You need an eCommerce platform to start an online retail business, just as you need a physical store to start a brick-and-mortar retail business. Shopify is a reliable eCommerce store hosting solution among other leading eCommerce platforms. It’s suitable for running online stores regardless of the business model you operate on B2B or B2C. Whether you use dropshipping, print-on-demand, or wholesale as your delivery method, Shopify is the widely known popular solution.
Top brands like Sephora, Red Bull, Whole Foods Market, Heinz, Penguin Books, and others use Shopify. This article discusses ten compelling reasons to consider while choosing an eCommerce platform for their online business.
Reasons to Start Selling on Shopify
1. Ease of Running Your Store
Online store administration is easy, with Shopify requiring no technical skill. Shopify’s intuitive and user-friendly interface makes setting up and managing a store stress-free. There aren’t complexities involved, as is the case with other platforms.
Performing operational activities is hassle-free, and the functionalities can be further enhanced by adding tools available at the Shopify App Store.
2. Secure Checkout and Multiple Payment Options
Since you are dealing with people’s hard-earned money in a retail business in exchange for a quality product, you must ensure a secure and reliable payment system. Shopify ensures the security of customers’ personal and financial information with SSL certification and PCI protocols.
With Shopify’s payment solution ‘Shopify Payments,’ store owners can avoid third-party payment processor fees. Moreover, businesses can use hundreds of payment gateways offered by Shopify, including PayPal, Stripe, and Google Checkout.
3. Built-in Analytics
Businesses can gain useful insights from Shopify’s built-in analytics about orders, sales, and payments. Additionally, you can integrate Google Analytics with your Shopify store to gain insights into traffic and store performance.
4. Multiple Sales Channels
It’s quite common for eCommerce businesses to utilize more than one sales channel to generate revenue. Offering more than one customer touch point is how Shopify helps businesses maximize their profits. Shopify doesn’t restrict businesses from selling their goods to their single platform.
Shopify utilizes multi-channel selling to capitalize on audiences from other sources, for instance, Instagram, Pinterest, eBay, and Amazon.
5. Mobile Friendly Ecommerce
According to Statista, most of the eCommerce website traffic and orders are generated via mobile phones worldwide. According to a survey about mobile-friendly ecommerce, smartphones created around 71 percent of the web store traffic worldwide and generated 61 percent of the online shopping orders.
Shopify is mobile responsive. You can manage your store from anywhere on the go. It’s imperative to have a store website fully optimized for mobile devices as most of the web content is accessed via handheld devices.
6. Point-of-Sale Solution
With Shopify, retail businesses can sell their products on point-of-sale terminals anywhere. You can be selling at the mall or an expo with a temporary stall setup, and you can take customer payments directly via cards and online payment solutions.
All this is in addition to selling via your online Shopify store. You only need to install the Shopify Point of Sale app on your smartphone or get POS hardware to process payments.
7. 24/7 Customer Support
Customer support is necessary for an online service provider. Shopify offers 24/7 customer service via phone, chat, and email. You can ask the Shopify expert team in case of any issue. Also, you can refer to the Shopify Help Center for detailed documentation and tutorials.
8. Shopify App Store
You can find an application on the Shopify App store that meets your specific store needs. And this is because Shopify has a robust process to evaluate each request to list an application on their App store. There are thousands of apps to increase a store’s functionality. You can find a variety of applications based on your goal, whether marketing, multi-store management, inventory management, managing finances, finding products to sell, or store customization.
9. Marketing Tools
One of the powerful features of Shopify is Search Engine Optimization to help you reach your target customers. You can create SEO-optimized meta descriptions on your store website. You can track your audience to better design your marketing campaigns.
Additionally, the Shopify App store has a wide range of marketing tools. You can find applications to send back-in-stock customer alerts, collect product reviews, up-sell & cross-sell, integrate social media, and run referral programs.
10. Versatile Store Themes
Shopify offers a collection of store themes to find the one that reflects your brand. You can find store themes for any niche. Also, if a theme isn’t entirely what you want for your store, you can customize it to meet your design needs. You can find paid and free versions of store themes that are mobile-friendly as well. With Shopify, you have the freedom to design your brand identity.
Every eCommerce platform has its pros and cons. The best-suited platform for your business is the one that meets your needs. Shopify is an affordable, easy-to-use, and all-in-one solution perfect for getting you started selling online.
