The U.S. e-commerce market will reach over $1.1 trillion in sales in 2023
Forbes.com
eCommerce has boomed so much in the past few years. Now we are very comfortable buying things online. We are so comfortable that many of us now generally don’t shop by visiting any offline shops apart from daily necessities.
Even the businesses that were primarily operating offline are serving online these days to not miss any opportunities. Also, there are stores that only operate online. All in all, it is a disaster to not have an online store if you have products to sell.
Creating and maintaining an eCommerce website from scratch is a task in itself and requires technical knowledge too. It can cost you a hefty amount of money. You will need to hire a developer, purchase domain and hosting, and other things. This is where Shopify comes to your rescue. Your eCommerce website can go up and running in just a few hours. And guess what? Even anyone without technical knowledge can create it.
Shopify for eCommerce
Shopify is a great platform to create your eCommerce Store. It is a one-stop shop for all your eCommerce Store needs.
Let us discuss the advantages of using Shopify.
Easy to set up
If you have to create a website you will need a separate hosting service. With Shopify, it is included in the package. And their speed, uptime, and support system are pretty good. They have a very easy user interface and admin control panel. Everything you need on an eCommerce website is inside their package. From creating prices to discounts to managing inventory. It is a simple Plug and Play system.
Themes
The theme of a website catapults user experience for the shopper. Shopify has some very appealing free themes to choose from, which is generally sufficient for an online store. But if you need a different theme, there are many themes that you can purchase. All the themes are designed to have a good appealing factor.
App Store
You would agree that the requirement of two different stores would not be the same. Thus to use different features Shopify has some great applications on its App Store. You can have automatic responders, email marketing tools, analytical tools,a bulk listing of products, FAQ addition to your website, and many other apps at your disposal.
Payment features
Integrating popular payment gateways is a very tiring process. But with Shopify this is inbuilt. All the big names in the market are integrated into the Shopify Platform. You just need to have an account with these payment gateway companies. You can also use Shopify’s own payment gateway if you even don’t need the hassle of having an account with other payment gateways. Shopify charges a minimal transaction fee on every transaction done using its payment gateway.
SEO Friendly
For every page you create on Shopify, you can edit title tags and meta tags. This helps in improving your site’s SEO and rankings which is very crucial in bringing traffic to your website. You also have a blogging feature on the platform. You can write about your products or solve customer queries by writing blogs that will again help you in SERP rankings.
Device Friendly
The Shopify website works seamlessly from all the devices. On mobile phones, the experience is the best in the industry. To manage your store on the go, it has an app for Android and iPhone devices too. It works like a charm.
Support System
Shopify has a great community already developed. It consists of website developers, merchants, and others. This helps in learning and improving your user experience and sales on your eCommerce Store. Shopify Expert Support is available 24/7. You can reach them via call, email, or by raising a ticket.
Marketing Features
The world of online shopping is evolving every day. Shopify understands that and brings new features regularly. For example, recently they have partnered with Facebook to launch a branded store on Facebook’s marketplace if you have a Shopify website already. They keep on bringing new features for their merchants to be ahead in the game. Using Shopify you can promote on other social media platforms like Twitter, Pinterest, and others.
Affordable Plans
The basic plan of Shopify is only $29 per month. Which is such a steal! With all their plans you get a free SSL Certificate and all other features discussed above. If you are trying to make an eCommerce website of your own then $29 won’t even cover your Web Developer and Hosting Services. And here you get so much more. You can check more about their plan in the below image.
Abandoned Cart Recovery feature
With this feature, you can know which customer of yours has put products in the cart and hasn’t bought them. More than 66% of your potential customers do this. This helps you retarget them and can result in sales. Shopify identifies these customers and sends email reminders to complete their purchases.
Shopify Comparison with WooCommerce & Magento
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a bit complex in setting up compared to Shopify. You also have to have knowledge of a bit of coding and other technicalities of web development as you, yourself have to update on the security of the website. Shopify takes care of the securities and other updates. Themes on Shopify are more flexible. You can also edit themes if you want a tweak. It’s not that easy on WooCommerce and their free themes are not good. As far as Customer Support is concerned, Shopify is a clear winner in this too. With WooCommerce you will have to take care of domains and hosting services by yourself. You first have to use WordPress as a CMS and then install WooCommerce.
Magento
Magento is an open-source CMS platform. You have to take care of everything from hosting to security features. If you can do all these or you can afford to hire someone who can do all this, then Magento is more flexible in terms of making changes on the coding level. Generally, Shopify with all the features fulfills all the needs of an eCommerce website but if you need changes on the programming aspects then you can choose open-source platforms.
But if your goal is to focus on your core business and leave the technicalities to be figured out by experts by paying a minimal monthly fee then Shopify for ecommerce store is the answer.
Related Posts:
- Best Practices For Optimizing Your Shopify Store For Conversions
- How To Start A Successful Shopify Store: A Beginner’s Guide
- The Benefits Of Using Shopify For Your E-commerce Business
- 10 Key Benefits Of Ecommerce For Your Business
- Amazon vs. Shopify: Which Is Better?
- How To Write Product Descriptions That Sell Easily On Shopify
- The Importance Of Product Photography For E-commerce
[…] […]
[…] Why Prefer Shopify for the eCommerce Store? […]