Shopify Review 2024: Launch Your eCommerce Business Now [Pros, Cons, & Must-Know Features]

Are you looking to launch an eCommerce business, or are you just trying to make the switch from another platform?

Shopify is one of the top choices available regarding online store-building platforms – and for good reason!

In our comprehensive Shopify review, we will outline all of its must-know features, any pros & cons accompanying them, and help you decide if this is the right choice for your needs.

Keep reading as we dive deeper into what makes Shopify a leading name in online stores!

This Shopify review is meant to assist you in making that selection. We’ll go over all of the platform’s important features, such as price, templates, and selling options, and give you the skinny on each one.

About Shopify

Shopify is a popular and one of the most useful e-commerce tools for anyone looking to start an online retail business or another type of e-commerce enterprise.

It works with the majority of third-party web hosting providers as well as a number of credit card processing gateways. This adaptability allows you to quickly start an e-commerce business.

Shopify isn’t just a simple approach to getting your online store up and running.

It is designed to assist store owners in key areas such as adding extra channels (such as Amazon, eBay, or Facebook), providing customer support tools (such as live chat), and handling technological issues.

It’s also worth noting that Shopify isn’t just an “online store system”; you may utilize its tools in your actual brick-and-mortar business location or store.

Shopify offers a POS (Point of Sale) solution that allows you to easily set up your store and have your offline sales synced with the Shopify system. It is undeniably easier to do business when everything is in one place.

Amazing Features

You don’t have to bother about self-hosting or obtaining a domain name from a third party because Shopify has all of the tools you need to establish a site in minutes.

In that sense, it’s the ideal out-of-the-box solution, with price levels that cater to both small start-up retailers and retailers that generate millions of dollars in revenue.

• Abandoned cart recovery

The current online cart abandonment rate is roughly 68.81 percent. This indicates that around seven out of ten clients leave your store without making a purchase.

Shopify, thankfully, provides automated email triggers and other options.

• Automated shipping calculation

Is it possible to ship merchandise to customers all over the world? Don’t stress about figuring those intricate shipping fees; Shopify will take care of it!

Based on the weight of the goods and the customer’s location, the real-time carrier shipping service estimates the precise cost of shipping for individual products.

• Shopify POS

Thanks to Shopify’s point of sale systems, you can accept payments for your Shopify business either online or offline.

• Customer profiles

Custom user profiles ensure that you always have the most up-to-date information on your target audience. When you want to segment your marketing and sales campaigns, this is a great tool to use.

• Easy discount codes

Sales and discounts can assist in increasing revenue. Shopify has a great “Bulk discounts” feature that lets you create discount coupons for free delivery, percentages, and dollar amounts.

• Social media integration

If you have a large social following, you may use the “shop” feature on Facebook to duplicate your Shopify ecommerce website. Allow consumers to buy directly from you without having to visit your website.

• Let Shopify Fulfillment Services help

Dropshipping is a service provided by Shopify that allows you to skip the time-consuming components of running a store, such as shipping, packaging, and handling.

• Shopify Experts

You can access Experts for more help and help in design, development, marketing, and more, as we’ve noted elsewhere in our Shopify review. This guarantees that you get the most out of your online store at all times.

Hundreds of professional themes, a full blogging platform, unique domain names and SSL certificates, 70 payment channels to pick from, marketing and SEO support, and more are just a few of the features available.

Shopify AppStore

There are plug-ins for external sales channels on social media, accounting tools, help desk tools, and even access to other merchants available in the app store.

Be advised that adding these features to your account may result in a significant increase in your monthly payment. Before you choose an add-on, double-check all payment details.

If you think you’ll require a lot of third-party extensions, look into some of the other players in the field to see what you’ll need, who can provide it, and how much they’ll charge.

Shopify Themes

Shopify offers 11 different categories of free, appealing, and modern-looking themes, including Home, Clothing, Food, Accessories, Art, Electronics, Books, and Others.

These are some of the most attractive store themes I’ve ever seen; the free templates, for example, are superior than those available through 3dCart.

I looked through the themes and tried out the Demo buttons to see how the whole page would look. I clicked Publish to add a theme to my account after I was satisfied with it.

I was happy with the free themes, but if you want something more advanced, the Shopify Theme Store has over 100 free and premium templates.

Because some premium templates might be quite costly, keep an eye on your total monthly expenditure.

Shopify saves your previously used themes in your account so that if you change your mind, you can go back to the older one by scrolling down the Themes tab in the dashboard.

