When running an EC site, "where you sell your products" has a major impact on revenue. Shopify offers a variety of sales channels beyond your own online store — points of contact and platforms for selling products through SNS, marketplaces, and more.
If you're looking to expand your sales channels, you may have questions like the following.
"What sales channels does Shopify offer?" "I want to know how to add and remove Shopify sales channels."
This article explains what sales channels are, their benefits and points to note, the specific types available, and how to add and remove them. We'll help you organize which sales channels fit your business and give you hints for expanding revenue.
What Are Shopify Sales Channels?
A Shopify "sales channel" refers to a place or medium through which you sell your products.
By making use of sales channels, you can sell products across multiple channels — not just your own online store, but also SNS, marketplaces, physical stores, and more. For example, you can tag and sell products in Instagram posts, list them on Google Shopping, or sell them by integrating with marketplaces like Rakuten Ichiba or Amazon.
What makes Shopify excellent is that you can manage your product data and inventory centrally, no matter which sales channel you sell through. In other words, there's no need to adjust inventory counts or prices individually for each channel — you can sync everything to every channel from a single admin. This lets you reduce your operational burden while aiming to boost revenue through expanded sales channels.
These sales channels can be flexibly added or removed as your shop grows. A small business can start with an online store and then, as demand grows, expand into SNS or marketplaces — a gradual expansion is entirely possible.
Benefits of Adding More Shopify Sales Channels
Here are the key benefits you get from adding more Shopify sales channels.
Benefit 1. Expanding Customer Touchpoints
The biggest benefit of adding sales channels is that you can increase touchpoints with customers. In addition to your own online store, showcasing products on SNS platforms like Instagram or TikTok lets you reach new customer segments. Opening a shop on a major marketplace like Rakuten Ichiba or Amazon can also help you acquire highly motivated buyers who come in through in-marketplace search.
Benefit 2. Maximizing Purchase Opportunities
Letting customers buy smoothly from whatever platform they normally use lowers the barrier to purchase. For example, when you feature a product in a YouTube livestream, viewers can jump straight to your Shopify product page and buy it on the spot.
In this way, adding sales channels helps you maximize the chances that lead to a sale.
Points to Note When Adding More Shopify Sales Channels
While adding sales channels brings various benefits, there are also points to keep in mind.
Point 1. Increased Operational Load
Shopify lets you centrally manage inventory and product data across multiple channels, but in practice, some work specific to each channel still remains. For example, you'll need to follow each marketplace's own listing rules, and keep up with regular content updates and comment responses on SNS. These things can't be covered by Shopify's automatic sync feature alone, and they add to your operations team's workload.
On top of that, each channel tends to have its own characteristics — "different best-selling products," "different user demographics" — which calls for product messaging and campaign design tailored to each one.
Point 2. Consistency of Brand Experience
When selling across multiple channels, you need to pay attention to consistency in pricing, customer support, and design. If prices and promotions vary too much between channels, it can create distrust and damage your brand value. Differences in the speed or care of customer support can also erode trust. On top of that, if the design of your product pages or the tone of your messaging is inconsistent, it becomes harder to convey your brand's identity, which can get in the way of building awareness and a fan base.
When adding sales channels, it's important to expand gradually while taking your resources, operational structure, and brand experience into account.
List of Sales Channels Available on Shopify
Shopify supports a wide range of channels beyond your own online store — SNS, Google, domestic and international marketplaces, and in-person retail. Since you can operate all of these from the Shopify admin, you can run multiple sales channels efficiently.
In this section, we introduce the main sales channels aimed at Japanese stores and their characteristics. The sales channels covered here are as follows.
- Online Store
- Facebook & Instagram
- Google & YouTube
- TikTok Shop
- Rakuten Ichiba
- Amazon
- Shopify POS
- Buy Button
- The Shop App
- Wholesale
Let's go through each one.
Online Store
The foundation of Shopify's sales channels is your "Online Store" (EC site). You use Shopify's theme templates to build your web pages, with full design customization available.
It also lets you sell products, publish a blog, and run a membership program. It's the starting point most operators use to launch their EC business.
Note that for most sales channels, having a Shopify account alone isn't enough to start selling — in most cases you'll also need a linked account or registration with that channel. Some channels require a review process or a fee to open an account, so keep that in mind.
Facebook & Instagram
By linking a Facebook Shop with Shopify, you can drive traffic straight from posts and ads to your product pages. Using the Meta Pixel also lets you optimize ad performance and run remarketing, making it an especially great fit for advertising operations.
