What is Shopify & How to Champion Ecommerce in 2023?

As a leading e-commerce platform, Shopify has empowered businesses of all sizes to succeed in the digital economy. With its comprehensive tools and features, Shopify makes it easy for businesses to set up and manage an online store, connect with customers, process orders and payments, and track and analyze their performance. 

From its easy-to-use interface and powerful features to its strong community of users and developers, Shopify is a dynamic and exciting place.

Today, we'll dive deeper into the world of Shopify, get to know in detail what Shopify is, what Shopify and explore how it can help businesses succeed in the competitive world of e-commerce. 

What Is Shopify?

Shopify is a subscription-based platform that allows anyone to build their eCommerce business quickly, regardless of their technical expertise or experience level. 

Shopify was founded in 2004 by Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake in Ottawa, Canada, and initially launched as a simple e-commerce platform with a limited set of features.

Today, it has evolved into a comprehensive e-commerce solution used by businesses of all sizes worldwide. So, what is Shopify, and how does it work? 

In summary, Shopify is -

• A versatile e-commerce platform 

• Allows businesses of all sizes to create an online store & sell products and services.

• Offers a range of features and tools to help merchants in store management, including -

  • Customizable templates, 

  • Mobile commerce capabilities, and 

  • Integration with various payment gateways.

This is subscription-based software that has changed many entrepreneurs’ lives. From the start, Shopify makes the technical part of building functioning storefronts user-friendly.

You can set up a store and run it without any coding experience. Shopify is the perfect launchpad that will take you from a newbie entrepreneur to a global brand selling in over 100 countries.

As you scale, you can expand your product line, bring in developers to build a highly customized storefront or hire a staff to manage bulk orders and inventory. Shopify will continue to be your backbone.

3 Impressive Shopify Statistics 

Along with the countless new businesses on Shopify daily, some of the world's largest and fastest-growing brands have also established a presence on the platform. Brands like GymShark and Bulletproof are all on Shopify.

This platform takes brands from humble beginnings to global empires and everything.

• An unsatisfactory experience selling snowboards online fueled three Canadian friends' determination to create a game-changing eCommerce experience for small businesses.

• After planting its roots in 2006, Shopify now powers more than 2.5 million businesses of all sizes in the US alone.

• Regarding global presence, there are about 3.76 million online stores on the Shopify platform. The US, UK, and Australia are the top three countries where Shopify is a go-to platform for eCommerce. You can check the complete breakdown of users by country here.

• Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2022, the year's highest volume weekend shopping event, generated $7.5 billion in sales! It is a record-breaking number for Shopify-powered brands.

How Does Shopify Work? 

Building an eCommerce experience is more than setting up an online store.

It should provide merchants with unified access to multiple channels, the ability to customize their brand store as they scale, power their in-person retail journeys, and a broad view of customer insights.

With Shopify, you can achieve all that and then some. Here is a guide on how Shopify works step by step.

Shopify is a cloud-based and hosted platform. When you sign up to build a store, you can access a range of features: 

• free and premium themes for designing the storefront; 

• a toolset to cover payment processing; 

• inventory management; 

• shipping; 

• Marketing and SEO. 

Then, as you set up the store and streamline its operations, you can gradually engage with custom store APIs and development options that will help you further refine the store's functioning.

As a store owner, you can expand your access to integrated sales channels with the core product offering. It covers -

• Facebook, 

• Instagram, 

• Google, 

• Walmart Marketplace, 

• eBay, and 

• Amazon. 

A range of Shopify products is also designed to optimize the e-commerce experience and maximize store conversions.

Like Shopify checkout, Shopify Shipping, and Shopify fulfillment network for order management and meta fields to customize product information more structurally.

What Services Does Shopify Provide? 

What makes the Shopify platform ideal for businesses looking to launch, grow and manage the daily grind of e-commerce entrepreneurship? Let’s find out -

Inventory Management

Managing inventory is one of the most challenging aspects of running a product business, but Shopify inventory makes it a breeze. That is not to say that inventory will not be complex, but the toolset makes inventory management as simple as possible.

What’s cool about inventory management on Shopify is it doesn’t just manage what’s in stock on your website. For example, suppose you have a physical location or do a pop-up shop. With inventory automatically synced between channels, your stock will always be up to date no matter where you sell it.

Once you start selling, Shopify offers functional reporting to help you better understand the current value of your inventory, the sell-through rate, and the average stock sold each day.

