Choosing the right e-commerce online store builder is tough as there are many reviews available on Shopify. Sometimes, it may get confusing to decide which one is right for you with so many tools available and mixed suggestions from different shop builders. Shopify e-commerce website development Services by WebBee Global best-in-class and globally offices in USA, UK, Australia and India for better support in your city.
In our opinion, Shopify is one of the easiest e-commerce platforms which helps you to create your online shop, whether you are starting a new online store, or just beginning to make an online presence to your existing business. Shopify is currently powering over 400,000 online shops and its success stories state that it has enabled businesses with $34 billion worth of sales. Look at what Shopify can do for you.
With online business comes technology and troubleshooting in times of need. But that’s the last thing you want to worry about. This is where Shopify can save your day. The pre-set platform covers all aspects of an online store and lets you focus on other important functions of your business.
One key thing that makes Shopify remarkable and outstanding in comparison to other platforms is inviting other vendors (theme designers and tool providers) to provide their services and products to Shopify for integration. This makes Shopify a single stop shop for all the tools required to create a successful online store.
Here are Key Pros & Cons of Shopify that will help you make an informed decision –
Advantages:
1. over 100 beautiful and professional templates are available with Shopify for its customers to choose from. Your online store can start to look amazing right from the beginning.
2. A good looking online store attracts more customers and gives them the experience to remember.
3. A shabby looking site represents laziness on owner’s part and disinterest in his own business.
4. The idea of the online store is like a brick and mortar store, which should adhere to a professional and clean image to encourage visitors to stay and shop more.
5. Shopify has both free and paid themes in its store and a wide collection of premium themes to suit all kinds of business be it jewelry, clothing, perfumes, art or furniture. These themes enable you to dress up your website accordingly.
6. These themes are quality-checked by Shopify, fully error free and compatible with the tools available on Shopify.
7. Flexibility is Shopify’s forte and it also comes with wide variety of applications which can be used as tools to enhance the functionality of your online store.
8. The app store at Shopify is one of the largest in the industry and you can choose from over 1400 different Apps (free and paid) to plug into your store.
9. The apps include accounting, shipping, inventory management, marketing, customer service, reporting, social networking, etc. to automate your business processes and save your valuable time.
10. The number of tools exceeds the requirements of online store and you probably won’t need all of them. This gives the users a choice to pick and choose the apps that they need.
11. These apps can be fully integrated into Shopify, so you don’t have to work around with different systems for them work smoothly. All you must do is just plug and play.
12. If you’re running a full-time online business, you may require immediate access to support services during the time of troubleshooting – Shopify provides this for you. As a valued client of Shopify, you can reach them at any time through phone support, live chat feature or emails. You can also choose from their 4 international phone line numbers according to the nearest region you are located in.
Disadvantages:
1. It is not a hidden fact that Shopify charges a monthly fee for its services. But in addition to that, Shopify also charges its customers a 0.5% – 2% transaction fee for their plans. However, if you choose to use Shopify Payments to power your payment transactions, all transaction fees are exempted.
2. Let me explain this – Shopify will charge you according to the plan you buy – i.e. 2% of the sales value on the “Basic Shopify” plan, 1% of the sales value on the “Shopify” plan, and 0.5% of the sales value on the “Advanced Shopify” plan.
3. Let us look at the example to understand it better – the cost to you is $0.5 to $2 for every $100 in sales that you make or $50 to $200 for every $10,000 in sales. This fee is charged to the Shopify users in lieu of the technology it takes for Shopify to power your sales. When the sales increase, it means more visitors have come to your store. More visitors use a lot of bandwidth which in turn increases the load on Shopify to keep your site up at peak times.
4. If your store makes a sale of $10,000 every month, paying $50-$200 won’t pinch your pocket. Moreover, your site will be up all the time and your customers will remain happy and recommend you to others. This amount is very small considering the benefits it provides.
5. The pricing and fee charged by Shopify are very transparent and is one of the most appreciated features of this platform. A lot of other e-commerce builders have hidden fees which surprise the users later after they have made the initial purchase.
6. With Shopify, you can calculate how much you will be spending based on the plan you choose and how much sales you’ve made by the end of the month.
7. Although Shopify has as many as 1,400 apps to offer you to enhance the functionality of your online business, a lot of the apps are not free and are chargeable. Of course, this might increase your monthly cost if you cannot do without those apps. However, there is another way of handling this situation. If your need is to manage your accounts, it clearly means a good number of sales which require a software to manage it. There are two ways, either hire a bookkeeper to manage your finances on monthly basis or sign up for an accounting software in much less money and manually export your sales information to the software.
8. Although, the best way is to use the integrated app provided by Shopify to eliminate the errors of manual entries. Everything comes integrated and is easy to use without struggling with bookkeeping jargons. You don’t have to run from pillar to post to manage your sales receipts and keep a track of your profits manually. Saving as much money in running your business is important but in the process, don’t be “penny wise, pound foolish”.
9. These apps by Shopify will make your life easy and will keep you customer focused on running your business smoothly and making profits. Also, remember that apps are completely optional and there is no compulsion to buy them.
10. Shopify uses the coding language ‘Liquid’ in addition to HTML and CSS. This knowledge is required if you are looking to further customize your theme extensively to suit your brand or display your business values through it differently.
11. If you know programming, it may be useful, else you might need to hire a programmer to the work for you, which is an additional cost for your business. You can also hire a Shopify Expert to make quick changes to the theme you have chosen but this will come at a cost which is more than a normal programmer.
12. Our suggestion here is to collaborate with WebBee global to get your Shopify developed theme modified as per your needs. The experts at WebBee have hands-on experience in e-commerce websites development and designing. They can provide you with excellent consultation and services to suit your budget and requirements simultaneously.
Conclusion
All-in-all, Shopify is an excellent choice for opening your online store and getting started with your idea in the e-commerce arena. With a variety of features, little extra cost won’t pinch you in the long run once your store starts making profits.
