If you haven’t heard already, eCommerce is the wave of the future. In 2017 US eCommerce spending totaled $648 billion, or 13% of total US retail sales. While that may seem like a small percentage of the $4.99 Trillion the US spent overall, it’s a continuation of trending growth. In 2007 eCommerce made up just 5% of retail sales, but over the past few years has averaged a 16% YoY average growth.
Now, that’s a lot of numbers to throw at you, but the takeaway is that eCommerce is upon us and shows no signs of stopping. It’s why we’re getting more and more requests from clients for eCommerce integrated sites, and advice on which eCommerce platform to use.
While there are several viable options on the market, there‘s only one option we like to use, and that’s Shopify. Shopify is our go-to eCommerce platform for nearly every client. In turn, we’ve gotten pretty darn good at building sites with their platform.
The Best User Experience Around
As developers and designers, we’re very familiar with the backends of sites like Wordpress and Shopify. It’s easy for us to find advanced setting and tools and manipulate them to our needs. We do it every day and know what we’re looking for.
That experience is what allows us to build beautiful sites that wow our clients and your customers. But we also realize your experience is probably more limited, and at the end of the day, that’s what matters. It's your site, so you need to be able to navigate the eCommerce platforms to make changes to inventory and marketing campaigns.
Shopify’s user-friendly design and navigation make it easy for you to find everything you need as a shop operator. From creating analytics reports to adding products to your store, everything is super intuitive for even unseasoned web users. Shopify also recently updated their design with bolder colors and fonts that make it even easier to execute the tasks at hand.
Customer Support That Goes Above and Beyond
Every eCommerce platform makes promises about their customer service, but in our experience, nobody can match Shopify’s customer support. Available 24/7, we’ve never been kept on hold or met with any resistance when talking with them. In a perfect world, you’ll never need it, but it’s nice to know that they’ll be there if you need them.
Along those lines, it’s worth noting that Shopify may be the most secure eCommerce platform available. Part of being a trusted business is proving you can keep your customers’ personal and financial information secure. On Shopify, SSL certificates encrypt your users’ data and send it through a secure connection. Shopify also handles your PCI compliance, which is necessary for any credit card transaction.
Flexible Plans That Make Sense
I’m sure you’ve run into this problem at some point: You’re shopping for a service or subscription but the only plans available are either bare bones or packed full of tools you don’t need.
Nothing is more frustrating than having to pay for something you don’t need or piecing together solutions for something your plan doesn’t offer. Just let me choose what I need, please! That’s exactly what Shopify does, and another reason we love to work with them.
Shopify offers five plans for users, but we mostly work with the higher tiers. From Shopify Lite to Shopify Plus, each offers unique tools and rates depending on your needs.
- Shopify Lite ($9/Month): Includes the ability to sell products on Facebook with a Shopify button.
- Shopify Basic ($29/Month): Include an online store, 24/7 support, fraud analysis, manual order creation, discount codes, SSL certificate, and two staff accounts.
- Shopify ($79/Month): Includes everything in the Shopify Basic plan, as well as gift cards, professional reports, abandoned cart recovery, and five staff accounts.
- Shopify Advanced ($299/month): Includes everything in the Shopify plan as well as an advanced report builder, real-time carrier shipping, and 15 staff accounts.
- Shopify Plus (Cost varies): For users with $1 million - $500+ million in retail sales a year.
Custom Reports With Real Insights
As any experienced business owner or web user will tell you, analytics are everything. Analytics make your business more efficient, agile and profitable. Analytics reports can be packed full of information, but once you know what to look for you’ll see the bigger picture of your business, and be able to optimize accordingly.
Custom Shopify reports are available at every level of plan, but they become more detailed and valuable as you move up. These reports capture both sales information and visitor data, including customer types and session variations. Shopify also allows you to export reports, making them easy to share with your team, or with us.
Open Source Apps For Everything
Shopify’s application portal is really something special. The wide variety of tools and plugins available make customizing sites not only easier but more interesting as well.
The difference between Shopify’s apps and other eCommerce platforms is their open source nature. It allows developers to create exactly what they need for their sites, and then share it with the world. It’s exactly the type of collaboration the web was originally built for and continues to thrive on.
From customized receipts to chatbots, Shopify offers store owners a ton of free and paid apps that can make a huge difference for businesses. We know it can be overwhelming with so many options for customization, but that why we’re here. With our design, development, and marketing experience, and your entrepreneurial spirit, we can make an eCommerce store ready to impress.
If you want to know more about our creative digital services feel free to contact us here: winhearts@harlointeractive.com
