to your Shopify store:
Selling online courses on Shopify is easy, and anyone can do it – no matter the type of industry your online business is in.
There are two ways you can sell online courses with Shopify:
1) Sell a course as a digital product from Shopify
2) Sell a course directly from LearnWorlds with Shopify payments
Let’s see how these two ways work.
1
Sell a course as a digital product from Shopify
Setup a new product on Shopify, add the pricing information and create a landing page specific for online courses. Then, you will need to connect to an online course platform like LearnWorlds to enroll each buyer as a student in that course.
To automatically enroll buyers from Shopify to LearnWorlds, you will need to use Zapier. The buyer will have an account created in your LearnWorlds school and receive a welcome email to get access to the course.
Users will be enrolled as learners in the LearnWorlds LMS and access the course contents immediately.
2
Sell a course directly from LearnWorlds with Shopify payments
The easier way to leverage LearnWorlds’s Shopify functionality for your elearning website is to connect Shopify as a payment gateway. LearnWorlds offers the option to sell your courses via Shopify by fulfilling any online course purchases of your Shopify online store.
When someone buys a LearnWorlds course, they are redirected to your Shopify checkout page, with the course already added in their shopping cart. When they finalize their purchase, they are sent back to LearnWorlds to study the course.
To integrate your LearnWorlds school with Shopify, go through the following steps:
Step 1: Create a Shopify Account
If you don’t have a Shopify Account, create one. The process is straightforward and super easy. You simply provide an email address, a password and a name to your online store to begin your 90-day trial.
Then you will be asked to provide more information about yourself and your store, including your address.
Once you are in, you will be given your Shopify store URL, e.g., cvworlds.myshopify.com, and you will be directed to your main dashboard, where you can customize your store.
*Should you need help setting up your Shopify store and selling courses, contact Shopify support directly to help you out with your inquiry.
Step 2: Go to LearnWorlds Dashboard
Then log in to your LearnWorlds account and open your dashboard. Click on ‘Financial’ and then choose ‘Payment Gateway.’
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Step 3: Choose Shopify as Your Payment Gateway
Once there, select Shopify as your main payment gateway. On the right, write down your Shopify Shop URL and then click install.
Then you will automatically be directed to your Shopify account, where you need to add your credentials. Once you add them, Shopify is installed.
Step 4: Sync Your Courses
Now, a new button will appear to allow you to ‘sync’ your accounts and add your products. Click on ‘sync’.
When the synchronization process is complete, you will get a message that says your products – courses have been added to your Shopify store.
Then click ‘Save’ at the top of your screen, and you are done.
Every time you make changes to any of your courses at LearnWorlds, you will need to make sure that you sync your accounts again so that courses are effectively updated in your Shopify store.
Also, ensure that ‘Accounts are required’ is enabled in your Shopify store. To do this, go to your Shopify admin > ‘Settings’ (at the bottom left) and then ‘Checkout’. In the Customer accounts section, click the third choice.
If you are using Shopify to sell online courses, there are some apps you need to become familiar with that can make the whole process easier for you and your clients.
While building your online store, check the following apps on the Shopify App Store or use them as integrations to market and sell your online courses effectively.
1
LearnWorlds
Learnworlds is the top online course platform in the market and has integration for Shopify payments. It offers everything you need to create, market, and sell online courses and can easily be connected to your Shopify store or your website. LearnWorlds is better than any Shopify course app, offering a great learning experience for your customers.
If you want one platform to sell and host your courses, check out our article LearnWorlds vs Shopify.
2
Active Campaign
When connected to your Shopify store, the Active Campaign software can help you send out targeted messages to your learners at the right time using marketing automation, email marketing, advanced segmentation, and personalized email automation, improving your customer experience automation.
3
HubSpot
HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing platform that helps you to carry out, track and measure your online marketing activities. When connected to Shopify, this software can integrate your online store data with the leading mid-market CRM, marketing automation, and customer service software.
4
Tawk To
Tawk To is a live chat application that lets you chat with prospective customers and website visitors. It can be used to make the online customer engagement experience smoother by providing real support and service to your customers through a ticketing system that integrates with your Shopify store.
5
Google Analytics
With Google Analytics, you can check how your marketing campaign performs and gain insight into consumer trends. It provides you with reporting and real-time store statistics to find out where your visitors are coming from and what they are doing on your website.
