Shopify Review 2024: Is It the Right eCommerce Platform for You?

When someone talks about eCommerce platforms, two things pop into my mind: WooCommerce and Shopify.

We have covered WooCommerce on this website before, and you can find an extensive review about it. But instead of discussing WooCommerce, we want to give you a comprehensive Shopify review so you can decide if it’s a great fit for you.

We have a lot of things to cover, so let’s go!

Shopify Review at Glance

Ease of Use: 5/5

Features: 4/5

Pricing: 4/5

Support: 5/5

Pros	Cons
All-in-one solution	Transaction fees
Easy to use	The cost of some apps and themes
Numerous ways to sell	No proper category system
Customer service
Platform security
Store management options
Shopify Shipping
Store accounts

The Verdict

Shopify is an all-in-one solution that offers everything in one package: hosting, security, customer support, web design, and a blogging platform. They even handle the payment gateways.

The eCommerce platform is user-friendly, and there are fewer technicalities to worry about compared to self-hosted solutions.

Pay attention to the product categorization system and app pricing (especially the latter). If you are not careful, you may increase your monthly running costs.

What is Shopify?

In 2006, Tobias Lütke and Scott Lake had a problem: they wanted to start selling snowboards online, but none of the current eCommerce solutions worked well for them. 

Empowered by the situation, Lütke built a solution, and Shopify was born.

Enter today: 

Shopify has become the go-to eCommerce platform for many. It powers millions of merchants around the globe and employs more than 8,300+ people.

It’s an all-in-one solution that allows you to build an online store from start to finish without ever leaving the Shopify interface.

Shopify considerably lowers the level of building an online store. Even an average store owner can design and build a website with simple point-and-click maneuvers without hiring a web developer.

Getting Started with Shopify

Setting up a Shopify store is very easy.

First, go to the Shopify website and click the Start free trial button at the top right of the page. 

Then, answer the set of questions about what type of business you want to create with Shopify. You can also skip these questions.

Finally, enter your personal information and click the Create Shopify account button:

You will then land on the Shopify dashboard and continue with the configuration of your store.

In general, setting up a store is a quick process. Every step is straight to the point, and you can start with Shopify in a few minutes.

Ease of Use

User Interface and Usability

After you finish the initial setup, you’ll land on the admin view, which gives you an overview of your store. The handy checklist in the middle can also help you configure your shop further.

The main navigation is on the left. From there, you can quickly move around the platform from one section to another. Items such as orders, products, or customers can be found there.

Site management tools are also on the left side of the view, under the Sales Channels menu item. From there, you can access blog posts, pages, navigation, and themes that define your site’s outlook.

You can find the Settings section at the bottom left of the page. This section gives you access to the store’s overall settings, including billing, checkout, and languages.

Overall, the navigation is straightforward, and you can find the necessary items quickly. 

Layout Options

The default (free) theme gives your store the basic layout, which you can start customizing to meet your needs. However, you’ll most likely switch to a new theme pretty quickly, and a good starting point to find them is through the Theme Store. 

The Theme Store features over 200 templates with various pricing points. There are free themes, which is good news if you are on a budget. However, premium theming starts from $100+ and goes up to $400+. Therefore, you need an extra budget to invest in them in your layout (and yes, you should do that). 

Fortunately, the Theme Store is not the only place for premium templates. You can also buy them from other marketplaces, such as ThemeForest, where the prices are more wallet-friendly.

Once you have decided on your theme, you can customize it with Shopify Sections. 

The Shopify Sections is not the only way to modify the existing theme. You can also add featured products, featured collections, blog posts, and more without knowing how to code. 

The only downfall is that there is no element to add a header with a call-to-action. You need some coding skills to create this functionality.

Adding Products

Adding products is straightforward. You can add a title, description, images, prices, SKUs/barcodes, shipping options, and variants – all on one page.

While adding products is simple, Shopify should improve certain commonly-used functionality.

First, while creating collections (or categories) is easy in Shopify, creating subcategories could be clearer. Doing this takes several steps, so you’ll most likely end up reading a tutorial or watching a YouTube video on the topic.

Second, while you can have 100 variants per product, you can only have three options.

Options and variants form a parent/child relationship. For example, color is an option, and black, white, and red are the variants. While you can have three options per product, these options differ from product to product. 

For example, one product can have options like size and color, while the other has weight and material. But thanks to the limitation, having size, color, weight, and material as options for a single product is impossible.

Shopify Top-5 Features

1. Sales Channels

An online storefront is only one of many ways to sell in Shopify.

For example, there is Shopify POS (Point of Sale). With this system, you can bind the in-person selling with your Shopify store by accepting credit cards in a brick-and-mortar environment.

You can also sell on social media, including Facebook, X, Pinterest, and TikTok. With social media, your products will reach a wider audience than just through your online store.

2. Security

Shopify handles all the technical matters for you, and security is no exception.

The platform is PCI DSS Level 1 compliant, helping you secure debit and credit card transactions. It complies with all six PCI standard categories, including maintaining a secure network, protecting cardholder data, or regularly monitoring and testing networks.

