Undoubtedly the best e-commerce platform today, Shopify is a Canadian e-commerce company based in Ottawa and created, like many other companies, by people who searched for something, didn’t get it, and decided to make it and take advantage of it for the public. .
Shopify has seen rapid growth over the years and their buying resources, or better yet, other small business brands to further develop the company is impressive. What’s more impressive is their easy-to-remember tagline: “Whether you’re selling, on social media, in-store, or out of the trunk of your car, Shopify has you covered.” A better version is: “Shopify, the best place to sell online, in person, and anywhere in between.”
Shopify doesn’t leave you hanging either. The platform hosts a podcast and offers various resources to business owners in the form of blog posts. In fact, it could be an affiliate, investor, or someone who just follows the platform and they wouldn’t let you down.
Are you new to business and the platform in general? You receive publications that will help you get your first sale. Are you an affiliate? You get the resources you need to help you better understand and promote the platform. Are you a professional entrepreneur with a lot of experience? Believe it, Shopify has you covered.
But a platform like this has its drawbacks, especially since the obvious rise of dropshipping in 2015, where it became saturated with people who thought outsourcing products from AliExpress was a good idea (although dropshipping has been around for as long as people thought of selling things) . to other people) and all those who failed labeled it a “get-rich-quick” scheme, despite the fact that Shopify has never publicly or privately hinted that using its platform ensures success.
WHY TO BUY?
There are many attributes that make Shopify a sexy platform; particularly that it can be customized according to wishes. They are listed below;
• Friendly interface.
• Catering plans tailored to your needs.
• World class customer support.
• Easy customization.
• A blog for your store.
• Access to Shopify experts who will help you with your store at a negotiable cost.
• An app store with apps to help you manage your store and many more.
TO BUY PLANS
Shopify has plans with features that fit all the criteria one can muster. In general, there are five Shopify plans with specific features available for them. The respective plans and features are discussed below;
THE LITE SHOPIFY PLAN
If you have a Facebook page about a particular activity or service and you have products that you could sell on your page, then this is the plan for you. It is limited to selling only on Facebook and costs $9.
THE BASIC SHOPIFY PLAN
This plan costs $29 and has card rates of: 2.9%+30¢ for Canadian cards, 3.5%+30¢ for Amex or international cards, and a face-to-face card rate of 2.7%+0¢. There are no transaction fees for using Shopify Payments as your payment gateway, but using third-party payment gateways does incur a 2.0% transaction fee.
With this plan, you get these features: two (2) staff accounts, the ability to add an unlimited number of products, an unlimited amount of file storage space, a $49 retail package, a “nice” shipping discount from Shopify, printed shipping labels, 24/7 support, fraud analysis, the ability to create orders manually, discount codes, a website and blog, and finally a free SSL certificate. Features you don’t get on this plan include: gift cards, professional reports, advanced cart recovery, advanced report generator, and third-party calculated fees.
THE SHOPIFY PLAN
This plan costs $79 and has card fees of: 2.7%+30¢ for Canadian cards, 3.4%+30¢ for Amex or international cards, and a 2.6%+0¢ card-in-person fee. There are no transaction fees for using Shopify Payments as your payment gateway, but using third-party payment gateways does incur a 1.0% transaction fee.
With this plan, you get these features: five (5) staff accounts, the ability to add an unlimited number of products, an unlimited amount of file storage space, a $49 retail package, a “better” Shopify shipping discount (than the basic plan), printed shipping labels, 24/7 support, fraud analysis, the ability to create orders manually, discount codes, a website and blog, a free SSL certificate, gift cards, professional reports and advanced cart recovery. Features you don’t get on this plan are: advanced report generator and third party calculated rates.
THE SHOPIFY ADVANCED PLAN
This plan costs $299 with card fees of: 2.4%+30¢ for Canadian cards, 3.3%+30¢ for Amex or international cards, and an in-person card fee of 2.4%+0¢. There are no transaction fees (as usual) for using Shopify Payments as your payment gateway, but using third-party payment gateways does incur a 0.5% transaction fee.
In this plan, all features are available to you. Specifically, fifteen (15) staff accounts, the ability to add an unlimited number of products, an unlimited amount of file storage space, a $49 retail package, Shopify’s “best” shipping discount, printed shipping labels, 24/7 support, fraud analysis, the ability to create orders manually, discount codes, a website and a blog, free SSL certificate, gift cards, professional reports, advanced cart recovery, generator advanced reporting and third-party calculated rates.
THE SHOPIFY PLUS PLAN
The Shopify plus plan is Shopify’s “custom” plan. There is hardly any information about this plan, except that you get what you agree with Shopify. If a business is interested in the plan, they contact a Shopify affiliate or affiliate brands and they will send/refer it to Shopify. After which, Shopify will call you and create a store for you based on the agreed criteria.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH TO BUY
My personal journey with Shopify has been very interesting. In my first week of opening my first two stores, I have had several abandoned carts. Why so many abandoned carts? You ask! Because living in a third world country, Nigeria, I couldn’t get a payment processor. All the good options required a company to be registered (until recently, but only for new accounts). It’s sad. So if it fails, it’s always easier to blame your country than the platform. It’s like lashing out at Google because they had no results for a weird name/word you were looking for.
My first store sold geek stuff and the second store I still work at sells long boards. I still can’t get a payment processor and I have a lot of abandoned carts as I try to make it look attractive and trustworthy. I have not given up!
So I saved the best for last. Shopify allows a 14-day free trial after which you’ll need to purchase a plan to continue using the platform unless a development store is created for you. There is still no escape because once a store is 14 days old; you’ll still need to purchase a plan, regardless of whether it was created as a development store. The only other option is to be added as an employee and when the store makes 50 orders you will need to purchase a plan and the store will be delivered to you. You also have the opportunity to employ Shopify Experts to help you with your store as agreed upon.
If you have a product, either made or made for you and you would like it or it is ready for release, then there is no better platform to sell than Shopify.