Shopify Review – a Powerful Ecommerce Website Solution

Shopify Review

If you’re looking for a way to make money online with an ecommerce website and don’t know were to start then Shopify should appeal to you. In this review I’ll discuss the features which makes them one of the leaders in helping people set up their online ecommerce store.

What is Shopify

Shopify is an e-commerce platform that enables individuals and businesses to create online stores. It is a powerful ecommerce website solution for those who want to make money selling online and not spend most of their working day managing the tedious mundane side of business.

• Shopify provide everything you need to create an online store.

Shopify is a robust, hosted, ecommerce website solution powering over 80,000 online shops that allows you to sell online by providing everything you need to create an online store. Shopify is a turnkey-system, a one-stop-shop to get your own e-commerce store up and running. With hundreds of ready made themes, both free and premium. Shopify lets you get started in no time with your very own ecommerce store. Shopify will help you save time so you can focus on other important aspects of your business.

• Take a look at these example shops and see what Shopify can do for you.

Traditionally, selling stuff online required you have two major things, an ecommerce website to showcase your products and a payment gateway to accept online payments. With Shopify, this is an integrated solution.

Being a hosted ecommerce solution there is no software installation required either on your desktop or on your server. Shopify takes care of all the usual aspects of running an ecommerce website, such as hosting, logistics management, payment gateway and the like.

 

Product	Shopify
Headline	Shopify is a powerful ecommerce website solution that allows you to sell online by providing everything you need to create an online store.
Authors	The original software was developed by Tobias Lutke, Daniel Welnand, and Scott Lake.
About	Based in Ottawa, Ontario Canada, Shopify was founded in 2004.Shopify is a leading online store builder, and is currently powering over 80,000 online shops, including Amnesty International. Take a look at these example shops and see what Shopify can do for you.
Price per month	Starter £10 – $14. Basic £20 – $29. Professional £53 – $79. Unlimited £121 – $179. All Shopify plans come with a fully functional 14-day (no credit card required) trial. There are no setup or cancellation fees. Discounts: 10% on annual plans and 20% on biennial plans, when paid upfront. See chart for detailed of options.
Guarantee	You may cancel your account at any time.
Operating Systems	Web-Hosted. The software sits on Shopify’s servers so you don’t have to download, install, upgrade or back-up anything. Shopify take care of the application, you take care of your store.
Hardware and Software Requirements	Since Shopify is a web-based (hosted) ecommerce software platform, all you’ll need is a web-enabled internet connection and a browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.).

Note: GBP prices are approximate (VAT included unless stated). Prices are correct at time of review.

Why Choose Shopify?

• You want to be able to update every aspect of your website using just one solution rather than having to switch between your hosting provider, CMS, and online store.
• It’s a well-established solution used by over 80,000 business owners in the UK and worldwide.
• The Shopify CMS is reasonably straightforward to use.
• The pricing is fairly reasonable and scalable. You can start simple and change plans when necessary.
• With the introduction of Shopify Payments there’s no need for a separate payments gateway.

 

The End of Shopify Plan Transaction Fees

One of the bad features of the Shopify Plans was the transaction fees. Well now, with the introduction of “Shopify Payments” that’s all about to change, transaction fees will be a thing of the past.

While Shopify has always made integrating your ecommerce website and payment gateway as easy as possible, merchants were still required to sign up with a 3rd party payment gateway service in addition to creating a Shopify store. Not only that, as a merchant, if you wanted to view your sales in real-time, you had to leave the Shopify Admin and login to your payment gateway website.

• Shopify have officially rolled out an industry first in online payments.

Shopify Payments is the easiest way to accept payments online without the hassle of 3rd party payment gateways and merchant accounts. Initially, Shopify Payments will be available first to stores in the U.S., with Canada and other countries to follow.

Here are five reasons why Shopify Payments is a revolutionary new payment system…

1. The End of Shopify Plan Transaction Fees for anyone using Shopify Payments. That means more money in your pocket.
2. Instant Approval. Since store owners don’t have to sign up for a separate gateway or merchant account to use Shopify Payments, there is no wait time while your account is being approved – a process that traditionally took days (or weeks). Just select Shopify Payments in the Admin and start accepting payments instantly.
3. Real-Time Payment Tracking from within the Shopify Admin. Track your active payment balance and upcoming payout schedule, and be notified by email when funds hit your bank account.
4. Full Integration With the Shopify Admin. Payments will be synced with their corresponding orders. That means no more leaving your Shopify store to login to another website to look at your sales.
5. Chargeback Recovery. Shopify Payments gives merchants the best chance of winning chargeback disputes and recovering lost sales.