Shopify also offers free SSL certificates on all premium plans and has a reputation for maintaining an average uptime of 99.99%.

3. Shopify Shipping

Shopify offers discounted (up to 88%) shipping rates for those who ship in the United States, Canada, or Australia.

You can also buy and print labels from inside the Shopify admin panel. Therefore, you can print them in advance, saving you time at the post office.

Finally, you can define shipping zones and rates to give customers accurate (shipping) quotes.

4. Staff Accounts

Shopify offers staff accounts for teams.

You can create different accounts for different team members and give or withhold specific allowances for each account.

The Shopify plan has five accounts, and the Advanced plan has 15. With Shopify Plus, you have unlimited staff accounts.

5. Store Management

Shopify admin panel allows you to keep track of several things.

For instance, you can monitor abandoned carts and send notifications whenever someone places an order. You can also keep track of customers in the Customers section.

The Reports and Analytics are store management’s most powerful and detailed parts.

The Reports section contains a lot of information about your selling. They are broken down into various metrics, including sales, orders, behavior, and more.

You’ll also see reports on customer acquisitions, which will help you determine the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. You’ll even be able to view a summary of your finances, including sales, taxes, and payments.

The Analytics section gives you an overview of your store’s performance based on various metrics, including Total Sales, Online Store Conversion Rate, and Top Selling Products.

Extensibility and Integrations

Shopify has plenty of extensibility options, thanks to its apps.

The Shopify App Store contains over 13000 apps created by Shopify or a third-party developer. Apps are grouped into various categories, including conversion, marketing, store design, and customer service.

But before you install any add-ons, ensure you understand how the app support and the pricing works. 

For example, Shopify supports the apps created by Shopify, but support options for third-party apps may vary. The pricing varies, too, depending on the developer (Shopify/third-party), and we will discuss this next.

Pricing

Shopify has various pricing plans from which to choose. Here, we deal with five of them.

The least expensive plan is Starter, available at $5/month. It gives you the tools to sell on social media or mobile. You can even sell physically with Shopify POS. 

While the Starter offers limited features compared to other Shopify plans, it still gives you tools like order management, analytics, and customer support.

To have an authentic Shopify experience, you should upgrade to the Basic plan. This entry-level premium plan costs $29/month (annual billing). It gives you Shopify’s full hosting capabilities and the tools to help you create your first online store and blog.

If you want more features, you should consider the Shopify plan, which costs $79/month. It builds on the Basic plan and includes five staff accounts, standard reporting, and shipping discounts of up to 88%.

Want even more and better features? Then, the Advanced is your choice, costing $299/month.

This plan offers lower Shopify Payment rates and transaction fees. It also provides better tools for selling globally than the Shopify Basic or Shopify plans.

Finally, there is a Shopify Plus for enterprises. Companies like Converse or Sony are using it. If you feel that Shopify Plus is the best fit, contact Shopify for more information.

Shopify plans may be pricey, but you can save by picking longer contracts.

For instance, if you choose the Shopify plan with yearly billing, you’ll pay $79/month, whereas with monthly billing, the price is $105/month. However, if you choose the annual billing cycle, you’ll have to pay a lot of money upfront to enjoy the lower monthly payments.

If you are still deciding about Shopify, you can test it for free for three days without a credit card. After the free trial, you can further test the platform for $1 for 30 days.

Transaction Fees

All plans use Shopify Payments by default, which Stripe powers. A credit card order has a transaction fee as high as 2.9% + $0.30 (Basic plan). The higher your monthly subscription costs are, the lower the amount, but only for a little.

If you use a payment gateway different from Shopify Payments, the platform may charge as much as 2% per transaction (Basic plan). This extra charge is in addition to the credit card rate, which means you could pay as much as 4.9% + $0.30 per transaction (2% + 2.9% + $0.30).

Once again, the higher your monthly subscription costs, the lower the transaction fees. This same principle applies to third-party transaction fees as well.

Apps

Apps built by Shopify are usually free, and they also support them.

However, third-party apps may charge a monthly fee in addition to the platform’s monthly subscription costs. Pay close attention to this factor so your running costs won’t skyrocket.

Customer Service

Shopify offers many ways to get support for your requests. 

You can use the Help Center or Community Forums to get answers to your questions. On the premium plans, you can also reach support personnel via chat and phone (Shopify Plus).

It’s excellent that Shopify offers a chat support option. This type of channel is by far the best way to get answers to your questions quickly.

At first, Shopify offers you the option to talk to a chatbot. If you are not getting the desired results, you can contact human support by clicking the Contact Support button at the bottom of the page.

FAQ

The Conclusion: Is Shopify the Right eCommerce Platform for You?

Shopify is for first-time sellers and sellers of basic products with a few variants.

If you have products that need proper subcategories, consider hosting your store elsewhere. Adding this functionality to a Shopify store with an app will increase your monthly costs by $10/month.

Also, the platform is not ideal for sellers who sell products with various options.

If you only plan on selling simple products and don’t want to go through the hassle of hiring a web designer and other entities to help you manage your store, Shopify is definitely worth a try.

But now, over to you: 

Have you used Shopify, and what do you think about it? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.