I recently read a blog post by Shopit Commerce about how Shopify limits its features based on their plans. It was a pointless post that focuses on the “issues” with using Shopify, in order to magnify their own offering. But, it made me think about all the good features Shopify does have.
And, what you can do is dependent on how good your Shopify web designer is.
Great Shopify features
After reading the “article”, I thought I’d highlight the features Shopify does provide out of the box and which do not often get mentioned (obviously!). Here’s a quick rundown:
- Speed. Shopify websites are fast.
- Security. And, I’m not talking about SSL. How quickly could your current provider mitigate a DDoS attack? And, are they providing the necessary protection. Shopify has teamed up with Cloudflare, who offer not only advanced security tools but also have fast CDNs. So, you get the best security right from the start.
- Hosting. You’re not paying for hosting as it’s all included.
- Bandwidth. You’re not paying for extra storage or bandwidth. It’s all unlimited and included in the price.
- Plugins. There’s an opnion that if you have a Shopify store, you’ll have to spend lots of money on additional plugins. That’s incorrect. Partner with a good web developer and workarounds can always be found.
- Product management across multiple sites. If you are doing this, use an advanced system DEDICATED to it, such as Brightpearl or Linnworks. Your ecommerce platform should be for taking orders online only and should plug into a warehouse management system dedicated to inventory management.
- Shopify Plus has the same codebase! And why not? There’s no point in maintaining multiple versions of a platform and increasing technical debt. It makes sense to keep everything consistent.
- Multiple gateways. Despite what everyone thinks, Shopify do not insist you should use their gateway. I have clients using WorldPay, Barclaycard and even just Paypal and there are a wide variety of supported gateways provided by Shopify.
- APIs. Shopify has a whole bunch of APIs to help you do all the tasks you need. You can even go headless.
- New stuff. The amount of features and services they have released over the last six to twelve months has been impressive.
- Multi-currency. Is available if using Shopify Payments. Not all gateways support currency switching, so it’s understandable why this is only available using Shopify’s payment gateway.
- POS. Shopify has really good Point-of-Sale solutions. There are not many ecommerce platforms that can say this.
You have to give respect to Shopify. They have managed to create a platform that works. Okay, it may need tweaking here or there if you have some special requirements, but that goes with any software.