Let’s start with the benefits:

Cloud-based

One of the biggest advantages to Shopify is that you can access your store and make changes regardless of location and device, as it is cloud-based. So nothing has to be downloaded and also all extensions that can be added to the stores in the form of apps are automatically assigned to the store in the cloud. The cloud base also means that you don’t have to worry about SSL certificates or updates. The same goes for maintenance work, because Shopify takes care of everything for its customers here as well. This means that your own store is virtually never “offline” and you can sell 24/7.

Simple operation

The second advantage of Shopify is its ease of use. You don’t have to be a programmer to create a webshop, you can fill the website with content relatively easily using a drag and drop construction kit. This system is called Shopify “Customizer” and is easy for users to use.

Large ecosystem

Shopify offers a large ecosystem. This way, your own store can be improved more and more with a lot of apps. The apps in the Shopify Apps Store can save a lot of programming effort and your own store can be optimized further and further and connected to any number of interfaces. This ever-growing ecosystem also brings the advantage that solutions are constantly being worked on by the Shopify community.

The cost

The fourth advantage is the fairly low cost. This way, a store with all the features that are needed can be run for as little as $29 per month. There are no additional costs to this, because the costs for hosting, maintenance and many other services are all included. Thus, Shopify can be expected to have relatively low fixed costs. For large stores, however, the transaction fee is relevant. This amounts to 2 percent in the standard tariff.

Now let’s move on to the disadvantages:

Cloud-based

The first advantage can also become a disadvantage. Due to the cloud-based store, one is dependent on Shopify for changes and cannot simply let an external programmer implement desired features in the backend. You also don’t have access to hosting, which is usually not a problem but for store owners who would like to do the hosting themselves, this is not possible.

Blog posts

On Shopify, store operators can create a blog, but Shopify is not necessarily specialized for this. So if you actively don’t sell much and want to generate traffic and leads through blog posts, you’re better off with WordPress, for example.

Growing costs due to transactions

With Shopify, costs grow with you through transaction costs. If one wants to lower these, the plan must be upgraded, because a higher plan lowers the transaction costs again.

Get help from a savvy Shopify agency

These were our advantages and disadvantages when it comes to Shopify store system. We hope we could help you with this video. If you still have questions, get in touch with the experts at eBakery, who are a Shopify agency, among other things.