Choosing Between Shopify and Crafting Your Website: A Guide for 2024

Published on: 29 February 2024 Last Updated on: 31 July 2024

Starting an e-commerce journey or considering a platform transition requires essential choices. This guide looks into Shopify and custom websites, breaking down their pros and cons. Whether you’re new to business or a seasoned entrepreneur, the aim is to give you valuable insights for making intelligent decisions.

Decoding Platforms: Shopify And Custom Websites In Focus

Shopify is an easy-to-use e-commerce platform with global reach. On the flip side, custom websites are tailored to specific business needs, giving more control and coding skills for setup and upkeep.

A Detailed Exploration: Shopify vs. Custom Websites

User-Friendliness:

Shopify excels with its e-commerce-centric design, offering an intuitive interface and swift customization options. Custom websites demand technical proficiency involving web development, coding skills, and meticulous management.

Domain And Hosting:

Shopify streamlines the process by eliminating the need for separate domain and hosting decisions. On the other hand, custom websites require careful consideration for goals, structure, and usability.

Content Management:

Shopify serves as a CMS, facilitating easy content editing and reorganization. Custom websites rely on CMS platforms like WordPress but need a more intuitive nature of Shopify’s interface.

Website Construction Effort and Time:

Shopify allows rapid online store setup in just one day with guided instructions. Building a website from scratch is time-consuming and depends on factors such as size, complexity, and technical skills.

Pricing:

Shopify offers plans with additional costs for apps, themes, and domain subscriptions. Custom websites involve costs for hosting, domain, SSL certificate, development, extensions, and payment processors.

Design And Customization:

Shopify provides over 100 customizable templates and a user-friendly drag-and-drop builder. Custom websites offer complete control over design and functionality.

Maintenance And Updates:

Shopify integrates seamlessly with over 8,000 third-party applications. Custom websites require a more complex selection, investigation, and maintenance process.

Support:

Shopify ensures 24/7 customer support through various channels. Custom websites rely on the developer or agency, with support quality varying based on skills and responsiveness.

Unveiling Advantages Of Using Shopify

Advantages include a user-friendly interface, easy configuration, comprehensive e-commerce features, and robust support. Let us try to understand the pros of using Shopify for the sake of better understanding.

Easy To Use E-commerce Platforms

This is one of the biggest advantages of using Shopify. Shopify is built mainly for the average people and not the skilled developers. It’s quite simple to add the products and then create discounts. The web design of it is quite friendly. With the help of drag-and-drop editing tools, you can navigate the software for a pleasant experience. The platform itself provides software for hosting.

Supporting Wide Renge Of Busienss

One of the benefits of using the software is supporting a wide range of products like outdoor gear, home goods, beauty supplies, clothing, and digital products. A study tells the fact that household storage containers, bike saddles, kitchen towels, and toy kitchens are considered the highest-trending. Therefore, if your business involves one of these categories, you can bank on Shopify.

Low Startup Costs

Shopify’s relatively low monthly fees make the entire setup affordable. Shopify has a 14-day free trial period. Hereafter the users have to pay a monthly subscription fee. The basic plan starts at around $29 per month. The following level is $79 per month. Finally, the top package is $229 a month.

Customized Themes

Once you sign up for the account in Shopify, you gain immediate access to around 70 themes that are free of cost. One can easily implement them. It may be easy to get carried away in the design elements. You can spend quite a lot on purchasing the theme from the Shopify store.

Drawbacks involve limitations in customization options, potential content and visual optimization issues, and relatively high transaction fees.

Unveiling Advantages Of Using Custom Websites:

Advantages encompass heightened customization, freedom from platform constraints, extensive third-party integrations, and flexibility in coding and development. Drawbacks include the need for coding expertise, significant budget requirements, time and effort demands, high risk, manual setup, ongoing maintenance, and limited support. However, let us try to understand the advantages of using the customized software here in detail.

Unique Design

One of the advantages of using a custom web design is presenting uniqueness and individuality. This feature is exclusive only to the customized products where you decide with the designer regarding the website. It makes the brand stand out from the crowd.

