Answers to the most common questions asked about Shopify

Everything you need to know about Shopify and more.

Shopify is one of the fastest-growing e-commerce platforms in the world with many companies migrating from traditional platforms like WordPress and Magento to take advantage of Shopify’s powerful commerce and marketing features to grow their business, customers, and sales. Naturally, there are many questions people have regarding Shopify. We’ve put together answers to the most popular questions to make your transition that much easier.

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• 1. What exactly does Shopify Do?

  Shopify is an online eCommerce platform that allows anyone to set up a business and sell products to anyone in the world. It takes online payments, manages shipping, order processing, tax and vat, customer management, and discounts.

  Shopify combines all commerce into a single platform to allow any individual or large company to build and launch an online store selling physical or digital products. The all-in-one platform allows you to find customers, drive sales and orders, and manage your business day to day.

• 2. Is Amazon on Shopify?

  Amazon isn’t on the Shopify Platform. Amazon runs on AWS (Amazon Web Services) a comprehensive cloud-based platform used by many of the worlds leading software companies. Up until 2018 Shopify was predominantly on AWS but is now using Google’s Web Services Platform to run most of its operations.

• 3. What is the difference between Shopify and Etzy?

  Etsy is a self-hosted platform that allows individuals to sell handmade, vintage, and craft items to customers. It’s more like eBay as you have to set up a shop using Etsy’s own templates that make it very easy to design, set up, and understand. Etsy has the advantage of having an existing customer base and cross-sells products from other individuals to those looking to buy or search.

  Shopify as a comparison allows you to make your very own website and launch your own products as a separate business. The website owner controls all promotion and marketing, making it a perfect platform for businesses looking to grow.

• 4. Is Shopify worth it to sell?

  Shopify can be a very lucrative venture for anyone looking to sell products online. It is a growing platform and is starting to attract large companies such as Huel, Gymshark, and Polaroid to name a few. If you have the right product and marketing, an individual can make a large volume in sales using the Shopify Platform with no restrictions on the number of products or orders that can be made.

• 5. Can I make money on Shopify?

  Quite simply, yes you can make money on Shopify. If you have a service, membership, subscription or product that you can effectively market to your customers you can use Shopify to take payment and manage the delivery of the product via post or email if a digital product. Set up a Shopify store today and start selling your products.

• 6. Can I sell my own products on Shopify?

  Yes, you can sell your own products on Shopify. As long as your products are legal in your country then you can set up a Shopify website, add your products and your pricing, connect your domain, and start selling to your customers. With a great blog, education material, social media channels, and adverts you can bring traffic to your website to convert to sales. Be sure to collect reviews and customer feedback to let others know just how good your products and services are.

• 7. Is Shopify hard to learn?

  Shopify is surprisingly easy to set up and manage. Out of the box with their standard installation, you can easily set up new products and services, add prices and launch your website. Shopify has a fantastic knowledge base that walks you through many of the questions you may have about your new website and their support is quite quick, normally within 24 hours for specific questions related to your website. Shopify gives you 14 days to trial the platform to work your way around the menu structure and design your first website.

  If you’re a complete novice to web and website design, do not be worried. Just follow the instructions provided when setting up your website and follow the help guides.

• 8. How does Shopify get paid?

  Shopify earns revenue in a number of ways. Hosting, App fees, and Transaction Fees.

  Shopify Hosting is a monthly charge that each shop owner pays to Shopify to keep the platform online and supported by their team. Shopify’s pricing structure ranges from £19 - £259 for the standard plans and around £1250 pcm for Shopify plus.

  Shopify App Fees are generated by Shopify when a Shop owner installs a paid app from the Shopify App Store. The first $1 million in sales is free for the App developer but after this, they pay 10% of revenue pcm to Shopify from the total fees paid by shop owners.

  Shopify Transaction Fees are paid on each order that uses a merchant account, credit card gateway, or third-party systems such as PayPal or Worldpay to complete the order. Shopify has its own merchant account called Shopify Payments. Each order is charged a fee to the Website owner at 2% + 25p for the basic plan, reduced to 1.5% + 25p for the Advanced plan. See Shopify’s official pricing for up-to-date information https://www.shopify.co.uk/pricing

• 9. Who owns Shopify?

  Shopify was founded by Canadian CEO Tobi Lutke. Shopify was founded in 2004 after a failed attempt to set up a Snowboarding store online ad realised the available tools for new startups wasn’t that useful in helping them grow a small business. Shopify was formed soon after and has since grown into a Billion Dollar company, attracting some of the largest brands in the world.

• 10. Is Shopify better than Wordpress?

