Shopify (www.shopify.in), the leading e-commerce platform intends to capitalise on the strong business potential in India of e-commerce business. The company which already has more than 1 lac active stores across 100 countries has announced its plans to double its stores in India by 2015. Shopify’s e-commerce platform allows anyone to easily sell online, at their retail location, and everywhere in between.
Shopify is fast gaining popularity with more than 5000 merchants operating on its platform in India such as Fabmart, Madinindia, Insaraf etc. The company seeks to achieve a target of 10,000 stores in India by 2015.
To achieve this objective Shopify has announced a suite of initiatives to attract more retailers on its platform. The company is already supporting Merchants through local offices offering set-up-support and free consultation on running their online store. Shopify has also invested heavily in educating small medium businesses through running over 100 eCommerce workshops and webinars last year.
The main bootleneck faced by the starters of e-commerce business is how to receive the payment from the customers who order their products. To solve this problem, Shopify platform is integrated with local payment gateways such as PayU India, Direct Pay, Citrus Pay and major credit cards. Merchants can also choose to receive payment via money order, bank deposits and cash-on-delivery. Shopify partners with local logistics firms such as Delhivery, Aramex to help merchants manage their orders seamlessly and cost effectively.
The Shopify platform comes with customizable, contemporary design templates that are easy-to-use, supports mobile commerce and backed by a whole suite of apps that allow merchants to enhance the functionality of their store anytime. Almost anyone can now launch a visually spectacular, well-designed and user-friendly online store in mere minutes.
Besides above advantages to use the Shopify platform, the merchants will soon be able to offer their customers the option of paying by installments via the EMI facility.This will help the merchants to increase their sales conversion with products being made more affordable to their customers.
Shopify Mobile is a free app that allows merchants to view and manage their entire online shop from their mobile devices. Merchants can stay up-to-date with sales orders and ensure their customers’ needs are met. Currently this app is available to iOS users, the Android app will be launched soon.
The Shopify POS ( Point of Sale System ) app allows merchants to manage all aspects of their business from one place. They can add a product or update inventory on one side of the system, and it is instantly updated across their online and offline inventory. Merchants will have to pay USD 49 to enable the POS app on their store and purchase hardware such as credit card reader, barcode label printer, barcode reader, cash Drawer and printer.
Shopify has already tied up with leading telecom service provider Airtel to reach out to SME customers. Customers are now able to purchase a Shopify plan bundled with Airtel data plans at attractive rates.
