If you are starting a new online business, or just an existing business to the online world, Shopify is definitely one of the easiest ecommerce builders to help you create your online shop. But for the question, is it better or not better, I would have to say it would rank right up there at the top. It doesn’t matter if you are just starting a new online shop, or bringing an offline store online to grow your business, the last thing you want to do is troubleshoot technology.

Shopify creates a great bond in the Social Media Market. Along with the way it integrates with all of the social marketing companies like Face Book, Instagram and Pinterest. This is very important since these will be your key areas of advertising. There are other ways of creating a presents if this isn’t what you’re looking for and you just want a website to show off your stuff. Then you‘ll need a company that can guide you and support all your needs like Shopify.

is a great company, even for beginners and like Shopify who has a 14 day free trial. They are plenty of free sites to signup and the option to advance.

 

 

Who is Shopify best suited for?

Shopify stands apart from other e-commerce solutions mainly due to its multipurpose nature.

1. Shopify is extremely easy to set up and get going, so it can be used by beginners who have never gotten their feet wet in e-commerce.
2. The whole tool is very affordable (more on that in a minute), so it’s an attractive choice for small businesses that are just starting out and want to minimize on costs.
3. Shopify offers many template designs/structures for you to take advantage of, so you don’t have to hire anyone to help you with the store. You can literally build, style, and launch your online store all on your own.
4. We’re almost done … Shopify also offers offline solutions – you can use Shopify in your actual brick-and-mortar store, integrating it with the operation that you have already set up.
5. Finally, Shopify scales really well, so it will be able to grow with you regardless of the number of products you have on offer, the volume of your sales, and the number of customers that have bought from you.

 

However, if we were to point out the absolute perfect user, the kind of user who will get the most out of Shopify, we’d say that it’s beginners. People and business owners who are just starting out in the e-commerce space and want to get the best solution possible, while at the same time minimizing the costs as much as possible will find Shopify to be the most beneficial.

Which brings us to one particularly important part of this Shopify review:

 

Shopify Pricing – How much does Shopify cost?

Before we list the plans available, we should mention that there is a 14-day free trial available. It unlocks all the features, so you can test the platform thoroughly before committing to any of the premium plans. You can also cancel your trial account at any time.

Here’s the official Shopify pricing table:

Basic Shopify                                    Shopify                                 Advanced Shopify
All the basics for starting       Everything you need for a            Advanced features for
A new business                         Growing business                     Scaling your business

$29                                       $79                                     $299

 

If you want to sell your products both online and offline, then Shopify has plans that you must call in and speak to a rep to set up. Furthermore, if you wish to only sell your products offline, then they also offer a plan for that, which can be quite handy.

The cheapest offline plan starts at $29/month while the most expensive costs $299/month. Unlike with the other platforms, all plans come with unlimited bandwidth and, with the exception of the starter plan, an unlimited number of products you can sell in your store.

With that said, let’s outline some of the online plans for you to understand which one is best for you:

• Basic Shopify – $29 per month for everything in the previous plan, credit card rates of 2.9% + 30¢, an actual online store, 24/7 support, fraud analysis, manual order creation, discount codes, a website and blog, and a free SSL certificate. Two staff accounts are provided.
• Shopify – $79 per month for everything in the previous plan, credit card rates of 2.6% + 30¢, an actual online store, gift cards, professional reports and abandoned cart recovery. Five staff accounts are provided.
• Advanced Shopify – $299 per month for everything in the previous plan, credit card rates of 2.4% + 30¢, an actual online store, advanced report builder and real-time carrier shipping. 15 staff accounts are provided.

Each plan allows for an unlimited number of products, unlimited file storage, shipping label discounts and a retail package if needed.

I would have to say, for those who are just starting out should consider the Basic Plan and scale up from there once you are comfortable.

 

Is Shopify Ideal For Me

“Shopify is ideal for you if you want to launch an online shop, or if you already have a physical store, but want to continue to grow your business by selling your products online.”

Shopify caters to a broad range of industries, such as art & photography, clothing & fashion, jewelry & accessories, electronics, food & beverages, home & garden, furniture & household, sports & recreations, toys & games, etc. (See Shopify examples here)

Basically any sort of gadgets or widgets or physical products that you can sell, Shopify can help make this an easier process for you.

