How to Create a One Product Shopify Store

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A one product Shopify store is just what it sounds like: an ecommerce shop that sells one item, and nothing else. These types of online stores have their purpose, and often serve as strong parts of the overall sales process.

Whether you’re an inventor selling one product, or a company interested in making a separate website for all your products, this article will help you learn how to create a one product Shopify store in the most professional way possible.

Keep reading to learn more!

In this article:

A one product Shopify store?

A one product Shopify store may sound strange to some people, but it’s frequently the easiest way to sell a product online.

There’s a wide range of benefits when using a one product ecommerce store:

  • It’s less complicated: you focus on one item, and making that product page flawless in terms of optimization, quality, and its ability to convert customers. There’s no thinking about a thousand product SKUs. Instead, your business resources are spent on selling the one item.
  • Branding: from Roku to Michelin, it’s much easier to build a memorable brand identity when all marketing materials are talking about one item (or a collection of very similar items). Customers will see your logo or company name and immediately know what you sell. Sure, you may eventually add other items to the catalog, but it’s the core product that’s most influential in the branding game.
  • Improved research and development: while competitors are spreading their resources thin on dozens of product lines, you’re able to focus all research and development into perfecting the one product you sell.
  • Faster scaling: Many brands wait to scale until they have a substantial product line. Waiting around that long wastes time and money, but also limits the number of customers you can reach with that one potentially fruitful product. You’re better off taking orders from the start than assuming it will all come together once you have more products.

Now that you know about the benefits of a one product Shopify store, let’s explore the situations in which it may make sense for you:

  • Niche products: one product stores work well when your item caters to a specific type of person, like the working mother who likes to backpack on the weekends, or the post-grad male living in the city. When you have a unique item to sell a smaller target audience, it makes sense to have a one product site, since it’s easier for those people to find the item through the cluttered internet.
  • Digital items: From courses to music, and eBooks to software, all of these digital items deserve their own one product websites. This helps set the stage for the new product, acting as an unveiling and hyping up of the product.
  • Inventors: Sometimes a company or individual only has one or two products to sell in the first place. If you’ve come up with an innovation, the best course of action is to see if it sells with a one product Shopify store. Don’t wait around for your next five ideas to sell alongside the item. One product online stores are particularly useful for those running crowdsourcing campaigns.
  • Any new item: even big brands can benefit from using one product Shopify stores, seeing as how the goal is to make the release as exciting as possible. Landing pages work great, but there’s nothing like having a separate domain name and complete website for the next best thing from your business.

Not convinced? Here are some examples of real world companies using one product online stores to put all the focus on an individual item. Check out the list below for our favorite one product Shopify store examples.

Palmpress

palmpress

Palmpress has a handful of products now, but it’s still pretty much focused on the original idea of a quick, easy way to make pressed coffee at home or on the road.

iDraw

idraw

The iDraw brand sells sketchbooks designed to help people learn how to draw, since it’s paired with a reference guide inside the book.

Snooz

snooz

Snooz is a revolutionary sound machine with curated white noise for the type of sleeper you are. The store has a few product versions out now, but it started as a one product shop, and is still close to that.

Wurkin Stiffs

wurkin stiffs

The Wurkin Stiffs brand has a sleek and stylish ecommerce business that primarily sells “stays” to keep collars fresh and without drooping. Again, the business has grown to include other items, but it’s still sticking to one type of product.

How to create a one product Shopify store

With your product ready to go, now’s the time to create a one product Shopify store! We recommend using Shopify for this task since it’s the best ecommerce platform on the market.

Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Choose a Shopify theme designed for one product (or just a few products)

Before anything, create an account at Shopify, and use the free trial to get a feel for the interface. You can build an entire store during the free trial, without typing in your credit card information!

Shopify

Once in the Shopify dashboard, go to Online Store > Themes. Click Add Theme > Visit Theme Store.

This is one of the most important parts of building a one product Shopify store, since there are specific single product Shopify themes designed just for individual products (or smaller product catalogs).

visiting the Shopify theme store

In the Theme Store, we recommend going to Collections > Small Catalogs.

small catalogs

As an alternative, you can click on All Themes, and check the filter box for catalog sizes of 1-9 Products. This method gives you a few more themes than shown under the Small Catalogs collection.

small product collection themes for one product Shopify store

Scroll through the themes and test their demos to understand which features are included with each one. Some themes are free, while other premium themes (with more advanced features) have reasonable one-time fees.

When you find the theme that fits your branding and functionality requirements, click its Try Theme button. This adds the theme to your Shopify website. You only have to pay for premium themes if you publish the website.

picking a theme

There’s one more step to make the theme active in Shopify. Under Themes > Theme Library in Shopify, find the recently added theme. You must click the Publish button to see it live on your website. Otherwise, you have the option to Customize the theme as much as you want before publishing.

publish the one product Shopify store theme

As a result, you’ll see the new theme marked as your Current Theme.

customize theme in Shopify

Step 2: Create the product page

Since you’re only adding one product, it’s important to actually make a product page, but also add Buy buttons and information about the item on the homepage. In fact, just about every page on your site will in some way be related to the one item.

