Shopify

Score8.7 out of 10

700 Reviews and Ratings

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.

Categories & Use Cases

eCommerce security
Security measures are in place to prevent a breach of sensitive payment information.
Category average: 8.2
Mobile storefront
Customers can easily shop on mobile devices; storefront is responsive or mobile optimized.
Category average: 7.8
Order processing
Includes tools or integrations for order processing.
Category average: 8.3

CMS
Beyond product catalog, includes basic content creation and management features such as blogging capabilities.
Category average: 7.1
Inventory management
Includes tools or integrations for managing inventory.
Category average: 7.9
Multi-site management
Administrators can manage multiple storefronts or websites under one umbrella.
Category average: 8.1

Verified User

Employee in Information Technology (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it every day for 90% of our e-commerce business! Seriously, it's also our go-to when using tools like TikTok Shop, so it blends into our ERP without requiring or using multiple pieces of unique software. As a result, we've got a nice website, a dedicated wholesale site, and TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram all flowing through it. Beats the pants off paying enterprise rates to update an ERP!

Pros

Manage inventory.
Run a POS for small pop-up operations.
Dynamically managing a site.
Ease of use in presenting products.
Supporting a lot of apps and customizations.

Cons

The number of apps means they sometimes don't add features because "there's an app for that".
No easy "ban" button for abuse.
Inventory can be a little tricky at times due to lack of proper reporting/logs.

Return on Investment

It's allowed us to expand into other marketplaces easily and at a low cost.
Gave us flexibility in reaching new customers.
Compatibility with applications like Klaviyo lets us drill down into our customer base and target them more effectively.

Usability

Jeff Montgomery

CTO in Manufacturing at Animal Necessity (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Shopify as one of our main e-commerce platforms for our supplements. We chose to use this platform because of it's variety of (semi) easy to use features, connectivity, and trusted partners (such as ReCharge and NoFraud). Shopify allows us to easily sell to our retail customers without the hassle getting too complex with backend code, especially security related. It's admin user interface is simplistic and easy to use for our CSR's on everyday orders.

Pros

It's base security and integration with trusted security partners (such as NoFraud) is a game-changer when it comes to reliability and a "hands off approach" for our IT department. The up-time is also very good.
It offers a wide range of verified plugins that are (for the most part) easy to install and use for any specific scenario you're looking for.
It's Analytics area in the admin is actually nice and offers a wide variety of reports that you can run.

Cons

They nickel and dime you for everything. They also purposely do not add very "typical" features to their core because they want you to purchase plugins (which they get a cut of each month).
Unless you're willing to pony up and pay for Shopify plus, they lock you out of the checkout page code (so, no installing apps there, either).
Their UI sometimes will randomly freeze or not allow you to update something. The only thing we've figured out in those cases is just to wait 30 minutes.
You can't get too "cute" with wanting complex functionalities (esp if there's not a plugin that does exactly what you're wanting to do).

Return on Investment

Shopify has allowed us to easily make retail sales with normal customer operations while being pretty hands-off.
Shopify has taught us that our more complex and custom integrations need to be done on a different system.
Shopify makes you realize that the more "cute" you want to get with integrations, the more you'll pay monthly for everything.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

WooCommerce, WooCommerce Subscriptions and Adobe Commerce

Other Software Used

Adobe Stock, Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe Illustrator CC, Adobe InDesign

Namrata Agarwal View profile

Managing Director in Corporate at Vishisht Lifestyle (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Shopify helped us to create a website for our brand. As an ecommerce brand, it was essential for us to have a website through which we could sell our products online to our target customers.

Pros

Shopify helps brands create high converting ecommerce websites.
It is quite affordable.
It is SEO friendly meaning there are higher chances to rank on Google with a Shopify website.
They have the best support team ever.

Cons

I would love it if Shopify built an in house app which helped us post UGCs and social proof from platforms such as Instagram, Youtube etc. more seamlessly on our website. Right now, we are able to do it through third party apps but the look and feel is just okay.

Return on Investment

Making a website on Shopify helped us build a strong brand identity not just locally but also globally.
We were able to get so many orders even without paid marketing because our website was SEO responsive.
We are able to keep track of all our inventory easily because of our Shopify store.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

GoDaddy

Other Software Used

Google Search Console, Google Business Profile

Shawn Dehner View profile

Shawn at Small House Catalog (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I manage an online store and used Shopify to sell products.

Pros

Marketing
Online store appearance

Cons

Digital downloads
Multiple digital download options

Return on Investment

Neutral to negative

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Squarespace and Wix

Other Software Used

Squarespace, SketchUp, Adobe PhotoShop

Carlos Delgado Barcia View profile

Consultant in Professional Services at Geo Strategy Partners (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Shopify to process all of our order, refunds, payments and inventory. This helps our business sell our devices and process orders in a timely manner.

Pros

Process orders
Maintain a good record of processes
Inventory Management

Cons

Support could be faster
Integration with more systems
Dark Theme

Return on Investment

We've managed to increase our productivity by 75%
During Peak season we managed to sell more than 20,000 units with Shopify
Due to our increase in revenue, we been able to hire more employees

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Wix

Other Software Used

CRM and Deals for Zendesk, Linear App, Amazon Web Services

Shopify

What is Shopify?

Categories & Use Cases

Key Features

Top Performing Features

eCommerce security

Mobile storefront

Order processing

Areas for Improvement

CMS

Inventory management

Multi-site management

Reviews

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