'Tis the season for online shopping, and Shopify is one of our favorite e-Commerce platforms that enables individuals or businesses to set up online stores. Shopify has made some great new additions that your business can and should take advantage of this holiday season and beyond.
Shopify handles payments directly
Online store owners previously had to use third party payment processors like PayPal to accept online payments, but that has become a thing of the past. In August of this year, Shopify rolled out fully integrated payment processing so online stores could manage all their business transactions in one place. This comes with instant set up of merchant payment accounts, so as soon as a store goes live, the Shopify payment engine is already in place. This instant set up also comes with pricing plans that could save its customer's money. For Basic plan users the rate is 2.9 percent plus $0.30 per transaction, but for Pro users it's 2.5 percent plus $0.30, and for Unlimited plans it's 2.25 percent plus $0.30. As you can see, higher volume merchants get a rate price break (something you won't see on PayPal). There are also no additional fees for set up, processing, or to accept American Express or international credit cards.
Shopify gift cards are now available
According to a National Retail Federation survey, 81% of Americans will buy at least one gift card during the holidays, and just in time for the season of giving, Shopify has introduced gift cards for all Professional and Unlimited plan users. Customers can purchase a gift card just as if they would a product in the store, and after the purchase an email is sent with instructions to print or view the gift card online. The amazing thing about these gift cards is that store owners can specify the price points available, and they can customize the look of the cards and the email notification to be cohesive with their store's branding. This is also a big step up from only having discount promo codes available because unlike promo codes, gift cards can be used more than once and in conjunction with other discount codes.
Shopify Facebook Store
According to Digiday, Facebook is the leader when it comes to driving social traffic to retail sites (it's responsible for about 60%). What better way to increase sales than to have an online store directly integrated onto the social site? With the Shopify Facebook store, online retailers can sell products right from their Facebook page (for free!), and fans will be able to view, purchase, and share any products within Facebook. The Facebook store shows up as a customizable tab on a business Facebook Page that leads fans to view their products. Retailers can even set up an optional "Like gateway" that forces people to like their page before getting access to the store's products (because business pages can always use more fans).
It's not too late to catch those last minute holiday shoppers! If you have a Shopify store already and need help taking advantage of these features, or if you need assistance designing and setting up your virtual store front- contact us today.
