Shopify Reviews 2022 — Key Pros and Cons / Pricing / Features

Want to open your eCommerce store? Not sure about where to start? If yes, you have stepped into the right place where all your questions will be answered! All you need to do is keep reading and penning down the critical points.

The eCommerce sphere is flooded with different eCommerce website builders, and you can get anything and everything with just a click. These website builders help you build your desired website and make money.

Mind you, while there are so many choices, don’t fall into the trap! Opting for the right one is essential. Your selection can not only affect your sales but will also affect your business. Think it this way! You are heading to start your clothing business, and you want to build a brick-and-mortar store.

For starting with, you will select the preferable site and then move on to the structure. This procedure also applies to e-Commerce platforms. First, you will have to opt for a website builder, then design the structure and the theme and then decide what you want to sell.

Shopify is the most efficient eCommerce solution to all your start-up issues. However, it has some pros and cons. This eCommerce website builder and hosting platform makes your life much more comfortable.

Hence, we are here today to offer you the reviews on Shopify, which will help you know it better. With these reviews about Shopify, you can gauge whether it is suitable for your business or not. So, without wasting time, let’s get started.

Shopify Review: What to expect?

If you are a newbie in the world of online stores and have no coding background, Shopify is the best eCommerce platform that you can opt for. Without the trouble of coding and making errors, use Shopify to design the front of your online store using the templates.

You need not worry about installing any software or seeking hosting solutions. Read these reviews for Shopify, sign up, pick a suitable plan, and get started right away.

Besides, you won’t have to pay any extra transaction fees if you opt for suitable pricing plans and use Shopify Payments.

Background Check: What is Shopify?

When you build a physical shop, you have to start from scratch. Build the entire structure, put all the pieces in place, and then start your business. Shopify provides you with all the back support that you need to make your task effortless.

This hosted eCommerce platform provides you with all you need—the templates, high SEO performance, Shipping rates, etc. The only thing that you have to do is plan your business and set up the products.

According to the Shopify user reviews, this eCommerce platform is the best tool for website building. It has 800,000 online stores functioning under it and $63 worth of sales and business. The staff accounts for more than 3000 employees and offices worldwide.

This website builder is easy to use and offers an excellent customer experience to all its customers, especially the beginners. So, let’s find out from the reviews of Shopify whether it is what it’s claimed to be or there is foul play!

How does Shopify Work?

Shopify competes with eCommerce solutions like Volusion and BigCommerce. Also, it integrates with giant marketplaces like eBay, Amazon, etc. This integration provides you the golden opportunity to expand your online store and increase your sales.

You will also find a ‘buy button’ on Shopify. This button enables you to use it as a point of sale from where you can do your business without creating another website for your online store.

In all, Shopify is an easy-to-use website where you can effortlessly put your thoughts into action. It works in a user-friendly manner. Listed below are the things that you need to do so that Shopify can do its work effectively and provide you with an outstanding layout of your online store. Let’s check them out!

Pricing plan

The first and foremost is opting for a suitable Shopify pricing plan. These plans will be discussed below. Before choosing a plan, you should consider your budget and the features you need to build your online store.

If you want the standard features only, you need not opt for the expensive plans. Hence, opt for the one that you need.

Domain Name

Like you have a name by which people address you, a name is equally essential for your online store. This name is your store’s domain name that has to be bought from a website like Name Cheap or GoDaddy or from a domain registrar if not from these online sites.

You can also get a domain name for your shop using Shopify. Pay the amount and get a perfect name for your online shop.

Design or template

A design or template is a crucial component of any website. It is the one vital aspect that aids in attracting traffic. If your house or store’s visual appearance is not welcoming, why would anyone like to visit it? The template or the web design tempts your customers, and they spend more time at your shop.

Besides, an appealing design will increase your business’s conversion rates and sales. Shopify offers you a wide range of templates and designs to choose from. The usage is made more convenient with their drag-and-drop tool, making it effortless for you to edit the template.

If you are not satisfied with the template or the design, you can hire a web designer to do the same. However, by using Shopify, you will never require a web designer.

Page Content and Payment gateway

After the visuals, come the central element of a store, the products on sale. But how to let the customers know about your business? Here, the content steps in! Engaging and relevant content will fetch the attention of the customers.

This content will do wonders for your business. Hence, after you have chosen the domain name and the design of your online store’s webpage, make sure you write catchy content for it.

Lastly, don’t forget to include an easy-to-use payment gateway. If your checkout process provides ease of use to your customers, more buyers will visit your store. Hence, don’t miss that.

