Why the Shopify Ecommerce Platform Should Be at the Top of Your List

Shopify’s exceptional suite of features makes it the most trusted ecommerce platform on the market. With huge companies such as Red Bull, Nescafe, Heinz, GymShark, and Kylie Cosmetics relying on the platform to power their websites, it’s easy to see why.

To clear any doubt, read on to find out why Shopify should absolutely be a main consideration for building your ecommerce empire.

Second to None Technology Partners

The Shopify Partner Program grants merchants access to an unrivalled network of potential partners. It does not get any more user-friendly than building a Shopify ecommerce store. But even so, the most experienced consultants are on hand to offer assistance, whether it is in a web design & development or marketing capacity.

All the efforts of Shopify partners and experts revolve around helping ecommerce merchants maximise the value of their respective online businesses.

Build a Site that Represents Your Brand, Your Way

Building a Shopify ecommerce site presents an incomparable opportunity to build a website that accurately reflects your brand. This is because of the platform’s vast range of stylistic options, customisable nature, and easy-to-use interface.

Shopify currently offers over 70 free and premium themes, which can all be personalised to represent your brand. This solution is a web designer’s best friend, thanks in large part to its intuitive nature. Whether you’re taking advantage of the drag-and-drop functionality or writing code, it doesn’t get better than Shopify when it comes to tailoring an online store so that it perfectly encapsulates a brand’s essence.

Sell Anywhere, To Anyone, Anytime

The expansive automation and website-management functionality of Shopify means you can sell products and services to anyone, anywhere, 24/7. Many areas of your Shopify store can be automated with the extensive range of apps that are currently available. You can get plugins for elements such as inventory, profit margin tracking, data backups, and much more.

Additionally, Shopify has developed apps for both iOS and Android devices. This gives merchants the convenience of managing online stores directly from a smartphone. That’s the definition of having complete control in the palm of your hands.

Unify Your Operations

With Shopify’s Point of Sale (POS) system, it’s never been easier to integrate your different sales channels. Shopify POS allows merchants to sell products online as well as offline.

It also delivers numerous other benefits including allowing merchants to provide more personalised shopping experiences to valued customers. In addition to this, store owners can access accurate information on stock levels as needed. These are just a few more reasons to create your ecommerce website on Shopify.

Take Advantage of Marketing Tools

The Shopify ecommerce platform gives users a wealth of powerful features to effectively market an online store. There is now a dedicated marketing section on the Shopify dashboard to support a range of marketing activities. Here you can create and track advertising campaigns on platforms like Facebook and Google, which can open up a channel to millions of potential customers.

There is also a selection of user-friendly Shopify features that facilitate marketing through email and social media. If that wasn’t enough, merchants who set up ecommerce websites on Shopify also gain access to a plethora of third-party marketing tools to further enhance marketing efforts.

Keep Everything Running Smoothly with the Intuitive Shopify Dashboard

More so than any other ecommerce platform, Shopify provides a simple yet effective dashboard to easily manage your store. This gives you complete control of your website from anywhere in the world using a computer or a mobile device.

From your dashboard, you can initiate a wide range of actions and have a wealth of actions and information at your disposal. This includes access to sales figures for any given period, the ability to analyse the performance of all your sales channels, and data on customer journeys to your store, among many other actions.

Easy Management

The intuitive Shopify solution makes managing your website, products, and orders easier than ever. A convenient drag-and-drop system comes as part and parcel of the end-to-end product, so you easily manage the growth and development of your site.

Administering your product line is similarly convenient with inbuilt aspects such as the ‘Managing Variants and Options’ functionality. This allows you to add multiple types of the same product. An example of this would be offering a product in a range of sizes.

The core Shopify service also offers great order management features. It’s extremely easy to tag and add notes to open orders, check their timeline, and liaise with the customer. In addition to this, there are many free and paid-for apps offering enhanced functionality in a wide array of areas.

Scalability

Shopify offers a selection of packages that are designed to meet the needs of different-sized enterprises. The Shopify Lite and Basic Shopify options are ideal for young start-ups or companies that just want to test the waters. The Shopify option is perfect for established and growing mid-sized business. For larger companies with higher sales volumes, there is Shopify Advanced and Shopify Plus.

Each option is scalable and provides ample room for growth. Importantly, when your ecommerce business reaches key milestones, it’s very easy to upgrade to a superior plan.

Franchise Friendly

If you are expanding your business into a franchise, then Shopify is the platform for you. It has numerous inbuilt features designed to support this type of business development. The Point of Sale (POS) functionality makes it easy to seamlessly integrate your brick-and-mortar operation with your online store.

Additionally, the Organisation Management function gives Shopify Plus merchants the option of managing multiple stores at an organisational level. There are also many apps available to facilitate the development of a franchise business model.

App Integrations

When you build your online store on the Shopify ecommerce platform, you gain access to over 4,200 free and paid-for apps. They offer an incredible degree of control over your website’s features and functionality. As such, Shopify integration couldn’t be easier. Once you have identified the plug-in you need on your store, installation and authorisation will be complete within a few clicks of the mouse.

Whether it is customer service, marketing, shipping, or something else, the range of apps available work to enhance the performance of your store on Shopify.

Store Insights

Shopify gives merchants in-depth analytic and diagnostic tools, which offer invaluable insights into store performance. You can produce reports on customer behaviour, store speed, transactions, and a whole lot more.

