Why you should choose Shopify as your eCommerce platform

This day of age, there are a ton of options available when choosing for an #ecommerce platform for your online sales. Some popular options are -

1. Magento

2. Shopify

3. BigCommerce

4. Wix

5. 3dcart

6. WooCommerce

7. Squarespace

8. Prestashop

9. Volusion

10. Weebly

In this write up, we will cover the benefits of using #Shopify as your eCommerce platform to sell products/services. We are not doing a head on comparison against the other platforms, rather only focussing on what you get when you choose to go ahead with Shopify.

Before we dive into the benefits of using Shopify, let’s quickly cover the pricing plans available with Shopify -

1. Basic @ $29/month - This pricing plan provides all the basic eCommerce features required for starting a new business

2. Shopify @ $79/month - This pricing plan provides features that help you grow your business

3. Advanced @ $300/month - This pricing plan comes with a power packed feature list that helps you scale your business

4. Shopify Plus ~ custom pricing - This is more for Enterprise grade customers with high transaction volume and custom requirements

NOTE: There is also a $9 Shopify Lite version that merely gives you a buy button that can be embedded into an existing site. Read more about it here - https://www.shopify.in/lite

Unlimited products listing

Regardless of which Shopify pricing plan you are on, you are not restricted on the number of products you can list on your online store. This is a big boost especially for small businesses when you want to cover a wide array of items before narrowing down to a few product lines that work well with you. This is a steal especially considering you are not required to manage your website’s hosting or any other server related details.

Unlimited Bandwidth and Online Storage

You also get unlimited bandwidth and online storage with any plan you choose. Bandwidth is the data transfer rate based on the number of visitors that come on to the store or how many media files you upload to the store. Some platforms put a cap on the maximum bandwidth per month. Luckily, you are subject to none of this with Shopify.

Shopify Admin - Ease of Use

Shopify Admin is the portal / gateway / backend using which you can configure your website the way you want it to be. Logging into the Shopify admin shows you options like- core eCommerce features (Customers, Products & Orders), install apps from the Shopify Marketplace, Analytics and Settings (store configuration like payment, shipping, etc.). The best thing about Shopify is that the Admin is designed for ease of use. A person with minimal/no knowledge of the eCommerce side of things can still find their way through the Admin and work with the configurations.

24/7 Customer Support

Time and again, you might face a situation where you would need support on your store configuration or technical side of things. For this reason, you get a 24/7 Customer Support when you sign up with Shopify. With this, you have the ability to quickly create a ticket and have it addressed by a technical support staff in your timezone - regardless of where you are situated. The Shopify Community is also pretty tightly knit where other business users share their experiences with Shopify features and configurations. It is highly likely someone has already thought of the workflow you have in mind. Interact with them via the Shopify Community and see what it takes to get where you want to.

Discount Codes

Shopify provides the ability to create discount codes that you can offer to your customers. The discount codes can be created in the following manner -

1. Fixed $ amount

2. Fixed %

3. Shipping discount

4. Buy X, Get Y

These discount codes can have a start and end date for its validity, number of times it can be used or a minimum order amount before it can be used.

Above all, your customers can use these discount codes in your online store, or in person if you are using Shopify POS.

Analytics & Reports

Shopify has its own analytics module constantly running in the background. This runs through your store data and comes back with reports and insights to improve your offerings and customer experience around the store. With Basic Shopify, you get Overview Dashboard, Finance Reports, Product Analytics, Live View, Acquisition Reports, Inventory, Behavior and Marketing Reports. As you move up the pricing plans you get more reports with deeper insights on individual aspects of the eCommerce system.

Mobile Ready Themes

Themes are templates that determine how your store looks to customers. There are a variety of themes you will be exposed to will have different styles and layout. The available themes are categorized based on industries they appeal to. You can preview these themes @ https://themes.shopify.com/

One of the biggest advantages of choosing Shopify is that the themes are mobile ready and there is barely any time altering the design for mobile responsiveness. Pick Shopify, save the time and rather spend it on what matters to your business.

Gift Cards

Gift Cards are an amazing way to increase your customer base and engage your existing customers. This feature is seldom available as an Out Of the Box feature with other platforms. Customers can use gift cards in the checkout instead of having to use a credit card to make the payment. These can be created right out of the Admin without the need for an app or customization, unlike #Magento.

NOTE: Gift cards are sold like any other product on Magento. However, gift card sales are reported differently. You will need to look into the gift card sales report to track your gift card sales.

Shopify Payments

Shopify Payments is Shopify’s own payment methodology. It is one of the simplest ways to accept payments on your store.The best part about this is - it is automatically set up to accept payments from all major payment methods. RIght now, Shopify Payments is supported only in a limited set of countries - Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong SAR, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom & United States.

In the US, Shopify Payments is not available to the territories except Puerto Rico.

If you are looking to enhance your existing website or #build a new one, we hope this blog post guides you in the right direction. Right now, we are running a special COVID campaign where we implement eCommerce websites for as low as $500 using #Shopify & #BigCommerce. Email us at sales@commerceants.com for a FREE Quote and more information.