I am really irritated that Shopify does not offer a lot of basic but very important features despite overwhelming need for these expressed in the “community” discussions. I am not talking about advanced features, but very basic features that I assumed would be in every basic e-commerce plan (invoicing for example). Does anyone have recommendations for other e-commerce solutions? I am curious to hear what you liked and disliked about the alternatives.
It seems that Shopify’s business plan is to advertise the features of their plans in a very generic way so that people assume basic features are included. Only after a lot of energy, time, and money has been spent on building the online shop does the customer realize there is a lot missing. But since they have already invested so many resources in setting up the store they continue with Shopify because they can’t or don’t want to go through the entire setup process again with another e-commerce solution.
Shopify’s solution to almost all of the missing basic features is to install an app, which is no accident as they get a percentage of the sale when the apps are used. Seems like a pretty scandalous business plan to me. Make your customers frustrated by not offering very basic features and make them pay extra for basic functionality after they have already invested a lot of resources in the setup process. Frustrate them enough to pay for the apps, but not quite enough to leave the platform. Doesn’t sound great for customers. I would love to hear Shopify’s response to this.