About Shopify for Beginners
Shopify is a multinational, Canadian-based e-commerce company that helps users create their own personal online stores without any prior coding knowledge. Founders Tobi Lütke and Scott Lake stumbled upon this business idea when they ran into trouble trying to create their own online snowboarding store. Lütke, a skilled computer programmer, built their own open source template, launching Shopify.
Since its emergence in 2006, the site has had nothing but success; Generating billions of dollars in revenue and with millions of users interacting within it. By 2013, Shopify passed the $1 million mark; Today the company is worth over $60 billion.
What Attributes to Shopify's Success?
Shopify transformed the complicated and stressful task of website building into a seamless, simple process. The straightforward layout and user-friendly interface allows merchants and sellers to skip over the hard part of figuring out how to get a website out there (hiring someone, learning code, etc.) and instead lets them independently do so. This way, Shopify allows users to get right to doing what they do best — buying and selling products.
Furthermore, the layout gives users a wide range of customization (for a price) with a variety of templates and styles to choose from. Personalization is important for brands to establish a brand identity and become distinguishable from competition.
Another large factor that comes into play when asking the question of what makes Shopify so successful are its investors. Shopify additionally integrates its services into brand giants like Facebook and Amazon, which not only benefit the company but provides Shopify users the ability to easily list their products on those sites.
How can you get Started on Shopify, What does it Cost?
Shopify requires a paid subscription to access all benefits, the monthly price ranges from the Starter fee of $1/mo. to Shopify Plus which is $2,000/mo. The success and volume of your business will help determine which subscription best suits your needs.
The basic membership at $29/mo. is the most popular and comes with everything you need to create your store, ship products, and process payments. Shopify provides you with a host of services including the following: storefront, blog posts, payment processor, secure checkout, shipping platform, marketing platform, SEO tools, staff accounts, mobile app, and a back office.
In case you’re still startled over the $2,000/mo. Shopify Plus subscription, you should know that brands like GymShark, Telfar, and Kylie use Shopify as their e-commerce platform. The quantity of business comes with higher needs and therefore a higher cost. That’s what’s great about Shopify though, the platform grows with your brand.
Where is Shopify Most Successful?
Shopify has merchants in 175 countries although half of the platforms sellers are based in the United States. As of 2020, the US had the most shares 874,500 (50%) while the least amount of shares came from Latin America with 69,960 merchants (4%).
In terms of revenue, in 2021 Shopify earned $2.1 billion, which is 57% more than what they brought in the year prior. Geographically, revenue earned in each region reflects how many merchants are present. North America generated the most revenue with a total of 73.3% earned in 2020.
The amount of consumers has been steadily increasing with each passing year. In 2020, 457 million people bought products from a Shopify store (a 52.33% increase from 2019).
App Store Domination
Shopify has its own App Store featuring a collection of apps that were created to work with Shopify. These apps cover everything you can think of to extend the functionality of your online stores (accounting, shipping, etc.). Shopify currently has over 7,000 apps spanning over 12 categories available for download.
From Private to Public
In April 2015, Shopify filed an IPO on the NYSE and Toronto Stock exchange under SHOP and SH; by May 2015 they went public, trading at $28/share. In 2023, Shopify now trades at $50.8/share.
It’s hard to believe that what started out as a means to pursue a snowboarding store-front turned into the e-commerce giant that it is today. Lütke, now a billionaire, aims to maintain a friendly and supportive work environment. Shopify allows employees to permanently work from home (as of 2020) and encourages entrepreneurs to start their own businesses using the Shopify platform.
