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It is normal to be skeptical about the chance of getting success in the eCommerce world. After all, how many people make a profit anyway? Well, you would be surprised to know that thousands of people have generated 6, 7, or even 8 figures and beyond of revenue on their stores, especially with the help of a simple yet effective platform like Shopify.
In case you don't know what Shopify is, it is an eCommerce platform that lets you build a beautiful online store, manage the inventory, and receive payments from customers with ease. In fact, I know all about Shopify since my team and I at Avada have made many apps to help Shopify merchants make the most out of their businesses. Make sure to check out our apps!
But, the truth is, eCommerce success relies on many factors than just the platform. Shopify can help you set up a store and run, but you also need to get traffic, promote your products, and pay attention to the return on your investment. So, in this article, I'm going to show you a list of 20+ best Shopify case studies - aka the success stories of 20+ merchants that made it big with Shopify. Hopefully, they can inspire you to try Shopify out and have a taste of the eCommerce greatness.
Let's get started!
Table of contents:
Intro
Destination Label - Towels
Wallet Co - Wallet
Leesa Mattress - Mattress
TomboyX - Underwear
Prymal - Coffee creamer
KLIMCHI - Glassware (Clartés Bohemia)
Nectar Bath Treats - Bath bombs
Barbell Apparel - Sport apparel
Infantnatic - Baby clothes
Premier Estates Wine - Wine
BestSelf Co. - Productivity products
Viking Lair Shop - Viking inspired products
TOILE Showroom - Dropship bedding items
Crossloop - Designer earphones
Quad Lock - Smartphone mounting
Black Hair and Skincare - Hair loss products
Home Shoppe - Home decor
Happy Wifey - Women fashion
Anna Cate Collection - Classic fashion items
Myaderm - Healing medication
Felony Case - Phone cases
Last words
Destination Label - Towels
Originally known as Destination Towels, the brand has now expanded to become Destination Label. Founded by Anthony Glick - a professional lifeguard and photographer, Destination Label innovated beach towels with aesthetic design and functional features like sand-free or lightweight. What made the Australian brand loved by people is the artworks of beautiful destinations printed on the beach towels, which gives customers a personalized feeling to proudly wear them when traveling, going to the beach, or visiting the gym.
With the help of his sister, who is a graphic designer, Anthony designed every product to make his product completely unique, even with the packaging. As a self-taught entrepreneur, Anthony built the website himself and has grown the business enormously. Now, as Destination Label, the brand sells jigsaw puzzles and water bottles with the same aesthetic design of Anthony's original photos.
Anthony would like to advise other entrepreneurs that Instagram and Facebook are essential marketing channels to drive new customers and build a long-lasting business. Destination Label is also featured on famous media channels such as Today and Broadsheet.
Wallet Co - Wallet
Wallet Co wanted to change the wallet fashion market with innovative, compact designed wallets that are very lightweight and provide users with the comfort of a convenient tool in their pockets every day. The sleek design of the website that uses a few colors gives shoppers a minimalist feeling that matches the product concept in a subtle way.
Having created seven eCommerce businesses from scratch through the years, the founder of Wallet Co expressed the commitment to sourcing and supplying the world's best products of slim wallets. The company seems to be doing really well, with combined global sales volumes of over one million items of wallets sold per year.
One thing you can certainly learn from is the optimization of the check-out page by adding features that create an impression of urgency, such as an indication of the number of items left in the stock, or products selling out quickly, or how much you can save buying now.
Leesa Mattress - Mattress
Leesa is a luxury mattress eCommerce company with the goal of helping people sleep better. The idea behind the company was to innovate the sleep experience by selling the mattress that feels as good as it looks. The end result is a three-layer mattress made entirely of foam that can roll up to fit in a box no bigger than a large suitcase. One person can open, unroll, and see the mattress unfold. The company also promises a 100-night trial and free return to any customers that don't love the product.
Leesa was founded by David Wolfe, a serial entrepreneur who also has trouble sleeping at night. All sorts of mattresses and gimmicks advertised by the salesmen didn't help, so he consulted his friend who is a veteran in the mattress industry. He found out that many things were added just to justify higher prices, so David decided to redesign his own perfect mattress.
