Shopify: A Comprehensive Guide
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- What is Shopify?
- Creating a Shopify Account
- Admin Dashboard
- Domain Services
- Subscription Plans for Shopify
- Themes
- Apps
- Adding Products on the Admin Panel
- Point of Sale
- Inventory Management
- Products Category and Tags
- Gift Card and Discount
- Customer Management
- Order Management
- Finances
- Analytics
- Marketing
- Blogging
How Shopify Works: A Comprehensive Guide
Introduction
In today's digital age, having an online presence is crucial for any business. Shopify is a subscription-based, self-hosted e-commerce platform that allows you to create, manage, and sell products or services on a monthly subscription fee basis. In this article, we will discuss how Shopify works and how it can help you develop your online business store.
What is Shopify?
Shopify is an online platform that allows you to create an e-commerce website easily. It is a hassle-free platform that enables you to build an online shop, manage it, and sell goods effortlessly. Shopify provides you with a 14-day trial period with limited functionalities. After creating a Shopify account, you can create an online store and manage it from an exclusive admin dashboard.
Creating a Shopify Account
To work with Shopify, you need to sign up on the Shopify platform first. You can create multiple stores with a single Shopify account. After creating the Shopify account, you can create your online store. Shopify offers you a primary sub-domain with free SSL from the admin dashboard. You can also buy your required domain from Shopify.
Admin Dashboard
You will have an exclusive admin dashboard for any Shopify website where you can find all the necessary options and settings to enter your store details, customize the website design, sell the products, and manage the online store.
Domain Services
Shopify provides you with domain services. After creating a store with Shopify, you will get a primary sub-domain with free SSL from the admin dashboard. You can also buy your required domain from Shopify. If you have any existing domain, you can integrate it with your Shopify store. Moreover, every Shopify plan includes subdomain hosting.
Subscription Plans for Shopify
When you are in the trial period, nobody can browse your website without entering the store password. In spite of browsing the website after entering the password, Shopify will not allow you to access the checkout page. In addition, you can't even make an order for a product manually as an admin of the website. In that case, you need to purchase a Shopify plan. Shopify offers month-wise subscription plans: Basic Shopify plan, Shopify plan, and Advanced Shopify plan.
Themes
Like any CMS, you can design your website with a Shopify theme. Shopify provides you with 13 free themes and 73 different categories of paid themes as well. According to the theme layout, you can customize it and design web pages in your way.
Apps
To make your e-commerce website more functional and user-friendly, Shopify provides you with a great number of apps that you can call plugins for WordPress. For example, one of the most popular plugins for SEO, Yoast, is available for Shopify as an application.
Adding Products on the Admin Panel
On the admin panel, you will find the products tab. Click to expand it, and several products related tabs appear, such as inventory, transfers, collections, and gift cards. Inputting some necessary information, you can add your product quickly. Shopify lets you do SEO when adding a product. It's a notable feature of Shopify.
Point of Sale
Shopify includes a point of sales or POS system. Using Shopify POS system, you can sell your products both online and offline. It doesn't matter wherever you are; you can sell your product using Shopify POS. It has a mobile application for both Android and iOS.
Inventory Management
As soon as products are added, they will be automatically added to the inventory individually. Inventory can track how many products are on the way by creating transfer with supplier and shipment details. In addition, you can also add or remove products using the inventory management system on Shopify.
Products Category and Tags
Products category and tags play a vital role in finding the product quickly and easily from the website. While adding a product, you can add category and tags. In Shopify, the product category is called the collection. You can create manual collection and automated collection.
Gift Card and Discount
To attract customers and increase sales, Shopify allows you to add gift card products and create discounts. You can offer a specific gift card to your special customers via email.
Customer Management
From the customers tab, the website admin can add customers. Admin can also manage all the customers. For example, the customers tab also deals with abundant checkout and email subscriptions.
Order Management
Customers can order products via checkout. However, Shopify store admin can create an order manually on the behalf of the customer.
Finances
On the admin panel, you can find the finances tab. You will see the overview of finances. Billing and transition details are available here.
Analytics
Shopify analytics presents data-wise reports on various important issues like total sales online, sessions, recurring customer rates, online store conversion rates, average order values, total orders, etc.
Marketing
With the help of marketing tools, you can create campaigns and automation.
Blogging
You can manage block related activities using the blog post under the online store. Shopify allows you to add SEO-friendly blog posts.
Conclusion
Shopify is an excellent platform for developing an online business store. It provides you with all the necessary tools and features to create, manage, and sell products or services. With Shopify, you can easily customize your website, add products, manage inventory, and track finances. It's a hassle-free platform that enables you to build an online shop, manage it, and sell goods effortlessly.
Highlights
- Shopify is a subscription-based, self-hosted e-commerce platform that allows you to create, manage, and sell products or services on a monthly subscription fee basis.
- Shopify provides you with a 14-day trial period with limited functionalities.
- Shopify offers you a primary sub-domain with free SSL from the admin dashboard.
- Shopify provides you with domain services.
- Shopify offers month-wise subscription plans: Basic Shopify plan, Shopify plan, and Advanced Shopify plan.
- Shopify provides you with 13 free themes and 73 different categories of paid themes as well.
- Shopify includes a point of sales or POS system.
- Shopify allows you to add gift card products and create discounts.
- Shopify analytics presents data-wise reports on various important issues like total sales online, sessions, recurring customer rates, online store conversion rates, average order values, total orders, etc.
FAQ
Q. What is Shopify?
A. Shopify is an online platform that allows you to create an e-commerce website easily.
Q. What are the subscription plans for Shopify?
A. Shopify offers month-wise subscription plans: Basic Shopify plan, Shopify plan, and Advanced Shopify plan.
Q. What is the point of sale system in Shopify?
A. Shopify includes a point of sales or POS system. Using Shopify POS system, you can sell your products both online and offline.
Q. Can I add gift card products and create discounts in Shopify?
A. Yes, Shopify allows you to add gift card products and create discounts.
Q. What are the analytics features in Shopify?
A. Shopify analytics presents data-wise reports on various important issues like total sales online, sessions, recurring customer rates, online store conversion rates, average order values, total orders, etc.
