There are many people who consider the idea of starting their own Shopify shop to sell online. The problem in many cases is that some people feel overwhelmed by the start-up costs. This is an issue that makes individuals hesitate about starting their own eCommerce business.
Today, we are going to help you get through this process by providing some information on how much it costs for you to start your own Shopify store.
The Shopify pricing plan
The first thing to establish and determine is the cost of the Shopify platform plans. There are 3 plans that people can choose from and they all have their advantages and disadvantages.
We are going to provide some essential info on all of them to help you make an informed decision. This is very useful because it will help you avoid making a decision that is not ideal for your needs.
- The basic plan
For $29 a month, you can get the basic platform for your products, basic report analytics, 2 staff accounts and up to 4 inventory locations. The main advantage of this plan is the affordability and you can sell your products with the same level of safety as the more expensive plans.
The main disadvantages of this plan are the lack of robust analytics to see how your traffic is behaving and the lack of staff accounts. Two might be ok when starting out, but more could be needed later on.
- The Shopify plan
This one is $79 a month and it is the standard plan which includes all the things from the basic, but it offers professional reports for traffic analytics and 5 staff accounts with up to 5 inventory locations.
This plan is better when you are looking to run a business that is getting more traffic and sales. The quality of the plan is quite good and it only has the disadvantage of having just one more inventory location.
- The advanced plan
The advanced plan costs $299 a month and this seems much higher than the other plans, but there is a good reason for it. The plan offers everything that you get from the other two plans, but it has 15 staff accounts, and up to 8 inventory locations.
This makes it a much more reliable solution when you have a large store with plenty of staff that is involved in its management. The biggest drawback of this plan is that it is basically $300 a month and this means only high volume sellers would find it ideal.
Some advantages of using Shopify include:
*Customizable online store for your products
*Selling on social media, web, and mobile
*Management of products and payments
*Creating and launch of online marketing campaigns
*Affordable and accessible service that is safe
*Free 14 day trial with no credit card needed
*You can pay on a month to month basis if you wish
*You can upgrade or downgrade plans whenever you want
*Discounts are offered for yearly plans
The website building costs
Once you have the plan ready, you also need to purchase a domain name. There are many sites that allow you to purchase domain names. One of the most popular is Godaddy.com, but you can find other alternatives too.
The great thing is that domains are very cheap if you buy one that has not been claimed yet. This is usually going to be less than $20 for a regular domain name with a dot com extension.
Once you have that, all you need to do is start the process of designing your Shopify store. The platform offers a variety of free themes, but they are very generic and not optimal for high traffic.
The good thing is that you can purchase premium themes that are very robust, professional and fast to navigate. They are also responsive and they are ideal for stores that have high traffic. This is important because you want your store to be mobile friendly.
If you want a name that has already been purchased by someone else, there is a chance they could sell it, but the cost is probably going to reach hundreds of dollars. This is why it is better to look for names that have never been purchased.
All of these plans include an online store, sales channels, Point of Sale, and 24/7 support for all users. The platform is also a favorite of many and one of the most popular for anyone looking for fast and simple ecommerce solutions.
How to save costs on Shopify
*Get your domain name cheaper by looking for unclaimed names
*Godaddy offers the name for $0.01 for the first year
*Use free themes for your shop during your early stages
*Choose the basic plan when you are still on low volume sales
*Make sure to work on your SEO for organic growth
What kind of sellers are more suitable for the Shopify platform?
Any seller that is looking to build their own brand and wants to grow their email database to send out newsletters is going to love Shopify. The platform caters to this type of seller. It is also ideal for anyone that already has a customer base and they want to provide a safe online shopping solution for them to purchase products with ease.
Another great thing about using Shopify is that it will help you save a ton of money on design expenses. Anyone that wishes to start their own ecommerce platform without using an existing service could spend thousands of dollars. The reason is that development of an eCommerce platform from scratch is always expensive and time consuming.
Last but not least, Shopify offers a great deal of support for anyone that is looking to create theirs or without the help of a designer or developer. This is a very simple system that requires no programming or design knowledge. This uses templates for design and a very intuitive interface.
Extra tip: Make sure you brand your products
We know this is not directly related to the process of starting a Shopify Shop, but it is important. When you are branding your products, you will find it much easier to handle this process by getting your own thermal printer. It provides a very useful function for you to print your own product labels, sticker labels, shipping labels, etc. It will make it much easier for you to handle things fast. You won’t have to look for third parties to brand your products.
Final thoughts
There are many success stories that come from the use of the Shopify platform. This is the main reason why we highly recommend its use to anyone that wants to sell online. It is a safe, popular, and very reliable way to start your journey into the world of ecommerce.
Now that you have a better idea of how the platform works, you can start the journey to launch your ecommerce business!
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