The decision paid off since the company made $800k in its first month on its Shopify store and generated nearly $30 million just in 2015. By focusing on building high-quality products and innovating customer experience, Leesa was able to own a piece of the customer's life - the entire experience of sleeping on a bed, which takes up about a third of our lives.
Not only that, but Leesa has also been generous as a brand as well. The company donates one mattress to the homeless and children in need for every ten of them sold. It is not just for marketing; the act of good is something Wolfe completely believes that can't be imitated or copied by competitors.
So, does your business innovate the industry or have a good course for its own yet? Come up with some ideas!
TomboyX - Underwear
TomboyX is a great Shopify case study since it could find the niche that it is suitable for and make a profit out of it. It is an underwear company that makes designed boxers for curvy women and men. Fran Dunaway and Naomi Gonzalez are the founders, who came up with the company's idea when looking for a cool shirt for themselves. They wanted a cool shirt with button-ups for women and had fun features.
The couple raised $76,000 on Kickstarter and decided to expand into different ranges with a recognizable logo. These items resonated with thousands of women who couldn't find comfortable underwear for work and turned out to be the brand's best sellers. After taking some notes for improvement and starting designing boxer briefs for TomboyX, Fran and Naomi found their success.
What you can learn from TomboyX is how they focused on solving an important problem for customers that is neglected by other brands. Although the company started off as a t-shirt company, they quickly realized that TomboyX is the only one that is trying to solve the underwear problem for curvy women. Fran and Naomi doubled it down on their decision and grew the business by triple.
Prymal - Coffee creamer
Started in 2018, Prymal has been selling healthy coffee creamers on Shopify for over two years. But it was able to grow from $2k in revenue to $35k of revenue just in one year. The special thing about Prymal's product is that it is suitable for coffee lovers who have Diabetes conditions, which is why the company was founded as well.
Courtney Lee watched as her father struggled with finding a suitable cream brand for his coffee, so she spent one and a half years developing the products that people with type 2 diabetes can keep drinking tasty coffee every morning without worrying about low-sugar rate. Her very first customers were eager to have a trial and turned to be the company's early adopters and brand advocates, who would share their experience widely on Instagram.
Believing in healthy and natural products, Courtney started building the brand by creating more great cream flavors and producing creative content to market Prymal on Instagram all by herself. 2019 was the official year that Prymal launched. The website now has ten flavors and more investments into marketing, with videos explaining how it all started.
KLIMCHI - Glassware
Shopify not only opens the door to eCommerce for entrepreneurs, it also lets traditional businesses find a new way to sell. That is the story of KLIMCHI, originally named Clartés Bohemia. It is a 100 years old family business that makes glassware artisanship. The premium Bohemian glassware products provide a sleek look for kitchens and home decoration. All of the products are handmade in the family-owned glass factory in Kamenicky Senov, a town in the Czech Republic.
What the brand did great was telling the story of the family tradition throughout the website. The sincere history creates trust in the brand and ensures buyers of the products' quality, authenticity, and intangible values. In the first four months after setting up the store, Klimchi saw the conversion rate improve from below 2% to 8%, mainly thanks to the lean approach towards eCommerce and marketing.
Lukas, who is in charge of growing the online presence for the family business, advised new entrepreneurs to start carefully from the beginning. He said people should validate the products and market demand first before investing in too much. Once traction comes in, then they should reinvest the revenue to keep the business growing.
Nectar Bath Treats - Bath bombs
Bath and body treats are mainly for women, so they can be as sweet as they can be. Nectar Bath Treats sells joyful and surprise experiences through fun-looking body products that smell just as nice as they look. The company focuses on optimizing user experience by a charming website with various tactics to maximize sales conversion.
Tom Taicher is the founder of Nectar, who came up with the business idea when he realized that the majority of skincare products weren't made for the whole family's fun. He decided to put the fun back into bath and beauty treats with colorful products and an online store powered by Shopify.
The whole website was beautifully designed with eye-catching elements that blend in to be visually appealing. They also added a popup to offer a coupon off the first order for new customers. This tactic helps convert new visitors into email subscribers or customers right from the first visit and increase the conversion rate. Nectar Bath Treats also exploits dynamic retargeting ads to maximize the reach and possibility to turn visitors into customers.
