Recently, I was speaking to my brother about my final project, as he is a professional working in media who has experience with social media marketing and setting up websites and so on. He mentioned to me that 'Shopify' may be a useful tool for the sort of website I am looking to set up. I had explained to him that if the development for this project goes as planned it is something I am interested in potentially continuing as a side business in the future. He told me that Shopify is useful because it has all the features of an online shop built into the web builder.
I decided to do some research into Shopify, and found an article that discusses its pros and cons by 'Style Factory'.
The Pros of Shopify:
1. It's easy to use
No need to download any software
The interface is user friendly
Designed for a non-technical audience
No coding necessary
2. The templates are good
Sufficient selection of free templates to choose from
They are responsive- so will display nicely on multiple devices
Wide range of premium themes too
3. Abandoned cart saving is available on all plans
Shopify will let you identify users who added something to their cart but changed their mind, so you can email them a discount code that will encourage them to complete their purchase
4. Great for dropshipping
Let's you sell products without keeping any of them in stock
Suppliers can deliver goods to the customer
5. Performs tax calculations automatically
Different countries have different tax rates, which need to be reflected in the pricing of products; Shopify does this for you automatically
6. Has built-in email marketing
Allows you to host a mailing list to send e-news letters to it
Allows you to do this cheaply
7. Good for selling in physical locations
Has one of the most comprehensive point-of-sale feature sets available
Can integrate the platform with a wide range of point-of-sale hardware, like card readers, barcode scanners, receipt printers and tills
This means you can sell items easily in retail stores, pop up stalls etc. and keep all your inventory in-sync
The Cons of Shopify:
1. You can only have 3 options per product
More restrictive than other platforms when it comes to product options
This includes sizes so if you wanted to include more options you may need to use another platform, or pay for a Shopify app that allows you to add more
2. Adding custom fields is hard
If you wanted to allow customers to personalise a product you would need to add coding or pay for an app that allows this function
3. Professional reporting costs extra
Looking at sales data will cost extra money
You need a more expensive plan to look at full sales reports
4. You pay extra to use a 3rd part payment gateway
Unless you use the built in payment processor, you are charged a transaction fee on each sale
Shopify payments isn't available in some countries so can cost extra
5. Full point-of-sale functionality is expensive
Although you can do a lot with the built in POS functionality, to make the most of it you probably need to pay a lot extra every month for the Shopify POS Pro add-on
6. You often need to buy an app to obtain a key feature
Some features you may expect to be built in are missing or inadequate, and you often need to buy an app to gain the functionality you need
For example: fully automatic currency convertors, GDPR or CCPA compliant cookie notices and the ability to let users upload files at checkout
7. Real-time carrier shipping is only available on the most expensive plans
If you want to automatically disiplay carrier shipping rates of Shopify, you need to be on one of its most expensive plans, pay for a monthly add-on, or subscribe to the platform on an annual basis
Many competing platforms offer real-time carrier shipping at a lower price point
In conclusion, it seems that to get the best of this platform, it would cost a lot of money. This is not something that I need to look into right away, and I may not need to worry about making it a functional shop until I decide to develop it into a legitimate business. For now I could focus on making a basic mock-up of a functioning website and worry about the functionality later on down the line.
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