Shopify is one of the most popular ecommerce platforms on the Internet for good reason. It’s fairly easy to use, well designed, and comes with a ton of features. One of the best things about Shopify is that it is an all-in one solution, making it easy to set up your online store without having to add features piece meal. Shopify offers one of the best online software experiences on the web. To prove it, here’s our Shopify review.
What is Shopify?
So to put it simply, Shopify is a fully hosted, self-reliant ecommerce solution. One of the most important things you can do when setting up your online store is to choose the right software. For many people that’s Shopify. It comes with every feature you could imagine, from inventory control to built-in payment authorization tools. It has a fully stocked app store, so if the core of Shopify doesn’t meet all your needs, you can find extra functionality without resorting to hiring a developer. The best part is, it’s comes with a full 14 day trial so you can test it first and no credit card is required during the trial period.
Why is Shopify Good for your Online Store?
Shopify has many great qualities that could make it the best choice for your online store. The first is that it is a hosted solution, meaning that you don’t have to deal with a web host and manage the software yourself, like you do with other platforms.
Relatedly, you also don’t have to worry about security. When running an online store, one of your number one concerns is protecting your customer’s data. If you fail, you run the risk of seriously harming your reputation. Since Shopify is an all-in-one solution, you don’t have to worry about either fast hosting or security, everything is done for you so you can focus on running your business and leaving that tech stuff to them.
The next piece of the puzzle is features. As we’ve mentioned several times so far, Shopify is an all-in-one solution. That means that it covers everything from inventory and product display to analytics and payments.
It comes with the ability to customize the way your store looks, built-in tools for keeping track of shipments, payments and products, and much, much more. The best news? All of the features are included in the package. You don’t have to worry about buying feature specific upgrades, which could increase the cost of your software exponentially.
Finally, the biggest reason why Shopify is great for your online store is their customer service. When you first start up your online store, the last thing you want to do is deal with software problems. You already have enough problems dealing with getting your product out the door and into your customer’s hands.
With Shopify, you get award-winning customer support from professionals. With alternatives you usually get support through forums and other users. They have a huge knowledge base that will allow you find answers quickly. If you can’t find your solution there, they respond to support question quickly and accurately, something that can’t be said for many alternative solutions like WordPress and WooCommerce.
There are many other great reasons to choose Shopify. We really could go on and on. Just to mention a few more:
Their backend design is fairly intuitive (with some exceptions, mentioned later) and well designed, making it a breeze to manage your online store.
They also have built-in marketing tools that allow you to easily market your products to social media outlets and search engines.
Finally, they have a huge app store, which allows you to add neat functionality to your store. This allows you to expand your store without resorting to coding extra features yourself.
What’s the Downside?.
No piece of software is perfect, not even Shopify. The first downside to Shopify is the cost. It is not cheap. Prices range from $29 a month up to about $299 a month. If you’re just starting out, spending money on software might be out of the question but at least you get trial it for free to test if Shopify is for your next online business venture.
Shopify Pricing
Next, if you’re a coder, or plan on hiring a developer, Shopify isn’t the best option. They use a proprietary code base to run their backend, which makes it near impossible to develop for it without using non-standard Shopify specific tools.
If you plan on adding a blog to your web site, which you should since it’s a great way to draw in traffic, Shopify may not be the best solution. While it does offer blog software as an option, it is pretty bad. It’s poorly designed and not easy to use. If you do choose Shopify, you might consider setting up a subdomain (like blog.mydomain.com), and then using WordPress to manage your blog. It’ll be easier to use and much better to actually blog with.
One of the worst parts of our experience with Shopify was learning what they were actually talking about. They give some things on their site weird, proprietary names. For example they use the word Collections instead of the word Categories. If you’re not careful, it would be easy to be confused.
Along the same lines, Shopify isn’t all that fast to set up, especially for first-timers. It takes time to set up, so be prepared to spend time doing it right. It isn’t “hard” per say, but it will take some time for you to navigate the setup process.
Finally, here’s what might be the deal breaker for you. Once you’ve chosen Shopify, it nearly impossible to leave it. They have a serious hold on you once you sign up, because moving to another platform would mean starting all over again. The argument against this so-called “con” is that lock-in is something that nearly every ecommerce solution has going against it. Our advice? Make sure you select the best software before you make the final decision (use a free trial if it is available).
Conclusion
Starting a business isn’t easy. You have to have a product, deal with distribution, and handle payment transactions. With Shopify, you get an all-in-one solution that handles a lot of the work for you, if you get it set up right. It comes with top of the line customer support, and a lot of extra features that can make your store amazing.
Like all ecommerce solutions, it has its downsides. If you don’t mind paying for the software, and sticking around once you’re in, Shopify will serve your online store well for many years to come.
