Shopify Reviews

Pros

There are many aspects to the Shopify software platform, including 3rd party app development, e-commerce, retail Point-of-Sale hardware, affiliate programs for referring merchants, professional learning articles and paths to professional certifications of the Shopify platform.

In addition, the Shopify experience, for users, admins, developers, partners, etc. is richly engaging with Shopify retail store events, here in downtown Los Angeles. Shopify's retail store presence features master classes from professionals who have successfully launched brands and online and physical stores using Shopify's technology and features, as well as their own third party establishments which integrate nicely within the Shopify platform.

Cons

There's a high learning curve to establishing a professional web presence in an E-commerce setting, and many steps and lessons to learn along the way, but for dedicated developers and entrepreneurs, the Shopify app is a truly viable tool for establishing an E-commerce web presence.

Alternatives Considered

Squarespace

Reasons for Choosing Shopify

Google Domains offers various development platforms out from their custom website domain purchase and management solution, of which I first chose Blogger, yet I find that Shopify is richly supported with a local retail setting that features productive and engaging events to burgeon professional efforts in gaining an E-commerce web store presence, as well as handling many other development concerns of starting a web store.

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

It seemed that there are much more well-established marketing campaigns and user engagement with the Shopify platform.

Pros

Features that are very impactful and that I like most about Shopify software is it is easy to understand and set up your business to run on. Customer support is also great which is key when choosing a software to help manage your work. It definitely is easy to work with and customers always satisfied with how simple the whole process ends up being.

Cons

Interrogation with my business process was not difficult. I do tend to understand and grasp technology and its navigation fairly easily but the software shopify provides is definitely a Top Choice in my opinion for anyone because they make it easy for many many businesses to understand and not feel confused about what you are doing. The only thing I do wish is that Shopify gave you more customisation options as two themes of the software changing colors or fonts with tons of options. This is only because I love to make all my sites pictures and apps colorful different unique.

Alternatives Considered

Zoho CRM and FreshBooks

Reasons for Choosing Shopify

I made the switch to Shopify because I was recommended by a colleague of mine who has recently started using Shopify and was extremely satisfied.

Switched From

Wave

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

I chose shopify because their reviews were extremely high ranking.

Pros

I really like how easy to use Shopify is. You can understand right away how to use it and all of the features are nice.

Cons

The price is not very friendly towards smaller businesses.

Alternatives Considered

WooCommerce

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

Shopify is very nice and while woocommerce might have more features, they are very hidden

Pros

the promise of extremely high conversion rates

Cons

the promise of extremely high conversion rates - they dont even come close to what was suggested and the sales rep [sensitive content hidden]runs and hides from what she proposed was possible based on other companies in our space - asnd does not deal with it - shopify support suggests we go back to the rep ro review and she runs and hides and doesnt respond or meet to deal with it

Pros

The changes to the online editor have been amazing. Easy to create the website you envision without coding experience. The App Store is a great asset,

Cons

App costs can add up, not a fan of the blog page layout

Alternatives Considered

WordPress and Squarespace

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

Monthly cost and ease of use made Shopify a better choice

Pros

The recent improvements have made Shopify even more easy to use.

Cons

I wish the Customer Service was more consistent. Sometimes I get really great solutions to my problems & sometimes it takes several emails to resolve my issue.

Pros

Shopify is easy all around! They make it sooo simple to have a functional and pretty website.

Cons

The pricing unfortunately. I miss the old pricing and features.

Pros

Shopify is very easy to use and learn how to integrate

Cons

It was complicated learning how to use it for other countries

Pros

I love that it connects with our QuickBooks Online and transfers over with ease.

Cons

I have no complaints at the moment. We have not had any issues as of yet

Pros

Shopify simplifies the process of creating website for our business. It helps us to customise themes which is unique feature that add value to our website. It helps all startup business people to explore more opportunities outside.

Cons

There is no much design available for the users

Pros

Sleek designs, easy to use, easy to keep track of products and sales, great third party API integrations and marketing software, and simple to run. Many Virtual Assistants already know how to use this software which makes life very easy for me.

The simpler, the better. I have several shopify stores and I aim to make passive income in this realm.

Cons

Templates are limited, a lot of the development is backend yet I'm a visual person so I like to see everything as I'm doing it, and it can get a little overwhelming with all the integrations needed to turn a Shopify store into a massive profitable business. I feel like the best templates cost too much money and the ones we are offered look basic and not easily customizable. It could use a better blog feature section and a bit more visual aspects such as videos to help pitch or promote the business. Maybe even used for online courses with private logins would be great.

