by ms-admin | Aug 3, 2023 | Shopify
Introduction
In the rapidly evolving landscape of commerce, small businesses are discovering their potential through the assistance of innovative digital solutions. At the forefront of these solutions is Shopify, a versatile and comprehensive platform tailor-made for the unique needs of small business owners. Regardless of whether you’re embarking on a new venture or seeking to elevate your existing enterprise, Shopify offers an impressive array of features and tools that can pave a promising path toward success. Throughout this comprehensive guide, we will delve into ten compelling reasons why Shopify stands out as the ultimate choice for small businesses.
1. User-friendly Interface
At the heart of Shopify’s appeal is its user-friendly interface, thoughtfully designed with simplicity in mind. Even if you lack technical expertise, you’ll find it remarkably straightforward to establish and manage your online store without requiring extensive coding knowledge. With its intuitive dashboard, you can effortlessly add products, manage your inventory, process orders, and tailor your store’s appearance with minimal effort. This intuitive design streamlines the process of setting up your online business, allowing you to focus on what truly matters – providing exceptional products and services to your customers.
2. Affordable Pricing Plans
Recognizing the financial constraints often faced by small businesses, Shopify offers a range of pricing plans crafted to accommodate various budgets. This includes a basic plan that caters to startups and burgeoning businesses. By ensuring affordability, Shopify empowers small business owners to access essential ecommerce tools without straining their financial resources. This cost-effective approach liberates you from the burdens of high upfront costs, allowing you to allocate your resources where they’re needed most.
3. Customizable Design Templates
The significance of first impressions cannot be overstated, and Shopify comprehends the importance of a visually captivating online storefront. Armed with an extensive selection of customizable design templates, you can construct a website that boasts a professional and enticing appearance closely aligned with your brand identity. These templates are meticulously designed to be responsive, guaranteeing that your website retains its charm and functionality across all devices. The ability to customize these templates ensures that your online presence is a true reflection of your brand’s unique personality and offerings.
4. App Store for Additional Features
Shopify’s App Store serves as a treasure trove of supplementary features and functionalities. Spanning from sophisticated marketing tools and comprehensive analytics to cutting-edge customer service solutions and streamlined inventory management apps, you have the flexibility to enhance your store’s capabilities as your business continues to flourish. This versatile selection of apps empowers you to tailor your store’s functionalities according to your unique requirements. As your business expands, you’ll find a plethora of tools at your disposal to streamline operations and enhance customer experience.
5. Secure Payment Processing
In the realm of ecommerce, security is of paramount importance. Shopify prioritizes this by offering secure payment processing options, including its proprietary payment gateway, Shopify Payments. This robust system ensures that your customers’ sensitive data remains safeguarded during transactions. Furthermore, you have the freedom to seamlessly integrate other renowned payment gateways, catering to the diverse preferences of your clientele. This commitment to security builds trust with your customers, fostering a loyal and satisfied consumer base.
6. Mobile Responsiveness
In an age dominated by mobile shopping, the imperative of a mobile-responsive website cannot be overstated. Shopify’s meticulously crafted themes are primed to adapt seamlessly to an array of screen dimensions, thereby ensuring an optimized browsing experience for users accessing your site through smartphones and tablets. This heightened mobile responsiveness substantially contributes to enhanced customer satisfaction and, ultimately, improved conversion rates. By providing a frictionless mobile shopping experience, you tap into a significant segment of potential customers.
7. SEO-friendly Features
Elevating your store’s visibility in search engine results hinges on effective search engine optimization (SEO). Shopify simplifies this task by offering built-in SEO features, encompassing customizable meta titles, descriptions, and URLs. Additionally, the platform automatically generates a sitemap for your store, streamlining the process for search engines to crawl and index your content accurately. By implementing these SEO-friendly features, you position your store for better organic visibility and increased online traction.
