You may know that more than a million businesses and hundred-twenty thousand merchants are currently using Shopify to scale their businesses online. They have been one of the fastest-growing eCommerce platforms in recent years.
But the question is, is Shopify a really top-notch eCommerce platform or just a media hype? Most importantly, Shopify is serious about your business. All the questions will be answered in the next few minutes. We explained the Shopify Cons also.
What is the eCommerce Cloud Platform?
A cloud-based platform, as opposed to older on-premise solutions, allows businesses to outsource their IT infrastructure without investing in costly on-premise equipment and maintenance. Plus, some software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers in the e-commerce space manage all aspects of the system, including the development of new application features.
eCommerce cloud platforms are classified into three types: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). The real kicker is that Shopify has resolved all three types of platforms.
Is Shopify the best eCommerce cloud platform?
Let’s grab some basic information about Shopify, it was founded in 2006. It has quickly become a dominant name in the eCommerce platform industry within the last 5 years. Shopify is an all-in-one solution, which means you can build your e-store without worrying about hosting security and site maintenance. The Shopify registration process is just a click away.
You can start your free 14-day trial to gather experience from Shopify. Don’t worry, if you want to extend your trial, all you need to do is request a longer trial period by clicking a button. After your initial child, another period of 15 days will be added.
Is Shopify Beginner-Friendly?
Without a doubt, one of the easiest eCommerce builders for beginners and small business owners to set up and manage their online store is definitely Shopify. Due to Shopify’s user-friendliness, even those without any prior eCommerce or coding experience can quickly create an online store.
In today’s post, we will share everything about the eCommerce cloud platform giant Shopify. That will focus also on the question of Shopify’s Beginner-Friendliness. I will honestly review Shopify in the cloud commerce industry. I’ll help you decide whether you should invest in this platform. If you don’t want to fill the bill with Shopify. Let’s get started right away.
A long-lasting eCommerce success depends on some pillar things which are-
The key features of Shopify:
- Freedom and flexibility
- Reliable and secure hosting without server managing cost
- A hosted platform, higher security feature
- Marketing campaign and analysis from the dashboard
- Marketing campaigns reports and analytics
- Migration from Woocommerce, Wix, Etsy, Amazon, and so on.
- Multiple channels to sell directly on marketplaces, Facebook, Instagram, and recently added YouTube.
- One inventory management system for both online and offline
- Accept credit cards, local payments, and 3rd party payment gateways
- Different pricing for different sizes of stores
- Payment Processing
- Shipping, order tracking, and reporting
- Attractive Dropshipping Capabilities
- Smartest visual design that is easily customizable
- AdWords, affiliates, and AdSense are integrated
- Able to hire Shopify experts for setup, design, and marketing
- Build your own email list and remarketing
- SEO friendliness
- Responsive customer support.
Robust Design and Easy to Customize Everything
Shopify is not only famous for its power but also for ease of use. A beginner can easily add text, upload photos, and play video shows, slides, and so on.
Currently, you can creatively design your storefront by choosing from 10 free themes and 71 premium themes from the Shopify theme store.
In comparison to other eCommerce platforms, cutting-edge technology allows developers to view unique features and apps for merchants. The good news is that you may add and alter the paid theme during the charter period without providing any credit card information to test whether it works for you or your business.
Once you add the theme to your library, you can customize it with drag and drop muter and even CSS, HTML, and liquid Shopify template language right from the dashboard.
Please don’t despair if liquid sounds unfamiliar, it comes with detailed Dev docs where you can get anything. You need to master it.
The Shopify backend is quite neat with logically arranged functions and sections on the crystal clear navigation bar right on the left. You can definitely set up your own store without any lines of code or technical skills.
Multi-Channels Selling Opportunity
Shopify is ahead of a step for its social media, Google, and YouTube integrity. You can sell socially from your Shopify store. Recently, they partnered with YouTube Shopping. Now merchants can sell on YouTube. You can sell on Instagram and Facebook from one place.
Merchants can also sell across marketplaces.
Business able Pricing
With the new logo pricing plan, Shopify Basic will now cost only $19 per month. The buy button will turn any sign into a building goose. This is an optimal choice for anyone that already has a blog or website.
There are also three standard pricing plans, which are basic Shopify, Shopify, and advanced Shopify, which cost around 19 to 299 dollars.
The basics Shopify is a perfect choice to dip your toe in the water of eCommerce. Startups or small-sized businesses should offer this plan and scale up later with a higher pricing plan. You will get basic reports on your dashboard and create 2 staff with 4 inventory locations.
Even if this plan checks the lowest, it provides you with all of the fundamentals for your online store, such as unlimited products, sales channels, discount codes, avoiding card recovery, and so on.
In the 2nd plan, “Shopify,” you will be able to create 5 accounts for staff. It provides you with professional reports.
Shopify’s lowest price plan is the starter plan. That helps to sell across social media. You can share and connect on social media for only $5.