Shopify Pricing

Shopify features three types of pricing plans. These plans are curated, keeping in view the needs and requirements of different e-entrepreneurs. Besides, there are two additional pricing plans offered by Shopify. So, to know more in-depth, let’s look at the plans below in this review for Shopify.

Before you proceed further, we have a piece of good news for you! You often opt for eCommerce platforms based on customer reviews and pay for them, but you see its real side after using it. Since you have paid the subscription fee, you cannot back out and forcefully use it. To make this task more comfortable for you, Shopify has offered you a practical solution.

Shopify enables you to build your first online store free of cost. Yes! You read it correctly. It offers you a 14-day free trial so that you can check its reliability and your comfort using it. While you opt for the free trial, Shopify won’t ask you for your credit card details like other eCommerce platforms.

This 14-day free trial feature is another plus point that gives Shopify an edge over other eCommerce platforms. If you don’t like it, you can cancel it anytime!

Now, let’s carry on with Shopify pricing plans.

Basic Shopify Plan

At just $29 per month, the Basic Shopify plan offers you all the essential features required to start a new online store. This pricing plan is highly recommended for beginners. With this plan, you have no limitations on the products that you sell per month.

However, if you don’t use Shopify Payments to pay the amount, you will be charged a transaction fee of 2% by Shopify.

Shopify Plan

This Shopify Pricing Plan costs only $79 per month. With the slight increase in the monthly cost, you get two new features besides the basic ones. These features include gift cards and abandoned cart recovery.

In a nutshell, you will find everything in this pricing plan that you require to expand your newly started businesses. If you don’t use Shopify Payments in this plan, you will incur a transaction fee of 1%.

Advanced Shopify plan

Along with the gift cards, abandoned cart recovery, and the basic features, at $ 299 per month, you get all the advanced features you need in the advanced Shopify plan.

These advanced features include advanced reports and automatic calculations of the shipping rates. Again, if you don’t use Shopify Payments, you will incur a transaction fee of 0.5%.

Besides these three plans: Basic Shopify, Shopify, and Advanced Shopify that Shopify offers, there are two more categories. We would like to review these additional plans for you here in this article of Shopify Reviews.

Shopify Lite

At a minimal price of only $9 per month, Shopify offers you a Shopify Lite plan. In this plan, you can sell your products on any social media site. You only need to copy and paste the product on any social media platform like Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, etc., and then put the ‘buy button’ below.

With Shopify Lite, you can even use Shopify as the point of sale and earn money. Turn your website into an online store using the Shopify lite pricing plan. This plan also enables you to accept credit cards or payments made online.

Enterprise Plan ( Shopify plus)

The Shopify Plus plan is formulated for those who run enterprise-grade, large businesses. Shopify plus is not a cheap subscription plan, and hence only the gigantic online stores can afford to buy it. Charging $2000 per month, you get higher conversion rates and faster checkout options. Besides, you can customize your payment gateways and also offer discounts on your shipping charges.

You can manage your entire business and not only the store, e. g., the staff accounts, store admin, etc. You get many benefits from Shopify Plus if you run a big business branching out worldwide.

Pros and Cons of Shopify

If you start your quest for the best website builder, you will find many out there waiting for you. Some are an excellent choice for beginners, and others help when you are already established and want to expand. Every eCommerce platform has pros and cons, and Shopify is no exception.

In this Shopify Reviews, we shall discuss the good things about this eCommerce website builder and its pitfalls. With a neutral perspective in hand, it will be much more comfortable for you to decide whether Shopify is beneficial for your online store or not suitable. Thus, have a look at what type of website builder Shopify is.

Pros

Ease of use:

You need not be a tech geek to use Shopify. This tool helps you do all your website-related tasks easily, and everything gets done in minutes.

Designs:

The variety of themes, templates and design layouts available on Shopify are incredible. Also, if you don’t feel like using the Shopify theme that is available on that site, you can either create one of your own using the custom theme or even buy one from other designing engines.

Related: Best Shopify Stores to Inspire Entrepreneurs in 2022

Apps and community:

You get access to free or paid additional features on the Shopify app store, e.g., Email marketing, integrations, etc., which are helpful for your website. The app store is flooded with various features so that you don’t fall short of any while building your eCommerce store.

The buy button on the other side is one of the most significant features of Shopify. This feature allows you to branch out your brand on multiple platforms instead of restricting it to one. This fanning out helps in the expansion of your store and increasing sales.

