What is Shopify?

Shopify is one of the leading ways for people to begin their venture into the world of entrepreneurship.

Shopify

Shopify is a subscription-based service that allows its users to create a website and/or using their third-party services to sell, ship, and manage your products. Almost everything is fully customizable and you’ll be able to process orders, add products, and do a lot of customization.

How Does Shopify Work?

Shopify works by taking care of all the hard work of operating a business that sells goods.

Interested users pay a monthly subscription rate to be able to access their services. You can either build a fully functional online store or buy one that’s already been made.

All credit card processing, shipping, and standard operations work are more or less done by Shopify. It’s great for people starting or those looking to expand their operations and need a little bit of help. It’s also been able to help thousands of businesses during tough times such as the Coronavirus pandemic.

Is Shopify Legit?

Yes, Shopify is safe to order from and is completely legal to use for both the seller and the customer. Shopify is also a publicly-traded company that has a lot of investments in the security engineering and software world.

However, there are a lot of scam websites that attempt to imitate Shopify websites. These are the websites you should be looking out for.

If you’re wondering how to tell if a Shopify store is legit, there are a few things to look out for. This includes:

  • Check out if there is any customer feedback
  • Look for contact details and don’t be afraid to check them out

Can You Make Money With Shopify?

Yes, Shopify is a great way to make money if you invest your time into it. Whether you’re interested in marketing your products or drop shipping items, both are profitable methods.

If you’re wondering how much does an average Shopify store make, the answer is a bit more complex. It depends on how much your profit margins are and how much traffic you can drive into your website.

Some Shopify users have made more than a million dollars in sales in one year!

How Much Does Shopify Cost

Shopify has varying costs associated with it. A free trial is given to users to new to the site, but eventually, you’ll need to pay their monthly subscription fee of $29/month. This is for Shopify Basic.

More advanced plans are available for those who sell more items. The standard Shopify plan costs $79/month and the advanced Shopify plan costs $299/month.

Shopify Cost

Shopify Basic charges a 2.9 percent + 30 cents online transaction fee. The standard Shopify plan only costs a 2.6 percent + 30 cents transaction fee. The advanced Shopify plan is the lowest transaction fee as it only charges 2.4 percent of the cost-plus 30 cents.

Choosing the right plan comes down to how many products you’re selling and if the reduced transaction costs help increase your margins.

What Are the Cons of Shopify?

Shopify has loads of benefits, but there are some downsides as to why you should not use Shopify. Here are the cons:

  • The URL isn’t customizable
  • It’s the only e-commerce website that forces their transaction fees on you
  • Your content won’t automatically reformat itself if you switch themes
  • Creating sub-categories is a pain
  • You’ll be swimming in additional apps if you add extra features to your store

Shopify Theme and Templates

Shopify has a butt-ton of themes and templates for you to choose from. If you’re curious as to how many Shopify themes are there, the answer is more than 1,000.

You can either create your own and customize everything yourself, or select from the hundreds of presets that are available.

The theme and templates are how you control how the website feels to the user. From color schemes to categories to how your items are displayed, you’ll be able to manipulate and change them all. This is important as the way you show your products to customers can have a large impact on whether they choose to purchase them or not.

Shopify Reviews and Complaints

Shopify boats positive reviews from the overwhelming majority of its users. But, this isn’t to say that they don’t have a fault.

Shopify Reviews

Here are some of the most common negative reviews and complaints about Shopify:

  • Subpar customer service
  • Requires add-ons for the best user experience
  • Has limited functionality

Shopify’s customer service has both a lot of positive reviews, but also a lot of negative. It seems to depend on your luck of the draw whether you’ll receive adequate help or not. You may need to cycle through several customer support agents before you find a competent one.

Add-ons are also incredibly popular with Shopify. This goes hand-in-hand with their limited functionalities. Shopify is designed to be easy to use – by both the user and the client. Because of this, you’ll need to use a lot of add-ons to get the right functionality and use it from your website.

On the other hand, Shopify is the most popular e-commerce site for a reason. Millions of people love and trust it, many more that say they wouldn’t use it. At the end of the day, many more people love Shopify and trust it than those who take a disliking to it.

Why is Shopify Popular?

