When you are running a startup, you need every tool and software that can help you grow. And Shopify is one of those platforms which you may have heard about. So, is it good for startups?
To answer it shortly, it’s most definitely good for startups. In fact, many startups actually use Shopify. To get a much more detailed answer, make sure you read this entire article!
What Exactly Is Shopify?
Shopify is an eCommerce platform for hosting and setting up online stores and retail point-of-sale systems. Shopify also helps you with tools that help you in running a store. You can chat with your customers, set up direct payment systems, offer sales, and many more features that aim to make things easier for you and your customers. It helps you in selling both online and offline.
What Features Does Shopify Have That Are Useful For Startups?
You might be thinking that Shopify will help me in selling my products but what features does it have that will help me in my startup? Here are some of the features that will help you:
1. Customizable Store
Shopify offers great customizability to your website. You can use the theme editor to customize your store to match your startup or even your personality. Theme editor provides you with the ability to change the whole site easily by using features like drag and drop. These features help you change everything in your shop even if you don’t know how to code. If you know how to code and want to use code, you can do that! Just write the code and then upload the code on the site. It is as easy as that.
2. Cost-effective
Shopify offers 5 different plans, each of everyone’s needs. These plans are:
1. Shopify Lite: It is the most affordable plan for Shopify. It provides you with the most basic features. If you have a budget constraint or you are just trying it out, then this is a good plan to start with. The plan starts at $9 per month. With this plan, you will get a free SSL certificate, unlimited products, and abandoned cart recovery. You can set it up using an existing site. Two major drawbacks of the plan are, first, that you can’t build your online store; and second, if you are a new merchant then you can not opt for this plan.
2. Shopify Basic: It is the most commonly used plan by people. This plan offers everything you need when you start with Shopify for your startup. Priced at $29 per month it is quite affordable and cost-effective. It has all the features which Shopify Lite had. On top of it, it has extra features. It provides you features like having your own shop’s page and having 2 staff that can manage the site. By opting for this plan, you can be sure that you have every feature which is required by your startup. You also get access to various analytics and reports.
3. Shopify Standard: If you are a startup that has high traffic then you can opt for Shopify Standard at $79 per month you get all the features of the previous features and more. You get a huge range of reports and much more detail. The reports and analytics you get from this plan are the analytics page, finances report, products analytics, live view, acquisition reports, inventory reports, behavior reports, marketing reports, order reports, sales reports, retail sales reports, profit reports, and customer reports. These analytics and reports help you understand your customer’s behavior and the shortcomings of the site to improve it. By opting for this plan you can have inventory at up to 5 locations and have 5 staff members to manage it.
4. Shopify Advanced: This plan is on the expensive side at $299 per month. You get all the features of the Shopify Standard plan. On top of that, you get the option of having up to 15 staff members. You can have and manage inventory from up to 8 locations. The reports are more comprehensive and you can create custom reports as well. One feature that stands out is international sales. You can calculate and collect import duties for your customer from a different country. You can also control the prices and adjust them according to the place.
5. Shopify Plus: This is the most expensive plan of Shopify at $2000 per month. With this feature, you unlock a lot of features that help you do everything with ease. This plan is aimed at enterprises dealing with high volume on a daily basis. By opting for this plan you get features like having unlimited staff members, using APIs, having launch team support which helps you in migrating and launching your products faster, having specialized apps and channels, and integrated tax services. You also get access to a Shopify Plus Academy to help you grow your business.
From the above pricing, you can see that all of the plans are made in such a way that people can choose them according to their needs. These plans are quite competitive and affordable as compared to other companies, moreover, Shopify provides features that make it highly cost-effective.
3. Privacy And Security
Shopify’s privacy policy states that they only take the necessary data from you and the customers that they require. Once they no longer need your data they either anonymize it or delete it. This ensures that your privacy is safe. They don’t provide your information to any third party unless you give Shopify permission or they are legally required. If they give it because of a legal requirement then they will notify you unless they are legally forbidden to do that.
Shopify regularly invites independent auditors to check the security of their data storage. Their team works to make sure that their database is as strong as it can be. They also provide you with an SSL certificate when you buy a plan so that all of the data transferred through the site are encrypted.
4. Scalable Solution
Shopify is highly scalable as it provides various plans which you can opt for according to your needs as your startup grows. You can start from Shopify Lite and go to Shopify Plus as your needs increase.
5. Self-Hosted Platform
Shopify is completely self-hosted, which means you don’t need to buy any other services like WordPress to run your startup. Shopify also provides services for blogs along with your shop site so that you can increase the engagement of customers with your site. It is the one-stop solution for you.
6. Built-In Marketing Tools
Shopify has built-in marketing tools that help you in running your business smoothly. They have tools that help you calculate delivery charges and take the payment smoothly from the customers. You set it up once and it keeps on going. It helps you with tools that are completely free to use. Some of them are business name generators, slogan makers, terms and conditions generators, shipping label templates, barcode generators, and many such services.
7. Great Support Both For Customers And Technical Support
Shopify provides support for customers by connecting them with you via chat or mail when it is related to the business. In case the issue is related to Shopify then you and the customer can easily contact them in handling it.
Should Startups Use Shopify?
If your startup offers products then using Shopify would be of great benefit to you. It provides you with a lot of features like analytics, reports, payment methods, and site customizability. This helps you in growing your startup. It is very convenient for users to set up and use. So, even if you are not into tech, you can still use it very easily. Once it is set up, it can run on itself, this saves a lot of your valuable time. You can invest that time into your startup.
Conclusion
Shopify is a great tool for startups. It has plenty of features that are helpful for startups of all stages. They also have a Shopify Plus which is their top tier membership at $2000 per month. This plan gives you everything a huge enterprise will need to run.