However, along with the Shopify app store, there is a community formed by experts and developers. This Shopify community is highly engaged and works towards your goal. Whenever you need help, you can always count on this community.

Customer Support:

Other sites like WooCommerce or Magento are equally good as Shopify, but there is one main reason why Shopify gets a lead over them. This reason is the quality of customer support that these sites have.

Shopify is very responsive, and you get the answers to your queries in no time. Thanks to its 24/7 customer care panel, you never return with an unanswered question no matter who you are. There are various FAQs, live chat, phone support, etc., to help you out at any point in time.

Marketing:

Marketing is a crucial element when you are an eCommerce store owner. Without marketing, you cannot reach out to people and let them know what you have to offer them. With its excellent marketing strategy, Shopify leaves no stones unturned to bring your store to the limelight.

Even though Shopify lacks those fancy marketing tools, SEO and marketing campaigns are enough for it to make things work. You can create landing pages for your eCommerce stores as a part of your businesses’ email marketing campaign using Shopify.

Thus, if you want your business and store to do well, Shopify is the best way to go, for it has excellent marketing strategies that help you achieve your dreams.

Cons

Creating Regular Content:

Shopify allows you to create blogs using its built-in blogging software and create landing pages for your online store. While the blogs for your content marketing and store can be effortlessly created and works excellent, your regular content creation can take a backseat.

The blogging software in Shopify is not so advanced. It makes it tough to create non-eCommerce content using this platform. Hence, if you opt for Shopify to create regular content, you should be aware that this site won’t yield you the desired results.

Transaction fees:

If you don’t use Shopify payments, you will have to pay transaction fees on every transaction you make on Shopify. These transaction fees, if compared to the pricing of others, seem to be more expensive. However, if you use Shopify payments, the cost incurred is less.

The main point of this Shopify review is the need to compare the pricing with others carefully and then decide whether to opt for Shopify or not.

Jargons:

Since there is a mixture of individuals who use Shopify for building their online store, the ones with technical knowledge are familiar with the jargon that Shopify uses while the non-tech geeks find it hard. The most common example is the word “Collections” instead of “Categories,” which determines that the custom themes are present.

Such Shopify jargons complicate the ‘user-experience,’ and thus, Shopify faces a downtrend here. This is why jargons have made it into the cons list of our review of Shopify. Jargons don’t make Shopify easy to use and further complicate the procedure, especially for beginners.

Initial Setup:

The initial setup process of your online store is a bit tricky. Even though you need not have a technical background to use Shopify, the domain name registration needs some technicalities.

Since registering the domain name is a part of Shopify’s work, you will be disappointed if you don’t have basic technical knowledge.

Rating Details

Ease of use:

Rating- 4.5 stars

Comment: There are many features available on Shopify that provide you the ease of use. They are arranged logically so that you don’t fumble while designing your Shopify store. A live preview is played at the backend that demonstrates how you should put those features into use to design your store’s page and make it attractive.

Choice and flexibility of the templates:

Rating-5 stars

Comment: The templates available on Shopify are both desktop and mobile-device friendly. This compatibility makes Shopify highly responsive. Also, you get more than 170 themes to choose from, or custom creates your own.

SEO:

Rating- 4.5 stars

Comment: An online store needs to have a planned SEO strategy to do well in the digital market. Shopify has all the vital SEO features that your online store needs.

Basic Functions

Product presentation:

Rating- 5 stars

Comment: In Shopify Reviews, picture presentation plays an important role. It is because a product will be purchased based on its picture. If the image is poorly presented, it will never get sold. In Shopify, the picture presentation is excellent. You can zoom in on the pictures, and there is a picture gallery present besides the videos.

Product Variants:

Rating- 4.5 stars

Comment: First, the options like the size, color, and material of the products show up, and then the variants like S, M, L, etc. This arrangement makes it easier for your customers to find out the right choice for themselves.

Cart Functions:

Comment: If you opt for the Shopify plan, you will come across the abandoned cart recovery feature that is available in that plan. Besides all the other components, Shopify’s cart functions generate an automatic email for your customers who are yet to complete their pending purchases.

User ratings:

Comment: Your customers can leave behind the product reviews and their feedback on their overall experience.

Article Numbers:

Comment: You can add the article numbers on your own. Give a unique SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) name/number to all the products you are selling to keep track of your sales.

Checkout, Payment, and Shipping:

Payment Gateway:

Rating- 5

Comment: You can either pay manually or online using your credit card, PayPal, or BitPay if you want to pay in bitcoins. You will find more than 100 payment options available on Shopify. Besides, they have created another payment option named Shopify Payments’ Gateway.