  The easiest way to compare Shopify and WordPress is to think about what they offer as a core product. Shopify is an amazing commerce platform that has great web tools built-in allowing companies to sell products online and manage orders. WordPress however is a highly regarded website platform with fantastic SEO capabilities. Its commerce facilities are add-ons and not a primary feature making it fundamentally different from Shopify.

  If you want to sell products online, Shopify is a superior platform to help you grow your business online. If however you just want a company website with an outline of your services then Wordpress may well be the better option.

• 11. How do you get paid with Shopify?

  Shopify connects its merchant account directly to your bank’s account and pays out every day but with a 5-day delay on each order. So when the payment reaches your bank account it is for sales that were made 5 days ago. Any fees are calculated prior to you being paid so that the amount that hits your bank is minus any transaction fees.

  Shopify hosting and app charges are paid separately from orders and are generally charged to your bank on a monthly payment cycle.

  Third-party merchant accounts such as PayPal or Worldpay use their own method to pay your funds. These are generally direct bank deposits.

• 12. Is Shopify good for beginners?

  Shopify is great for beginners and out of the box provides a powerful feature set that allows anyone to get started online. Shopify’s standard theme installation is called Debut which has limited customisable features but keeps the design nice and simple to prevent any confusion with setup. There is a vast selection of professional themes to upgrade your Shopify website to enhance its features including design, and styling.

  Set up a new store today and give it a go. You can always cancel it after 14 days without charge. We set up our first store over 10 years ago and never looked back.

• 13. Can I sell on Etsy and Shopify?

  Yes, you can sell on both platforms at the same time. It is our view that self-contained platforms such as Etsy, eBay, and Amazon have their own customer base and attract a certain type of customer. You can take advantage of these captive audiences by tailoring your products to each platform. Some platforms will have higher fee structures so be careful to understand what your net profit from each platform is and work out which one is better for you in the long run.

  Selling on multiple platforms can be time-consuming and increase management and admin so it’s wise to know what your conversion rate is on each platform and how that compares to the time spent and fees for each order.

• 14. What are the disadvantages of Shopify?

  Although there are some amazing benefits to setting up or migrating to Shopify there are a few things to consider that might make a big difference to your decision to switch.

  Shopify Fees: Shopify charges a monthly hosting fee, from £19 per month, along with transaction fees that are around 2% plus 25p per order. If you fail to pay your hosting change, your website can be shut down by Shopify.

  Shopify Email: There is currently no email feature built into Shopify so it requires you to use a third-party service such as Google Workspace or Outlook Live which are both powerful tools.

  Product Options: There are currently limits of 100 Variant Sku’s and 3 Dropdown Options on any Shopify product. Although this can sometimes cause issues for products with lots of options, there are some great workarounds and third-party tools that make this easier.

• 15. Do you need a business license to sell on Shopify?

  In brief, no you don’t require a business license to sell on Shopify. You can set up a new website and register for a merchant account, which will require proof of identification and residential address but a business license or registered company will depend on the country you are selling in.

  Business License: This is generally a document that grants you permission from your local government or council to sell specific services. This mainly applies to restrictive services such as Alchohol, Tobacco, food, and chemicals. Commercial products such as clothing, gifts, and household goods for instance don’t normally require a license.

• 16. Can you get scammed on Shopify?

  Nowadays you can get scammed on all platforms if you are not careful with your information. Although Shopify and many other software companies are now adopting rigorous encryption, two-factor authentication (sign in using your mobile and email) or the use of authentication apps, these systems are not foolproof. If you give away your login information or click on spam or malicious links you could well be giving access to your website, order information, and customer details. It is important you take security very seriously when creating a new business online that takes payments and deals with sensitive customer information.

  What about scam orders on Shopify? You can easily get scammed by bogus orders from fake or stolen credit cards. Review each order specifically, contact the customer by telephone if it’s a high-value product, and check the order credentials with the delivery address. Does it seem legitimate? is there any further information you might need to check if the details are accurate? If you send out an order to a stolen credit card even after you’ve been paid, chargebacks can appear on credit cards which could result in loss of goods and no payment.

• 17. Which is the best eCommerce platform?

  The online commerce landscape is full of great tools and software to help you create a thriving business. But which one is the best? This is difficult to answer as there are quite a few to review. Here are just a few you might have heard of.

  • Shopify

  • Big Commerce

  • Squarespace

  • Wix

  • Magento

  • WooCommerce

  Our personal favorite is Shopify having created many profitable stores for clients. It offers a fantastic, all-around feature set to manage products, orders, customers, marketing, and promotion, all combined into a simple, cost-effective monthly hosting charge from £19pcm. If you have lots of time, review and test each one to see which one works best for you. If you need something quick and simple, sign up to Shopify and get selling.