Posts Tagged ‘Shopify designers’

Is Shopify Website Design for E-commerce secure?

May 18th, 2021

Shopify is a fully-hosted cloud-based SAAS service employed by over 600k merchants worldwide. It has strongly established itself as the leading SAAS platform across the world. Our developers at Clap Creative, a top Shopify Development Company have frequently rated Shopify as the simplest e-commerce platform for 5 years in terms of usability as well as scalability. However, a question arises that how secure is Shopify Website Design for e-commerce? So, let’s take a glance at what makes an e-commerce site secure and what’s the role of Shopify.

Challenges in E-commerce Security

At first, it’s crucial to know what makes a website secures. Particularly let’s observe what it is that makes an e-commerce store secure, and Shopify Website Design is considered to be secure. There’re 5 key things we need to look at when thinking about site security:

Credit Card Details

Payment security is the foremost priority. When your client pays you online, they have to fill a payment form like a credit card number and CVV. Usually, users make 50% of payments on a store through credit cards only. Tokenized payment gateways don’t store the credit card details on the server. However, many other gateways still feed credit card details to the server. In these cases, the server managing the transactions must be fully secured as well as PCI compliant so that users can shop safely.

Shopify is very secure for Credit Card Processing. It’s PCI level 1 compliant since the beginning. It implies that it sticks to the highest standards of server compliance for secure payment processing. Thus, users can pay and you can accept the payments without worrying about credit card security breaches. It’s one of the main perks of Shopify over self-hosted solutions.

User Data

Along with storing credit as well as debit cards, you also capture a lot of details about your buyers during checkout. This user data is generally saved in a database. Data fields include name, address, email, items ordered, passwords, etc. As a store owner, it’s your duty to keep the user data secure.

Shopify Website Design offers security for User Data. Shopify has taken plenty of measures to secure user data in the past years since the launch of GDPR in Europe. These measures involve limiting the login attempts and assuring that only app developers have access to the data they require to run the apps to avoid data leakage. Thus, user data is safe as well as secure on Shopify.

Fraud Prevention

It’s common these days that people can easily place fraudulent orders with a store. If it’s happening in your store, you’ll be losing a huge amount hand over fist as most popular stores don’t have time to manually review all orders. Once fraudsters get along an easy target, they’ll hit you strongly and before the fraud is identified. Thus, you need to take effective measures to handle fraud transactions to prevent your business from risks.

However, Shopify Website Design from a leading Shopify Development Company like Clap Creative can save you from frauds. Shopify has an outstanding fraud protection system to flag doubtful orders. Thus, you can manually review the orders before processing them in Shopify. You can also turn your orders to be manually or automatically fulfilled. So, you have full control over the entire setup. Therefore, you can check suspicious orders before dispatching.

SSL

SSL is crucial for websites. It’s not only a basic need for processing online payments securely but also prevents your site from malicious attacks. SSL is vital for every page on your site. Sites storing payment details in an insecure way are prone to lose user’s trust as well as their brand’s value among users.

However, all Shopify equips all stores with SSL throughout. A good Shopify Development Company will avoid loading an insecure script so that you’ll have SSL working fine in your store. The price of an SSL certificate is inclusive of your monthly Shopify fees at no additional charges.

To Conclude

Shopify is a high-end secure platform. It’s far more secure than its competitors such as Magento as well as Woocommerce. Being PCI level one compliant and having a dedicated team for security, makes Shopify the best option for e-commerce. Clap Creative, a renowned Shopify Development Company is very skillful in implementing all the features of Shopify Website Design in your store, making it secure as well as user-friendly.

Skyrocket your online store growth with Shopify plus web designing

February 26th, 2020

Today, cutting-edge technologies are giving merchants ample opportunities to discover how they can diversify their mainstream business methodologies. With e-commerce being on the front-foot, brands now are able to match the exceeding expectations of customers.