This payment gateway will provide you with the ease of checkout and waive off the transaction fees you have to pay while making a transaction using some other checkout gateways.

Sales of Digital Goods:

Comment: Shopify provides you the liberty to reduce the products’ downloads or the time up to which that specific product is available on the Shopify store. Email marketing plays a vital role in delivering digital goods that, in turn, also helps to expand your businesses and increases the volume of sales. Shopify charges VAT on all its digital goods as per the new rules.

SSL Encryption:

Comment: Shopify has excellent SSL (HTTPS) encryption that keeps its customers’ data and payment details encrypted and safe. No cost is incurred to you for this SSL encryption. Besides, you can also use your preferred payment domain if you don’t find Shopify reliable.

Customer Log-in Area:

Comment: You need not worry about the login procedure when using Shopify. You can either log in through a guest account or create one of your own. The best thing about this entire Shopify review is that it lets you decide whether you want to create an account or not. This feature is not available on most of the eCommerce platforms.

Coupon Codes:

Comment: You get to offer discounts to your customers or can come up with coupon codes like buy one get one free, free shipping, etc., to allure the audience. If you don’t want such schemes, you can sell your products fixedly without discounts.

Shipping Costs Settings:

Rating- 5

Comment: You can either set specific shipping rates for different countries or fix them according to the shipping partner you collaborate with. If you aren’t collaborating with any shipping partner, you can use fulfillment or drop shipping service providers like Amazon, etc.

Dropshipping:

Comment: In the Shopify app store, an app called Oberlo makes the process of dropshipping much more comfortable for you. The basic version of this excellent app is free. Also, it provides an extension that enables you to import your products from other suppliers as well.

Tax Settings:

Rating- 5

Comment: While Shopify can automatically extract the US tax rates, you can set the tax of other countries all by yourself. Also, you can display the VAT charges along with your products on the online store’s pages.

Backend

Article Management:

Rating- 5

Comment: Shopify automatically tracks the number of articles present in your Shopify store. However, to get notified about the items present in your store and manage them efficiently, you can turn on the notification option present on Shopify. The POS system plays a vital role in managing both your offline and online stores so that you won’t have to worry much about your inventory.

Confirmation Emails Customizable:

Rating- 5

Comment- The power to edit and customize your notification emails lies in your hands.

Importing Product Data:

Comment: CSV, Magento, WordPress, and eBay are some websites where you can import the product data. Importing the product data through these sites saves you a lot of time and makes importing your existing web store to Shopify effortless.

Exporting Product Data:

Comment: Like importing your previous online store to Shopify, you can also export your store to some other website. You can also export a CSV file with much ease.

E-Commerce Analysis:

Comment: In the Shopify plan, you get access to offer reports that Shopify provides on the products. Besides, the E-Commerce Analysis of Shopify shows that integration with Google Analytics can be easily done at any time.

Exporting Order data:

Comment: You can directly integrate with various accounting tools to help you manage the order data. These tools are Quickbook, Xero, and many others. You can also export all your order’s details and data to a CSV-file and then use it.

Total Score

Rating- 4.7 stars out of 5

Comment: Shopify is an incredible platform for both professional entrepreneurs and beginners. On this platform, selling your products becomes easy breezy, and your sales increase in no time. You get access to all the necessary tools and features that you need to grow your business. However, Shopify doesn’t provide cheaper pricing plans. But its support and ecosystem are worth the amount charged. By using Shopify, you can let off the extra burden on you regarding your online store and let Shopify do its job.

Shopify Features Review

In the Shopify review below, you will find in-depth details about Shopify’s different features and functionalities. This Shopify review will help clarify all your persisting queries and make your online store set up a cakewalk. So, let’s dive in!

Shopify Ease of use

Shopify is powerful yet easy to use, which means that while you will find it easier to design your store’s pages, you can also launch your store in maybe a week. However, despite being easy in its functionality, you may spend more hours on customization than any other element. This time consumption can delay your launch, which may be a setback for you.

One shouldn’t forget that with a few correct clicks, you will be able to build an incredible store of your own and earn lots of money. This platform is so powerful that content management platforms like WordPress or competing website builders like BigCommerce or Volusion cannot match its functions.

You also get access to beginner guides that help you understand the entire process of web building and designing if you are a beginner.

The backend is full of simple-to-understand navigation all around, which guides you throughout. The navigation buttons ensure that you face no difficulty, and Shopify becomes easy to use.

