This may be the most important article that you will read on our website, why? Because it will tell you everything you need to know about the platform we use and work on with most of our clients. You may have actually heard of it, Shopify? It sounds like Spotify, but it is very different and not two words you want to get confused with, especially because this platform could be the make or break for your company.
So, what is Shopify? Well, it is an ecommerce platform that is used by millions of brands all over the world and allows you to start, grow, and manage your business. While bloggers often use Wix and WordPress, store owners tend to use Shopify which allows businesses to sell both online and/or in person with Shopify POS (we’ll go into more detail about POS later on).
If you are apprehensive about building your first online store on the platform, or if your business is relatively small, Shopify is amazing for beginners and perfect for small businesses but is also host to some of the biggest brands in the world at an enterprise level. The platform is built in a way that makes it user-friendly for beginners and non-tech savvy people who can use the platform with ease. So, whether you’re setting up your first business from your bedroom at home or starting a new venture after retirement, or a huge brand looking to migrate from your current platform and build something more technical. Shopify caters for all and can be used easily by anyone, no matter the age or size of your business.
Here at Adjust Studio, we are Shopify experts with years of experience, so we are very familiar with the platform. Working with clients of different sizes and aiding them with every area of the platform has enabled us to gain a broad range of skills throughout the years.
Regarding the websites we’ve created for customers, they range from high-end luxury brands like The Bourbon Concierge & Chris Collins to start-ups like Hannah Bazaar & Better. We create these websites from scratch and worked closely with brands’ online stores that reflected their own visions with our input of expertise. We work with clients all over the world.
The benefit of being able to construct an e-commerce website from scratch on the Shopify platform is that there are so many tools you can utilise and work with to present the client with the ideal website.
For several of our other clients, we have worked on their previously-built Shopify stores, both of which were on the Plus plan. True Vintage clothing company and premium handbag brand BOYY. For these two companies, we worked on website enhancements and upgrades, as well as advising them on tech partners they should work with such as Yotpo, Algolia and Gorgias.
Now the important bit, how much does it cost and what different plans you can get. So firstly, if you are still slightly unsure whether or not to use Shopify it is best to start the 14-day trial where you can build your own store, test out free Shopify apps, and if you promote well, potentially make your first sale.
There are several plans available, ranging from $9 a month to $2000 a month, so there are a lot of options that are affordable and dependent on your price limit.
Lite
The Lite plan is the least expensive and is designed for merchants that wish to sell in-person (through POS lite) or add a buy button to their current website. In addition, you will have the ability to see reports, send gift cards, and divide invoices. However, Shopify Lite cannot be used to construct an online store. It does offer access to Shopify Admin, which allows you to manage your business, as well as the Buy Button and Shopify POS Lite sales channels. In addition, the following features are included:
• Dashboard for an overall view
• Overview dashboard \s
• Order management \s
• In-store inventory \s
• Mobile POS and hardware accessories
• Custom discounts and coupon codes
Basic
The Basic Plan can take your website up a level as it includes a discount code engine, fraud investigation tools, and the capacity to upload an infinite number of products to your Shopify store. The primary feature of the Basic Plan is that you have full access to the Shopify website and blog. This means that you can manage all of your items and orders within Shopify, eliminating the need to develop a separate website.
Other great features include a free SSL certificate, manual order creation, shipping labels, limitless file storage, and round-the-clock service.
Although the Basic Plan is somewhat more expensive than the Lite Plan, it gives you greater flexibility to add more goods to your website.
The Basic Plan costs $29 per month and is the most popular among first-time store owners, and ideal for starting a Shopify store if you do not wish to pay for any additional features. This plan can also be paired with the Lite plan.
Shopify Plan
The Shopify Standard Plan is the most popular of the company’s five available plans. This plan is a significant upgrade from the Basic Plan, and as a result, you have access to nearly all of Shopify’s features. Create an unrestricted number of products while utilising all of the features of the Basic Plan. You will also get access to Shopify POS, gift cards, professional reports, and cart recovery. Abandoned cart recovery is one of the primary reasons why so many people pick the Shopify Plan, since it is one of the best ways to obtain contact information from customers who do not finish their purchases.
This enables you to approach them in the future to encourage a purchase, as you are aware that they were interested in your items. The abandoned cart tool will send an automatic email depending on your own preferences, which is an additional aspect of this feature. Therefore, you may set up a reminder or promotion to notify the user that they have items in their shopping cart.
Now, this feature is really important because on average, 67 percent of customers abandon their shopping carts, which is unfortunate, but these shoppers spend 55 percent more when they are reminded to. Therefore, it is essential to invest in this function so that your store does not lose consumers and so that you can determine why clients are leaving early.
The monthly cost of this plan is $79, which is a significant increase but a sensible investment if your business is attempting to expand rapidly. Also, considering the transaction prices, if your website generates more than $5,000 per month, this is the ideal option for you, as the transaction fees decrease with external gateways due to the volume.
Advanced Plan
now, the Advanced Plan is even better, which may be hard to comprehend. As predicted, this plan includes all the capabilities of the previously stated plans as well as an advanced report builder, shipping rates computed by a third party, and a minor reduction in transaction percentage costs when utilising external payment processors.
One of the primary features of the Advanced plan is that everything, yes everything, is unlimited, so your storage capabilities are unlimited, and the abandoned cart recovery is also included, along with a section for managing all customers who have abandoned their carts early to determine if an email has been sent and the reason for their early departure.
