Choosing a theme for your Shopify store is a critical step in your ecommerce business and can feel overwhelming. Here, we’ll break down the differences between custom and standard themes so that you’ll have a better understanding of which option might be the best for your online store.
Standard Themes
Standard themes are pre-built templates that are available in the Shopify theme store. They are designed to be used by new merchants who want to get their store up and running quickly. While these themes can be a great option for some businesses, there are both pros and cons to consider before making a decision.
Pros:
Affordability: Standard themes in the Shopify theme store range from free to $400, making them an affordable option for businesses with a tight budget.
Quick Set-Up: These pre-built templates allow you to get started quickly, without the need to design and develop a custom theme from scratch. You can simply edit the various aspects of the site to fit your needs with products, text, colors, images, etc. Easy to set up for non-coders and designers: As the coding is already done, you do not need to have coding or graphic design skills to get started.
Cons:
Variety: Currently, there are a set number of active themes available in the Shopify theme store, which may limit your options. You may also find that your store looks similar to one of the 4.2 MM other stores running on Shopify.
Limited Flexibility in Code: Standard themes come with pre-written code that may limit your ability to customize the theme to your exact specifications. This can be frustrating for those with coding skills who want more flexibility or are planning to grow and scale.
Custom Themes
Custom themes are a great way to make your Shopify store unique and tailored to your business’s specific needs and aesthetic. There are two ways to approach custom themes:
Customizing a standard theme or
Building a completely custom theme from the ground up.
Customizing a standard theme is an affordable option that allows you to personalize a pre-existing theme to better match your brand. While it’s not as unique as a completely custom theme, it still offers a more personalized touch than using a standard theme straight out of the box. Sellry has created an optimized version of the Shopify Dawn theme that’s optimized for performance and set up for brand customization.
Building a completely custom theme from scratch offers the highest level of customization and flexibility. Your theme will be as unique as your brand, and you have more control over the quality of the code. However, this option is more expensive and time-consuming since it requires wireframing, design, and coding from scratch.
Ultimately, the decision between customizing a standard theme or building a completely custom theme will depend on your personal taste and budget. Custom themes can offer a solid ROI for your online business, but it’s important to consider the resources required to pursue this option.
Pros and Cons
Here’s a quick pros and cons list for both standard and custom themes:
Standard Themes:
Pros:
Easy to set up
Comes with basic features
Low cost
Beginner-friendly
Cons:
Limited customization options
Not unique
May not have advanced features
Custom Themes:
Pros:
Unique and personalized design
Flexibility to create a design tailored to your brand
Advanced features and functionalities
Sets you apart from the competition
Cons:
Higher cost
Requires a designer or developer
More time-consuming to set up
In the end, the choice between custom and standard themes comes down to your specific needs and preferences. Whichever option you choose, remember that a well-designed and user-friendly store can make all the difference in driving sales and creating a great shopping experience for your customers. Happy selling!
By Sarah Gallagher
Selling Internationally on Shopify: Planning Ahead
Expanding your ecommerce business globally on Shopify can be a great way to increase your sales and customer base, and it should be approached with care and planning.
One of the most important factors to consider when planning your international rollout is ensuring your website is optimized for international customers. From app compatibility to checkout variances, there are many aspects to consider to provide a seamless shopping experience. In this article, we will highlight 10 key things to consider when planning your international rollout to help you successfully execute your global store expansion, based on our recent internationalization for Carbon38 and DOEN.
1. App Compatibility
Ensure that your current Shopify apps are compatible with your selected internationalization platform. Some examples of potential incompatible apps to pay close attention to include apps that show pricing (custom search or collection apps) or apps that only store dollar values in USD (gift cards or loyalty point values).
For gift card apps that are only able to store values in USD, many merchants decide to hide gift cards from international visitors. Sellry has a number of solutions to solve for this issue to ensure that USD-only gift cards are not visible on collection pages or search for international visitors. One possible solution to discuss is whether or not you want to automatically remove the gift card from the customer’s cart if they add a USD gift card, then change to an international country.
2. Currency Displays
Consider any areas of your ecommerce store that show the price (Homepage, PLP, PDP, etc) and start thinking about how you want your pricing to show up in different currencies. For example, USD and CAD are both $12.34 format, but will be different amounts depending on the current exchange rate. Consider adding the 3 letter currency code in addition to the currency symbol, ‘$12.34 CAD’.
3. Price Related Rules
Consider any price-related messaging that may appear on your site. For example, “Shipping and taxes calculated at checkout”. This may be untrue for certain countries. For example, Canada typically includes taxes, but excludes duties from the price. For many EU countries, both duties and taxes will be included in the price listed on the site. The messaging should inform different users from different locations about what is included/excluded from the displayed price.
4. Shopify Sandbox Capabilities
Ensure that you or your development team has the ability to create and manage a Shopify sandbox store. You’ll want to test your theme’s compatibility with the various changes required by your solutions provider to enable international selling on your store.
5. CSS Skills
Your developer will be able to show/hide different elements of your site based on certain CSS classes. While this is not a heavy lift, the team does need to know what the effects will be when adding the CSS classes, in order to avoid breaking elements of the site.
6. Country Selector Placement
You will need to add a ‘Country Selector’ to your website. Common locations for this are in the navigation and footer, but a skilled UX expert can help you make the best decision for your brand. Many Shopify merchants also choose to create an auto-detection pop-up for users when they first visit the site, which can then store that information for future visits and reduce friction in the shopping experience for your customers.
7. URLs
Your website URL pathing will need to change. Many links will link back to the domestic site, unless properly updated. Sellry recommends a gTLD With Country-Specific Subdirectories, for example: Old link: shop.com/collections/all New link: shop.com/en-ca/collections/all
From a technical perspective, it is easy to set up. Ensure your development team updates links to include proper routing. Set dynamic links on the site by selecting pages from Shopify’s link selection tool, and avoid hard-coded links that may lead users back to the original domestic store.