Alternatives Considered

WordPress and Squarespace

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

Shopify is specifically built to convert and make money in the e-commerce world and this is what I'm interested in. However I'd like a more complete software allowing me to pair an actual website (consulting, online courses, etc...) to this to make me full appreciate it.

Pros

I can't stress enough how much I LOVE Shopify. I run my mom's business for her (an ecommerce site) and we set up the entire thing from scratch, with little knowledge of the platform. They have both free and paid templates to choose from for your site and they are very customizable. The fact that these templates scale to mobile with zero input from us is incredible We've been using it for over 5 years and we couldn't be happier. It is SO easy to use. Their customer support is unmatched - they are open 24 hours and always help us through even the most simple kinds of questions ("how do I upload a new image?"). The inventory feature is great and keeps everything organized. If you sell an item offline, you can easily adjust inventory in your dashboard so no mistakes are made.

Cons

There aren't many things I don't like about Shopify. I think my biggest ask is that there should be more free templates available for use. The Shopify made templates are the best because they integrate seamlessly with the product. For some users, software is a scary thing, so instead of jumping to buy a cooler template, I think users would be responsive to more free templates to try.

Alternatives Considered

GoDaddy Website Builder

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

We chose Shopify because of how clean and simple they made the process. It integrates with so many other software that we felt it was a no-brainer.

Pros

I find that it is pretty easy to create products and make them go live. Further, the fact that Shopify provides the hosting and therefore, the security for the site is quite amazing. I also like that Shopify is a major player in the marketplace. So many times I have had to go for knock offs and Shopify is not that.

Cons

Having been a guy that had never edited liquid files before, that was new to me, but finding what I need to edit and adjust in the code is really not that difficult. There is a lot of help available for this too. I do find that there are not as many apps to connect to your site as there is with WooCommerce. That is also connected to the security aspect as well though as sometimes having too many apps allows for more opportunities for things to go wrong.

Pros

Setting up our company and its shop was very easy, as well as finding a visual theme that suited us and meshed well with our existing branding. There's a wealth of free themes, and countless additional paid ones, so it's hard to imagine anyone not finding what they need. Shopify's core functions are quite complete and comprehensive, but if you find there's something they don't do for you out of the box, chances are good that there's a third-party app that will answer the need, and usually for not very much additional expense.

Cons

Importing existing products into the store was a pretty big project (although of course, not all new store creators have 200-300 products they need to start up with like we did), and editing and/or customizing those products can be time-consuming and sometimes awkward. There are times when I'd really like to multiple-select several products and modify the same attribute for all of them, but the system doesn't support this. I have a feeling they'll add support for this kind of thing somewhere down the line.

Alternatives Considered

WordPress & WooCommerce Affiliate Program

Reasons for Choosing Shopify

Explained above.

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

The comparison shopping and research was a challenging exercise, but in the end it just seemed that Shopify had the most complete set of ready-to-go options for the best price.

Pros

It is easy to use and learn. Errors can be rectified easily and cataloging is easy once you understand the basics of tagging. Themes offered are easy to use and modify. Customer service is available any time and phone reps are well spoken and fluent in english. Very good option is considering a move from eBay with their ever changing policies.

Cons

The software does take time to learn and there are limitations as it is not a tailored custom solution. But there are work around and almost any functionality can be added or achieved on shopify.

Alternatives Considered

Square Point of Sale and BigCommerce

Reasons for Choosing Shopify

eBay policies and requirements are an impediment to being successful on their platform.

Switched From

Terapeak Research

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

Ease of use, Available apps, Integration all played and part in our decision to choose Shopify.

Pros

I like that Shopify is by far the platform that makes it easiest for you to manage your products and shop overall, it also gives great analytics details of what your customers look at before they make a purchase.

Cons

The thing I disliked most about Shopify is the lack of ease in customizing the User Experience of your shop, it is doable, but it is not super easy for the average person to figure out.

Alternatives Considered

Wix, Square Point of Sale, Square Payments and Squarespace

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

We chose to go with Shopify over these alternative products because Shopify allowed us to see the biggest picture into what out customers were thinking when they were purchasing our products. Additionally, we feel that Shopify is the platform in which it is easiest to manage our products, inventory, and shop.

Pros

The most interesting thing about Shopify is that it needs no technical knowledge to get started. But that doesn't mean you can't use advanced features on this CMS. Using plugins, themes, templates all are quite easy on this platform and you don't need a full-time maintainer to manage your small business store made by using Shopify. Another great feature of Shopify is the integration with various payment gateways. No matter whether you are from the US or any other country, you can configure the payment gateway for a smooth transaction. Overall, it increases the conversion rate and revenue. There are a lot of premium and free themes developed for this platform and you can always make your site unique, fancy, and lightweight. The price is quite affordable I must say. Even if you use some other free CMS you will need to pay fr the hosting and CDN which are not reliable. But with Shopify, these things are taken care of and no matter how much traffic do you get, you can stay worry-free.