Custom-Fit

The custom website design cost is less, allowing you to create aesthetic aspects of the template. The design of the product serves. There are unique business needs and expectations. This is why businesses try to design their website to handle their overall personality regarding the product. Due considerations are also provided to the users’ experience, navigation, unique color schemes, and, in the end, the overall personality of the websites.

Seo Optimized

Another benefit of personalized websites is their SEO optimization. The customized website design allows for the website to be designed according to the specific SEO technique. It surely facilitates better ranking on the search engine. The better the ranking, the better opportunity gets created for business development. This is one technical point where the customized versions are well ahead.

Growing Reputation

The growth and development of business depend on reputation building. Brands try to make their best effort to ensure better connectivity. With the help of customized website design, you can establish a relationship, and through better networking, you can create a unique brand for your company.

Ultimately, with the help of a customized reputation, you can grow your ownership and control over your website. Therefore, customized website designs have their gateway to achieving success in the long run. Businesses take the help of these websites to attain a competitive edge.

Strategic Conclusion

Align your choice with unique needs. Whether opting for Shopify or considering a different platform, trust the adept Shopify developers at VT Labs https://www.vtlabs.org/ for safe and precise site building designed to serve your requirements. Their commitment involves leveraging cutting-edge tools to facilitate a smooth digital transformation journey.

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Ankita Tripathy

Ankita Tripathy loves to write about food and the Hallyu Wave in particular. During her free time, she enjoys looking at the sky or reading books while sipping a cup of hot coffee. Her favourite niches are food, music, lifestyle, travel, and Korean Pop music and drama.

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It was a real pleasure to read your article. You are a very good author. Awesome article.

Reply 2024-03-02 14:33:36

7 Common Green Card Application Mistakes You Need To Avoid Making

According to a report, more than one million people apply for a green card every year in the USA. However, amongst such a massive number, only 45% of them get accepted on the first try. The others, however, get delayed or canceled within the first month of the application. Why? Well, according to a green card lawyer, the most common issue that causes such mishaps is making mistakes during the application procedure. In this article, we have explained a few of them and offered some insights on them as well. Keep reading to find out more about this aspect. Green Card Mistakes That You Must Avoid Making a mistake while enlisting a document in your green card is pretty common, especially if you’re doing it alone. Hence, if you are not too savvy regarding the subject, we’ll ask you to consult a green card lawyer prior to the application. Anyways, let’s get back to our topic and learn about the mistakes that you need to avoid. Mistake - 1: Missing A Document In Your Application Filling up a green card form is pretty tricky. In this aspect, you cannot fill out a single document and submit the same to the USA government. Instead, you have to write around eight to twelve forms at once and include various supportive papers alongside them. If you fail to provide even a single document, your application might get delayed or canceled. Potential Loss Of Money: USD 500 Possible Loss Of Time: 6-24 months Mistake - 2: Not Signing The Form Creating an ideal documentation form will not be enough for your purpose. Besides, you will need to sign each and every one of them as well. Also, you will have to make sure that the person, who’s applying for the green card, is performing this task. Once you are done with it, be sure to double-check everything again to ensure that the application looks fine. Potential Loss Of Money: USD 50-100 Possible Loss Of Time: 6 months Mistake - 3: Missing Out On Deadlines While you’re making a green card application, you will have to deal with multiple deadlines altogether. If you end up missing out even on a single one amongst them, the whole formal request for the documentation will get denied entirely. To avoid this, you can try to mark the important dates on your calendar or set up an alarm for them. Potential Loss Of Time: 6 months Potential Repercussion: Denied or canceled application Mistake - 4: Giving False Information Giving out false information accidentally is yet another mistake that almost everyone submitting a green card application makes. While it may seem not of importance to you, the US government will consider it as a “lie.” As a result, they will either deny your request to get a green card or ban you from the country for a lifetime. Potential Loss Of Time: 6-12 months Potential Repercussion: Denied or canceled application/Lifetime ban from the USA Mistake - 5: Not Getting The Help Of A Lawyer As mentioned before, filling out a green card application properly is a complex procedure. Hence, if you’re considering trying to do it alone, you might end up messing everything. It, in turn, may cost you a lot of money or, in the worst-case scenario, get banned from the country. Due to this reason, we’ll ask you to collaborate with a Green Card Lawyer to ensure that everything’s going in the right place. Potential Loss Of Time: 6 months Mistake - 6: Making An Incorrect Payment While handling too many documents at once, many of us tend to forget or make an incorrect payment. For example, while submitting an application for a green card, you’ll have to spend at least USD 1,000 on the US government. Nonetheless, if you attach a cheque of USD 100 to USD 300, then your request will get denied instantly. Potential Loss Of Time: 6-12 months Potential Repercussion: Denied or canceled application Mistake - 7: Not Sending Document Translation While working on a green card application, you’ll have to submit quite a few supporting documents. Amongst them, you should provide your birthdate, driver’s licenses, marriage certificates, bank accounts, passports, etc. However, if you don’t live in an English-speaking country, you have to translate everything from top to bottom. If you don’t send the same, your application will get delayed until you send the right ones. Potential Loss Of Time: 6 months The Bottom Line Making mistakes is pretty common while filling up a green card application. Therefore, if you don’t want your application to get delayed or canceled, make sure to be careful while working on this matter. If you're going to play it safe, you can also hire a Green Card Lawyer. Read Also: What Are the Important Parts of a Free Business Credit Report? Credit Card Fraud the Holiday Season: Things to Consider for Next Year

