Lots of people ask us which ecommerce platform is the best suited for a company just getting started with an online store.
The short answer is that Shopify offers all the functionality you need. It's filled with tools for launching a site within minutes, and you don't have to worry about self-hosting or buying a domain name from a third party.
In that respect, one could call it the perfect out of the box solution, built with pricing plans that cater to small starter stores as well as shops that are bringing in millions of dollars in sales.
You'll find my full review below. For more Shopify reviews from our readers check out the comments area.
The reason we choose Shopify over WordPress or Magento (which are great as well) is that with Shopify you don't need any web development skills at all to keep your site running smoothly. On the other hand, it's not like some of the more simplified solutions like WIX or Weebly, where you're going to have a tough time scaling up.
Shopify
Shopify is right in the middle, where complete beginners can create products, manage inventory and share promotions, all without having to take a development class. In addition, more advanced designers gain access to CSS and HTML files, and you can upgrade to gain more advanced features as your store grows. Overall, it's a beautifully constructed ecommerce platform with plenty of themes that look modern and stylish but also simple and minimal if that's what you're looking for.
Overall, it's a beautifully constructed ecommerce platform with plenty of themes that look modern and stylish but also simple and minimal if that's what you're looking for.
Shopify was founded in 2006 by Tobias Lütke (CEO of the Year in Canada), Scott Lake and Daniel Weinand. Since the launch, the platform has quickly grown from a small player to one of (if not the) leading ecommerce solutions. The company is currently powering more than 220,000 online retailers.
Some of their most notable customers include General Electric, Amnesty International, Tesla Motors, Encyclopedia Britannica, Foo Fighters, GitHub, and many, many, many more. If you are looking for an ecommerce solution with a lot of great features that still remains easy to use for the novice users, then you should definitely give them a try.
The Platform's Top Features: Shopify Reviews
I have tested quite a few ecommerce platforms in the past, and I must admit, Shopify has the most thought-out feature set I have ever encountered. Almost everything you need to run your own online store is taken care of by a distinct feature. It doesn’t matter if you are planning to run your store fully online or from a brick and mortar setting, there is something for everyone. The reason Shopify manages to achieve such a strong feature-set is that they either have a tool built-in, or they let you install it with an app.
The reason Shopify manages to achieve such a strong feature-set is that they either have a tool built-in, or they let you install it with an app.
For example, taxes and shipping are included in the Shopify interface, yet for most of the themes, you're going to have to find a free app for social media buttons. Both options work, and you often don't have to pay any extra money when opting for an app.
The company has one of the most complete dashboards or control panels I have ever seen. All tasks, from processing orders to managing inventory, are given to you on the backend.
The platform also provides an interface called Shopify Partners, where developers can play around with new websites without having to open up free trials every time. It's like a sandbox interface for those who have several clients and need to present website builds before landing jobs. You can install new themes, customize full websites and seamlessly transition from a Shopify Partners website to a launched site. Not only that, but you gain a commission for every client you bring on board with Shopify.
If you have any familiarity with WordPress, the dashboard actually looks pretty similar to that interface, with the tabs on the left side for you to access quickly. You can also use the dashboard for generating discount codes, or for examining the latest reports. (In fact, the reports on Shopify are my favorite out of all the ecommerce platforms. They're organized, clean and simple, with options like sales by billing address, sales by traffic referrer and gross sales by product title).
(In fact, the reports on Shopify are my favorite out of all the ecommerce platforms. They're organized, clean and simple, with options like sales by billing address, sales by traffic referrer and gross sales by product title).
If you are looking to sell your products in an actual retail setting, then you can opt for the Shopify POS. This includes everything you need to sell your products offline, both on the software and hardware side. The software includes an iPad app, which makes selling your products in a retail setting much easier. With the app, you can use the credit card reader to swipe the customer's credit card right there. You can even purchase additional hardware from the company such as a cash register, a receipt printer and even a barcode scanner.
With the app, you can use the credit card reader to swipe the customer's credit card right there. You can even purchase additional hardware from the company such as a cash register, a receipt printer and even a barcode scanner.
