Many business owners and entrepreneurs are constantly looking for ways to build an online store and create a reliable form of passive revenue. On the other hand, eCommerce platforms enjoy a healthy reputation for being incredibly easy to use and provide merchants with great tools to help them sell their products and services to an incredibly wide audience. However, the main benefit they bring to the table is that they do not require users to learn to code in order to build their commercial empire online. Most of the customization process happens right on their dedicated servers and platforms.
One would think that convenience trumps everything else in the digital world, and that business owners appreciate the fact that they don’t have to become a computer whiz in order to sell their products online. After all, running a business is complicated enough as it is, right?
However, we were astonished when we found out that there is an astonishing amount of negative information and myths about these platforms, especially Shopify.
This came as a surprise given the immense amount of businesses that take advantage of the quality of life features they offer, and that have experienced unprecedented growth thanks to their intuitive eCommerce tools, and their powerful SEO for Shopify stores.
Se, we decided to take a closer look at these myths so we could dispel them once and for all.
Shopify Makes It Hard To Set Up An Online Store
This is simply not true. In fact, Shopify is the easiest platform to work with, and offers a wealth of tutorials for those who are completely new in the world of eCommerce.
Moreover, their online support is top-notch. There is always someone at the other end of the line and their super helpful technical support team can hold your hand during the whole process of setting up a shop.
“But hey you, mysteriously informative and suspiciously well-spoken eCommerce connoisseur”, -I hear you say-, “Are you telling me that those who want to create their website on their own won’t be able to do it without spending hours of their precious time watching tutorials?”
Not at all. Shopify´s most basic plans allow you to open up a shop in minutes just by filling up a couple of forms and uploading a few products, and have your first sale within 24 hours without any previous knowledge. It is LITERALLY, that simple to set up shop on Shopify.
So, no. Shopify does not make it harder to set up an online shop.
Shopify Limits Your Creativity
This myth is deeply rooted in the way eCommerce platforms are designed to function. So, we need to offer a bit of a background before tackling the misconceptions that give birth to this particular myth.
A few decades ago, if a store wanted to take the online plunge, they needed to design a website from scratch. That meant learning and expertly coding every single element and making sure they all worked together. This effectively created massive inequalities, as only those with the knowledge or deep pockets could benefit from making business online.
ECommerce platforms started as a way to eliminate these restrictions, moving almost every obstacle out of the way of small business owners who just wanted to establish an online presence.
The problem is that, in order to make sure every element works the same for everyone, and prevent a cascade of problems that need to be addressed one by one, Shopify decided to create one-size-fits-all rigid solutions that some find limiting, especially if they are used to open source platforms.
However, Shopify today offers incredibly flexible solutions in terms of themes, templates and plugins. WIth their latest update, they made sure to include almost every possible combination of solutions for the widest possible range of industries and business models. Moreover, they allow Shopify SEO services providers a lot more freedom to tinker with the code in case there are special features a business needs.
So, no. Shopify does not limit your creativity. If anything, it allows you to build the store you want with minimum effort.
Shopify Is Expensive
Some people seem to think that opening an online store is like signing up for social media. Unfortunately, eCommerce platforms have a business model that requires them to take a cut of what their users make.
However, Shopify is one of the most affordable eCommerce platforms out there. Their Lite Plan starts at only $9 per month and allows you to place an extremely convenient “Buy” button to their website or even accept in-person payments via their Point Of Sale lite feature.
For those who want to host their eCommerce with Shopify, the basic subscription is only $29 a month. Using their Shopify Payments system allows the user to waive all transaction fees. The best part is that their plans are completely scalable, and allow you to gradually grow your business. And considering all the benefits they provide in terms of shipping discounts and inventory management, Shopify is a bargain.
Myth busted: Shopify is not expensive at all.
Shopify Makes SEO Hard
One would think that a completely customized website will always be better equipped to outperform your competitors right from the start. If you have total control over your website, then you can strip it from every superfluous line of code, and end up with a lean-mean SEO machine, right?
Like many ideas in the history of ideas, this one sounds amazing on paper, but in practice is just a bunch of nonsense.
The truth is that Shopify has incredibly powerful optimization features that do not require users to go into the nuts and bolts of website building to take advantage of. Moreover, Shopify added Yoast, the most downloaded SEO tool in the world, to its roster of plugins, adding an impressive set of tools to optimize every detail of your website in one place.
This means that the persistent myth that Shopify makes SEO hard, should be put to sleep once and for all.
A word of caution, though. Almost two million merchants are using Shopify to sell their products. This means that they all have access to the same tools and advantages you do.
If you want to make sure you stand out from the crowd and have tangible advantages that allow you to outpace and outcompete your rivals and bring in a constant stream of traffic, you need the help of experienced Shopify SEO services provided by a solid eCommerce agency like Genius eCommerce.
