We are living in a golden age for business. Now, more than ever, it’s possible for anyone with a minimal amount of startup money to create an eCommerce business that generates profit from the start. By the end of this year, the global eCommerce market should be almost $5 trillion, representing a 400% increase in about seven years.
The only question is: if you know nothing about tools like Shopify, how are you supposed to create a shop of your own?
It’s easier than you think. In fact, the Shopify market is so large—there are over half a million Shopify stores, by some estimates—that it’s also created something of its own economy. People buy and sell Shopify add-ons. There are Shopify applications. And, of course, there are courses you can take to learn all about Shopify, including:
- Dropshipping
- Developing on Shopify
- Web development on Shopify
You don’t have to master these skills to get started. You only have to know enough to use the Shopify platform and deliver your customers the products they’re looking for. The question is, how do you learn that? To explore, we decided to look at a current list of Shopify courses.
If you were to take every course on this list, you would know enough about Shopify to start your own business with little work. But as the old saying goes, if you have to cut down a tree in a day, the wisest use of your time is to sharpen your ax.
When it comes to your ability to create an online store in 2022, learning all about Shopify is the equivalent of sharpening that ax.
Let’s look at the courses that can help.
Shopify Courses from Udemy
One of the most powerful tools for learning something new is Udemy, the online academy for learning—well, just about anything under the sun.
The neat thing about Udemy is that it “crowdsources” its approach to education. Just about anyone can put up a new course. And if it sells well and reviews well, it will become popular on the platform—giving you confidence that if you take the same course, you’ll learn just as much as other students have.
What does this have to do with Shopify? It means that there are dozens, maybe even hundreds, of Shopify-specific courses you can take on Udemy.
For example, if you know a little bit about Shopify, you might be worried that introductory course won’t do a lot for you, Udemy lets you zoom in on specific micro-skills. One course you can find at Udemy is The Complete Shopify Aliexpress Dropship course. In other words, it’s more specific than just tackling dropshipping on Shopify. It teaches you what to do if you have a specific vendor in mind like Aliexpress.
Let’s explore some of the more popular Shopify courses on Udemy to see what you can learn:
How to Become a Shopify Expert. This course has been rated well over 3,800 times, which should give you some confidence that a lot of people find it valuable. If you want an overview of the Shopify skills you’ll need to become an expert—even if you have no prior knowledge with Shopify—this is an excellent introductory course that will teach you all about the concepts you need to succeed on the platform.
Build a Shopify Print on Demand Business from Scratch. Print on demand can be one of the easiest ways to build a new shop. You simply use Shopify as the platform to connect your audience with the Print on Demand manufacturers who take care of the products. But that isn’t to say that it’s without its own challenges. In courses like these, you can learn everything from building your own drop-down menus to setting up messenger marketing.
Build a Shopify Dropshipping Business from Scratch. If you wanted to learn dropshipping on Shopify, this is probably one of the most popular courses for doing so available on Udemy. It will guide you through the process of getting started on Shopify—they really do mean it when they say “from Scratch”—and will take you all the way through the business, even getting to a place on Shopify where you can start outsourcing your tasks to virtual assistants.
How to Start and Scale a Shopify Dropshipping Store Quickly. What should you do with a store when you start making sales and need to scale your growth? Courses like these can steer you through the entire process, giving a special emphasis on what it takes to scale with a platform like Shopify. Here you’ll learn tips for other platforms as well, such as advertising your Shopify store on Facebook and Instagram.
The Complete Shopify Dropshipping Masterclass 2.0. With over three thousand reviews, this “Masterclass” features nearly 10 hours of video that details how to build a niche store, how to use dropshipping to fulfill orders, and how to use “cart recovery” strategies to retarget customers who didn’t quite make the purchase.
Shopify Theme Development. You only have to know a little bit of HTML and CSS to get started with Shopify theme development—courses like these can take over from there. These can be essential courses for anyone looking to add to their ability to modify their store in a way that’s consistent with their brand. It will also introduce you to Liquid Programming, which deals with how a Shopify store organizes items by tags, objects, and filters to make shopping easier on your customers.
Shopify SEO 2021. You can’t very well make sales if you don’t know how to draw people to your store. There are all sorts of SEO courses available, but we’re highlighting one of the most-reviewed courses designed specifically for SEO on Shopify. You’ll also be introduced to some bonuses that come with courses: in this case, it’s an additional proprietary app for Shopify you wouldn’t otherwise have access to.
Shopify Courses on Skillshare
The idea behind Skillshare is simple: you sign up to the website and get access to all sorts of different skills and courses you would otherwise have to pay for individually. This is a nice foot in the door for anyone looking to learn Shopify. It even includes a free 7-day trial that you can use to get started right away.