Advantages and Disadvantages of Coupon Codes in Your Business

There are two sides to offering coupon codes in your business. One side shows that you could make more sales with coupons while the other side shows you could lose profits after discontinuing the coupon purchases. Both sides have a point, and you should pay attention to these things while coming up with a discount strategy. Many businesses still view couponing as a perfect way to drive customers and sales without experiencing revenue losses. If you are considering using coupon codes on your business, here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of the idea. Advantages of Offering Coupon Codes : Businesses like Vistaprint have been offering coupon codes with the idea of attracting first-time buyers and it is working really well. You could also attract customers with this method without having to give them more discounts on future purchases. Use it as a customer acquisition strategy. If you have inventory that you want to unload quickly, offering coupon purchases is the best way to trigger quick sales. It will influence more people to prefer your products over those on other stores as long as the quality matches. You could also use coupon codes to encourage brand switching where buyers from another brand are encouraged to buy from your brand because of the pricing lure. Getting customers to make the first purchase might lead to add-on sales for products that were not discounted, which could help to raise revenues. Disadvantages of Offering Coupon Codes : This is a costly decision. You need to estimate the correct amount you can afford to give away. If the profit margin is not impressive, you won't find coupon sales profitable, so it’s only sensible to use coupons on products that have a good margin. Not sustainable as a promotional strategy because customers may only choose the discounted product and never come back. Some businesses have experienced unprofitable Groupon promotions because customers only pick discounted items and only return when there are more discounts to be exploited. Could affect the image of the business as this in some cases may make it look cheap, which in perception may send a message that the quality offered is not good. This strategy could also encourage customers to always wait for discounts and only buy when you are offering discounts. Also remember that offering discounts, especially to first-time buyers, could alienate loyal customers who are made to feel they deserve the discount more for sticking to the brand. Conclusion With the points discussed here, you can see how adding coupon codes to your business could affect its performance. You need to be careful with offering discount codes as this could also damage the business by lowering profitability even with more sales. Only use this strategy if you are sure the revenues to be gained are enough to get the business running smoothly. It is a perfect way to raise cash and you can clear inventory that has been stuck for a long time. Just make sure it does not lead to losses. Read Also : 8 Key SEO Strategies For E-Commerce Websites Oh, Crop! Killer E-Commerce Mistakes You Need To Conquer 9 Ways To Use Pinterest To Promote Your E-Commerce Store

