If you have no technical skill but are planning to build an online store, be it to sell your own products or to sell other people’s products, the biggest challenge is in building the store. It can be a daunting task that scares and shuts many people off before they even started their online venture. However, with a hosted e-commerce solution such as Shopify, anyone, regardless of whether you have the technical skills or if you do not understand coding, you can do it.
Shopify is a famous and popular complete e-commerce solution that allows users to set up their online store to sell products. The platform lets you organize your products, customize your storefront such as editing the themes, accept credit card payments, track, respond to orders, grow and maintain the store – all with only a few simple clicks.
Today, many things have been integrated with technology and the internet. It is easy to set up an e-commerce store compare to many years ago when the internet is still fresh. And ever since the internet has taken the world by storm, more and more people are building websites online, selling their products and services using the power of the internet.
And if you want to an e-commerce store today, one of the best platforms you can use is Shopify.
Here are the 7 advantages and why you should use it.
Advantage # 1. Quick-And-Easy to Set Up and Use
Shopify offers an easy way to quickly launch your online store from scratch without the fuss over servers and development costs. It is extremely easy to use and there is nothing to install at all.
All you need to do is to head over to their website, register an account, and you are done. Of course, you still need to set up the store. If you know how to create a blog, creating an e-commerce store with Shopify will be no different. In fact, it is much easier to set up a store using Shopify than creating a blog with WordPress.
Besides, the easiness of creating your store, there are plenty of video tutorials and extensive documentation on Shopify’s site showing you how to do it. All you really need to worry about is finding products to sell. The rest will be done by Shopify.
Adding and editing products from Shopify platform will be easy. It is just like maintaining your blog post. You can upload pictures and edit the description anyway and anytime you want. The really cool part is that you can also customize the theme to match your requirements.
You can manage the inventory, discounts, orders, transactions, track your sales, and many more things to do when you have logged into your dashboard. What if you want to manage inventory with different colors, prices, and even shipping information? There is no need for you to worry as these have also been covered by Shopify. You can determine your shipping as free or charge according to product weight and size.
Basically, everything you can think of and you need to manage in your e-commerce store, Shopify has a solution for it.
Advantage # 2. Secure and Reliable
We all know that security and reliability are vital when it comes to running a good business online. You do not want to have the issue of your e-commerce store being hacked by someone from an unknown country when you are profiting from your store. Thus, Shopify solves this problem for you. It has a strong security system and a very reliable hosting that you can build your store on.
Some people may think that security and reliability are not an issue, but if you are planning to build a seven-figure income from your online store, these factors will play an important role in making sure that your business grows smoothly.
And an e-commerce store needs to handle sensitive customer information such as credit card details and customer’s privacy. This means that your website needs to be fast, secure and always online. One huge advantage from Shopify is that you do not have to host your website anywhere else, they will do it for you.
And since your store will be hosted by Shopify, there is no need to worry about website down issue or connection problem. They are reliable and have a strong support team behind. Shopify will take care of all the server maintenance and upgrades to maintain your store and shopping cart available at all times.
Besides being a secure and reliable e-commerce solution, Shopify has a strong support team that ready to help at 24/7. They have provided live chat function so that you can get your problem solve as fast as possible.
Advantage # 3. Mobile Friendly
Although that building a responsive website is not compulsory, the trend has shifted to mobile than desktop. This is to say that people get online and make their purchase from mobile, whether with their phone or tablet, have quickly caught up to the numbers from the desktop.
You will be leaving a lot of money and profit on the table if you do not have a responsive website. And studies have shown that more and more internet users will shift from desktop to mobile. Therefore, if you want to build a successful e-commerce store, you must make good use of a responsive website. And Shopify already has this feature built with your store.
All of the themes that you can get from Shopify are mobile responsive and the platform includes a free built-in mobile commerce shopping cart. This allows customers to visit your store and make a purchase easily, all on mobile.
Apart from being mobile responsive, there is also a Shopify apps on iPhone and Android that you can download and manage your store on the go. You can easily track your order, edit your products, and manage your store from your mobile.
Advantage # 4. Apps Store Available
Another amazing feature from Shopify is that it comes with an app store. Just like plugins for WordPress, you can install powerful and useful apps to your store to build sales and help you manage your business.