8. Integrated Analytics and Reporting
A comprehensive grasp of your store’s performance is pivotal for making informed business decisions. Shopify provides integrated analytics and reporting tools that unveil invaluable insights into pivotal metrics such as sales data, traffic sources, and customer behavior patterns. Armed with this data-driven knowledge, you are empowered to refine your strategies and optimize your store for superior results. The ability to analyze customer behavior and preferences equips you with the tools to tailor your offerings and marketing strategies accordingly.
9. Reliable Customer Support
The availability of reliable customer support is particularly cherished by small business owners. Shopify shines in this regard, offering around-the-clock assistance through diverse channels, including live chat, email, and phone. Whether you find yourself grappling with technical quandaries or seeking guidance on the store setup process, help is always just a message away. This dependable customer support serves as a safety net, ensuring that you can navigate challenges and maximize the platform’s potential without unnecessary obstacles.
10. Scalability for Growth
As the trajectory of your small business propels it toward growth and expansion, the need for a scalable platform becomes increasingly crucial. Shopify effortlessly addresses this demand by facilitating a seamless transition from a modest store setup to a more substantial enterprise. You retain the flexibility to upgrade your existing plan, integrate novel features, and seamlessly incorporate third-party apps to accommodate your business’s continuous evolution. This scalability ensures that your online store can keep pace with your growing customer base and evolving business requirements.
Conclusion
Shopify’s unwavering commitment to empowering small businesses positions it as an eminent leader among ecommerce platforms. Armed with a user-friendly interface, economically viable pricing plans, an expansive array of customizable design templates, a feature-rich App Store, secure payment processing, mobile responsiveness, SEO-friendly attributes, integrated analytics capabilities, dependable customer support, and a solid foundation for scalability, Shopify delivers a comprehensive solution tailored precisely to the needs of small business owners. By harnessing these myriad features, you possess the tools to construct an online presence that not only mirrors your brand’s essence but also propels sales, cultivates customer loyalty, and propels your small business toward triumphant heights within the fiercely competitive landscape of ecommerce. With Shopify as your partner, you’re not just building an online store – you’re forging a pathway to success, resilience, and growth in the digital realm.
by ms-admin | Apr 13, 2023 | BigCommerce, Shopify
Many small businesses find it difficult to choose which eCommerce platform to use. Since there are so many options, it’s hard to decide what to do when you start out.
BigCommerce and Shopify offer many of the same features such as selling products online, accepting payments, and managing inventory. They also offer customer support for managing your site if you have questions or need additional assistance.
However, there are some key differences you need to consider before making a choice. It is important to understand how they differ in order to make an informed decision about which one will best meet your needs. This comprehensive comparison of these two eCommerce platforms can help you understand what each platform offers and choose the best fit for your business.
Hosting & Security
A fully functional eCommerce store demands full security and the highest level of uptime. Avoiding catastrophic downtime that could result in a loss of sales and traffic should be a top concern. When you integrate eCommerce security into your site, you also gain the trust of your customers since they feel safe buying from you while also protecting their data.
Bigcommerce
The company claims to protect your data and eCommerce store using military-grade security and encryption. They also reported no down-time during Cyber Week for seven consecutive years. PCI DSS 3.0 Level 1 compliance is a requirement for all BigCommerce servers to help prevent credit card data breaches.
Also available are fraud protection, server-specific firewalls, intrusion detection software, and 24/7 security monitoring. BigCommerce requires an SSL certificate for every site to ensure that encrypted data between the user and the site is secure.
Shopify
By default, Shopify shops are PCI DSS Level 1 compliant, with automatic backups. Users who notice suspicious activity can report it on Shopify’s HackerOne site. This means that your customer payment information and business data are safe.
Besides its 99.99% uptime, it uses a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to instantly provide content to users worldwide. Shopify will issue SSL certificates for your store after you create a custom domain.
Interface & Ease of Use
Shopify and BigCommerce both allow you to customize your store easily. However, the level of customization depends on how much product information you want to share with customers.
