Shopify Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

Shopify is a popular e-commerce website builder that makes it easy to create and manage an online store. With Shopify, you can sell products and services via several outlets, including your own website, social channels and top online marketplaces. Forbes includes Shopify on its list of best e-commerce platforms.

What Can You Sell on Shopify?

The Shopify platform supports a wide variety of products and services. For example, with a Shopify plan, you can sell the following:

• Physical products
• Digital downloads, such as e-books, audio files and non-fungible tokens (NFTs)
• Subscription boxes
• Services that can be managed through online bookings
• Gift cards
• Memberships
• Live plants and flowers
• Online courses and training
• Tickets to events, attractions and tours

You can also accept donations or host fundraisers through Shopify.

Shopify prohibits selling specific products, including prescription medicines, live animals, explosives, cigarettes, sexually explicit products, warranties and services plans. While you can sell hemp-derived CBD products on Shopify, shipping outside Canada is prohibited and you must be licensed to sell cannabis at a federal or provincial level.

Selling products that violate government regulations or laws is strictly forbidden on Shopify. It’s always best to familiarize yourself with the laws applicable to your targeted selling and shipping regions before starting any online business.

How Does Shopify Work?

Shopify is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. You pay a subscription fee to use the platform, and Shopify provides the tools you need to design and manage your online e-commerce website and hosts your site for you. Your Shopify website is not transferable to other e-commerce platforms; you must maintain an active Shopify account to keep your site live.

You can get started with Shopify with its introductory offer, which includes a three-day free trial and then three months at only $1 CAD per month. To continue with Shopify, you’ll need to select from one of Shopify’s three core plans—Basic, Shopify or Advanced.

Once you’ve signed up for a Shopify plan, you’ll want to choose where and how to start selling your products or services. You can create an online store, sell via social media channels, connect to an existing website or blog, sell in person and sell via online marketplaces such as Google, Amazon or eBay.

Design your Shopify online store using one of Shopify’s e-commerce-enabled themes. Add products to your Shopify account, set up payments and shipping and taxes, then you’re ready to start selling. Track orders and monitor business performance via Shopify’s extensive reporting and analytical tools.

Pros

• User-Friendly: With its intuitive interface and user-friendly website design tools, Shopify makes it relatively easy to launch an online store quickly.
• Third-Party Integrations: More than 6,000 app integrations are available, which means countless options for adding customized features and functionality to your site.
• 24/7 Customer Service: Shopify is one of the few e-commerce platforms that offers 24/7 customer service via email, live chat and phone.
• Abandoned Cart Recovery: Every Shopify plan offers abandoned cart recovery functionality, which reminds customers who left the cart prematurely to return and complete their purchase.
• Shipping Discounts: Shopify plans come with competitive shipping rates—including discounts of up to 53%—from FedEx, Canada Postand UPS.
• Sell Online or In-Person: Sell online via your own Shopify store, social channels, blog or an online marketplace, or sell products in-person at retail stores, pop-ups or markets via Shopify POS.

Cons

• Pricey Plans: Shopify’s top-tier plans are expensive compared with other e-commerce website builders such as Squarespace and Wix.
• Limited Number of Free Themes: Shopify offers less than 20 free themes; there are nearly 90 paid themes through Shopify, but they cost $150 USD ($203.94 CAD) or more.
• Mediocre for Blogging: Shopify excels at online sales functionality, but blogging or content marketing functionality isn’t as robust as it is with other platforms such as WordPress and Squarespace.
• High Transaction Fees: While there are no transaction fees with Shopify Payments, you’ll pay a 0.5% to 2% transaction fee if you use a third-party payment provider.

Shopify offers three primary plans that all include unlimited products, discount codes, 24/7 support and the ability to promote your products on multiple sales channels. You’ll save 25% by paying for your plan annually instead of month to month. Start with the plan that best fits your current needs and upgrade your Shopify plan at any time.

You can get started with Shopify by taking advantage of its introductory offer, which includes a three-day free trial plus your first month at $1 CAD. After that, you’ll need to purchase a plan.

Shopify Tiered Pricing for Core Plans

Not included in the chart above is Shopify’s Starter plan, which doesn’t come with a full-fledged e-commerce store. Instead, the $7 CAD per month Shopify Starter plan gives you Shopify cart and product management functionality so you can sell on social channels such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and WhatsApp or via text or email.

Basic

The Basic plan lets you create your own online shop to market and sell your products and services. Choose your shop theme and develop a site that best suits your business needs. With the Basic plan, you can assign two people to your account for store access and management.

