Ellie
Shopify has integrated many services that make it easy for people to start an online business. In fact, almost anyone who has a couple of bucks to spare and a product they believe in can start selling right away.
Shopify keeps everyone grounded. They have a feature that gives equal headstart for sellers, big and small, called themes. In this blog post, Mesmeric will explore its benefits and limitations and how you can differentiate your business and have a leg up.
One of the best services Shopify offers is a pre-made online store. It's called themes—a set of ecommerce website designs built by the Shopify website development team and several contributors.
Themes make it possible to go from zero online presence to stunning online store design in a click. Here's why a lot of aspiring Shopify sellers are drawn to it.
There are many themes on Shopify's website that make it easy for aspiring ecommerce sellers to start from scratch. They can choose from several free preset themes and put their business up online.
If they're willing to shell out money, sellers can choose from hundreds of paid unique design themes and launch an online store immediately.
The themes on the Shopify platform all have responsive web design features. They all look good whether viewed on a monitor screen or a smartphone.
This is a big deal for any ecommerce website because potential customers usually explore an online store using their mobile phones.
You don't have to consider what website pages to include on your Shopify store. Every essential web page is bundled in your selected theme. Pages such as Home, About, Contact, and Product pages are part of the Shopify web design preset.
Each Shopify website theme is already packed for immediate use. So you don't need to code using HTML, CSS, and Javascript to revise when designing a Shopify website.
All there's left to do is customize the theme. For example, you can vary the color schemes or move around webpage components according to your preferences. All these tasks don't need coding skills; just use your creativity.
Apart from having all the essential pages, all necessary features for your online store are coded in, such as point-of-sale and payment.
Having essential features on your online store is convenient. For example, you don't have to consider integrating payment or discount applications because it's already there. You just have to upload your products and your receiving account, and you're set to do business.
Despite hundreds of beautifully made Shopify store designs, only a handful are free. The rest are created by a Shopify partner and are charged from $200 to $350, depending on the quality and features included.
While the designs are worth the price asked, it's a sunk-cost investment if you're planning on going big in the future.
Shopify themes have different design options and color scheme variations. But if you're looking for a more specific custom Shopify theme, you may have to hire Shopify experts or agencies to make it work.
Theme customization for the preset store themes is limited to what's already there. So it can be challenging if you're trying to build a unique brand. There are also hundreds of stores out there using the same theme and therefore look like your store.
What's awesome about Shopify is that it is a content management system (CMS). But the features and functions of Shopify are limited, especially for content.
Ecommerce sellers can rely on Shopify for product listings. But if you want to put a video on all your products, you might have to email the ecommerce platform's dev team to include that in the next update.
Shopify's themes and their ecommerce-friendly CMS brings a ton of convenience for aspiring sellers. But those conveniences are meant to get you through the first hurdle. Once your online business grows, redesigning and managing them can be time-consuming.
One crucial factor that limits patrons of pre-made Shopify store design is user experience. Granted, the themes and their aesthetics are awesome. But those themes are meant to give you, the online seller, a positive experience.
Once you start selling, you'll have to tweak your chosen theme to meet your website visitors' needs. For that, you need a UX design professional.
Let's say you're a Shopify seller and have already purchased a theme. You're happy about it and selling stuff, but not as much as you'd like. You want to increase your conversion, but to save up, you keep your existing Shopify theme and work with what you have. Here's what you can do.
You can get a professional user experience designer to look at your existing Shopify website. They can recommend tweaks you can do to increase your online store's session time, reduce bounce rates, and get that conversion.
Frequently uploading blogs and products is one of the main things an ecommerce seller must do. Blogs are great for search engine optimization (SEO) and your product; you need them to get those sales. But these tasks are time-consuming.
To get traffic to your site, regularly uploading new content and products will make your online store relevant and easily seen. So hire someone who can do it daily while you do other things, like business development.
If you're a business owner who has a physical store and wants an ecommerce equivalent, here's what you can do.
Shopify is a popular selling platform for a lot of ecommerce sellers. But they're not the only option if you want to sell online. Here are a couple of options you can consider.
Marketplaces - Amazon, Etsy, and Walmart are some marketplaces you can explore. You can operate at marketplaces by just listing your products, but you also have the option to supplement them with your ecommerce website.
WooCommerce - This is a content management system from WordPress. It allows you to build your fully-customized ecommerce website and have a CMS operating alongside it.
To save you time and resources, get help from a custom Shopify web page design agency. In addition, a full-service team such as Mesmeric can help you with the following aspects.
User Experience
UX design pros dive deep into your brand and get to know your customers so they can create a UX plan for your Shopify store.
Front and Back End Web Development
If you want to skip Shopify themes and build your own, you'll have full-stack developers translating every web design element into a real, functioning website.
Website Maintenance and Tech Support
Security checks and backup are important tasks that keep the ecommerce website humming. Support pros keep your website free from threats and complete loss of listings.
Content Management
You'll have someone regularly uploading new product listings. For existing products, they can update or delete them as ordered.
Ecommerce selling platforms such as Shopify attract plenty of aspiring sellers. All of them have equal ability to get started instantly, but not all will choose to start at an advantage. That's where your opportunity is.
You can gain an advantage and stand out from the rest. By enlisting the help of the best Shopify designers, you can make the most of your theme, optimize your online website, or create a stunning one for yourself.
If you're ready to build a better Shopify store, learn more about our services here.
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