Cons

Honestly speaking I didn't find any major cons while using the software. I have some small stores as well as some big e-commerce shops running on Shopify and I didn't miss any features while building those. But I have a few suggestions about improving the product. For example, the mobile layout of the site should be more lightweight so that it loads faster on slow internet devices. Also, if you can introduce a free plan with limited features that will help most small businesses.

Alternatives Considered

WordPress

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

I also considered WordPress as an alternative solution while choosing Shopify for my agency. Some people will say that WordPress is more flexible for building customized stores. I also agree with that. But if you consider a hassle-free and ways to use solution then no other CMS can beat Shopify. I tested both of the platforms and I don't regret going with Shopify.

Pros

It is easy to get a website up and running. Adding products is easy.

Cons

WHERE DO I BEGIN:
-inventory records only go back three months...I was horrified to find out I lost 4 months of inventory records.
-to print a receipt...you need to buy and download an app...it is awkward to use and takes a couple minutes for the receipt to upload before you can print it.
-to have employees log in you need to download and app and pay monthly
-you can not do a credit on someone’s account if they return something...You need to either return their money or give them a gift card it is awkward and difficult to use.
-if you mark an order pending payment you cannot take payment on the POS system.
-you cannot add any vender information that is not visible to your customers.
-the duplicate feature when adding products doesn’t work properly....to hard to explain what should be duplicated and what shouldn’t but trust me it wasn’t created by someone that understands business

Pros

I love many things about Shopify. Honestly, I've not fallen in love with any other alternative as much as I have with Shopify. The pros of Shopify includes:

1. No Hosting required: This is a beautiful part of Shopify. With Shopify, I never had to worry about purchasing a hosting plan. Shopify hosts all merchant accounts on their server.

2. Free SSL: I love this a lot. With some other alternatives, a user may need to purchase an SSL certificate to keep his/her site safe, but not with Shopify. Shopify provides free SSL for all users.

3. Easy to use: With Shopify, I was able to get up and running in about half an hour. No programming skills required. Customising and tweaking everything can be done in about an hour. This is beautiful compared to alternatives.

4. Free trials: Shopify allows a new user to tryout it's services for complete two weeks without paying any money if the user desires. Being curious, I had to try the free service before deciding to make any purchase.

5. Easy to install apps: Shopify have apps to help users add functionalities to their websites. The apps are very easy to install. Their are both free and premium apps on Shopify.

6. Easy payment collection: Shopify has it's own payment system for users. This allows users collect payment for products and services from their customers. The payment processing fee varies from plan to plan.

7. Easy to integrate with drop shipping services: A large chunk of Shopify users are drop shippers. This is a plus.

Cons

Inasmuch as I so much love Shopify, honestly, there are a few turn offs. They include:

1. Expensive: For a starter, Shopify may be very expensive compared to alternatives like woocommerce. With woocommerce, a user can build a free forever ecommerce/ drop shipping site. The user only need to purchase a hosting service and an SSL certificate if need be.

2. Some apps are not available: I opted to using another payment gateway other than Shopify's. The issue I had was that I couldn't find the app for my desired payment processor on the App store. By this, I was compelled to use another payment processor.

3. Premium Apps: Shopify apps helps users add features to their websites. The con here is that many of the apps are premium apps, and should be paid for. This means that apart from the money one have to pay to use Shopify, the one still need to pay some more to have his/her desired apps installed. This can be a turn off for newbies, and others users.

Apart from those cons, Shopify is a beautiful app to use.

Pros

I love that we can provide an easy-to-use online store for our customers and seamlessly connect it to everything on the backend. I love the customization that the apps in Shopify provide, and we are utilizing things like shipping & inventory, bundle discounts, upselling, random coupons, email collection, and much more. The number of apps provided makes it easy to find the right one for your store. Our backend support team can easily view and fulfill orders and we can handle customer service right from our site. It's easy to set up and constantly update. I love that Shopify has made running an online store easy for both our management team and customer base.

Cons

Unfortunately since there are so many apps offered, it does take some time to sort through and find the right one for you. Some of them are not as customizable than others, and it can be tough to learn your way around the building platform but luckily Shopify and the app developers have awesome support teams. I'm also not a fan that you can't physically drag and drop widgets on your website like Wix can, and sometimes you need to teach yourself a bit of HTML to edit things (although again, their support team is great for helping with this). However, these are small inconveniences compared to the vast functionality of Shopify.

