Shopify

Introducing Shopify: Everything You Need to Know

What is Shopify?

It is an e-commerce platform that enables you to easily run an online business. It comes with the following features: 
Web hosting; 
Website builder with hundreds of ready-made themes; 
Process transactions with Shopify Stripe Payments; 
Additional features such as discount codes; 
Can be used on your own web domain or on a free subdomain of myshopify.com.

History of Shopify

Back in 2004, three snowboarders wanted to set up their own online snowboarding store. After realising that the existing e-commerce platforms were not quite good enough, they decided to program their online store themselves. After two months of development the store was launched. 

In June 2006 they created the Shopify platform based on their own online store. Three years later the Shopify API platform and App Store were launched. This enabled other developers to create and sell their own applications for Shopify. 

The years that followed saw a number of further significant developments: 
2010: free mobile app launched; 
2012: Shopify acquired Select Start Studios Inc and Jet Cooper; 
2013: launch of Shopify Payments; 
2014: Shopify earned £105 million in revenue; 
2015: Shopify went public on the New York Stock Exchange; 
2016: Shopify acquired Boltmade, partnered with Paystack, launched mobile app Frenzy, and acquired Tiny Hearts; 
2017: integration with Amazon, partnership with Deliv; 

Famous users of Shopify

There are many online stores that use Shopify, but here are some of the top ones: 
The Ghostly Store - no, this is not about ghosts, as the name might suggest. It is actually music store; 
ToyShades - sunglasses store; 
KKW Beauty - makeup store; 
Tropical Sun - food store selling foods and recipes from around the world such as India, the Caribean, and Thailand; 
Harper Wilde - bra store. 

Pros and Cons of Shopify

Pros: 

Fast and secure hosting; 
Everything you need for an online store; 
Customer support is excellent; 
Optimised for search engines; 
Plenty of addons available. 

Cons: 

More expensive than a self-hosted store; 
Can be annoying to customise; 
Built-in blogging software isn’t the best; 
Difficult to move your store elsewhere. 

Should You Use Shopify?

If you don’t have your own web hosting, have little technical knowledge about creating websites, and you want to get your online store set up quickly, Shopify is ideal. It has everything you need all in one place, and you can get it all up and running in a short time.