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One Product Store: A Guide to Dropshipping on Shopify

Video Transcript: Have you ever thought about running a one product store? For some dropshippers, it’s a simple formula for success. So stick around, ’cause we’re going to break down that formula for you today. Hi, world. How goes it? It’s Mark from Oberlo. Welcome to Show and Sell. Usually […]

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Video Transcript: Have you ever thought about running a one product store? For some dropshippers, it’s a simple formula for success. So stick around, ’cause we’re going to break down that formula for you today.

Hi, world. How goes it? It’s Mark from Oberlo. Welcome to Show and Sell. Usually in this series, we take a look at a product niche and the ways in which merchants can sell in that niche, but not today. Instead, we’re going to talk about how to sell a single item with a one product store. First, we’re going to identify reasons why you may want to run a single-product store, and then we’ll explore how you can make the store a success.

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One Product Store: The Benefits

One product store - a hand holds a single cupcake with a cherry

Every entrepreneur is different. Some might be awesome at running a general store. But if you are more suited to running a streamlined, straightforward outfit, then you’ll probably appreciate setting up a one product business. It only takes one good idea for you to make it big. And without the distraction of building a store for multiple products and then managing and marketing those products, you can focus all of your attention and energy and resources into selling your one product better than anyone else.

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I don’t want it to sound too good to be true, because there are challenges that come with setting up a one product store. Unlike an online general store, a one product business goes all in on a single item. And that is perhaps the gnarliest challenge of them all; how to find that one product that you want to sell. That seems like a good point for us to start for today’s video. There are five things to keep in mind when you go looking for a great dropshipping product:

  1. That product should not be easy to find elsewhere on the web. 
  2. That product is tricky for shoppers to guess the price.
  3. The product is interesting enough to entice consumers to click.
  4. The product can be purchased by consumers without any need for any prior research.
  5. The product is inexpensive, a price of $5 or less including shipping is ideal.

Now, using this criteria, I searched the Oberlo marketplace for an example of what could be a good dropshipping product for a one product store. And I found this interesting solar-powered, cranium-cooling accessory. Right. I know it looks a little bit goofy, but hold on. It fits our five-search criteria quite nicely, and there already appears to be a market for this cap, as it has got multiple sales in the last month and six months. And it has a couple of five out of five customer reviews. On top of that, it’s novel and pretty eye-catching, meaning it would make a great product to advertise in a video.

Now, let’s say you’ve also found your product. What now? Well, now it’s time to build a winning store that’s optimized to sell one product and one product alone. Shopify has a few store themes, which are ideal for single-product businesses. Startup, that’s one of the things for one product stores or stores with small inventories. This theme adheres to a golden rule of one product marketing. It provides merchants with a powerful space above the fold for their product to immediately hook the user. Above the fold refers to what is visible on the users screen. In this context, it’s what is visible once a user arrives to your online store. Anything below the fold requires the user to scroll down. Now, a large hero image above the fold is a golden opportunity for one product store owners. This is premium real estate to build your brand, highlight your promotions, and bring your flagship product to life. As you can see with the start-up theme, a hero image above the fold also works as a great spot to allow your customers to order the product directly from the hero image itself. It acts as a guiding hand, waving away distractions and enticing customers to fill their cart and go to the check-out, ASAP.

Close up on the corner of a laptop displaying a Shopify checkout page

After all, it’s a one product store. There’s nothing else for customers to browse for. But hold up, we’ve gotten a little ahead of ourselves. How do we even get customers to our store and interested in our solar-powered ventilator hat in the first place. To do that, we have to get smart with social media.

Set Up Your Facebook Pixel

Start by optimizing your Shopify store, so that it can leverage the power of Facebook to the max. You do this by connecting your store to a Facebook Pixel, and then you run ads to drive traffic to your store. Our ventilator baseball cap is attention grabbing enough to drive traffic to our one product store. People are likely to want to find out more about this unique head piece. Once we’ve generated some traffic, the Facebook Pixel will monitor what visitors do every time they visit the store. The goal is for the Facebook Pixel to help you optimize your ad strategy. With the data recorded by the Facebook Pixel, you can segment your store’s visitors into groups, and then you can hit those groups with hyper-targeted ads.

Do you like the sound of the the Facebook Pixel? You should do, because it is a powerful way of figuring out which customers are likely to buy your product. Try setting up a Facebook Pixel for your store. We can help you do it. Simply check out how to set up the Facebook Pixel in under two minutes in our easy to follow video.

Alright, your Facebook Pixel is operational. You’re running ads. You’re collecting data and now you’re running even better ads. Pretty soon you should be getting some traffic and sales. If not, Facebook has another way of helping you out. Once you collect Facebook Pixel data on 100 people from a single country, you get access to the purchase lookalike audience feature on Facebook ads.

A lookalike audience is an effective way to reach new people who are similar to your visitors and customers. You can use a lookalike audience to target a new market or to simply find a new audience in your existing market. You create a lookalike audience, based on the people the Facebook Pixel has already seen. Facebook recommends that you build this base list for the lookalike audience out of people who have made a purchase in your store, and not just every single person who has visited your store.

A person holds a credit card as they shop on a laptop

This generally leads to better results for merchants who use lookalike audiences. That’s because the Facebook Pixel helps bring traffic to your one product store made up of people similar to customers and not just similar to visitors. It’s an effective hard-working Facebook Pixel, too. Around 90 percent of the time, lookalike audiences average a higher click-through rate than other audiences on Facebook. Have you thought about what kind of ads work best on Facebook? I can tell you that the trend is pointing very clearly toward video, which is the most popular medium for Facebook campaigns. Facebook users spend 100 million hours a day watching videos, and the click-through rate for video is as high as 57 percent. It’s generally advisable to make your ads eye-catching and fun, so as to encourage impulse buyers. But if your product is not suited to impulse purchases, you can make a functional video instead. After all, there is data to say it’s worth it. 96 percent of consumers said they find videos helpful when they are choosing what to purchase online. And here’s the kicker; Nearly three-quarters of consumers are more likely to buy a product if they have watched the video explainer prior to hitting the check out.

So this is definitely a medium worth exploring for one product stores. As the merchant, you can focus your time and creative energy on making one hit video for your product. You don’t have to stretch resources to make multiple videos for multiple products. Now, I know not everybody has access to filming equipment, or maybe their product is not well-suited to video ads. But there’s good news. Good, old photos are still popular, and are second best to videos when it comes to attracting customers on Facebook. If you are considering a one product store, but still need some convincing, then you should read one of our merchant success stories. This success story is all about how one drop shipper took a single product and turned it into a six-figure, e-commerce business.

So, what one product would you sell in your online store? Have you tried using lookalike audiences? Let me know what has worked and what has not worked for you, and I will get back to you. Thank you for watching this video. Until next time, learn often, market better, and sell more.

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