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Shopify

Shopify

Overview

What is Shopify?

Shopify is a commerce platform designed for both online stores and retail locations. Shopify offers a professional online storefront, a payment solution to accept credit cards, and the Shopify POS application to power retail sales.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Shopify is a versatile platform that fulfills various use cases for businesses of all sizes. Users have found success using Shopify as …
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Shopify Makes Selling, Easy

7 out of 10
November 11, 2022
We use Shopify for the sale of one of our product offerings. We needed a platform for people to easily purchase our product from instead …
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King of E-Commerce

10 out of 10
December 02, 2021
I'm using Shopify in my organization for my online E- Commerce platform. Shopify helps us to showcase our products properly in a very good …
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Shopify, or not?

8 out of 10
June 22, 2021
Incentivized
We use Shopify as our eCommerce tool across the whole organization. We're a small company, so we needed something we could set up and …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 20 features
  • Product catalog & listings (131)
    8.6
    86%
  • Branding (130)
    8.4
    84%
  • Visual customization (129)
    7.5
    75%
  • Product management (129)
    7.3
    73%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

View all pros & cons
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Pricing

View all pricing

Shopify Lite

$9

Cloud
per month

Basic Shopify

$29

Cloud
per month

Shopify

$79

Cloud
per month

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.shopify.com/pricing

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Starting price (does not include set up fee)

  • $29 per month
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Product Demos

1-Minute Demo of How Packwerk Works | Shopify Engineering

YouTube

Basel Shopify - Use One Click Import Demo Tool

YouTube

Shopify Online Store 2.0 Demo: Dawn, the new Theme Editor, and Metafields...

YouTube

Instant Search + for Shopify Demo

YouTube

Australia Post Shipping Labels for Shopify - App Demo

YouTube

Hydrogen Coding Demo with Tobi Lütke | Shopify Unite 2021

YouTube
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Features

Online Storefront

Features for creating an online storefront with a browse-able product catalog.

7.5
Avg 7.7

Online Shopping Cart

Features that facilitate the collection of items so that customers can purchase them as a group.

8.1
Avg 7.6

Online Payment System

Features related to processing online payment for eCommerce purchases.

9
Avg 8.3

eCommerce Marketing

Features related to marketing for eCommerce websites

8
Avg 7.5

eCommerce Business Management

Features related to business management and administration of eCommerce operations

8
Avg 7.8
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Product Details

What is Shopify?

Shopify is a commerce platform that allows anyone to easily sell online, at a retail location, and everywhere in between. Shopify offers a professional online storefront, a payment solution to accept credit cards, and the Shopify POS application to power retail sales. Shopify is used by over 90,000 retailers in 100 different countries.

As a SaaS, Shopify's stability and always-on availability are touted. The eCommerce site presents the customary inventory and presentation controls typical of eCommerce solutions. Items are organized into collections, or using smart collections customize groupings to fit the merchandise (e.g. less than $20 items, gift ideas, bundles, etc.). Content management features (e.g. a blog) are present for tailoring the look and interactivity of the site.

For selling online, the $14 Starter pack includes a basic eCommerce site with 1GB of storage, chat & email support, and support for 25 listings. The $29 Basic pack includes POS and unlimited products, as well as fraud analysis tools. The $79 Professional Pack bumps storage space from 1GB to 5GB and adds gift cards, professional reports, and abandoned cart recovery. Finally, Unlimited, at $179 per month, makes space unlimited, and provides advanced reporting and real-time carrier shipping.

Shopify Features

Online Storefront Features

  • Supported: Product catalog & listings
  • Supported: Product management
  • Supported: Bulk product upload
  • Supported: Branding
  • Supported: Search & filter
  • Supported: Mobile storefront
  • Supported: Product variations
  • Supported: Subscriptions & downloads
  • Supported: Website integration
  • Supported: Visual customization
  • Supported: CMS

Online Shopping Cart Features

  • Supported: Abandoned cart recovery
  • Supported: Tax calculator
  • Supported: Shipping calculator
  • Supported: Integration with Amazon
  • Supported: Integration with eBay
  • Supported: Checkout user experience

Online Payment System Features

  • Supported: PayPal integration
  • Supported: Returns & refunds
  • Supported: Single-click checkout
  • Supported: eCommerce security

eCommerce Marketing Features

  • Supported: Promotions & discounts
  • Supported: SEO
  • Supported: Product reviews
  • Supported: Social commerce integration
  • Supported: Customer registration

eCommerce Business Management Features

  • Supported: Order processing
  • Supported: Inventory management
  • Supported: Shipping
  • Supported: Custom functionality

Shopify Videos

Subscribe to Shopify
Shopify is a powerful tool for ecommerce, but users will have to know how to setup products and collections to get the most out of it. We go through the process step by step.

