Creating a successful online store that can be sustained over time is the dream of every entrepreneur or brand builder in the digital age; and Shopify is among the best options we can consider to do so.

Selling online is a booming trend that has put retail giants like Amazon, eBay and Alibaba on the map. It has become the lifeline board for many, especially, in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in the early 2020s.

Shopify has contributed more than $180 billion to the global economy (Hostingpill, 2021).

Therefore, today we can find all kinds of stores in any sector of interest we can think of; businesses that are generating money without needing to be in the same place as their buyers.

If you are thinking about opening your online store and want to manage all the information available before diving into it, I have something that can help you; well, in this blog I am going to talk about Shopify, one of the main CMS for creating online stores.

What is Shopify?
At first glance, Shopify looks like an e-commerce platform where anyone can build an online store. Its main difference with other tools, social networks and applications is that it is mainly aimed at commerce, being the favorite digitization option for small and medium-sized companies for their digitization.

The idea was born from the need to buy and sell products using the Internet as a means to carry it out, taking advantage of its advantages; having a site that allows the management of collections and payments electronically. That is, everything comes from the concept of ecommerce.

Shopify, like WordPress, is a CMS that has among its main features, universality; allowing all individuals and companies to design their online store without the need for programming knowledge. Everything can be done from its intuitive interface in no time.

A little bit of history
Founded in 2004 by a group of investors who wanted to open their own online store, Shopify was born as a solution to a market problem.

The platform was launched in 2006, working with a desktop version that allowed people to offer their products through the Internet, which later developed an API in 2009, available to the public in different App Stores.

The moment of growth
2020 was the company’s best year of growth, achieving a 41% increase in subscriptions and a 116% increase from retailers.

Its gross sales increase was 96% compared to 2019, registering an increase in its annual payout close to 80%; surpassing eBay, another e-commerce giant, in annual revenue.

After the big push taken in the last couple of years, in 2020 Shopify launched the Shop app to the market; a sort of Marketplace where users can follow up on everything related to their product purchase and shipping.

Also helping users to find recommended products based on their previous purchases and make their purchases instantly in the app.

How does Shopify work?
Creating a Shopify store is a relatively easy and quick process, as long as you are clear about what you are going to choose beforehand. The process starts by creating a profile on the platform, where you will need to explain the activity for which you will use the site, i.e. the type of sale (physical or electronic), average income level, specialized sector and payment address.

Once created, it will be time to add a little personality to the site, choosing from the different templates available; a great help for those who do not have much knowledge of programming. At this point it will be possible to add brand colors, typography and many other features.

Finally, you must select the domain of the site you will have and choose the type of plan to pay for, which can be a monthly or annual payment; it will be possible to buy an existing domain with the name you are interested in, transfer a domain from another provider or create one from scratch.

The only thing left to do is to enable and specify the payment methods that you will accept in the business so that the money starts coming in; the options are very varied, allowing us to choose between: VISA, MasterCard, Google Pay, Amazon Pay and many others.

Is Shopify free?
Shopify can be enjoyed free of charge only through the free version that lasts for 14 days. For the rest of the time, it will be necessary to purchase a payment plan that fits with the income and possibilities of the business. Here are the plans:

Basic. The sale and storage of products is unlimited, with a cost of 2% of each transaction made on the platform; at a cost of $29 per month.
Shopify. It has the functions of the previous plan, plus the ability to create gift cards and retrieve information from shopping carts; as well as obtaining simple performance reports. The platform’s commission fee is 1% and its monthly cost is $79.
Advanced. All of the above features are included in this plan, plus advanced status reporting and an automation feature, which helps to accurately calculate product shipping rates based on weight, size and/or customer location. It is priced at $299 with a 0.5% fee for each transaction.
Before purchasing the plan, consider that a fee for payment received via TDC (1.8%- 2.4%) will have to be added to the prices.

Main features offered by Shopify
Automatic shipping calculation
If you have or plan to create a business that involves customers all over the world, billing can be a difficulty. Shopify offers a service that automatically calculates the shipping of the product, the time it will take the carrier to deliver it and recognizes the user’s location.

Abandoned cart system
All of us who have made the task of shopping online, have left some order halfway through. For whatever reasons, this is a fact that happens much more often than you think.

On average, there is a 68% cart abandonment rate on e-commerce sites (Affde, 2020).

Have you ever left a site leaving a cart half filled and when you want to come back you can’t find what you had? Shopify offers a series of automatic triggers that send emails to the customer’s account; reminding them that they have left their purchase half-finished.

Shopify POS
Born as a unification tool between the stock of the physical and virtual store, Shopify POS is a great utility to manage logistics. It is an app available for Android and iOS, with which, it is possible to make physical sales from the main store with access to catalogs and invoices.

Shopify POS works from any mobile device and helps to keep control of the actual inventory at all times.

Customer information
From your store profile you can review information about your preferred audience, maximizing your product reach and visibility. An especially useful feature when we want to segregate launches and advertising campaigns.

Discount
In Shopify the volume of sales we have can be translated into attractive discount passes applicable product. Translating into promotional codes that apply to free shipping, percentage or fixed product discounts.

Social Networking
Shopify is compatible with Facebook, the most widely used social network in the world. If your business has an active account, you can connect your sales page and offer users a quick checkout through its “buy” tab. This allows people to shop without having to visit the website.

Shopify experts
Within the Shopify community there are different motivated ambassadors who can offer help to new users; they offer a high quality service that fosters the business growth of each entrepreneur through unique and specialized tools. An option available to users at any level regardless of payment plan.

Advantages of using Shopify
You may not yet understand why the platform is so successful; therefore, we list some of the timely advantages Shopify can offer your business:

The best
Ease of use. Shopify caters to all audiences, regardless of whether or not they have technical computer skills. Therefore, they are the ideal network for entrepreneurs and beginners looking to break into the world of ecommerce with their own business.

We don’t need to buy a domain. When we want to create a website, in addition to the name for the domain, it is necessary to buy hosting to help with the functionality of the site. Shopify takes this out of the equation, incorporating this service among its payment plans.

Loading speed. Shopify uses the highest quality servers with powerful networks, globalized CDN and smart upload techniques to minimize load times as much as possible.

Free SSL. When creating the sales page, your site will get an SSL certificate provided by Shopify that will help encrypt the store content with https protocol.

Unlimited catalog. The process of creating categories and uploading products will be very simple; counting on smart catalog management and no limitations on uploaded products, regardless of the price at which they are published.

24-7 support. The platform offers a resource center that can help you solve any questions typical of store creation; in addition, a community forum is available to explore the questions and solutions that other users have had.

Mobile friendly. Shopify is 100% compatible with mobile devices (Smartphones and Tablets). Therefore, all your templates and configurations are adapted for viewing from your mobile app.