With millions of merchants worldwide, Shopify has fast become one of the most recognised ecommerce platforms for selling online.
If you’ve ever shopped online, you’ve almost undoubtedly bought something from a Shopify ecommerce store. Businesses around the world are choosing Shopify over other platforms to sell their goods and services — with good reason.
We’ve built lots of ecommerce websites for clients over the years, and Shopify is the platform we keep coming back to.
In this post, we’ve rounded up some of the key reasons why we think Shopify is the best platform for your next ecommerce project.
Cost
Shopify’s basic pricing tier (from £25 per month at the time of writing) is very cost-effective when compared against other traditional ecommerce platforms. Especially when you consider that this cost also includes your website hosting.
The platform costs for Shopify are split into three main tiers, Basic, Shopify and Advanced. Whilst there are some differences in features between the tiers, we recommend that most of our clients start out on the basic tier (Shopify starter plan) until they either require a feature that’s locked out of the starter, or can justify the increased subscription cost with the reduced credit card rates (which become more cost-effective on the more expensive tiers).
Integrations
Integrations are a key part of modern ecommerce websites, whether to send your products to Google’s Merchant Centre for use in Shopping Ads, or to connect with your chosen fulfilment partner for shipping.
Shopify has over 8000 apps in their App store so you can add features with the click of a button. Here are a few common Apps that we tend to install for our clients:
- Google & YouTube
This App automatically generates and shares a feed with Google’s Merchant Centre. All your product data (description, price, shipping info, images etc.) is shared with Google in the correct format and kept up to date — a requirement for stores wanting to run Shopping Ads on the Google Ads platform.
https://apps.shopify.com/google - Shopify Inbox
Live chat is now expected on ecommerce websites. We’ve all interacted with them at one time or another. Inbox provides a chat service so you can talk to your customers, whilst seeing what products they’ve viewed and what’s currently in their basket, making you more responsive to customer needs. Manage Inbox conversations through the online store dashboard and the Shopify App.
https://apps.shopify.com/inbox - TrustPilot
TrustPilot has become the go-to service for collecting trusted reviews online (and we know that reviews are one of the top ways to build trust with potential customers). We recommend all our clients sign up for a free TrustPilot account and use the integration to automate customer review invites and generate star-rating widgets on their store.
Hosting
While more ‘traditional’ ecommerce platforms require third-party hosting, Shopify’s model of included hosting comes with the advantage of being:
- Hassle-free
Shopify takes care of everything behind-the-scenes to ensure your site is up and running straight away. The platform guides you step-by-step through the process of setting up your custom domain, (which is also automated with some domain providers). - Unlimited
Unlimited bandwidth means you can grow your ecommerce business without worrying about running into limits or caps on hosting bandwidth. - Compliant
The platform is Level 1 PCI compliant, giving you peace of mind that your customer data is always secure. - Email-ready
With ‘traditional’ platforms, transactional emails (sent to your customers when they make a purchase) require a third-party relay service to ensure deliverability and avoid spam filtering. Shopify includes this service, which means it’s one less item to pay for and configure.
Payments
Payment options can be a sticking point for online shoppers. Shopify Payments (Powered by Stripe) offers a multitude of payment options for your online store, (Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal as well as the usual options for credit and debit cards) without having to set up merchant accounts with multiple third-party payment providers. Shopify Payments offers a simple way to get going with online payments without leaving your online store dashboard.
Innovation
Shopify is continually updating its platform to introduce new features. This gives our clients peace of mind that their investment in their Shopify store will continue to pay off. The platform is always improving to maintain pace with the latest innovations in ecommerce.
You can view the Shopify Change log here: https://changelog.shopify.com/.
It’s clear to see why Shopify is so popular with ecommerce businesses. It’s relatively low-cost to run, and offers powerful ecommerce tools that make it easy to start selling. Design Junkie is a proud member of the Shopify Partners Programme because we believe in the platform’s ability to support online sellers. Its strength lies in its versatility, which is why we continue to develop bespoke ecommerce solutions for clients using Shopify.