Barbell Apparel - Sport apparel
Founded by a team of athletes and friends, Barbell Apparel started as a Kickstarter project and now sells premium denim, shirts, chinos, polos, tank tops, shorts, hoodies, jackets, and sports bras engineered to be athletic fit and have great performance. Hunter Molzen founded the company, and he bootstrapped the business without any additional money from outside.
Hunter was a regular gymer and did a lot of weightlifting. The frequent exercise made his legs bigger than usual, and as a result, he couldn't find any jeans that fit him. So he decided to solve the problem by innovating one of the least material used for gym - denim. He made the pair of jeans that fit athletically built legs and then asked for crowdfunding on Kickstarter after a few iterations. He had no experience of starting a business when he started, but Barbell Apparel has now sold over 40,000 pairs of pants.
One thing Hunter shared that is noteworthy: he emailed many experts for opinions when starting out. It is easy to find one's email and connect him/her on the internet today. So, if you need help with something you don't know, try to identify the one that can help and ask. It may lead to surprise opportunities.
Barbell Apparel also uses social proof on the product page very well. Customers can leave star ratings and pictures of the apparel in action. They also have verified stickers so visitors can know they are real customers. Using social proofs is one of the most effective ways to increase the conversion rate on your online store.
Infantnatic - Baby clothes
Infantnatic started as an idea based on the simple hobby of a mother: dressing up her children nicely and cute. Maricel from Australia started building the website on Shopify with the help of her husband. And just in the very few first months, her business took off. The baby clothes she sells include baby and children's wear, shoes, socks, tights, and accessories.
The website looks lovely with the main color of brown. Marciel shares that one of the challenges of running an online store is making sure her customers are happy with the products purchased and keep coming back to buy more. So she chose Instagram as the channel to drive new buyers and engage with current customers. She wants to keep investing more effort into Instagram marketing and exploring more about Facebook ads.
Premier Estates Wine - Wine
Have you ever been annoyed by a know-it-all about wine? Well, Premier Estates Wine can help. It is a company that tries to keep things simple for newcomers who want to get into wine. There are only three ranges of products and it is easy to find what you like. The company has wine experts who source award-winning wines around the world and sell.
Budge Dhariwal is the founder and he was originally a cab driver who was sick of driving all day. Fancying a career change, he picked up an off-license and became a wine retailer. However, he was unable to compete with large supermarkets, especially during holiday periods, so Budge decided to sell his off-license and opened a wine company.
He then flew around Europe to talk with major wineries and tried to convince them to be the suppliers of his independent wine company. And it actually worked. Premiere Estates Wine has multi award-winning wine sources that anyone can enjoy and find a suitable product easily.
One key takeaway from Premier Estates Wine is that online stores should always have great customer service, then encourage the delightful customers to refer the business to their friends. It was a successful tactic to drive extra sales and revenue through word of mouth and satisfied customers.
BestSelf Co. - Productivity products
One of the best Shopify case studies about how a brand can use content to attract customers, BestSelf Co. is a company that sells products that can increase productivity, which can take a lot of work to convince potential buyers. Their best selling product is the Self Journal, a planner book that lets you control the goals and tasks of everyday life.
The founders - Cathryn Lavery and Allen Brouwer met when they joined the Foundation, a group for people who are trying to start their own online businesses. At that time, they were already running their own businesses: Cathryn had a store selling graphic prints while Allen was a consultant on digital marketing. To collaborate on a new business together, they needed a planner to organize projects and tasks throughout the day. This was when they decided to create a planner for their own use and knew it would be something many people want as well.
Then, they started a Kickstarter campaign, raised enough funds, and BestSelf Co. came to existence. To ensure that the campaign would succeed, Allen and Cathry built out a community that would support the product launch and provides an email list for marketing activities. They wrote epic content and encouraged people to subscribe to the email list and receive more good information. It was extremely effective.
Now, BestSelf Co. even has apps, clubs, and online courses to help people achieve their best selves. So if you are having trouble building a customer base, consider setting your vision with achievable goals like them. Email lists are still very powerful to help you achieve more audience!
Viking Lair Shop - Viking inspired products
Viking Lair Shop pays tribute to the badass ancestors of the European continent, providing jewels and accessories mostly handmade in the Viking theme. The Viking's culture and styles are presented through a series of products that remind customers about a whole glorious area of the bearded men. This is truly a must-see website for Viking enthusiasts or inspired by the unique stage of history.