8. Email Templates
Customer emails – your email templates (in Shopify, Klaviyo, warehouse, customer care team) will need to be updated to show duties and taxes, as well as accurately reflect the customer’s currency for order confirmations.
9. Where You Ship
Make note of unsupported countries. Youwill need to set which markets you’d like to make available for your ecommerce channel, and which countries you’ll need to exclude. Countries may be excluded for any number of reasons. For example, some shipping carriers will not ship to countries deemed unsafe due to war or the political climate.
10. Checkout Variances
Your checkout will change slightly for international customers. Certain solutions will control aspects of the checkout for international customers and process payments through their own payment gateway. One of the main changes for your international customers may be the new requirement to enter their phone number while checking out.
Planning your international rollout requires careful consideration of various factors to ensure your ecommerce store can cater to a global audience. By paying attention to the details and planning each step of the project, you can ensure a smooth transition to international selling, expand your business globally and connect with new customers around the world.
By Sarah Gallagher
From startups to mid-level e-commerce businesses, Shopify has been helping companies scale their online stores for years. With Shopify Plus, the company now offers even more powerful features with an enterprise solution tailored for brands with complex needs. It’s worth exploring some of the awesome Shopify Plus benefits that can help take your brand to the next level!
What Makes Shopify Plus So Special
Shopify Plus is a top digital platform designed for e-commerce businesses. It offers all the features and benefits of Shopify, plus a host of additional features and tools to help brands scale.
The powerful Shopify Plus benefits you’ll read about in this article are perfect for brands ready to take their e-commerce businesses to the next level.
Shopify has had a meteoric rise in the e-commerce world. In its 16 years of operation, it has generated 543 billion in sales and is on point to reach half a trillion in total sales in 2022.
17,400+ Merchants and Counting
Now, let’s look at the exponential growth of Shopify Plus. With over 26,100 live stores, at least 17,400 unique merchants, and a 21% year-over-year jump in the number of stores in 2022, Shopify Plus benefits can clearly impact your bottom line positively.
In just the third quarter of this year, the number of stores on Shopify Plus went up remarkably by 7.1% quarter-over-quarter, which underlines its skyrocketing popularity among merchants.
About a quarter of the stores on Shopify Plus offer apparel products, while products related to beauty, fitness, home, gardening, health, food, and sports are also widely sold, among many other varieties, using the platform. It’s worth noting that half of the merchants on the platform are based out of the US.
Shopify Plus is a popular platform for many e-commerce development agencies. Leading agencies such asSellryleverage Shopify Plus features to streamline the process of setting up and managing online stores.
With the help of Shopify Plus, Sellry helps both D2C and brick-and-mortar businesses develop websites from scratch and scale mid-level businesses looking to grow.
9 Shopify Plus Benefits to Help Your Brand Grow
Shopify Plus is a one-stop e-commerce solution built from the ground up to help businesses succeed. Unlike other platforms, there are no hidden costs or gotchas – all core features and functionality is included in the monthly fee.
There are many other advantages of using Shopify Plus benefits to scale brands of all sizes. Read on to discover the Shopify Plus benefits that your e-commerce brand could realize on this platform.
1.Consistent Reliability
Shopify Plus is a platform you can count on for your digital business. Simply put, it’s highly reliable. Here’s how:
Uptime you can count on: Your site will always be up and running with Shopify Plus.
Round-the-clock support: You can reach out to your dedicated success team anytime.
Fast and scalable: Shopify Plus can handle anything you throw at it, from sudden spikes in traffic to large catalogs.
Security at scale: Shopify Plus is PCI-compliant and has built-in security features to keep your data safe.
Enterprise-grade infrastructure: Shopify Plus runs on the Google Cloud Platform and utilizes Amazon’s AWS servers worldwide.
Seamless upgrades: With automatic platform updates, you’ll always have access to the latest and greatest features without downtime.
Your startup is in good hands regarding security and reliability with these excellent Shopify Plus benefits.
2.Customize to Suit Your Brand
Your brand is everything to your business, and Shopify (and Sellry) understands that. With Shopify Plus benefits, you can modify and customize your online store to match your brand’s look and feel.
This is perfect for businesses that want consistent branding across all channels. Ways to customize your digital or brick-and-mortar business using Shopify Plus are limitless. Here’s what you can do:
You can build out a fully custom design with a development partner like Sellry.
One of the huge developments launched within Shopify’s Online Store 2.0 version is the addition of sections everywhere on the site.
In the past, customers could only utilize sections on the home page and had to use elaborate workarounds to create the same type of content on other pages.
Shopify has created a workaround using JSON templates, so merchants can add dynamic sections throughout their sites.
Another way to customize your online store with Shopify 2.0 is to use Metafields. These custom fields allow you to add different information to your site, including HTML, text, images, videos, and more.
This extra information can help you better organize your products and store data that isn’t necessarily essential to the product itself.
If you’re just starting out, you can DIY by changing the look of your store using themes.
3.Optimize for High Traffic
When it comes to site performance, you must constantly analyze, monitor, and drive traffic to increase site visitors. Shopify Plus aids in this process by:
Allocating resources where they’re most needed
Automatically distributing traffic across servers
Speeding up your site with caching
With Shopify Plus, brands can take advantage of high-traffic optimization to ensure their website can handle large influxes of traffic without any issues.
This is crucial for brands that rely on e-commerce as a slow or unavailable website can lead to lost sales and customers, and conversely, we know that faster speeds lead to higher conversion rates.
4.Success Managers
Sometimes, it can be harder to manage success than failures! Shopify Plus benefits help by providing success managers whose job is to analyze customer feedback and recommend changes. These experts:
Have knowledge and experience in e-commerce businesses and can help you troubleshoot any issues.
Will work with you to create a custom success plan tailored to your business goals and needs.