A built-in drag-and-drop editor allows you to alter the theme, and a built-in text editor allows you to alter the HTML/CSS.

How to set up a Shopify Store?

It’s simple to get a store up and running using Shopify. Shopify calculated my tax rate and currency based on my physical address after I made an account with an email address and password.

My store’s name was also used to establish a unique URL for my dashboard: super-fun-tech-shop.myshopify.com. This way, even if you don’t have your own domain yet, you may view the store online right away.

The dashboard is where you do all of your tasks, and it’s simple to use. Existing orders, product inventory, and customers can all be viewed in various ways.

• The Dashboard

The dashboard is where you do all of your tasks, and it’s simple to use. Existing orders, product inventory, and customers can all be viewed in various ways.

To expand my site’s possibilities, I found it simple to incorporate third-party e-commerce tools like recurring billing and reward programs, and the theme store offers simple and attractive layouts.

• Add a product

I entered the title (the name of the product) and a description of what I was selling on the Add a Product page, then uploaded images of my products, set a price (with a checkbox indicating whether it was taxable).

List the associated SKU and barcode, told Shopify to track inventory, and saved the total shipping weight. You can also specify variants such as size, material, style, and color on this screen.

For each variation, Shopify assigned prices and unique SKU codes automatically.

• Create a blog

Shopify allows you to create a blog, as well as static pages like About Us and FAQ pages, to communicate with customers.

My Google Analytics (GA) tags for site metrics were also integrated.

You can collect client information through user accounts, which users can utilize to check order progress or join a loyalty program.

Shopify lacks an integrated email marketing tool, which I believe is a major flaw.

It does, however, have a function called Kit, which is a virtual marketing assistant that can help you build Facebook and Instagram ads as well as send a few pre-formatted emails, such as “Thank You” auto-responders.

Embedding Products onto your Website (Shopify Lite)

Shopify Lite works by allowing you to build products in the Shopify UWe and assign them individual Buy buttons.

You may then publish those Buy buttons everywhere on the internet. The actual publication is accomplished with a single line of code.

You have complete control over the appearance of your buttons, including their sizes, colors, and accompanying images.

After that, Shopify provides you with a piece of code that you may use on any website. This is what the code looks like:

This code will allow you to display an image of your product, as well as its price and description. There are no limitations on the number of products you can add, so you can add as many as you like.

If you already have a blog website, such as one built on WordPress, Shopify Lite will let you add your products to it.

You will also receive a specific embed code if you wish to utilize a Buy button on a social media platform such as Facebook.

Shopify Payment Gateways

Shopify Payments and PayPal Express Checkout are the default payment gateways for Shopify. It can also integrate with 70 other payment gateways if those aren’t your cup of tea. Each gateway has its own set of transaction fees.

Because these can be confusing, I strongly advise you to acquaint yourself with them before joining up, as you may be surprised at how much you’ll have to pay otherwise.

In short, Shopify features one of the most comprehensive lists of payment channels available. This doesn’t mean you’ll use them all, but it does provide folks from all over the world more opportunities.

It also gives you the opportunity to figure out which payment channels will work best for your organization.

I put up PayPal for this review. It’s also worth noting that PayPal has its own credit card transaction fees. If you utilize Shopify Payments, the transaction fees are waived.

If you don’t want to deal with Shopify Payments, 3dCart and BigCommerce are good options that don’t impose transaction fees.

Shopify also accepts cryptocurrencies and other alternative currencies through BitPay, Dwolla, Coinbase, and GoCoin, as well as traditional cheque, money order, and bank deposit payments.

Shopify Pricing Plans

Shopify provides five different subscriptions, starting at $9 per month for selling things on your existing website or on social media.

Shopify Lite – $9 per month

Shopify Lite is one of the most affordable solutions for consumers who want to sell online, costing only $9 a month. However, the low pricing is due to the fact that it does not include an independent online store website.

In a nutshell, the Shopify Lite Plan includes the following features:

• You will have access to the Shopify interface, where you will be able to create new goods and customize their details (price, description, colors, sizes, etc.)
• A Buy button that you can put anywhere on the internet — on your own website, on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or anyplace else.
• Use Shopify’s system to manage your orders, sales, and orders to fulfill, as well as anything else that comes with selling things online.
• Use the Shopify system to sell in person or on the go at events.

Sell Digital Products

One of the many fantastic features of Shopify is that it also allows you to sell digital products. Consider eBooks, CDs, manuals, courses, and other media items.

With Shopify Lite, you can do just that. You can create digital products in the same way as you would regular products, and then add a Buy button to them.

