More and more, businesses are turning to online methods in order to sell and market their products and services. Truth be told, it's a necessity today. If you aren't online – you simply don't exist. In an effort to make business transactions easier, a number of apps have been created.
For example, PayPal is familiar to many in this day and age. It can be a quick and easy way to pay for products online. But not everyone uses (or prefers) PayPal, and some users have run into trouble with PayPal's various shortcomings (transaction fees being one downfall that ends up making a big difference). It remains a common way, however, to have an account that is quickly available for online payments, transferring money, etc.
As e-commerce solutions go, Shopify is a relatively new kid in town – and taking that town by storm! If you're looking to build your business online, it is currently trusted by over 1 million businesses. That's saying quite a lot.
Here, we'll take a look at Shopify, its benefits, and why online merchants are turning to it at increasing levels.
Shopify – What Is It?
This online selling platform is all-inclusive and available through a monthly subscription. Here's how it works:
Pricing plan – choose the one you want
Online store – you create your store and develop it
How to use your store – you can now sell, ship, and promote your products/services to customers
This shopping cart solution is a cloud-based software as a service (SaaS). The admin panel is available for access through a monthly fee. With this panel, you can add products, store data, and process orders. But wait, there's more!
Also available for the choosing is a number of for-purchase or free design templates. These themes are modern and clean. For your brand and theme to better fit together, a variety of editing tools are offered by Shopify.
Increasing in Popularity
For online consumers and sellers, the use of Shopify has increased impressively. But why?
First of all, it has an easy-to-use interface. Secondly, the startup cost is considerably low. Naturally, it's not perfect. But for many merchants today, it is an excellent solution. Shopify can be set up quickly and offers numerous benefits which we'll explore below.
In a comparison between the top four e-commerce platforms, one of which was Shopify, reviews rated it above Squarespace and Square Online Store (both of whom were at 4 1/2 out of five stars); and at the same level as BigCommerce (that being five out of five stars).
What You Get
With a Shopify subscription, you receive hosting for your website that is reliable and secure. No more worrying about hackers hijacking your transactions or your site crashing during peak traffic hours. Shopify has you covered with a free SSL certificate and 99.98% uptime.
You are entitled to 24/7 comprehensive customer support with your monthly payment. The support can be contacted via live chat, email, or by phone.
Additionally, on your own, you will be able to better solve small problems thanks to Shopify’s knowledge base. Are you ready to begin selling on your very own website? You should have everything you need through a Shopify subscription – the all-in-one solution for today's online merchants.
Shopify’s Many Benefits
Though not perfect for every buyer or seller on the planet, this is undoubtedly a great option. Let's explore some of the reasons why Shopify is being chosen by so many merchants today:
Tons of support options – This was just mentioned but it's worth saying again. Via email, live chat, or by phone, every hour of the day, Shopify technical support is accessible. Additionally, also available are self-help options. That means, outside of regular business hours, Shopify customers can contact them whenever they need to.
Perfect for dropshipping – Dropshippers, in particular, love this platform of choice. It is a lot simpler to dropship from a Shopify platform because it integrates with Oberlow and Spockit.
For those not familiar, dropshipping allows a business to operate without actually having stocked products. It is an order fulfillment method. Rather than having in-stock wares, products are sold by the store and then orders are passed on to third party suppliers. The customer actually receives the shipment from these third-party suppliers.
Beautiful themes – As mentioned earlier, you can choose your own theme from mobile responsive, free options. If you’re a merchant that would like to have more choices where themes are concerned, also available are paid (premium) themes.
Low start-up cost – Set up is affordable thanks to the low monthly fees available through Shopify. What is the specific cost? Currently, pricing is at approximately $79 per month for a mid-level plan and $29 per month for a basic plan. (There may be a free trial offered, so be sure to check.)
Easy to use – We saved the best for last. This is one of the biggest and best reasons that more and more merchants are turning to Shopify. You don't have to be a skilled developer because it's built for the average user. It's easy to process orders, create discounts, add products, etc. Web design is simple and user-friendly with the drag-and-drop editing tool available through Shopify.
How Is Shopify Used?
If you're considering using Shopify to sell your products, you may be wondering how to do so. The software has definite strengths. To get the most from your Shopify subscription, make the most of those strengths. To expedite daily processes and boost your administrative power, do all you can with the feature modules offered. You’ll learn as you go.
Transaction Fees
This is where the plan you choose comes into play. Transaction fees will still be charged at some Shopify plan levels. But you can have those transaction fees waived if you choose the in-house payment processor offered by Shopify. For clients on high-level plans with Shopify, reduced processing fees are also offered by Shopify Payments.
To protect yourself and your customers, be sure that, before you enable Shopify Payments, you read through all the Terms of Service.
Regardless of whether or not you're convinced that Shopify would be exceedingly beneficial for your particular online business, it's certainly worth checking out. Remember to watch for free trials. These can help you make an informed decision.