Millions of vendors all around the world choose Shopify when building an online retail business – around 1.75 million online shops are built around this versatile platform. Other options are, of course, available. Wix and Squarespace are great alternatives that are more suited to smaller businesses, while Bigcommerce is more useful for businesses with large inventories. However, here are a few reasons why you might choose Shopify over other ecommerce platforms.
SEO Compatibility
Search Engine Optimization is extremely important in the world of ecommerce. If consumers can’t find a selling page, how are they going to buy from it? Agencies running SEO services for Shopify have a great deal to work with. Almost every aspect of a Shopify site can be modified with the aim of improving search engine performance. Search engine performance can be improved by the creating of relevant content, the inclusion of keywords, the editing of metadata, backlinking and multimedia posting.
Plugins And Apps
Shopify’s massive user base and underlying architecture make it great for plugin and application developers. This has led to the platform being one of the most plugin and app rich ecommerce web building tools around. Thousands of third-party plugins are available to vendors using the platform. These plugins cover everything from User Experience to consumer feedback. Shopify holds plugin and app developers to stringent standards, meaning that it is highly unlikely that you will install an add-on that poses a security risk.
Ease Of Use
Shopify is a simple platform for new vendors to understand and use – only just losing out to Wix in terms of overall ease of use. Users can very quickly learn how to put together a good website, optimize search engine performance and fix issues. Having said all this, it can be worth calling in an experienced agency to help you get set up.
Huge Community
Shopify has a huge – and constantly growing – community of vendor-users. Between 2020 and 2022, Shopify reported an increase in vendors of over 200 percent. This accounts for around 2.5 million new online stores. This massive, constantly evolving user base means that the impetus for creating new plugins and apps for the platform is huge. It also ensures that there is a large community for the provision of peer support. In some countries, Shopify has seen uptake rise by over 400 percent.
Security And Reliability
Shopify is one of the most secure and reliable ecommerce platforms. This is largely due to the way it is hosted. Shopify is a globally hosted platform, meaning that it is being monitored and fixed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from locations all around the world.
Users can opt for SSL or PCI compliance – meaning that consumer card information is stored and used securely. These are stringent data security regulations that govern the safe handling of financial information. Vendors report that bugs in Shopify are fixed quickly, and that plugins adhere to strict security standards as well as the main platform.