The most common way to sell digital items is through Shopify’s own digital downloads app, but there are also some wonderful third-party vendors you may utilize instead. Fetch, Send Owl, and Sky Pilot are among them.

However, it’s worth noting that Facebook does not allow you to sell digital things.

Sell on Facebook

The tools are simple to use; for example, you may simply create a new Buy button for your Facebook page.

Additionally, Shopify can post your messages to Facebook Messenger, allowing you to communicate with your customers (sales channels).

Customers can even buy your stuff right in the chat box. When selling to a younger market, live chat might be very beneficial.

Inventory Management

If you sell your goods in a physical store, Shopify Lite also allows you to receive payments and manage your inventory.

Shopify Lite gives you access to the Shopify admin area, allowing you to manually create orders as needed. You can accept credit card payments as well, and Shopify will automatically update your inventory.

Basic Plan – $29 per month

If you use Shopify’s commerce gateway, the basic plan is $29 per month with no transaction fees.

Unlimited products and storage, 24/7 support, a website and blog, an SSL certificate, and two staff accounts are all included in this plan.

This plan, unlike the Shopify Lite plan, gives you full access to the Shopify system and allows you to construct an independent online store.

Some of the key features of Basic Shopify:

• Two Shopify employees’ accounts
• There is no limit to how many goods you may create.
• File storage is limitless.
• Support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via phone, email, and live chat.
• Fraud investigation (detects fraudulent activity on your Shopify account)
• You can provide your consumers with discount codes.
• A blog module is included.
• Recovery of abandoned carts (contact visitors who entered their information but did not complete their transaction)

Shopify Templates

We’ll go over templates in greater depth in one of the following sections, but it’s worth noting what’s included with each Shopify plan.

As of this writing, the Basic package includes 10 free templates and 50+ premium templates.

The Brooklyn theme, which is shown below, is arguably the most popular on the site.

Although it is appealing, it is also somewhat overused, so if you want to stand out from the crowd, you should consider other possibilities.

The paid themes are priced at about $100 each. The majority of free website templates include the following features:

• You can use a header slideshow to display your best products.
• Product grid that adjusts depending on how many products are displayed
• Visitors can add things to their shopping without leaving the website with a slide-out cart.

Blogging

A built-in blog module is included with your Shopify store. This may be an excellent strategy for growing your following and driving more visitors to your ecommerce site, which can lead to more sales.

This module allows you to create new posts, upload images and other media, select tags and categories, and fine-tune the SEO aspects of each post.

However, when compared to solutions like WordPress, which are primarily designed to run blogs, the module’s functionality is limited.

This is understandable, given Shopify’s primary focus on the online store.

Abandoned Cart Recovery

Abandoned cart recovery helps you to track down customers who add items to their shopping carts but do not finish the transaction.

This function was previously only available on higher-tiered Shopify plans, but it is now available to Basic Shopify users as well.

Shopify allows you to manually send emails to people who have abandoned their carts, or you may have Shopify send them on your behalf.

Then, after receiving an abandoned cart email from Shopify, you can track which visitors completed their transaction using the abandoned checkouts screen.

This is a terrific tool for generating sales with no additional marketing costs, and it’s one of the key reasons why Shopify is the most popular e-commerce platform in the world.

At this price level, Shopify’s competitors rarely offer this capability.

Shopify Plan

The $79-per-month Shopify plan adds three more staff accounts, reporting, and abandoned cart recovery to the Basic plan.

This plan contains all of the features of the Basic plan, as well as the following:

• Gift certificates
• Reporting by a professional
• Full point-of-sale capabilities
• Lower transaction and credit card fees

Point of Sale

The Shopify subscription gives you access to the whole Shopify POS system.

The Shopify POS system is built for both the casual seller at pop-ups, events, and fairs and the seasoned seller with their own store and many employees.

The POS system has a number of distinguishing characteristics:

• Payments: Instead of refunding the customer’s payment method, Shopify POS allows you to offer shop credit. You can accept this in-store and online when combined with the gift card option.
• Advanced Checkout: Keep track of specific requests by attaching notes to orders. Customize your receipts to promote your business, online business, hours of operation, and special offers.
  Furthermore, tax is determined automatically based on your location.
• Discounts: You may use your online coupon codes in-store as well. Create specific in-store discounts and track their performance using reporting.
• Shopify Store Management: View all previous online and in-store orders, which can be sorted by customer, product, or date. Integrate the Shopify POS system with Quickbooks or Xero to save time on accounting.
• Customer Management: Create consumer profiles and analyze their purchasing behaviors, as well as their contact and geographical information. In the store, collect email addresses to use in your email marketing.
• Analytics: Sales reports can be seen, analyzed, and exported by location, employee, or customer. Export product reports to see what is and isn’t selling.
• Mobile: Look up your customer profiles on your phone and send them a message right from the app. Using the app, you may add products and take fresh product photographs.