Shopify Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android

Frequently Asked Questions

Shopify is a commerce platform designed for both online stores and retail locations. Shopify offers a professional online storefront, a payment solution to accept credit cards, and the Shopify POS application to power retail sales.

Shopify starts at $29.

PrestaShop, Volusion, and Miva are common alternatives for Shopify.

Reviewers rate Website integration highest, with a score of 9.2.

The most common users of Shopify are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

View all alternatives
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Reviews and Ratings

(590)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Shopify is a versatile platform that fulfills various use cases for businesses of all sizes. Users have found success using Shopify as their primary webpage to showcase and sell unique products, catering to different brands and the general public. The platform's easy-to-use features and integration with third-party apps make it the go-to choice for most small business e-commerce requirements. Shopify has proven particularly useful for selling apparel, books, and various other products, with its seamless printing and package preparation capabilities. Additionally, organizations benefit from Shopify's efficient inventory management, integration with the US Postal Service, and discounts on order fulfillment. Notably, Shopify stands out among other e-commerce platforms due to its beginner-friendly user experience, ease of use, and integration with popular platforms like ShipStation and MailChimp. It is also highly regarded for its SEO capabilities, low cost as a hosted solution, and integrated shopping cart functionality. Overall, Shopify serves as a powerful tool for managing sales, stock, shipments, and online presence - making it the backbone of many small businesses' operations.