The entry Shopify plans, offer a credit card rate of 2.9% + 30c per transaction, with the Professional and Unlimited plans offering 2.5% + 30c and 2.25% + 30c per transaction, respectively.

Shopify Payments charges no additional fees for accepting American Express or international credit cards, and no fees for included PCI Compliance protections.

• Going forward, all new Shopify merchants will be defaulted to Shopify Payments.

Shopify Point of Sale (POS) System – Unifying Your Offline Business

If you have an offline and online store the Shopify Point of Sale (POS) system will allow you to manage both your offline and online sales and inventory control all in one, centralized location.

• Shopify POS is an iPad application that lets you sell your Shopify store’s products in a physical, retail setting.
• It’s quick and easy: browse your store’s catalog to pick the products, swipe the customer’s credit card, and print their receipt or send it through email.

Shopify Point of Sale allows you to manage all your sales transactions from one convenient location. Time saving and simple.

Shopify App Store

The Shopify App Store is one of the most powerful elements of Shopify. They have an App store where you buy add-ons for your store, in a similar way to your iPhone. Unfortunately some of the good Shopify apps are quite expensive. The best way to see what’s available is simply to take a look.

Things to Like About Shopify

• There’s no technical stuff to worry about.
• Shopify offers unlimited bandwidth on all plans. Some hosted shopping cart vendors have been known to hit customers with hidden bandwidth fees.
• The stores look great and follow best-practice ecommerce design patterns.
• Shopify’s hosting infrastructure is fast and reliable.
• Free store templates you can use immediately.
• You can design your own templates from scratch (if your technically inclined)
• Lots of good 3rd party premium templates available.
• You don’t need to install software or templates or configuring servers. Just sign up for a free account and start building your store.
• Bulk product upload facility. You can create a comma separated file (CSV) of products to quickly fill out your store.
• Bulk image upload facility using the bulk uploader. Specify the Web address of a product image and Shopify will automatically import, resize, and use the image. This feature is a huge time saver.
• It’s customisable. Control panels allow you to edit fonts, colours and so on. For the technical, you can tweak the HTML or CSS style sheets.
• You can map your Shopify store to a domain of your choosing.
• Your website is a complete website not just a few ecommerce pages. You can create as many regular web pages as you like.
• Blogging functionality is built-in. Ideal for marketing.
• Easy to optimise pages for SEO.
• Works well with AdWords. Tracking codes can be inserted easily for cost per conversion analysis.
• Shopify offers a public forum for sellers to talk to each other.
• Full integration with Mailchimp out of the box.
• Good, but simple, analysis features for tracking and fulfilling orders, and capturing customer data.
• Capabilities for selling both physical and digital goods.
• The Shopify Plans are very affordable.
• It’s free for two weeks free for two weeks so you can give it a go before committing to a paid plan.

 

Things Not to Like About Shopify

• Lots more free stuff is needed, particularly templates.
• The free templates need to be more customisable.
• Premium template prices (the ones you pay for) are too expensive. Excellent premium WordPress templates start at about £20/$30. Shopify need to start doing the same and not charge £55/$80.
• The menu ‘link-list’ system needs improving, it’s too difficult to construct multilevel menus.
• The home page template needs to be simplified. Lets just have a block of editable text.
• Editing via the control panel is easy but the ability to edit elements in real time would be nice.
• A few more (free) widgets such as slideshows and customisable contact forms would be nice.
• The transaction fees are something that definitely bug Shopify’s users (unless you’re using the Unlimited package). This is something to consider carefully when making your decision to use Shopify if you’re not in one of the “transaction free” areas.

 

Is Shopify a Scam, Hype or Does it Work?

Definition, SCAM: A person, company, organisation etc. who steals your money without giving you anything in exchange. A fraudulent business scheme; to defraud, a swindle.

• Given the above definition, Shopify is not a scam.

With Shopify, you will receive the product for which you are paying, though the product may not necessarily help you set up a business by leading you through the process, which is what you might be expecting.

Shopify Review Conclusion

Shopify is for those who want to make money selling online and not spend most of their working day managing the tedious mundane side of business.

If you are starting a new online business or looking to revamp your current online store then Shopify is definitely a candidate you should add to your list of ecommerce solutions for creating your online store.

Admittedly, there are a few aspects to Shopify that could be improved but it’s actually a really good solution for setting up an online store. If your needs are fairly simple, you can use it to set up and customise a fully-functional online store/website very quickly.

My final suggestion, work you way through their videos and online tutorials then try their fully functional 14-day (no credit card required) trial. You never know, you might not need to look any further.