Bigcommerce
With BigCommerce, you have more customization options thanks to its robust inbuilt capabilities. A few basic actions are more challenging compared to Shopify, such as adding a product. You can also choose some more advanced settings, which are useful for people who want more control over the look and feel of their store.
In BigCommerce’s product information section, you need to fill out a lot of information regarding pricing, weight, and other details.
Shopify
Shopify’s user-friendly editor and onboarding process make it easy for beginners to start their Shopify site. Its elegant, straightforward interface makes it simple to create an eCommerce site.
You can add items to Shopify simply by filling out a short form for each product. As you set up your goods and services on Shopify, you’ll encounter useful tips and information such as how to set the pricing for your product when it goes on sale.
Themes & Designs
While your business needs to work correctly, you must also make it look good enough on the front end for consumers to want to buy from you. Both platforms offer themes and customization to ensure your store appeals to your customers.
Bigcommerce
BigCommerce only offers 12 free themes, and their large number of premium themes can range from $150 to $300 each. You can also choose to create your own BigCommerce themes. Theme customization options in BigCommerce provide a significant starting point for midmarket and enterprise businesses alike. Companies can quickly change themes with HTML, CSS, or JavaScript and build on tried-and-true basics like Cornerstone.
Shopify
Shopify offers free and premium themes ranging from $100 to $180. There is a Shopify theme for every niche, from food to travel to home and garden. You can look for themes by layout style, navigation menu style, and other criteria. Changing the themes is simple with HTML and CSS access, or you can work with a Shopify web developer.
Payment Processing
eCommerce payment transactions are likely to play a large role in your store, and if you are a seasoned seller, you probably already do. You can connect your store to various payment methods on both Shopify and BigCommerce, but the two platforms have some differences.
Bigcommerce
With BigCommerce, you can accept payments via PayPal, powered by Braintree. PayPal processing rates are favorable, and customers can pay without leaving your website.
BigCommerce does not charge a transaction fee for connecting to its 65 third-party processors. It allows you to choose the best payment gateway for your needs instead of providing its own payment processor. However, this may not be ideal if you aren’t tech-savvy enough to understand how to integrate and manage third-party payment gateways.
Shopify
Shopify has over 100 third-party payment gateways, but there are transaction fees depending on your account type. Payment processing is built-in to Shopify Payments and Shop Pay, its one-click checkout solution. This means merchants can begin accepting payments immediately without opening a separate merchant account. Small and emerging businesses will find this the most convenient option due to Shopify’s transaction fees.
You can sell your products in person with Shopify POS, a point-of-sale app also available as a physical POS system. The app lets you view orders and inventory across all of your active sales channels, such as brick-and-mortar stores and pop-up shops. You can also manage order requests and view inventory through the app.
Inventory Management and Shipping
BigCommerce and Shopify allow you to sell using online marketplaces, including Facebook, Amazon, eBay, and Instagram, in addition to your online store. Additionally, they offer various shipping options, including free shipping and calculated shipping prices from third parties.
Bigcommerce
The platform provides an easy-to-use, intuitive, and sophisticated interface for managing stock levels and analyzing order patterns so you can order more or less of your products. BigCommerce also offers the feature of real-time third-party shipping prices in all its plans.
The BigCommerce platform also offers consumers several delivery options. You can calculate shipping prices for various postal carriers, including UPS, Canada Post, Australia Post, and many more.
Shopify
Shopify provides an inventory section where you can manage your inventory, track your inventory, update your inventory counts, and view the history of inventory changes. For third-party real-time shipping prices, you need to be on Shopify’s Advanced plan.
If you live in the USA, Canada, or Australia and have Shopify Shipping available on your plan, you have access to discounted shipping labels. You can offer calculated shipping rates from USPS, Canada Post, and other carriers so you and your customers can plan for shipping costs. Additionally, if you use Shopify’s shipping service, they automatically calculate the shipping prices.
Dropshipping
eCommerce store owners who dropship products need to get items from suppliers quickly, put them on their websites, and streamline the selling and shipping processes.