Also, they offer a mobile app with which users can:
- Respond to chargeback disputes directly in-app
- Review all inventory changes made to their products in the last 30 days
- Fulfil items by fulfillment service
Shopify also offers one of the biggest App Stores out of all the ecommerce solutions; they provide hundreds of free and paid apps that will enhance your store. These have been divided into different categories such as Marketing, Sales, Social Media, Shipping and Customer Service. Thanks to their formidable content management system (CMS) you can easily create additional pages, as well as pages through which your clients can easily contact you. Furthermore, Shopify makes running your own blog super easy, since everything is handled from a single dashboard.
Thanks to their formidable content management system (CMS) you can easily create additional pages, as well as pages through which your clients can easily contact you. Furthermore, Shopify makes running your own blog super easy, since everything is handled from a single dashboard.
Keep in mind that the entire Shopify feature-set is hard to walk through in a single section, but it's worth mentioning that each of the Shopify themes is responsive with mobile-ready checkouts. The responsive checkout means that your site automatically adapts to the size of your screen, whether it be through a tablet or smartphone. Along with direct Facebook and Pinterest integration, gift cards, discount codes and a decent custom profile, the company has pretty much perfected the built-in features.
Along with direct Facebook and Pinterest integration, gift cards, discount codes and a decent custom profile, the company has pretty much perfected the built-in features.
In general, if you need a feature that's only in the app store, you can test it out, and move onto another option if it's not working out on your website.
A Whole New User Interface and Design
If you've seen Shopify in the past, you may have noticed that the screenshots in this review look a little strange. As of June 2017, Shopify gave its backend a complete makeover, with purple colors on top of white font and various other modifications. This was done to create more contrast for those merchants in low and high light environments.
All of the screenshots in this Shopify review come from the most recent user interface.
Besides the colors and fonts, Shopify added a prominent new search bar in the dashboard, helping you quickly type in keywords and find what you're looking for without much thought. For example, you might want to find a certain product or customer. In that case, all you have to do is punch in the right words to locate something in a large collection or customer-base.
You'll also find updates to the user profile. This involves more details in the user profile for transparency in your organization. We like it for all companies that want to keep tabs on those logging into the store.
The last main update ties into the third-party apps we love from Shopify. Since Shopify doesn't create all of these apps, they don't blend all that well with the Shopify interface. Therefore, Shopify has created a more standardized programming system, while also releasing development guidelines to fix this problem. It's unclear how long it will take for app developers to adopt these rules, but it's something to keep an eye on.
Therefore, Shopify has created a more standardized programming system, while also releasing development guidelines to fix this problem. It's unclear how long it will take for app developers to adopt these rules, but it's something to keep an eye on.
Something Relatively New: Shopify Sections
Shopify Sections is an exciting new feature that doesn't exactly give your a drag and drop builder, but it comes close. The visual editor offers a wide variety of content sections that you can insert onto your homepage. For example, you might want to place a slideshow, button and product carousel towards the top of that homepage.
It's done with the click of a button. After that, you can adjust the order of those sections by dragging and dropping them in the sidebar. It's a relatively easy way to completely adjust the look and order of the modules on your website. We like it for all experience levels, especially beginners.
Shopify Ease of Use
Is it intimidating to handle all of the features in Shopify? Not really at all. In fact, we like the feature-set for companies that are just getting started with web design, since a few steps are given to you for getting your site up and running.
So, you could simply stick to the handful of steps offered in the dashboard (adding a product, customizing the look of your website and finding a custom domain,) or you could expand your store with the help of apps and custom coding.
Shopify
The apps install within seconds, so it doesn't take a genius to handle those. However, if you are more of an advanced developer, Shopify has the tools for you as well. The only area that may be of concern for people with more advanced coding and development skills is that an FTP client is not included with the ecommerce platform, somewhat hindering the control you have over the site.
On another note, unlike before, merchants will no longer need to access OpenSRS to change or access information on their Shopify purchased domains; they'll be able to access it through the Domain section itself. Users will have access right from their admin to:
- change their A records, CNAME, MX records, TXT records, and AAAA records;
- more efficiently set up their Zoho and G Suite email accounts;
- add subdomains; and
- enable or disable auto-renew
In terms of pre-publication, Shopify gives you the opportunity to test your store before it goes public, and the live editor is pretty nice for seeing your changes immediately after a setting is adjusted.
