During the pandemic, many businesses found themselves unable to serve clients and customers from their bricks-and-mortar premises – but lockdown restrictions don’t have to prevent you from making sales and delighting your customers. Moving your business online allows you to keep generating an income, even if you can’t interact with your clients face-to-face.
To run a successful online business, you need a sales platform that gives your customers the right impression from their very first click. We took a look at one of the most popular e-commerce platforms on the market, saving you time and energy. Here’s our breakdown of the main benefits of Shopify.
What is Shopify?
Shopify is an e-commerce platform that provides businesses with the tools to create an online store. It is an incredibly popular platform and is used by over 1 million businesses worldwide.
Shopify provides a lot of flexibility in terms of products and services that you can sell – it allows digital as well as physical products to be sold on the platform. So whether you’re a candlemaker from Clyde or a dog trainer from Dorset, your ideal customers will be able to find and buy from you online, any time of day, whatever the weather.
What are the main features of Shopify?
The Shopify platform offers lots of useful tools and features. The online checkout page is customisable – you can add your company logo, colours and fonts so that everything fits with your firm’s branding. The system also supports international shipping functionality, if needed.
Don’t have your own website? No problem. Shopify is a hosted solution, which means users don’t have to buy web hosting or install software. Everything is online, ready for you to get started whenever you’re ready.
Businesses using Shopify pay a monthly fee to use the platform. As long as you have access to the internet you can manage your online store from anywhere via the Shopify app.
How do I get started using Shopify?
Shopify offers a range of subscription packages for different sizes of business. Businesses can start off with a free 14-day trial to test the platform. In order to start selling products or services you need to sign up to a monthly plan.
- Basic Shopify starts at $29 (£23.48) per month and is best for new best for new and online-only businesses. Users can have unlimited products, abandoned cart recovery and various other features.
- Upgrading to the Shopify package costs $79 (£63.95) per month and is best for businesses with one retail store. It includes additional features such as reports, analytics and up to five staff accounts.
- Finally, the Advanced package costs $299 (£242.04) per month. It’s best for growing businesses with two or more retail stores and includes more advanced reporting, calculated shipping rates and more.
Any catches?
In addition to the monthly subscription fee, Shopify charges for any payment made through any payment provider other than Shopify Payments. The charges range from 2% on the Basic plan to 0.5% if you are on the Advanced plan. That said, Shopify Payments accepts most major payment methods so it is difficult to see why you would need to use another payment provider.
If you’re looking for a sales platform for your business with extensive customisability and the potential to grow with you, then Shopify could be the perfect choice for you.
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