Shopify Review

Shopify - The right place to build your e-Commerce store

In recent years, e-Commerce business has become increasingly popular. With the world advancing rapidly towards digitalization, online business is the way to success. While launching your e-Commerce store can be exciting choosing the right platform to launch your store is what takes the most effort.

In this article, we will carry out an in-depth analysis of one of the most renowned online store builder called Shopify. This will give you a fair idea if it is a good fit for your project or you need an alternative.

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About Shopify

Shopify was started in 2006 by an individual to sell snowboards. Today Shopify powers 8, 00,000 businesses and is ranked among the top ones. It is one of the most efficient players out there that helps you to build an e-Commerce store with zero coding and technical skills.

From customized themes to payment processors and blogs to marketing tools you will find a vast variety of features with Shopify. But are all these features right for your business? Let us find out below.

Features:

Professional themes

Shopify offers its users 9 different templates/themes to choose from. Each theme comes in different variants and thus you have sufficient choice at hand to set your store the way you like.

The themes are all professional-looking and appealing to the eyes. Additionally, all the themes are responsive which means that they will fit nicely across several devices.

If you are not satisfied with the free themes or don’t find what you are looking for then Shopify has a solution for you.

You can choose from 64 paid themes that will cost you $100-$200. Moreover, Shopify also gives you an option to get a theme developed by their experts.

Interface

The interface is one of the first features that users will come across. An intuitive interface compels the users to stay on the page. Shopify knows this well and hence, has a clean, neat, and easy to navigate interface.

A content management system on the left allows you to access the features and content easily. However, it is important to note that the interface is not the drag-and-drop one and hence, you may find it to be old fashioned as compared to other contenders.

Point of sale functionality

The POS feature is one of the most distinct features that Shopify provides. With the help of POS hardware you can sell your products not only online but in physical locations also.

You can purchase hardware like barcode readers and receipt printers. With the POS functionality, you can sell in a retail outlet, a market stall, a pop-up shop, etc.

Though the built-in POS feature has the basics, if you are looking for advanced features then you have to shell out money and pay for the Shopify POS pro.

The Shopify POS pro will enable you to do the following:

• chevron_rightSell in several locations at once
• chevron_rightFacilitate exchange
• chevron_rightBuy online and collect in-store facility
• chevron_rightProvision of custom printed receipts

Shopify plans

There are 3 main plans that Shopify offers to its users. These plans are Basic Shopify, Shopify, and Advanced Shopify.

All the plans let you create your store successfully with features like unlimited products, abandoned cart recovery, discount code creation, and multichannel integration.

1. Basic Shopify: $39/month - Ideal for new businesses with essential e-commerce features.
2. Shopify: $105/month - Designed for growing businesses with additional features like professional reports.
3. Advanced Shopify: $399/month - Best for scaling businesses needing advanced reporting and lower transaction fees.
4. Shopify Plus: Starting at $2,000/month - Enterprise-level solution with dedicated support and advanced features.
5. Shopify Starter: $5/month - For those looking to sell through social media or messaging apps without a full online store.

These plans also include hosting, security, and a variety of tools for managing your online store.

Payment process

If you want to save money by not paying transaction fees then it is recommended to use the in-house gateway provided by Shopify. Shopify Payments (powered by stripe) is a hassle-free way of processing your payments and accepts all major payment methods.

By opting to use Shopify’s payment gateway you are saved from the burden of connecting to a third-party payment provider. You can also streamline your store and keep everything under one roof.

Shopify apps

The Shopify app store provides as many as 1200 apps to let you customize your store. If your theme is lacking any feature then you can easily find it in the app store. The app store is not completely free as certain apps come with a charge.

The app store contains apps from several categories like shipping apps, email apps, inventory apps, payment apps, and much more.

Marketing & SEO

Well, there is no use setting up an online store if you don’t arrange for it to be seen by everyone. To help customers find your store Shopify comes with marketing and SEO tools.

With the help of built-in SEO tools, your site is visible on all major search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. You have access to customizable header, title, and Meta tags too.

The marketing tools provided by Shopify include a discount code coupon generator, option to sell on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram tagging too.

Blogging

With Shopify, you will find the basic blogging features and tools. Though it does not have one of the most advanced blogging features they are basic we can say. The features include display categories, comments, RSS feed, and blog specific SEO.

Dropshipping

The Dropshipping feature by Shopify benefits small businesses in particular. With the help of this feature, you can list your products on your site and can directly ship them to the customer from the wholesaler.

This saves a lot of storage and warehouse costs, shipping, and inventory hassles, etc. However, it does not come as a built-in feature. Instead, you have to install the Dropshipping app.

Security

Shopify knows how important store/site security is. And hence, it provides for protecting your store against cyber threats, arranges for updates, and is compliant with all the online store norms.

All the plans come with an SSL certificate, PCI compliant to secure your store transactions, and it also provides for backup of your store. By installing an app such as Rewind you can automate the backup task and concentrate on your business

Pros

checkOwn domain name

checkShopify mobile available

checkAdvanced features

checkMultiple languages

check24/7 support

checkScalability

checkAutomated shipping calculations

checkAutomatic tax calculations

checkFree 14-day trial

Cons

closeNo control over your store

closeAdditional transaction fees

closeSome important features are paid

closeSEO not up to the mark

Final Verdict

Shopify is the name we recommend when it comes to building an online store. It is one of the highly ranked e-Commerce builders and comes with plenty of features. With a plethora of apps, several plans, ease of use, and impressive sale features, Shopify shines in the industry.

It is an all-rounder e-Commerce builder that also gives you a 14-day trial period to see if it the right one for your business.