The $38 CAD monthly fee (if billed annually) for the Basic plan lets you sell unlimited products, though you’ll do so at a slight fee disadvantage, as the cost for credit card processing via Shopify Payments is highest on the Basic plan.

The Basic plan is ideal for those who are just starting out and haven’t established a solid sales track record. Basic gives you most of the features you’ll get in the higher-tier plans at a price tag that’s considerably more affordable for those on a budget.

Shopify

The popular mid-tier plan—“Shopify”—costs $99 CAD per month (if billed annually). The two key advantages of going with the Shopify plan over the Basic plan are lower credit card processing fees and more staff accounts.

You can have up to five staff accounts for this Shopify plan, which is helpful for larger stores that require more support from adding and managing a more complex product inventory. Credit card processing fees are slightly lower than on the Basic plan with the Shopify plan; the 0.1% to 0.2% difference may not matter for low-sales-volume stores, but it could add up to significant savings for high-volume stores.

The Shopify plan has a few more perks, including built-in e-commerce automations that streamline workflows and more substantial shipping discounts.

Advanced

At $389 CAD per month (if billed annually), the Advanced plan is best for those who have already established a clientele for their online businesses. The Advanced plan comes with up to 15 staff accounts and Shopify’s lowest credit card processing fees.

A handful of other advanced features come with this plan, such as advanced reports that give you greater visibility into store performance, e-commerce workflow automations and the best shipping discounts available through Shopify. For those involved with international commerce, the Advanced plan also includes duties and import tax estimates at checkout, which can assist in providing greater clarity regarding costs and returns for impacted customers.

If you ever outgrow the Advanced plan, Shopify also offers a Shopify Plus plan for high-volume stores. Shopify Plus plans are custom-priced, but start at $2,000 USD ($2,719 CAD) a month.

Related: Shopify Vs. Shopify Plus

Shopify is a feature-rich platform with a solid reputation as a reliable e-commerce website builder. The platform was developed specifically for those who don’t have extensive technical skills or website development experience. Before deciding whether Shopify is the right choice for your business, it pays to take a closer look at Shopify’s core features.

Online Store Editor

Shopify’s store editor is relatively easy to use, but your experience setting up a shop on Shopify may vary depending on your skill level and experience. If you’re not accustomed to a drag-and-drop editor or have never used a website builder, you may experience a modest learning curve. Those with more website experience typically report that Shopify’s editor is intuitive and easy to navigate.

The Shopify theme you choose will determine the basic appearance of and functions available on your website; additional functionality can be obtained through third-party apps. Choose from over 100 themes available directly through Shopify, around 20% of which are free. Paid themes cost between $150 USD ($203.94 CAD) and $380 USD ($516.65 CAD) and can be used for a single store.

The Shopify drag-and-drop editor lets you move sections or blocks of your website around easily to create the store layout you want. The editor allows you to customize your site’s look and feel while ensuring you retain the layout integrity that produces a professional-looking online store. Preview your site’s appearance from a mobile or desktop view before finalizing your site design.

Shopify’s mobile-friendly themes help guarantee that your online store is optimized for every device your customers use. You can change your theme at any time. However, if you’ve made a lot of customizations to your current theme, moving to a different theme can be complicated as design settings and site features vary considerably from theme to theme.

If you have a vision for your website and are having trouble executing it, you may want to work with a Shopify store development specialist. You can work with a developer you hire directly or visit the Shopify Expert Marketplace to find and hire a certified Shopify expert. Fees vary by expert but expect to pay between $50 USD ($67.97 CAD) to $150 USD ($203.94 CAD) if you outsource directly through the Expert Marketplace and possibly less if hiring through a third-party freelancing site such as Upwork or Fiverr.

Shopify Magic

Shopify recently introduced a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool for its customers called Shopify Magic. This proprietary AI tool helps you generate product descriptions for your online shop. Just provide a few details about your product, and Shopify Magic can generate compelling descriptions for you.

As with all AI tools, Shopify Magic’s suggestions may not be 100% on target, but they can still shorten the time it takes you to develop compelling product descriptions for your website.

Checkout

Shopify has been in the e-commerce business since 2006, which means it has nearly two decades of experience developing highly successful checkout carts for online companies. Essential cart functions are not editable, but some features can be customized.

Navigate to the checkout settings page on your Shopify dashboard to customize the style of your checkout cart for your store. Using the Checkout editor, you can add your logo and modify your checkout cart with your brand colours and fonts. You can also edit some checkout form fields or designate some as required or optional.

