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What is Shopify?

Shopify is an eCommerce platform for online stores. Basically what Shopify does is provide users with an easy way to create an online store.

With its wide range of templates, you can give your online store a professional look in no time, add your products, and start selling. You don’t need to know anything about web design, HTML, or coding; it’s a perfect way for beginners to start selling online.

With Shopify, you can create any type of online store you want. Therefore, you can sell any type of product you want, be it clothes, kitchen utensils, electronics, toys, etc. You can also sell digital products on a Shopify website, such as e-books, downloadable files, software, WordPress plugins, and more.

Plus, Shopify is a hosted solution, so you don’t have to worry about buying web hosting or downloading any software. You also don’t have to manage the security or performance of your online store – Shopify takes care of all of that for you.

In addition, Shopify offers pretty much everything you need to build an online store out of the box.

Shopify Review – Main Features

1. Easy to use and with a low learning curve

Shopify is aimed at all types of audiences, with or without technical knowledge, being an ideal platform for beginners who want to get into eCommerce and launch their own digital business.

Shopify’s learning curve is minimal, compared to other, much more complex platforms.

2. Built-in hosting

When a website is launched, in addition to the domain name, web hosting is required, right?

This begins to suppose a list of steps and previous procedures to carry out before starting with the creation of your online store. And therefore, it also takes time:

• You have to evaluate different providers
• Analyze hosting characteristics and their compatibility with the scope of your project
• Advanced configuration
• Be aware of annual renewals

With Shopify, this is all in one platform! These first barriers to entry are broken and the price plans include domain registration and unlimited web hosting.

Related: Best Cheap WordPress Hosting

3. Fast Loading speed

Shopify makes use of the best servers, networks, a global CDN, and the Lazy Load technique that provides maximum reliability and speed for your online stores.

Loading speed is a key aspect in SEO Positioning and the conversion of any business on the Internet

A few more seconds of waiting in the loading of your website will cause the impatience of your visitors, who will not hesitate to leave you without completing the desired purchase.

Those extra seconds translate into the loss of potential purchases because users hate waiting too long, especially on mobile phones.

Related: 5 Tips to Create a Website: What you Need to Know Before Get Started

4. Free SSL certificate

Shopify provides a free SSL certificate to encrypt the content of your online store using the HTTPS protocol.

Your site will be shown as “secure”, with the famous padlock in the browser. This will build trust among your visitors.

The image of the padlock means that you are browsing a secure website

Look, this is what happens on websites or online stores that do not have the SSL certificate.

With Shopify, you are in good hands. This message will never appear thanks to the fact that you have the SSL certificate as standard.

5. Unlimited product catalog

One of the strengths of Shopify is the management of the product catalog.

You can see how the process of creating your products is simple, even a child could do it.

And it is that if the pillar of your online store is the products, facilitating the management of the catalog is one of the most important premises of the platform.

Shopify is determined to deliver the most optimized user experience possible for the seller.

You can illustrate the interface of your home page dynamically thanks to the creation of a slider, where images are displayed every so often.

6. Great technical support

You can say, without fear of being wrong, that you will not feel alone “in the desert” at any time.

What happens if during the process of creating your online store if you have questions.

You will always find an agent from the Shopify customer service team willing to help you at any time of day within 24/7.

What peace of mind, right?

• There are a ton of resources where you can solve the most typical questions where users are trying to start online.
• You also have the Shopify Community Forum, with questions and solutions from sellers who have surely had the same doubts before.

In short, a broad community is ready to help and cooperate.

7. Built-in mobile friendly

The number of people who browse daily from their mobiles grows every day, so adapting your eCommerce to this type of device is a ‘must’.

And Shopify has thought about this too!

It has a responsive design, both in all its available templates and in the administration panel.

Shopify has grown so much in these years that it already has its own mobile application, both for Android and iPhone.

8. Payment Gateway

The purchase process is one of the most critical and complex web creation phases.

Nothing can go wrong with Shopify!

Imagine that the customer has arrived at your eCommerce and has chosen the products they want to buy. Decide to finish and pay. But suddenly, … surprise!

You find yourself with a poorly optimized, cumbersome final payment screen that inspires anything but trust.

Can you imagine the end of this story?

Your customer will abandon the purchase. And, the worst thing is that you will buy that same product from the competition. What a nightmare, right?

