Shopify is an e-commerce platform that makes it simple for small and large businesses to manage their online stores, shipping, marketing, and analytics with diverse templates and apps. It’s a cost-effective solution that is user-friendly and perfect for people who don’t have the technical skills to run their online store or prefer to save time. It also allows you to manage customer feedback free of charge with live chat, and it offers 24/7 support.
You can use Shopify to sell digital or physical goods. Shopify’s platform also allows merchants to create various payment options for their customers, including credit card processing, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and more.
You can set up your store and pick a plan later. The plans are
- Basic ($29 a month)
- Shopify ($79 a month)
- Advanced ($299 a month)
There is also a Shopify Lite plan for $9 a month. Shopify Lite is a plan for merchants looking to sell in-person (via POS lite) or add a buy button to their existing website. With Shopify Lite, you get features to view reports, issue gift cards, order management, and split bills, among others. However, you can’t build an online store with Shopify Lite.
What are the benefits of using Shopify?
While there are some enormous benefits to starting an eCommerce website, there may be even more benefits to doing it with the Shopify platform.
- Your store design costs ordinarily would be thousands of dollars for getting a website designer that not only has the skills to create a great-looking website but also to program all the eCommerce functions you need, including security. But with Shopify, there is no enormous investment of thousands of dollars. You just pay one of four pricing tiers and get the perfect ecommerce website.
- You get the benefit of the full Shopify team. You aren’t just getting a website template with Shopify; you are getting a ready-made store that has already had all the bugs worked out.
- You can start building your store right after logging in.
- The platform is so intuitive that you can start building your store right after logging in.
- Shopify helps you reach your SEO potential.
- You get analytics that tells you exactly what is going on. With Shopify, you can see exactly where your customers are coming from, what keywords they are using to reach your site, and where they go once they get there, not to mention how long they stay.
- Your site is already optimized for mobile and will continue to be optimized in the future. With Shopify, you get a responsive website that will work with any mobile device.
Shopify is a cost-effective solution that is user-friendly and perfect for people who don’t have the technical skills to run their online store or prefer to save time.
How to Start Selling on Shopify
You need to have a Shopify store. Make sure you have a valid merchant account.
Steps to sell on Shopify:
Step 1. Sign Up for Shopify’s Free 14-Day Trial
Step 2. Get Accustomed With the Dashboard
Step 3. Customize Your Site’s Theme
Step 4. Add Sales Channels
Step 5. Add Products
Step 6. Set Up Payments
Step 7. Add a Domain
Step 8. Get Your Site Ready to Go Live
Step 9. Choose a Plan and Make Your Store Public!
Step 10. Customize Your Site’s Functionality with Shopify Apps
Shopify encompasses everything you need to start and run your business, including a storefront, payment processor, shipping partner, and marketing headquarters.
When you begin working with Shopify, you are going to quickly realize that there is a lot to learn about ecommerce and while you don’t need to know everything to get started, the more quickly you can learn things like making yourself unique among your competition, the faster you will be successful.
I have created a comprehensive Shopify guide for you. The guide covers:
Introduction to e-commerce
Choosing the right product, and identifying your target customer.
Setting Up Shopify
Choosing the right plan and how to set up your store.
Make your Shopify store a success
Add-on features of Shopify and take advantage of their learning tools. How to sell for the holidays.
Full-length book
108 pages. Step-by-step instructions for $5.15
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