Furthermore, a report demonstrates that eCommerce is expected to grow double by 2023 to more than $6.5 billion.
However, the only challenge begins the moment you have to choose the best among all e-commerce development platforms like WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Weebly and many others. But you don’t have to panic! Shopify is here to save you. Many folks on hearing about Shopify web design think that it works great for small and medium enterprises only. Well, that’s just half a story!

Here if, Shopify supports the small-scaled ventures, its upgraded version Shopify plus assists large-scaled enterprises. Let us take a look at both of the platforms altogether to discover the things in the right perspective. Below you will get to know about different products and services you can sell on Shopify that may give you an idea for your business to grow –

Physical and Digital products

The hand-made products, manufactured ones and also the ones you have made digitally such as Lightroom presets, email templates, e-books.

Consultations and Memberships

Shopify allows you to sell online or personal consultation services whether you are a life coach or an author. Moreover, you can create member-only services for your customers to have access to your content.

Ticketed Experiences

Shopify gives a great opportunity to sell tickets for businesses encompassing travel or adventure services, workshops and many more. If you are an artist running a networking or a collaborative event, Shopify would help you do that too on your website.

While Shopify web design enables everything that you need for the seamless customization of your e-store, Shopify plus eCommerce platform is always a step ahead. For instance, when it comes to shipping through Shopify, you would get flat rates and calculated results. But with Shopify plus, you could access a shipping script to configure more precise rates which means you can modify your shipping options, cart content or even minimum order value. Precisely, Shopify plus gives you great control, both in set-up and customization without much hassle of conventional strategies.

Read on to observe the splendid features of Shopify plus: –

Web design and Templates

The templates for Shopify plus web designing can also be available in different languages that would be further useful in reaching customers from several locations. The basic level customization for your site can be done through the Shopify web editor. By uploading a list of your products, where you want them to be displayed, and divide them into their respective categories. There are plenty of guides out there that can show you how to play with Liquid (Shopify’s theme) to change the appearance and functionality of your e-store. One utmost feature of Shopify Plus for web design is that you get your own dedicated launch manager. They’re there to make sure that you can integrate your new website entirely into Shopify. Shopify plus also let you edit your checkout.

Multichannel Selling

Shopify Plus is the form of ultra-modern eCommerce platform, specially designed for high-volume enterprise brands. Its core advantage is that it provides more control, customization, and automation for your standard commerce setup, combined with faster speeds while covering multiple channels. Shopify Plus is infinitely reliable because the solution is constantly monitored and upgraded to ensure maximum efficiency and robustness. Shopify Plus makes it simple to sell your products on all major marketplaces and cover social networks. Its multichannel capabilities boost customer engagement, improve sales and enhance brand efficiency.

Among many other benefits, the new additions in Shopify Plus that will boost the efficacy of Shopify web development would be as mentioned below –

CHECKOUT APP EXTENSIONS COMING

There will be no more routing to external checkouts in the new version. The new checkout app extension will enable merchants to purchase your app through Shopify’s checkout.

EASIER AND CHEAPER FULFILMENT PROCESS

The Shopify Fulfilment network includes the centers across the globe and has a smart inventory. That optimizes fulfillment for all merchants and keeps delivery costs down.

SHOPIFY POS and PLUS NEWS

Shopify user community will now be able to sell in multiple languages and currencies, thanks to the new translations’ API. As a Shopify developer, you should adjust your apps so they can work with this new feature.
The latest Shopify plus developer tool is the Shopify App CLI, that generates code automatically with a command-line interface tool. It also allows you to generate samples such as products, orders, and test stores. Furthermore, there will be…

  • New libraries coming to GraphQL, with ten most popular libraries (Shopify_api gem, Shopify_python_api) being fully compatible.
  • There would be a developer preview environment available.
  • Shopify developers can also submit their new apps in more languages (up to seven).

Summing up

Shopify web developers as well as Shopify Plus web designers can really benefit from these additions in this platform. Whereas, when it comes to set-up an all-new online store and you do not want to face any technicalities, Shopify web development services with updated features and experience in the eCommerce industry will prove to be beneficial. After all, moving business online should be one time but fruitful investment and you cannot afford to take any chance with your business. Make your business reachable and hassle-free through Shopify web designing.