Based on user reviews, there are three common recommendations for Shopify. Firstly, users highly recommend Shopify for its quick and easy setup process. Customers mention that they were able to get their eCommerce stores up and running in no time, thanks to Shopify's user-friendly interface and intuitive features. Secondly, users often describe Shopify as the best plug-and-play solution for eCommerce stores. They appreciate the seamless integration of various tools and extensions, allowing them to easily customize their online stores and enhance the overall shopping experience for their customers. Lastly, reviewers also highlight the reliability of Shopify as a platform for managing their eCommerce businesses. They praise its robust infrastructure, reliable hosting, and responsive customer support team, which provides assistance whenever needed.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-4 of 4)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Shopify Plus is the version that we are using and it is the best online platform that we have found, bar none. We have used several different systems, including but not limited to OFBiz, Magento, and BigCommerce. Each of those other platforms have severe limitations or problems, and we have encountered none of them with Shopify. The best part for us is that we are saving thousands of $$ per month, from just hosting and general fees for merchant accounts to developers and server issues. And between the 3 active sites that we have on Shopify Plus, we are doing around $20M in sales. We love the app store and that really provides so many quick fixes or plugs gaps that we need and most of them cost little to nothing to add into your store. We couldn't be more pleased with Shopify and it has changed how we do things for the better!!!
  • Much more cost effective than any other platform that we have found.
  • Speed, speed, speed. The load times are much better than any other sites that we have used or found.
  • The app store provides solutions for any of the little changes or things that we want to do on our sites.
  • Customer service is fantastic, very helpful and quick to resolve issues that we have.
  • None that we have come across yet.
If you are wanting to run an online business, Shopify is the place to go. We have tried so many other platforms and nothing can compete with Shopify Plus. They have a slick interface, easy to use tools, and it is open enough for you to get in there and code to your heart's content. They have an awesome feature which allows you to setup wholesale clients and give them custom pricing that only they can see. It allows you to do both retail and wholesale on 1 site, which is great and has been very helpful for us to condense the number of sites that we need. The pricing is very fair too, especially when you work out multiple sites with them.
Online Storefront (9)
98.88888888888889%
9.9
Product catalog & listings
100%
10.0
Product management
100%
10.0
Bulk product upload
100%
10.0
Branding
100%
10.0
Mobile storefront
100%
10.0
Product variations
90%
9.0
Website integration
100%
10.0
Visual customization
100%
10.0
CMS
100%
10.0
Online Shopping Cart (2)
100%
10.0
Abandoned cart recovery
100%
10.0
Checkout user experience
100%
10.0
Online Payment System (1)
100%
10.0
eCommerce security
100%
10.0
eCommerce Marketing (2)
100%
10.0
Promotions & discounts
100%
10.0
SEO
100%
10.0
eCommerce Business Management (4)
100%
10.0
Order processing
100%
10.0
Inventory management
100%
10.0
Shipping
100%
10.0
Custom functionality
100%
10.0
  • Positive within the 1st month, even with switchover development costs. We ended up saving several thousand dollars per site because of the pricing that we worked out with them because we brought over several websites to their ecosystem.
  • Ongoing dev costs are way down, because of the simplicity of using Shopify.
We left BigCommerce and immediately were thrilled. BigCommerce worked fine but we saw immediate savings of several thousand dollars per month. The site speeds and page load times were way better and the app store is very comparable. Many of the features are similar between the two, but we much prefer the interface and backend of Shopify. The customer support is also much better. The overall experience between the 2 is not even close, in our mind.
10
Everything from order, shipping, inventory management, CMS, fulfillment, customer service, etc. We try and do as much as we can within the Shopify platform and it syncs perfectly with every other system that we use.
2
Depending on the levels of customization that you have going on, you may want or need to have a person familiar enough with HTML/CSS to handle what you want done on the look and feel of your site. There are plenty of tools and themes that you can use which eliminate the need for in-house help, if you aren't doing anything major to your site. We have several sites and do quite a bit of customizing, so we have a team of people dedicated to maintaining and running the sites.
  • Online Sales
  • Order Management
  • Wholesale Ordering Portal for B2B customers
  • Totally customized the site to meet our design needs. We aren't limited to using simple themes or basic designs. It has been nice to have the flexibility.
  • Wholesale and retail customers, all served within the same online site. Makes for simple ordering for all customers, B2B and B2C.
  • More websites.
Nothing we have used in the past or have seen thus far even comes close to offering what we get with Shopify Plus, especially for the price. You cannot even come close to getting what we are getting at the price we pay. We are beyond thrilled and Shopify Plus meets and exceeds all of our needs and expectations. We love it!
Yes
BigCommerce, Magento, OFBiz
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Third-party Reviews
PRICE. The cost for our organization dropped by several thousand dollars per month to get more features, faster websites, and better support. How can you not jump on something like that???
We wouldn't change a thing.
  • Implemented in-house
Yes
First we designed the sites and got all of the assets in place. API was setup for warehouse and order management. Everything was in sandbox mode and we made sure that everything functioned exactly how we needed it to. Then, we migrated all order and customer data over from old platform and then went live. Once that shift was made, we then started to integrate other systems and applications that weren't essential for launch, such as accounting, email management tools, etc. Everything went smooth.
Change management was minimal
That we are a well oiled machine and that Shopify just made things run even smoother and more effectively! Not sure that I understand this question, but moving to Shopify was a painless experience for our organization and we would do it over again, exactly the way that we did it the first time.
  • Getting small design features exactly the way that we wanted them, both for mobile and desktop users. We are very particular on certain elements and we did a lot of customization work that many other organizations probably wouldn't do, so that took more time and fine-tooth combing to ensure that it was up to our standard.
Just start now and make the switch, the sooner the better. You will love it and it is really a simple process.
No
Because we are on the Plus platform, we already get the highest level of support included. It is awesome and just baked into the price that we are paying to run all of our websites.
Fast responses, especially using the online chat support. And if the person can't figure out my issue, they will escalate it themselves and get us someone that can fix the problem that we are having. If problems ever arise, they have usually seen that something is off and already working on the solution. They have an awesome status page that we check first to see if something is wrong.
No
Just the other day, we were having an issue with a bot subscribing customers to our account that weren't real customers. They offered a quick solution and encouraged us to enable CAPTCHA on the newsletter signup page, and that solved the issue. It took 5 minutes and we were all set and have not seen any more issues since then.
  • Order management works great.
  • Many features are just built right into the system and simple to customize and add your personal touch to, such as notifications, cart abandonment emails, etc.
  • API is fantastic and easy to use for warehouses, accounting, analytics, etc. Everything ties into other products so seamlessly and just works.
  • Still haven't found anything that was particularly troublesome or hard for us.
Yes
It provides a lot of the basics that you need. I can respond to customers or update orders or discounts or site messaging right from the golf course on my phone. Some of the more comprehensive things, like changing up product page content or changing the theme variables and design isn't really all that easy to do on a phone, but I wouldn't ever attempt to do that anyways. The mobile app is perfect for the simple things that we are likely to do on the phone.
Very simple interface for the beginning online seller and open enough for the old dev guy that wants to code things his/her way and needs a little more flexibility. The API is easy to use and works well for everything that we have ever needed or tried to do. The app store also provides tons of simple fixes or enhancements for things that you may want to implement on your website. Most of them are free or very low cost, so it works great.
February 09, 2017