The company is pretty much hell-bent on making their interface the easiest in the industry. What's interesting is that they are walking a fine line, since it's still a platform that can satisfy those with more experience with coding and whatnot. Overall, importing hundreds of products is simple, and making an item from scratch uses quick tools and settings for things like images, videos, titles, pricing, discounts and more.
I don't really see any beginner or intermediate developer having a problem with Shopify. At the same time, most advanced developers are going to be just fine. There's the select few who are planning on scaling up incredibly fast who might get a little bogged down with the Shopify interface.
However, Shopify has enough flexible pricing plans to keep your comfortable for a significant period of time.
Btw, this is a great book in case you're interested in dropshipping:
Shopify Pricing Makes Sense
| Basic Shopify | Shopify | Advanced Shopify | Shopify Plus | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Price | ||||
| Plan Fee 10% discount for annual plans | $29 | $79 | $299 | $2000 |
| Fee estimate | ||||
| Credit card rate | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2.6% + 30¢ | 2.4% + 30¢ | 1.6% + 30¢ |
| Transaction fee | None | None | None | None |
| Features Included | ||||
| Staff accounts | 2 | 5 | 15 | Unlimited |
| Numbers of products | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| File Storage | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Shopify Shipping discount | Good | Better | Best | Outstanding |
| Print shipping labels | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Discount Codes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Fraud analysis If you use Shopify Payments the fraud analysis tools are included. If you choose an external payment gateway, you need to upgrade to Shopify or Advanced Shopify for fraud analysis tools. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 24/7 support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Website and blog | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free SSL certificate | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Abandoned cart recovery | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Gift cards | - | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Professional reports | - | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced report builder | - | - | Yes | Yes |
| Third-party calculated shipping rates | - | - | Yes | Yes |
Shopify offers four different pricing plans, and the lowest starts at just $9 a month. While their other plans range from $29 (for their basic plan) to $299 (for their biggest plan,) you do have the opportunity to try out a free, 14-day trial before committing to anything.
If you want to sell your products both online and offline, then Shopify has plans that you must call in and speak to a rep to set up. Furthermore, if you wish to only sell your products offline, then they also offer a plan for that, which can be quite handy.
The cheapest offline plan starts at $29/month while the most expensive costs $299/month. Unlike with the other platforms, all plans come with unlimited bandwidth and, with the exception of the starter plan, an unlimited number of products you can sell in your store.
That said, let's outline some of the online plans for you to understand which one is best for you:
- Lite – $9 per month for credit cards rates of 2.9% + 30¢, a Shopify buy button (so your site is technically not a real online store,) Facebook selling, POS integration, fraud analysis, manual order creation and shipping codes. One staff account is provided.
- Basic Shopify – $29 per month for everything in the previous plan, credit card rates of 2.9% + 30¢, an actual online store, 24/7 support, fraud analysis, manual order creation, discount codes, a website and blog, and a free SSL certificate. Two staff accounts are provided.
- Shopify – $79 per month for everything in the previous plan, credit card rates of 2.6% + 30¢, an actual online store, gift cards, professional reports and abandoned cart recovery. Five staff accounts are provided.
- Advanced Shopify – $299 per month for everything in the previous plan, credit card rates of 2.4% + 30¢, an actual online store, advanced report builder and real-time carrier shipping. 15 staff accounts are provided.
Each plan allows for an unlimited number of products, unlimited file storage, shipping label discounts and a retail package if needed.
If you want to learn more about this, check out my full guide on Shopify pricing.
Shopify Reviews: Templates and Design
One area where Shopify really excels at is its themes and design. The company offers some of the most professional looking themes of any ecommerce platform. As of this article, the company has around 21 free themes for you to choose from. On the other hand, you can pay for a theme, and select from over 100 options. The nicer ones start at around $100, but you may be able to locate a few that are cheaper.
On the other hand, you can pay for a theme, and select from over 100 options. The nicer ones start at around $100, but you may be able to locate a few that are cheaper.
The Shopify Sections functionality (for dragging and dropping certain sections with the theme) is live for most new themes. Therefore, if you're starting a new site, you shouldn't have any problems getting Shopify Sections. Unfortunately, that leaves all the currently running sites in the dark with Shopify Sections.
