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Shopify Review: Kickstart your online store with Shopify!

Shopify Review
Overall Ranking: 95/100
Price: $9/ month for Lite, $29/ month for Basic, $79/ month for Pro, $179/ month for unlimited, plus $40 for retail package and transaction fees added from 0.5% – 2% depending on package.
Websitewww.shopify.com


Introduction: What is Shopify?

Shopify was launched in 2006 when they built a tool to sell snowboards directly to their customers online. It soon became clear that lots of stores also wanted a hassle free way to sell their products and services online and Shopify was launched to cater to this growing demand.




Their platform manages every aspect of an online business from products to orders to customers, selling online and retail stores.

What is Shopify

Who is Shopify For?

Shopify is a practical, all in one solution for anyone that is wanting to sell products and/ or services online.

Shopify Pros and Cons

Pros

  • 14 Day Free Trial
  • The customer support is excellent. You can reach them 24/7 via telephone, online chat and email.
  • Shopify is flexible and has apps that you can download to suit your personal needs and add the functionality you need for your online store
  • Lots of themes to choose from (over 100) so you can make your beautiful online store exactly how you want it
  • Integrates with over 70 external payment gateways
  • You can edit the HTML and CSS so you can customize every aspect of your website
  • Mobile commerce ready
  • Use and purchase your own domain name directly through Shopify
  • You can work with a Shopify expert directly to fully customize your online store
  • Full website builder, you can host your entire website on Shopify
  • Full blogging platform
  • They offer a secure shopping cart
  • Complete store management including customer profiles, customer accounts, customer groups, fulfillment centres (such as Amazon, Rakuten Super Logistics, and Shipwire), order fulfillment, drop shipping, refunds, email templates and the ability to manage your online store on the go with Shopify Mobile.
  • Search Engine Optimized
  • Sitemap automatically generated
  • Offers gift cards
  • Social media integrated
  • Product reviews
  • Email marketing (Mailchimp)
  • Sell on Facebook
  • Full Product Management: inventory, product variations, product organization, multiple images, SEO product tags, digital products, import/export, unlimited products
  • Web hosting: unlimited bandwidth, daily backups, email forwarding, Level-1 PCI compliant, SSL certificate, instant upgrades, 99.9% up-time and 24/7 monitoring
  • Analytics: actionable dashboard, product reports, export reports, Google Analytics, traffic/ referral reports
  • Ecommerce University which will teach you everything you need to know about selling online (eBooks, webinars, video series and more)
  • Pricing (possible pro and con explained under the costs below)

Shopify pros and cons

Cons

  • If you decide to leave Shopify all you will get is an exported csv file of your product information, this makes moving over to another platform or your own self hosted store a hassle.
  • It will take some time to learn how to use Shopify, so it won’t be set up in 5 minutes and at times the technical jargon can get a bit tricky.
  • Pricing (possible pro and con explained under the costs below)
  • Watch out for add on fees (some of the themes and applications have an additional cost) and for the fees for external payment gateways, these can add up!

How much does Shopify Cost?

The price varies per package, from $9 per month for the Lite Package to $179 per month for the Unlimited Package. $40 is added for Retail Package and there are also transaction fees ranging from 0.5% to 2% for transactions depending on which package you take.

I never added the pricing of Shopify to the pros or cons because it can be seen as either depending on how you look at it. Shopify is more costly on a month to month basis than you would pay for your own self-hosted store, however the cost of setting up your own store can be very expensive. In addition to that if you require any changes or perhaps you have a problem you could end up spending large amounts of money for developers on a fairly regular basis. You will easily spend a lot more money in the long run with your own store than you would with Shopify.

How much does Shopify cost?

Is Shopify a scam?

Nope, Shopify is not a scam, it is a perfectly legitimate and great way to start off your own online store.




My Verdict for Shopify

I highly recommend Shopify, especially for anyone that is new to working online and needs an all-in-one solution. This will take care of everything you need to work online, leaving you to focus on your products/ services.

Of course you will need to spend a bit of time learning how to use the Shopify platform and setting everything up, but once you have put that work in it will be well worth the effort. Yes there are a few cons associated with this platform, but their pros and the features they offer far outweigh the negatives.

If you have had any experience with Shopify or have any questions please leave a comment.

Do you want to learn how to make money without holding any products or selling your own services? Check out my #1 Recommendation!

Wealthy Affilates


Shopify Review
Overall Ranking: 95/100
Price: $9/ month for Lite, $29/ month for Basic, $79/ month for Pro, $179/ month for unlimited, plus $40 for retail package and transaction fees added from 0.5% – 2% depending on package.
Websitewww.shopify.com

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Lynne

Mommy to a pigeon pair, blogger and online marketer. Lover of chocolate, good books and buckets of coffee.

20 Comments

  1. ,I wanted to tell you how much i enjoyed your site.
    I had never heard of Shopify, the ability to have a all in one solution for anyone that is wanting to sell products and/ or services online is very useful. I also found navigating your site to be clear and direct. Ill be sure to let my friends know to check your site out. Thanks

    • Thanks Adam, I am glad you enjoyed my Shopify review 🙂 I look forward to seeing you on my website again. Let me know if there is anything I can help you with!

