Shopping cart solutions need to be easy to implement and use, while still offering a good range of features and robust security. Shopify is well known as one of the easiest hosted shopping cart solutions available, and it allows online entrepreneurs to have access to strong features in order to make a strong site with good back-end features.
Offered by JadedPixel, Shopify offers a good degree of customization. This alone makes it worth a look, as hosted solutions tend to be less customizable in general than those that are deployed and hosted on-premise. As most of the successful online entrepreneurs have discovered, it is important to be able to customize each shop’s look and feel. Many solutions do offer store templates, and this does indeed make it easy to get a store online. The downside of those templates, however, is that there are a thousand other shops using them too, and your store has the potential to get lost in the crowd. Shopify’s ability to customize your shop easily lets you put your own design and personality into your shop without much trouble.
The greatest level of customization will take some technical knowledge. But even for those with fewer customization needs or not as much technical know-how, Shopify fits the bill, with simple tools and very easy-to-use Web design components.
Shopify also goes beyond basic design to include other features that many shop operators find necessary, such as order management and the ability to send out shipping notifications to customers. In addition to Shopify’s own reporting capabilities, it is also possible to download the data into your own database if desired. Of course, inventory management is incorporated, allowing you to keep track of the items you have, and users can also add non-sales pages, including a store blog.
Shopify also offers a marketing element, and there is an email list builder that can be used to create an email marketing campaign. When your customers are ready to buy, you can use Shopify with your own merchant account, PayPal, Google Checkout, and many other payment methods.
Getting set up with the Shopify hosted shopping cart system is very quick and easy. There is no need to worry about hosting, backup, or scalability, and you can start out with Shopify when you are a new start-up with little traffic and stay with it as you grow.