The name ‘Shopify’ has become synonymous with today’s eCommerce landscape, and with good reason. The platform has enjoyed rapid growth with the boom of online retail, and has cleverly invested in under-the-hood tech to simplify the process of selling online – to the point of being able to start your eCommerce business in a matter of minutes.
Working with a Shopify design agency can help you to get the most out of your brand’s online experience, and utilise Shopify’s powerful features to drive increased conversions and higher purchase values on your site.
If you’re thinking of partnering with a Shopify development agency to bring your eCommerce brand to life, here are a few of the top reasons why we recommend going down the Shopify route.
With a basic Shopify design, you can start selling in minutes
We’ve touched on it above – but there’s virtually no barrier to entry to get started on Shopify. Of course we’re talking about an out-of-the-box website here (and for the record, a good Shopify design agency will always strongly suggest that you customise your online experience to suit your brand), but it’s a huge plus that the platform is so accessible.
Shopify development champions mobile responsiveness
Over 61% of all Google searches come from a mobile device, and for some industries this figure is almost a monopoly.
While most of us do business on a desktop computer – including approving website designs – one of the most common mistakes we see businesses make is not interacting with their own site from their phone.
Shopify designs are mobile responsive as standard, and Shopify Plus takes this one step further with mobile commerce features like mobile shopping cart and push notifications built in to the experience.
With a Shopify design agency, it’s easy to customise the look and feel of your site
Shopify’s basic theme offering has evolved over time, and is really strong for brands looking to enter the online selling arena for the first time. While Shopify Experts lament the number of near-identical websites that now exist as a result, the platform’s standardised coding means that it’s easy to customise and create bespoke designs within Shopify.
Your Shopify development agency will be also able to optimise your design to boost conversion rate, and quickly and easily make tweaks to your site over time to get the most bang for your buck.
Email marketing is simplified with in-built automation
It’s by no means an extensive offering, but another benefit of choosing a Shopify design is its in-built abandon cart email notifications.
If you haven’t used marketing automation before, Shopify’s entry level offering can help to push users at the consideration phase towards purchasing through automatically sending a link to their cart. You can choose to send this email either 1, 6, 10 or 24 hours after the user has abandoned their cart.
For Shopify experts, the Plus offering takes this one step further with the ability to automate complete workflows.
Relax knowing your payments are secure
Shopify supports over a hundred payment gateways, meaning you can offer your customers flexible and reliable ways to pay on your site.
Credit card payments are supported by Stripe, and PayPal, Google Pay and Apple Pay are all alternative payment methods that can be easily set up for your site.
Plus, when you create a domain through Shopify, an SSL certificate is automatically generated. Many browsers will now flag if a user tries to land on an unsecured domain, so the little padlock symbol is beneficial in more ways than one.
Shopify supports SEO features
A huge part of getting your website in front of new potential customers is how its content, both on and off-page, is optimised to rank in organic search results.
One of the best parts of the Shopify development functionality is its support of SEO features. You can automatically generate sitemaps for Google to crawl, and edit things like your title tags, meta descriptions, and URL structures for new pages as well as adding alt text for images.
Shopify’s app store also offers a range of SEO health check tools for you to monitor and update your site over time.
The platform’s dominance makes it easy to find Shopify experts
In choosing such a widely-used eCommerce platform, it’ll be easier for you to leverage an agency that specialises in Shopify development for your project.
While this seems counter-intuitive given how accessible Shopify is as a platform, outsourcing your website design and development can help your business to hit the ground running. For small business owners who wear a lot of hats as it is – you can relax knowing that you’re partnering with an agency that specialises in the platform.
Find the best Shopify development agency with the partner program
The best development agencies will be Shopify Partners themselves, verified by the platform as proficient in the design and development of Shopify eCommerce experiences. Shopify Plus Partners, a tier up from the entry-level partnership program, undergo a more rigorous application process to prove their expertise and generally work with higher-volume merchants. (Hint – The Natives are Shopify Partners).