However, Shopify claims that all online stores will get Shopify Sections by the end of 2016, which is hopefully going to be the case.
As we talked about above, CSS and HTML modules are given for you to make more advanced customizations to the themes you buy. In my experience, the free themes aren't as easy to customize, and Shopify probably does this to get you to purchase premium options. The theme selection includes categories like clothing, electronics, food, toys and much more. I've had my eye on Shopify for quite some time now, and the company seems to share new themes on a consistent basis, and the designs are looking more and more modern.
The theme selection includes categories like clothing, electronics, food, toys and much more. I've had my eye on Shopify for quite some time now, and the company seems to share new themes on a consistent basis, and the designs are looking more and more modern.
My main concern with a theme design is how quickly people can checkout and get through the shopping cart process. The Shopify themes have both two and three step checkouts, and you can try out tools for things like social and guest checkouts.
Once you've found the right theme, you can easily customize the look and feel to your heart's desire, simply by opening the template editor and editing your theme until you feel like it’s exactly what you are looking for. On the other hand, the new Shopify Sections feature is sure to speed up your editing, since it's a rather simple drag and drop editor.
If you have created a theme that you would like to use for your store, then you can upload your own template.
Go to the Theme page and scroll down until you find the Upload Theme button, then just add your own theme.
None of the Shopify themes have Shopify branding. In fact, it's not that easy to find any trace of the Shopify brand on your own site. This is a wonderful thing for beginners, since it's not going to affect your search engine rankings, and people will think you designed the website yourself.
Shopify Reviews: Inventory
Inventory management is an important part of running your store, and Shopify has you covered in this area too. Once you are ready to add inventory to your store then all you need to do is press the Products tab in the sidebar on the dashboard. You will then automatically be taken to the following page:
As you can see in the image above, everything from product title to description and price is customizable. In addition, you can give each product a distinct SKU, as well as a barcode.
Transfers, Inventory, Collections and Gift Cards are seen as tabs in this area as well. I like the Inventory tab because it features all of the items in your store, all organized into a clean and manageable list. The product page also offers several options for things like SEO, shipping and the imagery that users are going to see when landing on this product page.
Also, Shopify now also offers embedded Oberlo integration if you'd like to go the dropshipping route.
Shopify Reviews: SEO & Marketing
If you have an amazing store but your customers are unable to find it, then chances are you will be very disappointed with the sales figures. Shopify offers great features for both SEO and Marketing. Thanks to the built-in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) features, your site will easily be found on all major search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
What's cool is that even though the SEO settings are automated, you can go to each product page and customize your own target keywords, URLs and more.
If you really want to customize your store further, the company offers customizable H1, title, and meta tags. Also, the URLs are all SEO friendly. Shopify has partnered with Google in order to occasionally give you advertising money for a new AdWords account. I certainly wouldn't base my decision on which ecommerce platform gives me money to advertise on Google, but I guess it's a nice bonus.
The gift cards are extremely user-friendly, and you don't have to go out to find a third party app for better gift card features. It depends on your payment plan, but once you get everything activated it allows for gift card codes in the checkout area.
The discount codes are generated on the backend as well.
To help boost your marketing, Shopify created a discount code coupon generator to promote your products on different social networks.
Along with selling options on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, your marketing game is in good hands with Shopify. However, you should know that social media following and sharing buttons are only in the app store. Yes, you can create an online shop through Facebook, but the buttons are in the app store.
Also, Shopify has also introduced products tagging on Instagram, that allows you to link directly to your product page.
Finally, the email collection form is pretty simple. It certainly does the job and integrates with the major email options like MailChimp, but many ecommerce stores tend to look towards the app store to find something more suitable.
Read this post if you want to learn more on which is the best ecommerce site builder for SEO.
Shopify Reviews: Payments
Traditionally if you wanted to accept payments you would have to use a third-party payments processor like Stripe, PayPal, or others that would charge a certain fee per transaction. Shopify has created their own payment processor called Shopify Payments (Powered by Stripe). If you decide to sign up for this program then all transaction fees will be lifted regardless of your plan.