Titus - the founder of Viking Lair- said he failed six times to find a successful business. The online store was previously owned by another person, but Titus took over and grew its sales number big time. The minimum monthly sales are about $8,000 while the maximum revenue can be between $15,000 - 30,000. The store even experienced a 200% increase in sales, making it one of the most successful Shopify stores.
Paying attention to craft the most appealing product's title and description is one of the strategies that Titus uses to attract shoppers. On top of that, he often tests 3-4 advertising campaigns at a time to find which is the best for his store. For the website, the store stays true to the source materials and lets buyers browse through the categories by Viking symbols.
TOILE Showroom - Dropship bedding items
Based in Canada, Toile Showroom was born when the founders realized that Montreal was lacking a high-quality bed, bath, and table products. The company started as an in-home service in 1998 and added eCommerce to the mix with Shopify. Through the online store, they provide a vast array of products and personal services to make the bedroom look amazing and comfortable.
One special thing is that TOILE Showroom mostly drop ship since most of the orders need to be the exact customizations that clients want. They still have a few basic items in limited quantities. Products can be sent directly to customers by suppliers, or, mostly, repackaged in the showroom for verification and personal notes of thanks. The company's revenue is estimated at around $800,000.
Ingrid Bryson is the founder of TOILE Showroom and advises other entrepreneurs to keep it simple when starting out. Originally she had a very large selection of products but had to trim it down to a small selection for online selling. She suggested that people should choose quality over quantity and give the customer a personal sense of what the brand is and why the products matter.
Crossloop - Designer earphones
One of the rare Shopify stores that sell designer earphones in India, Crossloop is bursting with unique designer earphones. The products look trendy, bold, and stylist, which are perfect for millennials and gen Z. The story behind the brand starts with a desire to make the ordinary earphones look cooler. Everyone has earphones, but they can look the same, so Crossloop lets people wear new and fashionable earphones that express characteristics.
Starting in April 2018, Crossloop was able to have an average number of orders between 50-80 per day just after eight months. It also sells on Amazon and has been featured as the Select Brand in December 2018. Currently, the majority of sales come from Facebook and Instagram. The company's future plan is expanding to 5-7 countries in the next year and enhance advertising through Google.
The design is something every brand can learn from Crossloop. It has a distinctive style for photos, especially the ones on Instagram. The tactic lets customers immediately realize the brand and feel the stylist side of Crossloop. If you are selling to the generations that value uniqueness, you should be unique too.
Quad Lock - Smartphone mounting
Founded in 2012 in Australia, Quad Lock is an eCommerce store that sells mounts that can securely and conveniently attach smartphones to bikes, cars, or arms. The product lets you use your phone hand-free and easily use Maps while cycling or running without worrying about dropping the phone. Quad Lock is one of the best Shopify case studies that has sold its products to over 100 countries.
Chris Peters is the founder of Quad Lock and as an avid cyclist, he couldn't find the satisfying products on the market that can mount his iPhone to the bike so he could use Google maps to navigate around the city. So, like any entrepreneur, he decided to make his own mount product, eventually received funding from Kickstarter crowds, and later launched an online store with Shopify.
Chris had a very good strategy of marketing, which involved many customer reviews as social proofs and a dose of Facebook and Google ads. He also used Reddit and Twitter to promote the brand. He advised new store owners to focus on selling products instead of wondering what is the perfect theme. Start with a standard theme, begin selling, track all the data, and optimize from there.
Black Hair and Skincare - Hair loss products
As the movement of black-owned businesses keeps growing, Black Hair and Skincare has been on the market for a while and targets a very specific niche: people who have to deal with hair loss and want to have organic skincare products. It started with a single product in 2016, and slowly expanded to a wide range of unique and organic products with 200 orders per month nowadays.
Focusing on being a product made by black women for black people, the strategy to grow of Black Hair and Skincare is focusing on social media, creating helpful content for buyers, and generating a lot of traffic to have more customers. Besides, the store also uses a free shipping bar to encourage customers to spend more. This is a useful tactic that any store can try.