Authentic Shopify Review

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We used Shopify for every aspect of our company. We created products through their network with Printful as well as created a website and used their payment system. It was used throughout every department of our company. It addressed the problem of inventory, payment, shipping and website design as well as giving the ability for customers to purchase and pay for their item without leaving the interface. It was a great tool that brought together many of the different needs of the company to make the user experience as seamless as possible. I enjoyed how easy it was to use the Shopify program.
  • Drop Shipping Options
  • Payment and Invoicing
  • Website Design
  • Interfaces with social media
  • Integrated different clothing companies (i.e. Printful)
  • Different options for start up companies
  • Wider range of partners to interface with
  • Ability to cross sell on many other social media sites
Shopify is the perfect interface for an individual or company looking for many different uses in a single location. The ability for the site to be used as a tool for an e-commerce company, website host, selling tool, and interface with other online clothing providers gave me the ability to keep focused on one site to do all I needed. The analytics of the site were also helpful and were used to see where I needed to put more attention. I love the ability that once the product was created it worked seamlessly with what I was selling
Online Storefront (9)
81.11111111111111%
8.1
Product catalog & listings
90%
9.0
Product management
90%
9.0
Bulk product upload
90%
9.0
Branding
90%
9.0
Mobile storefront
80%
8.0
Product variations
50%
5.0
Website integration
80%
8.0
Visual customization
70%
7.0
CMS
90%
9.0
Online Shopping Cart (2)
90%
9.0
Abandoned cart recovery
90%
9.0
Checkout user experience
90%
9.0
Online Payment System (1)
90%
9.0
eCommerce security
90%
9.0
eCommerce Marketing (3)
90%
9.0
Promotions & discounts
90%
9.0
Personalized recommendations
90%
9.0
SEO
90%
9.0
eCommerce Business Management (5)
90%
9.0
Multi-site management
90%
9.0
Order processing
90%
9.0
Inventory management
90%
9.0
Shipping
90%
9.0
Custom functionality
90%
9.0
  • Because I was just starting out the price of the service cost us more money than we wanted to spend.
  • It would have worked better after we had a greater client base.
  • We were losing a lot of money because there was no option for a start-up company that was trying to build its customer base.
1
Creator and director of the company. I am the only employee so I used it in every aspect of the business. I personally created the website, managed inventory, synced new products and created shipping and payment options. I was a great tool for me because I was the only person using the software. It was a great one stop shop.
I no longer use Shopify because of the cost of the product. I would have hired someone else after I got things up and running to manage this. I feel that the best person for this job would be self motivated, a hard worker and able to understand the product that they are working towards.
  • Shipping
  • Website
  • Inventory
  • Social Media
  • Website design
  • Drop Shipping
  • Manage more inventory
  • Online store options
  • social integration
It was too expensive for the state that my business was in. After I get up on my feet again and can gain more of a customer base it may be an option. Right now it just was not a feasible way for me to run my growing business. I hope to use it again soon.
No
  • Product Features
  • Prior Experience with the Product
  • Analyst Reports
I loved the ability of having all of the interfaces in one single location. I was able to look at so many things and do so much in one location it gave me the ability to spend more time creating a better product. The fact of not worrying about five different websites was a life saver.
I would have waited to join until I had a stronger and more well informed client base. I jumped the gun or creating too much of a business with not enough clientele. With the ability to market on social media I would have started out slow and grown to a place in my business that Shopify would have helped me thrive.
  • The availability of many interfaces
  • Partnership with social media
  • Payment and Shipping options
  • Tax calculator
  • Inventory
Yes, but I don't use it
I think most people are able to suer Shopify that have used a computer. There are some features that take a bit longer to learn. If you are not a creative person it may be a bit more difficult to learn the website customization, but with a help guide or tutorial it will only take a few tries to understand how to work the interface.
David Green | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use company to allow my clients to focus on marketing their products instead of focusing on the technical setup supporting their shop. Previously I used other software to setup e-commerce websites, but Shopify is so much more user friendly that it both helps my clients and helps myself by minimizing the amount of support requests I receive after the launch of a client store.
  • Shopify takes care of hosting your store, so there's no need for server administration or stressing about security.
  • Shopify has extremely high quality standards for themes, so clients can know they'll always get a quality theme to build their store with. It delivers efficient code and attractive appearance for an affordable price.
  • Every time I've contacted Shopify for support I've received a prompt answer with the correct solution. Many times even better solutions than I hoped for.
  • Shopify comes with support for running a blog, but the content editor has the occasional quirk that causes annoyance when you find them. Luckily there are work arounds and many users will never encounter these difficulties, but it takes some time to figure out a solution when you do.
