We in EcomDimes are on a simple mission; help our readers earn extra money and improve their financial lives. Some of the links in this post may be from our partners. Here’s how we make money.
Shopify will act as your hosted e-commerce solution. This will allow you to easily create a professional-looking store, display your products and take payments from your customers.
Luckily, Shopify provides a 14-days trial, to try their platform, before you even have to spend a dime! While the free trial lets you access all of Shopify’s features, but you can’t sell or receive orders without being a paid subscriber. Shopify has 3 plans: Basic, Shopfiy, Advanced!
Shopify has provided a premium solution for entrepreneurs who want to open their online store and start selling globally.
Previously we’ve shared with you how to start a Dropshipping store in 7 simple steps, but the big question here is: Where do I start?!
The human brain was meant to process the information differently, so if you are doubting that this is your thing, JUST GIVE IT A TRY, read more, your financial freedom deserves a shot.
In case you are underestimating what can be accomplished in 14 days period of time, let’s project some real-life examples together:
Serbo-Bulgarian War (1885)
It was a war that broke out between Serbia and Bulgaria in 1885 and lasted for two weeks. The war ended with the recognition of Bulgaria by European powers. This war has raised European fears of a rising Bulgarian power.
Indo-Pakistani War (1971)
Since Pakistan seceded from India in 1947, tension has been at the forefront of the two countries.
Therefore, it wasn’t uncommon for a war between the two countries in 1971. After India intervened to support a revolt inside Pakistan that ended with the independence of Bangladesh. This war lasted 13 days.
Now, you are not asked to win a war, I just shared the above real-life examples to show you what can be accomplished in 2 weeks. You can try it for free to see if it’s right for you.
Start by testing its waters, and you don’t need to provide your credit card details for such a purpose, and I truly believe that the digital world has provided a huge advantage against the traditional brick and mortar store.
Now that the internet offers a way to build you an online business, do you still need to build a store offline?
Thanks to platforms like Shopify, you only need a couple of days to set up a store then you can start selling to customers all over the world. Since that Shopify offers many different plans, the ultimate question is:
What Plan Should You Go With?!
While the free trial lets you access all of Shopify’s features, but you can’t sell or receive orders without being a paid subscriber, so obviously, you need a paid plan.
Shopify has 3 plans:
- Basic
- Shopify
- Advanced
In the next chapter of this article, we will be diving into and reviewing those 3 plans, and help you figure out which plan should you be using in your early beginning.
| Basic Plan | Shopify Plan | Advanced Plan |
|---|---|---|
| $29/Month 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction | $79/Month 2.6% +30¢ per transaction | $299/Month 2.4% + 30¢ per transaction |
If you are starting up, you need no more than the basic package, and for sure, you can update on your will as your business grows.
The Basic Plan ($29 Per Month)
This package comes with 2.9%+30¢ per transaction.
Here are the things you will be getting in return when you subscribe to the basic plan:
| ✔️ An actual online store ✔️ Ability to add unlimited products ✔️ Basic discount codes ✔️ Abandoned cart recovery ✔️ Staff accounts ✔️ Sales channels ✔️ Manual order creation |
24/7 Support
One of the most important things you may need when you launch your first online store is an expert to answer all of your questions.
During the process, you may want to ask how to update the shipping rates, or you may ask about changing fonts, colors, or customizing the theme.
Whatever your question is, you are a button away from the answer, all that it takes is to head over “Contact Us”, and one of Shopify’s experts will be in touch with you.
Shopify doesn’t have a phone support system, but from my experience, you do not need one. Their agents are very helpful and knowledgeable with any type of concern you may have.
An online store
It gives you the chance to build an actual website that consists of pages that people visit. Pages that display your products, collections, your terms and conditions, your policies, and more.
Simply, it’s a template you fill with information, images, and Shopify will take care of the rest.
Since customers can’t touch the products when shopping online, you should create a great experience for them by providing high-quality images and themes. You can either use one of the free themes that Shopify offers, (you simply choose the theme you want and just modify the content) or get your store a well-optimized theme to make it look inviting and professional!
