Shopify Review – User & Expert Reviews

Shopify is one of the best website builders that provides a comprehensive platform for its users and allows them to create their online store. Shopify is very straightforward, and you can create a fully functional, professional eCommerce store without any need for special technical abilities, a limitless budget, or a professional. Simple and easy, Shopify provides a cost-effective solution to set up your online store, and you can start building your site right now!

Overview Of Shopify

Since it was founded in 2006, Shopify has become the number one tool for many business companies. Shopify is the leading website builder, currently powering more than 3.9 million online stores worldwide and providing excellent and straightforward service.

When you create a Shopify store, you get everything you need to get started. Website design tools, eCommerce platforms, payment processing services, and website hosting services are all included. You can use Shopify to sell things online via desktop, mobile, online marketplaces, and social media.

Creating the right website for your business may require some technical knowledge, but with Shopify, you will have no problems even if you are a beginner. But their editor does take some time to get used to. When you choose a hosted solution for your online store, you’re putting a lot of trust in the company providing it, so you should choose carefully. With Shopify, you can test out the website builder within the provided 14-day free trial. So, you can decide if Shopify is the right product for you before committing and investing in it.

Who Should Use Shopify?

Delivering all the features that a business owner might need, Shopify is a website-building platform that will help you start, grow, and manage your business. Their platform is designed to be very accessible, so anyone can set up an online store and sell their products. Shopify is beginner-friendly, so anyone with no web development experience can build their business without design or development expertise. Shopify offers:

• A 14-day trial period.
• Plenty of themes that look modern and stylish but also minimal and straightforward;
• Many applications are available in their App Store;
• Customizable themes and an option to build a theme from scratch;

However, Shopify is also great for professionals and offers advanced features. The users can upgrade their Shopify plan, access the CSS and HTML files, and get more robust features as their store expands.

I want to say that my first experience working with Shopify was pretty good. From a beginner’s perspective, it was simple to navigate, but their editor isn’t as intuitive as it could be.

This Shopify brand review will educate you about its features, benefits and drawbacks, and whether Shopify is your best option.

Pros And Cons

Pros:

Cons:

Shopify Rating: Breakdown

We conduct extensive eCommerce website builder testing for rating each brand in its expert review. We can examine their functionality, determine how well they perform across devices, and assess the dangers through the testing process. We apply specific parameters that produce the most accurate results to identify the best builders available. Here are the criteria we used to evaluate Shopify.

Ease Of Use (Is It Easy To Use Shopify?)

Shopify has a pretty simple interface that will make setting up your store an easy process. However, Shopify’s editor isn’t as intuitive as it could be, and it might take you some time to get used to it.

The first thing is to set up your account. You need to go on the shopify.com site and click on Start your free trial.

The next step is to fill in your email, create a password and create your store name. This will take only a minute.

Following this, you will need to fill out a short questionnaire by Shopify that will help you set up the defaults for your website. You should fill in whether you’re already selling, when you would like to launch your store, how you would want to sell, the size of your business, the industry you work in, and you can check if you are setting up the store for a client. On the next page, you will be asked for your complete address.

After completing the questionnaire, you will be ready to create your website. Based on the category you selected in the questionnaire, your store will be set up with a default theme.

Now, you can browse Shopify’s themes gallery and pick the one you like.

If you want to change the theme, you can go to the menu, click on Online Store, then click on Themes and choose the one you want. If you don’t find the theme you desire, don’t worry; you can change it in the following steps.

Then you can customize and edit your theme. You can choose the colors, typography, borders, add social media, create sections, etc.

Shopify Value For Money – Pricing & Plans

Shopify offers five different subscription plans and a free 14-day trial. The Lite plan offers everything you need to turn your website into an online store. Three of the plans (Basic, Shopify, Advanced) are suitable for eCommerce businesses. And the Shopify Plus plan is best for large businesses. The subscription plans range from $9 to $2000 per month. Let’s look at them, so you have all the information you need to decide.

The basic plan will be perfect at $29 per month if you run a small shop. This plan includes access to the Shopify Admin, which you can use to manage your business, two staff accounts, and a free SSL certificate.

If you run a big store and want many extra features, you should choose the Shopify Plus plan at $2000 a month.

No matter which plans you choose, you can always upgrade later. Shopify provides all features you might want at different store levels. Also, you can use the 14-day free trial period to check them out yourself. So, considering that Shopify is a bit costlier than other website builders but provides excellent features and a free trial period, we will give them a 9.6.

Templates (Design Flexibility)

Shopify’s template directory is categorized based on niche, purpose, and design style. The installation of your theme takes only a couple of clicks. Shopify provides 76 professional-made themes from which you can choose. Their layouts are stunning, and you will find one you like there. Shopify offers various industry-specific layouts: art and entertainment, business equipment and supplies, clothing and accessories, electronics, food and drink, hardware and automotive, health and beauty, home and garden, pet supplies, sports and recreation, toys, and games. Each theme is not just a single theme but comes with a handful of styles. In addition, the themes have several features and a set of standard features that all Shopify themes have.