How are the offerings when it comes to Shopify? Gauge for yourself:
Shopify Essentials for Web Developers. This is a thorough class designed for the web development perspective. You’ll see lessons on creating products and their variants, developing pages and blogs, and working with the layouts and templates already supplied by Shopify. If you want to go slightly more advanced because you’ve already been introduced to these concepts, Advanced Shopify Theme Development goes into greater detail, even highlighting how you can automate workflows after you create them.
Build Your Website with Shopify and Adobe Portfolio. Sometimes, to achieve your goals, you’ll have to get Shopify to play nicely with other platforms. This course on using Shopify and Adobe Portfolio focuses on Shopify, but includes a bonus lesson on incorporating Adobe Portfolio, which can be especially useful for creative types who want to highlight hand-made crafts through a Shopify store.
Shopify Theme Programming: Liquid, JSON, and Javascript. By now, you won’t find it hard to identify Shopify courses that teach you the basics. But what if you have some working knowledge of programming and want to move ahead to more advanced knowledge? Courses like Shopify Theme Programming will help you explore that aspect of Shopify. Features like snippets, JSON schemas, and building storefront APIs are all covered in this course.
Facebook Advertising Masterclass. It never hurts to add some marketing knowledge to your repertoire. Courses like these also serve as introductions to the platforms they specialize in, which means you’ll be adding another mini-skill on top of your expanded ability to market your Shopify page.
These are just a few selections for you to check out, demonstrating the breadth of knowledge you can learn about Shopify on one platform like Skillshare. You can also browse all of Skillshare’s Shopify courses to see if there’s something that suits your specific needs.
Courses from the Shopify Partner Academy and More
Shopify is more than happy to help its customers succeed on its platform. To that end, they’ve created the Shopify Partner Academy—a list of courses and exams that Shopify members can sign up for to learn about the platform.
Store Operations Fundamentals. What’s it like to run a Shopify store? This is a course that steers you through setting up and managing your first online store. However, keep in mind that this course is also for agencies who are helping clients get set up with their own store operations.
Shopify Theme Development. This is a course to take if you want to dig into the nitty-gritty details of creating and working with Shopify themes. It covers everything from SEO to user accessibility. Because Shopify offers drag-and-drop themes for beginners, it’s not necessary to learn this just to use the platform, but it can be useful for business owners who need more advanced skills in dealing with their own theme.
Shopify and Design Psychology. If you’ve ever wondered how the design of your store might impact your sales, this course digs into this topic in detail. Here you’ll learn about how Shopify UX as well as simpler concepts such as creating clear, functional stores that make things easier on your shoppers.
LinkedIn Learning: Shopify Essential Training. LinkedIn Learning courses can be especially useful because they come with a certificate of completion that looks good on your profile. This specific course steers the user through the signing up experience through customizing your home page and beyond, giving you a working knowledge of Shopify even if you’re totally unfamiliar with the platform.
Free Shopify Courses
What if you want to poke around Shopify, but aren’t sure that it’s for you yet? You don’t have to plop down a bunch of money just to learn that you’re not enthusiastic about the platform.
Many paid courses (such as How to Become a Shopify Expert for Free, below) will offer Q&A sessions with the creator and other benefits as long as you’re paid up. But it doesn’t cost much for a course creator to make the video available for free, hopefully enticing you to sign up for more information.
If you don’t have a big budget but do have the drive to learn, this can be a major advantage. There are plenty of free Shopify courses available at places like ClassCentral or Udemy. Here are some noteworthy ones to help familiarize yourself with the platform:
Shopify Academy: The Free Training Course. Steering you through dropshipping, email and social media marketing, product photography, and more, this is one of the top introductory courses if you just want to sign up for something for free to poke around.
How to Become a Shopify Expert for Free. Offered at Udemy, you’ll find this tutorial doesn’t offer the certification of their usual courses, but still offers plenty of information.
Shopify Dropshipping Business (Light): The Complete Course. This free “light” version is nonetheless a great introduction to the world of dropshipping via Shopify and Aliexpress. And considering the “light” version still contains over an hour of material, it will feel just as substantial as other courses.
Build Shopify Dropshipping Business in 90 Days. Though unreviewed, this free offering promises over 10 hours’ worth of material, proving that if there is something you want to learn, you can probably find a course happy to provide it.
Want to learn how to use Shopify? You’ve already started by looking up the best courses. Ask yourself what you need to learn and compare the reviews of some of the best courses on this list. You’ll find that if you need knowledge to help you in your journey, there’s nothing better than living in the Information Age.
