Shopify Reviews

Pros

I like Shopify as it allows easy setting up of an online store . There is great customer support through out the entire experience. It is very user friendly and straight forward there is however some technicalities when stocking or finding products for the shop .That's my personal view anyway . once the step by step procedure is correctly followed ,the store can be launched in no time. The features available with Shopify are inclusive of payment processing ,inventory management , how you ship , as well as tools for marketing. They also provide on going customer support.

Cons

I find Shopify to be very costly especially as a beginner , as there is a monthly subscription fee even before you sell an item . This in particular as led me to temporarily close my Shopify store ,as it has proven to be quite difficult to sell my first item.

Pros

It's an all-in-one platform that includes everything you need to sell online. From invoicing and payments, to integrations, to customization and user behaviour tracking.
The marketplace of apps and integrations is huge, and there's the right app integration for everything you need.
The support is huge, and there's many tutorials available to get the most out of the platform.

Cons

There is a learning curve with the product: the website builder is not very flexible, if compared to Squarespace. The User experience in building from a template is very limited and not guided at the beginning.
If you want to change one page with another for example, it's required to get into the code folders and copy-paste the code from one page to the other.

Apart from these minor things, that are easily solvable thanks to the good documentation and videos, the product is very solid

Alternatives Considered

Squarespace

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

We chose Shopify after watching some comparison videos, and it was more suited for our ecommerce needs. However, the Squarespace builder is much better.

Pros

That it connects to Facebook, Instagram, and Tim Tom

Cons

I had problems with where I shipped items to. I set it up but it kept glitching telling my customers that I didn’t ship to their area

Pros

I like that shopify had a wide selection of merchants to choose from when you were setting up your store, they had everything from simple merch, regular clothing and even an adult products(if thats what you want to set up!). Also, a lot of vendors work with them so they always have different promotions going on to get your store up and going. And if you want to pause it you can keep your whole store with out losing anything for a much lower cost.

Cons

What I didn't like is when it comes to getting your products into categories it's not as simple as going under the title of the page and checkmarking the products that you want for that page. Also, while they do have a lot vendors so many people use shopify that many times a lot of the products are sold out and thats a problem if you are going to be a vendor on a large platform with millions of users such as Shopify you have to keep up with the demand. And you can never just call everything has to be done through email and chat. And when shopify accounts were comprised such as mine was I would have rather spoke with someone about the situation than continue to have online interaction on the account that was compromised.

Alternatives Considered

Wix

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

Much simplier in the ease of the use with some categories, also site security and security for both the shop owner and consumer seems to be more of a priority.

Pros

Has a lot of options and can integrate Affirm.

Cons

Problem solving with tech is slow. But, still good.

Alternatives Considered

Instagram

Reasons for Choosing Shopify

Ability to offer Affirm purchase power to customers. Affirm accessible.

Switched From

Ecwid

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

It's been a hot minute since i made the decision to go with Shopify. Mostly..Affirm accessible.

Pros

After much deliberation of which online platform to use for our online store, we settled on Shopify for its user-friendliness. I am not an expert, yet I was able to set up a successful, beautiful online store with nearly 1,000 products. While I enjoy Shopify's chat support, we also tag teamed with a Shopify Expert to do some coding for us. Their chat support could help with most non-code related issues though, which was very appreciated.

Cons

One thing we have found difficult about Shopify is the amount of apps you need to install in order to have your site running with all the features you would want. We bought a pretty extensive theme, but are still using apps for features such as a wishlist, a quick reorder option in the "account" page for return patients, adding expiration dates to products, etc. They are not all expensive but together, they add up. Another downside for us is we sell vitamins and supplements which are on Shopify Payments restricted list, so we needed to find a third party processor. With this processor, Shopify charges us additional percentage, on top of what we pay the third party processor, simply because we are not using their payments system. The additional cost has been something we have to weigh out and consider, but it has been worth it to be able to bring our business of 20+ years to the online market.

Pros

Ability to connect many 3rd party apps, edit code on the backend for full customization and allows 3rd party payment processors.

