5.5
Overall Scorea year ago
Whether you sell online, on social media, in-store, or out of the trunk of your car, Shopify has you covered. Selling your products in many places should be every bit as simple as selling in one. With Shopify’s e-commerce software, you get one unified platform to run your business with ease. When we say it’s never been easier to start a business, we mean it. Shopify handles everything from marketing and payments, to secure checkout and shipping. Now you can focus on the things you love.
 Selz › | 9.5 Overall | |
 SquareSpace › | 6.6 Overall | |
 3dcart › | 6.2 Overall | |
 Shopify › | 5.5 Overall |
The Good
- Templates
- Mobile Accessibility
- Plans
- Security
Shopify has a major presence in the eCommerce market. It powers a significant number of online stores and is considered an industry leader. Shopify also offers its customers many different options for creating an entirely unique storefront, and its tools are integrated so well that you will find every tool you need to manage your online store (as well as in-store POS) right at your fingertips. Shopify has already helped businesses sell over 8 billion dollars worth of products.
Templates
Shopify offers more than 100 professionally designed templates. It also has a theme store where you can pick a theme that specifically corresponds to the industry your product is part of. On top of this, Shopify allows third party professionals to design themes, which are then featured among the other storefront templates. Shopify also has its own programming language known as Liquid, which can be used to make a completely unique storefront. Customers with a little coding experience can also design their own storefront using HTML or CSS.
Mobile Accessibility
The mobile functionality allows for shop owners to manage their store from their mobile device. Shopify's App store also features more than 500 apps (both free and paid), all of which are geared towards optimizing your online business. Shopify has 24/7 customer support and has even listed special telephone numbers for international customers. The Shopify website has changeable language settings that make it user friendly.
Plans
Shopify's Basic package costs $29/month and includes an unlimited amount of file storage, bandwidth, products, and a discount code engine. For those customers who aren't ready for an online store, Shopify offers a Lite starter package that gives users most of the same features as the upgraded packages, except for ways to sell on your own online store, Pinterest, and Twitter. Users can choose from special templates and are guaranteed use of a secure checkout system. If you need more than the Lite and Basic package, Shopify has two other plans to choose from that range in price from $79-$179 per month. The difference between these plans is the credit card rates online and in person. The online credit card rates for Shopify's Lite and Basic plan are 2.9% + $0.30 and 2.6% + $0.30 and 2.4% + $0.30 for the Pro and Unlimited plan, respectively. Shopify even has plans available for enterprises which means it is basically able to service any kind of business out there.
Security
Shopify's storefronts are highly secure. Shopify is certified PCI compliant, and the company hosts many online stores and handles a massive amount of transactions using its own payment system. Even though Shopify has its own system, it also works with 70 other payment gateways so there is no need to have Shopify handle your transactions if you already have a Shopify-supported payment gateway. Along with the security of Shopify's payment system, the company also offers a free highly secure SSL certificate to protect customer's information.
The Bad
- Mobile App
- Plans
- Shopify Payments
Mobile App
Shopify's apps may streamline your online store operations, but many of them charge additional monthly prices on top of the price you pay to keep your Shopify store running. The apps are helpful and can save time for crucial business operations like accounting, marketing, and shipping.
Plans
The Lite plan doesn't allow you to sell online; it only allow sales through Facebook or a Point of Sale system. The Lite and Basic plans come with a variety of useful features but in order to have gift cards, professional reports, and an abandoned cart recovery you will need to pay for the upgraded Pro plan. In order to get an advanced report builder, real-time carrier shipping, and the lowest card rates for transactions, you will need to pay for the Unlimited plan.
Shopify Payments
Using "Shopify Payments" removes the transaction fee but if you choose to go with a third-party payment gateway, that transaction fee will be required. If you decide to use an external payment gateway other than Shopify Payments, then you will be charged some percentage of a transaction fee ranging from 2 percent to .5 percent depending on which plan you are on.
