If you’re interested in creating a new eCommerce website, Shopify offers the best overall solution. It’s a particularly great choice for new eCommerce entrepreneurs who don’t have any technical skills.
In fact, that’s exactly why Shopify was built – to allow anyone to build and launch their own eCommerce store without spending months learning to code or hiring a web designer to handle the development process.
But why is Shopify the best choice? There are other eCommerce platforms out there, so why is Shopify so good? In this blog from Australian Internet Advertising, we’ll take a look at just a few reasons why Shopify is the market leader in eCommerce for small businesses.
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1. Powerful & Easy-To-Use Website Builder
Shopify has been built to be easy-to-use from the ground up. It has a “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) editor. This means that you can add web page elements using simple tools, and always get a live preview of what your website will look like.
This makes it easy to build every part of your website, from FAQ pages to contact information, home pages, landing pages, and product pages complete with product descriptions and product images.
Shopify lets you sell a lot of different products, too, including physical products, digital products, and even services, so it’s easy to build your website, add your products to the catalog, and get started quickly.
Using a variety of pre-installed themes, you can quickly develop a website that looks sleek, works well on any device, and matches your branding. You’ll find that if you have a small store or are just getting started, it’s possible to launch your store in just a few days.
2. Scalable Design & Payment Plans
One of the best things about Shopify is that it operates on a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. This means that you are not responsible for operating any kind of hardware – Shopify takes care of all the technical stuff.
This also means that it’s easy to scale up your website when you need to. If you need more features, a larger catalog, or more bandwidth, all you have to do is upgrade your Shopify plan – and you’ll get access to what you need right away.
In addition, Shopify offers a variety of different subscription and payment plans. This ensures that you’ll always be able to choose a plan that fits your needs, and the size of your store.
For example, when you’re first starting out with Shopify, you can sign up for a Basic plan, which provides you with an unlimited catalog, two user accounts, 24/7 support, and a wide variety of other features. Then, when you’re ready to upgrade to a new account, it’s as easy as clicking a button to sign up for the next plan tier.
3. Buy & Register A Domain Name & Get Hosting In One Place
With Shopify, you don’t need to worry about registering a domain name on a website like GoDaddy, or working with a third-party service for hosting. Shopify lets you register your website and get hosting all in one place, which simplifies the process of setting up your website and helps reduce the complexity of website administration.
4. Simple And Cost-Effective Payment Processing With Shopify Payments
Shopify also allows you to process credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, and other payment methods with Shopify Payments instead of relying on third-party payment gateways. Again, this makes things a lot smoother when you’re first starting your website. You don’t have to sign up with a third-party company like Square or Stripe – you can start selling your products right away.
Shopify Payments also has a reasonable pricing structure that’s quite similar to other payment processing services. Depending on the plan you’re using, you’ll pay a flat fee of 30¢ AUD and 1.4% to 1.75% of the purchase price. That’s quite reasonable compared to other payment providers.
5. Easy Integration With Top Shipping Carriers
Since it’s such a well-known and reputable company, Shopify already has relationships with lots of top shipping providers who operate in Australia and internationally, such as DHL, UPS, FedEx, Australia Post and more.
This means that it’s easy to provide your customers with a lot of different shipping options, prices, and fulfillment times. Not only that, Shopify offers discounts on shipping rates through Sendle, an online shipping label printing service that makes it easy to fulfill your orders.
The more shipping options you offer, the better. Customers love having lots of options to choose from, whether they choose a slower, free shipping method, or pay a bit extra for express delivery for a particular item.
86% of consumers believe that companies should offer them “the ability to choose the most convenient delivery option” at the time of placing their order, and offering a wider variety of shipping options can allow you to do just that.
6. Add More Functionality With The Shopify App Store
The Shopify App Store is a built-in service offered by Shopify that lets you add more functionality to your Shopify store using third-party apps.
For example, you could buy an app that lets you enable dropshipping on your store, adds an integration with social media tools, or integrates a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software with your Shopify store – and that’s just the beginning.
Using these apps, it’s easy to extend the functionality of your Shopify store without having to write or create any code yourself, or hire someone to develop a custom tool for you. This makes it easier to build your eCommerce store and integrate any additional functions you may need.
7. Flexible Integrations With Third-Party Applications
Shopify has support for integrations with a wide variety of commonly-used third-party applications that eCommerce entrepreneurs may need to use.
This includes things like email marketing tools, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) databases, online review platforms, inventory management software, and a lot of other third-party applications.
These can be added to Shopify either through some simple custom code, the Shopify App Store, or APIs like RESTful, depending on the specifics of the integration.
8. Unbeatable Resources & Guides For Entrepreneurs
If you’ve never run an online store before, Shopify has a huge variety of resources that you can use to learn more about the basics – from writing good product descriptions, to using social media to advertise your products, speed up your website, and so much more. Its resources cover just about all of the information you could need to start selling online.
This includes the Shopify blog, which offers a lot of helpful eCommerce resources, as well as the Shopify Help Center, the Shopify forums, and an email newsletter that delivers the latest eCommerce and Shopify tips directly to your inbox.
And, since Shopify is the #1 eCommerce platform out there, that means there are lots of other entrepreneurs and eCommerce store owners using it, and posting blogs, guides, how-tos, and other helpful information on their own websites. This ensures you have plenty of resources to turn to as you work to improve your store, troubleshoot errors, and more.
9. Shopify Offers A Free Trial For New Users
If you’re not sure whether or not Shopify is right for your eCommerce store, the best way to find out is to sign up for a free trial. If you’re a new user, you can try Shopify for free for up to 14 days. This lets you explore its themes, features, and benefits in detail without committing to a monthly subscription.
You can also sign up for free trials from competing websites like BigCommerce. If you’re not sure whether or not Shopify is right for you, it may be worth signing up for a few different eCommerce platforms to compare their features, pricing, and other such details.
Need Help Launching Your Online Store? Contact AIAD Today!
At Australian Internet Advertising, we’re specialists in web development, Shopify, and digital marketing in Australia. Whether you’re located in Sydney, NSW, or any other part of the country, our team can help you develop and launch a highly-effective Shopify website.
If you’re interested in working with AIAD, feel free to contact us online or give us a call at 1300 304 640. We’d be happy to discuss your project in more detail, provide more information about our expertise, and discuss how Australian Internet Advertising can help you meet your business goals.
