Top 10 Benefits of Using Shopify for eCommerce Store Development

Digital retailing has become an allure for many people. When you decide to venture into the world of online retailing, you are faced with a myriad of shopping cart platforms that promise effective performance.

We wish to introduce and recommend Shopify.

So, what is Shopify and how does it work?

I am glad you asked.

Tobias Lutke founded Shopify out of necessity. He wanted a flexible ecommerce platform that could easily integrate with other services. He saw an opportunity worth looking into, and he approached his friend Scot Lake with the idea and they started developing the platform.

At first, Lutke was interested in creating a platform that would help him sell his snowboards online. However, with time, he found himself motivated to help other online entrepreneurs to sell their products online. This was the motivation behind the creation of Shopify.

Lutke and Scott focused most of their attention on the flexibility and ease of use. In 2006, they launched Shopify, with the help of an angel investor who invested $250,000 and they invested $200,000 from their friends and family.

With a rough two years, Scott Lake left and Lutke had to bring in a new team to work with him. Their efforts started paying off when people started noticing their goods on Shopify and how good they looked.

People started using Shopify as their preferred eCommerce platform. By 2008, the organization registered its first profits. By 2010, Shopify secured $7 million in funding and a further $15 million in 2011.

A platform that started out selling snowboards online is now one of the best ecommerce platforms in the world with over 500,000 ecommerce stores using it. In addition, the platform is not only being used by small businesses alone, but also big brands such as Angry Birds, Red Bull, Foo Fighters, and 50 Cent. By 2017, businesses on Shopify had transacted over $40 billion worth of merchandise.

Shopify is a hosted shopping cart solution to ecommerce storeowners. As a Shopify user, you will not worry about hosting issues, server maintenance, as well as how to present your brand to your customers. All this is taken care of by the amazing Shopify auxiliary applications available for use.

Shopify allows you to easily customize and manage your online store right from stock management to shipping to customer contact management.

At its core, Shopify is designed to help business owners with no coding or web design knowledge to create –on their own- a beautiful ecommerce store that is mobile friendly and full of features that for ease of use.

Therefore, if you have no technical skills, you can still create your own online store. You can either create it to sell your own products or other people’s products. The challenge of designing a website has been resolved by the Shopify ecommerce platform.

By now, you understand why Shopify is the choice for startups and established business alike. The platform is designed with the storeowner and the customers in mind. The ability to integrate Shopify with other platforms makes it flexible and easy to use.

Let us now get down to the benefits of using Shopify for ecommerce store development.

Benefit # 1. Quick Set Up And Easy Use

Not all online entrepreneurs are tech savvy.

As such, most entrepreneurs fear starting their own ecommerce stores because of the difficulty they would experience in creating an ecommerce platform.

Shopify, provides you with a platform where you do not have to understand coding at all. They have taken care of the hosting and servers. All you need is your products and the name of your online shop.

After going through several tutorials on their website, you will take minutes to set up your own online store.

You just head to the Shopify website and register an account with them, that’s it!

From there, you only need to customize your store and upload the images of your products. It is easier than creating a blog on WordPress.

Using Shopify is easy. Once you have uploaded your products on the platform, you can edit descriptions, customize color schemes, and add titles on your images.

It is easy to manage your inventory from the Shopify dashboard, offer discounts, and track orders and sales, as well as manage your transactions.

Shopify takes care of everything you need to run a successful online shop.

Benefit # 2. Secure and Reliable

The other thing that keeps online shop owners awake is the security of their online store.

Nobody wants to wake up to news of hacking on his or her online store.

There is too much information contained on your platform, not just your own private information but also your client’s information.

As such, security and reliability of any online platform is critical to any online store’s success.

Shopify has got you covered in this aspect. Its strong security system and reliable hosting has endeared it to many online retailers.

While there are some people who may take security and reliability as minor issues, they are major issues to those who want to build seven figures incomes from their online shops.

Having security and reliability issues settled on the onset makes it easy for you to grow your business without having to worry the security or reliability of your store.

Moreover, due to the nature of customer information your site will be handling, you should be able to guarantee the security of such information. Most of the critical customer information you will be handling through your ecommerce include credit card information and bank details.

In addition, your customers expect your site to be online all the time and it should be fast in loading.

Shopify takes care of these issues, and all you need to do is concentrate on selling your products.

Benefit # 3. Mobile Responsiveness

Web 2.0 has brought with it websites that are responsive to smaller screens.

With a large number of people accessing the internet through their mobile phones, you are left with no choice but to make your website mobile friendly.

