Shopify is a comprehensive eCommerce solution that deals with all fundamental requirements that make your online business a well awake and effective. Shopify deals with all major metrics of a successful eCommerce business in the present day fiercely competitive business ecosystems.
The demand for experts that can utilize the capabilities of Shopify to its fullest is increasing across all major European and other parts of the world. Software development companies in Switzerland and other major European countries are growing very impressively in this domain of the IT sector. For example, the online market is growing at a whopping 9% in Switzerland; some of the companies in the country have noticed over 20% of online sales in 2018.
What Do You Need for an eCommerce Business?
According to the UN Trade & Development report information, the total volume of B2B and B2C eCommerce sales has reached about $29 trillion in 2017. Building an effective eCommerce platform is a complex and professional level task. The eCommerce business is initially powered by an idea of the product to sell and then building an eCommerce website where you can attract the customers and sell the products. You need to build an attractive and intuitive homepage of your website with the help of a professional eCommerce software development company or a team of dedicated developers.
The major requirements for building an eCommerce platform for your business will require a software development team, comprehensive eCommerce platform like Shopify, and other virtual resources like domain names, payment gateways, and other service accounts. The roles of eCommerce platform and software development Services Company are very important in building a professional level eCommerce website. Provide a chance to get rid of design and development restrictions with headless Shopify. The fundamental requirements of building an eCommerce platform are listed below:
- A dedicated IT development team
- The correct set of desired features and capabilities of the website
- Top-level domain TLD name
- An eCommerce platform like Shopify
- Team of e-Marketers
- Search engine optimization SEO experts
- Customer support system
- Efficient product delivery system
- Reliable web hosting provider
- Right web technology
- Plugins and online services that are desired to integrate with the website
- And others
How Does Shopify Awake Your Business?
Shopify is a unified eCommerce platform for any kind of online business. It has numerous features and capabilities that make your business stand out from the herd. As you know the present online business ecosystem is very competitive where the most competitive and the provider of the best value will survive. Shopify has all those features and capabilities. Shopify offers the most powerful features and capabilities as listed below.
- A comprehensive eCommerce platform
- Supports sale on social media, website, mobile app and point-of-sell
- Power analytic support
- Offers unified management for products, sell, customers, marketing, discounts, offers, and much more
- Highly SEO friendly platform to rank the websites at the top easily
- Supports over 2500 different kinds of application for enhancing your business capabilities
- Offers full flexibility to the best software development company to develop custom tools
- Supports numerous types of payment gateways and methods of payments
- Offers a wide range of tools to develop custom brands
- Offers great options for digital marketing through multiple channels
- Offer technical service to hire dedicated teams for your business
- Great customer support
In the nutshell, Shopify reduces software development, digital marketing, and customer management charges. It offers contemporary eCommerce features that create a great value for the customers. Thus, Shopify creates a competitive edge for your business in the marketplace. However, if your business is quite complex, you may find that certain features or design options are insufficient. You may use Shopify headless architecture to transform new technologies into a digital storefront with sales capabilities.
What Are the Major Benefits of the Shopify eCommerce Platform?
Almost every local and offshore software development company advocates the great features of Shopify that provide numerous benefits to the eCommerce businesses. The major benefits of the Shopify eCommerce platform are mentioned below.
#1 Comprehensive Solution
Shopify offers a unified platform for all kinds of business processes required for a successful online eCommerce business. This platform can handle different types of processes simultaneously like continuous tool development, running digital marketing campaigns, conducting sale activity through social media, on the website, through mobile and point of sale. It supports SEO, analytics, and performance metrics, which are fundamental for a successful eCommerce business.
#2 Robust Security
An eCommerce website handles critical information of customers related to their financial and personal details. It is the most critical component for all eCommerce business holders to take care of that critical data carefully. Shopify is compliant with PCI DSS security standards. A highly qualified cybersecurity team is always at service in the Shopify platform. It is also a highly reliable platform too. The stripe powered payment gateway makes it one of the secure platforms for eCommerce businesses.
#3 Multiple Payment Method Options
Shopify supports numerous popular payment gateways, which offer the customers with flexibility on paying through multiple payment options. It supports PayPal and numerous kinds of credit cards like Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express and others. It offers an API for the integration of any other payment method. The Shopify eCommerce platform also supports the customization of your store with the help of their existing tools or even with the help of customized tools developed by your teams.
#4 Unified Business Process Management
Shopify allows you to manage numerous business processes right on one single platform. Those processes may include marketing, advertising, sales, delivery management, order management, customer support, social media marketing, and much more. This platform is the best for search engine optimization SEO. You can also get help from the online support teams available round the clock on Shopify.
#5 Easy to Use Platform
Shopify is a very easy to use platform. It offers you with numerous options for themes, colors, items, fonts and much more. You can easily work with them without knowing much about computer programming at all. There are over 2500 apps on the Shopify App Store. You can use those applications very easily. You can also get professional-grade support from any technical expert available in the market. A sizeable number of Shopify experts are available in the market at very affordable rates too.
Major Risks in Choosing Shopify
Shopify is a hosted type of services like SaaS and other cloud computing services. It has all the risks that a hosted service can have. The major risks of using the Shopify eCommerce platform for your online eCommerce business are listed below.
- Risk of account suspension and termination in case of violation of terms and conditions
- The increase in monthly price is based on just 30 days notice, so you are at risk of increased price always
- Business data is located at the remote locations so you have lesser control over data integrity
- If you change the platform, your account will not be maintained so your business suffers vendor lock-in issue
Final Takeaway
E-Commerce has become a multi-trillion market both business to business (B2B) and business to customer (B2C). The growth of eCommerce is phenomenal and it will maintain this pace in the future too. Shopify is one of the fastest-growing eCommerce platforms that offer numerous features and capabilities suitable for faster business growth. It helps the eCommerce businesses in numerous ways as discussed above. The major benefits, as well as risks, are also identified and mentioned to help you make the right decision while choosing an eCommerce platform.