Bigcommerce
Dropshipping apps are available on both platforms, including well-known online markets like AliExpress Dropshipping and print-on-demand sites like Printful. However, compared to Shopify’s extensive app store, BigCommerce offers just a few great dropshipping apps.
Shopify
Shopify’s integration with Oberlo is a major factor for merchants who build a business on the Shopify platform. Small business owners who are new to eCommerce and want to streamline their business operations benefit from its inventory management and fulfillment features.
The app also makes it easy for your suppliers and around the world to ship goods directly to you, which means a faster delivery time to your customers.
Marketing and Reporting
Both Shopify and BigCommerce understand the importance of marketing for online businesses and provide tools to help you get recognized online.
Bigcommerce
The platform offers the ability to create discounts for customers with every BigCommerce plan. You don’t need to worry about optimizing your site for SEO as your site auto-generates sitemaps and customizable URLs, title tags, and meta descriptions.
It allows you to promote your products on Google Shopping through integration with Google Merchant Center.
BigCommerce’s more advanced plan includes segmenting customer emails depending on where they were in their buying journey. You can send reminder emails to customers to complete the checkout process if they abandon their shopping cart.
As an online business owner, you can use their set of reporting tools to learn useful information on gaining new clients, improving revenue, and meeting business goals. The basic plan includes most of these features for free, so consumers won’t have to pay any additional fees.
Shopify
The Shopify plan includes several features to help you with your eCommerce store, including customizing URLs and headers. Using third-party programs like Klaviyo, Campaign Monitor, and Constant Contact, you can conduct email marketing campaigns right from your Shopify store.
Shopify integrates marketing and reporting tools such as Google Analytics to track user activity and gain traffic. You can use Google AdWords to advertise your products directly on Google search results pages. With Shopify’s internal analytics, you can evaluate the revenue and performance of products and make informed decisions regarding your store. The Professional tier plans and higher include an integrated coupon maker to create discount codes and coupons to promote products.
Application Integration
BigCommerce and Shopify both have app stores where plugins, add-ons, and extras are available for installation. The company offers apps that can help you scale your business and keep your eCommerce store secure.
Bigcommerce
In the BigCommerce app store, you’ll find hundreds of plugins and apps designed to make the eCommerce experience as easy as possible for your customers and your business. You’ll find apps ranging from accounting to payment processing. However, there may not be enough apps for you to fully customize your store compared to Shopify.
Shopify
There is a range of applications available in the Shopify app store that enhance your eCommerce sales experience. Among the top apps and plugins in the app store for your Shopify business are messenger bots and SEO apps. You can even create your QR Codes using Shopify’s ShopCodes.
Whether you are planning to start an eCommerce store or you already have one, Shopify’s Lite app can benefit you. You can use this solution to sell on social media, in person, or on an existing website without paying the Shopify plan costs.
Customer Support
There is always a possibility of something going wrong with your eCommerce site, which is why both eCommerce platforms offer 24/7 phone support, live chat, and emails. They also feature a help center, a customer service forum, video lessons, and advanced customer service support.
Bigcommerce
When you sign up for a free trial with BigCommerce, they will contact you to schedule a 10-minute conversation with a BigCommerce specialist. They will ask questions to understand your business and offer recommendations on how to set up your store.
You can find answers to all popular problems and topics using their extensive knowledge base and online video series. They offer local phone support 24/7 days a week for nine countries and international support for the rest.
Shopify
Shopify also provides 24/7 support like BigCommerce. You can find a lot of information in the Shopify Help Center, and if you need more specific assistance, you can reach Shopify directly to chat with their live agent. A Shopify Plus plan includes specialized service and a dedicated support agent. However, even the basic pricing plan includes 24/7 customer service support.
Pricing
Despite the many useful features that eCommerce website builders offer, recurring fees may be the most prevalent concern when starting your store. Both platforms offer three different pricing tiers ranging from $29.00 to $299.95. They both include a 10% discount on annual plans.
Bigcommerce
BigCommerce lets you have a free trial for 15 days before you begin.
