In this article, we will take a look at some of the best Shopify features and the benefits it provides for online sellers.
Shopify is a cloud-based, eCommerce platform that helps in starting, running, and growing an online store for any business.
The platform houses over 2 million live stores today and is used by merchants in over 175 countries around the world.
Source: statista
Shopify's popularity stems from its ease of use, reliability, advanced features, and various other benefits. The platform offers everything you would need in one place. It is an ideal choice for people looking to set up an online shop.
The appeal of Shopify is that it requires almost no technical skills to use. There are many store owners who are website design professionals but lack the necessary expertise to create an online store or build a shopping cart. The team behind Shopify has created a platform for them by providing all the tools required to create a beautiful and professional online store.
This is why popular and successful brands like Kylie Cosmetics and Gymshark are in fact Shopify stores.
This eCommerce platform has truly revolutionized the eCommerce sphere and is still continuing to do it!
Shopify features you should know about
Shopify comes with a 3-day free trial to help you play around and explore the features before you invest your money. Post that, you can purchase their paid plans. Let's take a look at three main Shopify plans:
Basic Plan: If you're just starting out and selling on your own website or blog, this Shopify account is perfect for you. All the Shopify plans include all the tools you need to get started, including Shopify store hosting and a customizable theme. This plan costs $39/month when billed monthly and $29/month when billed annually.
Shopify Plan: This plan offers everything in the Basic plan plus more features like unlimited bandwidth, advanced SEO capabilities, and more themes for your store (Shopify theme store). The Shopify plan costs $105/month when billed monthly and $79/month when billed annually.
Advanced Plan: The Advanced Shopify plan offers everything in the Shopify plan plus more features like advanced analytics, 24/7 phone support, and unlimited marketing tools that let you grow your business even further. This plan costs $399/month when billed monthly and $299/month when billed annually.
Let’s take a look at some of Shopify’s features:
One order management system for your entire business
Shopify is one-stop shop for eCommerce is more than just a platform. It's a complete business management solution that includes everything you need to run your online store. Furthermore, the Shopify dashboard is very user-friendly and actionable.
This includes everything from
- Order management
- Secure payments
- Intuitive mobile commerce
Source: G2
💡 Quick Read - How Does Shopify work? A Beginner’s Guide to Start Selling on Shopify
Impressive SEO tools that deliver!
Source: unsplash
SEO has become a crucial part of any online business in recent years. In fact, 44% (source nchannel) of consumers today begin their online shopping journey with a quick Google search. This means your store should not just offer the best products but should also be easily discoverable.
However, SEO is much more complex than one realizes. To implement the best SEO practices, you need the best tools. And Shopify has got you covered even in this department!
The SEO tools in a Shopify store allow you to optimize your store on search engines like Google and Bing. This means that when people search for products similar to yours on Google or Bing, they will see your website appear at the top of the results page in their search results. This will drive more traffic to your site and increase sales.
With their SEO-oriented eCommerce platform, you can add title tags and meta descriptions that make your product information more accessible to search engines.
You can also easily integrate Google Analytics into your Shopify store so you can understand what's happening with your website traffic. This data will help you make better decisions about improving the customer experience on your site.
Powerful analytics tools
Source: shopify
Shopify Analytics is a powerful tool that gives you a detailed view of how your store is performing. It lets you track sales, traffic sources, and customer behavior on your Shopify store.
Shopify Analytics has two main parts:
- Product Insights - Product Insights gives you in-depth information about your sales performance and Shopify store activity. It tells you what products are selling well, which ones are trending, and where they're being purchased from. Product Insights also shows you how many people have visited your site, what they've been searching for, and how they've interacted with your product pages.
- Sales & Customers - Sales & Customers give you data about your customer's behavior in your store. You'll know who's buying what when they're making purchases, where they come from (geographically), and what their cart contains.
Shopify Analytics is included with all Shopify plans, but there are some limitations depending on your monthly plan. Here are some features available on higher-tiered plans:
- In-depth reporting and analysis for every aspect of your store
- Real-time data — see how many people are on your site right now
- Advanced segmentation tools that allow you to break down data by anything you want
Customer profiles, accounts, and groups
Customer profiles, accounts, and groups let you create profiles for each customer, track their purchases and their interests, and send targeted offers based on their purchase history or other information in their profile. This feature allows you to personalize your store experience for each visitor to improve conversions, retention, and lifetime value. Customer accounts allow customers to log in to their profile from any device so they can view their order history, track their shipments, and more.
Groups let you organize your customers into groups for easy access when creating marketing campaigns or sending out newsletters. You can organize your customers into different groups based on what they buy or how much they spend so that you can send targeted promotions to them specifically. You can also use these groups for discounts or other incentives to encourage more sales from specific customer segments.
Review and act on abandoned checkouts
A common problem faced by online retailers is the number of potential customers who add items to their shopping cart but do not complete the purchase. In fact, the average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate is a whopping 69.99% (baymard)! This translates to roughly $260 billion worth of lost orders which are actually very recoverable.
Shopify provides a feature to check who has abandoned their carts, in order to review, strategize and also convince them to return and complete their purchases.
The reminder emails can be customized with your Shopify store’s branding and colors. You can also use the email templates provided by Shopify or create your own. These emails can be sent manually or automatically by setting up your flow.
But that’s not it! You can also get a detailed abandoned checkouts emails report by Shopify that will help you figure out how effective your cart recovery email campaigns have been.
Easy payment integrations and options
Shopify has partnered with hundreds of payment gateways to provide you with a wide range of payment options. You can choose from different payment gateways depending on your needs, including PayPal, Stripe, and Apple Pay.