Forex Trader Guide: How to Start

If you are here, you have probably already decided to run a Forex trading campaign or started considering this as a good online business opportunity. If you want to trade classical Forex or CFDs Forex, you need the truth on how to start, so here is a detailed started guide from actual experts in the field, the Forextb.com team. Let’s start! 1. Learn The Key Principles: Before you start practicing Forex trading through your first demo account, you have to note down and learn the fundamental principles of trading. The list of these short rules will help you even when you get into the professional trading league one day. Don’t expect too much – All your expectations should be based only on sober judgment. You always have to think of both positive and negative results that can happen when you open the next position and focus on the opportunities rather than on potential profits. The last may cause terrible anxiety and make it impossible to focus on the right things. Don’t invest more than you can lose – Leveraged trading, which makes Forex so attractive, can lead you not only to multiplied profits but to immense losses as well. That’s why you have to avoid investing more than you can payout if you lose. Even if you are 100% sure about a position, don’t try to be in over your head. Follow the headlines – Being aware of the markets is incredibly important for every trader. You have to know the entire background of every Forex pair you want to trade to be able to predict the most probable results. Turn off emotions – Emotional trading is is a failure even if you win the first few times. You should develop a strategy and follow it strictly to the end, without letting your emotions change your decisions. Otherwise, you won’t learn anything from your current strategy and won’t be able to develop a better one. There’s no reason for losing time and money like this. Get ready to lose – There’s no such trader who doesn’t lose. Even if you look at the trading history of top professionals, you will see multiple losses for every year of their careers. What makes a trader successful is the ability to overcome losses quickly and end up earning more money than losing. 2. Choose a Reliable Broker: Brokers are mediators between you and trading platforms. Technically, they provide you with access to certain trading platforms and charge a certain fee based on the services listed in the agreement. The truth is that brokers can impact the quality of your trading, so it’s very important to analyze all the popular offers and select the one that matches your needs, market standards and has generally positive reviews from the business community and trusted industry experts. 3. Use Stop Loss Orders: Of course, a stop-loss order is not a 100% guarantee that you won’t face losses if the market goes down too fast, but it’s definitely, a way to minimize potential losses. You can set the orders for specific scenarios to be sure that the system will cut you from the falling position automatically until you lose too much. 4. Pick a Strategy & Improve It: There are four main trading strategy categories that cover the vast majority of trading strategies. These common categories include: Scalping – Scalping stands for very short trades that usually take just a few minutes. Scalpers develop strategies aimed at making small profits on multiple trades during the day. One of the most popular examples of scalping is the Forex-1 minute Trading Strategy. Make sure to google it. Scalping is widely considered one of the most advanced trading categories as it requires a trader with a quick, agile mind who can adapt to frequently changing circumstances and understand where the wind blows. Day trading – Day trading strategies open and close within the trading day timeframe and last for a few hours. It’s a popular category amongst beginner traders as it provides you with enough time to think and doesn’t overwhelm you with potential overnight market changes. Swing trading – This category involves trading strategies that last around 2 trading days and stay overnight. It’s quite a risky thing for beginners but can be a great instrument when you have enough experience. Positional trading – This trading strategy type involves following long-term market trends in order to multiply profits on significant currency price shits. Unlike the previous three, this approach is considered long-term and requires traders to be extremely patient and disciplined. There’s no real need to start with your own custom strategy created from the ground up. You can start by testing classic trading strategies that have proved efficient over time and learn what makes them so good while practicing in real-world conditions on your demo account or a real one. 5. Learn to Analyze: The lesson to learn here is that there are two main analysis types: Technical analysis – This analysis typically involves studying price movement patterns of a specific currency pair or asset. Your aim here is to see historical price trends and try to make accurate predictions on future price movements. This way, you can gain more confidence in the trend you should bid for. You can use indicators, chart patterns, and candle patterns to conduct effective technical analysis. Fundamental analysis – Similar to technical analysis, fundamental analysis involves making predictions, but it focuses on the general economic situation worldwide, including current GDP, interest rates, employment rates, worldwide trade, manufacturing of physical goods, economy-driving commodities, and more. Long story short, fundamental analysis is practically about everything but the price movement pattern. Time to Start a Demo: You can read hundreds of articles, but they are just nothing until you start practicing real-world platforms and instruments. The best way to start right away is to select a reliable broker and open a free demo account to see how it goes. You can practice on a demo account without spending a cent as long as you need to get used to the platform, test your first strategies and try to understand what you feel. Don’t be there too long, though. The real market with real money is the best teacher. Read Also: How Financial Trading can give you the Life you want Forex Trading Wisdom: Talk Yourself Out of Bad Trades CFD Trading: Everything You Need to Know in 2021