Shopify is an e-commerce platform that allows you to create and manage an online store, and analyze your customers' behavior without the need for technical skills. This service is used by millions of entrepreneurs worldwide.
There are other solutions such as WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Wix or BigCommerce that you can use to manage your business, however your choice will have a strong impact on the customer experience, but more importantly on your business sales, growth and success. profitability.
Although Shopify meets the needs of many companies that want to create an online store, it is essential to consider the advantages and disadvantages of the platform in order to decide if this online sales solution is right for your e-commerce project. commerce or if you have to look for alternatives such as previously mentioned WooCommerce.
Choosing the right e-commerce solution can be a challenge, especially when you have to compare features like SEO performance, cost, shipping options, and more. Although Shopify stands out in most aspects, you're probably wondering if this is the right tool for you.
That's why we prepared this article, in which you will learn what Shopify is, what are its features, advantages, disadvantages as well as the alternatives that exist to create your e-commerce store.
The main value proposition of Shopify is that it provides all the tools needed for online commerce without having to code.
As we have just seen, it is not just a simple tool to create a website. The main value of the service lies in the possibility of managing your online business through different channels and tools. The online store is just one of these channels used to sell sales. It is also possible to sell via social networks and put your product catalog on other Marketplaces. This allows you to significantly expand the visibility of your website.
To take things a step further, we've rounded up the pros and cons of Shopify here that can help you determine if it's right for your business.
The biggest advantage of Shopify is its ease of use! Whether it is the management of products, their promotion through marketing tools. Shopify remains an excellent platform for all users who are not knowledgeable Geeks. The platform has a drag and drop function to help you create and customize your pages. Once you're on Shopify, you'll realize that its goal is to make it a very easy-to-use platform for sellers.
Shopify has a responsive customer support team which provides users with support 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Customer service answers all your questions via email or live chat. Additionally, Shopify offers comprehensive product documentation.
Shopify offers its users a full range of site templates called “themes”. There are both free and paid theme options to create a storefront.
Shopify has its own app store which gives access to thousands of plugins. With these many applications, users will be able to customize their store without limits.
Shopify has many tools to boost your natural referencing and other marketing tools to promote your products through its platform. For example, the platform allows its users to create discount codes, share the products on different channels and social networks. Finally, Shopify has additional modules that allow users to drill deep into their site's data.
Shopify isn't just a small business-friendly platform. It has all the possible tools and apps that can help users grow their brand. Shopify offers an end-to-end e-commerce solution to sell products/services at every stage of business growth.
Shopify is a fully cloud-hosted platform. Therefore, users of this platform do not have to pay additional server maintenance and hosting costs beyond their monthly subscription. Moreover, there is no need for a developer to manage his site. Finally, Shopify gives users some freedom with the ability to create bespoke sections and features.
Unfortunately, all is not perfect with the Shopify e-commerce platform. It has several disadvantages that we will explain here.
In general, the disadvantages of Shopify revolve around the fact that the platform is not free to use and lacks flexibility for more complex developments.
The use of the Shopify e-commerce solution is not free. It involves a subscription cost that users have to pay. Most of the themes offered by the platform are paid. Similarly, users have to pay a subscription to use their apps. Also, users have to pay transaction fees when selling online.
Like the CMS Open Source WordPress and its extension WooCommerce free, Shopify is a paid proprietary platform. This means that you will no longer be able to do anything but go through Shopify's paid services to manage your online store. As soon as you no longer pay your subscription, then you will no longer be able to access your e-shop.
Shopify is a customizable platform, but it has some limitations. It has customization features that do not allow full control of the platform. The creation of a module or application can partially overcome this problem, but it remains restrictive for large companies wishing to add functions other than e-commerce. Compared to Shopify, other competing platforms such as WooCommerce, PrestaShop or Magento offer more customization options.
As we have just seen, Shopify has many advantages. But there are plenty of alternatives to Shopify that also deserve your attention. For example, market-leading WooCommerce is the platform we recommend at Geekworkersbecause it's simply the best on the market! And why is that? It's open-source, it's feature-packed, it's fully customisable, it offers unrivalled migration flexibility and it's totally scalable. As your shop grows, your requirements increase, and the platform you choose needs to be able to adapt accordingly.
To go further on the subject, here we offer several alternatives to Shopify that may help you in your research.
Shopify is suitable for users who want to start selling products online or who are looking for new development options for their business. The platform can be used to create an online store from scratch or to develop a more personalized store through coding. Shopify also allows you to offer products on the biggest marketplaces like eBay and Amazon.
Shopify is well suited for starting an online business due to its ease of use. To get started, no special training is required unless you need to consult an expert to understand certain functions or add new ones. Developers will also appreciate the extensibility and customization of Shopify thanks to its language LiquidCode.
You can create a website on Shopify in a few hours. However, it will take you a long time to customize the look and fill the catalog to get the online store of your dreams. With Geekworkers, we can help you create your store in days.
Shopify offers several modes of operation.
In addition, Shopify has a large number of training materials. Shopify provides a knowledge base present on its blog and other platforms offer courses and training programs. For example, on the education platform Udemy, you can buy a series of tutorials on how to create a Shopify store. Don't forget the community of developers who will certainly have an answer to your questions.
This article gave you an overview of Shopify and allowed you to understand the strengths and weaknesses of Shopify to make an informed decision on whether or not to use it in your next project.
Shopify is suitable for both beginners who are taking their first steps in e-commerce and experienced users who are looking for a functional and flexible development tool.
Shopify is suitable for people who want to quickly launch their online business without knowledge of code. In the long term and to guarantee total freedom on its site, Geekworkers advocates using WooCommerce and WordPress instead.
If you hesitate in choosing your future online store, do not hesitate to contact us consult free of charge to take stock with one of our Geek experts.
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Our Web & Marketing agency is present at Lausanne since 2020 and now has more than 25 employees to support SMEs, entrepreneurs and large companies in French-speaking Switzerland.
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Your local digital partner. Creation of high-impact WordPress sitesstrategies effective marketing and support reagent.
Create a exceptional shopping experience. We develop WooCommerce shops optimized conversion and SEO.
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Geekworkers is a web agency based in Lausanne in French-speaking Switzerland, specialising in the creation of websites, e-commerce shops, mobile applications and digital marketing (SEO & Google Ads) to help you succeed online.
Geekworkers pricing has been designed as much for start-ups and SMEs as for large companies demanding in terms of service quality.
