The Shopify FAQ
Learn:
1. What Shopify Can do for Coffee Businesses.
2. Why You'll Want to Use Shopify.
3. How Much Shopify Will Cost.
What Does Shopify Do For Coffee Businesses?
Shopify will turn your coffee shop into an online store in three different ways:
1. It will enable you to sell coffee online (this includes online marketplaces like Facebook and platforms outside your website).
2. It will enable you to effectively market the business online, with built in analytics tools and integrations with paid digital marketing platforms.
3. It will facilitate the management of the online store so orders, payments, and shipping are all processed properly and easily.
Why Should I Use Shopify?
It’s really the easiest way to transition from “real world” coffee selling to online coffee selling. Unlike many other CMS platforms, it’s built almost exclusively for commerce and retail. So, probably more than any other online website builder, it mirrors the actual sales, inventory, and fulfillment processes the best which saves a lot of time when it comes to getting a coffee store online.
What are the Costs to Start an Online Coffee Business with Shopify?
Shopify currently offers three pricing tiers.
The “Basic Shopify” plan costs $29/mo (USD). The next tier costs $79/mo and the “Advanced Shopify” plan costs $299/mo.
You can find more information about their pricing plans here, but the biggest differences involve the number of locations you have where you store and sell inventory. So a company with more than 5 stores, each with their own inventory, will need to use “Advanced Shopify”. If the goal is simply to sell your coffee online, the basic plan will due, at least to start. They also currently offer a free 90 day trial of their basic plan.
You may incur additional costs if you pay for “Shopify Apps”. Apps are tools that can be added to the store to facilitate more advanced design and functionality of the website. Most apps are billed with monthly subscriptions as well, and range from about $3 to $30 per month.