How does Shopify operate and what is it? (2025 Guide)
Shopify is an e-commerce platform that helps small businesses create an online store and sell things online with a single, user-friendly interface. Shopify merchants may set up a modern online store and sell through social media sites, seller marketplaces, and other channels including chat, email, and SMS. In-person sales are also made easy with Shopify’s integrated point-of-sale (POS) for market sales, pop-up stores, retail storefronts, and more.
Just what is Shopify?
According to technical definitions, Shopify is a subscription-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) sales platform. With annual subscription costs starting at INR 1,499 per month, Shopify offers customers the option to sign up for a three-month subscription for INR 20 and select any Shopify plan that best fits their needs. All regular memberships include a customized online store and a full suite of tools for conducting business both online and offline.
All subscriptions provide a full suite of business management tools. Product sourcing, inventory and sales monitoring, payment processing, shipping, customer accounts, marketing, and reporting are all included in every Shopify membership. It’s also easy to expand your toolkit with the hundreds of Shopify Apps available. To learn more, see our Shopify review.
What Is the Process of Shopify?
Shopify works by integrating all of your sales channels with ease and combining your customers, product data, and administrative tasks into a single system. Once the basics are established, Shopify makes it easy to explore and expand into other product lines and sales channels.
This is a thorough breakdown of Shopify’s functionality, covering everything from setup to sales administration.
1. Get a Free 14-Day Shopify Trial by Signing Up
Shopify provides a risk-free two-week trial period. Shopify doesn’t even ask for your credit card directly.
2. Integrate Your Sales Channels
You can change and add more sales channels at any moment, but the account creation wizard connects your initial ones.
You may also link your social media profiles in the setup wizard if you wish to sell through them. [What is Shopify?]
3. Enter the details of your product or find items to sell.
For items you produce or procure on your own, include item details, costs, and images. Additionally, you may find things to sell by using Shopify’s Handshake wholesale network and dropship merchants.
Note that many merchants combine their own products, whether sourced or made, with related dropship items to offer a well-rounded selection. Study up on starting a dropshipping business.
4. Set Up Your Payments
With just one click, you can activate Shopify Payments to start collecting payments right away, or you may connect your own payment processor to your dashboard. Shopify supports more than 100 external payment processors. If you need help choosing the best credit card processing company, check out the top ones.
5. Set up shipping and taxes
Under the Settings tab, set up your shipping preferences, prices, and pertinent sales tax information.
You might start selling as soon as you build your Shopify store. You are ready to sell using the Buy Button tool, the POS card reader in person, and various social media and marketplace platforms once you have finished Steps 1 through 5.
6. Establish a Shopify Online Store
If you want to sell through your own branded website, the next step is to set up your Shopify online store. Again, Shopify simplifies this by providing a range of plug-and-play themes that require minimal setup and extra material for customization.
7. Manage, Process, and Track Orders
As orders come in, everything will be controlled via your Shopify dashboard. Shopify’s built-in capabilities make it easy to set up efficient processes for managing orders you ship yourself, dropship products, and even virtual goods like e-books and music downloads. Shopify automatically updates your clients on the status of their purchases and the tracking information for shipments. [What is Shopify?]
After completing the required setup and procedure, you’re ready to look at Shopify’s sales-boosting options, like email marketing, abandoned cart remarketing, and blogging.
In 2025, how much will Shopify cost?
Shopify price includes extra charges for advanced point-of-sale requirements, shipping labels, and payment processing in addition to monthly fees that are based on your membership plan.
The price of a Shopify membership
Shopify’s five online store choices accommodate an infinite amount of items, orders, and customers in addition to providing round-the-clock support, data protection, Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance, and a full suite of sales and business management tools.
Additionally, Shopify offers discounts for early payments: 10% for yearly payments and 20% for biannual payments.
Price
| Basic Shopify | Shopify | Advanced Shopify | Shopify Plus |
| INR 1,994 Per Month | INR 7,447 Per Month | INR 30,164 Per Month | INR 1,65,461 Per Month |
The Basic, Shopify, and Advanced Plans have monthly prices of INR 1,994, INR 7,447, and INR 30,164, respectively. Along with omnichannel sell-anywhere features, every Shopify online store subscription comes with a full suite of order, customer, and business management tools. As you move up the plan tiers, you get access to more advanced marketing, administration, and reporting tools, as well as bigger shipping savings and lower payment processing costs.
You may handle orders, deliver purchases, and review performance analytics to analyze your sales and customer browsing trends with Shopify Starter, a limited-featured plan that costs INR 20 per month.
Shopify Plus: Starts at INR 1,65,461 a month and offers enterprise-level features for high-volume, multi-location, and multimillion-dollar sellers. Plan pricing, terms, and features are negotiated at this level based on sales volume and business requirements.
Fees for Processing Payments and Transactions on Shopify
You have the option of adding your own payment processor or using Shopify’s integrated Payments functionality. If you use your own payment processor, Shopify charges a transaction fee for every online sale that might be anywhere between 0.5% and 2% of the entire cost. This fee is eliminated if you use Shopify Payments.
Shopify Payments offers flat-rate payment processing, with fees based on your membership level, as shown in the above table. Shopify Payments also enables in-person sales with its mobile point-of-sale app and retail store POS system.