This kind of information once took a whole team to generate reports, and data is now available for you in real-time right on Shopify.

Multiple Channels

Shopify makes it easy to sell on your website and even sync up with a pop-up shop or a physical store, but it doesn’t stop there. With Shopify, you’ll easily be able to sell on mobile, Facebook, Instagram, and other online marketplaces. In addition, Shopify is ubiquitous, with seemingly endless integrations that will help you sell on your website and wherever your customers may be.

Cloud-based

Because the entire Shopify platform is hosted in the cloud, you can access your back end and manage your business from anywhere with an internet connection. 

• There is no need to install or maintain any software or hardware. It's easy to scale your store up or down as needed. 

• Collaborating with team members is simpler; everyone can access the same tools and data from any location.

• Your store is always up to date with the latest features and security measures, so you can focus on running your business without worrying about maintenance or updates. 

Overall, Shopify's cloud-based technology offers a range of benefits, making it a convenient and reliable option for building and managing an online store.

Payment Processing

Shopify has made payment processing easy. You can choose from over a hundred payment gateways or Shopify Pay and sell in 133 currencies. Shop Pay, in particular, offers a fast and convenient checkout experience for customers, with the ability to save payment and shipping information for future purchases.

Themes

Themes allow you to quickly and easily create a professional-looking store without the time or expense of hiring a designer to build something from scratch. You can create a store that inspires trust in your customers by dragging and dropping images, adding copywriting input headers, and adding other information.

App Store

There is an entire app store with apps built by trusted partners. These apps help you grow your business, analyze data, and connect with customers. For example, you can use apps like Marsel to recommend and easily upsell products for your customers. 

Live View

Simply put, this feature is addictive.  Every time you run a big promotion, you can watch your website visitors in real-time, see what they are adding to their carts, and learn which products are selling the most effective that day.

What Can I Sell on Shopify? 

Market research can help you identify many potential hot-selling product ideas. Now the list of physical products that you can sell online is endless.

Let’s take a look at products from different categories -

• Educational Products

• Digital templates and tools (strategy docs, resume templates, graphic design templates)

• Service appointments

• Classes and workshops

• Event and theater tickets

• Memberships

• Local craft experiences

We understand that a sea of options running through your mind is not making it any easier. So, we have collected our best tips on how to find winning products to sell.

From finding an idea from keyword research to gaining an advantage from what’s trending in the marketplace, you can find many new tips here.

Where Can We Sell on Shopify? 

Shopify’s Seller Network is a network of online marketplaces and social media platforms that enables merchants to use the Shopify platform to sell their products to a broader audience.

The Selling Network includes popular marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, and Google Shopping, as well as social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. 

By connecting their Shopify store to the Selling Network, merchants can easily list and sell their products on these platforms, reaching a more extensive customer base and potentially increasing sales. 

Seller Marketplace - 

Shopify's seller marketplace is a platform that connects merchants using the Shopify platform with buyers looking for high-quality products.

The marketplace features a wide range of products in categories such as fashion, home decor, and electronics and offers a convenient shopping experience for customers. 

Retail Store Selling - 

It allows merchants to sell their products in physical stores and online stores.

It is seamlessly integrated with the Shopify platform, making it easier to manage online & offline sales from a single dashboard. 

• Merchants can reach a broader audience to increase their sales.

• They can offer a more immersive shopping experience, potentially increasing customer loyalty.

• Retail store selling includes tools for managing inventory across multiple locations, helping merchants keep track of their stock.

Selling on non-Shopify sites - 

With the Buy button, merchants can sell their products on any website or blog, regardless of whether Shopify powers it. 

• The Buy button seamlessly integrates with the Shopify platform, allowing merchants to track sales and manage their inventory from a single dashboard.

• Merchants can customize the Buy button's design to match their website's look and feel.

• The Buy button uses advanced security measures to protect customer data and ensure secure transactions.

How Much Does Shopify Cost? 

Starting with a free trial (and no credit card) is best if you are not using Shopify. During this trial period, you can prepare your store by adding products, organizing collections, and setting shipping rates. But remember that your store is not yet operational and cannot accept orders.

Now that you are ready to open your store, you can select a pricing plan, and we will help you identify the right one.

Note: If you decide to graduate to a paid plan during the free trial, Shopify won’t charge until your trial period expires.

An insight into how much Shopify Costs -

Shopify offers three plans - Basic, Standard, and Advanced.