The Bottom Line
Shopify is a trusted eCommerce platform. If you are looking to create a highly functional and attractive online store, Shopify is a worthwhile investment. Shopify's month-to-month costs are slightly higher than its competitors, but with its modern storefront templates and its integration abilities, Shopify has truly proven itself as a leader in the eCommerce industry.
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User Reviews
I havw a shopify website,now for 10 months haven't sold one thing have complained they would not look into it for me at all, so I have started digging. You have to know HTML to fix. WBC CSS Validation 388 warnings, 29 errors, Google Tag Assisstant 159 warnings,errors its 23 pages long. html checker after 1024 bytes, 11 errors, I am using their template. No wonder my site has never had a sale and does not appear on google search. They deleted one of my products and can't give me an explanation why, they only keep 30 days of info! I sell everywhere else but Shopify!
At MorGo Online we provide a service to bring small business into the online world. We are currently working with a client with very limited IT skills and they have avoided the online world due to this. In order to allow their business to move forward they must have an online store. After providing them with the options available they selected Shopify. MorGo Online is building the site ready for launch in 3 months and we are confident that our clients will be able manage their store. Through easy to follow tabs, simple layouts and the option to edit images online, Shopify has provided a service which will enable growth. Would be very happy to recommend Shopify to other clients looking at an e-commerce platform. MorGo Online Team.
Upper pricing tiers have some really comprehensive features. There are a few functions that you'd hope was standard that aren't, but there's usually an app that you can add-on.
This ecommerce cms lacks alot of basic SEO integrations like xml sitemap's, robots.txt files and server side 301 redirects.
I googled "Shopify customer support" and called the number. There was a very polite message explaining that they were in conference working on new components, but that support was available via Twitter and email. I messaged on Twitter and received a reply in just a few minutes that answered my question clearly. Very happy.
I've never had much problems with this service, it's easy and user friendly, although the customer support took their sweet time to help me once.
I can't track my shipment and you wouldn't help me to do so.
I purchased an item from www.above-av.com having Shopify as payment processor or guarantor. Even after passing a month I did not get the item and support of website gave only one reply to wait more and then stopped responding. I contacted Shopify and they told me to claim from your bank. I observed that there are other such stores of Shopify so I believe they are the owners of such fake stores and looting / scamming people. I found more complaints on Shopify related to them. Worst experience, everyone should BOYCOTT Shopify.
I would urge people trying to build a serious business not to choose shopify. Shopify is great until you have a problem. Their support is none existant. They are not very pro business, for example they are quick to disable your account if a payment method fails. Unlike other sites which will block admin access, shopify take your site offline. Better not lose your card associated with your shopify otherwise when your card gets cancelled your site will go offline!!!! Support will not help you either!
I set up a Shopify store with my wife for a small business she started selling some of her baby clothing. It was really easy, which was nice because we didn't need to hire a developer or a designer. We had our questions answered really quickly and it's been smooth sailing ever since.
I used Shopify for a past project - a custom athletic sock store. I found it to be easy and user friendly and was surprised at how good the store looked with minimal effort and design skills. For me, the best part is the 24/7 support. I will definitely use them for my next entrepreneurial project.
I've setup 4 different stores with Shopify over the past year and have loved how simple and effective it is. Here's what I love about Shopify: 1. That it only takes me about 1-2 hours to get everything setup from the domain to design, all the way to getting my products imported. 2. My site and checkout are all mobile optimized right out of the gate. 3. Getting setup with Shopify's merchant account only takes me a day or two before I'm live and taking orders. 4. They have a really cool fraud protection system that evaluates the risk levels of each transaction. Great for preventing charge backs. 5. The mobile app makes it super easy to manage orders when I'm away from the office. 6. I'm a dropshipper and Shopify makes drop shipping super easy. Whenever I hit the "fulfill" button on an order it automatically emails fulfillment the details of the order. Love Shopify! These guys are great. Highly recommend for anyone wanting to get into Ecommerce.