Running a small business can be frustrating because it may not give you enough income, especially since you mainly rely on local customers in your area. But with reliable eCommerce platforms like Shopify, you can easily gain global exposure and get the word out about your products or services. If you are looking for a simple and inexpensive way to take your small business online, a Shopify store is an ideal choice. This article will explain why Shopify is suitable for your small business.
What’s Shopify?
Shopify is a patented eCommerce platform designed to help entrepreneurs create online stores and retail point-of-sale systems for their products and services. This platform offers you a wide range of services like payments, shipping, customer engagement tools, and marketing. It also allows you to sync your inventory and stock for both physical and online stores, allowing you to manage your business from a single account.
Shopify offers you a simple and quick way to launch your business. It’s also very cost-effective because you can use the already existing templates and tools to create your online store. The only cost you might incur is to hire a professional Shopify developer. Thankfully, many qualified Shopify developers offer freelance services here on Guru. Therefore, you don’t have to hire an in-house developer for this task.
One of the common questions that entrepreneurs ask about Shopify is: Do you need an LLC for Shopify? The simple answer is that it doesn’t matter if your business is an LLC or a sole proprietor business; this eCommerce platform works for all types of businesses.
Benefits of Shopify for Small Businesses
Easy to Work With
Shopify is a software as a service (SaaS) platform, meaning that it offers admin and frontend facilities, making it easy to work with. This also helps you to manage your online store easily because you don’t need to have special technical skills. The platform also handles things like performing software updates, maintaining security, running the servers, and other costly tasks that small businesses can’t afford.
Shopify experts understand everything concerning cybersecurity and all legal issues concerning running an eCommerce store. So, you don’t have to be bothered with the safety of your business. You also don’t have to worry about compliance with the relevant business regulators because Shopify experts have already laid the groundwork. But it’s important to have in-house or freelance Shopify experts to double-check your daily operations for compliance.
Variety of Features
Shopify is loaded with features that will enable you to add products, manage inventory, ship products to customers, and perform other important tasks. These features are essential for your business because they’ll allow your daily operations to run smoothly. Additionally, Shopify provides tools to help you accept digital payments, provided you qualify for its payment system.
Fortunately, Shopify’s payment rates are among the most competitive and secure. Its payment system includes protection against fraud and PCI compliance. This platform is also firmly integrated with popular social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Google Shopping.
Inexpensive Entry
Although Shopify charges a monthly fee, it offers a great value when you break everything down. Plus, it doesn’t have any hidden costs like many other low-cost open-source eCommerce platforms. Remember that you still have to pay for web hosting, even when you go for the free platforms.
Although there are platforms that charge just a few bucks for their services, they often provide low-quality and unreliable services, poor support, and overcrowded servers. So, the mantra “you get what you pay for” is very true. Besides, Shopify will give you peace of mind knowing that highly trained and reliable professionals are in charge of everything.
Built-in and Adaptable Toolset
To run your online store effectively, you will need a variety of tools, including integrated marketing tools, and reporting tools, among others. Thankfully, Shopify offers an array of useful tools to help you run your business. It also has an ecosystem of adaptable apps that allow you to customize your store. These apps will add fancy features to your frontend and make your backend more user-friendly by allowing you to perform important tasks like shipping, accounting, marketing, and managing inventory.
Reliable Support
Unlike other eCommerce platforms, Shopify offers full-time customer support through email, live chat, and phone. It also provides you with a huge database of online resources to guide you on how to use Shopify and improve your business. Furthermore, this platform has a special service known as “Kit” that functions the same as a virtual employee. It will continuously analyze your online store and send you important tips and guides on how to perform certain tasks to improve your business.
Finally, Shopify isn’t just a single piece of software – it’s an all-inclusive eCommerce platform with different features, tools, and services designed to help you run your business smoothly. It offers inexpensive services that will help you cut the cost of running your small business.