For example, you can install the review app that allows customers to leave their reviews on your product page every time they have made a purchase. And you can also install apps that help you better manage your store through tracking and maintaining customer’s inquiries. There is also count-down timer you can use to help boost your sales during a promotion.
There are basically over thousands of apps you can find from Shopify app store. Whatever you want to do with your store, it is likely that there will be an app for it. Do take note that some of the apps are free, while some may require you to pay for them.
In fact, having the apps store from Shopify is a big advantage for store owners. Just imagine it to be like the Apple App store, where you can easily browse, search and quickly download the apps that you want to use on your phone. It works the same way.
Advantage # 5. Easy Payment Gateway
Another big issue most people face when building an e-commerce store is the payment collection. How do you collect payment and allow people to pay with their credit cards? And what if your customers do not have credit cards and they would like to pay by other means?
Well, Shopify will take care of all these issues. You can easily set up the payment gateway that has already been taken care of within Shopify. Customers can come to your store and make the purchase through credit cards seamlessly.
Another big benefit is that Shopify has their own payment mode, which is called Stripe. When people choose to pay through Stripe, both you and your customers will not incur any transaction fees plus you will benefit from the lower credit card fees. And it does not require a merchant account to use Stripe.
What if your customers do not have a credit card? They can choose to pay via other popular payment methods such as PayPal. And besides providing a smooth transaction, Shopify makes sure that when your customers are charged, they will see your store name or brand on their statement. This is a very powerful branding that increases trust with your customers. When people make multiple online purchases, they can tell that they are buying from your store.
Advantage # 6. Build a Visually Appealing Store
When it comes to selling on the internet, one of the most important factors that will determine your store’s success is its appearance. This is because when people come to your store, all they can see are the pictures and images that you use. And if your store is not visually appealing, people will never want to buy from you.
Luckily, Shopify understands this and have made all their themes and layout as visually appealing and as professional as possible. You can check out the sample websites from Shopify and you can tell instantly that the websites are professionally designed.
And just like WordPress, Shopify allows developers and designers to build unique storefronts. You can do a little tweaking and customize the ready-made theme according to your own preferences. And if you have a bigger budget, you can hire designers to build a customize theme on top of Shopify’s platform.
As for your products presentation, you can create and edit a product description, pictures and the rest easily from your store. The navigation of your store can be customized and made as friendly as possible too.
Advantage # 7. Pricing and Affordability
And lastly, Shopify is easy to use and very affordable. One of the main reasons Shopify becomes popular is because of its pricing. The number one rule for startups in any industry is to keep their overhead as low as possible without cutting corners, and Shopify will do that for you.
When you compare Shopify to other shopping cart and e-commerce platforms, you will quickly discover that your money and budget can go farthest with Shopify. For a relatively low monthly cost, you get everything you need to power a fast and reliable e-e-commerce solution.
Besides, you do not have to install any paid app if you choose not to. While it is true that you need to pay in order to use some of the apps, it is optional and you do not have to use them if they do not match your requirement.
Another thing is that Shopify provides an exit strategy on their website, which is that you can sell your store away. If you are tired of managing your store or you want just let go of it, you can sell your store away using Shopify’s internal platform.
Another option is that Shopify allows you to cancel your subscription any time you want. If you are not making any profit and want to discontinue your store, you can close your store and cancel the monthly subscription.
Shopify may be one the best e-commerce solutions that cover everything you need, but please understand that it is not a perfect platform because Shopify simply cannot satisfy everyone’s requirement.
However, when it comes to selling online and building a commerce store, Shopify can be the best solution for most people. They have everything taken care of so that you can start your online business without worrying about the technical issue of building and maintaining the website, managing inventory, tracking, transaction, etc.
You can check out Shopify’s main website to understand more about their features and how they can help you in your online business venture. More importantly, they provide a 14-day free trial for anyone interested but do not wish to pay for anything yet. Shopify has three plans that you can subscribe to, the basic plan, the normal one, and the advanced plan for professionals.
Whether you sell online, on social media, in-store, or out of the trunk of your car, Shopify has you covered.
Website: http://shopify.com
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