Shopify places special emphasis on this fact and presents a very simple and intuitive checkout process, consisting of 4 steps:

1. Trolley
2. Information
3. Shipment
4. Payment

9. Integration with other platforms

Another of the strengths of Shopify is the ability to integrate with other platforms.

You can connect your online store with:

• Marketplaces (Amazon, eBay, etc.)
• Dropshipping providers
• Your social media profiles, such as the Facebook company page

Imagine the enormous possibilities of being able to open new sales channels and, everything connected to each other.

10. Easy option to close or pause the store

You can close your online store in Shopify at any time. No restrictive conditions (no fine print).

Without permanence, you decide when to leave your store without minimum periods of permanence or obligatory payments.

If after a while you are undecided between “closing down” or taking some time to reflect, you can choose these intermediate options:

Plan Pause and Build

You can pause your store and continue working on it for a subscription payment that is lower than usual. You will be able to access your Shopify control panel to optimize it and edit your products.

Plan Pause

With this plan, you can pause your online store completely and at no monthly cost for 3 months. Your customers will simply see a message about the store being temporarily closed.

You can reactivate your store at any time or after those 3 months and the “Pause and build” Plan will be activated automatically.

If you have a custom domain that you bought through Shopify, you can transfer it to another provider, without having to explain.

11. Extra features to help sell

As a seller, you have access to a series of extra features to optimize the conversion of your store.

Possibility of recovering abandoned carts

There is a large percentage of users who abandon the purchase process for different reasons. Remind those users that they were interested in certain products, that they can resume the purchase process. And, better yet, finishing it is a second chance to rescue your sales. With Shopify, this functionality is just one click away.

SEO Optimization

You can create an online store with good products and a spectacular design, that if you do not have visitors, it is difficult for you to obtain sales.

Related: Semrush Review: All-In-One SEO Tools

Having a good organic positioning is vitally important to get your products and other URLs on your website to the best positions in search engines.

With Shopify, they will help you in the optimization of your categories and products with a simple dashboard in which you can complete basic aspects of SEO On Page:

• Page Title
• Meta description
• Custom URL
• Headers (H1, H2, H3, etc.)
• Images SEO: You will be able to edit the ALT attribute of your product images

Applications to go ‘further’ with your online store

After creating and configuring the store, you can add functionalities to your business, thanks to the app repository that Shopify offers.

You have free applications and other paid ones such as popups forms, chat, gift cards, countdown counter, add the Instagram feed, social login, etc.

Hundreds of apps to make your eCommerce more competitive are in the palm of your hand.

Shopify Pricing

Having completed all the main features of Shopify, it would be necessary to choose the monthly plan that best suits you and your pocket.

You can use our link to get Shopify for 14-day free trial!

Here are the price tiers of Shopify:

• Basic Plan: It’s a cheaper option with all the basics and necessary to start selling online. It cost $29 per month and a 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction obtained through Shopify Payments.
• Shopify plan: Somewhat more advanced plan to start growing, once your business is consolidated. The price starts at $79 per month and a 2.6% + 30¢ per transaction obtained through Shopify Payments.
• Advanced Shopify Plan: Advanced plan for businesses already with a significant billing level and who want to take their online business to a higher level. It costs $299 per month and a charge of 2.4% + 30¢ per transaction obtained through Shopify Payments.

There are two additional plans, which are at the extremes of the price spectrum.

With Shopify Lite, for only US $9 per month, you can add the online sales function to your current website or blog, for example, made in WordPress or Squarespace, or even to your Facebook page. You will be able to display products and accept card payments with a few clicks, and without the need to create an online store. A more than interesting option to test if your products are well received in the market.

Meanwhile, Shopify Plus targets high-volume corporations and large businesses.

A very powerful business solution, with a cost of $2000 per month.

Who knows, maybe one day you can be in that situation, hopefully!

What other additional costs does Shopify have?

There are some concepts that may require an additional cost, such as a domain, applications, and paid premium Shopify themes.

Beyond this, you will not find any unexpected costs.

Conclusion

If you are looking to sell your products both digitally and physically, then Shopify would definitely be the best option for you. Whether you want to make a little extra money on the side or make it your full-time job, Shopify is the quickest way to get online and start selling.

If in doubt, you can start by trying Shopify for 14-day free trial. If you like what you see, you can always update your plan in the future.