Shopify : Full Review, Testing, and Presentation (2024)

What is Shopify?

Shopify, a renowned international e-commerce development platform, offers an innovative solution for selling products online without technical knowledge.

• In 2006, a young German living in Canada launched his e-commerce platform to sell snowboards.
• He realized that this platform could be used by other merchants and launched Shopify.
• It has rapidly progressed to become the tool of choice for many e-retailers around the world.
• Today, it has more than 800,000 e-retailers using its platform, including France.
• The platform generated an impressive $63 billion in revenue.
• With over 3,000 employees and offices around the world, Shopify has a strong international presence.

With its ease of use and its global impact, is the ideal choice for any entrepreneur looking to start creating an online store.

(2023 update)

Features

1. Addition and product management page

Simplifies adding products with an intuitive process.

• Importing products in batches and creating all information via CSV files.
• Effective stock management with stock management units (SKUs) and the tracking of each item
• Up to three variants per product, with a maximum of 100 combinations.

This makes it easier for merchants thanks to a comprehensive range of product management features.

2. Category Management

It offers product collections to facilitate navigation on your site.

• Create collections (or categories) to group similar products together and facilitate the maintenance of your site
• Display these collections on a dedicated page for easy navigation.

In conclusion, organizing your videos or product photos into a list of categories on the site is child's play.

3. Payment processors and transaction fees

The platform offers a diversity of payment processors, surpassing that of its alternatives with more than 100 providers available, including major brands like Stripe, 2Checkout, PayPal or Authorize.

Additionally, Shopify offers its own payment system, powered by Stripe.

• Transaction fees: If you're not using Shopify Payments, the platform charges additional transaction fees for orders — 2%, 1%, or 0.5% depending on your plan.
• Shopify Payments is not available in all countries: accessible in North America (USA and Canada), Europe (Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, France, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden), United Kingdom, Asia (Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore), Australia, and New Zealand. However, future expansions are planned.
• Manual payment methods: also allows the activation of manual payment methods, such as cash on delivery, bank deposits, or money orders, without commission fees.

It offers a wide range of payment processors, including its own system. However, transaction fees apply if you don't use their system.

4. shipping

The platform stands out with its robust shipping options.

• Direct shipping pricing options with USPS, FedEx, UPS, and more.
• Maintenance, Development Easy configuration of shipping rules for individual products, collections, or for the entire store.
• Access to direct shipping rates in connection with major carriers such as USPS, FedEx, UPS.
• Offers calculated and discounted shipping rates for shipping labels, in partnership with major carriers (available for the US, Canada, Australia).
• The Fulfillment Network allows for quick order fulfillment, with same-day delivery possible, and discounted shipping rates (available for the US and Canada).
• Offers excellent integration for dropshipping, allowing the connection to multiple suppliers like Rakuten, Amazon Fulfilment, Shipwire, and more via the App Store - an e-commerce model in which order processing and fulfilment are done by someone else (a dropshipping supplier) .Some solutions, like Oberlo, can be added via the App Store.

En Summary In conclusion, it simplifies shipping logistics for store owners, offering a variety of options to make the process as efficient as possible.

5. Tax Management

It offers simple solutions for calculating taxes.

• Automatic postal code tax calculator for stores based in the US
• Integrating your store with Avalara AvaTax software
• You can show prices with or without taxes, whichever is convenient for you.
• Automated registration-based taxes are available to store owners based in the United States, Canada, the EU, the United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland, Australia, or New Zealand.
• For all others, manual tax settings can be added for countries or regions.

Shopify makes managing taxes effortless.

6. Exploring other sales channels

Having your own online store is a first step. But if you're an ambitious e-marketer, you probably want to explore different types of ways to sell your products:

• Integrations with Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Amazon, and eBay.
• Easy maintenance
• Manage all of your sales from a single platform.

• Sell your products directly on Facebook - this will create a shop section on your Facebook page.
• Sell your products on Instagram by tagging them.
• Selling on Pinterest is also an option for store owners with a Pinterest business account.
• Likewise, you can connect your store to marketplaces like Amazon and eBay - this is only available for the US and Canada.
• The biggest benefit of all of this? You maintain and manage your sales from one place

In conclusion, Shopify helps you reach your audience on a multitude of sales platforms.

Shopify offers a full range of features that make running an online store a hassle-free experience. It's designed to make e-commerce easy, no matter what sales channel you choose.

7. Digital marketing and SEO

Shopify comes with several marketing and SEO features to help undertakings to increase their growth.