Templates and Designs

Shopify templates and designs give your e-Commerce store a professional look to match the modern trend. There are 170 themes available that suit all the types of projects that you intend to take up. The theme that you choose is not only designed for desktops but is mobile-friendly as well. Since the maximum conversion rates are gained through mobile-friendly websites, this feature makes your work effortless.

The themes that are available on Shopify make your website look incredibly impressive and appealing. Besides, they can be effortlessly edited without consulting any web designer. Initially, you can use a free theme to get a hand on it. Later on, after gaining some expertise on the free theme, you can move on to the paid ones.

However, the bad news here is you only get a few free theme templates to choose from. Amidst the great shock of not having enough free theme templates, there is a piece of good news also, and that is customization.

You can customize the theme as per your wish using the editing options available. The drag-and-drop tool also helps you to design your webpage effortlessly or customize it. Hence, look for the theme that matches your store and get started with the same.

Shopify E-Commerce Features

This section will give you insights into Shopify’s e-Commerce features and its benefits for your business.

Add and Manage Products

To start a successful business, you need to get hold of products; otherwise, what will you sell? These products and their data must be imported to Shopify from other sites. If you own large businesses, you will find a CSV file suitable to import your products and their details.

After the importation, the next step is to fill in the product information like the description, price of the article, SEO, etc. Once you finish filling up your products’ details in the backend, you can assign the collections or categories to keep your page clean and comfortable to browse through.

Shopify has inventory tracking or Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) features for managing your products. These features prevent you from selling products that are not there in stock. Also, you can easily track how much inventory you have and what needs to be refilled.

You must have seen that marketplaces or eCommerce platforms like Amazon sell different variants of the same item so that the customer can get a suitable product. You can apply the same tactics to satisfy your customers and bring them back. Using Shopify, you can add the variants of your products, but they are restricted only to 3 specifications: size, color, and material.

In the Shopify App Store, Shopify has a free app developed by itself that allows you to sell digital products. Products such as videos, documents, images, etc., can be sold through the free app in the store Shopify has. If you intend to sell such digital items to your customers, make sure you install this app.

Next comes the payment process. Receiving payments regularly and creating a subscription store can be an expensive affair. You will have to opt for an app or take assistance from coding personnel to get this done. However, a giant eCommerce platform like Bigcommerce or Volusion does not have such integrations.

If you want your customers to leave feedback and product reviews, Shopify offers you custom fields that you can use.

Shopify categories

Shopify uses jargon, like collections, to specify its categories. These categories or collections have to be assigned manually to sort out the products under different sections. However, this process of categorizing the products is not easy. You will need an app from the app store to automatically segregate the products and classify them.

Payment processors and Transaction fees

Shopify has plenty of payment processors that are hard to find on any other platform. This feature makes Shopify the number 1 eCommerce platform in terms of its payment procedure. Authorize, Stripe, PayPal, etc., are included in Shopify besides its Shopify payments gateway.

As stated earlier, if Shopify payments are not used, transaction fees are charged, making the pricing plans a little bit more expensive than those of its competitors. This feature also has a downside because Shopify’s payment gateway isn’t available worldwide.

Only a few countries like the USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong have Shopify payment gateway. It means that countries other than those listed above are bound to pay the transaction fee to access Shopify’s features. However, you can also enable manual payment methods like bank deposits, cash on delivery, etc. You won’t have to pay any extra charge.

Shipping With Shopify

Shipping or e-Commerce logistics is a crucial element of any business. Hence, to be a perfect store builder site, it must have an effortless and highly efficient logistics system. Shopify excels in this criteria, so let’s review its shipping system.

You can set the shipping rates and rules using their backend for every product you sell in your store. Either you offer free shipping or charge your customers based on the shipping costs set in that particular region or country.

To make your business more productive and help expand, Shopify also integrates your store with carriers such as UPS, FedEx, etc. This integration takes the burden of finalizing the shipping rates off your shoulder as the third-party calculated shipping rates are provided during checkout. These third-party calculated shipping rates are set accordingly, and you won’t have to bother about setting the rates keeping in view the shipping costs of a specific place.

Shopify also provides discounted shipping labels for your orders to get fulfilled, which have to be printed and stuck to the parcel. This feature saves you both time and money. At Shopify, the orders are fulfilled by dropshipping providers that make it a leading solution for dropshipping.

Shopify and Taxes

Shopify is an incredible platform to use when taxes are concerned. You get an automatic tax calculator to calculate the tax on your products and put the price tag accordingly. It depends entirely on whether you want to display the price, including the tax, or without it. Also, there is a provision of manual tax settings that allows you to set the taxes for a specific country or region.