BigCommerce’s price is based on the number of sales you have made online every 12 months since the starting date of your plan. This means that the price of your plan will increase automatically as your business grows.
Shopify
There are various Shopify options to choose from, so you can find the one that best meets your needs. There is no obligation or risk to sign up for a free 14-day trial with Shopify because no payment information is required.
Shopify offers three major plans: Basic Shopify, Shopify, and Advanced Shopify. They include the addition of unlimited products, discount code generation, and multichannel integration. You can also add a Shopify button to an existing blog or website as part of Shopify’s $9/month Lite plan.
Choosing the Right Ecommerce Platform
As an eCommerce business owner, you’ll need to make several decisions regarding your online store. While BigCommerce provides a plethora of built-in features and reporting capabilities for their payment plans, Shopify may be the better option for you when launching your online business.
You can get an online store up and running quickly with Shopify’s Lite plan if you’re on a tight budget. Shopify provides functionality for safeguarding your store and validating payments online. Thanks to its huge app store, it offers more customization options than BigCommerce to help optimize your business.
Regardless of which platform you go with, make sure your store has strong optimization for SEO so customers can find you online. You can talk to our Marketing Success team today about how we can help optimize your website’s search engine rankings while using Shopify. We also offer internet marketing, web design, and reputation management services to help you succeed in all aspects of your branding.
To drive more business to your Shopify online store, call us at (248) 509-8305 for a consultation to learn how we can help you grow.
by ms-admin | Mar 25, 2023 | Shopify
Shopping online is now more vital than ever. According to Statista, online US shoppers are expected to reach 230.5 million in 2021, ranking the United States among the leading e-commerce markets.
Since Shopify is the preferred shopping platform for 500,000 online stores in over 175 countries worldwide, a well-designed, user-friendly Shopify website is needed to stand out. Our Shopify Website Development & Design Services in Michigan can help if you are looking to optimize your eCommerce web presence.
Why You Need a Well-Designed Shopify Site
Shopify provides a basic, easy-to-use interface for you to edit your site and optimize for better rankings. What makes the difference in your sales is a well-designed Shopify store accompanied by expertise in web development marketing, software development, and SEO.
Ecommerce Specific Design
Google’s ranking algorithms favor mobile-friendly websites. Shopify builds its online shopping platform with a responsive web design, which is why it’s easy to use for beginners and experts alike. It benefits anyone who visits your site and makes managing your online business easier.
You can use a web design team to change and edit your website with more content, graphics, and videos. Our team can use their knowledge of eCommerce development to design and code a site for your business. They can also test your website to make sure it works well before launching it online. If you want to edit your site directly, a Content Management System (CMS) lets you do so with no previous coding knowledge.
Keep Your Shopify Store Secure
To ensure data security of all customers and business owners, Shopify adheres to the Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards for credit card transactions. All its stores receive SSL certificates, and you must activate them using HTTPS:// instead of HTTP://. The web design team can go over how to better secure your eCommerce site with secure shopping cart solutions and SSL digital certificates.
Shopify Apps to Optimize Your Site
Thousands of Shopify apps created by mobile apps developers can help improve your site by adding functionality. They can also make the online shopping experience easier for your customers. One of our certified Shopify developers can help you decide your digital marketing goals for your eCommerce site.
With the help of our Shopify web developers, your site can be connected to your social media accounts using a Shopify app. This integration allows you to display content from your social channels directly on the site and create uniform branding across all platforms.
Strategize Your Content and Keywords
With Shopify, you can easily add SEO elements that allow search engines to crawl and index your website. The Shopify platform has built-in essential SEO elements that online businesses need, such as structure, on-page optimization, and other ranking factors.
A high-quality site must show its quality on all fronts, including keywords related to your business and the specific search terms used by your target audience. Relevant keywords in your title tags, custom URLs, and image alt texts can also help make your site easier for search engines to read and rank. Our SEO services help boost your Shopify site rankings for keywords and phrases relevant to your products or services, leading to targeted traffic.
