What is Shopify and is it the best eCommerce platform for my business?

Let’s face it running a business is tough enough and very time consuming! When it comes to your website, what you need is an eCommerce store that makes you money, a platform that’s easy to use and one with all the muntane maintenance, platform upgrades and security patches all taken care of.

Not everyone is born to be a web developer and wants to spend time coding websites. Shopify has made it easier for merchants to work with a Shopify Partner to produce an eCommerce store quickly and easily. It’s no surprise to us why Shopify has taken over the local Singapore and Asia market as the ecommerce platform of choice.

Why thousands of merchants are switching to Shopify

Easy to use

Shopify offers an easy way to quickly launch an your online store without the hassle of  hosting servers and development costs like other platforms. The admin has been carefully curated for merchants and comes with a large collection of training guides, 24hr support and resources. It really is easy to manage your store orders, promotions, discounts, product additions and so on. You can literally manage a store all by yourself.

Hosted Solution

Shopify provides you with fast, secure eCommerce hosting and global SSL certificate. The platform takes care of the common website issues such as a gateway, management, hosting, upgrades, bandwidth and security. This is such a massive benefit for merchants. Ask anyone has ever owned and operated a WooCommerce or Magento eCommerce store.. You’re always having to resolve, patch, upgrade and secure your site.

Reliable eCommerce

Being self hosted and controlling the backend system, the Shopify platform is extremely reliable. It’s the ideal platform for merchants as you can focus on sales and marketing not technical infrastructure and maintenance.

Mobile friendly

Shopify’s platform includes a free built-in mobile commerce shopping cart and optimised checkout. It even offers you a mobile / tablet POS app.
Like to know more? We are Shopify partners, Shopify experts and produce sales converting mobile friendly stores.  Get a quote – or start a shopify trial

24/7 Support

That’s right, the team at Shopify are available to answer any questions you have. This, combined with an extensive knowledge centre and Shopify Partner program your answer is never far away.

Great SEO and marketing

Shopify provides you with powerful Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) features that help your Google ranking. There is also a wide range of Shopify SEO apps available.

Easy payment systems

Shopify has its own integrated payment gateway with strong fraud protection built in by default. No more hassles trying to obtain an expensive merchant account with your bank or ongoing payment gateway upgrades. Its ready to go.  Shopify also allows you to add in additional payment methods such as the new Buy Now Pay Later gateways like afterpay & zippay (Australia) and hoolah (Singapore)

14-day FREE Trial Period

One of the best things about Shopify is that it comes with a 14-day free trial. You can use this trial period to take the platform for a test run before you make a long-term commitment.  Start a 14 Day Shopify Trial

Shopify in Singapore – Common questions

Q: I’m a Singapore merchant, can I set up local currency but still sell overseas?

Yes you can, not only that you can fully customise your default currency and shipping location to

Q: Is Shopify a better choice over Magento or WooCommere?

Every platform has its own advantages and disadvantages. Magento 2 is an excellent platform and can be highly customised to your needs, saying this, Magento requires specialist hosting, experienced Magento developers and the average project will take double the time and cost of a Shopify store. When considering WooCommerce it might initially look more cost effective but you also inherit all the issues that open source platforms have. We migrated dozens of merchants from WooCommerce to Shopify and totally recommend Shopify!

Q: Is Shopify SEO friendly?

Certainly is. By default, Shopify has been developed with SEO in mind and comes with easy to use tools to customise your meta titles and descriptions. In addition to this there are numerous SEO related apps via the app marketplace.

Q: Does Shopify any discounts?

If you subscribe to an annual plan, you will get a discount – click here for Shopify pricing

Q: How much does a Shopify website cost?

Good question and one that usually requires more information. Every store has different requirements; Custom themes, 3rd party integrations and bespoke functionality make it difficult to put a price on things. We are a Shopify Partners, Shopify Experts and love working on the platform. As a guide, we can deliver a Shopify store in a fraction of the time it takes to develop a Magento 2 store. We are offering all new Merchants with the following promotion . Shopify website setup offer

Create your next Shopify store with us and receive a $250 discount

Q: Does Shopify offer Buy Now Pay Later payment options?

hoolah is the latest, Buy Now Pay Later method and is currently available for Singapore merchants running on Shopify and WooCommerce. hoolah has proven to be an excellent options for merchants and consumers at the same time. What makes hoolah special is that it divides the payment into 4 installments, with a surprise feature of 0% interest rate.