  • While you can almost 100% customize the visual appearance of a store, some of the customization of features is limited. This can often be rectified by using one of the apps in the apps marketplace, but this adds monthly costs to your store.
When clients ask me whether they should go with Shopify, Magento, WordPress, or some other solution, I always ask for more details about the features needed to see if Shopify would provide everything they need. When Shopify will provide the features it saves clients so much hassle that it's my recommendation. There are certain situations where you may want a very particular method of calculating shipping costs or doing a unique combination of discounts that Shopify can't provide, but you can always call Shopify's support staff and ask them to get a quick answer.
  • I've moved more than one client to Shopify from other software and had them experience a surge in sales because they were able to stop focusing on the tech side of things and simply focus on getting more people to their store and convincing them to convert into customers.
I've used both Magento and WordPress for running stores and while I typically suggest Shopify, WordPress and Magento both give much more room to customize the store. Since you host the software you have the freedom to customize the entire store from the home page to the checkout process. That flexibility comes with a lot less user friendliness and a much higher technical knowledge requirement. Magento in particular is powerful but it is the least user friendly (and even difficult for developers), and I've never personally encountered a time where I couldn't achieve the same deep customization required using WordPress instead. Outside of those heavy feature customization cases though Shopify streamlines the process so much it's the best option. Between the apps available and the features it comes with out of the box you can almost always create the store you want.
Shopify continues to earn me money and attract new customers without becoming a burden to my business, so it only makes sense to stick with Shopify. After beginning with setting up stores for my other clients I became so happy with the platform I progressed to setting up a store for myself.
  • Adding products
  • Changing basic aspects of the visual appearance like font family, color, size, etc.
  • Installing themes in order to make a store look good as soon as possible.
  • Creating unique methods to calculate shipping charges is difficult if not impossible, though it allows basing off of weight or quantity.
  • Adding content to pages can be cumbersome if you utilize a complex page layout.
Yes
The Shopify mobile interface works great. Most themes are responsive so the front-end of your store formats itself for display on all devices, and the app makes it easy to manage your store with a phone or tablet.
All the functionality needed for a basic store is extremely easy to manage. Though some deeper customization requires coding it doesn't hide the code from you and provides an abundance of developer resources.
Jamin McBain | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
What I basically use Shopify for is the management of one of the several e-commerce websites under my supervision. I have them directly interconnected with an application that I used called "Shipstation" , which allows me to ship the product to our customers. At times Shopify can have glitches but it is overall dependable. What I do enjoy about it is the Shopify Application via the iPhone. It works very well and keeps me up to date with the business at all times.
  • The Shopify app for iPhone works really well and makes it easy to check in or update any information.
  • There was an update of the layout that makes looking for orders or customers a lot more easy to find.
  • I really enjoy how well Shopify detects possible fraudulent purchases. It helps to stop unnecessary charge backs.
  • There is always access to previous customers available no matter how long ago they have placed an order.
  • One thing that would need improvement is the return feature. You cannot actually remove an item from a customers order. You can only partially fulfill, then cancel the rest of the order which I find to be discouraging.
  • I cannot tell if is the shipping app or Shopify, but my inventory does not line up correctly between the two.
It is well suited for managing an e-commerce website that makes a decent return in sales. It is beneficial and will save you money in comparison to others that are similar to it.
  • I enjoy how detailed Shopify is in informing of the revenue made for the day, week , and past few months. The way they inform where my traffic is coming from, and what the keywords are that customers are using to find us.
  • With what was stated in my first answer, I can pin point exact projects because of the analytical provided to me via Shopify
One other product I have used is BigCommerce. They are very similar to Shopify, only my problem with them is there is too much clicking and window opening to operate with. Shopify keeps it simple and doesn't have too much clicking to get from one thing to another. If there is something on BigCommerce I like better than on Shopify it is the SEO and SEM management. Though I understand it on both programs, if I was a beginner I would better understand it on BigCommerce because they explain it a bit better.
Shopify is user friendly in comparison to other products that I have used that are similar to it. I am usually loyal to any product that can offer me some type of service without any kind of deficiencies. This is something I have experienced with Shopify so I would gladly use it again.
  • The search function
  • The product update system
  • The iPhone App
  • Refunding specific items in an order
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