There are 27 checkout apps available via the Shopify App Store that you may want to explore to add additional functionality to your store’s checkout process. These checkout apps include apps for adding upsell and cross-sell suggestions, loyalty and reward programs, age verification, shipping insurance, post-purchase surveys and more.

Shipping

Arranging shipping for goods can be a hassle for many new online businesses, but Shopify offers several solutions that make your life easier. When you set up your shop, you’ll manage shipping settings via the Shipping and Delivery page on your store’s admin dashboard. For physical goods, there are three ways to get items to your customers: shipping, local pickup and local delivery. Enable all the methods that pertain to your business.

When shipping products to your customers, you can opt for flat-rate, free or carrier-calculated shipping. With calculated shipping, you pass along the exact shipping cost to your clients, but those calculations require that you provide accurate weights and measurements for your products when packaged for shipping. You can also integrate your site with a dropshipping provider to handle fulfillment and shipping.

Shopify Shipping offers competitive shipping rates from UPS, Canada Postand FedExExpress; save up to 45% on shipping with the Basic plan and up to 50% with the Shopify and up to 53% with Advanced plans. The top-tier plan also come with third-party calculated shipping rates.

Shopify integrates with several popular shipping apps, including ShipStation, Shippo, UPS Shipping, Easyship and ShippingEasy.

Order Management and Fulfillment

Once a customer completes their purchase, you’ll need an effective order management and fulfillment system to ensure that the correct items are selected, packed, labelled and shipped correctly. Shopify’s order management tools help streamline the entire process.

Shopify makes it easy to see all your orders along with their order status. From your Shopify dashboard, you can navigate to the Orders tab to view all orders from all sales channels in one place. Open orders are tagged for easy identification.

You can update each order with tags or notes to track important information such as order irregularities, payment status, return status, risk level or customer inquiry status. Streamline your fulfillment process by organizing orders based on shipping criteria such as delivery destination, shipping method and fulfillment status.

Shopify stores customer contact information in each order so you can reach out to customers should you need to ask a question or want to send a push notification alerting customers of order shipment status.

If you’d rather not fulfill your own orders, you can join Shopify’s Fulfillment Network, which handles product storage, shipping and returns for you. Sites that use the Network’s fulfillment services can post the exclusive Shop Promise badge, which verifies items will be delivered in five days or less.

Shopify offers a cost calculator for its Fulfillment Network so you can estimate your product storage and fulfillment costs. These costs can vary significantly by item size, weight, shape, shipping destination and anticipated shipping volume.

You can also choose to use a third-party fulfillment solutions provider. The Shopify App Store features several popular apps, including ShipHero Fulfillment, ShipMonk, ShipBob Fulfillment and Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment.

Dropshipping

Dropshipping is an online model where a customer places an order with you online while a separate supplier handles all aspects of product sourcing, fulfillment, shipping and, when necessary, handles customer returns. You focus on marketing, promoting and accepting product payments while your dropshipping partner handles the operational details required to execute those orders.

Shopify makes it easy to launch a dropshipping business. The platform offers all the tools you need to set up and promote your business and integrates with dozens of popular third-party dropshipping providers, including Spocket, Zendrop, CJdropshipping, Dropshipman, Printful, DropCommerce and FashionGo Dropshipping.

Inventory Management

Shopify lets account owners assign inventory in up to 1,000 locations, including retail stores, warehouses and pop-ups. Set up and adjust your inventory levels—including inventory counts for product variants such as colours and sizes—in the Inventory section of your Shopify store dashboard.

Shopify does a great job of managing inventory for you, but remember that inventory counts are only as accurate as the data you enter into your Shopify account. It’s vital that you are precise when uploading product inventory numbers into your online store. You can add inventory numbers manually or in bulk via a CSV file. Shopify keeps track of all inventory adjustments you make for you.

You can set Shopify to track inventory on any product in your store. If you like, you can choose to allow customers to purchase products that are out of stock or that you are selling on a pre-order basis. You can also choose to automatically hide products that are out of stock.

Shopify does not come with a built-in low-inventory alert feature, but you can download a low-stock-alert app from the Shopify App Store.

Marketing and Promotions

All Shopify plans come with a variety of marketing and promotional tools that help you create a successful online e-commerce presence. Top marketing features include:

• Customer segmentation tools that let you create relevant customer groups
• Unlimited contacts, which is essential for building a large customer and prospect base
• Marketing engagement tools, such as Shopify Email and Shopify Inbox
• A wide variety of discount types, such as product category discounts, shipping discounts, buy X get Y free, volume discounts and storewide $X and X% discounts
• Search engine optimization tools
• Content marketing tools, including blogging capabilities
• Targeted social ads
• Marketing campaign tracking tools and dashboard reports
• Abandoned cart recovery notifications
• Customer reviews, which can significantly boost product sales
• You can integrate with popular marketing and promotional apps for even greater marketing functionality. Top third-party apps include Mailchimp, Google and YouTube, SMSBump and Klaviyo.