Once you’ve chosen your theme, Shopify gives you high-quality sample text, layouts, and pictures.

Let’s explore some of the themes that Shopify offers.

One of Shopify’s advantages is its free themes. Let’s have a look at them.

The free themes are great, and if you are working with a tight budget, you will certainly make your site look presentable using one of them. All free themes are made for quick setup and visual storytelling and can be for any catalog size. You can also use them for editorial content.

Shopify also has a Trending this week section of themes. Here, you can explore all the popular themes updated hourly. One of the most popular themes is Taste, a free theme perfect for specialty products and bold branding. It has a spacious design, product sections that support larger product cards, and a flexible design that will allow you to match your brand vision and catch a buyer’s eye.

Shopify also has a New themes release section.

A clean, functional, and vibrant theme are ideal for a clothes store. The theme is tailored to showcase your new arrivals. You have customizable product labels and a quick add-to-cart to make browsing your catalog easy and enjoyable. You can also expand your catalog with mega menus, meta fields, live search, and customizable collections without compromising your customer’s experience.

Shopify offers excellent themes that make setting up your website a simple process. Also, Shopify provides 76 themes, which is not a lot. But, a plus is that Shopify offers eight free themes as well. So the overall ranking would be 9.5.

Features and Tools

Shopify provides all the features you want to create the perfect online store, making it easy to build and manage, such as eCommerce tools, mobile applications, online storage, etc. Let’s look at some of Shopify’s features.

1. Useful Tools

Shopify makes it simple to start an online store, whether you’re a small company owner or own a more significant business. Shopify provides a free SSL certificate, privacy protection, regular backups, and full access to the HTML and CSS of your store, making it easy to customize your website.

2. Security

Shopify offers SSL Certificates for security and daily data backups to ensure that your site is safe.  They provide instant upgrades to the hosting service.  If your store overgrows or gets a lot of traffic, they will automatically assign the necessary system resources to prevent downtime or slow speed.  The payments service from Shopify provides high security and detects fraudulent transactions. You can add a verification system in your checkout by address and value to ensure actual payments. This will ensure you and your visitors are always happy with the site.

3. App Market

Shopify has one of the biggest App Stores and has had it online for more than ten years. In their app store, you can find more than 2000 apps available. They come in different shapes and sizes and are divided into many helpful categories: marketing, sales, social media, shipping, and customer service. They provide free and paid apps that will enhance your store.

You’ll discover apps to help you market your store and also apps for emails, push notifications, SEO, access control, and finances, among other things. The app store makes finding the most likely tools to suit your personal needs and company strategy easier. In a nutshell, the App Store is a collection of paid and free apps designed to enhance and expand the functionality of your Shopify store.

4. Domain Names

A custom domain name is the foundation of an online brand. Your store will be hosted at [yourstorename].myshopify.com. So while you can use this address on the Internet and access your Shopify admin, you can buy your custom domain name. You have two options when setting up your store. You can either find the perfect domain name and purchase it from Shopify or buy it from a third-party domain registrar and point the domain name to your store. Shopify makes it easy to buy and manage your custom domain. Configuration and setup are completely automated.

5. Social Media Integration

One of the most effective ways to interact directly with your audience is through social media. Any company’s internet presence is critical to its success. If you have a large social following, you can use the “shop” feature on Facebook to recreate your Shopify eCommerce website. Consumers can buy straight from you without visiting your website. Shopify also has product tagging on Instagram, which allows you to link directly to your product page.

6. Mobile App

With Shopify, you can manage many of your actions from the mobile app. The app is available for iPhone and Android. Some of the tasks that you can do using the Shopify mobile app include: taking and uploading product photos, editing product details such as pricing, adding new store products, fulfilling orders and offering refunds, purchasing and printing shipping labels, getting stats on conversions, see live sales information and view real-time traffic, receive order notifications, contact members of your team, etc. The mobile app has a responsive checkout, which means that your site will automatically adapt to the size of the customer’s screen, whether it be through a tablet or smartphone.

7. Blog

Blogging is one of the most effective methods to boost traffic to your website, and it’s typically a must-do for online stores. Shopify has an integrated blogging tool that allows you to develop the type of content you’ll need to ensure your site appears in Google search results.

You can use Shopify’s blog as part of your content marketing plan. Shopify provides a lot of blogging features that you may require. Because everything is managed from a single dashboard, Shopify makes running your blog straightforward.

However, this blogging functionality is not as sophisticated as that on some other platforms. The editor can use some improvement. It is not as intuitive as it could be.

Learn more about Shopify:

Business Features

Shopify provides a robust set of business features. The Shopify Website Builder offers a variety of business-specific tools to assist you in creating a website for your business that suits your needs.

1. SEO & Marketing

If you have a store, but your consumers can’t locate it, you’re likely unhappy with your sales results. Customers must be engaged by your company and establish long-term and consistent connections with their target market. Shopify has excellent SEO and marketing features. Thanks to the built-in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools, your site will be easily found on all major search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Even though the SEO settings are automatic, you may adjust your target keywords, URLs, and more for each product page.