Provide one-on-one training on how to use Shopify Plus to make the most out of its features and capabilities.
Are always available to answer your questions.
Consistently monitor your account to ensure you meet your goals and make progress.
Will provide feedback and recommendations on how to improve your store’s performance.
A dedicated success manager may be just what you need to take your brand to the next level.
5.Seamless App Integrations
Merchants need to be able to integrate their e-commerce platforms with other software they use to run their businesses. This could include accounting, email marketing, and CRM apps.
Shopify Plus has built-in integration with many popular business apps, making it easy for merchants to connect their shop to other tools they use, saving time and ensuring that data is smoothly synced.
Seamless app integrations are necessary for success in online business because it:
Allows brands to connect to the apps they need to run their business
Helps businesses automate tasks, saving time and money
Shopify Plus has over 70 app integrations available for all its merchants at no additional cost. These include popular apps such as Google Analytics, Amazon Pay, Abandoned Cart Saver, and many more.
With these app integrations, brands can save time on marketing, accounting, shipping, and customer service tasks.
6.Seamless Payment Integration
The bottom line for all digital and brick-and-mortar businesses is… impacting the bottom line. Businesses must quickly and efficiently process payments to succeed.
Payment integration is essential for e-commerce because it allows brands to take payments without a third-party processor.
Shopify Plus has its own payment gateway called Shopify Payments, which is available in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. If you’re selling in any of these countries, you can use Shopify Payments to accept credit cards without signing up for a third-party payment processor.
Shopify Payments is integrated with Shopify’s checkout, so you don’t need to worry about PCI compliance or any other hurdles involving third-party processors.
And, because Shopify Payments is a Shopify-specific gateway, you’ll get lower credit card processing fees than you would with a third-party processor.
In addition, Shopify Plus offers pay integration with some of the biggest names in online payment processing, including PayPal and Stripe.
This means you can get paid quickly and easily without worrying about setting up a separate account or learning a new system.
7.Comprehensive Wholesale Management
If your business is wholesale, Shopify Plus will make your life much easier and allow you to tap into thehighly lucrative B2B market.
The wholesale management has three key features:
The ability to offer tiered pricing: You can now offer different prices to different customers based on order volume, which is a great way to increase profits without alienating your top customers.
Improved inventory management: With Shopify Plus, you can better keep track of your inventory levels and receive alerts when stocks are low. This feature is beneficial if you sell products with a limited shelf life.
Automated order processing: Shopify Plus can automatically generate purchase orders and send them to your suppliers. This feature saves you time and energy.
This is a great Shopify Plus benefit for entrepreneurs looking to break into the wholesale business or for those mid-level brands looking to scale.
8.Dedicated Mobile Store Builder
The future of digital business is mobile, and you need a platform that recognizes this. Shopify Plus has a dedicated mobile store builder to help you take full advantage of this opportunity.
This exclusive feature allows you to create a beautiful, responsive store that looks great on any device. Whether your customers are using a smartphone, tablet, or desktop, they’ll be able to find what they’re looking for and make a purchase.
The advantages to having a sophisticated mobile store builder at your fingertips are many, including:
You can have an exclusive store for your mobile customers that is separate from your main website, which can be used to target a specific audience or market segment.
Mobile store builders are typically more straightforward and user-friendly than traditional e-commerce platforms, making them ideal for small businesses or startups who don’t have the time or resources to invest in a complex website.
They’re generally more affordable than other e-commerce platforms.
Mobile store builders can help you reach a wider audience as an increasing number of people are shopping on their smartphones and tablets.
They can improve your conversion rates, as mobile-optimized websites perform better than traditional desktop sites.
Shopify Plus benefits the brand owner who realizes that digital e-commerce is moving to mobile.
9.Ten, Count Them, Ten Separate Stores!
As businesses are increasingly moving online, the ability to have multiple stores and manage them is the key to success. Shopify Plus recognizes this and allows customers to have up to 10 stores with one Shopify account.
This feature is perfect for brands that have different product lines or branches in different locations. It’s also great for managing seasonal sales or pop-up shops.
These nine Shopify Plus benefits listed above are by no means exhaustive, but they should help you understand why Shopify Plus is a great platform to launch your e-commerce business.
How Do Shopify and Shopify Plus Work?
Let’s review how Shopify and Shopify Plus work and why they are the perfect digital platform to help your online or brick-and-mortar brand succeed.
Shopify is an e-commerce platform that enables brands of all sizes to sell online. Shopify Plus is the enterprise version of Shopify, designed for high-volume brands with complex needs.
Both platforms offer users a customizable platform, an easy-to-use checkout process, and several features. Shopify offers three plans: Basic Shopify, Shopify, and Advanced Shopify.
Shopify Plus is a separate enterprise plan that starts at $2,000/month. Both Shopify and Shopify Plus include a 14-day free trial.
Recapping What You Get from Shopify Plus
There are so many ways in which your e-commerce brand gains by using Shopify Plus, including:
No Transaction Fees
Unlimited Products and Bandwidth
Advanced Reporting and Analytics
Custom Checkout Fields
Improved Security with PCI Compliance
Automatic Order Processing
B2B Capabilities
With these Shopify and Shopify Plus benefits, no wonder Shopify is such a popular platform for e-commerce brands of all sizes and types.
It’s Time to Turn to Shopify Plus
So, these Shopify Plus benefits will help you start or scale your business, whatever your goals are, from optimizing high traffic to seamless app integrations.
And then, of course, there are trusted e-commerce development agencies such as Sellry that help brands succeed and grow. Whether you’re just starting out or are already on Shopify Plus and need an agile, efficient development partner, Sellry will take a holistic approach to help you scale your business – one Shopify Plus benefit at a time!
By focusing on our clients’ needs and balancing brand, aesthetic and conversion optimization considerations, Sellry collaborates with you every step of the way, making a big difference in your ecommerce business processes and results.