• Easy to add discount codes with a variety of options: fixed amounts, percentages, free shipping, “buy one get one free” promotions.
• Increase in conversion rates
• Option to add gift cards to your online store (not available on Shopify Lite)
• Lack of an integrated loyalty program, but the possibility of adding via third-party apps like Smile.io or S Loyalty.
• Integrated email marketing tool, although other solutions may offer more advanced features.

7.1 Recovering abandoned carts

On average, more than 60% of carts are abandoned. Shopify offers tools to help convert these potential buyers.

• Possibility to set up the sending of automatic emails with discount codes for users who have abandoned their shopping cart.
• The feature is easy to set up, but somewhat limited, with emails sent only 1, 6, 10, or 24 hours after abandonment.
• Third-party applications can offer more control, with email sequences, pop-ups, and more.

7.2 SEO

Despite some limitations, it offers intuitive tools to help with site referencing.

• The URL structure is not fully customizable, with '/products/' always included in product URLs.
• Does not offer an easy way to create subcategories, which can be a problem for SEO.
• Non-commercial content may be limited in flexibility, but SEO settings are easy to customize (title tags, descriptions, image alt text, etc.).
• Automatic redirection system when changing a URL to avoid 404 errors.

It provides useful marketing and SEO tools, although some features can be improved or require the use of third-party applications.

READ MORE: Shopify SEO Optimization Guide

8. Reports and analytics

Shopify offers different levels of reporting and analysis depending on the subscription plan.

• The basic plan offers limited reports that include: key metrics (sales, user sessions, orders), real-time reports, financial reports, acquisition reports, inventory reports, some behavior reports, and marketing campaign analysis linked to a UTM campaign.
• The “Shopify” plan offers additional reports on: sales, profits (including by product, variant, and store location), and customers (repeat customers or by country).
• The Advanced and Shopify Plus plans allow custom reports to be created using various filters for further analysis.
• It's possible to connect to Google Analytics for conversion tracking, although not all data in Shopify reports is available on Google Analytics.
• There are additional reporting apps available on the Shopify App Store, although their quality and functionality may vary.

Overall, it offers robust reports and analytics, although there is some variation in the availability of these reports depending on the subscription plan.

9. App Store

It offers a robust application marketplace, allowing you to add additional functionalities to your online store project, like applications on your smartphone.

• Variety of applications : Unlike other e-commerce platforms like BigCommerce, Wix, Weebly, it offers an abundance of applications. Whether you need email marketing integrations, cookies, or connections for bulk purchases, it's likely that it has what you're looking for.
• Saves time and money : They allow people to make significant savings in time and money, compared to tailor-made solutions.
• Free and paid applications : There are a large number of free applications (over a thousand). However, many of them are chargeable and vary in quality. It is advisable to read the reviews before installing one.
• Native apps : Some are developed by Shopify itself, including the extension for digital downloads or integrations with Facebook, Google, and Amazon.
• Cost : The cost may add up. If you use multiple paid apps, that could add $50 to $60 to your monthly bill, which may be out of reach for some merchants.

The App Store is a powerful resource for enriching the functionality and development of your online store, although the cost of paid apps can quickly add up.

10. Themes and design

With Shopify, you get a wide range of aesthetic and modern themes. These themes are responsive, guaranteeing a quality display on all devices - a feature that Google highly appreciates.

• Diversity of templates: Although it offers a limited number of free templates (around 10), the option to buy paid themes, which range between $140 and $300, compensates for this limit.
• External marketplaces: For those who want to save money, there are external marketplaces like Themeforest, where themes are generally more affordable (around $50).
• Experts: If you have specific design requirements, you can hire one of the many experts to develop an exclusive theme for you.
• Customization: He excels at customizing themes. The theme editor's user interface is intuitive and allows for general style edits, such as changing colors, fonts, or social media buttons, with surprising ease.
• Section Management: You can add, remove, or move sections with a few clicks, although your freedom is limited to the sections available in your chosen theme.

In summary, this offers considerable flexibility and variety in the design of your online store, although a greater variety of free themes would be appreciated.

PoS: Transforming your physical store into an integrated digital experience

It is not limited to the fashion of online sales development.

Thanks to its point of sale (PoS) system, you can also manage your physical sales, creating an integrated sales experience:

• Seamless integration : PoS integrates with your in-store sales channel, allowing automatic synchronization of reports, inventory and price management with your online interface.
• Improving the shopping experience : You can enrich your point of sale with various extensions to offer product recommendations and improve the shopping experience for your customers.
• Membership included : The POS Lite (point of sale) subscription is included in all plans, allowing you to try the system at no additional cost.
• Nomad sale : With the PoS solution on your smartphone or tablet, you can sell items and accept payments from your customers anywhere.
• PoS hardware : For merchants planning to sell large quantities in-store to their customers, it offers additional PoS hardware for purchase, such as card readers, bar code scanners, receipt printers, and cash drawers.
• Local collection : In response to the pandemic, the solution added a local collection or home pickup feature, giving customers an additional option to pick up their purchases.