Dealing with technology isn’t easy, and technology is not the only thing in running a successful business.  So allowing platforms such as Shopify to help you manage the technology side of things, while you can focus on other parts of your business (such as marketing, product development, customer relationships building, administration, etc), Shopify can make your already hectic life a bit easier.

Although there are other eCommerce stores and platforms you can use just by finding them in the search engines. Shopify unique design makes it easy to maneuver through.

 

How easy is Shopify to use?

It’s not magic, so you will have to commit a few hours to learn the basics, but once you do that, it’s pretty smooth sailing from there (don’t forget you also get 24/7 online or phone support from them).

Here is a quick video demonstration from Shopify that will show you how easy it is to create your own ecommerce website.  You really don’t need to know anything about codes to set up your online store!  Click this image to watch the demo video:

 

https://youtu.be/oWVqE9TOopE

 

Shopify gives you the tools to:

• Insert product images, descriptions / details
• Manage your inventory
• Organize your products into categories (easier for your prospective customers to find what they need)
• Discount code engine
• Creating web pages and blogs
• Track customer and order details
• Set up customer accounts (so your customers can login into their private accounts to manage their personal information such as address, credit card information, so it’s easier for them to buy next time)
• Sort your customers by location, money spent, etc, so you can better understand where your customers are from and their spending behaviors, so you can market better to them
• Manage multiple staff login – so if you have staff helping you, you can grant them different permission levels to help you manage your online shop

 

 

Apps and Plug-ins

The app store is extensive, with plug-ins for external sales channels on social media, accounting tools, help desk tools, and even access to other sellers. But be aware that adding these features can make your monthly bill skyrocket. Scrutinize all payment details for each add-on before selecting it. If you think you will need a lot of third-party extensions, then scrutinize some of the other competitors in the field to determine exactly what you will need, who provides it, and how much each will charge.

Shopify’s App Store is by far easy to use for beginners. Like I mentioned above, but watch for the cost on these apps. You can find free ones that can be useful. These apps are not just sales & marketing tools; they also include additional tools that help you manage administrative tasks such as inventory management, fulfillment, shipping, customer service, bookkeeping, along with many other tools.

One big feature is you can incorporate a way to collect emails other then at the point of sale in your cart, then you can start advertising to them even more products or it you other products to show.

 

Shopify Products

Adding products to your store is very simple, but you will need an app to help it along. Oberlo app makes transferring your product very easy and it’s free up to a certain amount of products which you will see once you add it. The one thing that most website reviews don’t mention is the place you can retrieve these products. AliExpress is the number one place to go to for your products. So when you are picking through them, be sure to only transfer the (e-packets) that is in green because there free and stay away from the red ones.

AliExpress has thousands of products to choose from. You can do one product and promote the hell out of it or create a store with hundred of products, but try to stick to only one brand. Mixing it up doesn’t work.

 

Conclusion

I will have say, Shopify is really effective at providing you with a working online store solution that’s easy to set up, and then easy to use on a day-to-day basis.

Even though Shopify isn’t expensive by any standard (considering that it’s going to run your whole online business), there are even more affordable solutions out there, like Wix, Volusion, Magento Commerge, or BigCommerce to name a few.

Shopify has full 24/7 customer support: telephone, chat, and email for all regardless of which plan you’re subscribed to. There’s also a whole knowledge base platform available, with answers to all the most frequently asked questions that users have had asked in the past.

But Here, Shopify dominates the ecommerce completely. The platform is as easy-to-use as it gets, and even a complete beginner shouldn’t have any problems working with it. To add to that, with this entirely hassle-free solution, you can have a new online store launched in a matter of minutes (and we’re not exaggerating).

Shopify offers everything you might need as an online store owner. You get full product and inventory management, with the handling of payments, taxes, the reporting of sales, and your e-commerce store is also completely optimized for search engines. But that’s not all; there are also offline solutions – you can use equipment and software delivered by Shopify in your physical store location. That way, you can keep all of your sales info in the same place.

One more thing before you get started. There are hundreds of YouTube videos out there at your deposal and a lot and I mean a lot of reviews that will also guide you on your journey. I also have a store I created called “Concepts for Less” and honestly, it’s ok, but it’s not my main focus. I wanted to see how easy it was to create, so in the future, I will be able to create more stores and yes, it does make me some money.

Remember dropping shipping is the key thing to this with NO INVENTORY.

 

To your success,

 

Kayton Scarboro