We covered credit card fees in the pricing area earlier, but it's worth noting that you do have the option to integrate with over 70 different payment gateways. These include accepting payments from credit cards, Google Checkout, PayPal, and many more.
The gateways all come with their own transaction fees. Since these can get a little confusing, I strongly recommend that you familiarize yourself with these before signing up, as you might otherwise be surprised at just how much you'll have to pay.
In short, Shopify has one of the biggest lists of supported payment gateways out there. This doesn't mean you'll use them all, but it opens up more opportunity for people from all over the world. It also gives you a chance to research which of the payment gateways are going to work for your particular business.
Shopify Reviews: Security
Security is taken very seriously when you run an ecommerce site. Therefore Shopify has its shopping cart hosted on a Level 1 PCI DSS compliant server. In other words, your data, and the data of your customers is secure. In addition, all pricing plans (besides Lite) offer 128-bit Free SSL certificate at no added cost.
While data security is very important to retailers, many also worry about their store always being available, and Shopify provides their customers with a 99.94% uptime guarantee. Furthermore, the company creates secure backups of all your data, so even if your store should crash, it will be backed up for restoration later.
Security badges come with your plan, considering those are some of the only ways you can show to your customers that your website is secure. That, along with the https mention and padlock in the URL area of your browser.
Some other things that come into play with security include vulnerability management and access control. You get to specify which users are able to access certain content on the backend. So some people might get a little access, while others might get admin access, and others might get no access.
Finally, the vulnerability management area helps out with catching problems from malicious hackers to fraudulent transactions. You get to monitor what's going on with your site and Shopify assists in identifying criminal activity.
Shopify Reviews: Customer Support
If you find yourself in need of support, then Shopify has one of the best teams in the industry. Regardless of which pricing plan you decide on, the company has 24/7 full customer support, which includes phone support as well as chat and email support. Another great form of help offered by Shopify is the access to a sizeable support system directly through their website, including user forums, tutorials and FAQ’s.
If you are just beginning your journey as an online seller, Shopify has created something called Ecommerce University. Here users gain access to eBooks, videos, and guides, with the idea of helping customers learn the ins and outs of running their own web store.
Overall, you have the ability to either speak to a professional or learn about the system yourself. Obviously, some people hate waiting on the phone for a support rep, so we feel like the forums, courses, and videos are enough for you to figure out your own problems if you'd like. So, the support team has something for everyone (they're super knowledgable about fashion or jewellery stores), and in my experience, they're pretty darn responsive.
From videos to podcasts and success stories to a huge encyclopedia of ecommerce terms, the Shopify online support seems to improve on a regular basis. Heck, the last time I did this article I don't recall them having an ecommerce podcast.
A Note On Development Requests
When working with an online platform, app or software, it's nice to have access to the developers or at least some sort of feedback system for letting them know what features you would like to see in the future. In addition, we like to see the developers actually respond to the requests with new features being released on a consistent basis.
I consider this a type of support since a company that doesn't listen to customers is bound to lose them because of this lack of communication.
Shopify thrives in this department, seeing as how they regularly share blog posts about the feature requests they have listened to and implemented. For example, many ecommerce professionals worry about images slowing down their sites since media is usually what causes this problem. Well, Shopify responded by optimizing and updating all previously uploaded images on Shopify, while also providing file modification instructions for future image optimization. This not only helps with SEO, but it speeds up the user interface for all Shopify merchants.
Well, Shopify responded by optimizing and updating all previously uploaded images on Shopify, while also providing file modification instructions for future image optimization. This not only helps with SEO, but it speeds up the user interface for all Shopify merchants.
Conclusion
Who is the Shopify ecommerce platform built for?
Beginners, intermediates and advanced users (the ones looking to speed up the development process by not spending much time on coding or more complicated processes). I also like it for generalist bloggers or content creators who would like to sell digital goods and should start the Lite plan. The Shopify Lite plan is ripe for converting a regular business site into an ecommerce one. It's also nice to see a homepage builder (Shopify Sections) that has draggable elements.
I would gladly recommend Shopify to anyone if nothing else then at least give their 14-day free trial a try. I'm certain you will not be disappointed.
Btw, here's a video review of Shopify created by my colleague Joe. 🙂
So what do you think of Shopify? Let me know what's your opinion by in the comments area, which is dedicated to Shopify reviews.