With the recent release of Shopify’s newest edition, many e-commerce startup founders are wondering,‘Should I be migrating to Shopify 2.0 from Shopify 1.0?’
It’s a fair question to ask – millions of merchants use the platform for their livelihood, collectively making $543 billion worth of sales over the last 16 years. Understandably, sellers don’t want to risk it all for an update without knowing the details.
The e-commerce space continues to evolve, projected to grow by $10.87 trillion leading up to 2025. Those who don’t keep up with the latest trends and changes may fall behind in sales and revenue.
As such, Shopify continues to innovate to provide merchants in the e-commerce space with the best tools possible. Shopify Online Store 2.0 is packed with features that will help your business succeed online.
At Sellry, our goal is to make the migration process to Shopify 2.0 smooth, efficient, and seamless, helping e-commerce store owners take advantage of its new features. This article will guide you on why you should consider migrating to Shopify 2.0 from Shopify 1.0, and how to get started.
Moving To Shopify 2.0: What’s Changed?
Migrating to Shopify 2.0 from Shopify 1.0 offers many improvements. Let’s have a look at them:
Improved performance, stability, and faster load times.
A new set of themes to create bespoke and personalized stores.
Better user interface store management experience.
Enhanced app configuration due to modular app blocks.
Vastly improved developer tools.
A new checkout app for a faster, easier, and higher converting purchasing process.
Metafields have been refined and improved for greater store flexibility.
Loading times have been boosted so that visitors are less inclined to leave due to low speeds.
Many of these improvements resolve long-standing pain points for merchants. Many changes are geared toward improving the design and development process, while others boost the user experience for more sales.
Migrating to Shopify 2.0 is a relatively simple process, but it’s essential to have a plan to ensure a smooth transition. Sellry, a trusted e-commerce business development firm, offers help migrating to Shopify 2.0 so you can take advantage of the new features immediately.
How Do the New Features Improve Shopify?
Compared to Shopify 1.0, the new Shopify 2.0 is about 35% faster, thanks to the new Dawn theme (which we’ve further tuned and optimized to provide an outstanding base for a custom design). The improved performance means merchants can expect more stability and faster load times, which lead to higher conversion rates.
In addition, Shopify 2.0 comes with an improved version of the metafields feature. Metafields allow merchants to add extra data to their products, customers, orders, and pages. This data can be in the form of text, images, files, or URLs.
Metafields are a powerful tool that gives merchants greater control over their store data. With Shopify 2.0, creating metafields is now simpler and more accessible than ever before. Merchants can now create metafields directly from the Shopify admin, without having to use any code.
This is a significant improvement over the old Shopify 1.0, where merchants had to hire Shopify experts or use third-party apps to create and manage metafields.
Shopify 2.0 also introduces modular app blocks. They essentially allow store owners to add dynamic elements on their store pages wherever they want. You can add reviews, pricing information, etc. Some merchants are even adding 3D models of their products using these blocks. The possibilities are endless.
For developers, Shopify 2.0 comes with vastly improved developer tools when compared to 1.0. From admin interfaces to theme app extensions, everything has been enhanced to make development more efficient, reducing your store management cost and speeding up site development timelines.
Finally, Shopify 2.0 introduces a checkout app that streamlines the purchasing process for customers. The app makes it faster and easier to buy products, making the process more visually appealing and engaging with photos and videos of products.
It’s time to migrate to Shopify 2.0.
How Merchants Benefit From Shopify 2.0
Migrating to Shopify 2.0 from Shopify 1.0 offers a variety of benefits to merchants and vendors.
Better UI and functionality
The Shopify development team has made significant updates to the system UI and functionality, so designing your store and interacting with the editing tools is a much smoother experience.
Editable sections on all pages
The store editor in Shopify 1.0 was limited, but now, Shopify 2.0 has introduced Sections & App Blocks for every page of your store. It’s much easier to customize how each individual page looks.
Better app extensions
Shopify 2.0 now has a much better system for adding and using extensions. The process is more efficient, meaning your load times are faster, too.
Multilingual stores No need to add a language extension if you’re building a store in other languages – multilingual stores are now a native feature of Shopify 2.0.
Metafields
Shopify 2.0 makes it much easier to add metadata to your products so that you can distinguish between different product types more easily.
For merchants, migrating to Shopify 2.0 from Shopify 1.0 brings in crucial benefits that vastly simplify the creation and management of a successful online store.
How Developers Benefit From Shopify 2.0
Migrating to Shopify 2.0 from Shopify 1.0 also benefits developers significantly, providing several enhancements and new features that make building apps for Shopify more powerful, efficient, and productive.
These features include GraphQL for easier data retrieval, improved APIs for more flexibility, and Liquid markup language for more control over Shopify themes.
Shopify Online Store 2.0 also offers the ability to use Shopify as a headless e-commerce platform, meaning you can update the customer-facing aspects of your store without significant development required to the back end.
Another new addition is a dedicated Developer Portal with extensive documentation to help you get started quickly.
These benefits allow developers to create new custom functionality and designs and simplify the creation of custom themes and apps.
Will My Data Be Lost?
As an e-commerce startup founder who has put a lot of time and effort into your Shopify store, it’s understandable to worry if some of your data will be lost during the migration process. Rest assured, all of your current data will be safely migrated to Shopify 2.0, including data about:
Products
Product Images
Shopify Customizations
Shopify Order Data
Customers
Customer Addresses
Shopify Tags
Settings
However, there are some areas in which we recommend that you review your data before starting the migration process.
Product Images
If you’re using CDN (Content Delivery Network) with Shopify 1.0 for product images, those images will no longer appear in your store after the migration. We recommend downloading a copy of all your product images and uploading them into Shopify 2.0 before starting the migration.
Shopify Payments
For Shopify Payments, please note there will be a short downtime while migrating your account. During this time, your customers will not be able to check out. We recommend disabling Shopify Payments before starting your migration and re-enabling it once the migration is complete.