The price is the most obvious difference, but there are others, such as credit card rates, the number of staff accounts, shipping discounts, and so on. So, let’s take a quick look at these plans one by one so that you can identify the determining factors.

What is the Shopify Basic Plan?

Shopify Basic is best for small businesses new to Shopify or with a limited budget.

The basic plan will cost you $29/month and includes an online store with access to free customizable shop themes. You can also track inventory for up to 4 storage locations.

You can create 2 staff accounts with individual login access and customize their access permissions. Finance reports, acquisition, behavior, and marketing reports - this collective information can give you great insight into the store’s traffic, helping you scale your business.

In addition, Shopify offers a 50% discount on the yearly subscription, which will cost you only $14.40/month.

What is the Shopify Standard Plan?

At $79/month, the ‘Shopify Plan’ is most suitable for growing businesses. You can sync up to 5 product storage locations and 5 staff accounts for inventory tracking.

A growing business means increased sales, and you can enjoy lower transaction and credit card rates than the basic plan to offset the pricing.

The standard plan offers more detailed insights in the form of a shopping cart analysis report to improve your understanding of how customers move through the online store.

You can also gain more insights into customer conversion analysis with in-depth marketing reports to understand campaigns that generate sales and traffic. The annual plan is available at $39.44/ month.

What is Shopify Advanced Plan?

The highest tier, Shopify advanced plan, is priced at $299/month and $148/month in the annual program. It is suitable for businesses facing high-order values.

At this stage, a more granular analysis of the online store’s analytics will help you track store growth opportunities. 

With lower transaction & credit card rates than the basic and the standard plan, custom reports, Shopify advanced offers some great advantages. Like displaying calculated shipping rates on the checkout page.

What is Shopify Plus?

Shopify Plus is a premium plan offered by Shopify designed for enterprise-level businesses. Some of the exclusive features of Shopify Plus include:

• Customizable checkout: Allows merchants to fully customize the checkout experience for their customers, including adding custom fields and using custom payment gateways.

• Advanced reporting and analytics: It provides detailed data and insights into sales, customer behavior, and other key metrics to help merchants make informed business decisions.

• Wholesale and B2B capabilities: Offer features specifically designed for businesses that sell to other businesses, including customizable wholesale pricing, bulk order forms, and more.

• Launchpad: A powerful tool that enables merchants to launch and manage multiple online stores, products, and campaigns from a single dashboard.

• Advanced scalability: Shopify Plus is built to handle high traffic and sales volumes, with the ability to scale up as needed to meet the demands of growing businesses.

• Custom app development: Allows merchants to work with Shopify's developers to create custom apps and integrations to meet their specific business needs.

Shopify Plus pricing starts with a base plan of $2,000 per month. However, the plan's actual cost may vary depending on a business's specific needs and requirements.

For example, additional fees for custom app development, advanced reporting, analytics, or other premium features may be charged.

To help you pick the perfect plan for your business, we prepared a breakdown of all the features and pricing. Do check it out.

What is Shopify Dropshipping?

With Shopify dropshipping, the seller does not physically stock or own their products. Instead, the seller passes the customers' order along to a dropship supplier, who then ships the product directly to the customer. 

Dropshipping allows the seller to offer a wide range of products without physically handling or storing inventory. As a result, sellers can easily adjust their product offerings and scale their business as needed without the risk of excess inventory.

It also minimizes overhead costs for sellers, and they can focus on marketing and sales, leading to increased profitability and revenue.

In addition, Shopify offers a range of tools and integrations that make it easy to connect with suppliers, import products, and handle orders and fulfillment. 

How to Open an Account on Shopify? 

Shopify allows you to sell through websites, social media, and even online marketplaces like Amazon.

In addition, an incredible collection of built-in tools will help you market products and manage online social media campaigns. The best part? You don't have to toggle between dashboards to oversee your orders, shipping, and payment processing. 

There is no better time to build your eCommerce business than now. So, let's dive right in with a basic plan & explore more about Shopify-

1. Sign up with Shopify: 

It's a basic set of instructions you must follow. Just add your email address, password, and store name. Once you add the store name, you will get a default store URL.

Later, you can buy a clean, easy-to-remember custom domain (like streetstyle.com) from the Shopify dashboard and connect it with your store.

2. Choose a store theme: 

There is a vast collection of free and paid themes. You can spend some time here and pick a theme that expresses your brand.  Visit -

Shopify menu > Online Store > Themes > Theme library - Shopify theme store.

