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Shopify has an abundance of benefits, but as with any other online retail
platform, it does have drawbacks that all dropshipping business should be aware
of when they choose this platform.
CMS Limitations
As a dropshipping business, your main focus is e-commerce sales and want to
use a platform that gives you great flexibility, yet be easy and simplistic to
operate. The Shopify CMS is not in the same league as, for instance, WordPress;
that is a major management system.
Shopify’s content management system focuses on running an e-commerce store
and for your needs as a dropshipping business you will have to use a bespoke
theme with customization options plus the Shopify blogging platform. Solving
the SMS limitations is possible with adaptations.
Content limitations
There is only the option of two different types of content in the form of a page or
a blog post. This is problematic when you want to link posts to certain of your
products and it is not easy to generate any additional text fields for any of the
products that you offer for sale.Product Searches
The entry level Shopify plans have very poor search capabilities with no
provision for advanced search filtering. To gain access to the more advanced
search features, you will have to upgrade your Shopify plan.
Payments
Shopify discourages the use of payment gateways other than their own Shopify
Payment. Should you make use of any of the other payment gateways Shopify
levies a 2% transaction fee for each transaction processed through any
alternative gateway.
Expenses
No online retail portal give their services for free. When you join Shopify, you
must examine the different fees they charge to make an informed decision of
what payment plan you can afford and will suit your business needs the best.
Shopify gives you a 14-day period to try out the platform free of charge, so you
can familiarize yourself with how it works and get a better idea of what your
specific business needs are.
After your 14-day trial period you must choose a subscription plan to continue
using the online retail portal. The plus is that they do offer discounts for annual
and the two-year subscription plans. Each of the payment plans come with
specific perks, with more features added to the higher-priced options.
Currently there are five different options available:
● Shopify Lite.
● Basic Shopify.
● Shopify.
● Advanced Shopify.
● Shopify Plus (this plan has negotiable fees).
Scalability
Most dropshipping companies start out small with the aim to scale as resources
and finances grow. When you get to the stage where you want to expand, it is no
simple or easy job to export everything you have done on Shopify because all
content you have uploaded, as well as any features you have customized, is hosted by Shopify.
The search engine ranking that you have built up cannot be exported to your new
site. Your new site will have to start from scratch and be indexed and start
building up it’s search ranking again.
It is not impossible to export data to your new site, but it will take a lot of work
for you to export your customer and sales data and very time consuming.
The solution to the Shopify scalability problem is to create your own website
when you start out with your dropshipping company and not rely solely on a
retail platform. It is more work initially, but the benefits in the long run are
worth it. Use the platform and slowly build your website along with this so that
when you have to scale you already started your own website on a strong
foundation with a CMS that gives you all the features of a major content
managing system.
Underage Entrepreneurs
You must be 18 years or older to open your own Shopify account. This is not a
huge drawback, simply a fact that very young entrepreneurs should be aware of.
If you are under the age of 18, your parents or guardian must open your Shopify
account on your behalf and then you will be all set to go.