What is Shopify? What you need to know about the app that helps you run an online business

• Shopify is an e-commerce platform that lets both individuals and small businesses sell their products or services online.
• Shopify consolidates the selling experience, letting you easily take payments and ship your products.
• While Shopify offers a 14-day free trial to new sellers, you'll need to sign up for one of the monthly plans to keep using it.

If you're a business or an individual seller looking to grow your business online, you should consider looking into Shopify.

Shopify is an online service that partners will merchants and businesses to streamline their online stores. Customers find Shopify storefronts simple and easy-to-use, and sellers love Shopify's payment and shipping systems.

Here's everything to know about Shopify, including how it works, and what it'll cost you to make a Shopify storefront.

What to know about Shopify

You can make a Shopify account and storefront directly from their website. When you do, you'll be asked what you're selling, what your prices are, what your brand's name is, and more questions to customize your storefront.

Shopify allows sellers to manage their products and inventory through the platform, while also processing payments from customers and offering shipping options to get your products out the door.

After creating your Shopify store, you can link it and sell with it on your website, social media accounts, brick-and-mortar stores, and more. No matter how you sell, Shopify has a way to help you out.

This flexibility is possible because Shopify is entirely cloud-based, making your store accessible from pretty much anywhere with an internet connection.

If you're not sure what you want your shop to look like, Shopify offers pre-built themes and layouts. And if you're not overly tech savvy, their app can help you get your shop up-and-running quickly.

Shopify also has a dedicated support team to answer additional questions, or help with any problems users may run into.

What it costs to get started with Shopify

While Shopify offers a 14-day free trial to sellers who want to try out the platform and features, but to continue to run your store, you'll need to choose between one of three membership tiers.

Basic Shopify

Priced at $29 a month, this tier includes your store, which can sell unlimited products, as well as two staff accounts, 24/7 support, multiple sales channels, discount codes, gift cards, and more. This account level also offers a shipping discount of up to 74%, and allows sellers to print shipping labels.

Shopify

For $79 a month, this level includes everything in the Basic Shopify model but also offers three additional staff accounts, and you won't have to pay as much to Shopify for credit card payments.

Advanced Shopify

Coming in at $299 a month, the most expensive tier includes everything available in the standard Shopify membership, as well as 15 staff accounts, up to eight inventory locations, an advanced report builder, third-party calculated shipping rates, and more.

Shopify accounts - and storefronts - can be paused or cancelled at any time. If you pause your store, you'll still have to pay monthly fees, but at a reduced membership rate. Cancelling your store will delete it entirely, and you won't have to pay.

Just note that all your data will be purged after 90 days, and even after that, you can't make a new store with the same URL.

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