One Product Shopify Stores: How to Build Them and Be Successful

The concept that one product Shopify stores essentially run on is the glory of a single product that overshadows all competition and draws attention to the highlights of that one single product. Think of the footwear brand, Crocs. What comes to mind? Crocs started by actively marketing their one and only product – their iconic clogs – and based their entire business on perfecting the sales of this product.

In fact, their clogs weren't just any footwear. They stemmed from a basic need for great boat shoes, and long research ensued to create a pair of footwear that was durable, sturdy, and suitable to wear in watery, wet places. At every step, the creators of these clogs were personally using the product and actively seeking public feedback as well. With such depth in the development of a product, half the work for creating a one-product-based campaign was already done.

So, here's the thing about creating one-product Shopify stores: you need a product that

• Is genuinely well-researched
• Breaks the norms with a unique characteristic that other similar products in the industry don't
• Justifies the price point that it's sold at

Building a stately empire on the foundations of a single product needs thorough inputs, not just in research and choice of product, but also in public feedback and personal endorsement. Let's understand the various aspects involved in creating one-product Shopify stores.

‍

What is a One-Product Shopify Store?

As is in the name, a one-product Shopify store is an e-commerce website built around a single product, showcasing its full value by dedicating an entire website to it**. One-product Shopify store themes** make it possible to build such a website.

One great example of such website and marketing can be attributed to Slurp Laboratories. This Korean skincare brand took to the next level while marketing its skincare formula, Niacin, as it was launched worldwide as the only product that the company sold. Their entire website focused on how the product worked, what ingredients were used in creating it, how each of these ingredients targeted a particular type of skin damage, what other users were saying about it, and how you could pre-order a bottle for yourself.

In addition, they put in place a robust feedback and helpline system to create a seamless customer experience. Slurp Labs was actively telling the world that it embraced its products before its customers did and had nothing to hide because it had confidence in Niacin.

When there's just a single product to sell, you have to make every element, every aspect of your one product Shopify store revolve around it. This is the key to creating a good one-product Shopify store.

Let's understand the type of products that a one-product Shopify store is suitable for.

‍

What Kind of Products is Suitable for a One Product Shopify Store?

If you do it right, you can succeed in selling any kind of item on a one-product Shopify store. However, there are a few boxes that your product tick checks before it can hit the shelves. Let's see what they are.

‍

Is Your Product Unique?

What value is your product offering to the consumers that run-of-the-mill products aren't? Since there's no variety on your single product website, there has to be an unmatched quality that your consumers cannot find elsewhere.

‍

Is Your Margin Enough?

If you're going to be selling a single product, it had better be profitable. For all the product development that went into it, a pricing strategy should already be in place that puts it into the friendly list for your target audience while still getting you the returns you're hoping for.

‍

Is Your Product Competitive Enough?

It's important that your consumers see the value in going for your product rather than your competitors'. There has to be a value proposition that puts your product ahead of the competition – for example, today, in the cosmetics industry, organic and sustainable products are in vogue.

In the end, it's about creating one product that breaks all the norms and outshines every other solution in the niche. Building a one-product Shopify store around such an item then becomes easier.

‍

Suitability: The Pros and Cons of Having a One-Product Shopify Store

While you do have a great product to sell, certain consequences come with doing this that may not be as desirable. Let's now look at some pros and cons of selling a single product.

‍

Pros

• You can focus on a single product. This one product is the hero, the glory of your website. All the effort you put in goes into making this product shine, making it better and better
• Simpler marketing: Since there is only one product to market, the workflows are simpler. There is better clarity among the team members, better knowledge of the product, and therefore, better marketing
• Better brand value: A single exceptional product will help people remember your brand better than multiple average products

‍

Cons

• Your brand can't enjoy the benefit of cross-selling
• Marketing needs to be extremely creative for it to be effective
• Customer retention and loyalty will be harder to earn

‍

How to Build a One-Product Shopify Store

There's a lot of meditation that goes into selecting the one product that will get the trophy for your brand. Let's take this step by step.

Step One: The What and How

The first step always constitutes looking for a product to sell. You either already have the product researched and developed and are looking to create a website for it, or you wish to go into the single-product mode to launch a new brand. Consider the following points:

• What are you selling? Discover the product. Learn about it, use it yourself, find out what's great about it and what's not – find ways to improve on the product and add value to it that other brands haven't. Consider whether you would use this product yourself. Think about things like building a brand around it and selling it internationally. This gets you the answer to the "What to sell" part of the question.
• Target the right audience. Not every product is suitable for use by everyone. Once your product is ready, you need to research the audience whose lives your product is set to change. Turn this into a focal point for targeting all marketing campaigns towards this audience.
• The practical part comes when the creative part is done. You need to figure out your procurement and supply chains, production, logistics, operations, etc., that actually get the ball rolling.

‍

Step Two: Creating a Brand

It's important for your brand to embody everything that your target audience expects from your product. Consider the earlier example of Slurp Laboratories and Niacin. Their brand colour is translucent – almost transparent – much like the product. This goes to show they have nothing to hide. This is the one thing that users need in their skincare regime – to have no hidden ingredients in their products and for the brand to embrace the product wholeheartedly as well. Consider the following tips:

• Select the tone of your brand that the target audience identifies with. Are they Baby Boomers, Millennials, or Gen Z? Which demographic, region, ethnicity, or nationality are you targeting? Pick a brand tone that the target audience can relate to
• Select the right colours. It's highly likely that certain colours appeal to Baby Boomers more than Millennials. Your brand colours should reflect that
• All the aesthetics of your brand and logo should resonate with the target audience

When you're done creating a brand, it's time to build your one-product Shopify store.

‍

Step Three: Build a One-Product Shopify Store

You can start building your store by following the tips mentioned below:

• Select the right one-product Shopify store theme. There are many single product themes available, but do look for customizations like "Back in Stock" tags, "Pre-order" options, stock number displays, etc., that make it easier to soft-market your single product.
• Carefully customize the homepage to reflect every single element of your branding in its proper light. Since there's only one product to highlight, you bank your entire brand on it – there's no room for compromises
• Create a dedicated page for the product to display it in all its glory.

‍

There's one important thing that you need to remember, though: all great brands, in their early years, started off as one-product brands. Even though websites weren't a thing back then, they did utilize effective marketing in other ways to ensure they had profitability. Following are some brands (that have now expanded and offer multiple products today):

• Coca Cola (started with a soda drink)
• Colgate (started with one toothpaste)
• Apple (started with one computer)
• Pizza Hut (started with one pizza; also, they invented the stuffed crust pizza)
• Ford (started with a racing car)

From here, it's up to you to create strong foundations and expand into becoming an empire.

‍

Conclusion

It's difficult to start a one-product Shopify store when you don't know what you want to sell or the kind of brand you want to create. However, with dedicated research and creative innovation, it is possible.