Shopify has taken the small business world by a storm.
Shopify, a cloud-based SaaS eCommerce platform powers more than 500,000 online shops and has over 1200 different integrated apps.
Businesses prefer to develop on Shopify as it is a comprehensive, versatile and flexible eCommerce builder with a large app store. Shopify is also equipped with tools for inventory management, customer service, accounting, marketing, reporting, shipping and order fulfilment, it can help you automate your eCommerce business.
Shopify caters to a wide range of industries right from electronics to fashion. It provides multi-language support and has over 100 professional themes. Now this gives your eCommerce store a professional and elegant look.
What other features does Shopify offer?
Shopify enables you to sort your customers by location, their spending habits and their shopping pattern. Tracking these is particularly beneficial as it gives you a better idea of the market and helps you cater to your customer’s needs.
Apart from this, if you have additional members of your team managing the account, you can enable multiple staff login and set different permission levels for every member of your team.
Shopify also allows you to auto-calculate shipping prices for every customer. This is a very helpful feature as many a time calculating shipping prices can be tricky. If you underestimate the prices, you will end up incurring losses in your business. On the other hand, if you overestimate the prices, you might end up losing customers.
Shopify also allows you to :
- Track customer and order details
- Manage your inventory and warehouse
- Create web pages and blogs for your online store
- Organize your product into various categories and this makes it easier for visitors to filter products according to their needs
- Insert relevant images and description for every product
- Accept payments from multiple processors and in multiple currencies
Well, these features are pretty much available on every eCommerce website builder. So, what makes Shopify different from the other platforms?
Here are a few prominent Shopify features that make it a reliable platform for developing your eCommerce store:
1. Recover abandoned carts
Shopping cart abandonment is extremely frustrating. 7 out of 10 customers add products to their cart and then leave without buying. Shopify has a built-in abandoned cart recovery feature that helps you take measures for avoiding this. Using these tools, you can review the list of customers who have abandoned their carts and send them a reminder email.
To view the list of customers who have abandoned their carts, from your Shopify admin page, you can go to Orders and click on Abandoned Checkouts. If you are on the standard Shopify plan, you will have to manually send an email to each customer. But, if you are on the advanced Shopify plan, you can set up triggered emails that are automatically sent to the customers at certain time intervals. Shopify also lets you send personalized emails to customers.
By sending emails to customers, you can show them what they are missing and also create a sense of urgency. If the customer is still not satisfied enough to buy the product, you can send an email again and offer them discounts on the products they had abandoned. This is an effective marketing strategy that can help reduce the rate of abandonment.
2. Take payments everywhere with Shopify POS(Point Of Sale)
Shopify POS is an app and credit card hardware that allows you to sell products in a physical setting and accept offline payments and using a card reader. Any offline sales that you make are linked automatically to your online Shopify account.
Similar to its parent app, Shopify POS is easy to set up and use. This app is specifically created for retail and has is easy to navigate with many functionalities. Shopify POS can be used as an add-on to your website or can be used as a stand-alone product. The plans start at $9 per month and are suitable for both, small and enterprise businesses.
If you want to establish a brick-and-mortar presence, then Shopify POS is the best platform. Shopify POS easily syncs with your inventory and has cash drawers using which you can set up multiple checkout stations. Other prominent features are an offline mode, gift cards and receipt options for all the sales that you have made.
3. Track your business with Shopify analytics and reports
Analytics are extremely essential to see how well your online store is doing. You can get a report of the number of visitors to your store and also get to know about their shopping habits. So, you get to know where they are coming from, on which category they are spending most of their time and from which website they are coming from. Now, this helps you in developing a marketing strategy based on the traffic, sales and cart reports.
You can also use Google Analytics in your Shopify store by pasting it on your dashboard. So, Google analytics along with you Shopify tracker will help you generate more sales and customers.
Shopify provides you access to the overview dashboard and finances report. Shopify also generates reports after analyzing three core categories: Acquisition, behaviour and marketing. These analytics and reports will save you a lot of time and efforts.
Most of the major eCommerce platforms would ask you whether you would prefer to create mobile ads, desktop ads or both. But, getting a report would help you make an informed decision based on your user preferences.
Endnote:
Shopify offers the flexibility and ability to grow your business with its unique features and tools. With 24/7 live chat and phone support and a risk-free 14-day trial, Shopify is a platform that you should consider investing in. Their core strength is that they allow you to build websites with a secure shopping cart.
Shopify offers two prominent features- Premium storefront themes and Shopify apps. They will extend the functionality of your online shop and help grow your business.
If you are thinking to start an online store or looking forward to expanding your existing business, developing your store on Shopify will surely be worth it.