Shopify is one of the platforms used for the creation of an online store. This instrument is very popular among e-commerce merchants nowadays. Let’s talk about the Shopify platform in detail.
The choice of a platform for the creation of an e-commerce store is just one among numerous factors determining the success of your business. However, its importance shouldn’t be underestimated. Shopify is a turnkey e-commerce solution allowing you to set up your website from scratch and start selling products quickly.
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Performance and Hosting
One of the problems e-commerce merchants usually face is high requirements for the performance and security of a hosting. This is especially important when the store accepts credit card payments.
Each second of loading leads to clients’ loss. Statistics show that people are ready to wait for 4 seconds and less for the website to load. Lower speed critically affects e-commerce websites.
At the same time, you have to use additional security layers when transferring sensitive customer data when accepting credit card payments. Often online stores utilize third-party payment processors to accept payments, such as PayPal, GoogleWallet etc. Payment processing can be slow in such a case too if you choose the wrong hosting provider or don’t set up it properly.
Shopify is a SaaS solution. All hosting-related questions are handled here by default, so you don’t have to worry about it and can simply trust it to professionals. The Shopify team handles security and performance issues, and takes care of hacker attacks, caching, and other aspects. By the way, Shopify performs this process smoothly, so your customers shouldn’t wait for ages for a website to load and can place orders 24/7.
Functionality
No matter which way of e-commerce development you choose – create a custom e-commerce website or use a turnkey e-commerce platform with the set of the most useful functions out of the box, all you actually want is to have your website ready for accepting orders and managing them.
You will need an easy way of product import and management, you will want to edit the look of your store, and you will require reliable and simple analytics to track customer behavior. And Shopify has all these features by default.
Customer Support
Shopify customer support is one of the main reasons to choose this platform for the creation of your e-commerce website. If you create your online store by yourself, you don’t have any technical team to discuss a problem and have to hire a Shopify development company, freelancers or independent development teams to clarify aspects of your store development. If you use Shopify, you get the answers to your questions quickly. Shopify provides a rich FAQ section, and community forum, and has email, online chat, and phone support.
When you are focused on the business and internal processes of your e-commerce store, it is very important to feel that you have a reliable support partner that helps you in case any issues arise.
Marketing Opportunities
Is there something useful in an e-commerce store that doesn’t have visitors? This is where marketing enters the game, and this is what distinguishes Shopify from other e-commerce platforms.
Shopify doesn’t offer advanced marketing instruments in the basic package but includes all minimal required opportunities from the very beginning.
For marketing campaigns (like email marketing, AdWords etc) Shopify provides a fast and easy way to create landing pages. This is a key factor differentiating this e-commerce solution among others.
From the SEO perspective, Shopify creates 100% valid clean code. There is also an option to set up meta titles, and descriptions. In addition, Shopify prevents content duplication, generates a sitemap, and refreshes it.
If you are looking for a comprehensive e-commerce solution with great marketing opportunities, SEO, Shopify is a great choice.
Website Design
A good e-commerce platform allows at least 2 options of a design implementation:
- It looks appealing out of the box.
- It provides wide adjustment options for a merchant or an e-commerce manager without a need to attract site designers or developers.
Shopify is a great example of such an e-commerce platform. It provides a simple, but mobile-friendly design by default. Also, there are plenty of free and paid Shopify themes available, so you as a merchant can choose any that meets your business needs and tastes better. If you want to create something unique and provide your customers with an exceptional user experience, any custom-developed design can be implemented within Shopify with the help of a professional Shopify development company.
Any store starting from a small niche boutique to a large e-commerce store can be developed on Shopify without any limitations. If you are new to e-commerce and only start your business, you can choose a free Shopify theme at the beginning and then upgrade the look of your store with a paid Shopify theme or implement a fully custom design.
Shopify Apps
Shopify provides a wide range of functions and opportunities for e-commerce out of the box. But let’s be honest – it is hardly possible to predict what features will be demanded by each Shopify merchant and include all of them in the basic package.
Having e-commerce merchants’ success in mind, Shopify offers its clients a Shopify Apps store where you can find almost everything to meet your business needs. There you can find different types of free and paid Shopify apps.
Similarly, if you own a online business and want to improve the conversion rate, sales, revenue and profit, then we recommend to implement the best store conversion idea, where an expert like “Tada” can help increase your Shopify sales by installing full-screen gamified pop ups for engaging new prospects.
For example, not all e-commerce merchants utilize email marketing campaigns in their business, but many of them like and do this. That is why MailChimp has developed an easy integration of MailChimp with Shopify to simplify merchants’ marketing process. You can find it in the Shopify Apps store and even use a free plan.
Using Shopify with its rich functionality for creation of your e-commerce business, you don’t have to worry about hiring a company or developer each time you need to add new functions or options for your store. Most probably, your business goal can be satisfied with some of the available Shopify apps. The price for such functionality extension will be cheaper than development of an app from scratch.
Final Thoughts
If you are looking for a complete e-commerce solution for your e-commerce business, Shopify will suit you well. You are able to start selling small amounts of products, then widen your assortment, add custom functions, new sales channels and succeed in e-commerce with less effort than when you use more complex open-source e-commerce platforms.
Author’s bio:
Anastasia Zhuk is a Co-founder and the Business Development Director at Whidegroup. With a decade of experience in e-commerce consulting and project management for small and medium-sized enterprises, she is competent both in the business and technical side of e-commerce projects. Anastasia is dedicated to providing clients and partners with tailored development solutions for their e-commerce businesses.