Shopify PoS offers a flexible, integrated solution for combining online selling and in-person selling, enriching the connection of the selling and buying experience for everyone.

Shopify Customer Support and Experts

Customer support is an essential aspect of any online service, and it excels in this area thanks to its dedicated team that is accessible 24/7.

Support Details

• Offers 24/7 support via email, phone, or live chat.
• Support is provided by “support gurus”, experts dedicated to solving your problems.
• The quality of support may vary depending on the complexity of the issue and the agent responsible for it.
• Distinguished for the quality of its answers and the usefulness of its knowledge base, ranking second in a comparative test with nine other platforms.
• In-depth tutorials and guides are a great starting point for solving common problems.

Shopify online store experts

Shopify offers a directory of certified experts for users who need more professional help.

• Before hiring an expert, it is recommended that you read reviews about their services.
• Storetasker is another option for those who need help with specific projects, offering the possibility of receiving quotes from certified experts.

Shopify offers excellent, accessible and responsive customer support and therefore a very good user experience.

In-depth guides and access to certified experts add undeniable value, making Shopify an even more appealing agency for those looking to launch their online store stress-free.

Pricing

Different packages offered:

Basic plan

• 14-day free trial
• Unlimited sale of products for all needs.
• Features such as recovering abandoned carts and gift cards.
• 2% transaction fee (except with Shopify Payments).

Shopify plan

• 14-day free trial
• Additional e-commerce features (professional reports, international prices).
• 1% transaction fee (except with Shopify Payments)

Advanced plan

• Advanced reports, shipping rates calculated automatically.
• 0.5% transaction fee (except with Shopify Payments).
• The prices shown are monthly for annual subscriptions.

Alternative plans

• Lite plan (around $9/month): Integrable buy button, POS application for in-person sales.
• Plus Plan (starting at $2,000/month): For very large online stores.
• A paid domain name (starting at $14/year), which can be added by Shopify or an external registrar.

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note : Using the native payment gateway is recommended to avoid additional fees (available in some countries).

Transaction fees are not charged for manual payment methods.

Security, Backups, and Confidentiality

Security and privacy are essential elements to consider for every business, and robust measures have been put in place to deal with them.

• Automatically manage updates and security issues for your project, saving users and businesses hours of troubleshooting.
• The system operates on servers that comply with the PCI Level 1 standard, a requirement for accepting credit card payments.
• SSL encryption (256-bit) activated for each store to protect visitor data.
• offers a backup system that allows you to restore your store if necessary.
• The platform recommends keeping regular backups of your site by exporting CSV files.
• More advanced information backup solutions are available in the app store (for example, Rewind) for your agency
• complies with international privacy standards, providing transparency about how user and customer information is collected, used, and stored.

The platform offers privacy policy templates that can be adapted to the specific needs of each business.

While manual backup can be time-consuming, its creation tools for your project ensure robust security and high-level privacy compliance.

However, for additional peace of mind, investing in an advanced backup solution could be beneficial.

FAQs

Is Shopify considered a content management system (CMS)?

It is much more than a simple e-commerce platform, it is also an effective CMS (content management system).

• It allows users to create, manage, and edit the content of their website without requiring specific coding skills.
• As a hosted solution, it offers several advantages such as: faster evolution than traditional open source solutions, fast and low-cost store implementation, and the elimination of hosting, maintenance, and security issues.

As a CMS, it offers in part a perfect balance between simplicity and power to manage the content of your website.

Is Shopify E-commerce available in French?

Indeed, it is fully available in French.

You can configure your store's interface in French in the menu bar and even offer several language options to your customers, if you are targeting an international market.

Final Verdict

Shopify stands out as a user-friendly e-commerce platform, with intuitive product management, rich customization, and strong support for content marketing.

Its 24/7 customer service, its adaptability to all sizes of e-commerce projects and its dropshipping and offline sales functionalities are also appreciated.

However, there are some disadvantages to note, such as the cost of entry, transaction fees if you don't use Shopify Payments, the complexity and cost of setting up multi-language stores, and the fact that some key features are limited to higher plans.

Despite these challenges, it is still a solid platform for e-commerce, and we recommend starting with the “Basic” plan and then upgrading if necessary.