What’s New in Shopify Website Design in 2018

February 20th, 2018

E-Commerce trends are something that creates fundamental, lasting changes that reshape not just how people shop, but how they live. Particularly, Shopify website design trends, leave behind a residual effect that makes them worthy of the hype. And it’s justifiable as well if you look at the edge it gives to its clients on various levels.

One of them being, Shopify merchants don’t have to leave as their businesses grow bigger (unlike other traditional software in the market) as they are not dependent on the next biggest company to upgrade to get more advanced services during their growth period. Apart from this, you already must be aware of (assuming you are a user) the countless other benefits it bestows upon its users along with massive updates every year that are nothing short of icing on the cake.

Speaking of updates, 2017 was considered an important year for Shopify users as it brought with it some important upgrades such as merging of service design and development, mass disruption to foundational internet services, the rise of diversity Shopify designers, design sprints etc. So, we can safely assume, expectations from Shopify this year will be sky-high as well.

Let’s take a sneak peek at what Shopify has to offer us this year-

  • Illustrations Taking Center Stage

Illustrations work as a brilliant and versatile addition that add fun to your Shopify website through visual elements. This year more and more illustrations will be incorporated into header images, custom iconography, animated visuals and bespoke fonts. Apart from this, unique styles of illustrations will be available to create an entire brand identity.

  • More Organic and Oblique Shapes

Web and mobile design have so long been dominated by sharp-edged and right-angled UI based cards, but things are about to change this year for Shopify users such as primary elements taking more organic shapes, backgrounds will be abounded with almost amoeboid blobs of color, dramatic diagonals etc. Shopify sites will also see double down on straight lines to mix effectively with these organic and spherical shapes.

  • Animation is King

This year, Shopify web pages will not only present us with information but allow us to interact with, and impact that information via the heavy use of animation which, as you know, have the potential to make any experience overwhelming, esp. for those with cognitive disabilities. Even subtle animation can help ensure users don’t miss out on important info by guiding their attention to the right content at the right time.

  • Scrolling on Different Levels

Scrolling, as we know, is the sliding movement of webpage either vertically or horizontally. Till last year, the primary focus was mostly on keeping the essential information above the fold. However, because of users viewing content on all screen sizes, the fold has become more difficult to define recently. 2018 may bring new styles of scrolling to enhance the greater level of interaction to the customer journey.

  • Floating Navigation Menus

Till now conversion focussed sites or those with sprawling menus rely solely on fixed navigation due to its ease of constantly keeping navigation controls at user’s fingertips, simplifying the overall experience. Shopify users this year can expect a visual detachment of navigation controls from rest of the site design which will follow you throughout the site, reinforcing the feeling of navigation as a global object rather than part of any one page.

  • Immersive Multimedia Longform

Since long-form content is powered by a CMS, it only seems viable to publish long text field on the page. But recently, the concept of ‘featured stories’ is on the rise again telling riveting, lengthy stories by combining custom layouts with copy carefully tailored to the presentation thus enriching the narrative with video, sound and much more.

  • Video Implementation

As we have already learned above about the role a moving image or animation play in capturing the attention of a potential customer. Featuring content such as story-telling, advertising, and modern-day photography through videos encourages a greater level of engagement. Facebook, Google, and twitter too view videos more favorably.

  • Microinteractions Everywhere

Animation, as we know, is pretty easy to add on websites nowadays. But a new type of user focussed animation called micro interactions is slowly gaining its way from mobile apps to websites. Microinteractions are animated responses to user behaviors that activate in a realistic way when users click a button or hover to animate a drop-down.

  • Variable Fonts

Today, the massive abundance and diversity of gorgeous typefaces available on the web make it much harder to believe how earlier we have managed to create all our textual content with just a handful of typefaces. The trend of using variable fonts this year which are basically single fonts behaving like multiple fonts is sky-high and as expected, Shopify is going to get a lot better than its earlier types.