Cons

Shopify charges transaction fees for using third party payment processors, but my company is not able to use Shopify Payments due to being a CBD company. While Shopify provides many tools, recommendations and suggestions, my company is unable to utilize them because of the restrictions they place on CBD companies. Additional charges from Shopify due to paying for a lower tier version of their service reduces my profit margin.

Alternatives Considered

Wix and BigCommerce

Reasons for Choosing Shopify

Squarespace did not have a robust system for ecommerce.

Switched From

Squarespace

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

Shopify was a more well-known brand and offered many integrations with 3rd party apps.

Pros

Their online support is extremely helpful and quick with response time. The ability to have social media integrations tied directly into Shopify is exceptionally useful for advertising and using this data to expand our customer base.

Cons

At times, Shopify can rely heavily on third-party apps to take care of simple features that are either underdeveloped in their capability to perform or just nonexistent. For example, the Shopify Reviews app wasn't comparable to other review apps from developers and was finally closed down. I hope Shopify will work on creating their own apps for simple features in the future so shop owners don't have to seek outside alternatives and pay additional fees to use the apps.

Alternatives Considered

Wix

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

Shopify is a dedicated platform for e-commerce where this seems secondary for Wix and the interface was not as user-friendly.

Pros

As a developer / part-time system administrator Shopify's cloud solution is the best possible solution for an ecommerce.
Blazing fast solid infrastructure

Cons

Coming from WooCommerce Shopify is not the most open environment due to its cloud structure.
Heavy customization is achievable through Apps, Functions or Plus features.
Plus pricing is hefty.

Pros

In my ecommerce ownership of 7 years I find shopify has the best customer service and secure checkout that I have used. I can maintain it myself build new themes try them out first and add and remove apps easily.

Cons

The traffic to my site has been hard to build since I left woo commerce. Someof the themes to add are expensive

Pros

It is easy to set up and use. It makes starting an ecommerce store possible for someone like me that doesn't having website development and coding skills. It has a payment processor, good basic themes and integrates well with social media, shipping software and other softwares.

Cons

I don't like that you need a lot of apps to add things like multiple images to each variation. That should be built in like it is on eBay and Amazon's platforms.

Pros

The ease of use and the customer service

Cons

Keeping up with the constant updates.. They’re always great, but it takes a few minutes for me to navigate it again!

Alternatives Considered

Square Point of Sale

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

More options, ease of set up & use.. website options

Pros

General userability is fantastic. ANYONE can be taught how to run a Shopify store! Drag and drop features are wonderful for homepage updates. Creating and editing products is wonderful.

Cons

Out of the box subscription platform needs a lot of work.

Alternatives Considered

Squarespace

Reasons for Choosing Shopify

Better reporting was important to us and more user functionality.

Switched From

Square Point of Sale

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

Pricing and general user functionality.

Pros

Ease of set up, and the speed at which you can launch your store.

Cons

The additional costs to get a great theme rather than have to create one yourself. Saves time but is a hidden cost.

Alternatives Considered

WooCommerce

Reasons for Choosing Shopify

Usability, ease of set up and integrations with other software systems

Switched From

Wix

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

Easier to set up than woo as I’m not a coder.

Pros

Ease of setting up a store without coding.

Cons

NO support staff anymore they cancelled phone support, then they cancelled email support, then they laid off 1000s of support staff and now its just a chat bot you have to fight to get through to speak to a human who isnt even a technician.

Constant downtime if you care to look on downtime tracker, although shopify will lie and say its not true.

Constant checkout issues we have days where customers cant pay by card, shopify have admitted there is issues but guess what under there terms in section 7 as pasted so basically tough, you can lose £10000s and they simply say tough in a nice way of course, apparently they dont need to provide a decent standard of service, thats news to me all conbtracts state a decent level of service must be provided!

From there lying support..

General support sent your query over to my team. I wanted to reach out to you directly on this.

I understand that you would like your recent support experience looked into?

Firstly, it sounds like you have been doing everything that you can to get your checkout and store looked at. I am glad to hear that is now resolved and working again for you.