To start it all, you must create a product page. This allows you to reference the item from anywhere on your website, and for people to add it to their carts.

Click on Products > Add Your Products.

This reveals a product page with fields to fill, like:

  • Title
  • Description
  • Media
  • Pricing
  • Collections
  • Tags
  • Product Category
  • Many more

You are welcome to add collections for organizing your website, but it’s essential to at least add the item to a Home Page collection. This gives you the ability to place the product into a gallery or product widget on the theme’s homepage.

collection for the one product Shopify store

Thereafter, include the product on whichever sales channel you’d like, most notably your Online Store. Mark the item as Active, then click the Save button.

Step 3: Design the homepage (and include the product on that page)

You now have a product page for the one item you intend to sell.

Now it’s time to make your homepage shine, as this is the area that most people will see. It serves as the landing page and product page for a one product website, so it’s imperative to put a lot of work into the calls to action, media elements, and overall ease of use.

To design the homepage, go to Online Store > Themes > Customize. This shows your homepage in the Shopify page builder.

Most small catalog themes should have a Featured Product section. If not, add one. Put this somewhere near the top of the page to make it the main focus. And link the product you just made.

listing of the one product Shopify store

With your product featured as the main attraction, you can then move onto other elements of the homepage, like uploading a logo, adding image galleries, writing the story behind the product, and social proof like influencer reviews and testimonials. Other elements to consider include CTA buttons, a new color scheme, dropshipper apps, fonts, header customizations, and a marketing strategy with email forms. You should always think about adding more product details and product photography on the homepage, along with details about new variants or different products.

Step 4: Incorporate social proof, testimonials, and mentions in the news

Using galleries, text boxes, and multicolumn content modules, you’re able to generate beautifully constructed social proof on the homepage in Shopify.

For instance, some themes have sections for testimonials. If not, simply add a section with a Rich Text block, followed by a Multicolumn block.

testimonials for a one product Shopify store

To get people excited about the product, we also recommend adding this type of content on the homepage:

  • A list of publications and the good things they’ve said about the product.
  • Reviews and videos from influencers who may have talked about the item.
  • Galleries from your social media pages to show the product in action.

Step 5: Make it as simple as possible to buy

When it comes to designing a successful one product Shopify store, you already have the tough part done. Just make sure the homepage is as straightforward and modern as possible. That links to the product page, and should have a Buy Now button on the homepage, so people don’t even have to go through the extra step of looking at the product page.

After that, Shopify offers a prebuilt, optimized shopping cart for you. It slides into the side of the window, allowing users to see what’s in the cart. Thereafter, they can go to the checkout page and make their purchase without any friction!

To configure your payment processor, go to Settings > Payments in Shopify. Click the Activate Shopify Payments button for the fastest way to start accepting payments.

activate payments for your one product Shopify store

Otherwise, Shopify offers support for hundreds of other payment processors (for an added fee).

With your payment processing configured, you can now move onto a marketing plan, which often involves influencer marketing, email marketing, SEO, and paid search engine ads.

That’s how you create a one product Shopify store!

Extra tips and best practices to create a one product Shopify store

If you hit any roadblocks or have questions about how to create a one product Shopify store, refer to the sections below for assistance.

  • Consider one product Shopify stores when making a dropshipping store: They’re great for introducing new products or simply focusing on one dropshipped product that’s a bestseller.
  • Put a strong focus on calls to action: You must tell people how to check out, and make those calls appealing.
  • Make sure your product images and videos are top-notch: get professional photography done, and show your product in action with video.
  • Optimize the checkout and mobile version: mobile shopping is more prevalent than ever, and since you’re only selling one item, people will want to check out fast.
  • Use scarcity tactics to improve conversion rates: scarcity drives conversions, so your marketing materials should include details about high demand and potentially low stock. Other tactics like price anchoring, the framing effect, and urgency all come into play here.
  • Use storytelling in your product descriptions: where did you get the idea? Who is the product specifically for? Use imagery and writing to paint a picture.
  • Utilize word of mouth and influencer marketing: from influencers to product reviews, you want the product to shine when people talk about it.
  • Make sure all questions are answered: use live chats, FAQs, and other informational pages to ensure customers know exactly what they’re buying. This not only minimizes resources spent on customer support, but it shows transparency. All product pages should have details about returns, shipping, promos and more.

Are you ready to create a one product Shopify store?

In this article, we explained the basics behind a one product Shopify store, and showed you examples of single product stores in the real world. If you intend to launch a one product Shopify store, use this step-by-step guide as a reference tutorial. And tap into our best practices to ensure everything goes smoothly!

Please let us know in the comments section if any of you entrepreneurs have any questions about how to create a high-quality, one product Shopify store with the right templates and apps. And share your insights if you’ve already made a single product Shopify store in the past!

Joe Warnimont

Joe Warnimont is a Chicago-based writer who focuses on eCommerce tools, WordPress, and social media. When not fishing or practicing yoga, he's collecting stamps at national parks (even though that's mainly for children). Check out Joe's portfolio to contact him and view past work.

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