Shopify is a web application designed to help people build their own, scalable online store with hundreds of built-in features, and tons of apps. You can sell products directly on your website, and across multiple marketplaces and social media.It provides you with a wide range of templates that can be customized to meet your own branding requirements, and allows you to sell either physical or digital goods.
The platform was founded in Canada in 2004 by German-born entrepreneur Tobias Lütke. It now has over 1,000,000 users, and in recent years has generated over $183bn in sales. These numbers are significant because when you choose a hosted solution to build an online store with, you are placing a huge amount of trust in the company providing it.
An obvious perk to Shopify is that it allows users without technical or design skills create an online store without the involvement of a web developer (that said, those tech savvy folks who are familiar with HTML and CSS will be happy to discover that Shopify allows you to access both).
Anyone can use Shopify, whether you’re a first-time seller, or a multi-million dollar business like Harry’s Razors (yep, Harry’s Razors is just one of Shopify’s satisfied customers). All you need is an idea, something to sell, and an internet connection, and you could have an online store live in no time. You could get up and running today!
Overall, Shopify is the best ecommece platform on the market hosted solutions for those wishing to create an online store to sell online AND in a physical location. It’s also particularly good for users who are interested in dropshipping. It’s an all-in-one solution that’s bound to make your ecommerce experience easier, especially if you’re just starting out.