Exploring Other Sales Channels with Shopify

The first step to set your foot into the business world is by building your own Shopify store. After you have completed the first challenge, the next hurdle is to explore your competitors and find out how to expand your businesses and the store.

In our review, we will discuss how social media and other platforms have changed the entire scenario and influenced Shopify.

With Shopify, you can sell your products on social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. You need to tag your products, and Shopify will help you create a section on your account to sell your products. Like these sites, Shopify also helps connect your store with marketplaces like Amazon or eBay, where you can sell your items and look forward to fulfilling your orders.

There are many different sales channels where you can sell your items and fulfill orders using Shopify. The best part about Shopify is that even if you sell your services on different platforms, you will have the full liberty to manage it from one place, that is the Shopify backend.

Shopify Online Marketing Features

Shopify is so popular amongst the new entrepreneurs because it provides them the necessary tools to establish their store, which are hard to find on other platforms. These tools are critical to increase the volume of sales and expand your brand. So, let’s review the online marketing features of Shopify.

Abandoned Cart Recovery

Over more than 60% of the online shoppers don’t finish their purchase and abandon their carts. There are many reasons for this act—high shipping charges, a complicated checkout process, etc. To help ease the process and bring back the customers who abandoned their carts, Shopify provides you with an abandoned cart recovery tool.

Using this tool, you can generate emails automatically through Shopify, mention some discount coupons, and send them to the target audience. By doing so, you can intrigue the customers who did not place their orders and left the cart empty.

However, this system has a slight pitfall, even though it is relatively straightforward. After creating your personalized email address, you cannot send emails until your email Id crosses the period. But the best feature is that there are apps in the store that can help you overcome this problem and get things under your control. Hence, use email marketing tools to recover the abandoned cart and get the orders placed by your customers.

Sell Face-to-Face with Shopify – PoS

Unlike brick and mortar stores, you cannot sell your services and items face to face on an online platform. However, Shopify breaks the conventions and enables you to sell your items in person.

For those who want to sell their services offline using their physical store, Shopify provides the option to integrate their physical store to Shopify’s Point of sale (PoS) and sell their items. All your activities will be synced to Shopify’s backend that offers you a single management platform.

If you are a beginner, then you can start your start-up and sell small items. Use the PoS app and receive the payments until you become successful and open your Shopify store. If you are interested in selling your items in an offline mode, you can get access to the PoS hardware that will ease your task.

Shopify SEO- Any Good?

The SEO rankings that your website gets are not much affected by which website builder you use but by the content that you write. If you have irrelevant content on your website and the visuals are not good, no customers will visit your site.

This lack of visitors and traffic will lead to low rankings. However, there are some drawbacks related to SEO that Shopify has. We will review these drawbacks here to optimize your website in the best possible way and get higher rankings.

The URL structure in Shopify is not customizable, which means that there will be certain words in the URL that will always appear. You cannot change those words, and it is a significant drawback that Shopify SEO has.
The robot.txt file is auto-generated by Shopify. This file cannot be customized and thus hampers your SEO rankings.
Creating the sub-categories is a tedious process while you are building your site on Shopify. It is not an easy task to do the categorization, and thus your page suffers a setback on the SEO ground.
Creating non-eCommerce content is another challenging task. Since there are some limitations, you cannot get the desired results. Hence, you cannot fulfill your SEO strategy while creating such content on Shopify.

If these pitfalls are set aside, the overall functioning of Shopify SEO is excellent and effective. Several SEO parameters are easy to customize.

Shopify Blog and Content Creation

Shopify comes with a built-in blogging software where you can create your non-eCommerce and eCommerce content. However, this blogging software comes with limitations, which will be highlighted in this review.

The pros of this Shopify Blog

Your Shopify store is entirely integrated with this blogging software so that you can effortlessly create the content for your store’s webpage.
You can easily set the tags wherever necessary in the content.
There are no limits on the number of authors. You can work with a group of content writers to develop the best-selling content or blog.
The SEO parameters that are essential for your blog can be easily customized.

The cons of this Shopify Blog

The layouts provided for content creation are not flexible, making it harder for you to work on.
The editors fail to develop new ideas and elements like galleries, etc. They feel that the software is too old to work on.
Since the categorization feature is not present, a content creator is forced to use the tags provided.
A commenting system needs to be added whenever the content is created. The writer finds it harder to add this system to his content.
There is no feature in this blogging software to add the related posts to your article or blog.
You cannot insert the links to your services or items that you are writing the article for in your blogs.

