Shopify is a Canadian e-commerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. It is also the name of its proprietary e-commerce platform for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems. Shopify offers online retailers a suite of services “including payments, marketing, shipping and customer engagement” to simplify the process of running an online store for small merchants.
Shopify was founded in 2004 by Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake after attempting to open Snowdevil, an online store for snowboarding equipment. Unsatisfied with existing e-commerce products available at the time, Lütke and his team developed their own platform following the principle of “everything starts with a problem.”
In June 2009, Shopify launched a free mobile app on the Apple App Store. The app lets Shopify merchants manage their stores from iOS devices.
In 2010, Shopify started its Build-A-Business competition, in which participants create a store using Shopify’s platform in 14 days. The winners receive cash prizes and mentorship from entrepreneurs, such as Richard Branson, Tim Ferriss and Mark Cuban.
In October 2011, Shopify acquired Select Start Studios Inc., a Toronto-based mobile development company. In 2012, Shopify launched an iPad POS system at its annual conference. The POS system includes an iPhone app that lets users ring up orders anywhere in their stores and an iPad app that serves as a register and product catalog.
In August 2013, Shopify announced the launch of Shopify Payments, which allowed merchants to accept credit cards without having to sign up for a third-party payment processor.
In February 2016, Shopify acquiredKitCRM, a CRM application designed for small businesses.
In May 2018 at its annual Unite conference, Shopify announced new features such as automatic fraud detection, multi-language support, improved shipping labels and barcodes among others.Shopify is programmed in Ruby on Rails, written in the programming language Ruby.[5] It follows the model–view–controller (MVC) architectural pattern and has been compared to other frameworks such as Adobe Flex and Microsoft Silverlight.[6]
The following table highlights some of the important features of Shopify:
Features
Ease of Use:
One of the main reasons why people use Shopify is because it is very easy to use. The user interface is very intuitive and easy to navigate. Even if you have no prior experience with web design or development, you will be able to create a professional looking website using Shopify.
Flexibility:
Another great thing about Shopify is that it is very flexible.
There are no limits in terms of what you can do with your website. You can add any type of functionality or feature that you want.
Affordability:
Another advantage of using Shopify is that it is very affordable. There are different pricing plans available, so you can choose one that fits your budget.
Shopify is programmed in Ruby on Rails written in the programming language Ruby making it extremely versatile for users. Its features allow even those with no prior coding knowledge to create beautiful websites easily while also being affordable.