Also, you are able to categorize the products in collections, all electronics belong to one collection, all phone cases belong to one collection and so on.
Unlimited products
While other e-commerce platforms limit you with how many products you can list on your online store, Shopify does not!
The reason they do so because the more products and images you upload, the more server bandwidth your store is eating, which may slow down the web host’s services.
Shopify allows you to upload unlimited products, items, and images, even with this least package.
Imagine you have a brick and mortar store, and you are selling apparel, it has a capacity, at some level there would be a limitation in the number of products you have. Well, that’s not the case when it comes to selling on Shopify, you can list thousands of products, with different variants (Colors, sizes, etc…).
Shopify staff accounts
The best part of Shopify is that you can dedicate the time that suits your job, life, and other commitments. You can put an hour a day, 10 hours a week, you are your own boss.
So it starts as a side hustle, beside the job, but as the business grows, the responsibilities do so as well.
If you are planning to become a full-time dropshipper, at some level you need someone to help you with your store. That help may be listing products, editing images, modifying prices, contacting suppliers, and handle customer support.
This role is called Virtual assistant (VA), I will make an article for this particular topic?
In the basic package, Shopify offers you the option to add two staff accounts, this is equal to hiring an employee.
You can restrict the access of the staff accounts, which means that you are able to control what to give them access for.
Generally speaking, they can do almost everything that you can do, except messing up with passwords, payment methods, or any other crucial aspects of your store.
Hiring a virtual assistant can help you achieve more while focusing on other things that matter.
Virtual assistants can be from anywhere, as long as they are located on earth, they just get access to the store’s admin page and work remotely.
Manual order creation
Let’s assume that you have an online store that sells electronics, and you have convinced your friend to buy a “speaker” in a face to face conversation, how can you fulfill his order while you do not have any inventory?
The answer is manual order creation.
You as an owner, manually put the order in your Shopify admin page, you can do this from Shopify’s mobile app, or from the default browser, from a function that’s called “Draft order”
The process involves creating an invoice that your customer will receive via email. After they process the payment, your online store will process the order as usual.
Shopify sales channels
It’s basically another website where you list and display your products on.
Sales channels that you can use:
- Facebook: Integrate a Facebook page you created on Facebook and Shopify will load all your collections in there.
- Instagram: If you are active on Instagram, and if you are an influencer selling goods, you can integrate your Shopify store and tag your product pictures on Instagram.
- Pinterest: You can pin your Shopify products in Pinterest from Shopify. All your products in your online store will display in your Pinterest account, and you can sell from there.
- Amazon: If you have an Amazon Seller Account, Shopify will display all your online store products in Amazon.
- Messenger: Shopifywill enable a menu in your Facebook Messenger where customers can browse on a carousel. The details of the products will also be there, and they can make a purchase from Messenger.
Discount codes
Since everyone loves discounts, Shopify has made it easy for you to create discount codes, and distribute it for everyone, all that they need to do, is to put the discount code at the checkout and the store automatically discounts the amount.
The discount can be a flat currency rate or a percentage rate.
You can also control the expiry of the code, when does it start and when does it end.
The only challenge when it comes to discount codes here is that the customer can only be applying one code. If for example you have a discount code for product A, and a discount for product B and the customer has chosen to buy both products A and B, he only can apply one code upon checkout.
Abandoned Cart Recovery
Now, most people think that when they create an online store, run some ads, visitors land on the website and boom, they make a purchase.
Well, if that’s the case, it would be awesome, but unfortunately, it’s not!
In reality, only 2% of people who complete the purchase right away, 98% of online transactions end up with an abandoned cart recovery.
This could be caused by different distractions, the internet went down, price concerns, and whatever the reason is, they end up closing the tab, and they are lost!
Luckily, with Shopify’s basic plan, you can take advantage of this because you can send personalized emails to the customers who abandoned their shopping carts.
It’s a good plan to send the customer a personalized coupon code with his name, and ask them if there’s a particular reason that made them abandon their cart.
Thanks to Shopify, they allow you to create automatic emails for all customers who abandoned their carts.