You can change the interface’s header, title, and meta tags to personalize your store. The URLs are also SEO-friendly. Shopify has worked with Google to provide you with advertising funds for a new AdWords account.

2. Email Marketing

A vital part of running an online store and one of the most efficient methods to stay in touch with your customers is email marketing. Shopify introduced a new tool, Shopify Email, that allows you to create email newsletters. The email collection form on Shopify is straightforward. It does the job well and integrates with the primary email options, but many eCommerce shops prefer to hunt for a more suitable add-on in the app store. But the best thing about Shopify Email is the price: you can use the feature to send up to 10,000 emails a month for free, with a $1 fee for every 1,000 emails sent.

Performance

Most tests show that customers will wait up to 4 seconds for a site to load before leaving. So having excellent uptime and a fast loading speed is crucial for your business. Shopify has made a significant effort to ensure that its hosting is incredibly reliable.

1. Speed Page

Many factors affect your website’s speed, and Shopify can handle the speed at a global platform level. They provide SSL certificates, keep their sites fast and integrated, and customers will never be waiting for their page to load. Shopify’s websites load quickly, but the speed of your website will depend on the theme you use.

2. Uptime and Response Time

They provide their customers with an excellent 99.98% uptime guarantee. The results of Shopify’s testing were great. The website was available, up and running. Furthermore, Shopify monitors its servers and network connections with live technicians, backs up your store securely, and gives you access to the backups.

Based on the tests and the results, the overall ranking for performance is 9.6.

Help and Customer Support

In addition to being on-site 24/7 monitoring your servers and network connections, they also offer excellent tech support when it is needed.

Reading through many customer reviews on the Internet, I can say that Shopify’s customer support is excellent. Shopify provides help via various channels: 24/7 phone support, Social media support, 24/7 live chat support, Community forum, Email support, Help center, Video tutorials, and Advanced specialist support. You can select whatever option is most convenient for you.

The Shopify Help Center offers a lot of information and self-help material, and if you need more specific solutions to any issues, you can contact Shopify directly. Shopify’s customer support agents are friendly and helpful. They can assist you with any website-related issues, whether technical or not. Most users won’t have any issues with hosting, but they provide excellent assistance if you ever encounter any.

The site is very user-friendly for users of all levels of expertise, from beginners to professionals.

Shopify Examples Sites

To better comprehend the abilities of this platform, let’s look through some of the most famous Shopify-created websites. These are real-world websites that genuine businesses and people have created utilizing this excellent website builder.

ColourPop (Online Store)

ColourPop is a cosmetics brand that sells all types of cosmetics products. Its online store displays all the business’s products and has a dynamic and exciting theme. The website is colorful and eye-catching. It also has 3D media that plays when you load the page.

Jeffree Star Cosmetics (Online Store)

Jeffree Star Cosmetics is a cosmetics brand that sells make-up, skincare, etc. Its online store displays all the business’s products and has a very dynamic theme. The website is colorful and uses vibrant colors.

Fashion Nova (Online Store)

Fashion Nova is a fast fashion retail company. This site’s template is clean, functional, and works well for a clothing brand.

Shopify Review: Summary

Shopify is one of the most popularly used eCommerce platforms on the market. They prioritize the consumer and ensure that you have a positive experience from beginning to end. It ranks at the top of every category in our expert Shopify review, and it’s a fantastic option for beginners and experienced sellers. That’s why we recommend it!

Shopify is one of the top website builders for businesses that want to create an online store and start selling online. Their services are competitively priced, and the Lite plan is excellent for anyone who needs to sell things on an existing website. It’s a very scalable platform since it’s simple to use, has a large app store, appealing templates, and a robust set of features. It’s also great for those who want to sell in multiple languages.

Keep in mind that you will have to rely on apps for some functions, which will raise your monthly cost. And this is Shopify’s primary disadvantage, but it also allows you to customize and build your store at your speed. Its multi-currency selling features could also be improved. To set specific product prices for individual countries, you’ll need to upgrade to the Advanced plan.

After this Shopify brand review, you can do a lot now that you know how to create a website using Shopify. Go through Shopify’s settings, applications, and marketing tools to improve your eCommerce website. Shopify is a terrific choice for anybody looking to establish or expand their online store. However, before making a decision, we always recommend testing it out for yourself!

Shopify User Reviews

As one of the most popular website builders on the market, Shopify has received many customer reviews. The Shopify reviews are primarily positive, and they agree that Shopify is a well-maintained platform that provides everything they need for website management, updates, etc.

Some customers are divided about whether Shopify is easy-to-use or not. They all agree that it’s super easy to start building your store with Shopify because they provide a video tutorial you can follow for every step. But some of them think that their editor could be more straightforward.

The customers had very positive things to say about Shopify’s customer support. Shopify’s customer support is professional, friendly, and very helpful. Most of the users shared that whenever they had technical issues, the customer service agents were there to assist them with everything they needed. Shopify’s customer service is one of the best services among other website builders.