We apologise for the drop in communications, and you are correct, you should have received a reply from our support on your tickets.

While I can understand that this matter had an impact on your business, Shopify does not offer compensation for Shopify stores and downtime.

Please see our [Terms of Service](https://www.shopify.com/legal/terms), section 7. Limitation of Liability. Which states:

Shopify does not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free.

We will not be able to authorize compensation on this account.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any queries at all.

Kind regards,
Holly
Support Specialist | Billing & Payments

So not only do they cream a high percentage off EVERY sale they also charge high monthly fees, they have no to poor help now and oh but the cracker is they recently made 25% gain in profit for the hedge funds that now own it while laying off half the staff...see a pattern here by the president Harvey Finklestein...yes thats really his name from israel.

Alternatives Considered

WooCommerce

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

Because many years ago it wasnt owned by greedy hedge funds who asset strip companies....

Pros

I have used Shopify for my store and have liked the experience of creating, designing and seeing sales increase. Overall I have liked how beginner friendly it is.

Cons

Finding the right apps is a challenge so I have had to research before buying an app for the store

Alternatives Considered

BigCommerce

Reasons for Choosing Shopify

The pricing, community and customer support.

Switched From

WooCommerce

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

One which supports operating a business in Turkey.

Pros

Shopify makes creating an online store incredibly easy and within reach to almost everyone.

Cons

Shopify customer support often leaves something to be desired. Sometimes you’ll get a stellar support agent who goes the extra mile to get your issue solved, but it’s unfortunately rare. I often end up feeling like I’m talking to an AI bot or explaining the issue over and over and over with no resolution.

Alternatives Considered

Squarespace

Reasons for Switching to Shopify

Better rates and more features at the time.

Pros

It makes small to medium business possible and there are options to scale via apps.

Cons

The jump to premium is large for even a medium sized business, so as we scale to the point that a connection of multiple Shopify apps becomes shaky you can kind of get stuck in this limbo of no mid-ground pricing. Would be great if there were a program to consult on features/complex needs for the storefront and get a curated Shopify app/API-friendly solution!

Pros

I started by using Shopify's Buy Button, which was perfect when I had just a few products to sell. It was easy to install and got me up and running quickly. But as my store grew, I decided to upgrade to a full Shopify website. I love it! The website is user-friendly, making it simple for people to navigate, and I found a theme that was easy to set up and customize. Plus, their customer support has been super helpful whenever I need assistance.

Cons

Sometimes, because Shopify is such a feature-rich platform, I can get a bit confused about how certain things work. But whenever that happens, a quick Google search always leads me to a helpful tutorial that clears things up.

Pros

Shopify is user-friendly, offers customization, and is great with inventory management. It integrates easily with social media and online marketplaces and has excellent customer support.

Cons

Shopify can be expensive, especially with transaction fees. The free themes are limited and migrating away from Shopify is not easy.

Pros

Shopify has a variety of features that most users will find useful and helpful. The system is hosted on their platform, so that helps with security. Inventory control is spot-on, and sales reporting is good. This is a system that is easy for a novice user to use, though once it is set up.

Cons

The setup can be a bit complicated, especially adding features like taxes, sizes, etc. But, once you have it all setup, it's easy to use going forward.

Pros

I liked the website layout and coordination and also the availability of goods they had

Cons

I didn't like most of the price options as they were relatively expensive

Pros

The wide range of customizing features of Shopify is what I like such as the email templates, the branding of products and the website itself. Additionally, the user-friendly interface it has that makes my navigation easy to use and navigate.

Cons

The limited customization for advanced users is what Shopify lacks, but it does provide one essential thing in eCommerce is that it provides a platform for business people online.

Pros

Shopify's user-friendly interface, extensive app ecosystem, robust customization options, and excellent customer support stand out as its strengths.

Cons

Occasional limitations in customization, transaction fees, and dependency on apps for advanced features are some drawbacks of Shopify.

Pros

I like how easy it was to setup retail management and the store page. I set this up for my boss and she loved it.

Cons

N/A everything is great so far no problems.