- Shopify is an e-commerce platform that allows individuals and small businesses to sell their products or services online.
- Shopify consolidates the selling experience, making it easy for you to accept payments and ship your products.
- While Shopify offers a 14-day free trial for new sellers, you’ll need to sign up for one of the monthly plans to continue using it.
- Visit the Business Insider Technical Reference Library for more stories.
If you are a business or an individual seller looking to grow your business online, you should consider turning to Shopify.
Shopify is an online service that partners will help merchants and businesses streamline their online stores. Customers find Shopify storefronts simple and easy to use, and sellers love Shopify’s payment and shipping systems.
Here’s everything you need to know about Shopify, including how it works and what it will cost you to create a Shopify storefront.
What you need to know about Shopify
You can create a Shopify account and storefront right from their website. When you do, you’ll be asked what you’re selling, what your prices are, what your brand name is, and other questions to personalize your storefront.
Shopify allows sellers to manage their products and inventory through the platform, while also processing customer payments and providing shipping options to get your products out.
After you’ve created your Shopify store, you can link and sell with it on your website, social media accounts, physical stores, and more. No matter how you sell, Shopify has a way to help.
This flexibility is possible because Shopify is completely cloud-based, making your store accessible just about anywhere with an internet connection.
Shopify is a platform designed for entrepreneurs.
Jennifer Still / Business Insider
If you don’t know what you want your store to look like, Shopify offers some pre-designed themes and layouts. And if you’re not too tech savvy, their app can help you get your store up and running quickly.
Shopify also has a dedicated support team to answer additional questions or help troubleshoot issues that users may be experiencing.
Shopify offers a variety of services to make selling online easier.
Jennifer Still / Business Insider
What it costs to get started with Shopify
While Shopify offers a 14-day free trial for sellers who want to try out the platform and features, but in order to continue running your store, you’ll need to choose between one of three membership levels.
There are three payment levels for those looking to sell on Shopify.
Jennifer Still / Business Insider
Basic Shopify
Priced at $ 29 per month, this tier includes your store, which can sell unlimited products, as well as two staff accounts, 24/7 support, multiple sales channels, discount codes, cards -gifts, etc. This account level also offers a discount on shipping costs of up to 74% and allows sellers to print shipping labels.
Shopify
For $ 79 per month, this tier includes everything in the Basic Shopify template, but also offers three additional staff accounts, and you won’t have to pay Shopify that much for credit card payments.
Advanced Shopify
At $ 299 per month, the most expensive tier includes everything available in the standard Shopify subscription, plus 15 staff accounts, up to eight inventory slots, an advanced report generator, pricing from third-party calculated shipping, and more.
Shopify accounts – and storefronts – can be suspended or canceled at any time. If you suspend your store, you will still have to pay a monthly fee, but at a reduced membership rate. Canceling your store will delete it entirely and you won’t have to pay.
Just note that all your data will be purged after 90 days, and even after that you cannot create a new store with the same URL.