If you‘re looking to start an online store, there‘s a good chance you‘re considering using Shopify. And for good reason. With over 2 million active users worldwide and $200 billion in total sales volume, Shopify powers a staggering 31% of all ecommerce websites. It has become the go-to ecommerce solution for everyone from small startups to major brands and celebrities.
But popularity alone doesn‘t make Shopify the right choice for every online seller. To help you decide if it‘s the best fit for your business, we put the platform to the test in this in-depth Shopify review. We‘ll take a close look at its features, pricing, pros and cons, and compare it to top alternatives. By the end, you‘ll have all the information you need to determine if Shopify can provide everything you‘re looking for in an ecommerce platform.
What is Shopify?
At its core, Shopify is a complete ecommerce solution that allows anyone to set up an online store and sell products. It‘s what‘s known as a "hosted" platform, meaning that Shopify handles all the technical aspects of running your store like hosting, security, caching, and more.
This is in contrast to "self-hosted" ecommerce platforms like WooCommerce or Magento where you need to set up your own hosting and handle the technical maintenance yourself. The hosted model that Shopify uses is a major reason for its popularity, especially among beginners and those who want to get an online store up and running quickly.
When you sign up for Shopify, you get access to an admin panel where you can add products, set up payments, manage orders and inventory, and customize the look of your store. Shopify also provides a built-in shopping cart and checkout so you can start accepting payments from customers right away.
One of the standout features of Shopify is that it‘s an "all-in-one" solution. In addition to the online store builder, Shopify offers integrated tools for virtually every aspect of running an ecommerce business, all under one roof. This includes:
- Inventory management
- Order fulfillment
- Payment processing
- Marketing and SEO
- Customer management
- Financial reporting and analytics
By centralizing all these core ecommerce functions within a single platform, Shopify can dramatically simplify and streamline the process of launching and growing an online store. You don‘t need to stitch together separate tools or worry about integrations. It‘s like having an entire ecommerce department at your fingertips.
Shopify‘s Key Features
Now that we have an overview of what Shopify offers, let‘s dive into some of the specific tools and capabilities you get with the platform. Keep in mind that this is by no means an exhaustive list. Shopify is absolutely brimming with features, but here are some of the most important highlights:
Online Store Builder
Shopify provides a drag-and-drop online store builder that makes it incredibly easy to create a professional ecommerce site without needing to touch a single line of code. Simply choose from over 100 pre-designed themes, customize the look and feel to match your brand, and add your products.
In case you do want more control over the design, Shopify makes it easy to edit the HTML and CSS as well. But for most users, the visual themes and drag-and-drop editing interface will be more than enough to create an attractive, functional store.
Some other key aspects of Shopify‘s online store builder include:
- Mobile-responsive designs that look great on any device
- Integrated blogging engine for content marketing
- Custom domains (or use your own)
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Free SSL certificate
One potential downside is that Shopify doesn‘t have the widest selection of themes compared to other site builders. There are only 9 free themes and around 70 paid options. However, all of Shopify‘s themes are optimized for ecommerce conversions and offer a good variety of styles for different types of stores.
Product and Inventory Management
Adding and managing your product catalog is a breeze with Shopify‘s backend interface. You can add an unlimited number of products, each with its own title, description, images, price and variants like sizes or colors. Shopify will automatically create SEO-friendly URLs, titles and descriptions to help your products rank in search engines.
For more advanced needs, you can create different product types, add customizable options, and set up digital products or services. Inventory management tools let you track stock levels and set up alerts to be notified when inventory is low. You can also use product tags and collections to organize your catalog.
One particularly impressive feature is Shopify‘s multichannel integration. In addition to selling on your own website, you can easily sync and manage products for sales channels like Amazon, Facebook, Instagram and eBay – all from within Shopify.
Payment Processing
Shopify has its own built-in payment processor called Shopify Payments. It allows you to accept all major credit cards as well as alternative payment options like PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and more. Transaction fees start at 2.9% + $0.30 but get lower as you upgrade to higher-tier plans.
A major benefit of using Shopify Payments is that it‘s fully integrated with your store. You don‘t need to set up a separate merchant account or payment gateway. Shopify also provides a nice dashboard where you can see payouts, manage chargebacks, and view detailed financial reports.
If you prefer, Shopify does support over 100 third-party payment processors as well. However, you‘ll be charged an additional transaction fee (0.5% – 2%) for not using Shopify Payments. While this is fairly standard practice among ecommerce platforms, it‘s still a notable drawback.
Order Management and Fulfillment
Once orders start rolling in, Shopify offers a robust set of tools to manage the process. You can view and fulfill orders, create invoices and packing slips, and send customer notifications all from the admin panel.
For shipping, you can easily connect to carriers like USPS, UPS, DHL and others to print labels and track packages. Shopify also integrates with hundreds of third-party fulfillment centers if you want to outsource the shipping process.
A newer addition to Shopify‘s offerings is the Shopify Fulfillment Network, which provides an Amazon-like 2-day shipping experience through Shopify‘s own fulfillment centers. It‘s competitively priced and can be a great option for qualifying merchants who want a more hands-off approach.
