Shopify Review – What is Shopify?
Do you sell only locally? Does your product have good potential to sell outside your local area as well? Are you thinking of exploring new markets? Are you worried about the initial set-up cost of a new shop? Are you unsure about the logistics for your product?
There are numerous questions that you may have before you set to explore new markets in the US. Let us simplify things for you.
U.S. being the largest consumer market has huge potential for your product to succeed not just locally but in other States as well. Instead of worrying about set-up costs and logistics you can choose to market your products online through an eCommerce website.
Shopify eCommerce
Shopify is one such excellent eCommerce website for you to explore and market your products. The Shopify platform allows you to start and manage an online store. You need not have a brick and motor structure in every state to expand your business.
Shopify is the leading platform that provides eCommerce solutions to various small business and new setups. It now has more than 800,000 online stores. An online store can be easily set-up on Shopify. To open up an online store all you need is a bank account and a merchant account to accept payments online from your customers.
The next step is to choose a domain name for your store. The cost of buying a domain name is $14. Then select Shopify’s pricing plan. You can purchase a plan best suited for your business and agree to pay fees either monthly or annually. That’s all it takes.
You can now design your store using the various designing tools available and decide on a local company to handle your shipments. Shopify also allows you to market through additional channels like Amazon, eBay or Facebook.
New start-ups that want to market on social media sites can choose the Lite Plan at $9 per month. Shopify offers 4 yearly subscription pricing plans.
You can choose the Basic Shopify plan for $29 per month. This is ideal for new businesses. If your business is already established and you would like to expand then choose Shopify at $79 plan.
The Advanced Shopify plan is a $ 299 plan that gives you the option of report building and takes care of your shipping requirements.
The Shopify Plus is a high-end Enterprise level plan which is priced at $2000. This is ideally for huge online stores.
Apart from these, there are additional transaction fees based on your turnover ranging from 0.5% to 2% plus payment gateway charges eg PayPal.
In addition to the above costs, there will be extra credit card payments charged in case you don’t use Shopify Payments.
Shopify Payments Review
Online payments are processed through a gateway managed by companies like PayPal, Stride or Square to name a few. These companies provide a platform wherein the funds are transferred digitally to your business account. They charge a commission for rendering such services.
Shopify payment is one such service provider. So in case you are a subscriber of the Shopify eCommerce platform then you can receive your payments from customers by using Shopify payments.
Shopify payments seamlessly integrates into your Shopify dashboard. You need not incur extra transaction fees if you use Shopify Payments. In case you use third-party gateways for processing transactions on the Shopify platform then the charges are 2% for Basic Shopify, 1% for Shopify plan and 0.5% for Advanced Shopify. This waiver is beneficial for businesses.
Other payment gateway like PayPal and Shopify can be used as well. Shopify payments accepts multiple currencies. The money can be tracked in real-time. The system is simple to set-up and easy to use. The pricing and charges are simple and clear. There are no hidden charges.
Shopify payments is an awesome concept where the payment gateway is integrated with its eCommerce dashboard.
Shopify POS
Shopify also provides a Point-of-Sale system. The POS app needs to be installed on your smartphone and your POS system is ready to use!
The pricing is easy and simple. If you already are a subscriber of Shopify then you are automatically eligible to access the Shopify POS system through your smartphone. Shopify also provides other hardware that you can use like Cash drawers, Stands for iPad, Printers for receipts and Scanners for barcodes. However, to use this hardware you will need to upgrade.
The monthly charges are extremely economical. For The Shopify Lite Plan, 2.7% is charged and for The Basic Shopify Plan, the charges are 2.9% + 30 Cents.
The Shopify Plan POS charges are 2.6% + 30 cents for the online store and 2.5% for in-person transactions. Along with other features, you get 5 staff accounts.
The POS charges for The Advanced Shopify Plan are 2.4% for both online and in-person transactions. 30 cents extra is applicable for online transactions. The additional features include 15 staff accounts.
You can use the Shopify payment gateway to get a waiver on transaction fees applicable to third party payment gateways.
In short, Shopify provides a high-quality POS system at affordable rates. The easy to use POS app is best when it comes to handling online and in-person transactions. It can run reports, can handle store management and manage customer details. It can be easily integrated with other apps. This is an excellent system for small business to start with.
Conclusion
Shopify is a web-based application wherein you can build your store online. You have design templates that you can use to design and manage your store. You have the option to choose a name for your business domain. The pricing is extremely competitive. You can start your online shop with fees as low as $9 per month. This is the best platform for eCommerce for small businesses to large retail enterprises.
Shopify takes excellent care of all your business needs. Once the shop is set the next step is the payment gateway. With Shopify Payments, you need not look for any other payment gateway. It easily integrates with the Shopify dashboard and it is easy to use. Since you are already a customer of Shopify your third party transaction fees are waived off.
Shopify has made its name not only online but now works with brick and motor stores. This is where they introduced their Shopify POS system. It can be used for in-person and online transaction. Shopify POS is an app that is easy to install and use. There is no requirement of any costly hardware. All it needs is a smartphone. Te transaction charges are waived off for the existing Shopify members.
All in all Shopify is the best web-based platform to take care of all the major requirements of small businesses as well as large enterprises when it comes to eCommerce sales, payment gateways and POS.