I am updating the site of a friend who’s sites are powered by Shopify. I typically use Wix for my clients however would love to compare to the use of Shopify while supporting my friend in this project.
1 - Is Shopify as user friendly and flexible when designing the sites and it’s aesthetics (placement, sizes, information, pages etc)?
2 - Is there an easy way to create an entirely new site on Shopify and then migrate an existing Shopify Inventory/Store/Orders over to this rather than changing the site layout & format and seeing this actions live immediately?
Fingers crossed I can have some guidance on this as I’d love to look at the possibility of using Shopify for my clients
I hope your day is going well, and welcome to Shopify!
While I can’t comment on the similarities to Wix, as it’s not something I’ve used, I can say Shopify is extremely user friendly. We aim to make the design interface, which we call a theme, useful for even the most novice merchant.
Themes are essentially templates of your store layout. We have multiple free, and paid options. The free options are completely customizable and it is definitely not necessary to spend money on a paid theme when starting out. I recommend checking out some of our free resources regarding the theme customization; such as our free course: How to Design Your Online Store.
When it comes to migrating data, this is absolutely doable and actually easy if the store you are migrating from is also on Shopify. Essentially, all you will need to do to achieve this is to export your inventory/orders/customers to a CSV filefrom one store, and then import it to the new store. From a Shopify standpoint the steps look like this:
Head to your Shopify Admin and select Orders (or inventory/customers)
Select the orders you want to export by checking them off on the left hand side
Select Export
The file will download as a CSV file..
When importing the data, its as easy as selecting Import instead of Export and uploading the CSV file you received from the export.
If you are migrating the data from Wix, or another platform, you will simply need to make sure the CSV file meets our requirements before uploading. Or, you can use a migration app such as Cart 2 Cart.
In the meantime, if you want to test out the platform before you make a decision, you can take advantage of our risk-free 14 day trial! There is no need to input any payment details until you are ready to commit. You can use our Launch Checklist to help you along the way to ensure you have completed each of the necessary steps required to run successfully. Additionally, you can even test out the paid themes before committing! You only need to pay for a paid theme once you decide to publish it to your live store.