Third-Party Apps
Some third-party apps are not compatible with Shopify 2.0. Contact the developers of any apps you’re using to confirm compatibility with Shopify 2.0 (or partner with a team like Sellry to help advise you on these apps) and disable any that are not compatible before starting the migration.
How to Customize and Scale your Shopify Online Store 2.0
Now that you have decided to move to Shopify 2.0 from Shopify 1.0, you can take advantage of the new features to customize and scale your store. You can customize your storefront, manage products and inventory, or connect to Shopify POS to start selling in person.
With the many new features available, a migration can feel overwhelming. It’s only natural. This is where an experienced, and trusted professional can help you with the process.
Sellry does precisely that, helping from-scratch startup businesses and established e-commerce brands get the most out of Shopify 2.0. With Shopify website development as one of Sellry’s core expertise areas, we are well-equipped to help you make a hassle-free and seamless transition to the new version of Shopify.
Frequently Asked Questions About Shopify 2.0
When is Shopify Online Store 2.0 available?
Shopify 2.0 was officially launched on June 29, 2021. Migrating to Shopify 2.0 from Shopify 1.0 is now possible and many stores have been successfully ported over and continue to scale their ecommerce businesses.
Is Shopify Online Store 2.0 headless?
Shopify Online Store 2.0 is not a headless solution out of the box; its editing tools and Storefront API have been significantly improved, and stores using Shopify 2.0 are well-positioned to move to headless using a third-party platform or a custom development using Hydrogen and Oxygen. Merchants with in-house development teams may be able to use Hydrogen to develop their own store components, or you can partner with an agency to create a solution customized for your goals.
Will all new stores be built on Shopify 2.0?
Yes, all new stores will automatically be built on Shopify 2.0.
Which themes are compatible with Online Store 2.0?
There are many themes available that are compatible with Shopify Online Store 2.0. You can check out a list of compatible themes here.
How much does Shopify 2.0 cost?
Shopify 2.0 is a free upgrade for all Shopify 1.0 customers.
How long does migrating to Shopify 2.0 from Shopify 1.0 take?
The time it takes to migrate to Shopify Online Store 2.0 varies depending on the size of your store and the number of products you have.
Want to Upgrade? Let’s Get Started!
To sum it up, Shopify 2.0 is an essential update that offers many new features and improvements to the platform. At Sellry, we understand that change can bring uncertainty, but with our guidance, you can feel comfortable upgrading to Shopify 2.0.
With deep experience helping e-commerce merchants from startup to enterprise size, Shopify 2.0 is the best choice for those looking to upgrade their platforms.
So, if you’re thinking how to best use Shopify 2.0 to benefit your e-commerce startup, Sellry offers assistance with Shopify website development – and we’re passionate about it!
Get in touch with us to make the smooth transition from 1.0 to 2.0 and supercharge your brand growth. Let’s talk!
By Sarah Gallagher
How to Make Your Migration from Magento to Shopify a Success
Looking to start your e-commerce platform’s migration from Magento to Shopify? You’re in good company. Over 1.75 million e-commerce merchants use Shopify to host their virtual storefront, taking advantage of the sleek, centralized interface and advanced tools for store growth and refinement.
You’ll finally be able to ditch the manual upgrades and enjoy Shopify’s effortless and automated experience. Plus, you’ll also be able to give your clients the security and assurance they’ll expect from a rapidly expanding site and brand.
However, time is money – and you’re likely looking for the fastest way to complete your Shopify Magento migration.
If so, we’ve got you covered! Read on to learn more about our top tips for migrating from Magento to Shopify in 2023 and beyond.
The Shopify logo
Best Practices: Data Migration from Magento to Shopify
The quality of your data migration dictates your experience throughout the process, whether positively or negatively. Understanding the full scope of the data you can migrate will help you prepare and set expectations for a more streamlined migration experience.
Currently, migration from Magento to Shopify is quite simple, largely due to the range of data that you can take with you as you move to Shopify. We’ve identified key areas of data that can be migrated to save you significant time and effort, such as:
Product information: Elements such as SKUs, descriptions, URLs, and variants can be easily brought with you between the two platforms, saving you time spent manually processing each item.
Order information: The range of data that can be taken from this category is quite diverse and includes elements such as:
Customer Data
Order Status
Order Comments
Addresses
Prices
Images: Images from descriptions and your pages can come with you throughout the migration process, avoiding a time-consuming upload/download process.
What are the benefits of migrating from Magento to Shopify?
While migration from Magento to Shopify is a project that requires planning and careful scoping, the benefits you can gain can put you on a path to exponential growth. Below are just a few of the reasons you may consider before starting your own Magento-to-Shopify migration process:
Enhanced customization for a truly unique brand experience
Shopify is more advanced than Magento’s native platform and offers more opportunities for low-tech and no-tech customization of your e-commerce store. This can save you time and additional costs that would otherwise be spent on developers and skilled techs to help you reach your ultimate brand goals.
High-rated security for transparency and consumer confidence
Shopify is known as one of the safest platforms in the e-commerce space, which is why migration from Magento to Shopify is so popular for brands, from startups to established companies in the e-commerce space. Shopify is extensively certified and in compliance with Level 1 PCI DSS standards at the time of writing this publication. This means your customers are protected by constant security reviews, data encryption strategies, server defenses, and ongoing risk analysis.
Simpler hosting for more time saved
When you self-host your e-commerce storefront, you open yourself up to additional work, effort, and costs. With Shopify, you can enjoy a self-hosted e-commerce solution that requires no added cost. You’ll simply pay the monthly fee and enjoy a professionally hosted site.
What are the risks of migrating from Shopify to Magento?
While there are many benefits to undergoing migration from Magento to Shopify, there are a few considerations to review before taking the leap.