Conclusion

The above-mentioned trends for Shopify web design have already started to leave their impression on the web. Lookout for these design techniques to create a positive brand perception to attract more and more customers this year.

Comparing the Benefits Between Magento and Shopify

January 17th, 2018

Location, as we know, have always played a major role in determining the success of any company. Nobody wants to set their shop in a secluded area devoid of any customers. Similar logic applies while you try to set an online store but with a minor difference, you have to choose an e-commerce platform rather than an actual location.

Choosing an e-commerce platform may appear to be a minor difference but in no way, it is to be mistaken for a minor problem. What’s the point of establishing a nice-looking online store brimming to the top with a variety of products where customers cannot find you? It gets, even more, tougher due to the vast majority of options available (each claiming to be no.1) to pick from.

But if you look at things more closely, you will realise that there are very few platforms on top such as WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Shopify, Magento, Big Cartel etc. among which the main competition is actually between two e-commerce giants namely Magento and Shopify. Let’s learn a bit more about them.

Magento, originally developed by Varien Inc. in 2007 and currently owned by eBay, is an open source e-commerce platform written in PHP. Magento website development services are currently available in two versions namely Community (which is free with basic features) and Enterprise (which is paid with advanced features) edition.

Shopify, on the other hand, was launched by Snowdevil founders in 2006 by Daniel Weinand, Scott Lake and chiefly Tobias Lütke as an API (or Application Programming Interface) platform. It is basically a cloud-based e-commerce store platform written in LIQUID which enables the Shopify web design and customization to be extremely user-friendly.

Now that you are aware of them, let’s dive in a bit deeper and learn about their various benefits and what distinguishes them.

  1. Popularity Ratio

 The first thing any client will look for is the popularity ratio and here Shopify seems to hold an upper hand by hosting more than 2,40,000 websites on its domain with Magento slightly behind with 1,60,000 sites to claim its own.

But this tells more about the businesses that own them, not efficiency ratio as Shopify is mostly popular among small businesses whereas Magento is more suitable for medium or large companies.

  1. Web design/Customization

 Both Shopify and Magento provide you with the facility to build your websites from scratch choosing from various themes available which are highly responsive with robust customization capabilities.

The difference lies in the usability, where Shopify works on the drag and drop philosophy enabling easy theme customization, Magento with the help of Bluefoot (a CMS and page builder module) enable clients to build a uniquely designed website.

  1. Apps and Add-ons

When it comes to flexibility, Magento is the clear winner. Shopify with a little over 100 apps and Add-ons comes nowhere near Magento which provides more than 5000 extensions to its clients owning no doubt to the open source nature of the platform.  

  1. Expenses

Since it’s an open source network, the Community edition of Magento is completely free to use and its enterprise edition costs vary according to company’s needs. However, hosting 3rd party services may cost a little.

Shopify, on the other end, works on SAAS (software-as-a-service). Initially, you get a free trial period of 14 days after which it ranges between $29 to $179. Though you may save on hosting as Shopify is self-hosted.

  1. Payment Getaway Options

Shopify offers its users a smooth experience when it comes to payment options. With 70 payment getaways, Shopify clearly holds a major advantage here over Magento which offers far less to its users though it can be increased via 3rd party add-ons.

  1. Inventory Management

 Here you will have to choose according to your requirement as both offers bulk upload features with add and edit options. You can add unlimited products on Shopify with its monthly plans with only one exception i.e. starter pack, which costs $14 and will limit your stored items to 25 only.

With Magento you don’t have to worry about product management as it allows virtually unlimited products but faces another issue, it weighs down your site’s loading time which you won’t find in Shopify.

  1. SEO Management/Driving Traffic

When it comes to generating traffic, SEO plays a very important role as it drives more organic traffic to your stores via search engines. Both platforms are extremely SEO friendly and provide extensive SEO capabilities, however, Magento ranks slightly higher in a study of SEO scores with Shopify closely behind.

