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Nearly 28% of all ecommerce stores in the US choose Shopify as their platform. While Shopify offers a relatively easy entry point for businesses diving into online selling, many store owners run into limitations – especially at higher revenue levels.
Let’s look at the current Shopify market share landscape. We’ll discuss some challenges entrepreneurs face and see why alternatives like Checkout Champ could help your store reach its full potential.
Shopify’s Place in the Global Market
Shopify has firmly established itself as a major player in the eCommerce space. Shopify holds a 26.2% share of the ecommerce platform market globally. This makes it the second most popular eCommerce platform globally. Shopify claims the top spot in the US, with 28% of US websites using ecommerce technologies opting for Shopify.
Growing Pains: What Happens When Shopify Isn’t Enough?
For merchants processing less than $50k per month, Shopify can feel like the perfect solution. As sales climb, so does the need for greater control over branding, checkout optimization, and overall customer experience. Here’s where many high-revenue store owners start bumping into frustrating limitations:
Limited Checkout Customization:
Shopify offers some basic customization. Achieving truly on-brand, conversion-optimized checkout experiences is tough. Many advanced features come at an additional cost, eating into your hard-earned profits.
This lack of flexibility is a pain point for brands aiming to craft unique checkout flows tailored to their audience.
Transaction Fees:
While Shopify charges a monthly fee, what catches many store owners off guard are the added transaction fees. As your sales skyrocket, these seemingly small percentages translate to a substantial chunk of change.
Shopify’s Drawbacks
There are some good things about Shopify and some harder things to contend with if you are an ecommerce store owner. For example, Shopify is heavily dependent upon apps. If you want to scale your business to do certain things, like take subscriptions, you need to find a Shopify app. This adds up in terms of third-party fees. Many apps require code embed on your store, which can slow your site down. Sometimes, you may require multiple different apps to do exactly what you want to do.
Another major issue with Shopify is the lack of customization in the checkout. You are often left with Shopify’s basic checkout if you are not on an edition of Shopify Plus. You may have a hard time doing order bumps and other types of activities in the checkout designed to increase sales and average order value.
Shopify also makes it hard to use the payment processors that you like. Shopify, depending upon the plan you are on, will take a percentage of your fees if you are using a payment processor that is not Shopify payments. If you want to diversify your payment processors, using Shopify’s checkout will cost you money.
Another issue with Shopify is the suite of apps that are dependent to run your store and your lack of control. If you want to utilize a particular channel, such as email, you will need to install two apps, Shopify’s Email and Flow apps. You can still use platforms such as MailChimp. But you need to work to incorporate this and build out your own automations. Stores that want to scale may want to use their own custom email setup or another provider.
Shopify also does not make it easy for people who drop ship or sell products that might make them a “higher risk merchant.” Sometimes, Shopify can withhold money, not allow you to use the Shopify Payments gateway, or even shutting down your store temporarily for review.
Shopify also does not have a fully built out customer relationship management portal. Larger ecommerce websites may benefit from a platform like Checkout Champ, which has a CRM built in. This can make it easier to unify this aspect of doing ecommerce for your business.
Lastly, there is the issue of Shopify of having a slower checkout. Checkout Champ has the fastest checkout page in the industry, being as fast as one second. A slower checkout can make it harder for you to convert customers at checkout. And without a Shopify Plus subscription, you are left at the mercy of not being able to do anything with your checkout page.
Checkout Champ: A Powerful Solution for Scaling Businesses
For ambitious store owners looking to level up their checkout game, platforms like Checkout Champ are gaining traction as viable alternatives. Imagine a checkout designed to perfectly align with your brand, offering a seamless and secure experience that drives conversions.
Checkout Champ helps businesses combat cart abandonment and create loyal, repeat customers with more control over the entire customer journey. Checkout Champ seamlessly integrates with popular eCommerce platforms like Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce. Plus, the robust customization options and competitive transaction fees make it an attractive choice for businesses generating substantial revenue.