Marketing and SEO Tools
Shopify includes a range of built-in marketing features to help you attract customers and drive sales. Some highlights:
- Abandoned cart recovery emails
- Built-in blog for content marketing
- Social media integration
- Product reviews
- Discount codes and gift cards
- Email templates and automations
- SEO optimization features
- Google Ads and Facebook Ads integration
The email marketing tool is especially well-done, with attractive templates, segmentation capabilities, and even A/B testing. However, it‘s limited to 2,500 sends per month, after which you‘ll need to pay for an email marketing app.
For SEO, Shopify creates clean, semantic code and automatically generates sitemaps for your products and pages. You can edit all on-page SEO elements like title tags, descriptions, and ALT text. There‘s also a handy SEO checklist to guide you through optimizing your store to rank higher in search results.
Shopify App Store
If there‘s a feature or integration you need that‘s not available out-of-the-box, chances are you can find it in the Shopify App Store. With over 6,000 apps, it‘s one of the largest ecommerce app ecosystems available.
Categories range from marketing and sales to shipping and fulfillment to customer service and accounting. Most apps are created by third-party developers, but Shopify does offer some of its own "first-party" apps as well.
The selection is impressive, but keep in mind that many of the apps come with their own additional monthly fee. It‘s easy for these costs to add up quickly, so it‘s important to only install the apps you really need.
That said, one of Shopify‘s greatest strengths is this extensibility. If you can dream it, there‘s probably an app for it. Popular examples include integrations for email marketing platforms, product sourcing tools, customer review apps, loyalty programs, and more.
Shopify POS
If you also sell products in-person, Shopify‘s Point of Sale (POS) system lets you seamlessly sync online and offline sales under one platform. The POS app works on any iOS or Android device and comes with a free card reader to accept payments.
You can manage in-store inventory, process orders, apply discounts, collect customer information, and view sales reports – all of which are synced with your online Shopify store. If you have multiple retail locations, you can manage inventory and staff across all your stores from one account.
Advanced POS features like hardware integrations, staff roles and permissions, and advanced reporting are available with an additional monthly fee. But even the basic POS functionality is enough for many businesses to efficiently handle in-person sales alongside their online store.
Pricing
Shopify offers three main pricing plans:
- Basic Shopify: $29/month
- Shopify: $79/month
- Advanced Shopify: $299/month
All plans include unlimited products, a free SSL certificate, abandoned cart recovery, and 24/7 support. The main differences between the plans are:
- Number of staff accounts (2, 5, or 15)
- Inventory locations (up to 4, 5, or 8)
- Advanced report builder
- Third-party calculated shipping rates
- Duties and import taxes
Additionally, the credit card rates and transaction fees get lower as you upgrade to the higher-tier plans.
Shopify also offers a 14-day free trial on all plans, no credit card required. For enterprise-level businesses, there‘s the Shopify Plus plan with quote-based pricing and additional features like automation tools, API support, and a dedicated account manager.
Pros and Cons
To summarize, here are some of the biggest advantages and potential drawbacks to consider with Shopify:
Shopify Pros
- Beginner-friendly and easy to use, no technical skills required
- Fully hosted platform handles all maintenance and security
- All-in-one solution simplifies running an online store
- Extensive App Store for added functionality
- Intuitive drag-and-drop online store builder
- Multichannel integration to easily sell on Amazon, Facebook, etc.
- Robust inventory management and order fulfillment tools
- Built-in features for virtually every aspect of ecommerce
- 24/7 customer support
Shopify Cons
- Limited number of free themes
- Relies heavily on apps, costs can add up
- Charges transaction fees for using external payment gateways
- Content doesn‘t automatically reformat when switching themes
- Customization options somewhat limited without coding knowledge
Shopify Alternatives
While Shopify is an excellent all-around ecommerce platform, it won‘t be the ideal solution for every online store. Here are a few alternatives to consider:
-
BigCommerce: Shopify‘s biggest direct competitor with a similar hosted, all-in-one approach. BigCommerce offers more built-in features and doesn‘t charge transaction fees, but has a steeper learning curve.
-
WooCommerce: Popular open-source ecommerce plugin for WordPress. Offers more flexibility and customization options than Shopify but requires you to find your own hosting and manage the technical aspects yourself.
-
Squarespace: Another hosted website builder that also supports ecommerce. Squarespace has excellent design options and is great for smaller stores, but lacks advanced ecommerce features compared to Shopify.
Final Verdict
After thoroughly testing Shopify and evaluating it against other top ecommerce platforms, I can confidently say it‘s one of the best solutions on the market for the vast majority of online stores.
Beginners and those without technical skills will appreciate how quick and painless it is to create a professional online store with Shopify‘s intuitive tools. At the same time, the platform‘s extensive capabilities and app ecosystem make it equally viable for large, high-volume merchants.
While no tool can be everything to everyone, Shopify comes the closest to providing a complete, scalable ecommerce solution that can adapt to the needs of all types of online sellers. The fact that it powers over 30% of all ecommerce stores and many leading brands speaks to its versatility and reliability.
Unless you have highly unique or specialized requirements, Shopify is an excellent starting point for new ecommerce ventures, and a solid long-term platform as you grow. Take advantage of the 14-day free trial to see for yourself how Shopify can help bring your online business to the next level.