Pros

With guides focused on the individuals who are not exceptionally acquainted with instruments of this sort, one of the primary benefits of Shopify is its simple convenience. All things considered, with this internet business stage, you don't have to stress over the more specialized piece of the executives.
One more ideal point for the individuals who utilize this instrument is the ease of use and responsive plan of the layouts accessible to clients. At the end of the day, you can have confidence about the nature of your site both on the work area adaptation and for cell phones and cell phones.
For the individuals who don't have a lot of time to deal with every one of the undertakings of a business with the vital consideration, Shopify can work with even the administration of items and supply of your virtual store, for instance. Other than a remarkable and responsive plan, you can likewise deal with your web based business through the stage.

Cons

Notwithstanding offering Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques, Shopify utilizes some sub-catalogs that can hurt the SEO execution of your page. The URL of normal pages, for example, "About Us", don't have the ideal design to streamline your page's query items.
Area names are excluded from any of the accessible bundles. What's more, facilitating for your page should be bought. For facilitating an email with your own custom space, you need to search for an outside instrument, like G Suite, for instance. The believability of your image can be influenced with an email that isn't interesting, for instance.
On the off chance that your crowd is additionally global, Shopify may not be the most ideal choice for your business. All things considered, the device doesn't offer the likelihood to set up a multilingual store, for instance. That is, as indicated by your arrangements, this point can be a detriment for you

Pros

Shopify is easy to set up, modify and manage without requiring outside technical support. The interface is fresh and modern, loads fast, and everything you need in terms of additional software apps are within easy reach from the admin panel.

Cons

I really wish it were easier to create marketing campaign landing pages in Shopify. The platform isn't built for creating multiple unique page types. In fact, it's not intuitive at all when it comes to adding and editing a new page type. Luckily, there are landing page apps available that can help with that. App integration is a snap, and we like that apps are billed monthly... it makes it easy for us to audition a new app and see how well it works for us. There are many inexpensive and even free apps available.

Pros

Shopify is an out of the box ecommerce platform where you can be up and running in less than 10 minutes. But, is that good enough?. All that you need to create a good experience and nice looking e-commerce, can be very easy if you know what to do and are familiar with templates. Setting up everything including payment is EASY, fast, and everything happens in real time.

Cons

I don't see this as a "cheap software", specially if you come from a non european union / north america country. It has many layers of costs, first the upfront monthly fee, and also they take a small percentage out of your sales. It's an amazing business model for them, not so much for the small user. Also, nowadays, with so many people using shopify out there for their e-commerce, all stores look a like. It's hard to find a Shopify e-commerce store with a unique experience. And any additional change that you'd like to do that you can't do in the editor, you'll need an experienced developer.

Pros

The order and stock management system is really good. The platform allows you to create tags and searchable functions which in turn help your customers.

A variety of different payment methods can be added

Holiday mode can be activated where orders are not accepted and you pay a lower monthly fee.

Lots of great templates to use to create your site quickly. Great apps that you can integrate including things like newsletter sign up or customer loyalty schemes

Cons

Takes a little while to add all your products but worth it once done.

If you want to set up automatic postage costs you will need to know the weight of everything you have on your site.

Alternatives Considered

Weebly

Reasons for Choosing Shopify

easier platform for multiple items

Switched From

Weebly

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

Easier to scale up to lots of products

Pros

I like how I am able to run my retail business with a ton of support behind it, there is so much software ranging from Shopify's own to others I integrate that making building, growing the business less stressful. I really, really, like Shopify's accounting software that leaves people stunned! It allows me to keep better track of sales, fees, costs, and also allows me to project where finances may be within the next few months. I really like how the software updates without asking me to, updating in the background as I continue focusing on doing what I need to do with my store. The pricing of the software has always been reasonable, never too expensive, and never cheap, and, is based on my need. I really like how popular the software has become too, and the positive impacts it has worldwide such as saving small business owners a ton of money, choice of upgrading when ready, letting me know ahead of time when announcements about the software, and, anything else that maybe extremely important. As for integration, it depends on the app I choose, because while it may be easy to integrate onto the software, certain apps can be difficult to remove from the software once it has been integrated fully.

Cons

There is a passive-aggressive push for a Commerce plan to use on the software. Sure, for small businesses already on its mid approach that's appropriate as the developers should assist them as much as possible, but for many struggling business, the constant passive-aggressive push when logging onto the software can be a real pain, especially when focusing on order management. Regarding integration, certain apps require the software origination or for additional payments to process sort of like 3 months of back rent, even when it feels like its 3 months fronted rent before you can see that the integrated app has been removed. I advise Caution which apps users integrate overall. The design of it in the background could use a change. Its been three years. The software needs more style!! The security of it could use incorporation of VPN users, and currently the software does not have this.