User reviews
I did a lot of research on what type of backend support was best for my website before launching FabStitches. I knew that starting a small business like mine was going to be a day and night hustle. I needed something that would take care of the other business aspects so I could focus on my products and my craft. Shopify was beyond doubt the best choice. It has truly made my life simple to say the least.
In regards to Shopify.. Back in January, we migrated over from a highly converting xhtml based hand coded site that had been serving us well for several years.. Our google serps were outstanding, we had top 5 placement for about 10 different keywords and were pulling tens of thousands of unique visitors per day. Due to google’s threats of Mobilegeddon, and their warning that sites which did not conform to mobile, (ie: responsive design) were going to be dropped from the search results sent us scrambling for a platform that would give us a responsive architecture without worrying about the hassles of coding a responsive design from scratch. I read every review I could find for all the available platforms.. actually went with a alternate only to ditch it half way through the setup process and switched over to Shopify. I was reluctant, worrying how this would affect not only our search rankings, but our conversion rate as well. Since making the move, we’ve had many challenges. I’m not a fan of theme based all inclusive CRM platforms to begin with, but with shopify, performing any sort of sustainable SEO at code level, seems all but impossible.
I’ve found it extremely difficult get any traction in googles organic results. There’s some great functionality and I believe some good intention over at Shopify, but personally I’m still not sold on the design, and don’t really care for it much.. it’s a beast to get it to convert.. and our search ranks have suffered tremendously.
Not a fan at this point... hoping it will turn around for us... I’ve always got my eyes open for an alternative, but thankfully we’ve had 19 years of building a solid loyal customer base and have been able to get by without
As a business owner Shopify is one of the most valuable resources I have. It has helped triple our e-commerce business and grow our online presence all while being extremely user-friendly and intuitive. The back-end reporting helps provide valuable insight in the decision making process as well as their robust App Store has a solution for anything we have wanted to add to our users experience on the site. I would highly recommend Shopify for any business that is looking to grow their e-commerce presence without paying through the nose for a firm to design it and maintain it for you.
The Shopify platform delivers tremendous value at a reasonable cost. We chose this platform over others because it offers great functionality out of the box. Additionally, Shopify has a great network of developers who are constantly adding apps and features that users demand from their eCommerce experience. This allows businesses to improve their site without incurring additional costs of paying developers and designers to keep up with the latest eCommerce features and trends.
I started off using Square when it first came out. But I wanted something more robust that would help me with ecommerce and POS as I grew my ecommerce platform. Shopify makes everything seamless and has a number of apps that help me do other things like marketing. It's not as inexpensive as Square for POS, but it also is way more powerful. The customer service has also been great. I hate calling for customer service, so I use their Chat feature and always get an answer to my questions or issues.
We have been using Shopify Plus for almost 2 years. We moved over from NetSuite at the end of 2015 and have been very happy with the product. While the cost for Shopify Plus is rising dramatically, we need the versatility of a secure dedicated shopping cart, customer support, customization and API connections for our inventory platform Seller Cloud. I would recommend Shopify to anyone opening an E-Commerce business.
We switched twice in three years- first from Netsuite to Magento, both of which were very complex to build our site on, and then to Shopify, which has proven to be a great decision. We were able to save thousands of dollars a year in developer fees and even I (the owner) have been able to easily create pages and content for our site with little technical knowledge.
Shopify is easy to use, intuitive and scalable as my business has grown! The base themes are a solid foundation that can be personalized and the premium ones are top notch. As the community of stores has grown the number of developers building apps has increased exponentially which has allowed me to add on functionality I would have had to get built from scratch.
Our experience with Shopify: 3 stars.
If you use a free theme you get ancient navigation, you will pay for a SEO manager app (staff will recommend this app for $20/month to close from indexing your pages or collections), you will pay even for a wish list. The basic plan for $29 will make you pay even more than their plan for $79.
Surprise! Your store can be suddenly disconnected from "Shopify Payment" because Shopify will want to know your suppliers' contacts.
We give a bad score Shopify for anti fraud.
Shopify does not fit for starting or small businesses. Probably it will work well for big stores.
