What is Shopify?

Among the many e-commerce platforms available online today, Shopify is the most popular for both big and small online businesses. Shopify is a commerce platform that allows anyone to set up an online store and sell their products. Merchants can also sell their products in person with Shopify POS. Shopify is a cloud-based SaaS (software as a service) shopping cart solution. A monthly fee gives you access to an admin panel where you can enter store data, add products, and process orders.

The company began around the year 2006 and after seven years of providing remarkable service to both entrepreneurs and buyers, it currently hosts more than 500,000 stores with about 1 million active users.

Shopify is now the leading commerce platform designed for businesses of all sizes. Whether you sell online, on social media, in-store, or out of the trunk of your car, Shopify has you covered. The first Shopify store was our own, and it’s been our mission to make commerce better for everyone ever since.

One of the biggest benefits of Shopify for small business owners is that it’s a “hosted solution” which means that you, as the business owner, don’t need any advanced technical skills to quickly create and manage an online store.  Shopify offers dozens of templates that are easy to use and can be customized to match your brand.  If you happen to have some technical skills, Shopify has you covered because you can also customize the HTML and CSS code to meet your needs.

Because Shopify is a Saas (Software as a service) there is no software to download or update, you simply pay a subscription fee each month.  Here is a rundown of the basic fee structure:

You have to purchase a plan from the above to start selling on Shopify. To me, this fee is good as they offer a lot of services and make it easy for the business owner to run its business. Shopify offer a lot of built-in services that make your life easy.

Additionally, you’ll be able to choose from a rich selection of free and for-purchase design templates. These themes are clean and modern, and Shopify provides a variety of editing tools that you can use to make your chosen theme fit your brand.

What’s more, a subscription with Shopify includes secure, reliable hosting for your website. You don’t have to worry about your site crashing during peak traffic or hackers hijacking your transactions. With 99.98% uptime and a free SSL certificate, Shopify has you covered. Finally, your monthly payment entitles you to comprehensive 24/7 customer support. You’ll be able to contact support via phone, email, and live chat. And you can also use Shopify’s knowledgebase to solve smaller problems on your own. Shopify boasts that it’s an all-in-one solution. With a Shopify subscription, you should have everything you need to quickly begin selling on your very own site.

What Are The Pros & Cons Of Shopify?

As you may expect, while Shopify is an excellent option for many merchants, it isn’t for everyone. Here’s a brief list of the reasons merchants choose Shopify, followed by a list of common customer complaints:

Advantages:-

Easy To Use: This is by far the biggest reason merchants love Shopify. Shopify is built for the average user, not skilled developers. It’s simple to add products, create discounts, and process orders. Web design is user-friendly — and even easy — with Shopify’s drag-and-drop editing tool.

Low Startup Cost: Shopify’s relatively low monthly fees make setup affordable. How much does Shopify cost, you ask? The basic plan costs $29/month, and the mid-level plan is priced at $79/month.

Beautiful Themes: Subscribing merchants can choose from a variety of free, mobile-responsive themes. Premium (paid) themes are also available for merchants who want more options.

Good For Dropshipping: Shopify is the platform of choice for many drop shippers. Integrations with Spocket and Oberlo make dropshipping from your Shopify admin a lot simpler.

Lots Of Support Options: You can access technical support every hour of the day through phone, live chat, or email. Self-help options are available as well. Customers like that Shopify’s support is available outside of regular business hours.

Disadvantages:-

Limited Functionality: Shopify comes preloaded with almost all of the features smaller merchants need to build an online store. However, every business has some specialized requirements, and Shopify typically does not have the features to meet those specific needs. This is where add-ons come in. Many merchants end up needing to purchase a handful of add-ons to make this shopping cart work the way they need it to.

Costly Add-Ons: As I’ve said, while Shopify offers almost every basic feature, the software is lacking many advanced features. You’ll have to find these features in the form of add-ons, which are not free. The cost of adding just three add-ons can double your monthly fees.

Transaction Fees: Although most shopping carts have dropped their transaction fees entirely, Shopify has retained its 0.5% to 2.0% fees (depending on your pricing plan). You do have the option to have Shopify waive these fees when you accept payments through Shopify Payments. However, Shopify Payments has its fair share of complaints, and it may not be the best payment processor for everyone.

Strained Customer Support: While Shopify was known for responsive customer support in the past, more recent customer reviews voice mixed reports on the support team. Some users are impressed by the support they received, while others complain that Shopify support representatives were not able to help them resolve their issue.

Start building your Shopify store today Sign up on Shopify now and get a 14 days free trial.

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