From the benefits of your e-commerce to the cost of the plans to open your account. All you need to know to create your online shop in a practical and straightforward way. Today, facing corporate digitalization has become a necessary junction for the survival of one’s business. This process mainly involves the development of e-commerce sites for online sales.
An online shop may not be affordable for any company in terms of costs. It becomes challenging to get involved in this field, especially for small companies with no significant capital for an initial investment. Shopify has entered the landscape by allowing anyone to start selling online at a low cost and without special technical knowledge. Why is Shopify so strong? Simple, because it is innovative!
What Has Changed In The E-Commerce Sector?
The period of crisis that has just passed has significantly changed the habits of consumers who are abandoning the physical market to prefer the online one. To confirm this evolution, the data collected by the Internet-home :
- 390 thousand physical businesses in Italy closed during 2020
- 85 thousand openings of new physical activities
- 50% the increase registered in the e-commerce sector
- 5% increase in the spread of online sales
- 85% of digital market customers buy at least one product a month online
- doubled the number of searches for the purchase of products online, especially in the central-southern regions with Abruzzo (+ 115.5%) in the lead, followed by Calabria (+ 109.1%) and Campania (+100, 9%)
- 159% increase in the purchase of Food & Beverage products
- + 165% compared to the previous year, increased by the online sale of wellness and health products.
In short, e-commerce, data in hand, is no longer considered the “phenomenon of the moment” but has become a consolidated purchasing practice throughout the national territory.
What Is Shopify?
Listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2015, it has surpassed the capitalization of eBay, and today, 800,000 companies in the world rely on Shopify. Contrary to what one might think, Shopify does not work as an e-commerce site like eBay or Amazon but as a platform available to those who decide to sell something online.
Shopify is a kind of helpful toolbox to start developing e-commerce. The platform provides everything you need to create an online sales site, starting from registering the domain up to the purchase and sale of goods or services. Among the many advantages that Shopify offers, there is also maximum customization of the graphics and more practical issues such as managing orders and payment.
What Are The Benefits Of Shopify?
Simplicity In Management
One of the main advantages of Shopify is to ensure maximum ease in managing the front end. Creating a profile, developing an online store, and managing payments and orders are no longer cumbersome but become simple and intuitive steps. Anyone, even beginners, can enter the online sales market with this platform.
SaaS Platform
When creating e-commerce, one of the most challenging parts is managing the technical aspect. Shopify, on the other hand, being a SaaS (Software as a service) platform, independently manages its software, providing a cloud service.
No Downloads And No Installs
If you choose to use Shopify to create your online store, you don’t need to download or install any file or software. This, in addition to simplifying the procedures, guarantees the owner of the e-commerce total freedom from the thought of updates and security problems.
Certified Apps To Develop New Functions
Shopify provides its users with the opportunity to take advantage of different solutions, called Apps, to personalize their store or the inclusion of new features. Apps can be provided by Shopify itself or developed by third parties.
How Does Shopify Work?
Shopify, unlike e-commerce, is much simpler. To use the platform, it is unnecessary to install software on a paid server and create an account. To start managing your online store right away, you can follow four steps.
Create An Account
Creating an account is a fast, quick, and intuitive procedure. After entering the primary data and setting the basic settings, you can already move on to the next step.
Customize The Graphics
Once the most bureaucratic issues have been archived, you can indulge yourself with creativity and choose what look to give to your online shop. In the beginning, to speed up the procedure, you can also select one of the themes, free or paid, offered by Shopify.
Enter The Products
Move on to the practical side: insertion, organization, and division into categories of products to be put on sale. This is one of the most delicate parts of the whole procedure; you have to be careful and precise, especially in the part that concerns the choice of payment systems. The elements to pay attention to at this stage are:
- the choice of the photo of your product
- entering the description
- the number of products available
- the variants envisaged
- the cost of shipments
- activation of payment systems.
Add The Privacy And Terms Of Sale Pages
It is dedicated to optimizing the sections concerning privacy and conditions of sale. This step is essential to solidify the pact with the customer by offering them clarity, safety, and reliability. In order not to run into legal problems or misunderstandings, it is, therefore, necessary to enter:
- the conditions of sale
- the rules on shipping and returns
- The privacy and cookie policy.
How Much Does Shopify Cost?
To ensure site maintenance, bug fixes, and security issues are always at an optimal level, Shopify is only accessible for a 14-day trial period. After 14 days, the choice will fall between one of the four subscription plans, which provide a monthly fee and commissions on the store’s sales. If you want to make a long-term investment, from 1 to 3 years, Shopify guarantees a reduction in costs through prepayment.
Shopify Lite
With a minimum investment of $ 9 per month, Shopify Lite allows you to:
- add a sales button to the existing website
- Install Shopify POS Lite for electronic payments within your physical business.
Basic Shopify
For $ 29 per month, you can purchase the Basic subscription, which provides a 2% commission for each item sold. This is the right choice for those taking their first steps in the online sales sector.
Shopify
The more advanced level than the Basic stage can be purchased for $ 79 per month. Suitable for companies in the expansion phase, this subscription guarantees additional benefits:
- 1% decrease in commission for each item sold
- Gift Vouchers
- fraud analysis
- Recovery of the abandoned cart.
Advanced Shopify
To have access to all the functions of the Shopify platform, the monthly cost is $ 299. This plan should only be considered if the business has large profit margins. Among the extra functions, we find:
- an automatic calculator for calculating shipping costs
- The management of 15 work accounts.
What Is Shopify Plus?
Suppose Shopify is suitable for all types of entrepreneurs, including those who want to experiment with new business opportunities even if they are inexperienced. In that case, Shopify Plus is a platform incredibly dedicated to large companies with higher turnover targets than smaller ones.
Shopify Plus: How Does It Work?
Since Shopify Plus is dedicated to a different type of business, with other skills and goals, its features are also various. So here’s what changes:
- The cost: The cost of Shopify Plus is different from monthly subscriptions and requires a payment that varies according to the annual turnover volumes.
- The B2B store: With Shopify Plus, an additional store is available for B2B sales.
- The automation: The Shopify Plus platform makes available to its users the use of more complex automation, integrated with CRM, providing a sort of sales automation platform.
- Single/multiple stores: With the Shopify Plus account, you can create 10 customizable stores.
- Report: Shopify Plus allows you to derive reports to help the entrepreneur understand the dynamics of sales flows and customer buying behaviors.
Now that you know all about how Shopify works, are you ready to move forward with the digitization of your business and launch yourself into the online sales market? If you still have some uncertainty, you do not know which solution to choose, or it seems soon to take the plunge, we are at your disposal to talk about it together.