Is Shopify a Good Ecommerce Solution For My Business?

Shopify is a popular eCommerce website and store-builder that was founded in 2004. It has over 1,000,000 users! Yes, that’s a HUGE number. But does that mean it’s the right platform for your business? The foremost checkbox that needs to be ticked is the pricing. You need to see whether your business can afford and profit from Shopify.

Shopify has three plans for its sellers apart from a free trial. 

• Basic Shopify – $29/month
• Shopify – $79/month
• Advanced Shopify – $299/month

Some features are common across all three plans – online eCommerce website, blog, social media sales channels, buy buttons, unlimited product listings, coupons, discounts, gift cards, and 24/7 multi-channel support. Features like the number of staff accounts, locations, analysis reports, discount percentage, and credit card rates fluctuate from plan to plan.

Here’s a list of advantages and disadvantages of using Shopify because a what better way is there to analyze anything?

Advantages of Using Shopify

• Simple User Interface: Shopify provides indispensable support to new business owners in areas like customer service, social media reach, tracking, payments, and more. It has been built to simplify things. The store-builder throws questions and prompts at the user to guide them as they build their store.  Shopify even has user-guides to help you through the process.
• Easily Customisable: Shopify already has some lovely themes, but it doesn’t stop there! In case none of the existing ones work for you, you can easily get access to the code and create a unique theme for yourself. 
• Essential Features: Shopify takes care of the finer features that you need to build your store. It has a zoom function to let a customer zoom in and view the product. Shopify sends automatic emails to customers who have abandoned their filled carts. The email notifications can be tweaked as well.  Shopify allows buyers to leave you ratings. You can also create gift cards, discounts, coupon codes, and set expiry dates for them.
• The Shopify App Store: This is what makes Shopify stand out from other eCommerce platforms. It has its very own app store! This gives you access to plenty of add on applications and features to help build your store.
• Sales Channels: Shopify lets you set up sales channels on practically every social media platform. Viewers can directly click on a ‘buy button’ to purchase your product. You can also carry out communication with viewers and potential buyers through the social media platform. 
• Staff Accounts: This Shopify feature lets you allot an account to your staff. You can control the information that your team has access to.

Disadvantages of Shopify

• Advanced SEO Features: Shopify covers most of the SEO basics but doesn’t give you access to some of the advanced features to manage SEO. It adds extra words to your URLs that cannot be edited. Creating subcategories on Shopify is another issue that beginner business owners face since it requires working with the codes. Furthermore, you cannot edit your sitemaps on Shopify.
• Cost: Paying a definite cost every month irrespective of your sales can be a huge con for small as well as new businesses. It takes time to boost sales and generate a loyal audience.