Setting Up a Merch Store for Your Whop Community Without Building a Separate Shopify
- You do not need to build a separate Shopify or Gumroad store to sell merch to your Whop members.
- A branded Pro Shop storefront lives outside Whop and links from your existing community.
- Setup takes under an hour, no code, no monthly Shopify fee required just for merch.
- Free to start on the no-cost plan, no inventory, ships in about a week.
A common question for anyone running a paid Whop community is where the merch actually lives. Building a full Shopify store just to sell a handful of tees is overkill for most merchants, and Whop itself is built for digital products and community access, not print-on-demand apparel with sizes, colors, and physical fulfillment. The simplest answer is a separate, purpose-built storefront linked directly from your Whop community, with no coding and no extra monthly platform fee required just to sell merch.
Why merch does not belong inside Whop itself
Whop is built around digital access: course content, trading signals, SaaS tools, community chat. Physical apparel introduces variables Whop is not built to handle directly, like size charts, color variants, print production, and shipping tracking. A dedicated apparel storefront handles all of that, while your Whop community stays focused on what it already does well.
Whop vs Shopify vs a dedicated Pro Shop for merch
| Option | Monthly cost | Setup work | Handles print and shipping |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build inside Whop | N/A, not a supported product type | Not applicable | No |
| Separate Shopify store | $29-$299/mo plus apparel app fees | Theme setup, app install, product photography | No, requires a separate POD app |
| Bear Grips Pro Shop | $0-$105/mo | Upload logo, pick products, set prices | Yes, built in |
Where to place the link on your Whop community page
- Community links or resources section: the most-clicked spot for a shop link on most Whop pages
- Welcome post or pinned message: catches every new member on day one
- Description or about section: a passive placement that keeps generating clicks over time
Most merchants place the link in two or three of these spots rather than just one.
The actual setup steps
- Sign up at shops.beargrips.com/for/whop-community
- Upload your community logo as a transparent PNG
- Pick your starter products: a tee, a hoodie, and a hat
- Set retail prices, default profit is $10 per piece
- Copy the storefront link and add it to your Whop community links, welcome post, and description
The whole process takes under an hour, and the shop is live the same day.
Set Up Your Whop Community Storefront
No Shopify, no code, no monthly fee to start. Upload your logo, pick products, link it from your Whop.
Start FreeFrequently Asked Questions
Do I need to know how to code to set this up?
No. The storefront is built and hosted for you. Uploading a logo, picking products, and setting prices is the entire setup.
Is there a monthly fee just to start?
No. The free plan runs $0 a month for 3 live products at a higher base price. VIP plans unlock more products at lower base prices starting at $59 a month.
Can I use my own domain for the shop?
The shop comes with a clean, professional branded URL by default. Point your Whop community link straight to it.
Do I need a Whop plus subscription tier to add merch this way?
No. This works for any Whop community regardless of your platform plan, since the merch storefront runs entirely separate from Whop itself.
Bear Grips Pro Shops