Shopify wasn’t always popular, it took a bit of time before they got their product right and enticed the millions of current subscribers and users.

People love Shopify because it’s easy to use and it’s a service that everyone was looking for before its creation. It allows almost anyone to become an entrepreneur and do it easily.

Even if Shopify doesn’t provide the functionalities you want, there is almost surely an add-on that does. These add-ons are also designed to be easy to use so integrating them into your website is a breeze.

It’s become even more popular as times have changed as well. Reports show Shopify grew a ton in the first quarter of 2020. Plus, revenue is expected to continue to climb.

Using Shopify as a Beginner

Shopify can be a great tool to use for both beginners and veterans of the selling industry.

If you’re wondering how to use Shopify as a beginner, you begin by making an account on their website. From here, you can choose to either start your free trial or purchase a subscription from Shopify.

Shopify As A Beginner

Afterward, you can browse businesses to purchase or begin creating your own. Tools and resources are intuitive to use and if you run into any issues you can look up most troubleshooting issues.

Examples of Shopify

If you do a quick Google search, you’ll find thousands of beautifully made Shopify websites. But, you don’t need to take it on the word of a stranger. Shopify has created a list of 50 exceptional stores that can be your model when building your website.

What is Shopify Plus?

Shopify Plus is targeted towards merchants who have a high volume of sales and clients. It allows the user to access a fully-hosted enterprise eCommerce platform. If you’re a business that’s rapidly growing, this is the plan for you.

Here are the benefits you can get with Shopify Plus:

  • Scalability and the bandwidth to process up to 8,000 orders per minute
  • Able to handle incredibly high volumes of traffic
  • Able to create and access multiple stories (up to 10)
  • Allows the user to access and utilize wholesale management
  • Increased customization options
  • More security features

Top Reasons a Shopify Store Fails

Shopify stores come and go as time passes on. However, there are several main differences between a Shopify store that fails and one that succeeds.

Here are the top reasons a Shopify store fails:

  • Customer service is poor
  • The quality of items you’re selling is poor or they’re unbranded
  • You’ve targeted the wrong niche
  • Your profit margins aren’t stable
  • Your theme and user experience is poor
  • You aren’t generating enough traffic to the website

When Does Shopify Pay?

Shopify pays fairly quickly when compared to many other selling services. The pay period is five days plus the number of days remaining until the next Friday.

 For example, if a transaction occurs on Thursday, you can expect to be paid 6 business days later. So, the following Friday. This is because there is only one day until Friday plus an additional five business days.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I Sell on Shopify or Amazon?

The difference between Shopify and Amazon are stark. They both have their uses but are miles away from providing the same type of service. Use Amazon if you’re interested in selling only an item or two throughout a month. If you’re wanting to build a business and a brand for yourself, Shopify is the answer.

When Was Shopify Founded?

Shopify was founded back in 2004 out of Ontario, Canada. However, it wasn’t until the last decade that Shopify took off in popularity. Currently, more than 200,000 merchants exist who have sold more than $10 billion in goods since its creation.

Should I Buy a Pre-Built Shopify Store?

Buying a pre-built store in Shopify can be a good option if you’re a beginner. Making a lot of money on Shopify requires a lot of attention to detail. Things such as search engine optimization (SEO) and the design of your store can greatly increase sales. If you’re unsure of how to best do these things, buying a pre-built Shopify store can be a good option.

Where Can I Buy a Shopify Store?

There are several ways you can buy a Shopify store. The easiest is to use Shopify Exchange to purchase a business that’s already been established. The data shown by Shopify Exchange can’t be edited by the seller, so you know exactly what you’re getting into. Of course, you can also hire freelancers on Upwork or Fiverr to build a website for you as well.

Can I Buy On Shopify?

You can’t buy products from Shopify directly, you must buy products from a merchant that’s built a website using Shopify. However, you can buy online stores from Shopify by creating an account and browsing the Shopify Exchange.

Is It Safe to Buy From Shopify?

Yes, Shopify merchants have sold more than $10 billion worth of goods since its creation. More than 200,000 merchants exist on Shopify and thousands of transactions are done per day on the platform. It’s trusted throughout the selling industry.

Article by:

Bob Smith

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