5 reasons why you should use Shopify for your retail business

How you can use Shopify to build your ecommerce business

When it comes to building websites for your business with so many options to choose from, sometimes it’s so overwhelming that you are tempted to just purchase from the first website you go to.

You should buy your website from Shopify as this is the easiest, cheapest and most convenient way for a business to set up a store and start selling their products and services online straight away.

If you're not tech savvy and you want your own e-commerce store, and have outgrown marketplaces like eBay or Amazon, and just starting out, go with Shopify.

Last month, the leading multi-channel commerce platform, Shopify announced in a press release that it now powers more than 500,000 businesses in 175 countries around the world. Since 2012, the number of merchants on the Shopify platform has grown annually at an average rate of 74%, and these retailers have achieved over $40 billion dollars in sales. More than 1.2 million people are actively using the Shopify backend platform.

Another surprising fact is that more women entrepreneurs than men have built their businesses on Shopify at 52% and 47% with 1% other. Shopify merchants: 18 - 24 (7.3%); 25 - 34 (37.5%); 35 - 44 (30.0%); 45+ (24.9%). A whopping 131 million people have bought from Shopify stores in the last 12 months with Shopify merchants generated sales of over $100,000 per minute during Black Friday and Cyber Monday of last year.

Here are five reasons on why you should buy Shopify websites for your company:

1:  Big brands are using Shopify

If it’s good enough for well-known brands, then it’s definitely good enough for your e-commerce website. Names such as Lollapalooza, Third eye blind, and American Blues musician Jimmie Vaughan also sells his merchandise on his Shopify website. SMS Audio, Bohemian Guitars and Leather Head sports also use Spotify making this is a good reason in itself to buy Shopify sites to help boost your e-commerce traffic.

Shopify is also used by brands such as Tesla, Nestle, GE, Red Bull, Kylie Cosmetics.

2: You don’t have to worry about server costs

Many businesses are put off by server prices, so luckily Shopify’s server is maintained by them, and it comes with a number of plans and a monthly subscription, so you choose the plan which fits your requirements. Shopify is free for 14 days, so you can set up your online store and choose a plan later. Prices range from $29 to $299 a month.

3: Discounts are offered on annual plans

Not everyone is a fan of monthly payment plans, which is why Shopify also provides discounts on annual plans and biennial plans. If you prefer annual payments, you will receive a 10% discount, and if you prefer biennial plans, your company will receive a 20% discount.

4: Shopify has great app integrations with SaaS services

Shopify is popular with SaaS service companies because their customers are familiar with monthly plans.

That's why you'll most probably always find whatever innovative new service you need on Shopify first before anywhere else, and some of them offer excellent free plans. Conversely, SaaS companies also aren’t keen on e-commerce competitor platforms like woo commerce or open cart because the people who use them don’t pay monthly subscription fees. So a lot of really convenient services are not integrated on these platforms.

App integration will save you time, money, reduce errors, give your apps better data insights, make them cheaper and uncomplicated and easier to customise.

An article on the Shopify website says that “The Shopify experience is perfect for their customers: they can browse the website and find different items, choose their shipping method and payment method easily and without hassle.” A Shopify user, a non-profit church ministry, uses the app with Salesforce, their main CRM tool.  The problem is that the church needed to collect all that valuable data and then manually input it into the Salesforce platform and with now with powerful, integration, they managed to automate the whole process. Whenever a sale goes through in Shopify, a new opportunity is created in Salesforce. This process saves the company time and money which is ideal for a not for profit.”

5: Security & Reliability

Shopify is a global hosted service, meaning they have people monitoring their network 24/7 for any attacks and they can help you deal with any problems that arise. Also, their add-ons have a certain standard and will not pose the risk of giving you trojans or viruses. You can also opt for SSL or even PCI compliance to accept credit cards and store sensitive information without having to know the technical details of how it works. Other sources do offer this as well. However, they can’t offer you this level of security and reliability for the same price. Other companies will charge you more.

What’s new at Shopify?

With the Amazon sales channel, you can sell on the world’s largest online marketplace simply and conveniently through Shopify. Since the channel’s launch, U.S. Shopify store owners have made millions in sales and fulfilled tens of thousands of Amazon orders with Shopify, making it one of the fastest growing sales channels.

A new card and swipe reader has also recently been introduced in the US Shopify merchants last month.  This device is designed to meet the needs of merchants selling in person, whether it’s in store, or at a pop-up, festival, or market.  It’s Pocket-sized, and wireless features with a long battery life makes this the perfect machine to take wherever you sell from. This product is free for store owners new to Shopify POS (and $29 for everyone else), it’s an affordable solution with useful features.

Share your Shopify experiences with us and let us know your thoughts?

Steve Caddick is a professional content marketer and writer. He has helped small businesses reach their objectives by executing a robust content strategy that highlights their exceptional selling points and promoting created content using effective online networks and techniques, in specific, social media marketing and SEO practices.