Contact Us for Shopify Website Design & Development Services
Creating a Shopify website takes knowledge of Shopify development, digital marketing expertise, and SEO strategy. Marketing Success has extensive experience working with clients across a range of industries to develop their Shopify websites.
Our SEO experts can help you get the conversions you need to make your site successful. Call us at (248) 509-8305 for a free quote and to learn how we can help you grow your online business.
by ms-admin | Oct 5, 2022 | Shopify
Shopify is an ideal tool for business owners looking to sell products online and improve their visibility on the Internet. The easy-to-use website builder allows you to set up an eCommerce store without advanced technical knowledge.
Here’s everything you need to know when building your business website on Shopify, from entering your email address to launching your site.
Getting Started
Although building a basic Shopify site takes no more than a few hours, having an idea of what your business website should look like will help accelerate the process. Before signing up and starting your new website, think about the basic details and visual elements you want and establish a list. Examples of visual elements include:
- Fonts
- Colors
- Branding and visual identity elements
- Buttons and menus
During the building process, Shopify will suggest various free themes, templates, palettes, fonts, and other options for you to consider. Having a basic plan for your site’s look can help you select the elements that fit your branding the most.
Think about your store’s domain name carefully. A good domain name may help your site’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO), making your store more visible and easier to find on the internet.
Consider multiple potential domain names, and check whether other site owners have already registered them using a free domain name checker.
Create an Account
Once you have a plan and a few ideas for your future business website, you can visit the Shopify front page and sign up by selecting Start Free Trial. Shopify encourages new members to build their business website as part of their 14-day free trial offer, only presenting you with the payment options after your site is ready for launch.
To sign up and start building, all you need to do is enter your email address, password, and store name. Shopify will automatically store the entered business name into a default domain name and URL, but you will have the option to change it later.
Add Your Store’s Products
After signing up, Shopify will redirect you to a dashboard, where you can start customizing your site’s details and content. The first thing you’ll want to do is add products you wish to sell through your online store.
Look on the left-hand side of your dashboard, and click on Products. On the new page, click the Add Product button in the top-right corner.
The Add Product interface offers you a social media-style dashboard where you can enter your item’s name and description, upload product images, and preview that product’s page before saving it.
How to Write a Product Description
The product description field provides you with a text editor similar in style and function to commonly used word processing software, like Google Docs.
Besides basic formatting functions (bold, italics, underline), you also have access to headers, bulleted lists, indentation, tables, hyperlinking, and images and video embedding.
If you have additional photos or even a video advertisement to showcase your product, use the image and video embed feature to include it. The best practice is to place your showcase at the top of your description, above the text, for maximum visibility.
How to Add Images to Your Product Page
There are two options for uploading images. The most common option is clicking Add Images and selecting your product images on your computer through the file explorer. Alternatively, you can simply drag and drop your images into the “Images” field.
Shopify will use the first image you upload as the default picture used to represent that product. A default picture is what you see on the pages that list the corresponding product other than the product page itself. These can include your store’s inventory, a related products section, or inside the shopping cart.
Why Good Product Descriptions Matter
A 2017 Salsify consumer research report found that 87% of online shoppers consider product descriptions one of the most critical factors before deciding to purchase. Most importantly, the study found that 98% of online shoppers have chosen not to buy a product due to a non-existent or inadequate description.
Taking advantage of every feature on the Add Product interface is essential to making your product page more compelling. A well-written product description increases the chances of getting a page visitor to buy the product, which Shopify experts refer to as a conversion.
A high rate of page visits with a comparatively low conversion rate may be the symptom of a bad description. According to a Nielsen & Norman eCommerce study, lack of relevant product information causes approximately 20% of unsuccessful conversions.
Select a Shop Theme
Customize your Shopify site’s looks and appearance with a theme. The Shopify theme store is where your preparation work and design ideas come into play. Here, you can choose from dozens of different designs. Some designs are free, while others require additional payment.
