Date Updated: 27 December 2023 | by Sybil Mayard
Are you planning to sell your products or services online? Consider choosing Shopify, one of the most popular e-commerce platforms. Here I present to you a few of the benefits you can enjoy.
1. Try It For Free
Before making any commitments, why not make use of Shopify's 3-day trial? After providing a few details about your business, you'll have access to a trial store where you can try out most of the available features. Make the most of your trial period to explore everything that Shopify has to offer, check out their support team, and experiment with different apps and themes. If Shopify is not the right solution for you, simply cancel your trial within 3 days and you won't be charged.
If you need more time to work on your store before committing to a paid plan, as a Shopify Partner I can give you access to an unlimited trial store - please contact us and I can set this up for you!
2. Customise Your Theme Without Knowledge of Coding
Coding and design skills are not necessary to make your store look unique and fabulous! Shopify offers a selection of free and premium themes, all of which are responsive and mobile-friendly. The Shopify Theme Store showcases features, reviews and demos to help you choose the perfect design for your store. Use the customiser to easily edit the design, for example, adding images to a slideshow or changing fonts. Shopify gives you full access* to the theme files, so you can make further customisations by editing the code directly. If you don't have coding skills, however, hire an expert to do the job for you.
* Access to the checkout theme file is only available with Shopify Plus.
3. Thousands of Apps Provide Enhanced Functionality
Shopify offers many tools to help you get started straight out of the box. However, there are many reasons why you'd want to extend the functionality of your store. You may want to integrate your store with an ESP (email ervice provider). Or, you might need to translate your store into foreign languages. Fortunately, the Shopify App Store solves many of these problems. Within this marketplace, you can find over 8,000 apps to add features to your store. Many of these apps are free or offer a range of pricing plans to suit your budget and business size. Before purchasing an app, be sure to read the reviews or view a demo to see it in action.
4. Excellent SEO Tools
Search engine optimisation is the practice of tuning your website so that it ranks well in search results, increasing the chances of it being found through search. Shopify provides you with all of the essential tools for improving your store's SEO. You are able to set page titles and meta descriptions, alt tags for images, and create URL redirects. There is also a blogging feature, helping you keep your site updated with fresh content to entice your customers with. Plus, the online store speed report gives you insights and tips on how to improve its performance.
5. A Range of Plans Available
Shopify offers a variety of plans, so you're sure to find pricing that suits your needs. I recommend beginning with the Basic plan, which costs just £25/month. You can upgrade or downgrade at any time if your current plan isn't suitable for you. These are some of the benefits you can enjoy with all plans:
- A free SSL certificate that doesn't expire
- Connect your custom domain
- Staff accounts
- Low online credit card rates
- No transaction fees with Shopify Payments
- Fraud analysis
- Unlimited products
- Discount codes
- Sell gift gards
- 24/7 access to support.
In addition to the three standard plans, there are also the options of:
- Starter - a lightweight solution for selling on social media and other platforms
- Retail - sell in store with advanced staff, inventory, and loyalty features
- Shopify Plus - appropriate for large volume enterprises.
6. Responsive Support Team
The support team is available to contact 24/7 via email or chat. There is also a community forum where you can get answers from Experts and other Shopify merchants. You don't need to have a Shopify store to gain access to support.
7. Make Your Business International
The new Shopify Markets feature is a cross-border management tool that helps you manage your international markets without having to maintain multiple stores. Using Shopify Payments, you can set up your store to sell in multiple currencies, allowing your customers to pay and receive funds in their local currency. At the time of publishing this blog, 133 currencies are supported. In addition, you can use the Geolocation app, which recommends the best language and currency for the customer, based on their location.
Conclusion
If you are planning to start an online store, then consider using Shopify, the complete commerce solution for small and large businesses alike. Out of the box, Shopify offers everything you need to start selling, including customisable themes, SEO tools, low credit card fees and discount codes. Contact us today if you are a business owner looking for support with building your Shopify store.
