What is Shopify?
Shopify is an e-commerce platform that allows you to create and manage an online store, and analyze your customer behavior without the need for technical skills. This service is used by several million entrepreneurs around the world.
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 above all on your company's sales, growth and success. profitability.
Although Shopify meets the needs of many businesses who 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 suitable for your e-commerce project. commerce or if you need to look for alternatives such as the previously mentioned WooCommerce.
Choosing the right ecommerce solution can be a challenge, especially when you need to compare features like SEO performance, costs, shipping options, and more. Although Shopify stands out in most aspects, you're probably wondering if it's the right tool for you.
This is why we have 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.
What are the features of Shopify?
Shopify's core value proposition is that it provides all the tools needed for online commerce without having to code.
- Use of turnkey site models (templates),
- Full management of store inventory
- Product catalog management
- User statistics
- Delivery tracking
- Access to many marketing tools to promote your store
As we have just seen, it is not just a simple tool for creating 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 benefits of Shopify
1) Ease of use
The biggest advantage of Shopify is its ease of use! Whether it is product management, their promotion through marketing tools. Shopify remains a great platform for anyone who isn't a geek. 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.
2) Customer service
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.
3) Access to many turnkey themes
Shopify offers its users a full range of site templates called “themes”. There are both free and paid theme options to create a storefront.
4) Online store connectable to the physical shop
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.
5) Ease of use of marketing tools
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 products on different channels and social networks. Finally, Shopify has additional modules that allow users to dig deep into their site data.
6) Unlimited growth capacity (scalability)
Shopify is not just a platform suitable for small businesses. It has all the possible tools and applications that can help users grow their brand. Shopify offers a complete e-commerce solution for selling products/services at every phase of business growth.
7) Platform hosted entirely in the Cloud
Shopify is a platform entirely hosted in the Cloud. Therefore, users of this platform do not have to pay additional server maintenance and hosting fees beyond their monthly subscription. Additionally, there is no need for a developer to manage your site. Finally, Shopify gives users some freedom with the ability to create tailor-made sections and features.
Disadvantages of Shopify
Unfortunately, not everything is perfect with the Shopify ecommerce platform. It has several disadvantages which we will outline here.
In general, the disadvantages of Shopify revolve around the fact that the platform is not free to use and that it lacks flexibility for more complex developments.
1) Platform costs and fees
Using 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. Likewise, users must pay a subscription to use their apps. Additionally, users must pay transaction fees when selling online.
2) Proprietary platform (not free of rights)
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.
3) Personalization issues
Shopify is a customizable platform, but it has some limitations. It has customization functions that do not allow total control of the platform. The creation of a module or application can partially overcome this problem, but it remains restrictive for large companies that wish to add functions other than e-commerce. Compared to Shopify, other competing platforms such as WooCommerce, PrestaShop or Magento offer more customization options.
What are the alternatives to Shopify?
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 Geekworkers, because it's simply the best on the market! For what ? It is open-source, has many features, is fully customizable, offers incomparable migration flexibility and total scalability. As your store grows, your requirements increase, and the platform you choose should be able to scale accordingly.
To go further on the subject, here we offer several alternatives to Shopify that may help you in your research.
Is Shopify right for my business?
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 thanks 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 just a few hours. However, it will take you a lot of time to customize the appearance and fill out the catalog to get the online store of your dreams. With Geekworkers, we can help you create your store in just a few days.
Shopify offers several modes of operation.
- You do everything, without touching the source code: the disadvantage of this approach is the limited flexibility of customization.
- You develop your themes and extensions: the second mode is intended for advanced developers. As it involves working with template files and APIs to flexibly change the appearance and extend the core functionality of the theme.
Additionally, 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 purchase a series of tutorials on creating a Shopify store. Don't forget the community of developers who will certainly have an answer to your questions.
Conclusion
This article has given you an overview of Shopify and allowed you to understand Shopify's strengths and weaknesses to make an informed decision on whether or not to use it in your next project.
Shopify is suitable for both beginners taking their first steps in e-commerce and experienced users 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.
