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Want to trade like a pro? Benzinga Pro gives you the edge you need in today's fast-paced markets. Get real-time news, exclusive insights, and powerful tools trusted by professional traders:
- Breaking market-moving stories before they hit mainstream media
- Live audio squawk for hands-free market updates
- Advanced stock scanner to spot promising trades
- Expert trade ideas and on-demand support
There are over 3 billion people on some type of social media today. Because people are choosing to spend more and more time on social media, your businesses can tap into these channels as an extra way to make money with Shopify Lite.
Shopify Lite is a great option for small businesses that wish to start an eCommerce business and sell to social media users, as well as anyone who is active online. There are a range of eCommerce platforms to pick from, and Shopify Lite is worth knowing more about.
The Shopify Lite plan is not only inexpensive but also allows you to create a simple eCommerce store within minutes on the Facebook Business page or an existing website.
The platform is aimed at social selling, and it is a good deal for people who are looking to add a shopping cart to their Facebook page or an existing blog. In this Shopify Lite review, you can learn more about Shopify Lite features, and see how easy it is to start selling things online!
What is the Shopify Lite Plan?
The Shopify Lite plan is the most affordable option on Shopify, as well as one of the most affordable options for an eCommerce platform on the market.
The plan sells for $9 per month, and it allows you to embed a shopping cart into any existing website, such as WordPress, Wix or Squarespace. Your readers will be able to stop by for some great content, and support you with a purchase in one place.
The main difference between Shopify Lite and the other plans is that you are not getting a full online store with a shopping cart. This means you cannot build a home for your brand in Shopify.
Instead, the Shopify Lite plan integrates with an existing website or social media page. For example, if you are running a blog on WordPress and want to sell some items, the Shopify Lite plan would allow you to do that by using the existing blog.
Selling on Social Media
Shopify Lite is for people who have an existing blog and want to sell something on both the blog and Facebook. It comes with a fully integrated Facebook shop, which makes it easy for you to sell your products through Facebook.
This platform makes it easy to advertise on Facebook and lead people to the store, and they don’t have to leave Facebook to make a purchase. By doing everything from a trusted social media platform, the number of steps to make a sale is cut.
Shopify Lite merges with your current Facebook Business page to create a Shop tab on the page and allows for product galleries and your own shopping cart inside Facebook. The always visible Shop tab is fully optimized for mobile, and this ensures that customers have a shopping experience they want to repeat.
The platform simplifies product management, as all the products already in your Shopify Lite plan can be synced to the Facebook store, and you won’t have to upload products multiple times. The only thing you have to watch is the Shopify dashboard, so you won’t have to worry much about what’s going on the Facebook store page.
Each of your products on the Facebook store syncs consistently with your Shopify account. If you make a change to a product image, price, or description, it will be reflected in the Facebook store as well. When you change the collection order in Shopify, everything will change in Facebook accordingly.
One of the best things about Shopify Lite is when a product in your store becomes unavailable, the store will automatically notify you and remove the item from your shop. In addition, the Shopify Facebook integration includes a beautiful, simple and functional checkout module.
A Great Buying Experience
The buying experience with Shopify Like is secure and customers will not have to enter your website. This lack of complexity helps to provide a more consistent customer experience.
Customers also have the option to save all their payment information on Facebook, which means they can buy more from your store in the future, and it will be mostly automatic. By making sales easy, you may make more of them!
The module can help to cut down the steps that customers need to take before making a purchase, and this may increase revenue as well because the checkout is secure and gives shoppers the option to save their details of steps for future purchases.
Overall, this platform allows you to create a solid Facebook store, which has all the tools you need to stay on top of your online hustle. It makes sense to go with Shopify Lite for companies that want to start by selling exclusively on Facebook, as well as for those who have a blog and Facebook page.
Customer Connections and Sales via Facebook Messenger
The Shopify Lite plan also comes with a Live Chat module for Facebook messenger since it uses Facebook as the main sales channel. Your store will not only receive the integrated Facebook store but also get a live chat module that is synced with the overall platform.
You can connect to your customers and provide customer support whenever they need it with this feature, and make sure people are being taken care of. If you have used the Facebook messenger, you know it’s a tool that can chat with friends without leaving Facebook.
This feature offers excellent functionality for customers to contact you with quick questions and receive relevant responses with the help of automated product information. Also, you can take the Facebook Messenger app anywhere, and this helps you to run your support side of the business without hiring too many people.
The Messenger app allows you to reply with any information you have on hand and send out product information from your online store.
Also, it has call-to-action buttons for viewing online, purchasing, reading descriptions, and more. Once the chat conversation ends, the customer has the opportunity to buy the product right from the Facebook Messenger chatbox.
Last but definitely not least, Facebook messenger will send out shipping updates, tracking codes, and a View Order button for your customers to see exactly when they can expect to receive the product.
Using Shopify Buttons to Sell on Your Blog or Website
Besides Facebook selling, the Shopify Buy button is the main feature of Shopify Lite.
With the Shopify Buy Button, you can easily add eCommerce to any existing website, such as Tumblr, WordPress, or your own blog. You will be able to easily embed a buy button or a gallery of products, which is a Shopify-powered sales tool that can help drive sales.
The buttons you use can be customized to fit any website theme, and you can also use shopping carts to offer a safe checkout. Inventory and sales are also kept track of on your Shopify Lite dashboard, which means that you only have to use one interface to power your entire online sales system.