Find out more and get started on  hooah?  |   Read our review on hoolah

14-day FREE Trial Period

One of the best things about Shopify is that it comes with a 14-day free trial. You can use this trial period to take the platform for a test run before you make a long-term commitment.  Start a 14 Day Shopify Trial

Alinga are Shopify Partners, Shopify Experts

The post Shopify is dominating the Singapore eCommerce market appeared first on Alinga.

The online world is constantly growing at a rapid pace, merchants are often seeking innovative ways to increase their ecommerce conversion rate. Right now it’s very common for the shopper to browse your store online, add items to the shopping cart but don’t actually proceed to checkout to purchase. There are a number of reasons why people don’t end up proceeding through the checkout, these include Expensive shipping and difficult checkout processes but the main reason is purchase amount.

If you can reduce the initial purchase amount sales conversions will increase.

This issue can be resolved with the help from hoolah. The latest Buy now pay later payment option for Singapore merchants. hoolah, founded by experienced payment industry specialists set out with the goal to make the online transaction process as smooth as possible.

Hoolah solves the problem by enabling customers to stay under their budget with a buy now pay later payment option ( 4 easy interest-free payments) this has a proven to be a massive sales conversion increase for merchants.

Hoolah has only recently launched and has already onboarded a collection of major Singapore stores on the WooCommerce and Shopify platforms. Right now, it exclusive for Singapore merchants but we expect big things from hoolah with Shopify!

Shopify is arguably the fastest growing ecommerce platform globally with thousands of merchants either  migrating or starting a new store with it. As a Shopify Partner and Shopify Expert we love working on the platform and very excited to see its coverage grow across Singapore and Asia.

Interested in Shopify

The benefits of the hoolah is available for both, shoppers and merchants:-

Up to 75% of ecommerce consumers look, add items to the shopping cart but don’t buy. hoolah helps solve this problem for merchants by allowing consumers to increase their personal affordability with a buy now and pay later payment option enabling interest free repayment in 4 equal instalments. Also, you receive payment as soon as the first instalment has been paid

How does hoolah benefit a merchant?

• Increased Sales
  hoolah encourages the customers to complete their sales transaction. Buying Now and Paying Later is one of the biggest incentive a merchant can give to their customers. Upwards of 20% development in transformation rates and a more prominent probability to include more things as purchasers have upgraded affordability.

• Loyal Customers
  The customers will come back to the site to pay the amount the way they want to pay. The merchants should provide the right platform without affecting their brand image through heavy discounting.

• Efficient Working Capital
  The benefits of the hoolah will make a faster turnover of inventory. To make sure that you are capable to reinvest in your business, the funds will be settled for you.

How does hoolah benefit a shopper?

• 0% Interest
  Yes! This may sound amusing to you but Hoolah comes with zero costs for you! No catches, no strings attached.

• No Credit Card, No Problem
  This is the biggest benefit for the shoppers as the hoolah works with any card, regardless of the bank or card type (debit and credit accepted).

• Simple Checkout
  There are no credit checks, forms to fill in or waiting time required. They just have to choose the hoolah at checkout to buy now and pay later!

• Increase average order value
  The primary benefit of such services is that they have the potential to substantially increase the sales revenue. As has been the situation since the coming of web-based business, the more checkout choices are accessible to the client, the better your web change rates will be. Magnifying on this straightforward reason is a reason why Buy Now Pay later installment alternatives with a smaller initial purchase amount is so attractive for shoppers

Aussies are already used to using Buy Now Pay Later with the majority of highly prestigious players in retail markets of Australia using afterpay and zippay.

The number of merchants using these payment methods  is increasing on a daily basis. 2017 was expected to be a revolutionary year for these platforms and it took Australia by storm, it’s now December 2018 and you will be hard pressed to find an online store that doesn’t have afterpay. Wow!

Shopify is arguably the fastest growing ecommerce platform globally with thousands of merchants either migrating across or starting a new store and see hoolah together with Shopify really start to dominate the local Singapore market – then start expanding across Asia.

Alinga are a Shopify Partners, Shopify Experts and love working on the platform.

Get started with Shopify      |   Get started with hoolah

The post Increase your sales conversion with hoolah. The latest Buy Now Pay later option appeared first on Alinga.