Despite having so many cons, Shopify blogging software is the best blogging platform you will find, which leads those present on Volusion or BigCommerce.

Reporting and Analytics

Bigcommerce provides all its customers access to all its features, unlike Shopify, which has divided the elements based on the pricing plans. So the person who opts for the Basic Shopify plan gets lesser features while opting for advanced plans gets additional aspects.

Thus, the Shopify reports are either excellent or exceptional, and these reports are based on the pricing plan you opt for. Let’s review them to know more.

Limitations of Basic Shopify plans:

Only have a few metrics like orders, user sessions, etc.
They provide real-time reports only.
You get financial reports which contain payments, sales, taxes, etc.
There are acquisition reports available that let you know about the primary source of your visitors.
You get the reports, including conversion rates, checkout rates, etc.
The marketing campaigns provide you with an analytics report.

Perks of the Shopify plan:

The sales reports are generated in this plan, which connects the sales metrics to that of the customers.
This plan also includes customer reports that help you know your customer better.

The advanced or Shopify plus plan, in return, lets you generate custom reports which provide you with in-depth details of any product.

Shopify App Store

All the Website building websites have their own store of different apps, while Shopify’s store is flooded with different varieties that match all your needs. You get apps for email marketing integration, customizing templates, dropshipping connects, and many more. You name the app, and you will find it in the store for sure.

These apps will save you both time and money because you won’t have to rely on other sites or experts to give you the desired results. The apps present are both free and paid. The majority of them are paid ones with advanced components and usage.

All the apps in the store have reviews that will help you to find a suitable app for your needs. So, before choosing one, make sure you go through the app review carefully.

It won’t be wrong to say that some of the apps are developed by Shopify itself. Mostly the apps which deal with social media site integrations are developed by Shopify and these apps are not to be found on any other website or platform. However, you should be aware that the paid apps will cost you a lot. So, carefully choose the apps which you intend to use.

Shopify Support and Experts

You have options like live chats, emails, and phone numbers on Shopify’s official site where you can contact anytime. Shopify has an excellent customer support system and that support is offered to your 24/7. There are experts present on the other side who will help you sort out all your problems.

You get instant responses and they are very helpful. The experts provide quality solutions and knowledgeable guidance to make your journey successful. The support system that Shopify has is unbeatable.

There are many detailed videos and guides which you can refer to get your answers if by any chance not contacted by any of their expert teams. So, wherever you are stuck and whatever time it is, you can always seek help and get accurate answers and guidance in return.

Security and Back

If your business and store’s details are stolen by someone else, you might end up in big trouble. Security and backup are essential when working on digital platforms because, like the pickpockets on land, there are hackers who are hungry for your digital data.

Shopify is an all-rounder protector of your store and online data. It makes sure that all your belongings stay safe. The security and updates are all in control of Shopify, unlike other platforms like CMS or WordPress. The level 1 PCI Compliant server is what Shopify uses as a supportive software to run on. This server accepts only credit card payments. Also, as stated earlier, SSL encryption is deployed to all Shopify stores to prevent a data breach.

Like any other online platform, there is a backup system in Shopify too. You will get a data backup app from the app store to ensure your information stays safe. This app is advanced, and all your information is stored in it that you will find even if you delete any file by mistake.

The key takeaway is that you should regularly backup your store-related details and keep a strong password that cannot be decoded.

Shopify Review Conclusion: Is this Tool for you?

If you plan to open an online store and are waiting for the right kind of tool, wait no more because Shopify is the best website-building tool that you can ever opt for. There are various advantages of choosing this dynamic website building site, and as a bonus, you get access to many different features.

However, with everything that shines bright, a black spot on the surface determines its pitfall. The same is the case with Shopify. Hence, stay tuned to this review to know more about Shopify’s advantages and pitfalls.

Advantages of Shopify

The process of building your store, managing the products, the payment process, and fulfillment becomes effortless.
You can modify the templates and themes to suit your store ideas, and for that, you need not have any technical know-how.
You need not worry about content marketing as Shopify does it for you. Thanks to its blogging software, your entire task is significantly reduced.
With the upgraded templates and apps found in the app store, you can effortlessly re-design or edit your store’s visuals and make the necessary changes.
You can customize your store and many other elements if you are a professional designer, have a technical background, or have hired a professional.
Shopify has 24/7 customer support, which is hard to find in any other eCommerce platform. This feature gives it an edge over other platforms.
Irrespective of your business’s growth, you can find all the suitable tools and elements on Shopify for your store because it can be used for all kinds of projects.
Shopify is a boon for the dropshipping providers, for it integrates with many of them and brings them businesses.
The offline business has become much more comfortable with Shopify’s PoS system.