Once you have selected your theme, click 'Try a theme.' And don't worry; plenty of filters will help you find a suitable theme.

3. Customize storefront: 

After you've chosen a theme, you'll need to customize it for your store. Click - Online Store> Customize> online store editor.

There will be a menu on the left sidebar with all the tools you need to customize the look and feel of your store.

There will be a left sidebar menu with all the tools you will need to customize the look and feel of your store. On the right side is the live view of changes on the website. 

4. Edit the product page: 

Custom templates with banners and description videos for your product page can be used. You can include FAQs, product reviews, and community values to create a rich engagement experience.

5. Add product to the store: 

Use this area to persuade your customers that your product is the best. You can use bullet points to talk about the material and production qualities.

Once the description has been updated, including product images, the cost per item, and taxes (if applicable).

6. Embed apps: 

Apps such as Shopify Inbox can help you connect with your customers on a new level. You can interact with them and answer questions while they are shopping in your store. Once you download the inbox app from the Shopify app store, visit -

Theme settings > App embed tab > Search Shopify Inbox > Activate the toggle

7. Create Inventory: 

Adding a Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) is crucial to organizing your inventory (check our guide for tips). You need to add the number of items in your stock and click on 'track quantity' to be aware of the movement of the units in the product stock. 

8. Shipping: 

This is where you enter product information such as size and weight, and it is thus only applicable to physical goods. Follow the fields carefully and take help in the 'customs' section.

You can find everything you need to start, run and grow your eCommerce store in 2023 right here. Here is a link to the Shopify Tutorial Guide 2023.

Summary

Shopify is not just for starting a business from scratch. The support and infrastructure are designed to assist you in scaling.

For example, suppose you can’t handle your fulfillment because it’s gotten too big. Shopify has built its fulfillment network, allowing you to warehouse your product with Shopify and let them take shipping and returns.  

A fantastic opportunity for growth is knocking on your door, and we have only scratched the surface today by learning about -

1. What is Shopify?

2. How Much Does Shopify Cost?

3. How to set up a store

4. How to customize the storefront

5. How to add the product

Ready to create your online store? Getting started with eCommerce has never been easier. You can follow this Shopify store launch checklist and start selling online today.

If you need any help, we are here to help start your journey into entrepreneurship. Drop us an email at hello@coderapper.com.

FAQs

Is it Free to Sell on Shopify?

Creating an online store with the Shopify platform is free, as it offers a 14-day free trial period. However, once the trial period ends, you must choose a selling plan that suits your business requirements.

Is it Worth Paying for Shopify?

If you are starting an online business, Shopify is worth paying. It is a comprehensive e-commerce platform that offers a range of features and tools to help businesses establish and grow their online presence, like customization of online stores, mobile commerce capabilities, integration with various payment gateways, marketing, and SEO tools.

Why would a Business use Shopify?

Shopify is a user-friendly e-commerce platform well-suited for businesses looking to establish and grow their online presence. Also, it offers scalable pricing plans and a large app store to help them customize and enhance their online store.

Can I Make Money on Shopify?

Yes, you can make money on Shopify. You can set up an online store to sell products/services or become part of Shopify's affiliate marketing program. With the referral program, you can earn for every successful referral made to the Shopify platform from your account.

Can Beginners Use Shopify?

Yes, Shopify is a beginner-friendly platform with an easy-to-follow store setup guide available on the platform. Anyone can start using Shopify with the starter plan, which costs $29/per month. Shopify also offers a 14-day free trial.

How Much Money Do I Need to Start With Shopify?

You can start with Shopify for free. The platform offers a free 14-day trial period. After that, you can create an online store, add products and customize the storefront. Before taking customer orders, you will need to pick a selling plan. Shopify’s starter plan starts at $29/month.

How Much Is Shopify Fee Per Month?

Shopify has three plans with varying monthly fees. The starter plan costs $29/month and is designed for beginners. The standard plan, suitable for growing businesses, starts at $79/month. The advanced plan costs $299/month. Finally, the enterprise plan, Shopify Plus, is the most expensive, with $2000 monthly fees.

How Much Do Beginners Make on Shopify?

On average, a beginner can make between $1000-$5000 with an online shopping store on Shopify. However, the earnings depend on various factors like the type of products sold, branding, customer service, etc. To learn more about what Shopify is and how to use Shopify, go through the detailed article above.