Shopify is one of the most robust and the best known e-commerce
platforms today. It’s a complete tool that allows you to build a working
e-commerce store, even if you don’t have any coding skills or website building
experience. More than 500,000 stores are being hosted over Shopify and that
remained successful in generating $46 billion in sales. Here are some of the
most notable clients of Shopify:
- Gymshark Store
- Kylie cosmetics
- Holland Cooper
- Leesa
Shopify: What is it?
Shopify was founded in 2004. It is headquartered in Ottawa,
Ontario and founded by Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake. The
company reported that it had more than 1,000,000 businesses in approximately
175 countries using its platform as of June 2019, with total gross merchandise
volume exceeding $41.1 billion. It offers numerous features which help you
build and manage your online store. From inventory management to SEO
effectiveness and support for different payment gateways, this makes you stand
out amongst your e-commerce competitors.
It is a 'software as a service'
(Saas) tool. This means that there is an ongoing cost of using them. You will
have to pay a monthly or annual fee for access to the software.
There are 5 of the pricing plans that Shopify provides:
- Basic Shopify: $29 per month – cheapest option available for starting a small business.
- Shopify: $79 per month – standard pricing plan.
- Advanced Shopify: $299 per month – to further expand big businesses
- Shopify Plus: $2000 per month. Shopify Plus is an enterprise-level ecommerce plan and offers custom prices.
- Shopify Lite: Begins with $9 per month. This plan connects your store with Facebook and sells your products there.
SEO TIPS FOR SHOPIFY
If you have already built your Shopify e-commerce website, then
let's dive into some Shopify
SEO tips that can help you optimize your
store. They will bring better results and will improve your rank and your
traffic.
- Register your Shopify store with Google and Bing
- Ensure faster loading speed of your Shopify store
- Use headings properly
- Identify your Keywords
- Engaging meta descriptions
- Mobile friendly
Shopify
Pros
Beautiful Themes: With a number of professionally
designed responsive themes (both free and paid) in its Theme Store, it lets you
customize your website across a range of industries including clothing,
jewelry, art, etc.
Highly Flexible Platform: Shopify provides you a range of
resources for inventory management, customer support, marketing, delivery,
reporting, social media and much more after you create your online store. As a
highly versatile platform, you can choose these instruments according to your
needs and let you automate your e-commerce business.
Tremendous Speed and Security: To run
your online store smoothly, Shopify ensures that it runs at a quick pace and
has a high level of security, as payment normally requires credit card
processing.
24/7 Customer Support: Shopify offers you comprehensive
customer service via email, live chat online and mobile. It has a huge FAQ
database to help you in troubleshooting the technology. Its team will provide
you with quick and helpful support any time you need it.
Shopify
Cons
Less Customizability: Shopify is built with its own
language called Liquid which they use to create the themes. Though you can use
other programming languages while coding, it has certain limitations. Shopify
only lets you change some aspects of its features and is not as flexible as
self-hosted sites that would allow you to change almost everything.
Pricing: Like several other online and
self-hosting e-commerce sites Shopify isn't free. On the other hand, you have
pretty good options for building e-commerce stores like Magento, Zen Cart,
WooCommerce, etc. The cheapest plan is $29 and can go up to $299. Other
expenses include transaction fees associated with selling online as well as
subscription fees to use the apps you need.
Conclusion
Shopify has now become immensely popular in the e-commerce
industry. You can easily set up an account with Shopify, upload your products
and can begin selling right away.