Analysis and reports on their own dashboard
Shopify is designed for growing small and medium businesses. This is suitable for most eCommerce stores. You can collect and analyze statistics. It will provide a standard report with this collected data.
Deals and Coupon Campaigns
You can effectively manage your store’s launch campaign, offers, and deals or reach more customers. Advanced Shopify is the best fit for bigger companies up to 15 staff can assess and manage the system.
Shipping Advantage
You can also set up your own third-party shipping carrier and benefit from the adventure report builder for each successful transaction. Shopify will charge you 0.5 percent based on the chosen plan. If you don’t choose this bill payment processor for Shopify payment, the best way to minimize your margin card is to register for Shopify payment or take some handy tips.
Dedicated Support
Shopify is used by thousands of emerging and big brands because of its dedicated support.
You can get around-the-clock official customer support from the team through email, live chat, and phone along. You’ll get a huge community with visual and reading resources.
Tools and Apps
Almost 3,000 apps are available for every aspect. You can think of more than half being free. Any size business can exploit this to scale up and try new apps to boost sales or streamline the management process.
Surprisingly, all of them are neatly and logically arranged in categories and collections. This would be a great help in finding suitable apps to set purposes and targets.
The cloud eCommerce platform Shopify has an open API that allows you to download, build, and customize your store.
Check it out (link) Obviously, Shopify is simple to use while yet being very flexible for both developers and beginners.
Point of Sale (POS) Integration
One factor distinguishing Shopify from the competition is a product sales service provided in every plant rather than requiring its users to integrate with an external point of sale (POS) system. Shopify provides you with a million POS systems for free. It is simple to integrate, sync, and manage order and customer information.
If your business is growing fast, POS pro can totally handle the hardware for you. The cost is just $89 per month and you will get a 14-day free trial if the service sounds interesting.
Payment Solution
Don’t forget to check out the supported payment method in your location before setting up your brick-and-mortar store with Shopify pos.
You can accept both local and international payments. It allows credit cards, and quicker checkouts with Shopify Payments, or choose from over 100 third-party payment gateways.
Additionally, Shopify has the world’s most convenient and secure checkout system. This checkout interface is quick and clean.
Shopify for Dropshipping
In this part, I will be explaining why Shopify is really a perfect choice for dropshipping. Building your own business with dropshipping is not a bad idea. You don’t need a warehouse, excessive capital, or a wide range of products. Shopify is a match made in heaven to get the show on the road.
You can effortlessly add products with a click while printing the supplier site from the dashboard. You are able to ship the item directly from the supplier to the customer. You can check the order received, make payment, and make even more money with the affiliate program. Once you get overloaded from the Shopify marketplace, Oberlo will facilitate all of your handworks by automatically entering your customer addresses, checking statements, and notifying your customers through email and SMS.
When the order is fulfilled by overload, you can find other apps on the marketplace, Generally, they provide basic functions that ease your mind about product shipping and order fulfillment. Since Shopify is super powerful to run your dropshipping business on, this platform will be smooth with its usability. You can have the upper hand with an incredible number of apps.
The outstanding advantages
Shopify is super easy to use with its hosted credit card feature. Shopify empowers any merchant with varying technical knowledge levels to build a full-fledged escort. because it doesn’t require any coding skills.
Shopify offers more robust functionality that streamlines different business operations, from payment processing and inventory management to reporting shipping and so much more.
Three, global selling is made easy. Shopify allows you to sell your products in 133 currencies and display the store in up to 20 languages. Moreover, international pricing, including routing rules, can be easily set up and automatically displayed on the customer checkout page. The templates are attractive and fully responsive.
Don't miss the Compare: 7 Benefits of Shopify over WordPress for Your eCommerce Store
The cons of Shopify:
So, how about the obvious downsides of Shopify that you should consider?
One, Shopify charges high transaction fees. If you don’t use the Shopify building processor, a successful transaction will cost you an extra fee of 0.5 percent based on the chosen plan.
Two, customizability is limited. The limitations and customization of Shopify are clearly shown in the uneditable breadcrumb in your URL and the access level to the script.
Three, Shopify may get pricey when your business grows. You will need more functionality that is not available on Shopify. So more investment in apps will be required many of your customers share that they want to migrate from Shopify to another platform.
Four. Shopify does not support all of the country’s payment systems.
Final Thoughts
Because of the accelerating cost of the rich ecosystem, Shopify offers it’s totally a great option from an asset for beginners to experts. Dropshippers, businesses, startups, or even big enterprises can take full advantage of this powerful platform to build a thriving store or even several e-stores without any hedge facilities. The management process provides state-of-the-art functionality for you to focus on selling.
Shopify’s pricing plans also reflect its scalability for emerging based on business size. Store owners can opt for a suitable package, but it is still unclear whether Shopify is the best choice for a small or medium business owner.