The Shopify Plan ($79 Per Month)
This package comes with 2.6%+30¢ per transaction. It includes all the features that the basic plan has, plus some good extra features.
By the time, as we were discussing earlier in the basic plan, you can upgrade your store upon your will. Entrepreneurs who receive a lot of orders, this package could be better for them.
This mid-tier plan allows you to add up to 5 staff accounts (In the basic plan only 2).
What are the special features of the Shopify mid-tier plan?
Professional reports
It’s a numbers game! It’s important to know your number.
This feature allows you to get some statistics, like what product sells more, the average sale per day, the customer’s preferences, or the daily revenue.
What can you view in the reports?
- Check customer demographics by country
- Have a view if you have repeat customers
- Create reports you can use to prepare taxes
- See how many customers visited your website
- Compare sales from first-time customers against repeat customers
- See buying trends
- Check sales records by month or by season
- Track sales specific to a particular product
Note: reports are not customizable, this feature is only available in the Advanced plan
Gift cards
What eBay and Walmart do, is that they sell physical gift cards, with real value, if someone has this card, he can go to these stores and do a purchase.
With Shopify mid plan, you can do the same with your store, you can issue gift cards with different values.
Pro Tip: You can send $5 vouchers to your customers via email, so in order to take advantage of this discount, they need to do a purchase. Let’s assume they have chosen an item for $19.99, at the checkout page, $5 is already discounted for them, it’s more convincing and converting than saying 10% OFF.
Advanced Shopify Plan ($299 Per Month)
This package comes with 2.4%+30¢ per transaction.
In this plan, you are getting everything in the basic and the Shopify plan, but you are allowed to add up to 15 staff accounts, plus these two special features:
- Professional advanced reports
In this package, you will be able to create customized reports, add, remove modify columns, and also your staff accounts can do this for you.
- Third-party calculated shipping rates
In the first two plans, you need to create the shipping rates, including the locations manually, this is a very long process if you are shipping worldwide.
With this feature, you can show your customers the different shipping rates form different shippers like UPS, FedEx, or others.
This feature could be helpful if you are shipping your own products, because customers will choose the shipping company, and the only thing that you need to do is to print the shipping label from your home.
If you are selling dropshipping products from other manufacturers you don’t need this feature much because they will be taking care of the shipping.
Shopify Plus Plan
Some say that the cost of the Plus Plan is $2,000 per month. While this may be true, Shopify actually has varying prices for this plan.
You can only get a plan after you request it.
This plan is best used by enterprise accounts. Enterprise accounts are big businesses that run global online operations.
With this plan, the entrepreneur can assign unlimited staff accounts, and he will have all the benefits and features of all other plans.
Shopify Transaction Fees
Shopify charges a transaction fee, and the rates vary.
For Basic, the cost is 2%. It gets lesser at 1% in the Shopify plan and then finally, 0.5% in the Advanced plan.
What does this mean? If your customer purchased a $10 shirt, Shopify would take $0.2 out of that if you are in the Basic plan, and you will only receive $9.80.
This is a cost you pay because Shopify processed your transaction. You can also use other processors like PayPal or credit card processors, but all of them also charge fees.
Conclusion
After being armed with knowledge, it’s a good start if you choose a plan and start right away. It’s crucial to get the advantage of what Shopify is providing nowadays, they are making e-commerce and selling online a lot easier.
If you are starting out, you need no more than the Basic package, and you can upgrade upon your will, as your business grows.
Do not wait till you learn everything, get inside of the thing, and learn as you go along.
These Shopify plans are very affordable and helpful.
If you have any questions that I’ve not covered in this article, don’t hesitate to reach out and share your thoughts in the comment box. Your free course is waiting for you. Grab your seat now!
Do not underestimate what you can achieve in a day, month, or a year, you are closer than you think!
Because you, our readers are precious to us, we’ve come up with this amazing course, that can teach how to launch your own Shopify store without paying big bucks to some guru! Do not forget to grab your seat, It’s for FREE!
Hand-Picked Articles For You
Cheers,
Odeh Ahwal