Home Shoppe - Home decor
If you are interested in selling outdoor or indoor furniture, Home Shoppe is one of the best Shopify case studies to learn from. It has a large collection of everything a house needs, from garden decoration, kitchen appliances to cleaning accessories. The company is based in Singapore and has seen tremendous growth over the years.
Having been in the market for more than five years, Home Shoppe now reaches the annual growth of over 20%. Their unique selling point is that they offer good quality products from Europe at affordable prices. To drive the business to its peak, Home Shoppe has to use every marketing method in its online store.
Xan - the marketing manager of Home Shoppe shared that the company uses check-out-cart offers, limited-time deals, and membership programs to retain customers. That is the key to success for many online retailers, focusing on enjoyable shopping experience for customers.
Happy Wifey - Women fashion
With the motto of "Let's have some fun", Happy Wifey is an inspiring women fashion brand that sells a whole lifestyle for confident women. With sweatshirts, t-shirts, underwears, beanies, and makeup bags, women of all ages can realize their own beauty by putting on Happy Wifey products.
The company focuses on providing sustainable and high-quality products, so there are not many variants in the collections. Despite that, it is a fast-growing clothing brand that grows 50% in revenue annually. And like many companies in the fashion industry, the most effective marketing channel for Happy Wifey is social media, which is Instagram.
It has been doing very well on the channel with a good strategy of partnering with various Instagram influencers who affect a lot of the target audience. The Instagram page of Happy Wifey now has 12,000 followers with an amazing engagement rate. One more time, you don't need many products to succeed in the eCommerce world.
Anna Cate Collection - Classic fashion items
Founded by Anna Cate Dickens in 2016, Anna Cate Collection is a high-end women fashion brand that put a new look into the classic pieces. The store features timeless items that let customers mix and match their clothes to look trendy all year round. The store's mission is to let buyers frequently change the styles using the same items. By being sustainable fashion, Anna Cate Collection's products promise to last for ages.
The store receives about 30 orders per month with all kinds of fashion items such as shorts, dresses, tops, earrings, handbags, and pareos. Anna said the store's core marketing strategy is to optimize the Instagram page and focus on social media advertising to promote the store to the middle-aged group and a bit of the younger demographic. Social media is the main traffic source for the website with Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Myaderm - Healing medication
Myaderm is one of the best Shopify case studies because it dares to try one of the most controversial ingredients to make its medicine products and succeed. The business uses Cannabidiol (CBD) to create innovative products with therapeutic benefits. It has astonished the public with the achievements and even got featured on CNN and The New York Times. In the peak month, Myaderm has over 2000 orders and has an initial conversion rate of 15%.
The secret behind the million-dollar Shopify store is that it brings exactly what people need from a healing medication - a product that is effective but not harmful even in the long term. Myaderm spent years researching to find out that CBD is the required ingredient to make a great alternative medicine over the available products.
Despite the highly controversial ingredient, the company still could find a niche to make its products go viral. Relying on word of mouth and direct communication, Myaderm succeeded in promoting the brand to a larger audience. Old school methods still work, and they never get old.
Felony Case - Phone cases
Felony Case is a company based in Toronto and specializing in designing unique iPhone cases. The founder - Andrew Moore started the business in 2012 and has created many flagship case designs since then. Its most notable case designs are ones with spikes and studs, and the current top-seller is the Kaleidoscope Cases with nine color variations.
The company started as a small shop on Etsy and now is an internationally recognized iPhone case brand with two Shopify stores in USD and CAD. It also sells on Amazon. Andrew made phone cases by hand out of a hobby, then saw his brand growing to be featured on the Apple retail stores. He flew himself to China a dozen times to have his cases made with competitive pricing.
For the decision of using Shopify as the selling platform, Andrew explained that he tried WooCommerce but it wasn't convenient to update or add new products, while Shopify was more user-friendly with an easy-to-use interface. The developers and app ecosystem of Shopify also allow Felony Case to operate more efficiently.
Last words
There you go, those are the 20 best Shopify case studies that sell all sorts of products to motivate your next big business idea. It can be quite a journey to succeed with eCommerce, but success can come to anyone. All the store owners above are just like you, people who had an idea and decided to make it happen.
So, are you ready to step up and start your own Shopify store this year? I look forward to hearing from you in the comments section, and Avada is always ready to assist and help your store scale non-stop. Good luck with your eCommerce journey!
