Embracing Shopify as an eCommerce Platform

With a forecasted 2019 revenue of £71bn, eCommerce is easily one of the biggest digital sectors in the UK. Currently, around 18% of all UK retail sales take place online and by 2040 it is estimated that 95% of purchases will be facilitated by eCommerce.

As online shopping continues to change the eCommerce landscape, it’s important that businesses are making it even easier for their customers to convert. At Venn, this has meant partnering with Shopify to ensure our clients have the platform they need to take advantage of growing consumer demand.

What is Shopify?

Shopify originally launched in 2006 and was created due to an annoyance with the current platforms available. 13 years later, it has become the biggest eCommerce platform hosting over 800,000 online stores and helping facilitate over $63bn in sales.

Why did Venn choose Shopify?

When we were searching for the right eCommerce partner, we considered a variety of solutions. From Magento to Wix, we carefully studied each potential platform before deciding which was best for our client’s needs.

We quickly discovered that Shopify was the ideal solution for us and our clients who turned to us for the expertise of our in-house teams. Through our designers, developers and SEO specialists, Shopify gives us the opportunity to add extra technical and professional specification. The extremely user-friendly interface also makes it easy for our clients to still manage the website, meaning the amount of support they require from us is totally scalable.

How does Shopify work?

When setting up a website through Shopify, there are thousands of free and paid templates available that can help you get your site off the ground quickly. However, we know how important it is to make sure your brand is clearly represented throughout your website and sometimes, these templates aren’t as robust as necessary.

While the pre-defined templates may not be the best optimised, we instead work with our clients to build websites based on modified templates or completely bespoke builds, whichever we identify as the best option.

Modified Template

A modified template provides a balance between a pre-defined template and a bespoke build. This option allows us to reduce development time by implementing an existing Shopify theme but still ensure that the website does everything you need it to. From representing your brand to specific customer requirements, we can ensure the modified template provides a smooth user experience.

Bespoke Build

A bespoke build means starting from scratch to create a completely unique site that truly represents your brand, business objectives and marketing goals. While this route may take longer in the development cycle, it means that’ll you receive a beautiful website, unique from any of the existing templates on Shopify. Every little detail will be built around you, from the functionality to the content you need.

How has Shopify helped Venn?

The initial impressions of Shopify throughout Venn have been positive with our front-end designer, Aly Sebastian, commenting:

“So far, the experience has been very enjoyable. The CMS has been well thought out to make it as simple as possible for the content editor to take control of their content. For a Front-end developer or Shopify Developer, the flexibility and performance offered by the Liquid templating language is incredible. This means, as a developer, I can serve up the required functionality whilst maintaining a beautiful front-end.”    

Overall, becoming a Shopify partner has helped us diversify our offerings and bring even more value to our clients. We currently have a variety of Shopify projects on the way, so keep your eye on our Twitter to see what we can deliver.

Over the course of the year, the average user is estimated to spend £1,600 online. So, whether you’re looking for a unique eCommerce solution, or you’re looking for marketing services, we can help. Get in touch today and let’s make things happen.