Shopify – Does it live up to the hype?
Choosing the right eCommerce platform for your business is a tough job – and one that you can’t afford to get wrong! With so many different options available, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of conflicting advice.
However, when doing your research, you’ll notice that there’s one platform that always seems to come out on top – Shopify. Shopify markets itself as being super user-friendly and is one of the world’s leading eCommerce platforms – but does it live up to the hype? As a Shopify partner, we truly believe it does.
If you need help determining whether Shopify is the right choice for your business, read on. In this article, we’ll reveal the top five reasons businesses of all sizes choose to build their online stores using Shopify.
If, once you’re done reading, you’re still unsure which eCommerce platform is right for you, contact the team at Create8 for tailored advice.
5 reasons to choose Shopify to build your online store
When choosing an eCommerce platform, most businesses – unless they’re large enterprises with a dedicated technical team – can benefit from prioritising ease of use. Choosing a platform with an intuitive user interface and user-friendly tools and features will help you manage your online store efficiently without having to rely on a developer for every update.
Shopify markets itself as an all-in-one solution. It aims to make opening an online store as simple and convenient as possible. It provides all the tools needed to create, manage, and grow a high-performance eCommerce store with minimal stress and hassle.
So, what are the top five reasons you should choose Shopify to build your online store?
- Round-the-clock customer support.
- User-friendly design tools.
- Built-in SEO features.
- Robust security and encryption.
- Thousands of apps and integrations.
Let’s explore each of these benefits of using Shopify in more detail.
What customer support does Shopify offer?
Reliable customer support is essential for running a successful online store, especially if you have limited technical knowledge.
Whether your website is down and you need urgent assistance or you’re looking for expert advice on how to set something up, reliable customer support is a must. Without it, you risk facing costly downtime, restricted functionality, and wasted time.
As a platform that markets itself as being user-friendly and accessible, Shopify prioritises customer support. Shopify support services offer users an extensive support system across multiple channels.
When you need immediate help, you can access 24/7 customer support via live chat and email. Shopify Plus users can also access 24/7 telephone support.
For less urgent enquiries, Shopify also offers a community forum and an extensive help centre that contains useful step-by-step guides, troubleshooting tips, and answers to FAQs.
You can also further your knowledge and learn how to get the most out of Shopify by completing free online courses, tutorials, and webinars in the Shopify Academy.
How easy is it to build an online store using Shopify?
The whole concept behind the Shopify platform is that building an online store should be simple and accessible to anyone – even those with no technical expertise. Shopify aims to provide everything you need to build, launch, and manage your store, all in one convenient place.
All-in-one solution
Shopify is an all-in-one solution, meaning web hosting and a free SSL certificate are included in the package.
No coding required
Shopify offers an intuitive, user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface where no coding is required. It also features a step-by-step setup wizard to help guide you through the process of setting up, customising, and adding products to your store.
Pre-built themes
The Shopify Theme Store contains over 100 pre-built, mobile-optimised Shopify themes. Some are free, and others require payment. Simply browse through the themes and select the one that feels most like your brand. Once you’ve chosen your theme, you can customise the layout, colours, and fonts using a simple drag-and-drop editor.
Built-in tools
Shopify offers an extensive range of built-in tools that make product management, SEO, tax calculations, shipping, and payment processing simple to set up, customise, and manage. The platform is regularly updated with new and improved features to keep pace with the latest trends and advances in technology.
What SEO tools does Shopify offer?
Building and launching your online store is only half the battle—the real challenge lies in gaining visibility and attracting customers.
Luckily, Shopify equips merchants with the tools they need to help their stores rank well in Google’s SERPs. Many SEO-friendly practices are even carried out automatically by the platform to save merchants time and effort.
Shopify’s built-in SEO tools include:
- SEO-friendly URLS: Shopify automatically generates clean, SEO-friendly URLS. You can then manually edit these to improve relevance if needed.
- Meta titles and descriptions: Editable meta titles and descriptions.
- Sitemap and Robots.txt file: Shopify automatically generates an XML sitemap and Robots.txt file for you.
- Mobile-optimised themes: All themes in Shopify’s theme store are fully responsive to ensure a seamless user experience (UX) on any device and screen size.
- Image compression and alt text: Images are automatically compressed, and alt text can be added.
- Blogging platform: Shopify offers a built-in blog that allows you to publish SEO-friendly content to help drive more organic traffic to your website.
- Canonical tags: Shopify automatically applies canonical tags to help prevent duplicate content issues.
And if you need more advanced SEO tools? There’s a whole host of SEO apps in the Shopify App Store to help you improve your Google ranking even more. Popular SEO apps include Yoast SEO, Plug In SEO, and SEO King.
What security features does Shopify have to protect eCommerce businesses and customers?
When running an online store, security should be a top priority, as your business’ reputation depends on it. Demonstrating a commitment to providing a safe and secure shopping experience will help your business build trust, credibility, and long-term customer loyalty.
Shopify provides enterprise-level security designed to protect both your business and its customers. Its built-in security features provide a safe shopping experience for customers and protect your business from fraud.
Here are some key Shopify security features:
- Free SSL certificate: Encrypts data transferred between your online store and its visitors.
- Built-in fraud analysis: Automatically flags potentially fraudulent transactions.
- Automatic backups: Backs up store data.
- Secure hosting: Uses a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to ensure 99.99% uptime and fast load times.
- Industry-leading payment security: Shopify is PCI-DSS Level 1 compliant.
Some eCommerce platforms require merchants to source and manage their own SSL certificates, fraud protection, PCI compliance, and data security measures. Shopify’s all-in-one approach makes security compliance simple and hassle-free.
What integrations and apps does Shopify offer to enhance e-commerce functionality?
As your business grows and evolves, adding new features and functionality to your online store can help you enhance the user experience, optimise performance, and stay ahead of your competitors. This is where Shopify really outshines other eCommerce platforms.
Shopify’s App Store boasts over 8,000 apps, providing endless opportunities to customise and scale your store. There are apps for optimising every aspect of your store’s performance and management, including:
- Email marketing
- Social media marketing
- Multi-channel selling
- Dropshipping
- Subscriptions
- Currency conversion
- Live chat
- Loyalty and rewards
- Heatmaps and visitor tracking
- Automation and workflows
While the platform itself offers an extensive selection of powerful built-in tools, if it can’t do exactly what you want it to, chances are there’s an app for it!
Partner with Create8 to launch a Shopify store
Think Shopify could be the right platform for you and your business?
Whether you want to migrate your existing store to Shopify, build a brand new Shopify store from scratch, or access a Shopify support package – Create8 are perfectly positioned to help.
As a proud Shopify partner, we have helped countless businesses build attractive, high-performance stores using Shopify – will yours be next?
To learn more about our Shopify web design services or Shopify support packages, contact our team by calling 0161 820 9686 or filling out our contact form online.