Setup is far more time-consuming, and can come at a higher cost
Due to hosting setup, configurations, and personalization processes, setting your shop up with Magento can be extremely time-consuming. Users have reported setup times between an hour to several hours, citing different reasons and difficulties encountered through the process (such as complicated hosting service setup).
Plus, Magento is far less comprehensive than Shopify as far as setup and level of development go. This means you’ll have extra work to do, and you can expect to see extra costs around development, site security, and optimization. This can end up costing you several thousand dollars more than if you went with Shopify’s user-friendly interface.
You’ll have to manage your own hosting solution
Shopify offers e-commerce businesses a sleek, contained, cloud-hosted shop system that’s effortless and user-friendly. You can opt not to hire any additional developmental experts, choosing instead to take advantage of Shopify’s support team and their intuitive dash to customize and optimize your shop. However, with Magento, you’ll be tasked with finding and setting up your hosting solution and managing the shop’s more technically challenging elements.
This often requires business owners to outsource the work, incurring extra cost and time spent. This is why Shopify is the more common and easy-to-use choice, as it is far less technically challenging and more comprehensive and inclusive in site structure and execution.
Digging Deeper: Everything You Need to Know About Shopify 2.0
A screenshot showing Shopify 2.0’s product meta field definition boxes.
Shopify 2.0, launched as of June 29th, 2022, has brought with it a slew of new perks and features. We’ve listed a few top updates below:
Shopify “Sections Everywhere” Capabilities: This update allows store owners to have dynamic content sections wherever they please, across templates – giving you new options for UX-based refinement and optimization.
Metafields: Get ready to enjoy more in-depth product descriptions. With metafields, you can expand on your descriptions and give your customers the most well-rounded experience yet.
App Modularity: Now, store owners can optimize for UI without digging into complex code – making Shopify an obvious choice for those on the hunt for a low-code e-commerce solution.
Loading Speed: Shopify 2.0 will result in greater overall loading speeds across sites, as templates such as the Over 1.75 million e-commerce merchants are built off of currently recommended e-practices. This results in a smoother UX and overall site experience.
Scaling Your Shop: Exploring SEO Benefits of Migrating from Magento to Shopify
While Magento has a robust library of tools to help you customize your pre-built site URLs, it may be worth it to consider a migration from Magento to Shopify… and here’s why.
Shopify offers powerfully optimized and high-performing site themes, especially with the recent launch of Shopify 2.0. Plus, Shopify sites can be incredibly mobile responsive, which is becoming a bigger focus of modern-day SEO. This can also help to drive sales, as 79% of the 230 million smart device users in the United States have made a purchase on their phone within a 6-month time frame.
These features alone can be enough to set you on a solid track towards SEO success. However, Shopify doesn’t stop there. You’ll also enjoy the canonical tag feature to keep your content as competitive as possible, as well as automatically generated site sitemap.xml and robots.txt files for a stronger, more optimized SEO crawling experience.
Preparing for a Migration from Magento to Shopify
Preparation is key for success in your migration from Magento to Shopify. Here are a few top tips to help the process go smoothly:
Create your backup: Backing up your store mitigates your risk of data loss or compromise. If you’re a larger brand, this is especially important to protect yourself.
Launch your Shopify store: Shopify has a 14-day free trial, so don’t worry about paying the full cost yet. However, you will need to have a place to put your saved data and migration inputs, so this is an important step to consider in your process.
Find your import partner: There are several services and Magento to Shopify migration apps to consider. With a Magento migration partner such as Sellry, you’ll receive comprehensive assistance and personalized support throughout the entirety of your migration experience.
Complete your final export: Now, you’re ready to migrate! It’s time to complete your final export and migrate from Magento to Shopify.
Best Way to Migrate? Let the Experts Do it for You!
There are three primary methods of migration from Magento to Shopify – automated, manual, and assisted migration. While automated and manual migration have some pros, there are some disadvantages as well. That’s why assisted migration is clearly the best method that e-commerce brands should try out while migrating from Magento to Shopify.
The assisted method requires minimal work on your part. It gives you the assistance of experienced development professionals to keep you on track. This choice is less technically demanding. It’s just that it can take longer than the methods and requires you to manage the project through its completion. The tradeoff for time spent managing the project may be worth it, though, as you’ll receive personalized support, expert assistance, and a far easier process overall than if you opted to do it yourself.
Trusted partner services, such as Sellry, help you to mitigate the risks of improper setup or costly mistakes, helping you to secure the migration process and offering a positive overall experience.
Migrating Your Orders from Magento to Shopify Using 2 Methods
Let’s look at the two methods of migrating and exporting orders – assisted or manual.
Assisted migration generally requires you to prepare the data in advance, placing it on a table and handing it off to a team of tech pros. Common elements needed to do this process will include:
Product data (such as quantity, status, SKUs, etc).
Customer data (such as names, numbers, and locations).
Deals, discounts, and bonuses assigned per order
Billing information (depending on the type of transfer and service you choose)
Manual migration requires you to do it yourself. It is generally done through a CSV file type for the import and export processes.
A CSV file sample showcasing products by name, price, and descriptions.
Migrating from Magento to Shopify: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Below are some commonly asked questions about migrating from Magento to Shopify:
How much does Shopify 2.0 cost?
With e-commerce plans starting from $29 per month, Shopify is one of the most affordable (and comprehensive) e-commerce platforms currently available. However, we recommend the Shopify package from $79 per month, as it features lower transaction rates, advanced reporting, and multiple staff accounts. You’ll also enjoy 24/7 support through the migration process and unlimited product add capabilities in your site’s storefront.
How can I transfer items from one Shopify to another?
You can do this quite easily, thanks to Shopify’s user-friendly processes. Simply export your total marketplace item list via CSV file format and import it to your secondary storefront.
Is Shopify self-hosted?
Yes, the site offers hosting services and is independently hosted through its own servers to promote consumer and store owner security. This also offers you an ease of access that you won’t find with other e-commerce services that require store owners to host, such as Magento.
