Shopify is a shopping cart solution that serves as a platform for businesses to sell their products or services online. It allows you to build your website and add and sell products. Shopify remains as the leading Ecommerce platform for all business sizes, and we’ll tell you why.In this article, we’ll show you how Shopify works, how much it costs, and why you should use it for your Ecommerce business.

How Does Shopify Work?

Shopify works as a platform that carries all your online store’s data and provides a point of sale system so that you can sell your products. We’ll walk you through each step you need to take to build your Shopify store — from signup to shipping.

a. Signing Up

To start, Shopify gives you a 14-day free trial that already allows you to create your online store. All you need is your email address, password, store name, and you’re good to go. So, if you just wanna test the waters, you only have to set up payment details once the trial is over.If you need help with creating a store name, Shopify also has you covered. Check out their Business Name Generator!

b. Adding products

After filling out the form, you will be taken to the admin page with shortcuts in the middle of the page that lets you add products, customize your theme, and add a domain.

Depending on the number of products you want to sell, adding products can be the easiest or toughest part of building your online store. In general, however, adding products to Shopify is easy. All you need is to add a product name, description, and upload an image of the product.One of the difficult parts of this stage is writing product descriptions. Your descriptions should be written in such a way that it entices readers to buy the product, and it needs to be SEO-friendly. You can learn more about product descriptions here.Aside from those, you can also add other product information like barcodes and product variants.

c. Customizing Your Website

Shopify has numerous free and paid design themes and templates you can use for your online store. They also use a drag-and-drop editing feature, which makes customizing design more user-friendly, especially for beginners.If you want a fully-customized website and more control, Shopify also allows you to edit the code of your website. However, you will need someone to design your website and build it into Shopify.While it sounds like an extra cost, an experienced graphic designer can help you create all your website design and marketing collaterals. On the other hand, a Shopify developer can build your store with the features and all functionalities that you want, whenever you want.Having both can save you an awful lot of time and effort if you think about it. Luckily, you can easily outsource these roles to an Ecommerce service provider. Find out more about outsourcing Ecommerce graphic design and website development.

d. Choosing a Domain

Since you already have a name for your store, especially if you have an existing brick-and-mortar store, choosing a domain name or URL is easy.In Shopify, you can choose to have a free subdomain, buy a new domain, or connect an existing domain to Shopify.The free subdomain will have “.myshopify.com” after your store name. On the upside, it’s free. However, it doesn’t look professional, which matters if you want to make a good first impression on your customers.In buying a new domain, you can purchase one directly from Shopify in the search bar. You can choose other URL extensions, like .net, .co, or .shop. Prices vary, but it usually starts at $14 per year.If you want to connect an existing domain, go to Online Store > Domains in your admin page. After that, click Connect existing domain > transfer in your domain. For a more comprehensive walkthrough, check out Shopify’s help center for transferring domains.

e. Adding a Payment Gateway

A payment gateway authorizes the processing of payments through an Ecommerce store. You can integrate your Shopify store with numerous gateways so that your customers have more payment options.Shopify has its own payment gateway called Shopify Payments, which doesn’t charge any transaction fees. Third-party gateways, however, charge per transaction or a monthly subscription.Some of the commonly used payment gateways for Shopify stores include:

• PayPal

Gives you two options: Payflow Link (free) and Payflow Pro ($25/month). The paid version gives you more customization in the checkout experience. PayPal also offers optional, paid features like fraud protection, recurring billing, and buyer authentication.Find out more about PayPal’s payment gateway here.

• Worldpay

Offers two payment options: Pay as you go (2.75% + £2.0 or $2.50 per transaction for both credit and debit cards, and Pay monthly (£19.95 or $24.97 per month plus 2.75% for credit cards and 0.75% for debit cards).Note: Pound to USD conversions are as of 06/15/2020The best thing about Worldpay is that they don’t charge for anything else. You get all of their features, and they don’t charge extra for international fees.Check out more of Worldpay’s payment gateway here.

• Amazon Pay

Only provides a per transaction fee of 1.95%, plus service tax or other applicable taxes. These tax charges will reflect on successful transactions. They don’t charge any other fees for setup or maintenance.The main benefit of having Amazon Pay is that you can target customers who don’t want to add their card details in their purchases.Find out more about Amazon Pay here.

• Stripe

Offers a basic pricing method for 2.9% + 30¢ per successful transaction, and a customizable solution for larger payment volumes. Stripe doesn’t charge other fees like setup, monthly, or hidden costs.Learn more about Stripe’s customizable payment gateway here.

• Authorize.Net

Offers three pricing options: All-in-one (2.9% + 30¢), Payment Gateway Only (10¢ per transaction, with 10¢ daily batch fee), and Enterprise Solutions (custom pricing). No extra charges for other features like fraud prevention, customer information manager, and invoicing.See more details about Authorize.Net’s payment gateway here.

f. Add a Shipping Carrier

Shopify has a shipping module that lets you integrate your website with shipping carriers so that you can provide real-time shipping rates for your customers. Additionally, they also let you integrate with dropshipping applications like AfterShip, Oberlo, and ShipWorks.

How Much Does Shopify Cost?

Shopify charges every month, which rates will depend on the plan you want for your online store.A Basic Shopify plan costs only $13/month, which includes all the necessary stuff you need for your business.The Shopify plan costs $54/month, which will consist of features that you will need to grow your business.Lastly, an Advanced Shopify plan costs $107/month, which is recommended for scaling your business.

Visit this link to learn more about Shopify's pricing plans.

Why Use Shopify?

1. Effective Product Management

Managing products on a website is challenging. However, Shopify makes product management easier through features like product administration, inventory management, and stock control. On top of that, Shopify can handle large inventory without the complicated techy stuff.

2. Smooth Social Media Integration

With social media being one of the most used marketing channels, Shopify makes it easy to integrate with all social media websites. Additionally, they have 90+ apps that you can download into your website specifically for social media marketing.

3. Reliable Performance and Security Patches

Performance and site load speed are both essential in retaining customers as they deliver positive and rewarding user experience when shopping online. With Shopify, loading speeds are always as fast as your connection allows.Moreover, hosting from Shopify includes regular security updates that are automatically passed on to every merchant. You can stress way less because this all happens in the background.

4. Vast Supportive Community

Fast and responsive support is available for Shopify and its communities through multiple platforms. Even the smallest merchants have access to the help they often need to troubleshoot and improve their website.You can post in their slack channel and forums where you’ll find a dynamic and engaged community that is ready to help solve your Ecommerce challenges.

5. Advanced Customization

For many businesses, customization is an essential part of the way they sell products online because it brings out their brand identity. Luckily, Shopify is well built to work with custom design interfaces.The base-level options for Shopify are already extensive and can accommodate most business needs, but it is also flexible enough that it can also handle custom product services. Shopify can push boundaries, and more often than not, custom interfaces are the best option.

Hire a Shopify Developer for Your Online Business

With all of its user-friendly features, Shopify stands as the best place to start an Ecommerce website. Although — however easy it is to use — you still have to focus on other essential parts of your business like product development, marketing, and sales.Luckily, you can hire a Shopify developer to help. Regardless of whether you’re starting an online store from scratch or improving an existing Shopify store, our Shopify developers are ready to apply all the capabilities you want to see on your website.Find out more about our Ecommerce Outsourcing Services here, or click the button below to ask for a quote for a Shopify developer.Get a quotePosted: August 26, 2019Updated: June 10, 2020