Here are a few ideas that you can try on your site with the Shopify Buy Button:
- Sidebar: You can start selling on your blog with the sidebar. It’s a way to see if your readers are interested in your products. You can introduce a new exciting product or something that’s already been popular.
- Landing page: You can add an eCommerce functionality to your landing pages by simply dropping the buy button into your store admin’s generated embed code, and start selling. This is a great way to sell digital products, such as ebooks, photography or graphic design.
- In your content: One of the great ways to capture traffic and grab attention is to embed your products directly within your content. To do this, you can paste the generated code into your blog, then your button will appear as part of your blog post. With the customization options for the Shopify Button, you can tweak it to match your blog theme and brand colors.
Sell In-Person Online and Offline
If you’d like to sell your product in person at markets, trade shows, exhibitions or pop-up stores, Shopify Lite is a good solution for you. Since the platform offers standard point-of-sale features, there are many options for users that want to accept credit card payments via Stripe, PayPal or Square.
Shopify Lite opens up the opportunity to sell offline and online, and companies receive a plug and play card reader that they can take on the road in case they want to accept payments offline as well as online.
With the POS feature, sellers can accept credit cards, apply discounts, customize taxes, offer to ship at checkout, take gift cards, and process refunds.
In case anything goes wrong, you can find help from a dedicated POS team 24/7. The POS feature also automatically syncs your inventory across all your sales channels as well, and you can manage products directly from your Shopify app.
Read our full review of Shopify POS here.
Create Invoices and Get Paid Faster
Shopify Lite is great if you mainly process wholesale, phone, or custom orders.
This is an affordable plan for creating invoices and getting paid securely and quickly without any problems. The process consists of creating an invoice, sending it to the customers, and then they will pay via Shopify’s shopping cart. It’s not much different from other invoicing tools.
Additionally, there are the extra tools that you also get with Shopify Lite for selling online, Facebook, and offline. Even though it is a basic platform, it gives your company loads of options for bringing in money, which makes it a compelling platform for any SME.
Create Discount Codes
The Shopify Lite plan allows you to create discount codes and automatic discounts as well.
With flexible and powerful discount options, you can set a variable, a fixed amount, free shipping or buy X get Y discounts. You can also set your own requirements like the minimum amount of money people need to spend to be eligible for a discount and much more.
In addition, you may increase more interest from customers on holidays or any special occasion. For example, a discount on their birthday, free shipping on your shop’s anniversary, and so forth.
Shopify Lite and Shopify Basic
The Shopify Lite plan sells for $9 per month and the next step up in the Shopify pricing hierarchy is Shopify Basic, which goes for $29 per month.
You can create a stand-alone online store with Shopify Basic, but not with Shopify Lite.
Shopify Basic has more features, but it also costs more. If you decide to upgrade, you will get hosting, customizable website themes, domains, SSL, order fulfillment, and management, as well as inventory management.
Shopify Basic also has many powerful features that are designed to help entrepreneurs create, manage and run their eCommerce business in one place. The Shopify Basic plan also allows you to sell on Instagram.
On the other hand, Shopify Lite comes with a handful of highly desirable eCommerce features. It is just what you need in an extra layer to your online business, especially if you are active on Facebook, or you have a popular blog.
Shopify Lite Oberlo
Last but not least, Shopify Lite works perfectly with the popular dropshipping app Oberlo. Dropshipping is a simple and free business model, where Oberlo automatically fulfills orders and takes care of shipping and packaging.
Sellers can import (digitally) products from other suppliers on AliExpress or Oberlo and they only pay once a sale is made. If a product has not been sold, you can remove it from your products list and replace it with something else, at no cost.
Oberlo is free and it supports 50 products, 50 auto-fulfilled orders per month as well as allows people to access 1000s of products on Oberlo vetted suppliers and products on AliExpress.
Read our full review of Oberlo here.
Shopify Lite: The Rundown
Shopify Lite has features that are aimed at selling on social media, such as Facebook’s Messenger app, or by selling products directly within your existing content. It also lets you make sales offline or in-person with a world-class POS system.
The platform is designed to let you sell your products where ever you like, and if you already have an audience following you, all you need is to give them an easy way to buy your products in places they already know where to find you.
Here are some of the Pros and Cons of the platform:
Pros
- Live customer support via Facebook Messenger
- Auto sync of product info, descriptions, and inventory across all channels
- Embed product galleries and Shopify shopping cart features to an existing website
Cons
- Integration with Instagram is only available with the Basic plan
- Cannot build a full eCommerce store
The Shopify Lite plan, in short, makes sense in certain situations.
Shopify Lite is a great idea for those who are running a site and looking to start selling some products on there without making a completely new website, or for people who want to sell products through Facebook with the help of a live chat module, or anyone who want to sell offline with a standard POS system.
Depending on your needs, and existing web marketing strategy, Shopify Lite could be a perfect fit. It’s a great way to get started with the world of eCommerce and start generating some sales from your own website and other existing platforms.
Shopify Lite
Pros
- Sell on Facebook
- Sell any website including your blog
- Create Custom Invoices
- POS to sell offline
- Create Coupon Codes
Cons
- No dedicated storefront
- Lacks some features of other plans
Stay Ahead of the Market with Benzinga Pro!
Want to trade like a pro? Benzinga Pro gives you the edge you need in today's fast-paced markets. Get real-time news, exclusive insights, and powerful tools trusted by professional traders:- Breaking market-moving stories before they hit mainstream media
- Live audio squawk for hands-free market updates
- Advanced stock scanner to spot promising trades
- Expert trade ideas and on-demand support
