Shopify is an excellent platform for creating your own online store since when developing a site on this platform, you can easily do without programming or web design skills, and you can create a store in just a few days. However, in order for the store to be fully optimized and, as a result, produce high conversions, it is necessary to approach the development process more seriously. Also, you should think through everything down to the smallest detail in order to prevent stupid mistakes, which will be followed by a waste of time and money.
Why Shopify?
Shopify is an ideal solution for creating and launching an online store aimed primarily at a foreign audience. The Canadian platform has been on the market since 2006 and, according to some data, is the second most popular in the world among all e-commerce platforms. More than 1 million stores have already been assembled and launched by entrepreneurs around the world.
Should You Use Shopify or Create a Website From Scratch Yourself?
If you fully get acquainted with the platform and test its capabilities, it will become clear why using Shopify is recommended for everyone who wants to launch abroad. Despite the large number of advantages of a ready-made solution, many still ask: “But can you write a website yourself and not pay for the development?”
Of course, you can, if you don’t mind the time it takes to reinvent the wheel. However, you can quickly and easily establish an attractive, well-optimized website in just a couple of days if you hire Shopify ecommerce developers from DigitalSuits. In this case, we recommend paying for a professional and proven development process. This is better than spending time and money developing a store yourself from scratch or hiring third-party specialists.
Shopify store development process
Next, we will analyze the first steps for creating an online store on Shopify, which consists of many stages. Some of them can be easily completed on your own, but at several stages, it is recommended to use qualified assistance from specialists. A lot depends on your experience and level of knowledge in marketing, web design, and e-commerce, so for someone creating a high-quality online store with high conversion rates will be a relatively simple task.
Creating an online store concept
In simple words, a concept is a system of ways to solve a general problem or a model according to which an online store will be developed. At this stage, before starting to create a store, take into account these points to estimate the labor costs and timing of the project:
- the target audience;
- the type of store (niche or single-product);
- the approximate number of products and categories;
- the necessary functionality.
If you need to develop a store with a unique design, you will likely have to use a page builder. If the store plans to sell digital goods, at this stage, the file delivery scheme is determined (immediately after payment / after a few days when ready), and applications that implement automatic delivery of goods are selected.
Once you have a complete understanding of the online store model, you can begin to analyze competitors and search for ideas for inspiration.
Creating and launching an online store on Shopify can take a lot of time and effort and, most importantly, cause financial losses if you don’t know exactly how to create a website that sells and is user-friendly properly. Some of the most important points that need to be given special attention are the development of the structure, copywriting, design, and actual assembly of the online store.
To save time and effort and also not to waste time and advertising budget, we recommend entrusting the entire process of creating an online store to professionals.
