Why Shopify, or why not?

[Havouza]

The subject can perhaps be provocative but what I am after is some input on the topic. What is it that make Shopify and others the platform of choice for so many? Is it the ease of use, capabilities or what is it? If you don't happen to make your business from US, Canada, UK or Ireland it can be quite high costs only in transaction fees.

The other question is ofc why not use it?

Input people, I want your opinions

Happy Easter

[wakabayashi]

I don't know so much about Shopify. I think ecommerce market is just segmented in regions. Here Shopify isn't that popular. Also I believe that most merchants don't invest enough time to chose their system.

[Traumflug]

Also I believe that most merchants don’t invest enough time to chose their system.

Most of us are probably kind of experts here, but try to play dumb and then install a shop. Installation of a Wiki is something like a few hours, installation of a shop is measured in weeks. On top of this all the legal issues, mandatory or not (depends on the home country).

With all that mess it's well understandable that people watch out for something where they can simply upload a few pictures, define a price and start selling.

[wakabayashi]

@Traumflug yeah it's understandable. A shop system must be easy to handle from the begining, but still offers all the function to be sucessful in the long run. I hope TB is been able to serve a new merchant experience.

Little things can be killer arguments. In switzerland we know for example only money values with at least 5 Rappen (Cents). There is no 1 Cent coin. If a shop system don't support rounding on 0.05, it can't expect to become popular here.

[robbie]

Shopify is quite limited for some stuff, for example you can’t remove their first level directory such as /pages/, can't edit the checkout page etc.

Then again that is quite normal since it is just a plug and play platform. Like said above, you can get running with minimal work. That is why it is used a lot for dropshipping purposes . It can get quite expensive if you want things like advanced reports etc.

I do find that most Shopify shops are very good looking and are pretty fast.

[Havouza]

If you compare, the features available directly in TB today with the ones that are available from start with Shopify, I have a feeling that TB already now has more to offer the merchant. Or am I wrong? I have no real experience of Shopify, I just have tried to find out from their help pages. It will never be an alternative for us anyway

[Havouza]

Shopify often claim they are a cheap alternative when you start

Today I stumbled on this

https://eastsideco.com/pricing/

[Havouza]

Yea, crazy to me. 7000 pounds minimum to set up and customize a shop. 4000 to customize a theme

[Anima]

11000 euros, much better you pay 5 years of VPS spend 1500 euros with modules and themes! Still about 8000 euros to buy products

Money for northern hemisphere is no problem, already for southern emisphere ...

I bought a theme "Werehouse" costing $ 79 (~ R$ 270) for you would be something like $ 600 (-.- my country sucks, everything is very difficult, very expensive, a lot of corruption!)

[Havouza]

@Anima I would never touch any of these platforms but I want to have an idea why people choose them.

I see you are from Brazil. Do you have good hosting available to an affordable price?

[Anima]

@Havouza

(I was just making a comparison of what is possible with this money ^^ ') Yes unfortunately I am Brazilian, we do not have technological infrastructure here, everything is absurdly expensive, it's not worth having a lodging here just to improve the ping.

Currently I use a VPS OVH 1x2.4Ghz 6GB RAM 25GB SSD 100mbps and I am paying $ 8 Works with ISPConfig, Apache2 and mariadb. I even like the hardware, it responds well, but the OVH support is horrible !!! And I have a bit more latency, but it's good for the price (in Brazil a VPS in these configurations is around $ 150 with much lower link)

thirty bees has partnered with a company, now I forgot the name but you should find it easy in the forum, speak very well the company everywhere, but it is not feasible for my financial scenario

[Havouza]

@Anima just for fun, could you ping my server, it could be interesting to see the time

46.163.114.234

[Anima]

My connection is not good

Region Brazil/Recife

[Havouza]

seems that the sea cable is cluttered

[Anima]

To another continent is horrible, it only goes well for south america.

It was better, 5 days ago that the connection is unstable, it must have been some problem with the provider.

The maximum offered in my city is 7Mb and many problems of corrupted packages.

[Havouza]

I live in Cyprus with bad internet, I sit on 10mb/0.768mb wireless. Thats why the server is still in Europe mainland

[Anima]

I am ashamed, I did not know about this island, it is very beautiful and small. We are in the same situation, the technological conditions there also do not seem favorable.

Here we live with political neglect and corruption, on the other hand you are not well seeing neighboring countries either.

[Havouza]

To complicate things I am Swede ;-)

[Anima]

If we stop to think, it's not easy for anyone! hahahahaahha

[Traumflug]

Why do you make a headache about the server location. For myself I'm not sure where the hardware is. Probably somewhere around Frankfurt/Germany. At times I work with another one somewhere near San Francisco/USA. Work procedures are exactly the same.

Which means: it doesn't matter where the hardware converts electricity into zeros and ones, as long as this hardware is connected to the Internet.

[Anima]

As I said before, for those who live in developed countries will not have headache, but in sub-development, with high cost and precarious connection becomes very important to decrease latency. Dolar / euro for me has an exorbitant value. Here there is a lot of difference a servidir in Brazil for one in the canada. The world is not colorful for everyone.

[Havouza]

I thought so too @Traumflug , I thought it was ancient history. But for sure a ping of over 500 ms make a difference if you are selling in South America. I think we forget how good infrastructure we have in Europe. And cheap. At least in most countries. I live in Cyprus and are connected to a small local wireless provider, the only alternative really. But he pay 4500€ per month for a 100mb fiber to the backbone. This means our internet is expensive. In Sweden, my native country, my friends pay around 50 € for a 100/100mb fiber including ip tv and ip telephony And this should be for 95% of the inhabitants by 2020

[MockoB]

I my country the situation was no different than Brazil 10 years ago but now 50euro is 1tb fiber internet, 50mb fiber is 5 euro. I believe it is inevitable in near future to reach such prices. Unfortunately one of your mistakes was president with Bulgarian roots, the corruption is in our blood here, it is national sport ;)

[Havouza]

If you come to Cyprus it is no difference. I have lived in many countries but none as corrupt as this.

[MockoB]

Haha I feel kind of relieved now :)