How Much Can You Make from Shopify? Real Numbers + Proven Tips
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Some Shopify stores never become profitable, while others scale to six figures and beyond. In this guide, we’ll break down real store results, profit breakdowns, and the exact steps successful merchants use to grow from zero to six figures.
Shopify Success Depends on Your Business Model
Before we talk numbers, it’s important to clarify two things.
First, Shopify isn’t a business model, it’s a platform. How much money you can make on Shopify depends entirely on the type of business you run.
Second, when we talk about “how much money you can make” in this article (and at TrueProfit), we are referring to net profit, not revenue or gross sales. In other words, this is the money you keep after all costs are paid.
With that in mind, here’s how profit potential typically differs by Shopify business model:
- Dropshipping: Low startup costs, but lower margins. The seller doesn't handle inventory, which simplifies logistics. However, reliance on suppliers can lead to fulfillment delays and lower product quality. Average profits for dropshippers: less than $2000/month for beginner stores, around $10,000/month for intermediate sellers and around $50,000/month for advanced ones.
- Print-on-Demand (POD): Similar to dropshipping but with more customization. You're selling unique designs on t-shirts, mugs, and other merchandise without holding inventory. POD shops are great for creatives, but success often hinges on building a niche brand. Average profits: $100–$10,000+/month.
- Private Label/Ecommerce Brands: Higher upfront investment, but scalable with better margins. This model involves manufacturing or sourcing products under your own brand. These stores take more time to set up but often evolve into sustainable businesses. Average profits: $2,000–$50,000+/month.
- Digital Products/Courses: High margins, minimal overhead. Think eBooks, templates, and online courses. These stores often run on autopilot after the initial setup. Profits vary widely, from $500 to over $100,000/month for top creators.
- Wholesale / B2B: Wholesale stores benefit from predictable demand and larger order sizes, but margins are typically thinner and sales cycles are longer. This model works best for manufacturers or established brands expanding into B2B. You can make from $2,000–$30,000+/month, depending on volume and operational efficiency.
Choose the model that aligns with your skills, capital, and long-term goals.
How Much Do Shopify Store Owners Actually Make? (With Data)
The reality: 60% of new Shopify stores earn under $1,000/month, but 20% hit $10,000+ monthly after consistent effort. The top 10% make $100,000+ per month.
Shopify doesn’t publicly share earnings data for individual stores, so these estimates are based on TrueProfit’s analysis of real Shopify store net profit data, alongside third-party research and case studies.
- 60% of new Shopify store owners earn less than $1,000 per month in their first year. This is especially common among solo entrepreneurs who invest little in paid advertising, product research, or conversion optimization. Many use this phase for testing products, learning the platform, and building brand presence.
- About 20% of stores manage to generate $10,000 or more per month after 12–24 months. These businesses typically engage in consistent marketing efforts, optimize their storefronts for conversion, and use analytics to refine their product offerings.
- The top 10% of Shopify stores, often run by experienced entrepreneurs or dedicated teams, can earn $50,000+ per month. These stores usually benefit from niche dominance, strong brand identity, and scalable fulfillment systems.
You might be wondering:
How Much Do Shopify Store Owners Actually Have to Spend Each Month?
The core Shopify fees you'll need to cover are:
- Shopify subscription: $39 (Basic) to $399 (Advanced), depending on features and scale.
- Shopify apps & tools: $50–$300 for tools like email marketing platforms, review apps, upsell apps, analytics add-ons and post-purchase platforms.
- Advertising: $500–$10,000+ across platforms like Meta (Facebook/Instagram), TikTok, and Google. Ad spend is typically the largest variable cost and essential for scaling.
- Fulfillment & shipping: Costs vary significantly based on product weight, shipping zones, and fulfillment method (e.g., self-fulfillment vs. third-party logistics).
- Other fees: $100–$500 for domains, freelance help (design, copywriting), product photography, or business tools.
These are recurring monthly costs, and managing them well is crucial to achieving profitability. Many successful store owners reinvest early profits into paid traffic, branding, and improving the customer experience to fuel long-term growth.
Key Factors Affecting Your Shopify Income
1. You Pick Products With Healthy Margins
Products with high margins give you room to test ads, adjust pricing, and grow without losing money. On the other hand, many new stores struggle because they sell low-margin products that can’t absorb ad costs, refunds, and transaction fees.
This becomes even more critical when comparing business models: dropshipping and print-on-demand often have thinner margins than branded ecommerce, which is why branded stores have a much higher income potential.
2. You Target the Right Audience
Traffic alone doesn’t increase income, the right traffic does. Successful stores clearly define who they’re selling to, understand their pain points, and tailor messaging to match intent.
When you target buyers instead of browsers, ad efficiency improves, conversions increase, and revenue becomes more predictable. This is one of the biggest reasons some stores reach $10,000+ per month while others stay stuck at beginner levels.
3. You Build a Store That Converts
Two stores can sell the same product and get the same traffic, yet earn very different incomes. The difference is conversion. A high-converting store uses clear product pages, strong visuals, social proof, fast load times, and a frictionless checkout.
Stores that ignore conversion optimization often assume they need more traffic, when the real issue is visitors not trusting or understanding the offer. Improving conversion rate is one of the fastest ways to increase Shopify income without increasing ad spend.