We've been on Shopify now for 2 years with no issues. We had one of the experts build the site, but we put 350 items on it ourselves and we maintain it as well. My husband takes care of all of the new products and installing everything and believe me he is absolutely NOT a computer genius, and if he can do it, anybody can. Thanks Shopify.
Indosole is a growing footwear company based in California and Bali, Indonesia. We use Shopify to power both our front-end website and our back-end Ecommerce sales and service. Shopify is a perfect fit for us as it can adapt to the needs of our business in our growth phase and has all the downloadable reporting and statistics that we need to monitor our business and cash flow. Plus, we have enjoyed using Shopify's Capital program which provides direct deposit loans at an affordable interest rate. Love it!
As a business owner with a background in Graphic Design we really appreciate Shopify's great looking existing store theme's. Shopify allows us to focus on our core business and not only shows off our Poseidon Surf brand visually but allows us to sell a multitude of products with ease. Another benefit is that many of our staff and new staff is familiar with Shopify which makes product updates even easier.
Pros:
1.) The back-end admin user platform is very friendly.
2.) The whole site is very reliable as far as up times goes.
3.) 3rd party apps are very useful and integration is very easy.
4.) Front end of themes tend to have a clean layout making it simple to navigate.
5.) Integrated shipping couriers like UPS and DHL makes it quite easy to choose best shipping options.
Cons:
1.) Support for 3rd party apps is almost non-existent other than the forums and when in the forums asking for help (at least for my issues), responses were scarce.
2.) Couldn't have access to certain information on our own sales data for 3rd party apps thru API.
3.) The blogging sites although allows us to blog in an easy manner, the back end doesn't show data on those visitors making it difficult to gauge blog's engagements.
I chose Shopify because it was very easy to get started on this platform and launch a polished, fully functioning eCommerce store within a week. The vibrant community of developers and designers who create useful apps and beautiful themes are always innovating, which lets me continually refine the website and add the latest eCommerce features. With Shopify’s intuitive UI and awesome analytics, this is a very excellent solution for small businesses to showcase and sell products online.
For most part Shopify works good for us. But I am having difficulty changing the menu options as I need drop downs and need to reorganize my website.
We love Shopify for our e-commerce website for the ease of customizing our products on the web. The integration of apps within Shopify is extremely easy as well as the support from Shopify - we always talk to a live person, very quickly. We are constantly receiving great feedback from our customers regarding our website.
Shopify offer great templates
Shopify give fantastic customer service
Shopify genius's go beyond the norm to assist when there is a problem and do speak in normal ( non tech) language in order to educate their consumer.
I selected shopify for their ecommerce/pos platform. Their support has been well beyond my expectations and the ease of use of their e-commerce and pos systems has been surprising. It has been a great one-stop shop for all my needs and they regularly update and improve their services.
I am very happy with the Camilla design. It was easy to personalize and add features to. Super simple to navigate which is a huge bonus for our customers and conversion rate. As astore owner its nice to not have to worry about EVERYTHING, this template takes care of you
Our company has used Shopify since the inception of our website. Their support chat is invaluable to our team – we contact them daily with questions on how to be more effective and productive. Their advice is knowledgeable and most importantly, quick, so we can get to our next task as soon as possible.
I think the sales are badly affected by the presentation of the checkout page - it appears that you can only pay by PayPal, there's no mention of credit card payment, even though c/c payment is a possibility. I know that this puts people off, it would be so easy to put some c/c logos on that page.
We are very happy we chose to use Shopify for our eCommerce business. With all of the data and reports just a click away, we are able to make decisions quickly and confidently. Their customer service team is also amazing.
Shopify's platform is worlds beyond where we were before. The payment processing and ability to provide great customer service with the simple platform has made the transition into a larger online presence a breeze. Shopify's customer support is always willing to help even with the smallest details.
Shopify has been a pivotal tool for my clothing line. We are now able to take a step back and let our eCommerce software work for us and worry only about our marketing. Growth comes fast with Shopify at your back.
Shopify is the best! Easy posting, inventory control and the ability to post directly to social media is a big plus! The guru's are always patient and go above and beyond to make sure my questions are answered any my problems are solved.
