Hello ladies and gentlemen,
In my last blog post, I did an article on what eCommerce looks like using ShareASale. I discussed its affiliate marketing activities, signing up on the platform, and the reasons you should consider the platform as an affiliate or merchant. This time around we will be looking at another internet platform that will generate more sales for your business. We will learn more about Shopify and the simplicity at which you can set up your eCommerce website and advertise your products using this platform. Grab your cup of coffee, and take some notes.
Shopify is an eCommerce platform based in Ottawa, Canada. The company is known for assisting merchants, businesses, and companies market their products and brands online with the aid of their online platform. They have equipped the eCommerce platform with tools that will enable producers, wholesalers, and retailers to create a website to accommodate their products and also assist in materializing their effective eCommerce campaign.
The eCommerce platform was launched in June 2006. The initial plan was to create a snowboarding online store, but the three developers namely Daniel Weinard, Scott Lake, and Tobias Lutke ended up creating one of the greatest eCommerce websites in the world today. They finally launched its API (Application platform interface) exactly 3years after the company establishment which grants the opportunities for merchants to sign up on the website and then sell their products to internet users.
As of today, the company can proudly boast of having over 1 million websites been launched by different businesses through this platform. In 2018, the company also claimed of having a total merchandise worth of $41.1 billion. Just in 13years the platform has accomplished great achievements due to their diligence, simplicity of tools, and supports services.
Now let’s check out some of the outstanding features that make Shopify stand out among others. The platform indeed offers so many great benefits that cannot all be mentioned, but in the course of this post am going to touch two of it – the simplicity of opening an online store and the ease of products and brand advertisement through the use of Shopify.
1. Ease of opening an online store for your business on Shopify
When you’re looking for a hassle-free method of creating an eCommerce website, then Shopify should be your first option. Shopify is your best chance of avoiding hiring a programmer to help you build a website from scratch. Meanwhile, the opportunity of getting your online store established under few minutes is another intriguing part of using this platform. Check YouTube and you will see several videos on how to make use of Shopify to set up your eCommerce business in less than 20 minutes. Please tell me, what other platform offers that?
Filling up your application form on this platform is as easy as you would want it to be. No need for filling unnecessary details. I guess they had the tight schedule of the entrepreneurs in mind while building the platform because the application is very brief. The first step is where you enter your email address, password, and your store name. You will also have to give them your details to proceed on the next stage.
You can’t believe that you’re already adding products to your store in the second stage of the application. This is the stage where you place your products into categories and you fashion out a model that creates an amazing marketing experience for your customers. By stage three, you are already making your store colorful and selecting themes to make it more attractive. Here is where you make your selection of theme and alignment of your color portray your niche and show the professionalism in your brand.
Don’t forget that you only have an online shop but yet to assign a domain to it. In few more clicks of your mouse, you will find yourself at this stage. And you are also free to add your business domain to your store if you already have one. Now, you have your e-commerce store up and running. The last part is where you set up and initiate your payment processor. When all is done, one single click will make your website live on the internet.
2. Advertising on Shopify with less technical knowledge
There is no point in launching your eCommerce store on a platform with zero charisma for internet advertisement. Meanwhile, as for Shopify, there are so many tools on the ground to see that you attain your sales expectations. They have a lot in store for business, and on a daily basis, they are working hard to ensure that more of it is created. Advertising strategies are so numerous and cannot all be listed. Moreover, new strategies are been developed by experts and businesses on the platform.
One of the advertisement strategies on Shopify is through the use of affiliate marketers. The Shopify software is there to help you arranged an affiliate program for every publisher who would like to help you promote your brand, products, and website on their blogs. Moreover, these in-built plugins available on the new Shopify App will assist you in keeping track of sales, leads, revenue and clicks you have made from your affiliate program. Meanwhile, paying your affiliate their commission becomes stress-free with Shopify, the software will take care of all your transactions and payment.
Search engine optimization is yet another method of promoting your store using this e-commerce platform. The platform is very much SEO friendly. It offers features like Meta title, Meta description, headings, image Alt text for image description, custom URLs for backlinking, and fast loading of website pages. Ecommerce website built through Shopify is guaranteed mobile-friendly. The platform is specifically built for businesses who will like to generate traffic to their website by leveraging on their contents.
AdSense is another advertisement tool in your Shopify arsenal. You can easily add your eCommerce website to your Google AdSense account provided that you have one. And then begin to increase your reach on the internet. Moreover, the analytics tools will also be at your disposal to manage and evaluate your advertisement result over a particular period.
The most outstanding feature are the free marketing apps to get your business going. With a simple install and guided checklists, you can setup Google Shopping, Facebook Marketing and Microsoft Advertising. These apps handle all the required tags and automate just about everything. On top of that, you can do it yourself and not worry about anything breaking.
There is still more to benefit from Shopify eCommerce platform. There are different plans for different categories of business scales is another thing to cherish. They have subscription rates for small scale, medium and large scale businesses at affordable prices. Meanwhile, it is guaranteed that you are going to make success in your marketing using Shopify.