Keep in mind that Google Analytics is also a great tool to track and optimize your SEO efforts and can give you a better understanding of your audience, e.g., telling you which terms they are searching for on the search engine, thus helping you adjust your messaging to get more course sales.
6
Referral Candy
With ReferralCandy, you can build a referral program to leverage your customers’ network and promote your product or business to their family and friends. ReferralCandy automates this process and can help you boost sales, build social proof and increase customer retention.
7
Fomo
With Fomo, you can increase conversions and create instant social proof. It does so by displaying recent orders, product reviews, and other customer behaviors on your Shopify storefront so that store visitors can see that people trust your business, reassuring them that they can do the same.
On Shopify, there are thousands of apps you connect to your online store. Choose wisely the ones that are more likely to improve the functionality of your store, enable you to sell the types of courses you want, and make the eCommerce process easier.
While investing in the power of your Shopify store is wise, it’s important to also keep true to your core marketing strategy.
To help you out at LearnWorlds, we offer a range of free resources that are available to you, including the following ebook resources:
Selling online courses on your Shopify store is a great way to upsell your current services. Every eCommerce entrepreneur selling digital products on Shopify or even physical ones through dropshipping can accompany them with an online course on how to use them. If you are stuck optimizing your supply chain, a digital product is a great way to add more value or upsell with unlimited stock.
While you are at it, make sure you use every tool or app to help you get the most out of the Shopify platform to offer your customers the best.
Of course, there are many Shopify alternatives and WordPress Plugins out there to host your online business, yet we do suggest Shopify as the top eCommerce platform in that category with tons of plugins to help you!
LearnWorlds offers direct integration with Shopify and is always here to help you out, offering the best resources and the right source of inspiration to help you get started on your every journey. Best of luck!
Create a beautiful online school without any technical skills.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Can I sell courses on Shopify?
Yes, there is the option to use Shopify for online courses and sell them as digital products. However, you will need an LMS as a plugin or integration to deliver the courses.
Shopify is great but will not work so well for education or online learning alone. We suggest you use Shopify eLearning in combination with an LMS provider to deliver the learning experience your learners need.
What to sell on Shopify?
You can sell any kind of physical or digital product, and there is also the possibility of selling software on Shopify. Here are some examples of trending products you could sell:
Can you sell a service on Shopify?
Yes, you can sell a service as a digital product and connect it to your scheduling tool, email software, or personally reach out to your client for the next steps of the service.
What is the best Shopify theme for selling online courses?
There is no “perfect” theme for courses on Shopify. Any theme that fits your industry will work great for selling online courses. Next-generation LMSs like LearnWorlds offer landing page templates and themes that are specialized in selling courses. It’s better to use a LearnWorlds landing page template for courses and use Shopify as the payment gateway.
How is Shopify for eLearning?
Using Shopify for eLearning is relatively easy. There are two ways to offer online courses with the platform:
Does LearnWorlds integrate with Shopify?
Yes, LearnWorlds integrates with Shopify.
With this integration, learners can buy your courses through your Shopify store directly or via your LearnWorlds school. Simply connect LearnWorlds with your Shopify store as a payment gateway and sync your online course. List and sell your course as a digital product inside Shopify, create a checkout page, and then direct your learners to your school to start their learning journey.
Learn how to connect your LearnWorlds account with the Shopify payment gateway here.
Does Teachable integrate with Shopify?
Yes, Teachable integrates with Shopify, but only through Zapier, and it can be used to enroll users in your courses automatically.
Does Thinkific integrate with Shopify?
Yes, Thinkific and Shopify integrate, and courses can be added directly to your Shopify store. The Thinkific app is available in the Shopify store where you can sell your courses and other products via the marketplace. However, with the Thinkific Shopify integration, you can only sell your courses on Shopify and the payment systems in Shopify and Thinkific are entirely separate.
Can I link Shopify to my website?
Yes, you can link to any domain you have bought from Shopify or from any third-party domain provider.
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Kyriaki Raouna
Content Creator
at
LearnWorlds
Kyriaki is a Content Creator for the LearnWorlds team writing about marketing and e-learning, helping course creators on their journey to create, market, and sell their online courses. Equipped with a degree in Career Guidance, she has a strong background in education management and career success. In her free time, she gets crafty and musical.
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