  1. Speed and Performance

The speed with which any website loads determines its success rate. If one compares Magento 1.0 with Shopify, Shopify is the clear winner, but things have changed with the coming of Magento 2.0 which is incredibly fast compared to its earlier version. 

  1. User experience

When it comes to user experience, a lot of people seem more satisfied with Shopify than Magento. Even the admin panel of Shopify requires no advance knowledge and easy to maintain whereas, with Magento 1, clients need professional help due to its complexity of setting up their store. But Magento 2.0 with its user-friendly admin panel and readymade extensions have resolved that issue which Magento 1.0 had.  

Conclusion

It’s hard to make a clear assumption as to who should be the winner as both have their advantages and disadvantages. But what we can gather from the available information is that both Shopify and Magento provide excellent hosting platforms best suited according to the customer’s needs. So choose wisely.

Qualities a Good Shopify Web Designer Should Possess

October 23rd, 2017

With Shopify being the go-to platform for designing an e-commerce website, choosing the right Shopify web designer is really important. With so much competition and so many web designers out there that claim to be the best, finalizing on a designer can be tougher than it sounds. After all, the success of your online business depends upon it.

That is why I have devised a list of qualities that you must seek when you select that perfect Shopify web designer for your online store.

  1. Relevant Experience

Web designers create all kinds of different websites using various platforms. What really matters to you is whether the designer has relevant experience. By relevant experience, I mean experience creating e-commerce websites using Shopify. Since the platform and technology used is different from a WordPress site, good knowledge of Shopify features and customization is needed.

  1. A Good Track Record

A good track record can be a very broad term. What I specifically mean by it is whether that designer has a good record of meeting his client’s expectations. This is not something that you can learn by interviewing the designer, but their past clients. Get some feedback and learn what kind of experience the prior clients have had with them.

  1. A Diverse Portfolio

A good Shopify designer must have a diverse and impressive portfolio. Your Shopify website is important and you should not give it in the hands of an amateur. A strong portfolio lets you check what kind of websites the designer has created and how well they match the design expectations that you have for your own e-commerce site. Through the portfolio, you can check out the style of the designer’s work, check the quality of their work across multiple and know that the designer can deliver in a timely manner.

  1. Good Communication Skills

During the entire Shopify web design process, it is important that the designer maintains open communication with you to ensure you both are on the same page. They should be able to express their vision as clearly as possible. Also, exchange of ideas and information is a critical component of any web design process.

  1. Basic SEO Knowledge

Search Engine Optimization is very important for an e-commerce site as it helps increase the visibility of the site in search engines. It helps your website get traffic and customers as well. If the designer has SEO knowledge, it can be implemented while creating a website. Load time of the site can be reduced to give visitors a positive experience. Images can be compressed to make sure the site is not too heavy. Use of videos and animations can be limited as well to reduce load time.

  1. Have a Proactive Approach

A proactive web designer is one that identifies a challenge early on and addresses it rather than waiting for things to go from bad to worse. This is a positive approach that can truly save important time for you and let your team figure out just what the issue is and what is the best way to overcome it. A proactive approach is one the most desirable qualities for anyone in the field of web designing and development.

  1. Expertise in Responsive Designs

The very first demand that clients make from web designers these days is to ensure that their website is responsive. This means that the website will function equally well on all devices, no matter the screen size and resolution. Since approximately 50% of online shoppers use their mobile devices to go online, it is important for your Shopify website to be responsive, hence experience and knowledge of creating responsive websites is an important quality.

Clap Creative offers experienced and certified Shopify web designers

Clap Creative has a team of well experienced and certified Shopify web designers that have a proven record of creating attractive and interactive Shopify websites. We create responsive designs that make your online store run perfectly on all devices. Our deep understanding of SEO principles helps us create websites that are optimized for search engines. To know more about our Shopify web design services, contact us today.