This package is ideal for businesses who want to have their shipping handled by a third party, as well as high-revenue businesses that desire access to more detailed analytics. Companies on the Advanced plan will also save money on transaction fees and Shopify shipping discounts, making it suitable for businesses earning over $10,000 each month.
For more information on Shopify’s pricing visit here
Shopify Plus
The enterprise-level plan is utilised by 10,000 of the world’s most prominent businesses. This plan is geared for marketing and design as opposed to order handling, and with 200 TB of storage, you’ll have more than enough space to accommodate even the largest shops. Your website will also be fully hosted, and you will incur no transaction costs, in addition to receiving enhanced reporting tools, customer assistance with a higher priority, the ability to manage larger order quantities, and more.
This plan is primarily designed for large corporations, such as GYMSHARK, Clarks, and the Los Angeles Lakers. This does not exclude smaller companies from using Shopify Plus; but, if you have a bigger team and don’t want to spend too much time monitoring your orders, this is the ideal approach to automate that process. In addition, with Shopify Plus, your company may have an infinite number of online storefronts to sell in many currencies and languages, making your site accessible to an international audience.
Additionally, there are no transaction costs associated with Shopify Payment, and by enabling Shop Pay, your conversion rates might increase by up to 18 percent. Shopify will charge 0.3% per transaction if you use a third-party payment processor to cover additional security requirements.
All of these outstanding capabilities come at a cost, starting at $2,000 per month, but you must contact Shopify to acquire an estimate for your business.
POS (Point of Sale)
As mentioned previously, POS is an additional feature that concerns the payment method your company can utilise.
If you want to take your Shopify approach to the next level, POS (point-of-sale) may be the way to go. It is an application that enables offline retailers to sell their items offline as well as at trade shows, pop-up shops, and other events in person. Additionally, it enables your organisation to establish an online presence if you only sell offline. POS can accept payments with your iPhone, iPad, or Android device and using the POS app.
Therefore, POS functions in tandem with your eCommerce platform so that your store may sell effortlessly offline and online.
Each subscription includes POS Lite, which provides full access to mobile and hardware accessories, as well as customer profiles for managing sales, orders, and product management features. We have implemented this for two of our own clients. With one client opening a store in Washington D.C at the end of August and using Shopify POS Pro.
Detailed Admin
In the backend, you will discover a variety of data and capabilities that will help you analyse the performance of your online business and more.
Free Features
Shopify is perfect for beginners and new businesses who wish to experiment with various features and layouts. You may select fonts, colour schemes, upload your own photographs, and utilise more Shopify capabilities to create a more effective website.
On a cloud network
Shopify, unlike WooCommerce, operates on a cloud network as opposed to a server. Anyone who has ever paid for a server knows that they may crash at any time, and generally at the most inconvenient time, causing you to lose a great deal of money from downtime and especially when it is Black Friday or other major events. If you share a server, which is what the majority of new businesses can afford, you must hope that other websites are not as popular as yours.
Being on a cloud network reduces the likelihood of your website falling offline, allowing it to operate with relative ease. And this expense is included in your membership, relieving you of one concern.
Plan for everyone
Over time, the expense of operating a business may become overwhelming, as can the cost of a website like Shopify. Shopify offers plans ranging from $9 per month (Lite) to $2,000 per month (Plus). In addition to being able to move through the plans as your business expands, if you wish to do so.
Countless Apps
Essentially, the Shopify App store has an app for anything. Countdown timers, image background removers, and apps for sourcing things, among others. Several premium apps as well as numerous free ones.
Apps are not required, but they can improve your website, especially if you are trying to add goods to your store. You can take a look here at the Shopify App Store
Lots of support
Listen if you are not already convinced that Shopify is worthwhile. Shopify delivers unimaginable levels of customer service and genuinely cares about the success of your company. This has led to the development of Shopify Compass, where you may take free ecommerce courses at your own speed.
There are other Facebook groups created by Shopify users to assist new store owners in achieving success. Ultimately, Shopify’s support environment is vast, and there is someone prepared to assist you and your business.
Low threshold for admission
Anyone can create a Shopify store – it will be a challenge, but setting up an online business is far simpler than it was 20 years ago, and the effort will be worthwhile.
Shopify is leading the initiative of lowering barriers for commerce – just compare Shopify with other solutions such as Six, WordPress, Commerce cloud etc, click here to compare over a dozen platforms to Shopify to understand why thousands of businesses sign up to the platform every year.
Shopify have certain guidelines on what kinds of products you sell, and if you sell products that Shopify restricts then there is a risk that your company will be suspended from the platform.
Here is a list of some of the products you can sell:
And here are some of the products you can’t sell:
Create ads
Run ads on various platforms such as Facebook, google and any other network. It is best to pick a platform where most of your audience is and also a platform where targeting options are expansive, allowing you to pinpoint the ideal customer.
Social Media
Before making your store, it is important to have been building an audience, such as an Instagram account. With an audience already in place, you will be able to generate more sales and promote to an audience at the launch.
SEO
A powerhouse at bringing in relevant traffic to your website. All new businesses tend to neglect ecommerce SEO as a growth tactic, they want to make a quick buck, so they focus on ads. But, after months of investing in ads they realise that they acquisition costs are too high. SEO and content marketing can drive free organic traffic to your website and with the right strategy, can also lower your acquisition costs and improve conversion rates.
We are Shopify Partners and experts in e-commerce. If you are looking for Shopify support, full web builds, or have any general queries get in touch and we can help.
Words by Ailis Finn-Looby
