Shopify – what is it: The detailed review

Shopify is a whole system built to enable entrepreneurs to successfully grow their businesses. With Shopify, you can create an online store, but this is just the beginning.

Shopify was founded in 2004 in Canada. It is now the second most popular e-commerce platform on the planet with 4 million active stores, second only to WooCommerce. Shopify's goal is to give entrepreneurs the opportunity to easily start their own business selling goods and grow it to the next level.

Shopify – what is it?

Technically, Shopify is a software that allows anyone to easily create their own online store and sell any products. Shopify store owners can also sell their products offline using Shopify POS.

Shopify POS allows you to conveniently sell and manage all your records using a dedicated app and hardware. In other words, if you are a Shopify merchant with both a physical store and an online store, all your data and inventory will be synced, and you can manage your store (or stores) from one account on any device.

This is just the surface of what Shopify is. To properly answer the question "what is Shopify?" in this review, we must first clarify that Shopify is not a standalone product, nor is it just a store builder or a tool for selling your products. Shopify is an entire trading platform that offers the ability to quickly launch the business of your dreams and start selling your products to customers from anywhere in the world.

Whether you're looking to launch a new store or just gain a new trading experience, Shopify can help you get there.

Pros and Cons of Shopify

Shopify concept

Every entrepreneur faces the fact that he needs to constantly demonstrate his products on different platforms, interact with clients on a daily basis, receive payments, ship goods and manage financial transactions. Some companies use different tools to manage each of these activities separately, as a result of which they spend a lot of time and money collecting data and combining everything into one system.

The Shopify trading platform offers a new solution for this. It combines these technologies and becomes the base on which applications, processes and technologies are developed. In other words, the Shopify trading platform offers all the tools necessary for a successful business in one place. Also, as an addition, you will be able to easily access and integrate any other business tools that are necessary to advance your business.

Shopify can be thought of as a multi-tiered service platform where you, as an entrepreneur, can use one of the platform's services and gradually get to know and join the others.

What you get from starting with Shopify

To illustrate, remember the last time you bought a smartphone. As soon as you took it out of the box, you could immediately take photos and videos, connect to the Internet, check the weather forecast, use navigation services, and so on. In other words, the smartphone allows you to do everything that is required of any portable device right out of the box.

Shopify Starter Offer

The Shopify Starter Offer works exactly the same way. It’s what you get right out of the box on any Shopify plan. Once you sign up for a Shopify subscription, you get all the all-in-one business solutions right away: a storefront, a payment system, a shipping partner, a remote office, and a marketing account. These are the most basic features for running any business successfully.

Showcase for your store

Online store hosted on our hosting

You immediately get a hosted online store where you can create web pages, publish blog posts, and of course, sell products. You can customize the design and personalization of your store by changing the site template or theme. You can also find a suitable theme for your business in the Shopify theme store.

Shopify offers free web hosting with all plans. Using our hosting means that our servers will be running 24/7 to ensure your site is up and running without interruption . We've already taken care of everything from your site's security to software updates so you never have to do it yourself.

POS Lite

Shopify POS is an offline point of sale app that can be used to sell products locally, including retail stores, markets, and other retail locations. Every Shopify plan includes a free POS Lite plan. All you need to do is register your store and order the accompanying hardware.

Payment Processor

Payment systems

You can choose from over 100 payment gateways or choose Shopify Payments, which eliminates the need to set up a third-party payment gateway and saves on transaction fees. With Shopify Payments, you have access to all major payment methods and the ability to sell in 133 currencies around the world.

Shopify Checkout

Whether you sell on your own store or use other sales channels (like Instagram), you'll be able to use the same checkout page - Shopify Checkout. With over 2.5 billion orders processed, Shopify Checkout is constantly optimized for internet speed, conversion, and customer needs, giving you the most powerful checkout system on the market.

Shopify - Delivery Partner

You can create a shipping scheme that works for you. From fulfilling bulk orders by creating USPS SCAN Forms to organizing pickup with UPS and DHL . If you're located in Canada, the US, or Australia, you can offer your customers real-time order tracking, as well as fast shipping and lower carrier rates with Shopify Shipping. Pickup and home delivery services are also available to your customers.

Remote office

Mobile application

Download and use the free Shopify app to manage your business from your mobile device. You can do everything you do on your computer, but from your phone, helping you keep track of your business wherever you are.

Analytics and reporting

Monitor your store activity in real time, get insights into your visitors, and analyze your business performance. You can also get more detailed insights and reports to optimize your store.

Shopify App Store

The Shopify App Store is a collection of free and premium apps that extend the functionality of your online store. It’s a great way to add more specialized features and functionality to your store, such as a customer loyalty program or an advanced product filtering system.

Support

Get the help you need with 24/7 customer support, a detailed guide, and educational blog articles.

Personal account for marketing

The Shopify marketing platform allows you to reach more customers with a built-in blog and SEO tools, as well as create ads on Facebook and Google Shopping. You can track the effectiveness of your marketing strategy across all channels in one online dashboard, as well as get the necessary statistics about your potential customers.

Unlock access to exclusive Shopify products and services

Competition is a great motivator for new entrepreneurs. That's why you get access to the same tools that big brands use at a price you can afford. When you sign up for a Shopify plan, you'll also get access to the latest innovations that Shopify's e-commerce platform has developed specifically for your stores.