Point-of-Sale (POS) System

With your Shopify account, you can sell online or in person. To conduct business in person, you’ll need to download Shopify’s POS app, which is available for iOS and Android. Shopify POS automatically syncs with your online store so you can keep track of purchases and inventory from all sales sources.

All Shopify plans come with Shopify POS Lite, which allows businesses to sell at pop-ups, special events, temporary markets and retail stores. With POS Lite, you can turn virtually any mobile device into a tool for generating sales. Collect credit card payments, sell gift cards, issue refunds, and sell the same products and services you offer online in a face-to-face environment.

If you have a brick-and-mortar business, consider upgrading to Shopify POS Pro, which costs $105 CAD per month. POS Pro gives you considerably more control over staff permissions, extensive inventory reporting tools, a two-year warranty on POS hardware purchases and omnichannel selling capabilities.

Analytics and Reporting

If you aren’t familiar with what’s working and what’s not working on your online store, you’re putting your business at risk. You need access to detailed analytics to make strategic business decisions. Shopify delivers a wide range of reports that you can access by navigating to the Analytics tab on your Shopify dashboard.

Shopify has three report categories: basic, standard and advanced. Basic plan customers have access to basic reports, Shopify plan customers have access to standard reports and Advanced plan customers receive advanced reports. Types of reports include:

• Acquisition reports
• Behaviour reports
• Customer reports
• Finance reports
• Inventory reports
• Marketing reports
• Order reports
• Profit reports
• Retail sales reports
• Overall sales reports

Shopify’s extensive report suite gives customers deep insights into customer behaviours, buyer patterns, product profitability and other vital drivers of online store success. Shopify Advanced plan customers also have access to custom reports that can be used to examine site performance even more thoroughly.

Detailed product analytics are also available for all accounts. Product analytics give you an in-depth look at product sales for the last 90 days, providing insights into net sales over time, by channel and traffic source.

	Shopify	Squarespace	Wix
Rating (Out of 5 Stars)
Starting Price	$38 CAD per month	$21 CAD per month	Free; $17 USD ($23.11 CAD) per month
Free Trial	Three days	14 days	14 days
Storage	Unlimited	Unlimited	20 GB to 50 GB
E-Commerce	On all plans	On all plans except Personal	On Business and e-commerce plans
Number of Templates	90-plus	200-plus	800-plus
Product Limit	Unlimited	Unlimited	Up to 50,000
Multichannel Selling	✔	✔	✔
Free SSL Certificate	✔	✔	✔
Abandoned Cart Recovery	✔	✔	✔
Free Custom Domain Name	–	✔	✔
Support	24/7 phone, email and live chat plus online Help Center	24/7 email, chat, social and online Help Center	24/7 phone (call back only), email, live chat and online Help Center
Learn More	On Shopify’s Website	On Squarespace’s Website	On Wix’s Website
Read Reviews	–	Read our Squarespace review	Read our Wix review

Shopify vs. Squarespace

In the contest between Shopify vs. Squarespace, the race is close. When it comes to overall plan affordability, Squarespace is the hands-down winner, as its most expensive plan is $66 CAD per month if billed annually (or $90 CAD per month if billed monthly), while Shopify’s top plan costs $389 CAD per month (if billed annually). While both platforms offer attractive shop themes, many users prefer Squarespace’s modern design aesthetic, which has a reputation for producing visually stunning websites.

Shopify was built exclusively for e-commerce, so every feature included on the platform focuses on helping you create and manage product sales for your business. With over 6,000 third-party integrations, the functionality you can achieve with Shopify is nearly limitless.

While both Shopify and Squarespace offer solid e-commerce functionality, the right platform for you will ultimately depend on the type of online presence you intend to create and the amount of money you want to invest in your website.

Shopify vs. Wix

Technically, Wix offers a free plan, but if you want to sell products or services on your site, you’ll need to upgrade to an e-commerce plan. Comparing Wix vs. Shopify, you’ll pay between $17 USD ($23.11 CAD) and $35 USD ($47.58 CAD) per month with Wix for your online shop, which is cheaper than Shopify’s $38 CAD to $389 CAD per month fees.