Although design elements, fonts, and appearance are important factors, always check the theme’s features and intended applications.
For example, some Shopify themes are designed and optimized explicitly for eCommerce vendors that sell only one product. These themes may lack the essential features you need if you have many products to sell, such as a search bar.
What About Custom Themes?
If none of the themes available in the store suit your needs, you may need a custom Shopify theme. If you have the skills, you can try designing one yourself. The Shopify dev board has a section dedicated to theme coding, providing you with the documentation you need to get started.
Building your own themes requires knowledge and familiarity with numerous tools and programming languages, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSON, and Liquid, Shopify’s proprietary templating language. Alternatively, you can hire a developer specializing in website design. They are professionals with the talent and expertise to make your Shopify storefront compelling.
A qualified website design developer collaborates with you to create a visually appealing site that follows your business’s branding and aesthetic identity.
Set Up Your Other Options
Once your store has the products you want to sell and an appearance that satisfies you, you must configure other essential options to ensure your Shopify storefront runs smoothly.
Configuring Your Shipping Zones
On your main dashboard, click on Settings and then Shipping and Delivery. Here, you can set up your business’ shipping fees and select your shipping zones.
Shopify lets you choose between manually configured shipping fees or Shopify Shipping. Shopify Shipping is a free and built-in solution to calculate shipping rates in real-time and integrate it with your product’s pricing. However, Shopify Shipping is only available if your business is in the United States or Canada, as it partners with the USPS and the Canada Post to function.
In Shopify lingo, a shipping zone is essentially a region in the world where the shipping rates are the same. For example, if your business is based in France and can ship anywhere in the European Union for the same rate, you can include every country in the EU in the same shipping zone. In turn, customers from anywhere in the EU will pay the same shipping fees.
Select Your Tax Region
In the Settings menu, click on Taxes to start configuring your tax region. Select the part of the world corresponding to your business’s country of origin. Shopify will then automatically calculate your sales taxes. The options available to you depend on your shipping zones. If you need help with this section, consult an accountant or a tax expert.
Configure Your Preferred Payment Methods
One of the primary advantages of doing business online through Shopify is the ability to accept payments over 100 ways and integrate payment gateways with your website.
The most accessible payment gateway system you can implement on your website is Shopify Payments. This system will automatically set up most major payments worldwide for you, letting your shop accept credit cards and other typical online payment providers. Verify that your country and business type can use Shopify Payments before you proceed.
Alternatively, if you cannot use Shopify Payments, you can check Shopify’s payment gateway list by country and review which methods are available to you.
Prepare to Launch
Your business site is almost ready to launch! All you need to review now are your site’s domain settings and your Shopify subscription plan before going live.
Setting Up Your Domain
If you already own a domain name, you can connect it to your Shopify site. On your dashboard, click on Settings, Domains, then click on Connect Existing Domain. You can use this page to enter your domain name and verify the connection.
Third-party domain names may take up to three business days to complete verification. If the verification process is successful, it will be listed on the Domains page.
If you don’t own a domain name yet, you can simply purchase one from the Shopify Web Store. Domains bought from Shopify require no verification period and work within seconds.
Choose a Subscription Plan
The Shopify free trial only lasts 14 days. Once this period ends, you must choose a subscription plan to keep operating your Shopify website.
Review the list of available plans on Shopify’s pricing page and select the option that best corresponds to your business’ size and needs. Remember, you can always upgrade your subscription plan at a later date.
If you’re new to eCommerce or only intend to run a relatively small business, Basic Shopify offers the best value for the money. Large companies may benefit from Advanced Shopify or even a Shopify Plus solution.
Build a Successful Website With Marketing Success
Even with easy-to-use tools such as those provided by Shopify, building a successful and appealing business website is challenging to do on your own.
Marketing Success can help you build or improve your Shopify storefront and support your business in reaching its maximum potential online. We specialize in website design, SEO, and internet marketing. Call us today at (248) 509-8305 for a free quote.
