Monday, November 14, 2016

Shopify

Shopify is a very useful application for anyone who is looking to open up a new online store or
is interested in using an ecommerce platform for their business.  Shopify provides you an ecommerce website, an easy to use administration area, and secure hosting - everything you need to sell your products online. 100,000+ shops in 150 countries use Shopify to power their stores. We host small mom-and-pop shops, big brands like Google, and everyone in between. (Google. n.d.)



Marketing begins with product design and Shopify is a place where anyone can have the most unique product and profitable business because they are there for you every step of the way.   Shopify provides you with a variety of tools to help you set up and run your business. Depending on the plan that you choose, you can find everything you need to showcase your products online, to process payments, and to make your store work for you. Shopify offers:
       Free and paid themes from the Shopify Theme Store to make your store stand out and look great
       Free and paid apps from the Shopify App Store to expand on the existing functionality of your store
       Shopify's own payment gateway to accept credit card payments
       Growth opportunities with Shopify's various sales channels as well an enterprise plan for merchants who are selling in high volume and might be feeling the effects of accumulating transaction fees
       A Shopify blog that has guides and articles about running your store and connecting with your customers
       Experts all around the world that can help you set up, design, and market your store
       A dedicated Support team available 24/7 to answer your questions no matter what Shopify plan you're on.
(Shopify. n.d.)

Shopify also provides ways to help you sell your products whether it is selling in person where they have the option for you to purchase a point of sales (POS) system which allows you to process retail sales as well as mobile locations- if you were to take your retail to places like fairs, events or markets. 
If you were to sell with them online they have attractive, beautiful storefronts to choose from where you can set up your products with a Shopify administration page and if you were to choose a different online platform to sell on such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter or Shopify Buy Buttons they can help you get setup for this type of selling too, which is a very big market for ecommerce these days- there is a constant stream of ads and new shops coming up and about through social media platforms and those pop ups can take you directly to the site or directly to an order page for the item you clicked on to buy or search. 

I know that I have shopped with many online shops through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest channels through Shopify and they have always been a very easy process to use, in terms of completing a sale and I trust any shop that uses Shopify, which is whey Shopify is trusted by merchants from all over the world.  Large brands and fast growing startups rely on Shopify Plus to support their businesses- with business such as Google, Johnny Cupcakes, LA Lakers, theory11, Hootsuite, Mozilla, Citizen and many more.  This is a great testament to what the Shopify family can do for you.  (Shopify. n.d.)

Shopify has a variety of pricing plans set up for you to choose from so that you can customize your plan based on you and your business needs.  They have monthly fees, transaction fees and store features.  The prices start from $29-$299 the starting rate features staff accounts, number of products, file storage, shipping and label discount, retail package, 24/7 support, fraud analysis, manual order creation, discount codes, website and blog, free SSL certificate and if you were to purchase one of the more expensive packages it would include gift cards, professional reports, abandoned cart recovery, advanced report builder and real-time carrier shipping. 

Shopify offers many ways to help a business succeed by offering great guides and tutorials about growing your business in the Shopify Community page where they “have many learning resources available in addition to the main Shopify documentation. There's also a growing self-supporting external community of merchants who enjoy sharing their skills and experience. Many of them are happy to provide feedback on your store - often in return for feedback from you” (Shopify. n.d.) and there is even a partner program that you can join if you are interested in building apps or designing themes for Shopify stores. 

This is an excellent place to begin marketing a retail store whether it be physical or virtual because Shopify is set up to help anyone succeed and they provide you with all the tools you will need to get started and ways to help you when you begin expanding.  Shopify is a place where businesses can grow and can have so many opportunities to learn how to develop marketing plans, promotions, advertise and increase creativity by learning new ideas from the guides and tutorials that are set up when you sign on with Shopify and from the overwhelming group of people and business who use Shopify.  Shopify has a great community sense to them and they   

One of the most important features that Shopify has is their blog because they are constantly helping marketers provide their businesses with new ideas and ways to make their products more appealing or better than the next.  For example this week blog is “Dominate Your Competitors This Holiday Season With An Unforgettable Social Media Campaign” (Price, S. 2016)
Shopify is dedicated to the businesses success and what it takes to help them be successful, this blog is full of great ideas about how to market your product better and how to stand out and get noticed and by using Shopify it will be one of the most useful tools and most promising outcomes that an ecommerce site can have.   





Reference
Google. (n.d.) Google Analytics. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from https://www.google.com/analytics/partners/search/apps?q=&category=107



Shopify. (n.d.). Introduction to Shopify. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from https://help.shopify.com/manual/intro-to-shopify

No comments:

Post a Comment