What is Shopify

Image credits to: user15327819 | Freepik

History of Shopify Inc​

Shopify history

Shopify was founded in 2006 by Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake. The idea for Shopify originated when Lütke, a web developer, wanted to start an online snowboarding store but couldn’t find a suitable e-commerce platform (source: Wikipedia). He decided to build his own solution, and together with Weinand and Lake, they created Shopify as a platform that would enable anyone to easily set up an online store without extensive technical knowledge. The platform quickly gained popularity due to its user-friendly interface, customizable templates, and robust features, attracting entrepreneurs and businesses looking to establish an online presence. 

Listing on the stock exchange

Shopify Inc. went public on May 21, 2015, and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol “SHOP“. Shopify’s market value had grown significantly since its IPO. The company’s market capitalization was in the tens of billions of dollars (as at August 28, 2023), making it one of the most valuable e-commerce companies in the world. Shopify Inc. is a highly trusted e-commerce giant with a solid foundation, boasting a proven track record of empowering businesses worldwide. Its user-friendly platform, exceptional customer support, and robust features have earned widespread acclaim, making it a top choice for entrepreneurs and enterprises alike. It offers a range of customizable templates and themes, making it easy for store owners to design their websites to fit their brand’s identity. 

What is Shopify?​

Shopify is an e-commerce platform that allows businesses to create and manage their online stores. It is a cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution, which means that users can access and use it over the internet without the need to install or maintain any software on their computers.

Shopify is a user-friendly platform with exceptional customer support, and robust features have earned widespread acclaim, making it a top choice for entrepreneurs and enterprises alike. It offers a range of customizable templates and themes, making it easy for store owners to design their websites to fit their brand’s identity.

General knowledge:
E-commerce, short for electronic commerce, refers to the buying and selling of goods and services over the internet. It involves various online transactions, including online retail stores, digital marketplaces, online auctions, and business-to-business trading. E-commerce has revolutionized the way businesses operate and consumers shop, providing convenience, accessibility, and a global reach. It encompasses a wide range of activities, from online shopping and digital payments to supply chain management and online marketing, making it an integral part of modern business practices in the digital age.

There are several advantages in using Shopify ecommerce platform to run your business such as:

1. It is cost-effective when scaling your online business:

Shopify is a fully-hosted platform where you do not need to worry about server setup, maintenance, security, or resource limitations. In fact, Shopify has a robust server capable of supporting high web traffic websites. Comparing it with self-hosted platforms, you would need to allocate capital, and as your web traffic and web resources increase, the required capital would scale up, potentially driving up your operating expenses exponentially.

Shopify is a software-as-a-service (‘SaaS’) platform, meaning that backend maintenance is fully handled by Shopify, taking away the headaches of updating the website and fixing any errors. This is a significant advantage compared to open-source content management systems (CMS), where you must constantly check and update to ensure your website is not vulnerable to malicious attacks (Source: Sucuri). Moreover, maintaining the website requires professionals, so you must allocate capital to hire your web developer or outsource your Shopify Store development to a tech company like us.

2. Large community of developers

Shopify ecommerce platform has been around and grown so much since 2006. Shopify Inc has been investing heavily to improve the platform and they have a large developer community around the world contributing to make the platform better as well.

3. Highly customizable frontend

Shopify frontend is customizable and you can alter the design as you like. However, if you do not want the trouble to customize your website design, Shopify provides many free and paid Shopify templates for you to choose from.

Is it Easy to Manage Shopify Store?

Yes it is easy to learn how to manage your Shopify store. There are also huge number of content on the internet that you can access to learn all the tricks about Shopify.

Key features Shopify offers and lead generation forms

1. Unlimited products for sellers to upload

Shopify allows you to add unlimited products to your Shopify store.

2. Staff accounts

Add staff to help in the management of your store, such as adding products and managing orders.

3. 24/7 support

Shopify support is available 24/7, no matter which plan you’re on. Just login to the backend and reach out to Shopify support through the LiveChat.

4. Discount codes

Offer your customers a fixed value, percentage, or shipping discount on products or collections.

5. Abandoned cart recovery

Automatically send emails to customers who leave your store without completing the checkout process.

6. Gift cards

Expand your current customer base and attract new customers by offering gift cards.

7. Customer segmentation

Filter and group customers into hundreds of segments.

5 ways your business can benefits from using Shopify ecommerce platform​

1. Cost-effective when scaling your online business such as saving on the server management cost and server subscription fees

2. Large community of developers which means this platform is highly trusted by developers

3. Highly customizable frontend according to your design styles and preferences

4. Design is made to be user-friendly and easy to use in managing and adding products

5. Shopify provides all the necessary features that you need to run your online businesses

Find this content helpful and looking to hire professional web development company to support your business? Contact us now.

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