Shopify Shipping Prices
If you ship orders, you can use Shopify’s built-in shipping label printing feature on any plan. Competitive discounts are offered by USPS, UPS, DHL, and other carriers, and they increase with higher-tier plans.
The cost of shipping is computed each time an order is processed and a shipping label is printed. Charges are applied to your card when they reach a threshold based on your normal shipping volume. However, if you only ship a few things every month, shipping charges are applied to your Shopify payment.
Premium Shopify themes
Despite Shopify’s nine free shop designs, many merchants opt for premium themes that provide more customization options, specialty styles, and additional features. Shopify’s theme store offers more than 100 premium themes.
Which Products Can I Sell on Shopify?
Shopify facilitates the sale of nearly any type of good or service, including:
- Real products that you mail yourself
- Downloadable digital products, such as music files, e-books, and digital gift cards
- Dropship goods that are delivered directly to customers by your vendors
- Goods and services that a retail outlet sells
- In-person sales of goods and services through mobile locations
- Online booking is used to manage and sell services.
- Memberships and subscription boxes with recurrent payments that happen automatically
webinars, workshops, tutorials, and online courses - Event passes and tickets, as well as local tours and attractions
- Sports gear, dresses, cameras, and more are available for rent.
Fundraisers and donations
Live animals, fireworks, explosives, firearms, medical devices, alcohol, and tobacco are among the prohibited commodities on Shopify’s list. Shopify has the power to remove items from a subscriber’s product pages and to terminate accounts that violate its seller terms of service.
Where Can I Sell Using Shopify?
Shopify’s omnichannel sales reach is extensive. The POS, well-known social media sites, and the online store are a few of the sales channels that are linked into the platform. Shopify apps make it easier to connect with additional sales channels, such as seller marketplaces, in-app purchases, and online courses. [What is Shopify?]
An example of the various sales channels that Shopify gives you access to is as follows:
- Shopify online store: Using Shopify’s e-commerce-ready store is the greatest method to build your brand and engage with customers online.
- Social media platforms: Shopify allows businesses seamless sales through shoppable posts, videos, and pins by integrating with Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, WhatsApp, and TikTok.
- Seller marketplaces: List products on Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Etsy, and Lyst to draw in big marketplace audiences. Learn more about selling on Amazon.
- Mobile sales in person: Shopify POS mobile card readers are ideal for pop-up stores, food trucks, local markets, and mobile services.
- Shopify POS Pro streamlines checkout and shop management processes for retail establishments.
- Websites and blogs that are not Shopify: You can use Shopify’s Buy Button embed to add Shop functionality to reviews, articles, and posts on other websites and blogs.
- Branded mobile application: After a purchase, Shopify’s Shop App offers a branded in-app shopping experience with tailored product recommendations and discounts.
- Email and chat: Shopify’s Buy Button embeds allow you to send shoppable emails, and the Shopify Inbox app allows you to convert chat sessions into sales opportunities.
- Wholesale buyers: Shopify’s Handshake platform allows artists and small manufacturers to reach out to retail clients for wholesale agreements.
International marketplaces: Shopify connects with apps such as Shopify nations (global), Rakuten Ichiba (Japan), JD Marketplace (China), IndiaMart (India), and My Deal AU (Australia) to boost sales in other countries.
Shopify’s advantages and disadvantages
Is Shopify the best option for you, even though it provides a plethora of sales options and business management tools? These advantages and disadvantages of Shopify might aid in your decision-making.
Advantages of Using Shopify
- Overall usability: Beginners may start making sales in the morning or afternoon by simply setting up a beautiful Shopify store, multiple sales channels, and order processing methods.
- Competitive monthly rates: While higher-level plans have competitive prices, entry-level plans have reasonable monthly fees.
Safe technology: Shopify’s fully managed platform handles all technical matters for you. - Effortless retail, mobile, and in-person sales: With fully integrated retail shop and mobile point-of-sale features, you can sell in person anywhere.
- Integrated product sourcing: Stock your store with little to no upfront costs by utilizing Shopify’s integrated dropship and wholesale networks.
- Integrated email marketing: Automated email marketing and abandoned cart notifications can boost sales with just one click.
- Unlimited growth potential: Shopify is equipped to manage both quick and gradual expansion, and it is home to some of the biggest businesses on the internet. [What is Shopify?]
Cons of Using Shopify
- Cost: There are free and incredibly affordable Shopify alternatives if money is limited.
- Transaction fees: You are assessed a transaction fee each time you use a credit or debit card to make a purchase without utilizing Shopify Payments.
- Theme limitations: Shopify themes are usually rather basic, and adding more complex features and functionality requires skilled code.
- Decreased search engine optimization (SEO) opportunities: Shopify internet businesses have fewer SEO features than platforms like WordPress.
- Easy-to-use blog tools: Compared to Squarespace, Wix, and WordPress, Shopify provides comparatively limited blogging features.
The bottom line
When it comes to ease of use and seamless connection with sales channels, Shopify is practically unmatched in the e-commerce platform space. Simple blogging services, limited store customisation, and basic SEO tools are just a few of Shopify’s minor drawbacks; these are outweighed by its extensive selling possibilities and crucial business management features. When it comes to price, growth potential, sales reach, and user-friendliness for both power sellers and startups, no platform can match Shopify.