Shopify has been a great asset to our business. We really love the back end and how user-friendly it is. Wouldn't change Shopify for any other service. Its been great for keeping us organized. Also, always very helpful whenever we run into any issues.
Shopify platform offers a super simple solution where you can create a beautifully designed store and launch your online business in a matter of minutes, with unlimited traffic bandwidth and unlimited quantity of products, and with the possibility to launch your business globally, using any of the payment gateways that accept multiple currencies. The only inconvenience is that you will need to install additional applications to your store where you will have to pay a monthly fee, so you can really integrate all the necessary capabilities to optimize your conversion rates and get the best experience to your customers, although some of them are free of charge. Customer service is fantastic as well. I really recommend it for small-medium businesses and any eCommerce entrepreneurs!
We have switched from Big commerce to Shopify Plus earlier this year and we loved the platform. It is very easy to use and much more app integration. With Shopify Plus you can have multiple countries website under one account. We have a dedicated success manager that we can throw any Shopify related question to and their support team is always on line and fix problem super fast. Overall, very good experience and our store already see good growth rate after switching the platform
After spending so much money and endless frustration’s with other platforms. We are so excited to have discovered Shopify!
Shopify provides the everyday person with a professional online selling platform. It’s fast and easy to build an online store with little to no coding knowledge. I would recommend Shopify to any one aspiring to enter the world of e-commerce.
Shopify has allowed me to be able to run my own
e-commerce without fear of a web master leaving and the place falling apart, the platform is that easy, and with such amazing integration! I believe that is one of the keys to my success, I can practically run it from my IOS, from adding products on the spot to refunding a customer or taking an order. I also appreciate how fast your tech support works on the rare occasion that I need help.
I have brought many people to Shopify who want to start their own business, it is simply the easiest, and most efficient platform for entrepreneurs.
I actually loved using Shopify. It was a very easy to use platform with tons of options and modification capabilities.
I had a small online shop with Shopify but decided to take a break for a while so I switched over to Etsy where the cost for hosting is very minimal.
Shopify is a great platform that will easily grow your business! It's easy to use, and constantly evolving.
We've used Shopify to sell over 50,000 orders to fans in all 50 states, as well as the point-of-sale software in our 30A store locations. Shopify is comprehensive, professional, affordable and easy to use. Shopify is the best e-commerce platform on the market.
They try to provide you with all the tools so you can create a web site that looks good and works.
From Credit Card Processing to Layout.
Also their Chat will help you anytime with any questions you may have.
I have been fairly happy with Shopify. The price is reasonable. The support has been excellent (and my Canadian speaking skills continue to improve). My biggest problem has been trying to improve my SEO. Anything Shopify can do to help me with that would be much appreciated. The Kit app has been somewhat helpful, but I get lost in the setup on my end on some of the Kit options/suggestions. My geek skills are on the low end.
As a first-time e-commerce store owner, I've found Shopify to be simple, easy and relatively quick to setup and to use. I have not used any other e-commerce platforms before, but my first experience of the Shopify platform was simply the best, and I would definitely recommend Shopify to first-time store owners. You could easily and effortlessly expand your Shopify store to suit your business, whether it's to tailor and customise a Shopify theme or to extending the features of the Shopify platform. The Shopify support staff are really helpful and knowledgeable of the platform, so if ever you are stuck or need clarification on anything, they are always available to assist you, so you needn't be afraid to explore the platform at all. My advice to first-time e-commerce and Shopify users is to take a little time to familiarize yourself with the platform, ask a lot of questions, and browse the Shopify blogs and forums, to see how others are using the platform. In my opinion, Shopify is one of the best and easiest e-commerce platforms to use, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone!
With Shopify, we've been able to create 3 customized web sites; NaykedApparel.com, NaykedPromos.com and NaykedWholesale.com that target three different demographic groups with unique buying habits. Shopify has enabled us to quickly and without a lot of coding experience, create unique shopping experiences that have resulted in increased sales for all 3 sites.
Shopify is easy to use and very intuitive to figure out. Whenever one calls them, one gets a real live person on the phone fairly quickly. The people who answer the phones are native English speakers and talk you through your questions quickly, clearly and accurately. I would have switched to Shopify years ago if I had realized how much simpler it could be. I have been very happy with their service and services.