4. Your Price Based on Profit
Pricing is not just about being competitive, it’s about survival. Many new Shopify store owners underprice products to get sales, only to realize later that they’re breaking even or losing money.
Successful stores price with margins in mind, factoring in product cost, shipping, ads, transaction fees, and refunds. This is especially important for dropshipping and print-on-demand, where costs are higher and margins are tighter. Smart pricing protects profit and allows sustainable growth.
5. You Set Smart KPIs for Marketing
Paid advertising is often the biggest expense for Shopify stores, and without clear KPIs, it becomes a profit killer. Losing stores run ads without tracking metrics like CPA, ROAS, and breakeven cost per purchase. Profitable stores know exactly how much they can spend to acquire a customer and still make money.
6. You Closely Track Profit
Revenue can look impressive while profit quietly disappears. Many stores celebrate high sales numbers but ignore costs like COGS, ad spend, transaction fees, and refunds. This creates the illusion of success while the business is actually losing money.
Successful Shopify stores track net profit, not just revenue, and make decisions based on real numbers. Understanding true profitability is what separates scalable businesses from those that collapse when they try to grow.
7. You Test Everything Smartly and Quickly
High-income Shopify stores test products, creatives, pricing, offers, and pages quickly, then double down on what works. Losing stores either test too slowly or make random changes without learning from data. Fast, structured testing allows small improvements to compound over time.
8. You Don’t Ignore Branding
Trust directly impacts conversion rate, repeat purchases, and long-term income. Generic stores with weak branding struggle because customers hesitate to buy or never return. Successful stores invest in clear messaging, professional design, reviews, and a reliable post-purchase experience. Brand trust turns one-time buyers into long-term assets and creates a moat competitors can’t easily copy.
How To Scale Your Shopify Stores?
Scaling your Shopify store requires strategic planning and systematic execution. Focus on these key areas to drive sustainable growth:
- Optimize your technical foundation by ensuring fast page load speeds, mobile responsiveness, and proper SEO optimization. A solid technical base can handle increased traffic without performance issues.
- Diversify your marketing channels beyond a single traffic source. Combine paid advertising (Facebook, Google, TikTok), email marketing automation, content marketing, and influencer partnerships to reduce dependency on any one channel.
- Streamline operations with inventory management software, automated fulfillment processes, and customer service tools. Consider partnering with 3PL providers as order volumes increase to maintain fast shipping times.
- Focus on data-driven decisions by tracking key metrics like customer lifetime value, average order value, conversion rates and most importantly net profit. Use Shopify Analytics or TrueProfit to identify your most profitable traffic sources and products.
- Implement growth strategies such as upselling and cross-selling, loyalty programs, and strategic product line expansions. Increase average order values through bundles and free shipping thresholds.
- Build your team gradually by delegating repetitive tasks to virtual assistants or freelancers first, then hiring specialists in marketing, operations, or customer service as revenue grows.
Success comes from balancing growth initiatives with profitability, ensuring each scaling effort contributes positively to your bottom line while maintaining excellent customer experience.
Risks and Hidden Costs When Running Your Shopify Store
While Shopify is profitable for many, it’s not without risks:
- Ad Burnout: Platforms like Facebook and TikTok constantly shift. What works today might flop tomorrow.
- Refunds/Chargebacks: These can eat into your margins quickly. Always have a clear return policy and responsive customer support.
- Overreliance on One Traffic Source: Diversify early to avoid sudden drops in sales.
- Scaling Too Fast: Going viral sounds great, but inventory shortages or poor customer service can cripple your reputation.
- Tool Fatigue: Paying for too many apps can silently erode your profits. Audit regularly.
Approach your Shopify business with a balanced mindset: growth with caution.
How to Measure Your Net Income in Shopify
Net income (also called net profit or the bottom line) is what’s left after all costs are deducted from your Shopify revenue, including product costs, ad spend, transaction fees, shipping, refunds, and apps. This number is what ultimately tells you whether your store is actually making money or just generating sales.
Many Shopify store owners rely on spreadsheets to calculate this manually, but as order volume and marketing channels grow, tracking every cost accurately becomes difficult and time-consuming. Missing even small expenses can create a false sense of profitability.
That’s why many Shopify merchants use TrueProfit to automate net income tracking. As a net profit analytics platform built specifically for Shopify, TrueProfit consolidates revenue, costs, products, and marketing performance into a single real-time dashboard. This allows you to see true profitability at every level: storewide, by product, and by ad channel, so you can make decisions based on profit, not vanity metrics.
Why TrueProfit?
- Built specifically for Shopify merchants who want clarity on net profit, not just revenue.
- Automatically consolidates revenue, costs, products, and marketing data into one real-time dashboard.
- Shows true profitability at every level: storewide, by product, and by ad channel.
- Eliminates manual spreadsheets and reduces errors from missing or miscalculated costs.
- Designed to support data-driven decisions as stores scale.
Lila Le is the Marketing Manager at TrueProfit, with a deep understanding of the Shopify ecosystem and a proven track record in dropshipping. She combines hands-on selling experience with marketing expertise to help Shopify merchants scale smarter—through clear positioning, profit-first strategies, and high-converting campaigns.
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