What Customers Don’t Like About Shopify: Not for the Big League
( The Best Web Hosting Service )- If you’re thinking of setting up an online store, you must realize that an Ecommerce platform is a necessary component to get it going. And you’ve most likely also heard of Ecommerce websites (like BigCommerce) that power online stores and provide everything that’s required to start and run an online business. These websites offer Ecommerce solutions to assist even those with little to zero knowledge of programming and lack the technical savvy to figure out the intricacies of operating online stores.
One such Ecommerce provider is Shopify; a fully hosted shopping cart that claims to be one of the highly-regarded names in the industry. Be that as it may, it may be of great interest to you to be aware of some issues that Shopify have to either change or adapt to. Let’s cut to the chase and get a glimpse of what customers don’t like about Shopify.
Over-Simplicity Plus Minimalism Gone Too Far Equals Inconvenience
It would seem that Shopify only have features meant for novice customers. If you are simply starting off or are relatively new in the business of selling your products online; Shopify may meet your expectations and needs. However, if you’re seeking something more beyond simple features, Shopify is definitely not the answer to your Ecommerce needs. There are far too many missing aspects – vital features such as currency converter, contact forms, section for recommended products, saving wish lists, email to recommend/forward product to friends, and many more. Let’s go over some of these weaknesses at close range.
Flawed Checkout
The biggest thing that customers don’t like is the puny Checkout system. One of the most crucial things to look for in Ecommerce is the ability to have control of the Checkout flow. Customers should be allowed to create an account and the system should be able to “remember” the details when these customers come back. In short, saving credit card (or other forms of payment) details should be made available as an option for customers that want to do so. This is not possible with Shopify as it does not allow customization of checkout codes. Instead, customers are sent to a cheap excuse of a checkout flow that’s virtually beyond your control; the only thing you can do is modify the CSS; that’s as close as you can get to identify the transaction with your store!
Deficiency in Dynamic Listings
Shopify lacks the program that allows people visiting the site to narrow down the product lists by specific types or manufacturers or whatever categories may be applicable. In order to allow your customers to use this convenient tool, you have to manually build it either in HTML or with the use of triple conditional loop. Of course as your store expands and more products are added, you have to keep updating the static HTML. How’s that for convenience – or NOT!
Lacks Provision for Abandoned Shopping Carts
It’s not uncommon for consumers to go through the process of purchasing right through the checkout stage only to suddenly change their minds and abandon shopping carts in the end. Your online store is not singled out. Customers may repeat this route on many other sites before finally deciding to make the purchase. However, it is equally expected for a good Ecommerce solution to include such tools in the system that allow the capture of customer emails or other contact details early on in the check out process for easy follow up should the person abandon the shopping cart. Since this feature is not Shopify’s strong point, you could be missing a lot of opportunities.
More Headaches for (YOU) the Online Store Owner
- Way Overpriced. Another major Shopify turnoff is the pricing policy they have. Prices are pegged between $24 and $699 (Premium Plan) per month with a set up fee of $25 – $75. Get this…on top of the high upfront fee; they impose a transaction fee of up to 2% of the Revenue, which applies to all plans except Premium.
- Annoying “Liquid”. You had better figure out Liquid, a programming language that many find quite complex to study. Shopify could have chosen a more common and simpler framework to control the options/appearance of your online store. Instead Shopify shoves Liquid down the shop owners’ throats even to just change Meta tags or little tags.
- Minimalist Customer Support, too. If there’s one thing that you cannot afford NOT to have is an all-out support from your Ecommerce provider. This is a very common complaint with Shopify, especially among users coming from another platform. If you’re even remotely contemplating any idea of shifting providers, better make sure that you iron out all the kinks before you consider purchasing Shopify services. Another worrisome issue is the long gaps before Shopify releases new features that are highly indispensable to the advancement of your online store. Don’t expect to get add-ons and plug-ins that may be helpful in your e-selling process. Forget about any significant modifications to happen – not by a long shot, anyway. You’d probably get stuck with what you have for quite some time.