Instagram Shopping also lets you tag products in posts and Stories, connecting them seamlessly to a purchase. It's particularly effective for Shopify stores handling products with strong visual appeal, such as fashion or beauty.
The blog post below explains how to set up the Meta Pixel on Shopify using Facebook & Instagram. Please use it as a reference.
Google & YouTube
Linking Google with Shopify lets you display your products through channels like Google Shopping ads. It lets you reach users with strong search intent, making it a high-converting acquisition channel.
YouTube Shopping also lets you display product links in videos and livestreams. Connecting long-form videos or review videos with your Shopify store lets you efficiently capture highly motivated viewers.
TikTok Shop
Launched in June 2025, TikTok Shop lets you tag products directly in videos and livestreams once linked with Shopify. It's well suited to marketing aimed at Gen Z through short-form video and holds real promise as a new-customer-acquisition channel.
See the blog post below for more details.
Pinterest is an SNS platform used mainly for "finding ideas." Linking it with Shopify lets you drive traffic straight from saved (pinned) images to a purchase. It's a great fit for interior and lifestyle products, as well as cross-border EC aimed at overseas users.
Rakuten Ichiba
Shopify can also integrate with Rakuten Ichiba, one of Japan's largest EC marketplaces. You can manage inventory and orders centrally, making it a good fit for operators who want to run both a marketplace shop and their own EC site side by side. You can tap into Rakuten Ichiba's customer-acquisition power while also building a traffic path to your own site.
Amazon
Since you can list and manage products on Amazon directly from Shopify, you can centralize inventory and streamline order processing. You can take advantage of a global marketplace's customer-acquisition power while running it alongside your own site.
See the blog post below for more details.
Shopify POS
Using Shopify POS lets you manage your physical store and online store centrally. It lets you consolidate offline sales data into Shopify as well, which is its strength for unifying customer and inventory management.
See the blog post below for more details.
Buy Button (Buy Button channel)
This is a feature that, for example, lets you place a purchase button on your own blog or site. Since it lets you expand your sales channels simply, it's convenient for small operators or test sales.
The blog post below explains the Buy Button channel in detail. If you're considering adopting the Buy Button channel, please use it as a reference.
The Shop App
Your products are automatically listed on "Shop," the mobile shopping app provided by Shopify, letting users search for and buy products within the app. This gives you reach into Shop's user base of over 100 million people.
Wholesale
This is a wholesale-dedicated channel available on Shopify Plus. It lets you set price lists and order conditions tailored specifically to B2B, streamlining business transactions and repeat purchases.
See the blog post below for more details.
How to Add and Remove a Shopify Sales Channel
Shopify lets you flexibly add and remove sales channels. Beyond your online store, you can expand your reach as needed with SNS or marketplaces, or clean up channels you no longer need. Here, we explain the basic flow for adding and removing sales channels.
Steps to Add a Sales Channel
Adding a sales channel follows the same steps as installing a Shopify app.
First, go to Shopify's App Store. Click "Browse apps" in the header menu, then select "Sales channels."
Image source: Shopify App Store
This shows you the apps available for adding a sales channel.
From here, select the sales channel you want to install. Of course, you can also just type the sales channel's name into the search bar.
In this example, we'll install the sales channel app "Google & YouTube." On the app's screen, click "Install."
Image source: Google & YouTube | Shopify App Store
A confirmation screen will appear — click "Install" again.
The sales channel "Google & YouTube" is now installed on your Shopify store.
From here, you'll go on to configure the settings needed to activate the sales channel.
Steps to Remove a Sales Channel
Here's how to remove a sales channel you no longer need. From the Shopify admin, go to "Settings" then "Apps and sales channels," in that order.
Click the "⋯" (ellipsis) next to the sales channel you want to remove, then select "Uninstall."
A notice will be displayed — read it carefully. If everything looks good, check the checkbox and click "Uninstall."
The sales channel has now been removed.
Make the Most of Shopify Sales Channels to Expand Your Reach
This article explained Shopify's sales channels.
Sales channels let you sell products in a variety of places and media — your online store, SNS, marketplaces, physical stores, and more — with the major appeal of being able to manage products and inventory centrally. Store operators can add the right channels for their scale and target audience, expanding their reach to reach new customer segments.
On the other hand, adding more channels also increases operational burden and cost, so it's important to roll them out gradually. Small operators might start with SNS integration, while mid-size and larger operators might combine marketplaces and POS — consider how to make use of each as you grow.
Making good use of sales channels can help maximize your revenue. Identify the channels that fit your business and expand your reach.