Gift Cards

Gift cards are ideal for big online retailers with established brands. Customers can purchase a gift card for a friend or family member on your e-commerce website.

These are ideal for celebrations such as birthdays and holidays. You may also give your customers gift cards as a form of reward.

Professional Reporting

When it comes to reporting, every Shopify user has access to the main dashboard, which provides an overview of the store’s activities.

You also receive access to the following sorts of reports with the Shopify plan:

• Sales reports
• Profit reports
• Customer reports (5 out of 7)
• Advanced Shopify Plan – $299 per month
• The Advanced Shopify plan comes with 15 staff accounts, an advanced report builder, and the ability to calculate auto-shipping rates.

You get all of the features of the regular “Shopify” plan, plus the following:

• Set up accounts for up to 15 employees.
• Creating advanced reports
• Shipping rates calculated by a third party
• In the POS module, you can have up to eight different retail locations.
• Transaction and credit card processing fees are reduced.

Advanced Shopify Report Building

You may generate custom reports and then customize them using Shopify’s powerful report builder.

You can first select the type of report you want to create, after which you may change and filter the columns inside that report.

You can also share it with your coworkers. All of your custom reports are maintained in the Reports section of your Shopify dashboard, where you can access them at any time.

Third-Party Calculated Shipping Rates

You can utilize your carrier account to apply computed shipping charges at the checkout with this functionality. You can also use USPS or Canada Post to get inexpensive mailing labels.

You have access to FedEx, UPS, USPS, and Canada Post delivery prices. You can add a percentage markup to the price determined to cover packaging costs in your shipping admin area.

You can choose which services from a certain carrier, such as Expedited Parcel, Priority, and XpressPost, to offer.

Shopify Plus – Custom Price

Shopify now offers a custom-built, enterprise-grade Plus plan with unique pricing. This is Shopify’s enterprise solution for large enterprises.

It’s distinct from the company’s main product – you won’t find it on the main pricing page – and it focuses on unique difficulties that large organizations face.

These issues include security, fulfillment quality, and APWe integrations, among others.

The cost of Shopify Plus isn’t fixed; rather, it’s customizable on a per-customer basis, depending on the demands of the company. Prices typically range from $1,500 to $2,000 per month.

You’ll be assigned a personal account manager who will guide you through the onboarding process, administer your account, and provide support throughout your journey.

Multi-Channel Sales

Within your Shopify Plus Enterprise dashboard, you can integrate 20+ channels, including Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Amazon, eBay, and more.

Your consumers can also choose from over 100 different payment options, which helps you generate more sales because no one is left out.

If you have sales surges at specific periods of the year, such as Black Friday or the Christmas season, you’ll be relieved to know that Shopify Plus can manage any amount of peak traffic.

Shopify Plus is capable of processing over 10,000 transactions per minute with a 99.98 percent uptime.

Integrations

Shopify Plus can assist you if you have your own custom app solution or if you want one of Shopify’s technology partners to help you bring your idea to life.

There are over 1,500 professionally developed apps and plugins to choose from.

Users can sign up for a 14-day trial of Shopify, which allows small businesses to set up a store and test transactions before committing to the platform.

All major credit cards are accepted by Shopify. 3dCart, a competitor, offers a 15-day trial.

Shopify Mobile

What’s amazing about Shopify is that you can run a lot of your business from your phone. The Shopify mobile app allows you to perform the following tasks:

• Photograph the product and upload it.
• Edit information about the product, such as the price.
• Add items to the store.
• Orders will be fulfilled as well as refunds will be given.
• Labels can be purchased and printed.
• Conversion statistics are available.
• View live sales data and traffic in real time.
• Notify me of new orders
• Make contact with members of your group.

The app is compatible with both iPhone and Android devices. The ability to fulfill orders is an excellent choice for events or trade shows that you attend.

Shopify also connects with third-party markets like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy, allowing users to manage their sales and inventory across numerous platforms.