If your online store is not easily accessible using the mobile phones, then you will losing most of your customers to your competitors.

A mobile friendly site increases customer experience and will eventually increase your sales. Studies have shown that most people will shift from using their desktops to access internet to their mobile phones. Therefore, having a mobile responsive site will make your online business future proof.

Worried? Don’t be!

Shopify has taken care of this. It has extremely responsive website that keeps updating to the new requirements of website responsiveness. This is in line with the platform’s goal of taking care of all the technical aspects of the online store, and leaving you with the task of selling your products.

Benefit # 4. Easy to Install Apps Available

With most people using their phones to shop online, it is important to develop a mobile app. Such an app would allow your customers to access your store straight from their mobile phones. In addition, you can manage your store on the go.

Straight from your vacation in Hawaii, you can track your orders, edit and update your products, and manage your shop from the phone.

Apart from the mobile apps, there are numerous apps (similar to plugins on WordPress) that you can install and activate on your store to help you add flexibility on your store.

There are numerous apps on Shopify designed to help you do different things on your store. You can install an app that allows customers to leave a review on your product page or you can install one that allows you to track and maintain enquiries from customers.

Installing and activating these apps is easy and simple hence allowing you the flexibility needed to enhance customer experience on your store.

Benefit # 5. Easy Payment Gateway

As an online retailer, you want a secure and reliable payment gateway. The payment solution you have should allow your customers to pay using different forms of payment options.

While this is a big issue for self-hosted ecommerce sites, it is not an issue for those using Shopify.

Shopify makes it easy for you to set up the payment gateway. The platform has developed Stripe payment option, which allows you and your customers to make transactions without incurring any fees. You also benefit from their lower credit card fees and also the fact that you do not need a merchant account to enjoy Stripe services.

If your customers do not have credit cards, it is possible for them to use other means such as PayPal to pay for the goods they buy from your online store.

This makes it possible for you to offer flexibility to your customers. In addition, Shopify makes it possible for your store name to appear on the customer’s statement as the charging entity.

This is a great way of branding your store, which in turn creates brand loyalty and trust.

Benefit # 6. Create a Beautiful Online Store

Visuals are critical in the success of your online store. Anyone who have succeed in online selling will tell you that having a visually appealing store will put you ahead in this business.

When visitors land on your online store, all they see is the images and pictures you use to display your products. It is, therefore, important to ensure the site is visually appealing to keep people coming back to your store.

Shopify understands the pain online retailers would have to go through to ensure their stores are appealing.

For this reason, they have developed themes and layouts that will help you create a professional and visually appealing web store.

If you have some little knowledge in coding, you can customize your own store to look the way you want. This is one of the best things about the Shopify platform.

In addition, you can edit your product description, change pictures and images as well as titles.

Benefit # 7. Pricing and Affordability

Ask for a quote from any web developer and they will tell you a good ecommerce site will cost anywhere between $3,000 and $5,000.

This is a huge cost for startups.

Any entrepreneur seeks to reduce his cost and maximize the profits.

Shopify offers you an affordable pricing plan for your store. Because of its pocket friendly prices, Shopify has become very popular with startups as well as established stores around the world.

In comparison with other ecommerce and shopping cart solutions, your budget will go furthest with Shopify.

Shopify is based on a subscription model, where you are required to pay a small monthly fee to use the platform.

Compared to the benefits you get for using the platform, it is worth it. More importantly, if you want to leave Shopify, you can sell it using the platforms internal system.

Benefit # 8. SEO & Marketing Tools

Once you have set up your online store, it is important to optimize it for search engines.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is critical for ensuring your webstore is found by those searching for your products.

Shopify enhances your ability to build landing pages for your campaigns, which is one of the distinguishing factors from other online shopping cart and ecommerce platforms.

It also allows custom title tags, and meta tags for better SEO.

Benefit # 9. Abandoned Cart Recovery

Over fifty percent of those who fill their carts with products leave without buying the product. This staggering discovery has pushed Shopify to create an interesting feature that sends email reminders to those who have not completed their purchases.

This makes it possible for you to increase your conversion rate as more people tend to complete the purchase once they are reminded.

Benefit # 10. 24/7 Customer Support

One of the major things that make Shopify a choice for many is its customer support.

They are able to deal with your issues any time of day.

Moreover, they have created numerous videos that show you how to get started and how to troubleshoot.

Conclusion

When starting an online shop, Shopify is the best solution. If you are not making any profit from your online store, you can always cancel the subscription and close your shop. This flexibility allows you to try out different models and ideas.