Migrating from Magento to Shopify Can Elevate Your E-Commerce Brand
Is migrating from Magento to Shopify worth it? Simply put, yes. Shopify comes equipped with many advanced tools and intuitive features that continue to set it apart from the competition – including enhanced security features, advanced reporting, and an effortlessly sleek interface with many options to add conversion-driving site features through apps or custom development with a partner.
E-commerce brands are essential to helping you grow your business effectively. Sellry is proud to recommend Shopify as a top option for new and seasoned brand owners alike.
Looking for assistance growing and scaling your e-commerce business? Connect with the team at Sellry today. We assist both established and up-and-coming brands with strategy, conversion rate optimization, UX, design, development and QA, implementing a holistic growth strategy tailored to your business’ success. For more information and to get started today, please connect with us at hello@sellry.com.
By Sarah Gallagher
The global economy is adjusting to the new normal in a post-pandemic world. The dust is still settling, and economic instability could become a major challenge for e-commerce brands as we head into 2023. The scenario leaves e-commerce leaders and brand founders with two choices: intelligently adapt to recession-resistant revenue strategies for 2023, or face the risk of losing out to new competitors in a fast-changing e-commerce landscape.
To take full advantage of the top revenue strategies for 2023 that this article covers comprehensively, we need to first make sense of revenue management and what a revenue strategy is for e-commerce businesses.
Revenue Management and Revenue Strategy
Revenue management may sound complex, but it simply means getting strategic with your data to determine a clear path to higher profits in your next business term. And you’ll have to do this with a revenue strategy, which is your plan for success that includes both short-term and long-term goals.
Ideally, both these facets of your e-commerce business will help you reach your overarching organizational goals and align with your brand presence and perception – and so will your strategies. That’s why every single suggestion on our list of revenue strategies for 2023 has been evaluated for potential success.
If you’re looking to establish yourself in your field of business and thrive next year, you’re in the right place! Check out the following revenue strategies for 2023 to get a feel of what can work best for your e-commerce channel.
Essential Revenue Strategies for 2023: Get Ready to Grow Your Business
Curious about the top trends and revenue strategies for 2023 in the e-commerce space? Read on – you can start implementing some of these ideas and pilot your business towards success in the coming years.
1. Create Cohesive Customer Experiences
What does a cohesive customer experience look like for your e-commerce site? We encourage you to ask this question – and answer it in the form of active marketing strategies that exceed customer expectations throughout the entire customer journey.
This is one of the top revenue management strategies for 2023 as it serves two purposes: catering and curating experiences that speak directly to the consumer and boosting your team’s engagement and morale in the process.
Collaboration and iteration will be key here, as you continue to evaluate your customer’s brand experiences both online and offline. The goal is to give them as authentic and relevant an experience as possible, across all brand channels. Style guides, workflow creation, and standardization are all critical elements of adopting this revenue strategy.
2. Enhance User Experience Across Devices
This is one of the revenue strategies for 2023 that is relatively straightforward, and something that’s likely already on your radar as mobile-first is now a standard approach. In a world where technology is a part of our life, successful customer experience (CX) on devices directly drives sales and is well worth the investment.
Intechnic found that every $1 spent on user experience can return up to $100 in revenue to brands across industries. It means there’s no better time than now to begin investing in customer-forward software and resources.
3. Emphasize Consumer Privacy Throughout the Customer Journey
Privacy can be scarce on the internet, which is why it’s best to be as transparent as possible with user privacy and protection policies that you may have. Taking steps to point to what privacy safeguards you have in place can instantly bolster consumer trust and confidence, establishing your e-commerce brand as an authentic and trustworthy presence in your market.
It also naturally aligns your brand to collectively and intentionally focus on best consumer practices and experiences regarding global privacy laws in your country as well as on the global stage, such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA).
4. Focus on Social Responsibility and Global Impact
This has been a popular revenue strategy since the early 2020s and points to a growing “collective consciousness” among consumers and team members. The post-pandemic era has brought major shifts in consumer habits and team member engagement, making both groups look for greater purpose and quality in their investments.
Being transparent about your brand’s efforts to contribute to social responsibility is a great way to boost your reputation and authenticity among your core demographics, as you’re giving your consumers something to be a part of with every purchase they make.
At Sellry, we help you think through ways to tell this story and integrate it into the shopping journey – through pull quotes, interactive site features, PDP icons, and more.
5. Use Social Media Influencers To Build Your Brand
People usually buy from brands they trust. We’re kicking off our list of revenue strategies with a key marketing concept that got a lot of traction over the years: Influencing.
Long-term and trusted influencer-brand relationships are essential to building your word-of-mouth marketing and can make your advertising strategies and social media outreach much more impactful – encouraging more continuous brand awareness and higher overall perception.
Don’t be under the impression that you need to invest only in celebrity endorsements or major influencers to make a splash with this revenue strategy. Shopify found that 47.3% of influencers in the field are considered crucial “micro-influencers,” having less than 20,000 followers on any given channel.
Sellry has implemented both third-party and native Shopify influencer campaign programs, making it simple for brands to find, connect with and leverage content from influencers both micro- and large.
6. Focus on Video Content and Live Streaming
With the rise of live streaming on platforms such as TikTok, Youtube, and Instagram Reels, it’s no wonder that video-based content is an important entry on our list of revenue strategies for 2023. Apps and platforms have been shown to favor video content, boosting your natural engagement and reach per post.
Generating video-based content as a strategy is a more relevant way to connect across generations, giving your customers an in-the-moment feel of being there for a specific moment – such as a launch.
Sellry has helped clients implement video throughout the customer journey – from paid ads to home page content to PDP product detail videos – in a way that optimizes for speed and performance.
A business owner sets her camera up for live streaming a product launch.