Different Shopify packages come with access to different levels of store analytics. Nevertheless, even Shopify Lite, the lowest of the available plans, provides functionality to run reports on products and finances. Higher packages provide increasingly sophisticated diagnostics. An example is the mid-range Shopify option that comes complete with features providing insights on areas like marketing, acquisition, and customer behaviour.

Support

In the case that you should need it, the Shopify ecommerce platform provides abundant help. Firstly, there is a dedicated customer support team that is available 24/7 to all Shopify customers at no additional cost. These friendly experts are always accessible via live chat or email to help with any problems that may arise.

Secondly, there is a treasure trove of helpful articles, videos, and tutorials available for Shopify users. These useful resources provide assistance and advice on every imaginable aspect of running a successful Shopify store.

Shopify vs WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an ecommerce platform that in essence is a plugin for the WordPress content management system. As an open-source application, it is free, and therefore a sought-after choice for budget-conscious entrepreneurs. However, merchants building their online store on WooCommerce will have to pay for hosting, the domain, security and more. These added fees make it less of a bargain than it initially appears. Additionally, you will have to maintain the software yourself without any direct access to customer support.

While you may pay more up front for the Shopify ecommerce platform, the costs are very affordable and are further mitigated by the fact that they include hosting and SSL security. The platform is also extremely user-friendly for both Shopify developers and designers as well as day-to-day website administrators. Furthermore, Shopify also provides extensive customer support, offers exceptional scalability options, and is extremely customisable to truly reflect your unique brand.

Shopify vs Magento

While Magento is a powerful platform, it has a steeper learning curve than Shopify. Realistically, the only way to build a quality website on Magento is through written code. This makes some users more hesitant to adopt the solution. However, the platform’s extensive capabilities quickly become obvious with a little bit of time spent on training. In addition to this, Magento’s paid-for option is prohibitively expensive for smaller companies.

By contrast, Shopify offers prospective merchants many low-cost, high-value packages that come with comprehensive customer support. And even with all the extra help available, it’s so intuitive that non-techies can also build functional, aesthetically pleasing websites. Additionally, Shopify deals with all the technical aspects of the site, such as SSL security and hosting, for merchants.

Shopify vs WordPress

A vast number of websites are built on the near-ubiquitous WordPress content management system. While it’s an undeniably powerful website building tool, it offers no ecommerce functionality in its core form. In order to base your online store on WordPress, business owners need to add a plugin like WooCommerce.

Compared to Shopify, creating an e-commerce store on WordPress is a lot less intuitive. This makes Shopify a significantly better option for ease of use, efficiency, and effectiveness when it comes to online stores.

Shopify vs Wix

Wix is a relatively easy-to-use website builder that does allow merchants to quickly establish online stores. However, it also comes with a number of significant technical limitations. For starters, the analytic functions offered on Wix are rudimentary. The sales tools are also simplistic, and there are insufficient ecommerce-related apps available. Shopify, on the other hand, provides advanced analytics, unparalleled sales tools, and thousands of ecommerce-dedicated plugins to support growing businesses.

Shopify vs Squarespace

Squarespace offers an adequate ecommerce website-building experience, with some impressive aesthetic options. However, it is a more basic platform than Shopify that lacks many important features. Not only is Squarespace less user-friendly, but it is further limited by simplistic marketing and sales tools. Additionally, the level of customer support for the platform does not even begin to compare to Shopify.

Ultimately, in the battle of Squarespace vs Shopify, the only platform left standing will more often than not be Shopify.

Is Shopify good for ecommerce?

Due to its unmatched ease-of-use, comprehensive customer support, and extensive suite of features, Shopify is the best ecommerce platform available. Shopify’s superiority over its competitors has been recognised by independent industry experts such as WebsiteBuilderExpert.

How does Shopify ecommerce work?

Selling on Shopify could not be simpler. The platform provides everything a business needs to develop a successful and attractive online store. After you pick the package that best meets your requirements, you just need to pay the monthly subscription and you can be up and running shortly thereafter.

Is Shopify the biggest ecommerce platform?

Currently, Shopify is the third biggest ecommerce platform by market share after WooCommerce and Squarespace.

Is Shopify Good for Beginners?

Shopify is the premium option for beginners, as its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface requires no coding knowledge to create beautiful websites.

Is Shopify Safe and Legit?

Shopify has extremely high standards of security and invests heavily in testing its system for weaknesses. As such, it is one of the safest ecommerce platforms on the market.

Why Is Shopify Worth So Much?

Shopify’s superlative service has been extremely popular in the rapidly growing ecommerce sector. Accordingly, its share prices have significantly grown in value. In 2020 alone its stocks grew by 250%.

Will Shopify Continue to Grow?

Shopify continues to offer the best ecommerce platform on the market. As such, the platform will continue to grow from strength to strength. Forbes predicts that the company’s stock will continue growing by as much as 350% by 2025.

As can be seen, Shopify should definitely be at the top of your list of platforms for building conversion-focussed ecommerce online stores. When you look at Shopify’s ease-of-use, affordability, available tools and customer service, among numerous other business-critical factors, none of its competitors quite stack up.

Identify the package that best meets your unique business requirements and shoot for the stars with a helping hand from the Shopify agency.