Here’s an interesting fact:
Shopify wasn’t originally an e-commerce platform, it was an online store itself and it used to sell snowboards.
During that time, there wasn’t any tool that allowed merchants to own their brand and build relationships with their customers while helping them sell their goods, prompting the founders to build one on their own.
There was a number of other stores which also needed a platform to easily build their retail businesses, and so Shopify was born.
And this is the good thing about Shopify:
It’s a platform made by the merchants for the merchants. It’s made by people who understand the struggles and needs of online sellers.
Now, Shopify is one of the leading e-commerce platforms that’s used by over 600,000 stores because of its simple setup process and 24/7 telephone, chat, and email support. With Shopify, merchants are able to sell all sorts of products (physical items, digital downloads, drop shipped products) as well as services.
If you’re a small business owner who needs a fast and easy online store setup, Shopify might be the best platform for you.
But while Shopify is a user-friendly platform and you can experiment with all the readily available themes and apps, it may take you a significant amount of time to build a site that is actually able to attract and engage buyers.
How do you know when it’s time to hire Shopify developers? Is it worth it to bring in Shopify experts to the team?
In this blog, we’re listing down 5 benefits your online store can gain when you hire Shopify developers:
Why hire Shopify developers?
You get to build an attractive and brand-consistent store
Aside from your products, customers and buyers also pay attention to your online store’s look and feel. A neat-looking design and user-friendly interface boost your store’s credibility and reputation right away. On the other hand, a poorly-designed and unresponsive site will certainly drive potential buyers away.
When designing your site, keep this in mind:
If online buyers don’t perceive your store as trustworthy, they can easily find other stores in just a click.
Fortunately, Shopify has over 100 professionally-made themes from which you can choose from. The themes are classified according to different industries (clothing & fashion, jewellery, electronics, toys & games, furniture, etc.) so you can be sure to find one that suits your business.
This is where it gets better:
When you hire Shopify developers and designers, you can turn these themes into something better—something that aligns to your own brand.
Expert Shopify developers will be able to customise your theme using their skills in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Liquid. Moreover, Shopify developers who are also experienced in Timber (Shopify’s Theme Framework), as well as the Bootstrap framework, can make your store’s design responsive on all devices.
There are a lot of matters to consider when polishing your online store’s appearance. Aside from choosing the best colours, using great visuals and whatnots, it also makes sense to incorporate your company’s branding.
Remember:
Consistent branding is a major factor in a business’ success rate.
You want your customers not only to like your pretty site but also to remember your brand.
You get to improve SEO
If you’ve read this subheading asking, “What does SEO even mean?” then that’s definitely another reason you should hire a Shopify expert right now.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. Simply put, it’s the practice of optimising sites to make them rank higher in Google’s search results, and, consequently, increase quantity and quality of traffic to your site.
You may be thinking you have everything figured out—a beautiful theme, great pictures, witty store name—but if your customers can’t find your store, all of those efforts are nothing.
Don’t risk a low search engine ranking by building your site and doing everything on your own.
With a Shopify developer and designer, your online store can be built to be search engine-friendly.
You can focus on what you do best
While you can definitely explore Shopify’s different features and study the updates on your own, there will come a time where you will have to stop trying to do everything.
You’re an entrepreneur—your strength lies in growing your business and conceptualising strategies. Focus on that! Leave the custom online store building to professional Shopify developers.
These Shopify experts know the e-commerce platform from end to end, and they are committed to updating their skills and catching up with all of the platform updates. Their experiences have also taught them useful tricks and the best practices in building successful online stores. Let them do their magic while you do yours.
You get to leverage Shopify’s social media integration capability
Another advantage of using Shopify for your e-commerce needs is that it allows merchants to integrate shopping into your business’ social channels such as Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.
It has an in-platform shopping functionality which allows businesses to engage their followers and drive traffic from these channels to e-commerce conveniently.
In Twitter…
Merchants can embed “Buy Now” buttons in a tweet which, when clicked, allows buyers to get product info and purchase products without leaving the app.
In Facebook…
Merchants can add a “Shop” tab to their business’ Facebook page, integrating shopping experience within Facebook.
In Pinterest…
Merchants can create “Buyable Pins” that users can purchase without having to leave the app.
You can extend Shopify’s core functionality
Shopify’s existing templates might be enough to keep your online store up and running, but if you want to extend Shopify’s functionality and customise it according to your preference, you’re going to have to hire Shopify developers for that.
With the help of Shopify experts, you can easily connect your email marketing with MailChimp, expand your marketplace by selling on Amazon or sync up your accounting software, among others.
There’s a vast amount of apps and plugins in the Shopify App Store that you can choose and utilise according to your business’ needs. The apps are classified into categories:
- Marketing
- Finances
- Sales and Conversion
- Store Design
- Customer Support
- Reporting
- Inventory management
Last reminders before you hire Shopify developers
There’s plenty of platforms where you can find and meet Shopify developers. You can either opt to find Shopify experts or outsource your online store development to skilled Shopify developers around the world.
Whichever path you choose to tread and whichever talent you choose to hire, here are some important factors you should check during screening:
- Past experience with Shopify stores. This gives you an idea of what kind of businesses your potential Shopify developer has worked on before, as well as the kind of sites he/she creates. If your business sells shoes and your potential Shopify developer has worked on fashion businesses before, this might be an indicator that he/she has a background in your industry.
- Related technical skills. Especially if you’re looking for someone to accomplish major integrations and customisation to your online store, related skills such as those mentioned above will help you narrow down your choices and lead you to the talent you really need.
- Service rates. Some Shopify experts may turn down a project if the price does not meet a certain threshold. Do not overpay; make sure your price is reasonable. On the other hand, do not settle with the cheapest vendor as well—more often than not, the price is an indicator of the quality of service you will receive.
Let’s get your online store up and soaring! With Cloud Employee, you can hire Shopify developers risk-free in as fast as 2 weeks. Learn how Cloud Employee works, see our Developer Pricing Guide, or talk to us. You can hire dedicated offshore developers with us across many technologies.
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