Features of Shopify Websites
Shopify is a popular all-in-one commerce platform that allows you to sell products online, on social media, and in person. It’s self-hosted, so you can run a store from any location, so long as you have access to the internet.
With over 2,500 apps to facilitate eCommerce operations and marketing, Shopify makes it easy to manage payments and inventory, upselling, shipping, customer service, and more. Its state-of-the-art tech stacks, mobile responsive templates, and in-depth customization provide merchants with everything they need to generate a healthy cash flow.
Shopify links to profitable sales channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Amazon, eBay, and others offering unlimited business growth, while its excellent set of SEO tools ensures your store’s web pages are effectively indexed and ranked in search engines.
Another core benefit is security and reliability. The platform guarantees 99.8% uptime and every store comes with an SSL certificate, meaning you and your shoppers’ personal and financial data is safe and secure.
It’s challenging to find an eCommerce platform that beats Shopify in terms of simplicity, mobile friendliness, sales reach, and growth potential. That’s why this popular platform powers four million stores.
The Benefits of Using Shopify
There are several benefits of using Shopify, from its built-in features to the platform’s ability to integrate with a number of other third-party services. If you’re looking for a secure, easy-to-use platform for your eCommerce website, Shopify is the answer.
Ease of Use
What makes Shopify special is its ease of use. Even without technical and coding skills, you can still create a beautiful and functional store. The platform’s drag-drop tool allows you to customize web pages without having to invest hours in learning how to use it. All you need to do is create an account, choose a template and add your products.
User-friendly
Shopify’s interface is mobile-friendly ensuring your store looks great on all devices. As a result, your customers can shop from wherever they are, and you can manage operations from your smartphone if you need to. It also offers full-stack customer support via email, live chat and phone 24/7 should you need to resolve any issues.
Theme Variety
Shopify’s interface is mobile-friendly ensuring your store looks great on all devices. As a result, your customers can shop from wherever they are, and you can manage operations from your smartphone if you need to. It also offers full-stack customer support via email, live chat and phone 24/7 should you need to resolve any issues.
The Disadvantages of Shopify
While Shopify is a suitable platform for almost any eCommerce endeavor, like all platforms there are a few downsides.
Limited Customization
Although Shopify has a wide range of themes, design customization is limited. This may or may not be an issue, depending on how complex your store is. You can always work with a developer to customize the finer details of your store or build a website from scratch, but this can be far more costly.
Higher Prices
Most Shopify stores rely on add-on features and advanced Shopify plans to fully function because the platform’s free version is limited. Shopify plans start at $29 and increase up to $299, excluding transaction and app subscription fees. As with all hosted sites, this can become pricey.
No Email Hosting
Shopify does not offer email hosting. This means you can send emails to customers, but they can’t respond. Therefore, you have to use a paid email hosting service. While not the end of the world, most merchants find this an inconvenience.