The Pros and Cons to shopify… Is it worth it?

Hey everyone! Today I’m stepping inside the e-com realm and giving you the pros and cons of utilizing the platform Shopify and is it worth it for you to start now. If you’re reading this is because, you’re heavliy thinking about joining the platform to create your own online business. You’re wanting to tap into the world of E-commerce and believe it’s a big ass world. Growing by the billions in terms of sales. Without further adue, let’s begin.

 

Pros

Shopify is trusted by over 325,000 entreprenuers (myself included) and is growing by the day. Here are some of the pros that you’ll enjoy when utilizing shopify:

• Cheap to get started ($30/monthly subscription)
• Beginner friendly
• The amount of control you have
• Thousands of apps that’ll help you run your business more effectively
• Staff accounts (when your business gets bigger and you need VAs)
• Small trainings the platform provides

Shopify gives you a chance to utiize the internet and gives you a platform to sell any product and recieve payment from it. Some of the most successful brands on shopify would be Kyliecosmetics, Fashionnova, MVMNT watches, and that’s just a few. These shops bring in millions of dollars a month. Now I know what you’re about to say, “Yeah but they have strong social presence.” Although that’s true, there’s thousands of other shopify brand stores bringing 6-7 figures a month. Besides, everyone starts at zero so don’t let that scare you.

Now these pros are important because, anybody just starting out in the online business world, you want to be able to set up everything without going through unecessary hills and hoops. Its as simple as setting up your store, importing your products and market traffic to your store. You also have massive control over your data information. Everything with who visited your store, people who added to their cart, abandoned carts, sales, and other key information you’ll need to keep track of your business results.

Best part about this, it’s only $29/month to get started. Now depending on the apps you download to your store (some of the apps aren’t free to use or have inside-app purchases) will determine your actual monthly price. Other than that, it’s super cheap to get started. To think all it takes now a days to start a 5-7 figure business, starts with less than $30. Man times have changed truth be told.

 

Cons

Now one thing we know about this world and everything in general, nothing is perfect. So with that being said here are some cons that’ll make you think about using this platform so you can double check to see if you really want to do this. So let’s go ahead and name some of these cons already:

• Low price = High saturation
• Limited theme customization
• You can’t actually use the store until you’ve payed for the monthly plan
• You’ll be spending hundreds/thousands on getting traffic
• Low profit margins

So two of these cons aren’t really a big deal. If you have a creative taste to you, having limited theme customization isn’t a problem. Also since the store is only $29 to get started, applying for the plan isn’t a deal bigger. You can still cancel however before your 14 free trial is up and you WON’T be charged. Now lets get into the other three cons that will probably 97% of people who won’t go for this.

High saturation is definitely a big problem when using this platform (specfically if you’re doing drop-shipping) because, people think all you need to do is pay for the subscription, set up everything & just wait for the customers to start coming in. Also some of these Shopify “gurus” on youtube give a false hope to most of these people wanting to make some extra money. Promising you, you’ll be making 6 figures your first month. Not saying it’s impossible because some have done it, but those people that find success in the first month 99% of them already had the marketing experience or had the resources already or both.

You’ll be also spending a lot of cheese on promoting your products on these social media platforms such as Facebook ads, Instagram ads/influencers, Youtube, Google ads, and many more. Now my best advice for people starting this platform is for one get good at using one social media platform at a time so you’re just not throwing money in the black hole. You’re also going to fail a few times as well so if you’re not okay with losing money in the beginning to learn I highly recommend STRONGLY do NOT do this.

Now with low profit margins, this will only be a issue when you’re scailing your store into higher numbers a day. For example you might have a product that cost about .29 cents to buy but selling it for $15-$20 dollars. You might be profiting big time right now, but when you start scailing your product, your ad cost will go up which will decrease the amount of profit you’ll be making. On top of hiring a few VAs to help you run your business, you’ll be paying them as well. You’ll also be spending money on creating content for your marketing. At the end of all of that you’ll probably be profiting 20-35% maybe 40%  of your actual sales. But I mean when you’re making $100,000+ a month you wouldn’t care about those margins to be honest.

 

So is starting Shopify worth it?

In my opinion, yes. Shopify gives you a very flexible platform to bring your dream business online and gives you a chance to start multiple streams of income and expand your variety when comes to monetizing your ideas. If you can deal with a slow start to a long lasting path then I highly recommend you start and take that chance. However, if you’re not willing to take the cons about this platform Irecommend your try a different business model, because truth be told you won’t last long in the world E-commerce. You could try affilate marketing, social media marketing, amything else, but Shopify wouldn’t be your best bet. Just being honest.