  2. Thanks for this post Lynne, I had no idea what shopify could do for someone with an online business. In the future I think I might have to try it out. Are you currently using shopify? If so, how is it working out for you? I would really like to take my online business to the next level.

    • Hi Evan

      No I am not using Shopify. I went the other route with having my website designed by developers and I paid a lot of money! Since then I have come across Shopify and investigated it. I know I would have spent a lot less money in the last 4 years and had a lot more support and control if I had been with Shopify!

      In fact I am considering moving my websites (Kaboutjie and Wholesale Kaboutjie) over to Shopify possibly within the next year.

      I would highly recommend using Shopify based on my experience going the other way!

  3. Wow! This is a lot of great information to make an informed decision on whether Shopify is right for me or not. I like what they provide. It looks like they provide everything I would need for an online product store and/or services. I’m put off by the cost (as you suggested) due to the known and unknown add-ons. How do you think Shopify compares to Wealthy Affiliate?

    • Hi Rawl
      I think it compares very nicely, just bear in mind that Wealthy Affiliate focuses more on affiliate marketing where you don’t have your own product or service, whereas Shopify focuses on providing you with an online store if you have a product or service you would like to sell directly yourself.
      I really love Wealthy Affiliate because they teach you so much about working online, great techniques and information as well as support and the community. If you have your own product and enough finances when you start I would personally recommend both! I would do my website with Wealthy Affiliate and then register with Shopify and add my shop to my website 🙂 This of course would mean quite a bit of monthly expenses but I truly believe it would be worth it!

  4. Wow Lynne! Thanks for a Great Shopify Review!

    I am very glad I found it considering I am playing around with a 2nd affiliate site that may just end up becoming an online store.

    I like the fact that the offer hosting and you can purchase your domain name from them. This is going to save a fair amount of hassle.

    How secure is the hosting compared to SiteRubix?

    Thanks again.

    Marc Parsons

    • Hi Marc
      The hosting is incredibly good so don’t worry about that, they have a very good reputation and they service lots of online businesses 🙂
      That is great that you are interested in launching an online business. Being in South Africa too I think this market will be exploding very soon. FYI my online baby store was designed by developers for me and it costs me a lot if I want just the slightest change. Yes I can upload new products and the basics but if I want a change to my website I pay for it. If I had to do it all over again I would go with Shopify for sure!

  5. Lynne, this is a really great post. I never knew how Shopify actually worked, and I found it incredibly interesting. There are so many ecommerce solutions out there, but this looks like a really good ‘all-in-one’ solution for becoming a merchant. Can I ask, what would be the main purpose of the $9 account, as it doesn’t look like it includes a store?

    • Hi Yvette
      That would be just a store front without an online store so a retail shop that doesn’t sell online, just wants to display products online.

  6. Hi Lynne, another excellent product review. I am ready to act on selling products, so starting to put things into motion, and of course shopify is on my list of avenues to explore. Your review has just saved me a lot of time investigating what the product has to offer. I prefer all in one solutions – having one part here, and another there does my head in. The constant support and help along the way are very attractive features for me. I will absolutely be considering this for my store. Thanks again!

    • Hi Hindy
      It is a pleasure. I never went through Shopify for my 2 product websites and I wish I did, it would have saved me a lot of time, effort and money in the long run! I will probably be 2 of my online stores to them within the next year!

  7. Shopify seems like the only other legit online bussines product, other than Wealthy Affiliate that I’ve seen online. I’m glad it’s not a scam, but eh…there lots of fees to pay. It seems like Shopify is good for actual sellers and Wealthy Affiliate is really geared towards affiliate marketing.$179 for unlimited acess seems like a good price.

    • Hi LakanDula

      Yes that is the way I see it too, Shopify is for products and services being sold directly from your website. However Wealthy Affiliate still offers lots of training on SEO, ranking your website, how to write content, social media marketing, youtube marketing, email marketing and much more.

      If I had to launch my shop through Shopify (and I am probably going to be moving 2 of my websites to Shopify this year) I would also go with Wealthy Affiliate too purely for the training and support offered there.

  8. Hi, Love your website to bits, especially that you can relate to as a South African. I have never heard of Shopify, sounds something I am interested in and something to budget for (you know the rand sucks at the moment).

    • Hi Uwais

      I’m so glad you like my website, thank you!
      Yes I’m very well aware the Rand sucks right now! However once you start earning in USD it’s not too bad! I really recommend Shopify, great platform to get started with an eCommerce store.

  9. Lynne,

    I have not used Shopify, but it sounds interesting! Could you share with me some of your personal experiences with Shopify, I would love to know how to use it!

    • Hey Theresa

      I have not yet had any personal experience with it and recently decided to close my online store to focus only on blogging! I know a few people that are using Shopify and they have given me feedback that it is top notch!

  10. I am glad I read your review about Shopify. It is a great post. I gain seriously and I can now make up my mind. should I join Shopify I will like to add my store to my website hosted in Wealthy Affiliate.

    • Hi Vincent
      It is a great platform for your online store. Just contact their support and get them to guide you through adding it to your existing website!

Comments are closed.