Shopify

Shopify has been an incredible platform to launch and grow Credit Parent. The core features are solid, and its extensible architecture makes it both flexible, yet simple, with the ability to make it more complex and advanced as you grow. The a la carte and pay-as-you-go nature of the app ecosystem allows us to easily put every decision about adding functionality and features into the context of a return on investment calculation. That really helps us make sound business decisions and ensures we are exercising disciplined financial management every step of the way. The customization capabilities of Shopify have allowed us to stitch together a mostly automated set of business and operational processes that not only save us time and cost but also help the business scale sales volume without putting too much pressure on the operation.

In less than a week, my company - DigiLocal had the client website up and running. We did not have to worry about broken links, slow loading times, any UI / UX hassle, any coding issues with additional integrations like Facebook Pixel, Conversion Tags, etc. 

The only downside to Shopify is the cost, not only of the platform but mainly of the apps which is a recurring expense. Clients are still okay with paying a monthly fee for the website platform, but paying a recurring fee for an app which adds some functionality is somehow not justified. We feel a flat one-time fee or even a yearly fee is reasonable. Also, the themes offered in the Shopify Web store are really expensive. You get similar themes, with the same or even better functionality on Themeforest.

It makes launching an e-commerce site easily accessible to small businesses and the non-technical, but Shopify Plus, it's enterprise version, provides the tools and scale that a large retailer is looking for, for a fraction of the cost of other enterprise products. It eliminates the need to host your own servers, there is no need for lengthy and expensive development and programming projects, and it has out-of-the-box features that many other platforms don't, such as SSL, CDN for images and files, built-in CMS, vetted and supported app store, multi-location inventory management, free POS, built-in payment options and integrations, and easy-to-use integrations with Facebook, Pinterest, Google Shopping, Instagram, etc. 

To-date, Shopify has proven to be one of the most flexible and feature-rich tools that we've used. Here's an example: Our company - Apotheca worked with on multi-million dollar implementations of IBM Websphere and Magento, that didn't have nearly the features that a new, $30/month Shopify site has. Want product reviews? That can cost thousands of dollars to implement on Websphere using a third party vendor (Shopify offers a free app with the same features), which can cost as much as $1K to $2K per month. Want blogging features? Yeah, that'll cost you too, but is free on Shopify. How about integrated inventory management? Sure, other platforms can do that, but not without investing in tens of thousands of dollars in programming and systems integrations. The investment and barrier to entry for small to medium-sized businesses are much smaller, particularly when compared to platforms like Magento, where you're essentially forced to engage a developer to develop and launch a site. 

Shopify has a diverse and well-supported app store that helps to affordably expand and enhance its capabilities.

As with any e-commerce platform, there are definitely some drawbacks. One example just happened this weekend, when the entire Shopify platform went down because of Google's Cloud outage. Since it's a hosted, proprietary platform, you don't have the flexibility to host your own site on servers of your choosing. This is typically a perk for many retailers, however, since they also don't have to purchase or manage servers, combat security issues, or worry about scale as traffic spikes or increases. 

Another drawback is that Shopify (separate from Shopify Plus), while giving you some flexibility to customize your site using its proprietary markup (Liquid), doesn't give you access to the shopping cart code, and you don't have access to things like sitemaps, robots.txt, and other common files that allow you to tweak your SEO and site performance.

Shopify is a solid choice if you’re looking for a platform to sell your goods online, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary. With different themes to choose from, ways to reduce transaction fees, helpful tips and 24/7 support, As a CMO of my company - Maple Holistics, I feel that Shopify makes it easy for you to grow your business. And with their flexible payment options, businesses of any size can benefit from their services. But there are plenty of ways to sell online, so feel free to shop around for other alternatives.

Shopify is simply fantastic. It's slightly more expensive than setting up an e-commerce shop through free options like WordPress, and the transaction fees are a bit costly as well. Everything simply works. The dashboard is intuitive and makes sense. Managing your shop is simple and the analytics it delivers is also extremely useful. If you have a retail location, there's also Shopify PoS. Basically, Shopify enables your online and offline growth. 

One other con is the URL structure. It's not too flexible. Funnily enough, I actually just wrote a review regarding the same - feel free to check it out at https://hostinspection.com/reviews/ 

Shopify is the best CMS for e-commerce. A robust backend that can handle any programming and design feature you want to build. A fast CDN and default settings that align with the highest online business standards. As a Co-Founder of Vivio Life Sciences, Shopify is the answer to starting and operating an e-commerce company.

Pros: Shopify is easy to use the platform and is great for a non-tech person, it's easy to understand and their customer support is helpful. 

Cons: Customisation can become problematic. The costs add up (especially with a weak AUD). It's harder to control and monitor site speed. 

Overall experience: As an experience of Owner at Bidiliia, It's an elegant and easy to use platform that allows non-techs to build and design their own website. I like that you can optimize your website easily when using Shopify, including SEO.

If I had to rate them 1-5. I would likely give them a 2 and I will explain why: 

1. They allow dishonest practices - review hiding is something Shopify sites are known for, and consumers are starting to get wise.

2. You have to work with the confines or pay for customization, and sometimes, even they don't know how to fix it. 

3. They get some points for being Canadian.

As a Business Owner of Brand Scrubbers, those 3 things are a great start, though there is much much more to consider. 

Pro's: I can sell across multiple channels and handle easily for my 2 businesses - HQ SEO and Ghost Marketing on Facebook, Instagram, Amazon and eBay, more to come. The inventory system is excellent, goes a long way in helping you manage your store. Easy to set up and get going, so it can be used by beginners.



Con's: Have to create your storefront between the editor and dashboard, meaning you must flick between the two often, which can be confusing and annoying. The content doesn’t automatically reformat when switching to a different theme. Can prove difficult for non-techy users. Customer service is not consistent; can be brilliant helpful at times, unreachable/unresponsive at other times.



Overall: It has some frustrating features, put for plug and play and using straight out of the box, it has no peers. Intuitive and helpful CMS, with some tweaks and consistent customer service, can raise it to a 5-star review.

Us having technical staff can help customers moreson than if you run Shopify yourself, so the rating is maybe biased a little as we can dig in to help too.