7. Leverage User-Generated Content
User-generated content may be one of the most underutilized and least understood forms of marketing. It is an essential recommendation on our list of revenue strategies for 2023. User-generated content encompasses all forms of content created organically by your brand advocates. It is best captured naturally via social platforms, on news listicles (such as Buzzfeed or Her Campus), or influencers not chartered through your brand.
If you’re looking to boost your vault of user-generated content, it’s time to evaluate your customer journey and ensure you’re investing not only in lead generation but also retention strategies. Try to look into the mind of your consumer and exceed their expectations.
With multiple 3rd party partner options to help collect and curate UGC, it’s helpful to have a strategy in place for when, where and how you’ll gather and feature this content in a way that drives purchase consideration and intent.
8. Adhere to Agile Marketing Techniques
You may have already embraced concepts of agile marketing in your business practice, as they’ve grown exponentially popular over the past few years. We recommend it as one of the top revenue strategies for 2023 because it’s being increasingly praised for its flexible and inclusive nature.
This type of marketing is simply a different strategy that emphasizes different critical elements compared to your average marketing scheme. These include concepts around interoperability, and cross-functional collaboration between teams and areas of expertise – thereby resulting in a complete, holistic, and comprehensive brand voice and experience for your customers.
It is also more cost-effective and flexible, offering a lenient recession-resistant model for lean startups, lower-budget enterprises, and high-powered enterprises.
It can be integrated with your business with little to no transition time. One of the best places to start if you’re considering agile marketing for your brand is to evaluate your current cross-functionality and automation. It will give you strategic starting points to begin your transition.
9. Optimize Content for Google SEO Voice-based Search
Looking for a quicker way to rank your web page or gain visibility on those targeted snippets? Consider optimizing your voice search strategy for SEO. It is one of the top revenue strategies for 2023, as it can offer you valuable insight into search intent and customer expectations.
It can also work for you to further align your brand with your target demographics, as it will refine the SEO input to be more accurate to your brand offerings and your audience’s needs.
Additionally, it increases accessibility for your site and helps it to be more inclusive for users who are visually impaired.
A digital marketing expert refines her SEO voice-based search functionality.
10. Increase Prevalence of Conversational Marketing
Conversational marketing has become the new standard, giving brands the advantage of being relatable, authentic, and engaging with their target audiences. Embracing conversational marketing as a core element of your marketing plan offers you a nearly-free selection of revenue management strategies as you transform your brand’s voice across your channels. You can break the barriers and directly conversate with your core demographic easily across any channel or venue, reducing the need for transitional overtures and formalities.
You can take on more strategic conversational keywords with terms and keywords that your customers are actually using, appeal to a wider range of relevant audiences, and create the appearance of a unique brand with little up-front investment.
11. Create More Branded Interactive Content
Nothing quite compares to a first-hand experience. This type of revenue marketing strategy can significantly impact your e-commerce startup’s revenue stream, especially if you tap into the element of FOMO (fear of missing out).
1-to-1 interactive content opportunities not only drive revenue, they also help generate a buzz around your brand and offer you new ways to engage. You can host prominent micro-influencers and give your followers a tangible opportunity to feel connected with your brand. Think about hosting live social Q&As, quizzes, contests, games, etc. around specific seasons, drops or promotions.
12. Embrace Virtual Reality (VR) Platforms
Virtual reality (VR) tools are a fantastic way to pull users into an interactive brand experience and are worth the up-front investment. As the field of VR expands, your user base may expect these experiences more frequently from your brand.
Investing here can increase your authority, relevance, and ROI potential. It will enhance your opportunity to build higher brand loyalty and advocacy levels as users will get to “try for themselves, as if they were there.”
DataProt found that the VR market value was estimated to have touched $4.8 billion dollars in 2021, meaning brands and enterprises are already embracing this technology as one of their top revenue strategies for 2023.
13. Use AI for Trendspotting
Trendspotting is a key element of any modern-day e-commerce marketing strategy, making it to our recommendations for top revenue strategies for 2023.
Implementing AI tools to assist with trendspotting offers a variety of benefits to your business operations, such as faster overall execution from the time the trend is spotted to when it is acted upon.
It allows e-commerce brands to reallocate human resources to higher-level tasks as per changing trends, allowing for quick streamlining of business models.
Looking to try AI-based trendspotting to help you build your brand? Consider expanding your team and creating a dedicated task force, or research and invest in AI-based tools to harness this point of leverage in your marketing plan!
14. Increase Inclusivity and Collaboration
Building inclusivity and representation into the DNA of your brand are essential in today’s culture. People are looking for forms of community and belonging, and you can create such opportunities for collaboration as you develop your revenue strategies for 2023.
Consider taking the time to evaluate your brand from the bottom-up, bringing inclusivity to elements such as:
Hiring and team building
Social media channels (Marketing assets, interviews with underrepresented groups and influencers)
Initiatives and outreach opportunities
Written copy and communication
Why You Need a Trusted E-commerce Business Development Agency
While we’ve listed some of the most relevant revenue strategies for 2023, we also recommend you add another significant strategy to your roadmap – work with a tried-and-tested e-commerce business development service provider such as Sellry.
You’ll get the benefit of industry-leading experts piloting your ecommerce, marketing and revenue management strategies, offering valuable insight and direct assistance in growing and establishing your brand – helping you weather the quickly changing economic landscape!
Sellry’s expert teams have successfully elevated industry-leading brands such as Supergoop!, Carbon38, and Nuun using strategic, agile, and tailored marketing strategies for growth and long-term value. Our 1-to-1 working model and data-driven strategic planning framework have made us a trusted partner to many e-commerce brands.
Stay Ahead of Your Competitors!
Agility and proper planning are critical to your e-commerce platform’s success. We’re confident that incorporating these revenue strategies for 2023 in your outline will give you the momentum you need to grow in the coming months and years.
Ready to get started? Connect with the team at Sellry today to plan your path to success in 2023 and beyond!
