Shopify is an ecommerce and shopping cart software company that specializes in providing a complete solution for those looking to create an online store. In this Shopify review we will look over the pros and cons as well as key features available. This can be everything from their marketing and search engine optimization options to the availability of templates, ease of use, customer service, and more. Check out the full review and breakdown of each feature below.
The Platform:
The platform that Shopify runs on is pretty simple to run as all of the sections can be edited with little to no knowledge of HTML, CSS, and other web-based computer languages and mark-up languages. Shopify is built on Ruby on Rails which is known to be a very stable and fast. The overall platform is powerful enough to run a large store while being user-friendly enough for the average person to get their store up within a few hours without much trouble.
Design and Templates:
Shopify comes with a good selection of free themes to choose from. Many of these free themes can be edited to put in your store’s logo as well as change the primary and secondary colors to fit the design. They also have a marketplace for premium themes if you want something that is more customized towards what you want. They also give you the option of being able to edit the CSS and HTML of every theme you buy. The free themes available look professional and can be compared with the themes used by many major online stores.
Marketing and SEO:
The marketing of your business is an important point because if your customers can’t find you then how are they going to buy? Shopify on the marketing front has integration with many email newsletter companies, has SEO-friendly urls, automatically generated sitemaps, ability to offer coupon codes, and more. They also offer a large number of statistics to check out on your store through their own custom system as well as external services such as Google Analytics, CrazyEgg, and many more (some services may cost extra). These tools and services can help you figure out why a customer is purchasing or why no one is purchasing once they land on your site.
Web Hosting:
Shopify is a hosted solution which means they host everything themselves. Their hosting is a blazing fast dedicated server along with a CDN which helps serve up the pages even faster than a normal server would in most cases. You get unlimited bandwidth as well as automatic backups of your online store, PCI compliance, and no hidden fees.
Mobile:
Shopify is one of the stronger companies around in this space when it comes to mobile. They have their stores set up to be compatible with mobile while also providing tools for shop owners to be accessed through an iPhone app. Your customers will be able to purchase products through their compatible smart phones just as if they were on a laptop or desktop PC. As the store owner you will also be able to see all of your store’s data from your phone as well as even be able to fulfill orders and manage your inventory.
Payment Options:
The payment options are a major selling point in many shopping cart solutions. You’re going to want to have as many options as possible and make sure the checkout process is streamlined. Shopify is a hosted solution so they take care of the SSL security side with 128-bit encryption which is the industry standard. They also accept multiple payments including the ability to process all major credit cards as well as other services like Paypal and Google Checkout. In all they have the power to integrate with over fifty payment gateways. The payment system is also able to integrate with services like Amazon Services and Shipwire for drop shipping.
Latest Deals for Shopify:
Find a few deals below for Shopify as we get them to save a few dollars on your order. These offers can be anything from a simple free trial to any deals on their template store and more. Click through the link to activate any of the deals that interests you.