You can choose to use Shopify Payments, which allows you to accept credit cards, debit cards, and PayPal payments in your store. For many merchants, Shopify Payments is the best option because it provides the highest level of security and fraud protection.
Furthermore, tax calculations are made simple with Shopify's tax tool that automatically calculates taxes based on customer location. You can also use tax exemptions if necessary.
Shopify Dropshipping
Source: shopify
Shopify offers a number of different ways to get your products in front of customers. It gives you the ability to use its platform as a retail store and sell physical products online.
You can also use Shopify as a dropshipping service, which means that you don't actually have any inventory on hand, but rather your supplier will send an order out to the customer when they place it with you.
All you need to do is find a reliable supplier and you can easily setup your Shopify dropshipping store.
Shopify POS
Source: shopify
Shopify POS is the fastest and easiest way to run your small business - both online and in-person.
It is a point-of-sale system that integrates with Shopify stores. This means you can accept payments for your products in-store, add inventory, and manage your store from the Shopify dashboard without any hassle.
With Shopify POS, you can manage multiple locations and employees with ease—track sales with real-time reports that give you a clear picture of how your business is performing.
This means one master and functional repository for your entire business!
Just download the Shopify Retail POS app onto any Android or iOS device, and you’re good to go! You can also use their top-of-the-class payment devices for smooth transactions in your physical stores.
Benefits of Shopify
1. Security
The Shopify platform has been built from the ground up with security in mind. The company has invested heavily in keeping its platform secure from hackers and other threats.
A Shopify store comes with several built-in security features that protect your eCommerce business against hackers and fraudsters. In addition, it offers a robust PCI compliance system that keeps your customers' credit card information safe.
2. Personalization
When you’re selling online, you need to stand out from the competition. The personalization capabilities of your eCommerce store will make your customers feel like they’re dealing with a business that cares about its customers.
One of the most powerful features of Shopify is its ability to personalize your website based on what products customers are viewing, which page they are on, where they are located, and more. This allows you to offer your customers exactly what they want when they want it, resulting in higher conversions and increased sales.
3. Fast loading speed
If you're running an online store, you want your customers to be able to browse products quickly and easily.
Shopify has a fast loading speed.
A study by RVRE, made the following observations about a general Shopify site speed:
- The average time it took to load First Contentful paint is 4.4 seconds
- The average time it took to load First Meaningful Paint is 4.9 seconds
- The average time it took to ensure the site is completely reactive is 22 seconds.
These are great numbers to work with!
This is because it uses the latest technology of content delivery network (CDN) backed by Cloudflare. Using a CDN ensures your online store speed will be better around the world. This means that you can get more sales without losing customers due to slow loading times.
Furthermore, you can also implement a few Shopify recommended practices to improve your site speed even more.
Source: G2
4. Mobile commerce ready
Mobile commerce is huge today. It's the fastest-growing medium for eCommerce, and it's a great way for you to get your products in front of people who are ready to buy.
Source: statista
The number of shoppers shopping via their mobile phones is anticipated to keep growing, and we need to understand who those people are and how exactly they traffic into stores.
When people think of eCommerce, they often think of desktop computers. However, the mobile revolution has changed the game, and now it's more important than ever to ensure your business is mobile-friendly.
The good news is that Shopify makes it easy for you to create a mobile-optimized store that looks great on any device. The platform is built with responsive design in mind so that your customers can access your store from any device.
5. Shopify Theme Store
One might assume that selling online only requires you to have the best products. But the truth is far from that. The execution, look and feel, and user experience (UX) of your website are equally important.
Did you know that 50% of consumers believe that website design is crucial to a business’s overall brand? (source: hubspot)
This is why paying attention to your Shopify store design becomes even more necessary. And it’s not just the aesthetics, but also the functionality that counts when it comes to great eCommerce website design.
Shopify has a theme store where you can browse and purchase premium themes for your store. Themes can help you create an attractive website that will help you sell more products. You can also choose from a wide range of free themes if you want to save some money.
Source: G2
6. Shopify App Store
Shopify has a large collection of Shopify apps that can help you grow your business. The Shopify app store contains everything from apps for order management, marketing automation, and social media integration to apps for inventory management, shipping fulfillment, and accounting software integration.
You'll also find integrations with several popular apps, including Google Analytics and Facebook Ads. The Shopify app store is divided into categories, so you can easily find the apps that are most relevant to your business.
Source: G2
7. User-friendly interface
Shopify’s interface is easy to use and understand, even if you have no previous experience with eCommerce platforms or coding languages such as HTML or CSS.
It comes with a variety of wizards that help you through each step of building your store and setting up payment gateways and shipping options. If you need help along the way, there’s also a comprehensive online documentation section where you can find answers to common questions about using Shopify.
Source: G2
8. Quick customer service
Shopify offers 24/7 customer service, which means that you can expect a quick response whenever you have a question or problem. Shopify also has a support community where users can answer each other's questions and post their own tips about managing the platform.
9. No coding skills are required
Setting up your online store with Shopify is easy as pie! All you need is an email address and password (for free!), which means no technical knowledge is required!
You can choose from a number of Shopify themes and it has a simple drag-and-drop editor that lets you add products, categories, collections, and blog posts with just a few clicks. It’s easy once you get the hang of it!
Source: G2
Wrapping up
Shopify is a versatile platform for online stores. It gives you every tool you need to create a thriving e-commerce business, and it doesn't have many of the setup hassles that come with other e-commerce platforms. The various Shopify features and benefits add up to its value.