Wix e-commerce plans start at 20 GB compared to Shopify which offers unlimited storage on all plans, giving Shopify the advantage over larger online shops. Also, you must buy the Wix Business VIP plan to get unlimited products; you can post unlimited products with all Shopify plans.

Wix offers 800-plus themes—considerably more than Shopify—but not all design templates are suitable for e-commerce websites. Beginners may find Wix somewhat simpler to use, but those with more advanced e-commerce needs often find that Wix lacks the versatility that Shopify offers in terms of robust e-commerce features.

Shopify vs. Shift4Shop

Formerly known as 3dcart, Shift4Shop is another platform for building e-commerce websites. Shift4Shop was recently named by Forbes as the best Shopify alternative for sellers on a budget; when money is super tight, it just doesn’t get any better than free.

Shopify offers more extensive reporting and marketing features than Shift4Shop, plus it includes a POS, which Shift4Shop does not provide. Shift4Shop is a little more glitch-prone than Shopify and comes up short on website features that appeal to many e-commerce store owners. Plus, online customer reviews for Shift4Shop tend to be considerably lower than Shopify earns from its customers on sites such as Trustpilot and G2.

There are several steps to start selling on Shopify; signing up for a free three-day trial is step one. During this sign-up process, Shopify’s AI setup wizard guides you through several questions about what type of site you want to create, what you want to sell, where you plan to sell products and other general e-commerce preferences. Your answers to these questions will help Shopify direct you to the best solution for your business needs.

Purchase a Plan

If you’re happy with your trial and decide that Shopify is the right e-commerce platform for you, you’ll need to choose a plan. The Starter plan lets you sell on social channels for only $7 CAD per month but does not allow you to build an online store. You’ll need to purchase a Basic, Shopify or Advanced plan to host your own online shop with the Shopify platform.

Select a Domain

All Shopify stores come with a Shopify-branded domain, but most online store owners prefer to use a custom domain. You can connect your Shopify website to a custom domain that you purchase directly through Shopify or via a third-party domain registrar.

Design Your Store

To start designing your online store, select a theme that works well for your business type and industry; Shopify has more than 100 themes to choose from. Every theme contains blocks or sections that can be moved, rearranged, modified or eliminated according to your taste and needs.

You can customize themes with your business logo and brand colours and fonts. Customization and features offered vary by theme, so be sure the theme you select offers the versatility and functionality you require.

Add Products to Your Store

You’ll need to add products to your shop before you can start selling them. Every item you intend to sell should include a product title, description, detailed product photos and videos, pricing information, inventory counts, relevant shipping data and product options—such as colour or sizes available. Organizing your products into categories and collections will help your website visitors navigate your site more easily while assisting them in finding the products they want.

Add Key Pages

You may want to add key pages to your site and Shopify gives you the flexibility to do this. Most websites include a contact page, an about page, an FAQ page and policy pages. If you feel content marketing can help more people find your store and help you sell more products, you might want to add a blog to your site, too.

Connect to a Payment Processor

Before you can sell anything, you’ll need to select and connect a payment processor to your website. Shopify Payments is a built-in processor that makes it easy to accept customer payments. If you prefer, you can set up a third-party payment processor on your account, though you’ll incur an additional fee of 0.5% to 2% per transaction processed outside of Shopify Payments.

Set Up Shipping

You must set up shipping and delivery options on your website if you’re selling physical products. Shipping setup can get complicated depending on the shipping methods and providers you choose, as well as the products you sell and the locations you serve.

When you use Shopify Shipping, you can save up to 53% on shipping rates from Canada Post, UPS and FedEx. You can also purchase shipping labels directly from Shopify Payments and print those yourself on a standard printer.

Set Up Taxes

Setting up taxes is another critical step that you must complete before selling goods and services online. Shopify Tax automatically collects taxes at checkout based on product-specific tax rates and customer addresses. Shopify Tax has several helpful built-in features, including tax liability tracking, automatic tax updates that handle changing regulations and tax holidays, and product categorization that ensures tax exceptions are correctly applied to orders.

Connect to Other Relevant Sales Channels and Launch

If you plan to sell goods and services on multiple channels, it’s helpful to connect to those channels before officially opening your Shopify store. Doing so will expand your sales reach considerably. Once this is done—and all the steps mentioned above are completed—you are ready to launch your Shopify website.

Shopify works best for small businesses that want to create a true online shop instead of merely building a website with limited e-commerce functionality. With Shopify, you can sell both physical and digital products in your Shopify store and start selling via social channels, online marketplaces and in-person at events, pop-ups and retail locations. Shopify will scale beautifully as your business grows.

Canadian specific editing and research (including pricing) conducted by Anna Rey.