9 Places You Can Put A Buy Button

Turn any website traffic you have into a storefront using Shopify Buy Buttons

What’s a Buy Button?

Buy Buttons are what you get with Shopify’s super basic $9/month plan (though you can use them with any Shopify plan. Buy Buttons can make any kind of online content clickable, leading straight to a shopping cart with a particular product. You install buy buttons as a sales channel, giving you a little piece of HTML code you can stick pretty much anywhere on the internet.

Buy buttons can be used in conjunction with all of your other Shopify goodies -- you can still take orders in person with the Point of Sale app, manage your inventory through your Shopify Admin, and get reports that integrate into all the rest of your online marketing and sales strategies.

The Buy Button is kind of like a half-way sales channel. Instead of making a full-on store that’s browsable and robust, you can simply put one product straight onto a website. This means you don’t have to try to hard to direct traffic to your online store, but can instead just put a teensy bit of store functionality right in front of your viewers.

The one downside is that each buy button can only have one variant. You’d have to put in different buy buttons for a black t shirt and a red t shirt, for example.

Find out more about how to use a buy button here

There are loads of places you can put a Buy Button, whether you’re in business or just want to monetize your blog or organisation a bit more. Here are nine places you can add a Shopify Buy Button:

1. Add a buy button to your blog, Wordpress site, Squarespace,Tumblr, Twitter, Insta profile, MySpace, Neopets...you get the deal

The most straightforward use of a buy button is on any other website. That’s gold for bloggers, artists, practitioners of all sorts, student organisations, famous people, people who think they’re famous, people who have written Self-Help books, fitness instructors, internet trolls who made funny bumper stickers, political organisations -- basically any website that isn’t focusing on e-commerce entirely.

2. Add a buy button to your pre-sale release

If you’re selling a book, album, calendar or anything else that you want to drum up excitement for, you can add a buy button to start collecting orders. This will function just like any other order, and you’ll get all of the information you need such as addresses and credit card info for when you’re ready.

3. Use the buy button to power event registrations

If you’re not using a site like EventBrite, you can consider using the Buy Button to take registrations for an event. Create a website promoting the event, with logistics and marketing materials, and stick a big buy button as your registration. You’ll have all the names of attendees, and can customise their “Order Confirmation” email to look like a ticket.

4. Add a buy button to a partner company’s site

Working with other companies that have similar audiences is a great idea for many small businesses. If they’re featuring you on marketing materials, in a blog post or as a sponsorship logo, you can ask them to include a buy button that leads straight to your store.

5. Put a buy button in an email

You can even include buy buttons on any email marketing you do, if you can write emails with HTML (which you can do if you’re using MailChimp, Klaviyo or another client). Putting a buy button in an email lets you contact your audience directly and give them details about what you’re selling, then provide a way for them to purchase it right away.

6. Add a buy button straight onto a photo

You can make your photos clickable, linking them to your website...or your buy button. The advantage is that you can turn any product photo straight into a shopping cart.

7. Ask for donations with a buy button

Charities and non-profits can use the power behind Shopify to easily collect donations through buy buttons. Unfortunately, since you can only put one variant per buy button, you’d have to set a specific amount that you’re asking people to donate with buy buttons.

8. Use a buy button to sell downloadable content

If you’ve written articles and e-books, created zines, produced songs, or made a particular piece of software that can be downloaded, you can use buy buttons to sell them as downloads. For example, if you’re a music blogger and producer, you might have pages or posts highlighting your new content. Instead of having a store on a separate page, you can offer a download of each song directly on that post through a buy button.

9. Use buy buttons on error pages and pop-ups

Any page your viewer sees can be an opportunity to put a buy button up. Even 404 error pages can be turned into monetisable content with a buy button.

Similarly, pop-ups are a great place to put a buy button. You can use them to highlight special collections, new releases, or as an incentive to get potential customers to stay on your site.

Pimp my Buy Button with Shopcodes

Are you an organisation selling one thing of merch at a pop-up or other kind of event?
Turn your Buy Button into a Shopcode and print it out. You can direct your crowd to scan a QR code on their phone, leading them straight to checkout for your products. This could work great for a non-profit asking people to donate, bands selling t-shirts at a gig, or basically anything else where you have just one simple thing to sell. Plus, you can embed a discount in a Shopcode, giving your in-person crowd an incentive to buy on the spot.

Start turning any website into an e-commerce site with buy buttons

You can learn more about installing Shopify buy buttons here. Or, get in touch with Elkfox to get help.

*Image via Shopify