- Other Drawbacks. There are other shortcomings and features that Shopify lacks to make it your ideal Ecommerce solution provider; among them: shopping cart is not always visible; no product bundling/kitting; does not support drop ship and multiple shipment to locations; no Quickbooks integration; and not even a semblance of product reviews and ratings capability to speak of.
Conclusion
Granting, Shopify may be a good platform for small businesses just starting up and are quite happy with available templates and customizable styles to design online stores. If you don’t require dynamic performance and functionality; or you only want to dabble and experiment with products and prices, Shopify may perhaps work for you. If you’re looking to expand your online store’s functionality, however; the smarter thing to do is to start looking for the BEST in the business…an Ecommerce solution provider that would certainly set you up for bigger things to happen. Ecommerce hosting solution with topnotch features such as BigCommerce offers.
What is PayPal and How Does it Work
( The Best Web Hosting Service )- Let’s say it isn’t your first time to do online shopping. Every time you buy something in eBay, Amazon, or other sites, you enter your credit card details for payment over and over again. This is not entirely a bad thing, but it can be tiresome in the long run. Or you may never get tired of doing so, but still you worry about your money’s safety with having to share all your information every time you make a transaction. So if you’re wanting to make life easier, you should not miss having a PayPal account.
PayPal started in 1998 in US, and is growing fast throughout the globe up until now. It was not error-free to start with, but it delivered very well for a huge percentage of users worldwide. Now, PayPal is known to be the most popular online transaction facility as well as the most secured, meaning many people trust it to be a safe place to consider doing small or even big transactions of their hard-earned money. This has been a big help to most people who rely on the Internet to do their business, or just people who love shopping, which you may be either.
So how does PayPal work? Basically, again, PayPal is a facility that will help you with online money transactions. Registration is free, and signing up is easy. You just have to go through their website at www.paypal.com. From there, you will have to sign up and choose the account type which will likely suit your needs, either personal, premier, or business. If you are the type of person who just like to shop or pay money online, you can choose the personal account. However, if you want to be able to send and get paid for selling stuff online, then you can choose premier. If you happen to be a merchant or trader with a group, you should choose the business type. This will allow you to have continuous transactions freely without having to worry about your security. It also gives you the ability to have a separate account for yourself aside from the business account you already signed up with.
So, after choosing your account type, you just have to enter your account details and you need to have a valid email account to verify it with a mail that will be sent to you. Aside from this type of verification, you also need to link your credit cards on your account. This is to ensure your ability to pay what you spend on PayPal. Don’t worry, you’ll find the transactions recorded on your credit card statement. The good thing is that you only have to enter this information once, and not over and over again. Now once you get verified, you’re good to go! You can definitely spend as much you need or use it to receive payments for your services, up to you.
PayPal is now a fast-growing international service, and almost all main currencies are supported, and people from all over the globe create accounts to make their spending and earning easier. Secured payments are one of the things PayPal boasts of, and it has received multiple awards from offering high security to all users.
Using PayPal is not really complicated, in fact, transactions can be made within minutes, really fast compared to the traditional type with having to type up all your credit card details with every purchase you do. So, why not give PayPal a try, and see how much ease it will give to you.
BigCommerce No Script Ecommerce Solution
( The Best Web Hosting Service )- I recently stumbled across www.limebloo.com, which had an interesting article on BigCommerce. BigCommerce was recommended by them, and I highly agree that BigCommerse is a great website service to take advantage of if you are looking for an e commerce solution. You don’t have to know any scripting at all. If you can drag and drop you can use them 
BigCommerce is a great e commerce solution that is integrated with:
99.9 uptime
Single page & guest checkout
Powerful SEO tools
50+ payments
Free Premium hosting
WYSIWYG editor
Unlike a lot of other e commerce sites they will actually help you promote you site so that you can get customers coming to your site. I would rate BigCommerce 5 out of 5 stars.
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