All of these additional offers and services are optional, but they will help improve your core business functionality: sales, shipping, marketing, and management. Most of the additional features can be activated with the click of a button and managed from the same place where you manage your online store.

You can add and remove store functionality as you see fit as your business grows, or use some services on a one-time basis. Shopify's vision is simple: business owners should be able to increase their business productivity at any time without having to worry about it.

Here's a quick rundown of some of the features you can use on the Shopify platform. We've also included whether the features are free (basic) or require additional payment:

ShopPay

Availability: free

Shop Pay is a streamlined authentication process that allows customers to save their email address, credit card details, shipping information, and all billing information so they can complete a transaction faster the next time they buy something from your store.

A Shopify study found that checkouts made through Shop Pay had an average conversion rate of 1.72x higher than checkouts made through regular checkout.

Sales on social networks and marketplaces

Availability: free

You can use Shopify to promote and sell your products not only on your online store, but also on other platforms . Connect Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and TikTok to promote and sell your products on social media. You can also sell where your customers often shop, like on marketplaces like Etsy, Amazon, or Walmart.

Shopify Fulfillment Network

Availability: Locally restricted use

With a dedicated fulfillment network across the U.S., business owners can take advantage of the Shopify Fulfillment Network. Once you submit a request and get approved, all you have to do is select the orders you want fulfilled, and Shopify will pick, pack, and ship the items from a nearby warehouse to reduce shipping times.

Shopify Capital

Availability: Limited use

Shopify Capital is a way for entrepreneurs who want to expand their business to get additional funding. Shopify Capital offers cash advances and loans to businesses that meet all of the stated requirements. The loan amount is calculated based on the sales made in their stores. This service is currently only available in the US, Canada, and the UK.

Email Marketing

Availability: free

Shopify Email is an email marketing tool that lets you create professional emails to communicate with your customers, helping you sell more products. You can track their performance from the same place you manage your products, customers, and other digital stats—you’ll see the exact amount of sales each email has generated for your business.

Shopify Ping

Availability: free

Shopify Ping is a messaging app that lets you communicate with your customers and your team. It can be used to drive sales and build relationships with customers. We’ve found that conversions are 70% higher when customers use Shopify Ping to communicate with store representatives.

POS Pro

Availability: paid

If you're growing your business on a consistent basis, you'll definitely want to upgrade from POS Lite to POS Pro. Shopify POS Pro gives you access to advanced product management, unlimited store staff accounts, and detailed analytics.

More: Shopify App Store

Remember our smartphone analogy? Once purchased, your smartphone comes equipped with all the features you need. But that’s not all it can do. Your smartphone also lets you download apps like social media, music, email, and fitness apps that make it more enjoyable and efficient to use over the long term. And the choice of apps is always deeply personal.

The Shopify e-commerce platform works in exactly the same way. The tools you need are varied. What a business owner needs depends on what products they sell, who they sell to, the size of their business, where they are located, and so on.

With over a million independent businesses selling different types of products in marketplaces around the world, catering to all of a business’s needs is no easy task. And trying to include every possible feature a business might need in the Shopify platform at once will only make it more difficult for most aspiring entrepreneurs to use the service.

That’s why we prioritized the flexibility of our platform – first and foremost, the ability to easily modify it. This allows us to meet the challenges of ever-changing business models. To that end, we’re reaching out to every developer around the world to join us in our mission to make online business easier by enabling them to build apps, themes, and other integrations specifically for the Shopify platform.

That's how the Shopify Ap Store was created. It's home to over 8,000 apps. Whether you want to add advanced customer reviews, manage your accounting, or expand the functionality of your store, you're sure to find the right app for the job.

The App Store features a powerful search and classification system that organizes apps by their features and purposes.

Entrepreneurs can find exactly what they need for their store, and app developers can grow their business while supporting their entrepreneur clients. It’s a win-win situation that benefits everyone involved.

Choose Your Own Path: Custom Code and Beyond

Shopify's mission is to make entrepreneurship accessible to everyone. This means that the platform is designed to be easy to use and successful in your business, even if you don't have any design or development knowledge.

But that doesn’t mean you’re limited to the templates or features offered by the core suite or apps from the App Store. If you want to tinker with the code yourself (or hire one of the experts), Shopify lets you do just that. You can customize just one part of your business, or build a one-of-a-kind store from scratch. The choice is entirely yours.

For those who want to gain more control over their business, here are some ways to achieve this:

• Customize your theme or create a theme from scratch.
• Create custom apps for your store using Shopify's developer tools and API.
• Use the API to improve the user experience in third-party products, such as selling products in a computer game.

The takeaway here is that you don’t have to sacrifice ease of use for more customization and control. With Shopify, you can quickly launch your store while gradually building a rich, unique experience comparable to big brands.

Create a Shopify Store Today

Shopify is n’t just a piece of software or a single product, it’s an all-in-one commerce platform. More than that, it’s a system that creates something more valuable for business owners by bringing together developers, business experts, and shoppers in a shared quest to make commerce better for everyone.

In doing so, Shopify also makes entrepreneurship more accessible to those who strive for independence. Whether you are a budding entrepreneur or a well-known brand with a global reputation, Shopify can help you set up and grow your business. Take advantage of the free trial, try it out and see for yourself.