Shopify’s Flaws

You need to have a specified budget to use Shopify as it is not that cheap.
The additional transactional fee is the game changer and is Shopify’s biggest flaw. Besides, Shopify payments are not available in many countries, which is a significant drawback.
If you intend to set up a multi-lingual store to attract customers worldwide, you will face a hard time on Shopify. For developing such stores, you will either have to opt for paid apps or third-party apps to get your store done.
The excellent and essential features are available only in Shopify or Shopify plus plans, which are expensive, and a beginner cannot afford them.
You will face many SEO issues in Shopify, which might hamper your SEO rankings.

Is Shopify the Right Choice for you?

Shopify is recommended to you only if you desire to do the things listed below.

You are interested in putting digital or physical goods on sale both in a physical and digital store.
Customer logins hold a crucial significance for your business.
You want to integrate third-party apps and eCommerce features effortlessly with your store.
You want to enhance your store’s visuals using a suitable app and templates and want to control them entirely by yourself.
A wide variety of payment options are essential for your new setup.

Shopify isn’t the right choice for some reasons, and we don’t want you to waste your money and time. Hence, Shopify only if you are not setting up a store with these things listed below.

If you are interested in branching out your brand worldwide and opening a multi-lingual store, you better not opt for Shopify.
You have a big brand and a website and want to open a small store to indulge in side-business.

Shopify Alternatives

BigCommerce

Though Shopify and BigCommerce are in the same boat, their minor setbacks create a vast difference. Unlike Shopify, Bigcommerce is a top-notch eCommerce website that has excellent SEO. Besides, you don’t have to pay any transaction fee for purchasing any plan and get all the necessary elements irrespective of what you pay.

These added benefits must compete in the digital platform where hundreds and thousands of entrepreneurs and websites are in the race.

Further Reading: BigCommerce vs Shopify (2022) – Which is Best?

WooCommerce

If you have some technical know-how and are familiar with words like MySQL, plugin updates, etc., you are good to use Woocommerce. Why choose Woocommerce over Shopify? The answer is pretty simple. On Woocommerce, you can effortlessly build your multi-lingual store and also get added benefits and the desired flexibility to work.

Related: Best Free WooCommerce Themes in 2023

Wix eCommerce

Further Reading: Wix vs Shopify (2022) – Pros and Cons

Wix eCommerce is a store-building website that accommodates only small stores and businesses. Storeowners who look for a small store with great content and a simple payment checkout process can efficiently use Wix for it is designed to meet all their requirements.

Are you interested in Wix? Check our detailed Wix pricing review and learn which plan to pick and which to avoid?

Wix e-commerce builder is designed keeping in mind the requirements of beginners, and hence it is much easier to be used than Shopify.

Check our detailed article for more Shopify alternatives

Techie Stuff (Mainly for Geeks)

Let’s have a quick review of the uptime and response server of Shopify.

According to the recent data, Shopify’s uptime is 100%, and no outages were noted. The customers on eCommerce platforms generally seek sites with an uptime of a minimum of 99.95%. Shopify excels in this criteria as it has an average uptime of 99.99%.

You won’t like your customers to face a slow loading page and then leave you forever. No one likes slow pages, and to gain more visitors, you need to ensure that your pages open with the speed of light. Hence, to get a faster website and allure your customers with your service and goods, make sure that you opt for Shopify.

FAQs

Can I use Shopify on my phone?

Shopify’s free app is available on both iOS and Android devices. You can effortlessly create your shop and manage it online using this app. Now you need not wait for the right opportunity and the right place. Install this app as soon as possible and start with your online business.

Add customers, contact them, open stores, change the templates, etc. You can fulfill all these tasks on your phone using Shopify’s excellent app.

Is there a backup solution for Shopify?

Shopify provides a backup system for you for saving your store’s details. This process has to be done manually and consists of a long list of tedious processes. However, there are automated solutions also present for your ease. You can find these solutions in their application store.

What is the Shopify Exchange Marketplace?

There are many stores that are present on Shopify, and several business people either buy another shop or sell their shop similar to what you do in a stock marketplace. Shopify Exchange marketplace allows you to do the same. This marketplace plays a vital role in your life if you want to sell your existing shop or buy another project.