Shopify Testimonials

Try Shopify 14 days for free (no credit card needed)

Are You Ready?  Shopify Review With Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Ease of use	URL structure not optimal for SEO
Quality and mobile-friendly designs	Limited options for multi-language stores
Flexibility and control over code	Transaction fees unless using Shopify Payments
Vast selection of apps and community support	Difficulty in customizing non-ecommerce content
24-hour customer support

Frequently Asked Questions for Shopify

💥What is Shopify?

Shopify is a powerful e-commerce tool designed to assist store owners in key areas such as adding extra channels (such as Amazon, eBay, or Facebook), providing customer support tools (such as live chat), and handling technological issues. It is an ideal solution for anyone looking to start an online retail business or other types of e-commerce enterprise. It works with the majority of third-party web hosting providers as well as a number of credit card processing gateways. This adaptability allows you to quickly start an e-commerce business.

✔ Can We sell both online and offline with Shopify?

Shopify allows you to sell both online and in your physical store using the same platform. You can also embed a Buy button on another website, which is beneficial if you don't want to use Shopify's site builder tool.

💁‍♀️ Do We need to have coding skills to run Shopify?

Shopify is extremely user-friendly, even for those who have never run an online company before. On the other hand, it provides all of the features that a business owner may require. Furthermore, you do not need to take a web development or coding course. You've probably come to this page because you've heard a lot about Shopify but aren't sure if it's perfect for you.

🙆‍♀️ Does Shopify Plus support third-party integrations?

Shopify Plus can assist you if you have your own custom app solution or if you want one of Shopify's technology partners to help you bring your idea to life. There are over 1,500 professionally developed apps and plugins to choose from.

✔ Can We Create a Blog with Shopify?

Shopify allows you to create a blog, as well as static pages like About Us and FAQ pages, to communicate with customers. My Google Analytics (GA) tags for site metrics were also integrated. You can collect client information through user accounts, which users can utilize to check order progress or join a loyalty program.

🙋‍♂️ What do We get with the Shopify Basic Plan?

If you use Shopify's commerce gateway, the basic plan is $29 per month with no transaction fees. Unlimited products and storage, 24/7 support, a website and blog, an SSL certificate, and two staff accounts are all included in this plan. This plan, unlike the Shopify Lite plan, gives you full access to the Shopify system and allows you to construct an independent online store.

👉 Which payment gateways does Shopify support?

Shopify Payments and PayPal Express Checkout are the default payment gateways for Shopify. It can also integrate with 70 other payment gateways if those aren't your cup of tea. Each gateway has its own set of transaction fees. Because these can be confusing, We strongly advise you to acquaint yourself with them before joining up, as you may be surprised at how much you'll have to pay otherwise.

💁‍♀️ Can We run Shopify through my smartphone?

Shopify has a native state-of-the-art mobile app that is compatible with both iPhone and Android devices. The ability to fulfill orders is an excellent choice for events or trade shows you attend. Shopify also connects with third-party markets like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy, allowing users to manage their sales and inventory across numerous platforms.

👉 Does Shopify offer email marketing tools and features?

Shopify lacks an integrated email marketing tool, which We believe is a major flaw. It does, however, have a function called Kit, which is a virtual marketing assistant that can help you build Facebook and Instagram ads as well as send a few pre-formatted emails, such as Thank You auto-responders.

👍 Does Shopify offer themes to use?

Shopify offers 11 different categories of free, appealing, and modern-looking themes, including Home, Clothing, Food, Accessories, Art, Electronics, Books, and Other. These are some of the most attractive store themes I've ever seen; the free templates, for example, are superior to those available through 3dCart.

✋ Does Shopify offer SEO?

Shopify has excellent SEO and marketing features. Your site will be easily found on all major search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo, thanks to the built-in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools. Even though the SEO settings are automatic, you may adjust your target keywords, URLs, and more by going to each product page. The URLs are also all SEO-friendly. Shopify has worked with Google to provide you with advertising funds for a new AdWords account on occasion.

Conclusion- Shopify Review 2024

Shopify is a well-known web platform for setting up an online store.

There are a few rules to follow in terms of what kind of things can be sold, but if your product isn’t too bizarre, you shouldn’t have any problems meeting the requirements.

The platform is a go-to for e-commerce for a reason: one of the best-hosted platforms, very easy to navigate, lot of visually appealing themes to choose, lot of useful third-party integrations to benefit the business.

However, there are a few drawbacks that may affect your Shopify experience, such as transaction costs associated with third-party integrations or user-reported slow response times from tech support.

Nonetheless, I can state that Shopify is one of the best-hosted e-commerce platforms available.

It’s a one-stop shop that’ll make your eCommerce life easier, especially if you’re just getting started.