Shopify: Review

Shopify Review
Shopify is a platform for creating ecommerce websites. An ecommerce business is expected to be built and selling within weeks and this is a key advantage of using a service like Shopify.
 
What is Shopify?
Shopify is a web-based software that does not require installation on either your server or desktop. All aspects of hosting an ecommerce website such as; hosting, logistics managment and payment gateway are managed by Shopify. This increases the usability of Shopify’s services as they can be managed by someone who has a relatively little experience with web-development – everyone can learn to use Shopify.
 
Shopify’s key elements are:

• Accepts global currencies
• Fully hosted online shopping cart (allows instant credit card payments)
• Total control over your website products and design (the shop owner can easily upload products to the shops catalog and change parts of the websites design)
• State-of-the-art Security (uses 128 bit SSL encryption to ensure credit card data is secure)
• Easy for shop owner to organise product database
• Can accept orders in minutes
• Extend the functionality of your business website (SEO Management)
• 70 different payment methods accepted
• Easy customer check out
• 94% customer satisfaction over all of Shopify shops
• Shopify mobile (customers can purchase products from SmartPhones)

 
The Appearance of Your Ecommerce Website Can Be Customized
Another great feature of Shopify is the ability to purchase themes. Similarly to WordPress, Shopify has a long list of free and purchasable themes. The theme handles the style and look of the website. However, many other ecommerce websites maybe using the same theme, fortunately Shopify has a simple interface that allows you to change the fonts, colours and images on the website. If you fancy some coding, it also allows full access to the HTML and CSS code and this allows you full customisation of the website theme.
 
Easy to use
The backend of Shopify websites are very well organised and this ensures easy of use. Shopify handles the hosting of the website and payment transactions which means the owner of the shop is not required to spend extensive time configuring or coding the website.
 
Transaction Fees

Shopify charges a transcation fee for each purchase made and this is between 1-2% depending on which plan you choose to use. However, if you use the most expensive monthly plan there is no transaction fee. This is the downside to Shopify as fees can build up over time but it is a neccessary payment as the rest of the service is so easy to use.
 
Summary

Overall, Shopify is an easy to use ecommerce website building platform. It removes the headache for the shop owner in terms of backend development and managing the product database of the shop. In my opinion, Shopify is one of the best ecommerce website platforms to use.